Panzer Dragoon Orta is a rail shooter: players can control the dragon's position onscreen, and may briefly slow down or speed up (the latter can be used as a potent ramming attack), but ultimately are in no control to fly about the level. Attacking is performed by holding down a mappable attack button, maneuvering an onscreen cursor over enemies, and releasing the button to fire a volley of arching lasers at each target. Orta is also equipped with a rapid-fire pistol, which can be used by tapping the attack button instead of holding it down. Enemies must thus be defeated before they vanish offscreen as the levels "scroll" by, with the exception of boss battles, which take place in environments that "loop" until the boss is defeated). An onscreen radar marks enemies in the dragon's immediate surroundings as red dots. Using the Right and Left Triggers, the player can rotate the view 90 degrees to the left or right. This way the player can look in front, to the sides or behind the dragon and take down incoming enemies. A Life Gauge displays the dragon's current health. When the dragon's health reaches zero, the game ends and the player will have to redo the entire Episode. If the dragon dies during the final boss fight of the Episode, the player also gets the option to restart the Episode at the boss fight.
Orta's dragon can morph itself instantaneously between three different forms: the Base Wing (standard class with no weaknesses or strengths), Heavy Wing (offensive class with less mobility), or Glide Wing (nimble class good for shooting down masses of incoming projectiles). Each of these forms can level up by collecting "gene bases" from certain enemies. Unique to the Glide Wing is the ability to have the dragon perform a barrel roll by moving the thumbstick sideways in quick succession.
Each dragon type has a different Glide Gauge. The dragon's ability to slow down or speed up can only be done a limited number of times as it decreases the Glide Gauge. When the Glide Gauge is empty, the dragon can no longer slown down or speed up and must wait for the gauge to refill (which happens automatically over time). The Glide Wing can speed up or slow down up to three times using a full Glide Gauge, while the Base Wing can only do so two times. The Heavy Wing can't slow down or speed up at all, trading its mobility for a greater damage output.
As with the Glide Gauge, each dragon type also has a different Berserk Gauge. Using the dragon's Berserk Attack depletes the Berserk Gauge (which refills over time as you defeat enemies). Besides inflicting a lot of damage on the onscreen enemies, the attack also grants the dragon invincibility for a short amount of time. In the case of the Glide Wing, the attack also steals life from the onscreen enemies and uses it to refill the dragon's own Life Gauge.
Orta's dragon is capable of shooting homing lasers at multiple targets. Here, the Base Wing form attacks several areas on an early boss.
During the boss battles, the player can also position the dragon to the front, the sides or behind the boss using the dragon's ability to speed up or slow down. During a boss fight the onscreen radar shows the areas around the boss where the dragon is vulnerable to attacks (marked with a red color) and the ones where the dragon is safe (green color), and these areas change as the battle goes on. The player must use this information to move around the boss and avoid being hit, while simultaneously finding and attacking the boss's weak points.
At the conclusion of each Episode, the player is ranked based on the number of enemies defeated, score, hits taken, and the time it took to defeat the boss. Each of these is assigned a letter grade from S, A, B, C, and D (with S being the highest). The four grades are averaged together to give the player an overall assessment of how well they performed. This grading also occurs at the conclusion of the game's numerous side-missions (including all seven episodes of Iva's Story).
Plot[edit]
The Empire has returned to power, using ancient technology to genetically engineer dragon-like bio-engineered weapons called dragonmares. A young girl, Orta, has lived all her life in a tower in a valley, imprisoned by the nomadic Seekers, who fear she is a harbinger of doom. One night, the Empire attacks the valley with its dragonmares, destroying much of the city. Before the dragonmares can harm Orta, a mysterious dragon appears and eliminates them.
Orta flees the valley on the dragon. Evren, a general in the Imperial Army and leader of the dragonmare squadron, pursues her. She is saved by Abadd, a renegade imperial drone. He flies away and Orta asks the dragon to follow him. In her search, Orta meets Mobo, a friendly but reckless member of the wormriders. Mobo leads Orta through a river valley and a sea of ash to the wormrider village. The imperial fleet attacks the village and Evren's squadron engages Orta, but she and the dragon defeat them. Evren's dragonmare self-destructs and Orta and the dragon fall from the sky.
The wounded dragon carries Orta on foot across a snowy land until its torn wings regenerate. They fend off an attack from a flying predator, but Orta feels remorse when she sees it has children. Abadd reappears and kills the family with a laser volley. He claims to have information about Orta's birth. They descend into the ruins of a tower and access the ancient information network known as Sestren. Orta finds a message recorded by her mother, Azel, saying that Orta was created using DNA she recovered from a human in Sestren. Abadd explains that he has learnt the secret of drone reproduction and intends to use Orta's body to replicate himself infinitely and conquer the world. Orta defeats Abadd's avatar and discovers that he is heading for the Cradle, an ancient monolithic artifact above the imperial city. She orders Sestren that she be transported there.
Orta and the dragon find themselves in an imperial research facility. After they destroy several experiments, including dragonmare embryos, the facility collapses. They destroy an imperial defense unit and the Emperor dies within the explosion. The Cradle breaks free, destroying several Imperial ships and sending the dragonmares berserk. The wormriders, led by Mobo, attack the imperial fleet at the city, leaving Orta to fly towards the Cradle.
After destroying the last of the dragonmares and the Cradle's shell, a cocoon-like object emerges from the Cradle's core. The cocoon erupts into Abadd's enormous dragon, which Orta and the dragon defeat. The dragon, severely wounded, flies to the ground and dies. The war over, Orta walks towards a mountain range with a baby dragon.