Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' is a 1996 rail shooter developed by Team Andromeda and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. The second entry in the ''Panzer Dragoon'' series and a prequel to the original game, the story follows Lundi and his dragon companion Lagi chasing a ship of the Ancient Age. The gameplay features the player moving an aiming reticle and shooting enemies while the dragon travels through 3D environments on a fixed track, with levels having alternate pathways which influence gameplay.

Production of ''Zwei'' began in 1995 in parallel with the role-playing video game ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' (1998), having a small staff and little assistance from Sega. In response to player criticism of the original ''Panzer Dragoon'', the team lowered the overall difficulty and expanded the story elements. The music, composed by Yayoi Wachi, influenced the musical direction of later entries. ''Zwei'' was acclaimed by journalists, with many praising it as superior to the original ''Panzer Dragoon''. A remake for undisclosed platforms is currently in development, handled by MegaPixel Studio under license from Sega.

Gameplay

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' is a single-player rail shooter which spans seven levels, each housing a boss encounter. The story is communicated through CGI and real-time cutscenes, with in-game speech using the constructed ''Panzer Dragoon'' language with subtitles. Gameplay is mostly identical to the original ''Panzer Dragoon''; the player controls a flying dragon and its rider through an aiming reticle that can be moved over the whole screen with the D-pad, analog pad, or Saturn Mouse, with enemies appearing across four quadrants tracked by a radar in corner of the screen. The player can attack with either Lundi's gun or the dragon's lock-on lasers. A new addition is the Berserk attack. A meter fills up when enemies are shot down, allowing a powerful attack which continuously targets all enemies on-screen for high damage until the meter is depleted.

The second, third and fourth levels feature a route choice, with that choice impacting both the scenery, and the enemy types and bosses the player encounters. During the game, the dragon unlocks alternate forms based on the routes taken and points accrued by defeating enemies. There are six forms available, with a final form unlocking for the final boss. Defeating bosses under a certain time offers a time bonus for levels. The player is able to save between levels. The dragon's death causes a game over, forcing the player to restart from a save point. Each level is scored based on enemy kill ratio, damage taken, the number of continues used, and time taken to complete each section. Completing the game unlocks Pandora's Box, an extras menu which allows players to view completion statistics, alter dragon statistics, change the game difficulty, access new weapons, alter or replay individual levels, and replay CGI cutscenes.

Story

''Zwei'' is set prior to the original ''Panzer Dragoon'' against the backdrop of a war between the Empire led by its sixth Emperor and the nation of Meccania over remnants of the Ancient Age. Jean-Luc Lundi lives in a superstitious village where mutant "" pack animals are killed as unlucky omens. Lundi defies the village tradition by adopting a mutant with wings and a glowing green throat, naming it Lagi. After Lagi is full grown, Lundi takes the out to try to get him to fly. While Lundi takes Lagi out, an automated Ancient Age ship called Shelcoof destroys Lundi's village. Lagi fires at Shelcoof with lasers from his mouth, the trademark attack of dragons from the Ancient Age. Lundi and Lagi pursue Shelcoof in parallel with the forces of Meccania, who seek to control Shelcoof.

Lundi and Lagi almost reach Shelcoof, but a mysterious dragon attacks and drives them back. After they recover, Lundi and Lagi follow Shelcoof's trail while fending off attacks from indigenous beasts and Meccanian forces. The two finally reach Shelcoof as its monster guardians attack the Meccanian fleet. The pair destroy Shelcoof's core, then the hostile dragon which was incubating inside it. Lagi then sends Lundi to safety as he attacks an approaching Imperial fleet and the remnants of Meccania, granting Lundi a vision of the past and near future. The final scene shows Lundi inside the ruins of Shelcoof, which holds a carving of a dragon similar to Lagi, and declaring that Lagi lives on in his memory.

Development

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' was developed by Team Andromeda, a production team at Sega led by Yukio Futatsugi. Encouraged by the success of the first ''Panzer Dragoon'' (1995), planning began on two sequels for the Saturn: the rail shooter ''Zwei'', and the role-playing video game ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' (1998). There was also an awareness that the Saturn was failing commercially and the team would need to potentially end the series within the system's lifetime. After the story groundwork was laid for ''Zwei'' and the overall narrative direction had been decided, Team Andromeda split into two teams to work on both projects. ''Zwei'' and ''Saga'' were meant to share team members, but due to the work overload this created, ''Saga'' was put on hold until ''Zwei'' was completed. Compared to the later large size of the ''Saga'' team, ''Zwei'' was developed by a small team where everybody knew each other.

