Panzer Dragoon Saga, Meadowgrass and Gigra Appreciation Post

Friday is here and I've been thinking about Panzer Dragoon again, mainly the fact that back in January, I finally worked out how to set up a Saturn emulator with RetroArch, started on Panzer Dragoon Saga with a view to finally playing the full game after all these years... then life and responsibilities happened, I completely forgot about it, and it's still there waiting around the end of the first disc. There are quite a few screenshots though, and that's what we're having a look at today.

Our adventure begins, as all good adventures ideally should, with a dangerous apple. (It does serve some purpose, but despite having played this first disc countless times over the years, I have never committed to memory what that purpose actually is.)

A majestic red worm leaping in the desert. The muted rumbling of the air flowing in these tunnels when you're travelling through them has always been strangely relaxing.

I also like the tricks of perspective used here to create a feeling of vastness in what is, on a technical level, a very small sandbox. It felt much more sprawling when I was a kid, enjoying the leap from 2D to 3D games first-hand, but compared to environments in modern video games where sometimes getting from place to place can wind up being a bit of a slog, the areas here feel much more compact in retrospect. It's quite a cosy feeling.

Tents in the oasis, a lovely little bit of set-dressing there.

Kicking off with the Gigra which, to this day, is still one of my favourite video game creatures. It's an interesting foil for Edge's dragon, as this enemy spontaneously adopts different forms in order to get the upper hand in combat, an ability that our scaly friend acquires after succeeding in this fight. Also I mean come on, it's fucking adorable.

I want to pet it, it's just so precious!

Oooooh!!!


Moving onto the Forbidden Zone, we have another one of my favourite creatures, the Lazaras! These ones are also very endearing and, as mentioned in a previous post, they have really relaxing combat music.


The environment design here ticks a lot of boxes with the vast ocean in beautiful jewel tones, quietly falling snow, the scattered islands with odd, petrified-looking trees and the weird structures that occasionally fire energy plumes into the sky. It's all very otherworldly and compelling.


And of course, no trip to the Forbidden Zone would be complete without the Lazara Skimmers. These creatures too, are friggin' adorable.

Meadowgrass there, receiving the appreciation he deserves.

Here we have a better look at the lovely green and purple shading on his neck, and the fins on his wings - just too precious!

Later on switching to Attack/Agility form; not so much my cup of tea aesthetically, but a very practical form for when you're getting embroiled in bust-ups with monsters.

And on that note, I've just clocked there's a hell of a lot of pictures here, so maybe it's time to wrap up this post and save the rest for another time. For now, here's a look at a very grouchy-looking dragon, in smouldering colours, gliding elegantly into a secret passage, under a waterfall (absolutely living the dream.)

And on that note, have a lovely weekend!

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Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's quite pleasant. 4.  The Corries - Quite a brisk and e...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some thoughts regarding Silent Hill Downpour

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Getting up at 3am for work is never a recipe for focussed and cogent thought, but it does seem to result in getting down some rabbit holes. On this occasion, after feeling an overwhelming desire to know what A Lyke Wake Dirge would sound like done in the style of Pookiesnackenburger (for the record, Alisdair Reynolds' version is my personal favourite) and weighing up whether or not to pursue a change of setting in an absurdist comedy script-in-progress because it feels like a repurposed shipwreck might provide more fertile ground than a haunted theatre, I got to thinking about Silent Hill Downpour for a bit. This game gives me some very mixed feelings; overall, I'd come down on the side of being fond of it, there's definitely a lot to love here but there's a near-equal measure of things that are frustrating about it. I guess the one-word summary would be "undercooked". It's got a lot of potential, and the green shoots of some really interesting ideas, but...
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Revisiting Crapston Villas (while actually sober)

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So recently, I played the Silent Hill 2 remake (really enjoyed it, a nicely done update of an old favourite) and while scrambling about in the flats, something emerged from the dusty caverns of long-buried memories: namely this stop-motion animated cat, lurking in the sallow light of a knackered hallway with blood dripping from his jaws. Quite the sight. Look upon him!!! To be honest, if it were a toss-up between the cat and Pyramid Head, yeah, I'd rather take me chances with the Traffic Cone Twat, thank you. So as it was, the only other things I could remember about Crapston Villas were an homage to that one King Crimson album, a scene involving a horrific-looking fish, there was a lot of gallows humour and the fact that I was howlingly drunk on questionable ale when I watched it (this was around 2013.) Incidentally, it seems to be a running theme with people that I've talked to over the years, whenever the topic of Newcastle Brown comes up, someone always has a story about...
'Ave a gander 'ere