Part 8: Cheats & Secrets

And here we go with the last video of the LP: the cheat run post-mortem.

This video is going to be a herky-jerky run through of all the various cheats and secrets hidden away in Panzer Dragoon.

I’ll list all them here including their cheat codes and what they do, but to see them in action, you should check out the video.





#1 | View Hard Mode Ending
Code: Up Up Down Up Left Left Right Left Down Down Up Down Right Right Left Right
What it does: Plays the special Hard Mode epilogue without having to beat the game on Hard to see it. This isn’t a plot epilogue, it’s a little screen that shows you the cheat to unlock Wizard Mode.


#2 | Stage Select
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right X Y Z
What it does: Isn’t it obvious? This code lets you pick whatever level you want and start the game from there.

Panzer Dragoon came from the days before progress saves, so you’d have to play the game all in one go if you wanted to beat it legit. Later Panzer Dragoons like Saga and Orta would let you save and continue from where you left off, however.


#3 | The “Polygon Babe”

What it is: If you use either the Stage Select or Unlimited Continues cheat, when you end your game instead of the SEGA logo man appearing, a girl in a red jumpsuit reminiscent of a character from the original Virtua Fighter on the 32X jumps in and turns into the SEGA logo instead.

It’s nothing more than fan service.

#4 | Unlimited Continues / Extra Weapons
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press Up X Right Y Down Z Left Y Up X
What it does: This is a three-fold code. As you know already it spawns the Polygon Babe on the game over screen, but it also allows you to use unlimited continues and take as many tries as you need to get through the game.

It also allows you the use of extra weapon combinations. You’ll recall I mentioned this in the very first level, well, here it is in play here.

This is was in many ways the test bed for the dragon transformation mechanic featured in the subsequent Panzer Dragoon games, most notably Saga and Orta.

In those games, your dragon has three forms to it which you can shift between at will. The first one is the standard form, the one most like the dragon in this game. It’s a middle of the road model. The second one is a heavy weapons one, which is slower and harder to maneuver, but has a selection of high-powered weapons designed to do vast damage to bosses. And the third is a light mode that’s very quick and agile and has a rapid fire weapon, but it does crap damage and it has zero durability to it.




#4A | Weapon Selection 1
Code: Press and hold B at the episode title card
What it does: Kyle’s blaster is more powerful than normal. Lagi’s lock-on shot is now purple-blue and is quicker to lock on to enemies than normal. Lock-ons are denoted by multi-coloured orbs circling around Lagi.



#4B | Weapon Selection 2
Code: Press and hold C at the episode title card
What it does: Kyle’s blaster is more powerful than normal, but not as powerful as the B option one. Lagi’s lock-on shot is now bright blue and has the easiest to lock on of all the weapon choices, and is the most powerful too.



#4C | Weapon Selection 3
Code: Press and hold Y at the episode title card
What it does: Kyle’s blaster is now a multi-coloured rapid fire machine gun that’s more powerful than most other weapon options. Lagi’s lock-on shot remains at regular strength.


#4D | Weapon Selection 4
Code: Press and hold Z at the episode title card
What it does: Kyle’s blaster is now aqua green in colour and is the most powerful single weapon in the game. Lagi’s lock-on shot is now purple-blue and is slightly more powerful than normal.


#5 | Dragon Only Mode
Code: Enter the Unlimited Continues / Extra Weapons code then press Left Left Right Right Up Down Up Down L R
What it does: Kyle’s model is removed from the game and only Lagi appears on screen.

However, because Kyle isn’t there, you can’t use his blaster attack either, so only lock-ons work now.


#6 | Invincibility Mode
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press L L R R Up Down Left Right
What it does: Makes you invincible to all attacks in the game.

HOWEVER, if you use this cheat, the ending cinematic will not play when you beat Last Episode. FYI.





#7 | Episode 0
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press Up Up Up Down Down Down Left Right Left Right Left Right L R
What it does: Allows you to play through the “target practice” level, Episode 0—a cloudy void where enemies from each level of the game aside from Last Episode appear in waves for you to shoot down.

Your health will continuously drain as you fly through the level, so you have until you die to rack up the highest score you can… which isn’t recorded anywhere nor does it unlock anything.

If you play Episode 0 with invincibility on, then the level will play indefinitely until you turn off the Sega Saturn.


#8 | Wizard Mode
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press L R L R Up Down Up Down Left Right
What it does: Snidely described as “modern framerate mode,” Wizard Mode speeds the game up to 1.5x speed. Episode 0 naturally plays in Wizard Mode.


Okay, this next one is a little complex:








#9 | Space Harrier Mode
Code: Step 1) Turn off the Saturn, open the CD door and turn it back on again.

Step 2) Find the Language Settings feature on the Saturn control deck and set the Saturn’s internal language to German (Deutsch).

Step 3) Load the game to the start menu and press Up X Right X Down X Left X Up Y Z

What it does: You play as Kyle alone sans Lagi. It looks absolutely hilarious. Unlike Dragon Only Mode, however, you can use both Kyle’s blaster and Lagi’s lock-on attacks, even though Lagi isn’t on screen.



This cheat is a two-fold inside joke of sorts for Sega. First and most obviously, the name of the cheat is a reference to Sega’s jetpack rail shooter Space Harrier, which this mode is very reminiscent of.

The second one is that—for whatever reason—the Saturn’s system language needs to be set to German to get this cheat to run.

This may be an inside joke on Team Andromeda’s part, as Panzer Dragoon games tend to have either German names like Panzer Dragoon Zwei (Two), or German production codenames (Orta, for example, was referred to initially as Panzer Dragoon Vier (Four), and at the end of its game credits the title card that shows up says Panzer Dragoon Vier rather than Panzer Dragoon Orta).

And that’s saying nothing of the fact that the series’ title is also derived from German. “Panzer” is a German loanword meaning “armour,” by the way.


#10 | Rolling Mode
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press Up Right Down Left four times in a row. (IE: like a rolling pattern)
What it does: Ostensibly it causes Lagi to roll when you tap left or right on the D-pad twice, but all I got him to do in the video was just pitch rapidly to one side of the screen or the other.

I don’t know if I fucked it up or not, nor do I really care because it’s the end of the LP.




#11 | Clean Pause Menu
Code: Press X Y and Z when paused in a level
What it does: Clears away the big flashing “PAUSE” in the middle of the screen. There’s not much point to this, but it does allow you to stage some decent gameplay screenshots, I suppose.



CHEATS NOT SHOWN IN THIS VIDEO

#12 | Smart Bomb
Code: With Rolling Mode activated, enter a roll, hold down any fire button and then release.
What it does: Apparently this technique will auto-lock on to every enemy on screen and then destroy all of them at once when you release the fire button.

It’s not shown off in the video because I couldn’t get rolling mode working properly, thus I couldn’t get the Smart Bomb to work.

#12 | View Normal Mode Ending
Code: Press Start on the title screen, then press Up Up Down Up Right Right Left Right Down Down Up Down Left Left Right Left
What it does: Allows you to view the game’s ending cinematic without having to do that whole pesky “playing the damn game” thing.

It’s not in the video because we’ve already seen the ending cinematic, so there’s no point in watching it a second time.


And that, ladies and gentlemen, was Panzer Dragoon in its more-or-less entirety.

I’d like to thank everyone who stuck it out with me for your support, as well as give special thanks to Blind Sally and TravelLog for coming with me on this journey.

I may one day get around to LPing Panzer Dragoon Zwei and/or Orta to fill the gap in the LP Archive, but for now, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Thanks again, and see you out there.