Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon is a rail shooter that follows the journey of Keil Fluge (unnamed in the localized versions), a member of a hunting party who becomes the rider of a powerful blue dragon and joins him on his mission to stop a rival dragon from ravaging the world. The player moves a crosshair (representing the dragon's laser and the rider's weapon) around the screen and shoots enemies while the dragon automatically flies through 3D environments on a predetermined path. One of the few games available at the surprise launch of the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon was the first game developed by Team Andromeda. The game was also the directorial debut of game designer Yukio Futatsugi, who was 25 years old at the time. It is the first game in the Panzer Dragoon series and introduced the gameplay elements and graphic style of the series.
Story
The Panzer Dragoon series is set on an unspecified post-apocalyptic planet where people fight over land, resources and the technology of the Ancients. The "Ancients" is the common name for the people who once ruled a world-spanning, advanced civilization that existed thousands of years before the Panzer Dragoon game series began. The Ancients were able to create monsters that could be used either for war or for practical purposes. These creatures survived the fall of the Ancients and are one of the main enemies in the series. A mysterious cataclysm, hinted at throughout the series as a terrible war, led to the downfall of this civilization and destroyed almost the entire world, leaving the survivors to eke out a bleak existence in the ruined remains in the millennia that followed. Eventually, the Ancients and their works gained a kind of god-like respect and a terrible esteem among some people, while they entered the legend. The remnants of these technologies are used to develop many of humanity's machines, weapons and vehicles, such as the unusual floating ships that play an important role in the series. A faction called "The Empire" has collected and used weapons from the Ancient Age to gain domination over the continent.