The Art of Games: Panzer Dragoon Saga

April 09, 2009 | David Raffauf

I’ve always been a fan of the Panzer Dragoon games, they’re stunning shooters.  They thrust the player into a desperate, post apocalyptic world where the powers that be are in a mysterious arms race.  In many ways the sense of isolation, desperation and discovery of the hidden mysteries of the world feel very similar to Dune.

What changed with Saga, also known as Azel, was an amazing development in art direction.  Head artist, Katsumi Yokota, really made the world come alive with an amazing, fine art inspired visual style.  It also helped that, like the other Panzer Dragoon games, Saga was accompanied by a fantastic score.  All the elements of this game came together to create a game world that felt very mature and understated.  While this Sega Saturn game’s graphics don’t look too aged, I mainly remember this game by the concept art and the character of the story.

The character designs rival work being done today on games with Hollywood sized budgets.  They are an interesting mix of the simplicity of Japanese character design combined with more Western style oil painting techniques.

A testament to the quality of this game and its art style is that this is one of the rarest, and most sought after video games.  At the time of writing this article this 11-year-old, Sega Saturn game is selling for just under $200 USD.

There are other amazing illustrators that lend their talents to games such as Yoshitaka Amano who works on the Final Fantasy series, but I think the art style for Saga translated more directly from concept to game.  It would be absolutely amazing if some boutique developer could figure out how to use the whimsical Amano style.  Where Amano’s concepts serve more as promotional art, Saga’s designs were pretty faithfully put into gameplay.

The variety of styles used in concepting this game is amazing.  I love these rough marker sketches and although these aren’t the final designs used in the game they really capture the mood.

I would love to see more illustration work from Katsumi Yokota.  This artist has gone on to work on the Rez and Lumines games.  While I’m glad to see that this artist has worked on other great games, it’s really disappointing to not have been treated to any more of his imaginative illustrations. 

At the time it was a risky move to have a game that focused on the characters’ humanity and frailties instead of their god-like fighting abilities.  I hope future developers can learn something from this game and venture to make understated game worlds with a sense of humanity with which players can connect.