Panzer Dragoon Orta

is a rail shooter developed by Smilebit and published by Sega for the Xbox. The fourth entry in the ''Panzer Dragoon'' series, it was released in Japan in 2002 and in North America and Europe in 2003. The story follows a girl, Orta, who is freed by a dragon and embarks on a quest to prevent the abuse of ancient technology. The gameplay features the player moving an aiming reticle and shooting enemies while the dragon flies through 3D environments on a fixed track.

Production began in 2001. The previous ''Panzer Dragoon'' developer, Team Andromeda, had disbanded after the release of ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' (1998). Around a dozen staff returned to work on ''Orta,'' including the artists Takashi Iwade and Kentaro Yoshida, the composer Saori Kobayashi and the battle designer Akihiko Mukaiyama, who directed ''Orta.'' While the greater power of the Xbox allowed for more freedom in gameplay and graphical design, the production was troubled by a lack of art design direction and problems with the team's graphical and gameplay ambitions.

''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' sold poorly, but received positive reviews, with praise for its gameplay and art design. Several publications have named it one of the best Xbox games, and it is remembered favorably for its gameplay and technical achievements. ''Panzer Dragoon'' staff have voiced mixed feelings regarding ''Orta'' for its continuation of the story after ''Saga''. ''Orta'' was the final ''Panzer Dragoon'' game until the 2020 announcement of ''Panzer Dragoon'' (1995) and ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' (1996) remakes.

Gameplay

''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' is a single-player rail shooter which spans ten levels of varying lengths and difficulty, covering a variety of environments and each housing a boss. The story is communicated though a combination of CGI and real-time cutscenes, and dialogue during gameplay, with in-game speech using the constructed language of ''Panzer Dragoon'' with subtitles. Before starting, players have access to a New Game option, continuing an existing gave save, a tutorial stage, options for graphics and music, and the extras feature Pandora's Box. Gameplay consists of the player, controlling the protagonist Orta and her dragon, navigating levels through an aiming reticle that can be moved over the whole screen; while played on rails, alternate routes can be opened based on in-game actions. The heads-up display shows the player's health, a radar showing enemy positions around the dragon, the Glide Gauge, the Berserk Gauge, and Gene Base counter.

The player has a full, 360-degree field of view, and can look left, right, forward, and behind the dragon. Enemies come from all directions, varying in size and health, and appear on an on-screen radar that monitors the dragon's surroundings. The player can rotate around targets in 90 degree increments, allowing them to avoid enemy fire and target specific areas. The two forms of attack are Orta's blaster, which uses a free aim mode for continuous fire, and the dragon's lock-on attack, which fires at a limited number of targets at once. There is no ammunition limit, and both free-aiming and lock-on attacks can be done simultaneously. There is a Berserk attack which deals high damage to surrounding enemies while making the dragon invulnerable for its duration.

Alongside standard flight, the dragon as a "Glide" function. Limited by an automatically recharging gauge, the dragon can accelerate and decelerate around enemies, with acceleration dealing damage if it hits an enemy. Another element of combat is the dragon's ability to morph between three forms. These are Base Wing, the standard attack type which balances between offensive and defensive abilities; Heavy Wing, which is limited to the lock-on attack but has high defense; and Glide Wing, which has low defence and no lock-on but features an increased free aim attack. Fully destroying waves of enemies grants a resource, Gene Base, allowing the player to level up their current dragon form's statistics such as health and attack power, with dragon forms capping at Level 5. At the end of levels, the player is graded on kill count, damage taken, and the time taken to clear the stage boss. If the player is defeated, they receive a game over and must restart from the beginning of a level or the beginning of the boss stage.

Completing the main campaign unlocks content in Pandora's Box, a feature which returns from earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' games. Content is unlocked by clearing various conditions, such as clearing the campaign on a certain difficulty or with a high kill ratio. The content includes a detailed encyclopedia of the game world, a bestiary of defeated enemies, an archive of concept art, story cutscenes for ''Orta'', and selected CGI sequences from earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' games. The most prominent features are additional chapters focusing on different characters, playing out as short gameplay clips with some using visual novel-style story segments.

