Panzer Dragoon Saga - Development

Development

Development for the game had begun at around the same time as its predecessor, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, and its development group started as an offshoot of that game's team. They eventually grew in number to around 40 members, twice as many as that of the team working on Panzer Dragoon Zwei, as they handled the tricky task of creating a game that was of an entirely different genre to others in the series, and yet retained the general qualities and elements of the previous installments.

Like its predecessor, the 3D software Softimage was used in development, and the title remained keenly anticipated throughout its two grueling years of development, remaining amongst the top 5 most-anticipated titles on Japan's Sega Saturn Weekly magazine for almost this entire duration.

Even as the Sega Saturn faltered in the console market, Team Andromeda struggled with their own difficulties in developing the game. While they appreciated the creative freedom they had in attempting to produce gameplay that was unique, there was a need to adhere somewhat to the standard conventions of the RPG genre, as well as to incorporate the aerial shooting elements of the series. Eventually, they achieved their goal as they developed a well-received battle system that utilized both turn-based and real-time combat, and allowed the player to alter the dragon and its abilities on-the-fly, as opposed to the specific evolution paths of the previous game.

Team leader Yukio Futatsugi has stated that this was done so as to allow for more combinations to compensate for the lack of characters, as most RPGs usually allow the player to control a party of several members, as opposed to the single character and his dragon in Panzer Dragoon Saga.

The game also intentionally eschewed the highly populated worlds of most RPGs, as Futatsugi felt the lack of NPCs lent a sense of loneliness to the game. This is further evidenced by his statement that the game could only have been done on the Saturn, rather than the Sony PlayStation, due to the former's more somber color palette, which served to further highlight the game's desolate, post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

Team Andromeda also had to deal with the tragic losses of a couple of their members during the game's development: one to a motorcycle accident, and another to suicide. The latter occurred during development of the game, and not, as is often rumored, due to the eventual poor sales of the game.