Forever Entertainment, probably best know for developing and publishing Fear Effect Sedna, has announced that they will be releasing remakes of Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei! The remake of the original Panzer Dragoon will feature “completely new graphics “ and modifications to make the game “more attractive to modern players, while remaining “faithful to the original in terms of story”. The first game is planned to be released before the end of 2019, and new materials will be presented in the upcoming months. No mention was made of a potential remake of Panzer Dragoon Saga.
We did learn that SEGA (aside from obviously being the IP owner) will also be a co-publisher for the game. Meanwhile, Forever Entertainment will be a co-publisher and co-producer as well as handle co-financing. Development will be handled by MegaPixel Studio. While there’s been no announcement regarding the platforms the games will be released on, we do know that MegaPixel Studio was established as a studio which would “focus on porting and publishing new games on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4”.
Outside from a comment from Atlus USA director Sam Mullen, there’s been no official announcement on the part of SEGA. This appears to be similar to deals SEGA made for other games handled by third party studios, such as Shenmue 3, Bayonetta 2&3 and more recently Streets of Rage 4. From the information available it doesn’t seem like Yukio Futatsugi’s Grounding Inc studio or Land Ho! (developer of Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 27: Panzer Dragoon) will be involved with the development of the game. You can read the entire press release from Forever Entertainment here:
Forever Entertainment together with SEGA Holding Co., Ltd. from Japan will co-create and publish Panzer Dragoon: Remake and Panzer Dragoon II Zwei: Remake. The premiere of the first part is planned before the end of 2019!
Panzer Dragoon: Remake is a refreshed version of Panzer Dragoon. The original version of the game had its premiere on the Sega Saturn console in 1995 and was well received by both players and critics. The entire Panzer Dragoon series has been repeatedly remade and released on many platforms. The last re-launch took place in April 2018 on Xbox One, where players can play Panzer Dragoon Orta with a backward compatibility. The new version of the game will be characterized by a completely new graphics compatible with today’s standards and several modifications of the game, making it more attractive to modern players, while remaining faithful to the original in terms of story. The first materials from the game will be presented in the upcoming months!
This is of course huge news for the Panzer Dragoon community, coming out of the blue (pun intended). The Panzer Dragoon series has been largely dormant since 2002’s Panzer Dragoon Orta, with only an updated (but not fully remade) version of the first Panzer Dragoon released as part of the Sega Ages lineup in 2006 and more recently the arrival of Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox One as part of the backwards compatibility lineup. We’ll be sure to share more details as soon as they become available.
Note: featured image is a screenshot from an emulated version of Panzer Dragoon Zwei, running in Yabause.
Better than having the IP collecting dust, and hopping for the best. It’s hard to know what to expect from a studio that has only ported a couple games.