Plot

''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where humans struggle to survive amidst a population of bio-engineered mutants, remnants of a devastating war. A faction, the Empire, had unearthed technology from the Ancient Age, only to be stopped by the appearance of the Dragon of Destruction and eventually brought low after the Tower, a centre of the Ancients' technology, is destroyed and the Ancients' hold on the world is broken during the events of ''Panzer Dragoon Saga''. Since then, the Empire has rebuilt itself, breeding dragon-like beings called dragonmares as an aerial army using an Ancients remnant called the Cradle. Orta, implied to be the daughter of ''Saga'' protagonists Edge and Azel, is kept prisoner in a tower by a tribe called the Seekers as they fear she is a harbinger of doom. Orta is freed when the Empire attacks the Seekers' city with their dragonmares in search of Orta due to her potential heritage from Azel, and she escapes on the current incarnation of the Dragon of Destruction.

During her escape, Orta runs into the drone Abadd, who is also fleeing the Empire and offers her aid finding her origins in exchange for access to Ancient Age technology. She is befriended by a tribe called the Worm Riders, who are taming the land's mutants. After an Imperial fleet attacks the Worm Riders, Abbad leads Orta to a ruin linked to the Ancients' Sestren Network, where Orta receives a posthumous message from Azel and takes up her mission to restore the world. Abadd, who wanted to use Orta's DNA to breed a new drone army and was using the Empire to further his plans to cleanse the world since the Ancients can no longer return, turns on her and is fought off. Orta heads to the Empire's capital and destroys the Cradle while stopping the dragonmares army with the Worm Riders' aid after Abadd turns them against their controllers, then defeats Abadd and his dragon born from the Cradle. The Dragon of Destruction then succumbs to its wounds. Post-credits scenes reveal the dragon left a child, with the final scene showing Orta and the newborn dragon travelling through a rejuvenated landscape.

The sidestory unlocked during the campaign follows Iva Demilcol, the son of an Imperial soldier who was killed during Orta's escape; Iva is given a necklace of his father's after his death. Iva is sick, and it is revealed his father was complicit in dragonmare production as a means of crafting Iva's medicine. The sickening Iva is taken in by Seekers, forming a close bond with one of their number called Emid, who helps him find a final message from his father in the necklace. When the Empire attacks again, Emid helps Iva locate a supposed Seeker weapon. Iva activates it, revealing it to be a non-lethal repellent against mutants, with it also prompting the Seeker and Imperial soldiers to stop fighting. Iva is implied to die from his illness in Emid's arms.

Development

The ''Panzer Dragoon'' series had seen moderate success on the Sega Saturn. After the release of ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' (1998), Sega restructured its departments and the ''Panzer Dragoon'' studio, Team Andromeda, disbanded. Several Team Andromeda members left Sega, including the series creator Yukio Futatsugi and the artists Manabu Kusunoki and Kentaro Yoshida. A new ''Panzer Dragoon'' was pitched for Sega's next console, the Dreamcast, but the console did not meet the technical requirements. There was also a feeling that the original trilogy for Sega Saturn had reached its logical conclusion.

Following the commercial failure of the Dreamcast, Sega exited the console market and began developing and publishing games for other platforms, including extensive support for Microsoft's Xbox. Discussions about a new ''Panzer Dragoon'' began in 2000. Takayuki Kawagoe, who became the producer, felt the Xbox was powerful enough to fulfil his vision for a new ''Panzer Dragoon''. It was originally proposed as ''Panzer Dragoon Vier'', with "''Vier''" being German for "Four", but was given a different title to distance it from the other games.

Akihiko Mukaiyama, who had worked on ''Saga'' as battle planner, made his debut as a director with ''Orta''. Kawagoe approached Mukaiyama first about the project. Mukaiyama initially declined, but he was repeatedly approached and told that the game would not be made if he were not involved. Not wanting that responsibility on him, Mukaiyama agreed to direct ''Orta''. Once the project was approved, the team pitched it to Microsoft, who agreed due to Sega's previous Xbox support.