Development of ''Zwei'' began in mid-1995, several months after ''Panzer Dragoon'' was released. The aim was to expand upon the gameplay of the original game and improve its technical performance such as the frame rate and smoother visuals. As they used the first game's engine, production took less than twelve months.

Tomohiro Kondo, a senior member of Team Andromeda, was the producer and director. Series creator Yukio Futatsugi originally oversaw both projects' narratives, but as his attention shifted onto ''Saga'', ''Zwei'' became the responsibility of Katsuhiko Yamada. He is co-credited with the original design and setting. Kentaro Yoshida was the art director and designer, with art contributions and oversight from the original artist Manabu Kusunoki. Yoshida also acted as team lead on the game. One of the new artists was Ryuta Ueda, who later worked on ''Jet Set Radio'' as art director. The enemy models were designed by Takashi Iwade, who also created the ship bosses and designed the game's logo. Junichi Suto was the main programmer, with Hitoshi Nakanishi as a second programmer. The CGI cutscenes were handled by Yoshida, Kusunoki, Kazuyuki Iwasawa and Katsumi Yokota, with Yokota also creating the ending credits illustrations. Overall the team consisted of between fifteen and twenty people.

Futatsugi designed ''Zwei'' as a prequel, creating a thread which would run from ''Zwei'' through ''Panzer Dragoon'' and into ''Saga'' through the growing emotional connection between rider and dragon. The central story concept for ''Zwei'' was the raising of the dragon to the point where it could fly and fight on its own. The scenario was in part intended to set up the events of ''Saga''. Lundi and the Emperor were voiced by Shigeru Nakahara and Ryūzaburō Ōtomo; as with the original game, the dialogue is in the fictional language of the ''Panzer Dragoon'' world. As with ''Panzer Dragoon'' the art design drew inspiration from the work of Jean Giraud, with the protagonist designed to be normal and ordinary in contrast to the exaggerated designs of many Japanese game protagonists. The Emperor's design was inspired by Harkonnen, a main antagonist of the novel ''Dune''. The overall artistic tone became darker at Kusunoki's suggestion, with Yoshida attributing Ueda with creating the "more dynamic" boss designs.

In response to criticisms of ''Panzer Dragoon'', Team Andromeda made ''Zwei'' less difficult and more story-intensive. The aiming system was redesigned, with the dragon positioned in the lower part of the screen so aiming and seeing enemy fire was less difficult. The branching paths were implemented as a compromise to allow repeat playthroughs without the difficulty implemented in the original. The planned RPG systems of ''Saga'' were also referenced in ''Zwei'' with the branching paths and dragon evolution. The different dragon forms were suggested by Futatsugi. The ground-based gameplay was incorporated to accentuate the feeling of flight. At Kondo's suggestion, the difficulty was managed by an in-game system dubbed "ADEC" (automatic difficulty enemy control), which adjusted enemy spawn levels and rates of fire based on the player's performance and the number of continues. The Pandora's Box mode was created by a single programmer and it was included later in development after getting the team's approval.

The team were more familiar with the Saturn hardware by this point, so Yoshida achieved technical elements that were impossible with the first game. The team received no help from Sega's technical division, and did not use any Sega-developed tools such as the Sega Graphics Library operating system; instead, Team Andromeda's programmers created their own development tools. The transition from ground to air was difficult due to only having one scrolling layer, so the team made use of camera transitions to mask the change. A notable element was the water effects, which were created using a combination of parallax scrolling and layers, allowing a look impossible on the 3D-focused PlayStation without exceeding the hardware limits of the Saturn. According to Yoshida, the team went through multiple dragon designs, with the final designs finalized by Kusunoki. The dragons were inspired by different creatures and machines from classic science fiction. The programmers kept segmented wooden fish on their desks so they could reproduce lifelike movements for creatures in the game. Iwate had to work around the Saturn's limited 3D ability when creating the models, with Suto and Nakanishi sometimes clashing with Iwate over his complex models and movements when they tried to run them on Saturn hardware.

