Panzer Dragoon Orta

The Good
This game was challenging and frantic, but unlike most games described that way, I had a blast with it. It's the first and only game I can say I ever completed, in the sense that there's literally nothing left for me to do in it. I must say I like the feeling.

The music and graphics are awe-inspiring. The controls are easy to learn, but difficult to master. The learning curve is sadistic, but starts out easier than most games, so you can pick it up and have fun with it, but will have to sink more time into it than you will in most RPG's to really master it. This isn't quite as bothersome as it is in RPG's, since the game environments are, as said before, awesome and the graphics just as good. You can go through a level five times and still be astounded. Very few games have that.

Oh, and the unlockables are cool.

The Bad
The learning curve was sadistic. Even on easy it took me several tries to finish even the second level. On hard I couldn't even finish the first level on my first try.

The story is underdeveloped. I would really like to know more about the backstory of this game, but it doesn't say all that much. Sure, there's an extensive dictionary unlockable (piece by piece) in the extra stuff section, but that's not nearly as good as discovering things within the game itself.

Watch out for the second level. It has one very difficult sequence. This is an odd placement for one of the hardest points in the game, being so close to the start.

My last complaint is how much punishment some "normal" enemies can take. The really toughly armored ones are not usually very dangerous, but this seems like an artificial way to prevent someone from getting a better score.

The Bottom Line
Simply awesome action game. Easy to pick up, and doesn't have any of the murderously impossible segments that so plague other games of the genre. The difficulty, I'd have to say, is almost illusory - you don't notice it within the game itself. In other games, you get stymied. In this one, you finish the level, THEN you realize how insane the difficulty had been.