Development began in early 2001 at Sega's new studio Smilebit and lasted eighteen months. Kawagoe said that ten members of Team Andromeda worked on the game, with other members advising them while working on other projects. In a different interview, Mukaiyama said there were seven development and five sound staff carried over from Team Andromeda, comprising 12 of the 30 staff then working on the game. Several members joined because of their love for the series. Takashi Atsu, a series newcomer, was a lead programmer. Takashi Iwade was both the lead designer and a lead programmer alongside Atsu. At its peak, the team comprised 50 people.

Design

Mukaiyama conceived ''Orta'' as a rail shooter, although Kawagoe noted they considered other genres. In a later interview, Mukaiyama said two pitches were created for ''Orta'', one a rail shooter and the other a strategy game with online elements. Kawagoe picked the rail shooter pitch, feeling it best communicated the story and world. The team aimed to create a game accessible to both newcomers and fans, expanding upon the ''Panzer Dragoon'' universe rather than reimagining it.

Smilebit had been working with the Xbox hardware for their 2002 games ''Jet Set Radio Future'' and ''Gunvalkyrie'', and it was compared positively to PC hardware of the time. They also had experience with DirectX through their work on PC ports of Sega games, so they quickly understood the hardware. Yoshida had hoped for characters to fly into clouds similar to scenes from the 1986 film ''Castle in the Sky'', but as they were instructed in the console by the programmers they found this was not possible. While expressing interest in Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service, Mukaiyama wanted the team to focus on making a polished single-player experience.

During the planning phase, the team looked at the first two ''Panzer Dragoon'' games with a view to expand on them, but were hesitant to simply repeat what had been done before. One developer, Masayoshi Kikuchi, played both games extensively and offered feedback so the designers could refine ''Orta'' design. The team wanted to combine gameplay elements from all three previous ''Panzer Dragoon'' games. The dynamic movement around larger targets while retaining the on-rails design was inspired by the dynamic camera direction of ''Hundred Swords'' (2001). The real-time dragon morphing mechanic had been cut from ''Saga'' due to the Saturn's technical limitations, but the Xbox allowed its inclusion in combat. Movement around a 360-degree axis while shooting was included to distinguish ''Orta'' from other rail shooters. This caused friction within the team, as the programming staff felt free movement was wrong for a rail shooter.

Dragon morphing was included to create variety and tactical depth for players, and required extensive trial and error to feel natural. Mukaiyama derived the morphing system from the character swapping mechanic of ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' (1995). Designing the system was difficult and needed two different interacting morphing systems for the dragon's internal bone structure and its external appearance; this was complicated by the additional need to alter textures. The morphing animations were initially much longer, but were shortened after feedback. Sega of America requested more content against the team's expectations for the rail shooter genre. Mukaiyama decided to push for ten levels despite designer protests that it was impossible, reused the series' recurring Pandora's Box system to offer bonus stages, and adding difficulty modes while keeping it challenging overall. The aim was to prompt players to understand and use the game's systems. Kawagoe felt that they had mostly created the game as planned. A notable extra was a port of the original ''Panzer Dragoon'', which was converted from that game's Windows port by its original programmer Kazuhisa Hasuoka. The Windows port was used over a direct port from the Saturn version due to the original's complex source code causing difficulties.

Art and graphics

Having a background in role-playing games rather than shooters, Mukaiyama initially had trouble adjusting to his role as director, as his usual approach of creating game mechanics first was creating a game that was not fun to play. During early demos, it saw mixed reactions from players. As development progressed, Mukaiyama realised that ''Orta'' was missing the trademark presentation and aesthetic style which had made the ''Panzer Dragoon'' series stand out, resulting in a large amount of redesigning. There was also tension between the new staff as represented by Mukaiyama and the ''Saga'' veterans, particularly due to Mukaiyama's negative feedback on early art and creature designs being too similar to earlier games. This caused a deadlock between the staff, worsened when Mukaiyama wanted to bring Yoshida back on board, as Iwade felt his ability in the job was being questioned. When Yoshida joined, he and Iwade were able to work out their differences and divide the workload efficiently, smoothing the development process. To facilitate easy staff communication and allow for greater communal input on game and art design, a private forum was set up for posting sketches and concept ideas.

