Panzer Dragoon Orta [Xbox]

"Panzer dragoon is an old Sega game, Microsoft has decided to continue this fantastic series with Panzer Dragoon Orta.

You are a young girl named Orta and you ride the legendary Black Dragon. Orta is a young girl with bright white short hair and pretty hot; she has little emotion and is unknown of her past. Her tribe was destroyed these empires, and their greed spread and they hunted a tower which awakened the dragon of destruction, that was the third dragon. Orta however is being searched by a fourth dragon, she found the tower an it was destroyed, it demolished in flames, in front of the bars in the prison cell she was in, numerous enemies were surrounding her it was full army, the dragon who saved her takes her somewhere, but she is unknown of where. Now her journey begins. Throughout panzer dragoon, she will meet allies and enemies, as she her and her dragon progress through many remarkable stages.

Panzer dragoon is almost like a 3rd person shooter with a fantasy storyline. You control your dragon with Orta riding it, the Black Dragon moves automatically, and all you do is simply aim. To aim you have a small green circle, which can be controlled by using the analogue stick around. The aiming is very tricky at first unlike most games with aimers, left on the analogue stick moves you left and right moves you right, rather than other games where it is the other way round, once you have gotten over that part there are no other problems. Also when aiming if you hold the A button it will lock on to an enemy, if the is no enemy to lock on to the aimer will go red, all you do is simply release A. You can turn around Using L and R as well meaning enemies are also behind. You must be careful. Y when pressed enough will increase the size of you aimer, and B is only useful for bosses, it allows you to rotate. If you want a boost you can use up your gauge by pressing X Therefore the controls are quick reacting and relatively easy to learn, except for the analogue stick issue, which as said can be ok overtime a small period of time.

The game itself is pretty awesome; you have a map to detect enemies, so you can be prepared for an attack. You have a health bar for being attacked, the boost bar which can be used up anytime, but comes in handy in particular places. This boost bar recharges so don't worry too much. The gaming is very active, so you have to be very alert. If the game is too hard there is a difficulty setting. The stages are beautiful and do not ever get repetitive. There are ten stages to play through, and they can even be very challenging, even with a low difficulty. As you progress there are other types of wings to customise with. Each wing has a special skill which makes it unique, these wings get stronger by their level up increasing, and this is done by usage. To end off a stage there is a boss, the bosses can come in very handy. The reason is if you lose all you health, you can continue from the beginning of a boss. The bosses however are usually the trickiest part in the stage, they are not simply you fire at them to hurt them. You must wait for his weak spot to show then attack. Once they are killed you end the stage and can save. At the end of a stage you will be given a letter rank, based on your performance in the level.

The graphics of the game really show off the game. They are extremely realistic, they are not bright and colourful, because they instead make them actually suit the location. That mean when a shot is fired, it stands out and the shot comes out bright and colourful. If you are in one of the darker levels, you have more black and brown colours, if you are in the earlier level, which are out side they, usually tend to have some bright blue and green. Other things which make the graphics realistic are the smoke that comes during a shot being inflicted. The smoke there looks like the smoke from a chimney pipe. The water looks fabulous; you can even see the dragon's reflection. The scenery it looks nothing worse than the dragon or Orta, there is so much detail put into the background it's unbelievable, you can see so much. Finally the explosions of dead enemies they look stunning, they are as if you are watching fireworks.

The music sounds very much like a fantasy game, with it's melodies. The melodies are sweet and heart-warming, they just so relaxing to listen to. The boost sounds so real, it gives a sound as if a load of wind has just blown. The shots taken sound very loud, and doesn't sound like anything I know of. When you take hits it makes a weird shocking sound, but, when an enemy is destroyed and they explosion comes there is a boom sound made, as if you actually destroyed it in real life. When the dragon does things with his wings they sound like a strong quick, gust of wind.

Once you have completed this, you can do it again except harder. You can try getting all A rank. You have to fill up an extra feature called Pandora's Box. You also get to go through scenarios and missions. Even when this is all done, you will almost certainly want to play it again. It does not have the greatest of life spans; however the difficulty of the game will keep you trying. So unless you are an extremely skilled gamer, this could last you a few solid weeks.

After everything I said this is a clear must-have. You can get them very cheap now because it's a little old. But the age does not affect the enjoyment in the slightest. I had this as one of m y first ever Xbox games and I still play it now.


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