Music

Music composition was led by Yayoi Wachi. Additional tracks were composed by Tomonori Sawada, Junko Shiratsu, and Teruhiko Nakagawa. In contrast to the purely orchestral and electronic score of the first game, ''Zwei'' added ethnic elements. The music also changed in that the branching path system in ''Zwei'' meant the precise scoring of the original game was impossible. ''Panzer Dragoon Saga'' composer Saori Kobayashi attributed Wachi's shift away from the first game's musical style with shaping her future compositions for the series. A soundtrack album was published by PolyGram on April 25, 1996. An arrange album created in collaboration music company Cube, ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Original Arrange Album "Alternative Elements"'', was published by NEC Avenue on April 21. 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

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' was announced in Japan in December 1995. Production was said to be 30% complete by January 1996. It was shown off at the 1996 Toshimaen Show. In the West it was shown off at the 1996 Electronic Entertainment Expo. ''Zwei'' was released on March 22 of that year in Japan. In North America, the game was published on April 14. It released in Europe on May 10. For the cover art CGI graphics were used, in contrast to the first game's Japanese cover, which was drawn by Giraud. Yoshida jokingly noted later that this was done to save money.

A PC version was planned for release on GameTap, but GameTap closed its North American offices and changed focus to newer PC games. GameTap staff said that Saturn emulation was challenging, speaking in reference to a planned PC port of ''Saga'' that never saw release due to GameTap's closure.

Following the releases of ''Saga'' for the Saturn and ''Panzer Dragoon Orta'' (2002) for the Xbox, the series went dormant due to low overall sales, with Sega licencing out later projects due to low financial risks for them. Remakes of both ''Panzer Dragoon'' and ''Zwei'' were announced in 2018, published by Forever Entertainment and developed by their internal MegaPixel Studio under licence from Sega. Originally announced for a 2021 release date, it was shifted to an unspecified date in June of that year. Scenes from ''Zwei'' are also planned for ''Panzer Dragoon Voyage Record'', a virtual reality rail shooter based on sequences from the first three ''Panzer Dragoon'' games.

Reception

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' was critically acclaimed upon release. The four reviewers of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' praised its multiple routes, differing dragon transformations, and "some of the best graphics ever seen" on the Saturn. However, they felt that the low difficulty damaged the longevity. ''GamePro'' wrote that ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' "blows away anything resembling a shooter on the PlayStation thus far, in both graphics and imagination." The reviewer felt that the game was too easy, but that the multiple paths increased the replay value and made the gameplay more interesting. He also complimented the way the music reflects what is going on in the game. ''Entertainment Weekly'' deemed ''Zwei'' much more refined than the already strong original ''Panzer Dragoon''. A reviewer for '' Next Generation'' said that while the gameplay makes only minimal innovations to the restrictive on-rails format, the game keeps the player hooked though its gorgeous visuals and absorbing story. He summarized: "In a surprising victory for art and plot direction, ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' proves that visual sophistication and compelling storylines can sometimes overcome less than revolutionary gameplay."

Rob Allsetter of ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' praised the impressive attention to detail in the graphics and the multiple routes. He concluded that it "belongs up there with VF2 and ''Sega Rally'' as the standard-bearer for its genre." ''Maximums Daniel Jevons concurred with Scary Larry that the game "positively laughs in the face of any competing PlayStation 3D shooters." He pointed out that the much-maligned on-rails format is necessary to create the experience the game offers, noting as an example that it allowed the developers to synchronize the soundtrack with what is going on. He also praised the animation, 3D graphics, high frame rate, absence of pixelation even on the heavily detailed bosses, precise controls, lock-on attacks, and the ability to adjust the game's difficulty by choosing different routes.

The game held a score of 88% on the review aggregation site GameRankings based on five reviews.

''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' was a runner-up for ''Electronic Gaming Monthly''s Shooter Game of the Year (behind ''Alien Trilogy'') and Best Graphics of the Year (behind ''Super Mario 64''). The following year they ranked it number 90 on their "100 Best Games of All Time", citing its atmospheric levels and evolving dragon, as well as how, like the original, it represented a true 3-D evolution for the shooter genre through the player ability to rotate the perspective. ''IGN'' staff writer Levi Buchanan ranked ''Panzer Dragoon II Zwei'' fifth in his list of the top 10 Sega Saturn games, saying that "The original ''Panzer Dragoon'' that flanked the Saturn at launch was nothing short of revelation. But this sequel improves on almost everything, offering better graphics, smoother animations, changing dragon forms, and branching routes."

References

Notes

External links

{{Panzer Dragoon series

1996 video games
Cancelled PC games
Video games about dragons
Rail shooters
Sega video games
Sega Saturn games
Video game prequels
Video games about revenge
Airships in fiction
Video games set in the future
Panzer Dragoon
Sega Saturn-only games
Video games developed in Japan