Iwade, a visual effects artist on earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' games, became art director for ''Orta''. The team wanted to preserve and honor the work of artist Manabu Kusunoki, who had helped define the series' visual identity. The art design drew from both the earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' games and the photography of ''National Geographic''. Following positive reactions to cel shading for ''Jet Set Radio'' (2000) and its sequel, the ''Orta'' team considered a cel-based graphic design, but ultimately chose realistic graphics as earlier series entries had attempted. Orta's dragon was designed by Masaharu Nakayama, while enemy designs were handled by Iwade, Ryuta Ueda and Koichiro Tamura. Tamura was also in charge of concept art. Both Ueda, a series veteran who had worked on ''Zwei'' and ''Saga'', and Iwade created dragon designs which were rejected by Mukaiyama as too similar to dragons from earlier games. This resulted in Nakayama being brought in, and tensions developing between Iwade and Mukaiyama over the rejected proposals. Yoshida's directive from Mukaiyama was to "make a great picture", managing to work with Iwade to bring the art design back on track.

Commenting on the changes in graphical presentation between the Saturn and the Xbox, Yoshida noted that the improved hardware meant the hand-tailored design forced by Saturn limitations and the increased team size for ''Orta'' had altered how the graphics were created and presented, resulting in some of the original atmosphere being lost. In a separate interview, Mukaiyama said the team were not overly concerned with preserving that continuity due to ''Orta'' being a fresh start for the series, allowing the team to do previously impossible things such as rendering real-time sandstorms. There was a prolonged trial and error period when creating character models, particularly with Orta and how her clothing and hair moved. Maquettes were created for the dragons, both during their early design phases and for their final designs. The maquettes gave the modelling and movie teams a solid reference for character models. The graphics, handled by Atsu and Iwade, were designed to be cutting edge for the time.

Autodesk 3ds Max was used to configure real-time textures, a decision informed by its ease of use and the team being familiar with it from earlier Dreamcast and Xbox projects. The animation was created using Softimage 3D. Orta's model was created in Metasequoia, while all the other characters and creatures used 3ds Max and Softimage 3D. Rather than using motion capture, the models were animated by hand based on each character and creature's appearance. Several programs were created by Smilebit for managing the graphics: an event editor handled story cutscenes, a particle editor managed in-game special effects such as dragon fire and explosions, a motion design application to calculate and manage model movement, and an after-effects tool to manage and layer effects. Multiple layers for in-game texture maps and lighting were made possible using the Xbox software, with particular care taken to make the sky domes appear realistic. The CGI opening and story cutscenes, together with CGI promotional materials, were created by Buildup Entertainment. The opening cinematic, showing the dragon attack that frees Orta, was the most complex scene in the game to animate. From storyboarding to the final product took six months to complete. A CGI opening was picked over real-time to keep with series tradition of having CGI openings.

Story

Compared to the desolate and post-apocalyptic setting of earlier games, ''Orta'' was set during a period where the world was rebuilding and life was returning. The narrative's dramatic style was inspired by unspecified American films. A theme in common with the earlier games was neither side being specifically good or evil, but defending their goals and mission, revealing the negative consequences of fighting. While previous ''Panzer Dragoon'' games had focused on male characters, ''Orta'' was given a female lead to represent the change in direction and new style. Orta was voiced by Yōko Honna, and Abadd by Shirō Saitō. Maaya Sakamoto reprised her role as Azel from ''Saga''.

The story was co-written by Shigeru Kurihara and Kenichiro Ishii. Kurihara was creating the draft and Masaykui Goto creating cutscene storyboards before the art design had been finalized and the Xbox's hardware limitations were known. Three months were dedicated to creating the story, communicated through the CGI cutscenes, with their storyboards influencing both artistic redesigns for Orta and the motion of characters in-game. Alongside the main story, several side stories were included as unlockables, with the team putting in as many as they could within the development time; Mukaiyama remembered one story about a prominent side character that had to be cut, saying he would like to incorporate it into a potential sequel. Mukaiyama attributed the inclusion of sub-stories to his first game, ''3×3 Eyes'' (1993), which had a similar feature.

