I modchipped my Value Village Saturn back in late 2012, but couldn’t get it to boot the CD-Rs I fed it. It wasn’t until I revisited my hack job hacking job five years later that I could start exploring the system’s library. Just in time for the twentieth anniversary of
1998
Panzer Dragoon Saga, Sega (Team Andromeda)
I was living in Toronto and feeling more alienated than ever by the neighbourhood, my roommates and the other weak ties I’d been making there. I lugged a 20″ Trinitron out of the basement to play PD Saga on, which I did off and on throughout the year, while planning my escape from the city (my city escape). My bedroom was on the ground floor and surrounded by common areas, with paper thin walls and a door that wouldn’t shut all the way. I could hear my normie roommates going about their business all around while I hid inside to forget how unhealthy my life had become for minutes at a time. The game was depressing to make, why shouldn’t it be depressing to play??
So how was it? What did I experience? A totally natural marriage of the series’ rail shooting with RPGing. A fantastic soundtrack that doesn’t peak until it’s over. 3D Saturn visuals that wear their draw distance on their sleeve. A plot that may or may not have been partially altered by the localization team? Characters and voice acting 100% up to and surpassing what its peers were being celebrated for. It is probably much easier to play in Yabause these days, and I don’t want to glorify the struggle to play old games on real hardware that only creates a barrier to entry, so whatever path you can see to getting this game running for you is a valid one and you should take it.
