"Also, I've been asking around if there was another game franchise as consistently good as Panzer Dragoon across multiple entries that completely failed to catch on."
This one just came to me. Colony Wars. Probably a bit more popular at the time than (and not quite as good as) Panzer Dragoon, but it was dropped and largely forgotten after it's three PS1 entries.
Oh God! Your Off World Extreme review triggered a flashback. My friend had a big Superbowl party, and one of his cousins brought over their Sega Saturn. This was the only game they had. Not realizing this was a multiplatform game, it kinda soured my impression of the Saturn. I do remember laughing when one of the riff-tracks guys kept pretending to grope the female characters, but in my defense, I was 13.
Considering they start with stuff like this then go on to make Soul Reaver, I think Crystal Dynamics might be in the running for most improved developer in gen 5. But yeah, you have some crap to get through before ending up there.
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