Pre-release interviews stated that ''Orta'' was a sequel to the other ''Panzer Dragoon'' games and set decades after the events of ''Saga'', though several staff later admitted the continuation of the story from ''Saga'' left them uneasy or conflicted. An ambiguous point was Orta's possible origin as the daughter of Edge and Azel, with the team having different opinions. Kusunoki felt that ''Orta'' could be an alternate timeline where Edge lived and fathered Orta while in his opinion Edge would have died during the end of ''Saga''. Mukaiyama attributed his mixed feelings about continuing the storyline to the ending of ''Saga'', purposefully leaving Orta's origins ambiguous and noting that the North American localizers made the overall story even more ambiguous. He hinted that ''Orta'' was possibly an alternate story or prequel to ''Saga'', noting that there was no definitive answer among the team members. In addition to being the lead character's name, the title ''Orta'' had multiple meanings. In the in-universe language, it was translated as "rebirth" and "dawn" and tied into the story's themes. A similar word in German refers to the tip of a sword, while Mukaiyama later described it as a play on the word "alter", short for "alternative".

Music

The music for ''Orta'' was principally composed by Saori Kobayashi, returning from ''Saga'' Additional tracks were composed by Yutaka Minobe of Wavemaster, who had worked as a composer and arranger on ''Skies of Arcadia'' (2000). The sound producer was ''Panzer Dragoon'' veteran Tomonori Sawada. As she loved the ''Panzer Dragoon'' universe, Kobayashi felt honored to return. Work on the music began in 2002. Compared to the trial and error work done with ''Saga'' to fit the Saturn's hardware limitations, Kobayashi had greater freedom on Xbox hardware. By this point, she had become a freelance composer, so had less direct access to materials to provide inspiration. The music retained her established ethnic-influenced elements, continuing from the soundtracks for ''Zwei'' and ''Saga''. There was minimal interaction with the rest of the staff, with Kobayashi being given story details and level plans to create tracks. She had great freedom when creating the score, although the change in genre and issues with the team during production proved stressful. It was also her first time writing music for the rail shooter genre.

The soundtrack's overall them was portraying Orta's feelings. Comparing her musical approaches for ''Saga'' and ''Orta'', Kobayashi said that while she allowed the music to fade out in ''Saga'', for ''Orta'' the music had a definitive conclusion reflecting the narrative's tone. She was able to have greater musical variety compared to ''Saga''. The ending theme, "Anu Orta Veniya", was performed by Eri Itō, with chorus work by Yumiko Takahashi. Takahashi, known for her work on the ''Suikoden'' series, was a fan of Kobayashi's work and Kobayashi asked her to perform vocals for ''Orta'' shortly after meeting her. The song lyrics were written by Kurihara and performed in the fictional language of the ''Panzer Dragoon'' universe. The track was arranged by Hayato Matsuo, who felt it important to emphasise the vocals while blending them with orchestral and "ethnic rhythm sections". Both Itō and Matsuo had worked in the same roles for the ''Saga'' ending theme. Kobayashi fondly remembered her work on both ''Orta'' and ''Saga'', saying it gave her opportunities for mixing orchestral and electronic elements in music.

A soundtrack album for CD was published by Marvelous Entertainment on 27 December 2002, featuring all the game's tracks in addition to an instrumental version of "Anu Orta Veniya". The soundtrack booklet also included a Japanese lyric translation of "Anu Orta Veniya". An English release was published by Tokyopop on January 21, 2003; this release also included the title theme of ''Panzer Dragoon'', the theme "Lagi and Lundi" from ''Zwei'', and the ''Saga'' ending theme "Sona Mi Areru Ec Sanctitu". Selected tracks were included in an album of Xbox game music published by 5pb on March 24, 2006. The original Japanese album was released digitally worldwide on February 14, 2018 alongside the other ''Panzer Dragoon'' soundtracks to celebrate the 20th anniversary of ''Saga''.

