Team Andromeda was the Sega team behind the Panzer Dragoon games on the Saturn, and it made nothing else. In four years it built one world, a desert planet a thousand years past its golden age, and told three stories in it, each in a different kind of game. The first was a rail shooter for the Saturn’s launch. The last was a role-playing game on four discs that came out in the West as the Saturn was dying, in such small numbers that copies later sold for over £100. Edge put its finger on what joined them: “It’s a testament to Team Andromeda’s versatility that the Panzer Dragoon series has shed its shallow-but-lavish shoot ’em up brief in favour of a complex RPG mandate.”
Fast facts
- Part of: Sega’s consumer development division in Japan.
- Active: 1994 to 1998.
- Games: Panzer Dragoon (Japan, March 1995), Panzer Dragoon II Zwei (Japan, March 1996), Panzer Dragoon Saga (Japan, January 1998; Europe and America, spring 1998), all for the Saturn.
- People: Yukio Futatsugi (director of Panzer Dragoon, main writer of Saga); Manabu Kusunoki (art director of Panzer Dragoon, general director of Saga); Tomohiro Kondo (director of Zwei); Kentaro Yoshida (art director of Zwei).
- Size: about 15 people for the first game, about 20 for Zwei and 40 for Saga.
- Afterwards: members went on to Smilebit, which made Panzer Dragoon Orta (2002), and to United Game Artists, which made Rez (2001).
A showpiece for the Saturn
Sega formed Team Andromeda in 1994 for one job: a game that would show what its new console could do. Retro magazine’s history of the series puts the first team at about 15 people, and says they took 12 months to finish once they had settled on the idea. Panzer Dragoon came out in Japan in March 1995. Edge had heard it was “the most expensive console project Sega has ever undertaken”.
The game put the player on the back of a flying dragon, moving through each level on a fixed path, and asked them to shoot in every direction at once, turning the view with the shoulder buttons. Its look came from a team that, Retro says, were “huge fans” of the French comic artist Moebius. Sega commissioned illustrations from him for the Japanese packaging. Futatsugi directed it, and Kusunoki was its art director and built its dragon models. For a fuller account of the game, see the Panzer Dragoon entry.
Zwei
The second game was a prequel. Retro reports that the team grew to 20 and again took a full year; Zwei came out in Japan in March 1996, a little after the first game’s anniversary. This time the dragon began as a flightless youngster and grew between levels, taking different forms depending on how well the player did, and a new Berserk attack helped in the busiest moments. Edge thought it “an unequivocal triumph of design over content”, and credited its look to “a small group of Japanese CGI artists collectively working under Sega’s Team Andromeda banner”. Tomohiro Kondo directed it, with Kentaro Yoshida as art director; Futatsugi took the credit for its original design and setting.
Saga
In September 1997 Edge reported Team Andromeda’s “surprise project”, Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG. Work on it had started alongside Zwei, Retro Gamer later learned from Sega’s own account, which explains why Zwei can recognise save data from a game released two years after it. The team doubled to 40. It also had a hard time: a team member died during development, and things went so badly that the whole team visited a shrine for a “purification”.
Panzer Dragoon Saga, as it was called in the West, came out in Japan on 29 January 1998, on four CDs. The player could now fly anywhere in each area, with control of height, and land to explore villages on foot. Battles were turn-based, run on charging gauges like Final Fantasy VII’s, but the player could move the dragon around an enemy to reach its weak points, and change the dragon’s shape between attack, defence, agility and spiritual strength. Sega Saturn Magazine was struck that the team told so much of its story with the game’s own 3D engine rather than video. The credits put Kusunoki at the top as general director, with Futatsugi as main writer.
Edge gave it nine out of ten in April 1998, calling Team Andromeda’s work “simply breathtaking” at its best, with “a creative depth only SquareSoft games can currently rival”. Sega added English subtitles instead of re-recording the speech, which Edge recognised as saving money but preferred to “B-list actors reciting words they have little feeling for”. It also saw what was coming: “It’s a tragedy that the Saturn’s standing will ensure Team Andromeda’s adventure… will enjoy a fraction of its rival’s success.” Retro reports that only about 5,000 English-language copies went to each Western territory. Retro Gamer gives estimates of 5,000 to 30,000 for the English print run as a whole, and in 2013 it reported that the original source code had been lost.
After Andromeda
The team broke up after Saga. Sega Retro, a fan-run wiki that cites Sega’s records, describes Team Andromeda as a group inside Sega’s consumer division CS1, dissolved after Saga’s release. Its people spread out. Retro reports that former members were among the founders of Smilebit, one of the development companies Sega set up in 2000, and Smilebit’s Jet Set Radio producer told Edge that his team had worked on Zwei and Azel. Masayoshi Kikuchi, who co-designed Saga’s battles, became Jet Set Radio’s director. Smilebit returned to the series with Panzer Dragoon Orta for the Xbox in 2002. According to Sega Retro, many former members also worked on Rez at Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s United Game Artists, among them the artist Katsumi Yokota, and Futatsugi left Sega in 1998.
Sources
- Edge issue 20, May 1995, pp. 72–74: Panzer Dragoon review (developer Team Andromeda; “the most expensive console project Sega has ever undertaken”).
- Edge issue 33, June 1996, p. 70: Panzer Dragoon Zwei (“an unequivocal triumph of design over content”; “a small group of Japanese CGI artists collectively working under Sega’s Team Andromeda banner”; Moebius).
- Edge issue 49, September 1997, p. 41: Team Andromeda’s “surprise project”, Azel: Panzer Dragoon RPG.
- Edge issue 57, April 1998, p. 82: Panzer Dragoon Saga review, nine out of ten, £45, British release in March (Team Andromeda’s versatility; the subtitles; the comparison with Final Fantasy VII; “a fraction of its rival’s success”).
- Edge issue 84, May 2000, pp. 36–39: the Jet Set Radio team’s work on Panzer Dragoon II Zwei and Azel.
- Sega Saturn Magazine issue 28, February 1998, pp. 47–53: Panzer Dragoon Saga on four CDs (free flight, the on-foot sections, the battle system and dragon forms, cut-scenes in the game engine).
- Retro: The Ultimate Retro Companion, volume 2 (Imagine Publishing, 2008), pp. 22–25: John Szczepaniak on the series (the newly formed team of 15 and its 12 months; Moebius; Zwei’s 20 staff and growing dragon; Saga’s team of 40, the death of a team member and the shrine; about 5,000 English copies per territory and prices over £100; Smilebit formed by former members).
- Retro Gamer issue 34, 2007, pp. 70–71: Panzer Dragoon Saga (work started alongside Zwei; the team of 40; the shrine; print-run estimates of 5,000 to 30,000).
- Retro Gamer issue 111, February 2013, p. 67: Panzer Dragoon Saga’s lost source code.
- Sega Retro, “Team Andromeda”, “Panzer Dragoon Zwei”, “Panzer Dragoon Saga” and its production credits, “Rez”, “Katsumi Yokota” and “Yukio Futatsugi” (database, web, secondary): the team’s place in Sega CS and CS1, its formation in 1994 and dissolution after Saga; release dates of 22 March 1996 (Zwei) and 29 January 1998 (Saga in Japan; America, 6 May 1998); the Japanese credits of Zwei (監督 Tomohiro Kondo, art director Kentaro Yoshida) and Saga (総監督 Manabu Kusunoki, main writer Yukio Futatsugi, battle design by Masayoshi Kikuchi and others); former members on Rez; Futatsugi leaving Sega in 1998. https://segaretro.org/Team_Andromeda