Scott Morrison: NiGHTS into Dreams and the Panzer Dragoon series both share in captivating level design, almost to the point of distracting players from the intended game experience. Sky Gunner certainly deserves a lot more attention, and any fan of the Panzer Dragoon series is guaranteed to feel at home with the game’s fun and strategic control scheme, its exhilarating and undeniably fun flight mechanics, its pseudo-steam-punk vibe, and its emphasis on lock-on, multi-weapon combat. As you’d expect from Atlus, the game is not afraid to challenge you, but never in a way that leaves you feeling cheated.

Much like Panzer Dragoon, the combat forces you to utilize several techniques and maneuvers based on the enemies you’re facing, with certain weapons that only work in specific situations. But underneath its basic conceit and cutesy, anime veneer is some surprisingly engaging combat with a heavy focus on scores, chaining attacks, and strategic weaponry. While not an on-rails experience by any means, the goal of this game is pretty simple-attack all the enemies until the skies are clear. Only a few games even come close, and Atlus’s PS2 game Sky Gunner stands as probably the most criminally underplayed and underappreciated of the bunch. Josh Newey: There just aren’t enough simplistic, entertaining fantasy-based flight sim games these days, and very few titles manage to replicate that spot-on combination of exciting combat, intuitive flight mechanics, and unique atmosphere that the Panzer Dragoon series is known for.

With the drought of true Panzer Dragoon games in recent years we’ve taken it upon ourselves to find 10 games that have something in common with the neglected Sega franchise, whether it be in tone and atmosphere or in the gameplay department. The appeal of Sega’s on-rails dragoon simulator often comes from the great combination of unique atmosphere and setting with the simple yet addicting on-rails gameplay, a genre that doesn’t appear too often. Since then we’ve seen one game in the series with Orta on the original Xbox and it’s been nearly 10 years since that game’s release. The Panzer Dragoon series hasn’t seen many appearances since the Saturn days.

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