At £14.99, Panzer Dragoon Zwei is the most expensive Saturn game I own, given how epic the first game was, I had absolutely no hesitation in shelling out that amount of cash for an 'old' game either. People still pay up to £20 for PlayStation one games, and the Saturn is from the same time, and a potentially great game at just under fifteen quid is nothing to be passed up, so I went for it.

Zwei is actually a prequel to Panzer Dragoon, and in it we play the immortal Blue Dragon, or Lagi as we learn his name is, as he/she/it grows into the beast we all know and love from the Sega Saturn's beatiful launch title.
The story of the game goes like this, you are a young lad living in a village in the world ravaged after the creations of mankind turned against them. The village uses descendants of these man-made creatures, known as Khourieats, and has tamed them over the years, the village fears mutations, so if a Khourieat is ever found with it's most common mutation, a greenish-blue light in their throat, they are instantly killed, for fear that they wipe out humanity again. Your pet Khourieat, Lagi not only displays the light, but also boasts an impressive set of wings, but you won't let them kill Lagi, and hide the creature away from the other villagers, protecting your pet.
A while later, and Lagi has grown into an impressive beast with a mighty set of wings, figuring that showing the village that mutant Khourieats can be useful to stop their slaughter, you are practicing flying Lagi, when you see a great flash, when it passess, you see a giant warship flying away from the remains of your village.
You had heard tales of the two warring tribes, the Imperials and the machanics, but it had never affected your village. Picking up the blaster of a fallen soldier, all you have left is the gun, Lagi, and hatred for the Imperials who killed everyone you knew. It's time to put Lagi's wings to use...

Just like the first game, Zwei is an On-The-Rails Shooter, in which you travel a predetermined path on your dragon, blowing down any enemies foolish enough to cross your path, before squaring off against a boss creature/machine. You must keep tabs on the action in 360 degrees by rotating the camera to take down enemies coming from all sides.
But wait, Zwei adds on the already immensely playable original by including branching paths, where you can make a decision which way to fly. The game doesn't make it clear where they are, meaning you could bypass a branch without knowing it, but personally I prefer that they let the game flow. This adds replay value, and means that while the game is 'on-the-rails', it isn't totally linear.
Other additions are the Berserk attack, which works in a similar way to a Super Move in a fighting game. The more shots you land with Lock-On attack, the more a second energy bar above your health fills up, when full, you can execute a Berserk attack, which launches missiles at all enemies on screen for the length of time it takes the Berserk meter to empty. This is a cool feature that can really help you out when stuck in a nasty situation.
The last final notable addition is the levelling up feature. At the end of each level, you are awarded points for your performance, which in turn levels up your dragon to a stronger and swifter beast with more lock on capabilities. The look of the dragon is dictated by which of the branching routes you take in the game. OMG RPG ELEMENTS!!!, this also adds a bit of replay value, given that every time you play, you could end up with a different beast.
An addition that won't affect you to begin with is Pandora's box. This is unlocked by either beating the game without dieing, clocking 30 hours or having a save game of Zwei and Panzer Dragoon Saga on a memory cart. It allows you to turn on various cheats and such, eg the no dragon view from the first game. It isn't much, but it is a nice addition to keep you playing a good bit longer.
As I explained in my review of the first game, the engine and genre, while on paper may sound poor, in execution is pretty beatiful. It's just a great fun experience, dodging attacks and having to keep an eye on all sides, using the little radar, to blast down all varieties of enemies. The fact that it actually adds more enjoyable elements to the game, therefore building on what was already an excellent experience, makes Zwei one of the best games I have played.
From the begginings of gaming, Shooters have been a core genre, and it has to be said that just through its awesome game engine, the first game was a milestone for the genre, this game actually added to this. I wouldn't have thought you would have been able to get much better, but then I played Panzer Dragoon Orta.

Graphically, the game manages to improve on what was already one of the most spectacular 32-Bit games ever released. Think about that for a while. When I play my old Saturn, PlayStation, 32X, hell even some N64 games, I think "this looks pretty good for the time, 3D wasn't that advanced at the time", I make allowances and try to judge it by how I remember it at the time, and how it looks after so many years. Zwei didn't give me that problem, because it looks absolutely astounding, and is probably the best looking pre-Dreamcast game I own. Im not gonna lie and say it stands up to the graphics of the current consoles, but I didn't find myself ever thinking, "for the time.."
The main graphical marvel comes in the form of the stages, which are epic, huge and chock full of details, be it marks on the stone ground, trees, or excellent water effects. The enemies are well detailed, and their attacks also look better now.
It should also be noted, that in my review of the first game, I gushed over the wonderful design of the characters, stages and machines in the game, and Im more than glad to say that Sega's Team Andromeda have kept up their high standards, and everything in the game is up to the standard of the excellent designs of the first game.

Initially, I was disapointed that Sega didn't secure the use of the Israeli Symphony Orchestra for Zwei, but even without, the game still features an epic score that suits the sweeping fantasy nature of the game perfectly. This is probably the only aspect where the game doesn't improve on the original, but it still manages to be of a very high standard. And I still love the Dragon's roar.

Controls in the game are the same as in the first, L swivels the camera to the left, R to the right, A,B or C shoots when tapped, or can be held down for a target to move over an enemy for a lock on shot. The only change being the addition of using X,Y or Z to unleash the Berserk attack.
Once again, perfect responsiveness, and the controls soon become second nature to the player. It wasn't broken, so they didn't try to change it.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is a pretty unique sequel, in that instead of being a slightly disapointing or nigh identical follow up to a good game, it takes everything that is good about it's predeccessor, and improves on most of it. It's still pretty challenging without being cheap and throwing a million enemies at you at once, and the branching paths, and Pandora's Box modes mean that even once it's beaten, you won't feel that you are done and dusted with the game.

At the end of the day, I will say much the same thing about Zwei as I said about the first game, if you have any, even the slightest, feelings of enjoyment that come from playing Shooters, this game is for you. If you like the original, I think you should try your best to track it down. Like the first game, it has amazing graphics for its time, graphics that still look good today, it has great music, not as great as the original, but still undoubtedly brilliant themes, and most importan of all, the game is just outright so much fun to play.

I couldn't bring myself to give a game this great anything less than full marks. To take an already great game and actually improve on it isn't something we see often, and I feel the need to champion Sega's contribution to the short list, which funnily enough they also make with Streets of Rage 2.
If you own a Saturn and enjoy fun games, do yourself a favour and try to track this game down. And the original. The game was followed late in the Saturn's life by a certain 4-CD RPG sequel that you may have heard of, and more recently the series was rejevenated as a 360 on the rails shooter on the XBox. While I haven't played that RPG (I ain't made of money), I can safely say that the original was a classic, and so is Zwei.

And who said all prequels suck?

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Panzer Dragoon for Sega Saturn

Recommended: Yes