Gaming's last stands

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What happens when games machines die

The last stand of: Sega Saturn
Last official UK release: Courier Crisis (November 1998)
Last official US release: Magic Knight Rayearth (Nov 30, 1998)

Contrary to popular belief, Resident Evil rip-off Deep Fear was not the last UK-released Saturn game. That dubious honour went to Courier Crisis - a game about a guy delivering things on a bike through a city that looked like it was made of cardboard. A shame really, as Deep Fear wasn't actually bad and would have been a much more fitting end for Sega's penultimate home console. Magic Knight Rayearth was a spin-off from the anime of the same name, and featured top-down action RPG gameplay. The fully voiced characters were cool though, no doubt the reason for the multi-disc game release, but we don't like the high-pitched nature of some of the voices. Still, a decent game now mostly forgotten.

Final hurrah: Panzer Dragoon Saga (released April 30, 1998)

In its last year as a viable format, the Sega Saturn saw AAA classics like the original Dead or Alive, Sonic Team's Burning Rangers and Treasure's classic shooter Radiant Silvergun - the Japan-only precursor to the much more widely-known Ikaruga. And there was also the small matter of the four-disc RPG Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Saga is a beautiful RPG. It takes the art style and basic elements of the Panzer Dragoon shooters and blends them with traditional RPG elements such as turn-based/realtime blended combat and levelling up. But playing it feels much more like an adventure. Piloting your dragon alone through the sunken ruins of Uru in the evening light is magical. And exploring the 3D towns on-foot is exactly the sort of thing we love about RPGS.

With a dragon that morphs shape in real-time as you tinker with its attribute balance, fully-voiced characters (that don't speak in English but can be sped up or slowed down depending how far in you push the 3D pad's triggers) and some seriously massive bosses, Panzer Saga is an astonishing achievement - sadly passed up by thousands of gamers as they flocked away from Saturn to play PSone.

Above: Panzer Dragoon Saga - released for a dying console, it's now super-rare and collectable

Saga is a beautiful RPG. It takes the art style and basic elements of the Panzer Dragoon shooters and blends them with traditional RPG elements such as turn-based/realtime blended combat and levelling up. But playing it feels much more like an adventure. Piloting your dragon alone through the sunken ruins of Uru in the evening light is magical. And exploring the 3D towns on-foot is exactly the sort of thing we love about RPGS.

With a dragon that morphs shape in real-time as you tinker with its attribute balance, fully-voiced characters (that don't speak in English but can be sped up or slowed down depending how far in you push the 3D pad's triggers) and some seriously massive bosses, Panzer Saga is an astonishing achievement - sadly passed up by thousands of gamers as they flocked away from Saturn to play PSone.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.