Release

An Xbox ''Panzer Dragoon'' was announced in March 2001 as part of a multi-game deal between Sega and Microsoft. Prior to its reveal, the game was referred to as "''Panzer Dragoon'' (Latest Version)" and "''Panzer Dragoon Next''". It was first shown under its final title at E3 2002. Originally scheduled for a worldwide release in 2002, it was delayed into 2003 in the West to better tie the story and gameplay together, add additional branching paths, and continue polishing the game. Mukaiyama later elaborated that the graphics were taking longer to design than anticipated, needing to adjust to new technology and to refine gameplay and level design, which were turning out below expectations. ''Orta'' and design models for the dragon creatures were exhibited at the "Character Expo", a media event held in Minami-Aoyama in November 2002 to promote different media projects. An additional promotional campaign allowed fans to enter a competition with themed hoodies as prizes, with the campaign revolving around understanding words in the fictional language used in a television commercial.

''Orta'' was released in Japan on December 19, 2002, with the limited edition coming with a soundtrack CD featuring arranged five-minute compilations of music from each ''Panzer Dragoon'' game. It was released in North America on January 14, 2003, and in Europe on March 21. Sega published it in all regions, while Infogrames was a distribution partner in Europe. The game was made backward compatible with the Xbox 360 on April 19, 2007. The European 360 version was noted for crashing after the third level, but a patch was released in 2018 which fixed the issue. The game was made backwards compatible for the Xbox One April 17, 2018.

As part of the promotion, Sega produced 999 ''Orta''-themed Xbox consoles for sale through their Sega Direct service; the design was pure white with a printed image based on an Ancient Age fossil. A guidebook featuring walkthroughs of all stages and information on enemies and game mechanics was published by ASCII Media Works on February 21, 2003. A novelization was written by Yu Godai and illustrated by Shinya Kaneko. It was published by Media Factory on December 17, 2004. Buildup Entertainment collaborated with Sega to release 500 cast statues of Orta and her dragon in April 2004.

Reception

''Orta'' met with "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator website ''Metacritic''. The website recorded a score of 90 out of 100 based on 41 critic reviews. In their review, ''Famitsu'' gave it praise for its visuals and gameplay, positively noting both high challenge and freedom of choice for players. The dedicated sibling magazine ''Famitsu Xbox'' gave it a higher score than the main magazine, citing it as the best Xbox release to date and lauding its adaptation of the series gameplay and quality of its graphics. The three reviewers for ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' gave it high praise, lauding its graphics, gameplay and unlockable content compared to other rail shooters of the time; common points of criticism were its high difficulty compared to earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' games, and its short campaign. ''Edge'' felt the additional controls and variety hindered enjoyment of the game compared to Sega's earlier rail shooter '' Rez'', and described the music as less memorable than earlier entries, while lauding the art design and number of unlockable extras alongside nostalgia for earlier entries in the series and genre.

''Eurogamer''s Kristan Reed called the game "a refined, well designed and intelligent title arkinga real progression in the genre", with his only complaints being repetitive gameplay and a short campaign. Chet Barber of ''Game Informer'' was positive, and particularly praised the audio and art design, but noted some control problems making dodging difficult. Andrew Reiner, in a second opinion for the magazine, praised Smilebit's effort in recreating the series' original gameplay and their graphical and technical achievements on the platform, but noted a lack of innovation over earlier entries. Both critics mentioned its archaic design compared to other games of the time. Greg Kasavin, writing for ''GameSpot'', noted the conventional gameplay but otherwise lauded ''Orta'' both compared to other series entries and other games on the Xbox at the time, citing its overall presentation and extra features as well above what other games offered in its genre.

''GamePro'' described the game as existing as two entities; one "a 10-stage rail shooter, an archaic and straightforward game style that’s been all but shunned and forgotten in this modern era of fully immersive 3D worlds.", the other "a massive sensory overload machine" due to its complex and beautiful level design. ''GameSpy''s Christian Nutt felt the game would appeal to both hardcore gamers, and those who appreciated music and aesthetics more due to these elements being so strongly presented, with his main complaint being pacing issues and an unoriginal if well-told story. ''IGN''s Hilary Goldstein only felt negatively about its short length potentially turning off players compared to other recent Xbox releases, otherwise praising it as one of the best rail shooters available. Jon Ortaway of ''Official Xbox Magazine'' felt ''Orta'' was a worthy successor to the earlier ''Panzer Dragoon'' series, lauding its graphics and audio, with his main complaints being its high difficulty and harsh checkpoint system.

Sales

In Japan, ''Orta'' sold over 33,400 units by the end of 2002 according to data analysis company Media Create, finishing as the 285th best-selling game in the region. The game was considered popular enough in Japan to be re-released through Xbox's budget Platinum Collection brand. According to The NPD Group, ''Orta'' was the fifth best-selling Xbox game in the region during January 2003. Sales were disappointing in the United Kingdom, selling roughly 10,000 units, similar numbers to two other Sega games released for the platform in the region, ''The House of the Dead III'' and '' ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth''. ''Orta'' was not mentioned in Sega's fiscal report for the financial year ending in March 2003.

Accolades

As part of its review in 2002, ''Famitsu'' gave ''Orta'' a Platinum Award, ranking it alongside '' Metal Gear Solid 2 Subsistance'' and '' The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker''. The game was nominated in the "Best Action Game" category in the 2003 Spike Video Game Awards, but lost to '' True Crime: Streets of LA''. At the 2003 National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers awards, ''Orta'' won the "Art Direction, Cinema" award. ''GameSpot'' named it the best Xbox game of January 2003. ''IGN'' included ''Orta'' in their list of the best Xbox games in 2007, describing it as the "pinnacle of rail shooters". In 2011, ''Orta'' was In 2012, ''GamesRadar'' named ''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' the 10th best original Xbox game, highlighting its gameplay and technical design. In 2021, Joseph Yadan of ''Digital Trends'' ranked ''Orta'' among the best original Xbox games.

Legacy

Alex Wawro of ''Gamasutra'' called ''Orta'' the best game in the ''Panzer Dragoon'' series for its technical and graphical achievements that the Xbox made possible, combined with its gameplay refinements over earlier entries. In a 2007 series retrospective for '' 1Up.com'', James Mielke said that ''Orta'' had aged well both mechanically and aesthetically, and still looked graphically equal to many games on the Xbox 360. In 2008, ''Joystiq'' highlighted the game as a good candidate for porting to the Wii, highlighting the quality of its gameplay and graphics as positives. In January 2011, Darren Jones of ''Retro Gamer'' said that the game aged well and anticipated it would go down as a genre classic and represented the older development ideals of Sega as a risk-taking company. The game was featured in the reference book '' 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die'' (2010), and was selected by the Smithsonian American Art Museum for its Art of Video Games exhibition in 2011.

As part of the ''1Up.com'' retrospective, Kawagoe and Futatsugi were interviewed. Kawagoe felt that while the team were successful in bringing the series to a new platform, fan expectations had an impact on ''Orta'' perception. Kawagoe also noted the development of future entries depended on fan demand. Futatsugi felt the team were held back by confining themselves to the ''Panzer Dragoon'' universe rather than designing a game based on an original concept. Later opinions from staff including Mukaiyama and Kobayashi on ''Orta'' were mixed, mainly due to how it continued the narrative after the planned conclusion in ''Saga''. SaiTong Man, combat designer for ''Heavenly Sword'', attributed the dragon forms in ''Orta'' as inspiration behind protagonist Nariko's three combat stances.

Future ''Panzer Dragoon'' projects, ranging from a ''Saga'' sequel to a film adaptation, were reliant on reactions to ''Orta''. The ''Panzer Dragoon'' series became dormant following ''Orta'', a fact attributed to low sales of the series as a whole. The series was revived with the announcement of remakes of the first two ''Panzer Dragoon'' games, and a virtual reality-based game based on sequences from the original game, ''Zwei'' and ''Saga''. For these projects, other companies took on the development and publishing, leaving Sega with minimal financial responsibility.

References

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External links

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{{Panzer Dragoon series

2002 video games
Cancelled Dreamcast games
Video games about dragons
Panzer Dragoon
Rail shooters
Smilebit games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games scored by Saori Kobayashi
Xbox games
Xbox-only games
Airships in fiction
Video games set in the future