Panzer Dragoon Orta is a single-player rail shooter which spans ten levels of varying lengths and difficulty, covering a variety of environments and each housing a boss.

[1][3] The story is communicated though a combination of CGI and real-time cutscenes and dialogue during gameplay, with in-game speech using the fictional language of Panzer Dragoon with subtitles.

[5][7] Fully destroying waves of enemies grants a resource called "Gene Base" that upgrades the current dragon form's attributes, such as health and attack power.

[8] Completing the main campaign unlocks an extras menu called "Pandora's Box", a feature which returns from Panzer Dragoon II Zwei.

[7][11][12] A girl named Orta, thought by some to be the daughter of Saga protagonists Edge and Azel, is kept prisoner in a tower by a tribe called the Seekers, as they fear she is a harbinger of doom.

Abadd reveals that he plans to wipe out humanity and hoped to use Orta's DNA to breed a new drone army; when she refuses to cooperate, he attacks her and is fought off.

The declining Iva is taken in by Seekers, forming a close bond with one of their number called Emid, who helps him find a final message from his father in the necklace.

[15] Following the commercial failure of the Dreamcast, Sega left the console market and began developing and publishing games for other platforms, including extensively supporting Microsoft's Xbox.

[19] Yoshida had hoped for characters to fly into clouds, similar to scenes from the 1986 film Castle in the Sky, but as they were instructed in the console by the programmers they found this was not possible.

[26] While expressing interest in Xbox Live, Microsoft's online gaming service, Mukaiyama wanted the team to focus on making a polished single-player experience.

Mukaiyama decided to push for ten levels despite designer protests that it was impossible, reused the series' recurring Pandora's Box system to offer bonus stages, and added difficulty modes while keeping it challenging overall.

[14] As development progressed, Mukaiyama realized that Orta was missing the trademark presentation and aesthetic style which had made the Panzer Dragoon series stand out, resulting in broad redesigns.

[14] To facilitate staff communication and allow for greater communal input on game and art design, a private forum was set up for posting sketches and concept ideas.

[14] Yoshida noted that the Xbox's improved hardware meant the hand-tailored design forced by the Saturn's limitations became unnecessary; this, together with the increased team size for Orta, had changed the graphics development process enough that some of the series' original atmosphere was lost.

[27] In a separate interview, Mukaiyama said the team wasn't overly concerned with preserving that continuity, viewing Orta as a fresh start for the series; the new hardware allowed for previously impossible things, such as rendering real-time sandstorms.

[23][34] Multiple layers for in-game texture maps and lighting were made possible using the Xbox software, with particular care taken to make the sky domes appear realistic.

Three months were dedicated to creating the story, communicated through the CGI cutscenes, with their storyboards influencing both artistic redesigns for Orta and the motion of characters in-game.

[43] A soundtrack album for CD was published by Marvelous Entertainment on 27 December 2002, featuring all the game's tracks, in addition to an instrumental version of "Anu Orta Veniya".

[36][52] Originally scheduled for a worldwide release in 2002, it was delayed into 2003 in the West[53] to better tie the story and gameplay, add additional branching paths, and continue polishing.

[67] Eurogamer's Kristan Reed called Orta "a refined, well designed and intelligent title [marking] a real progression in the genre", with his only complaints being repetitive gameplay and a short campaign.

[69] Chet Barber of Game Informer was positive, and particularly praised the audio and art design, but noted some control problems making dodging difficult.

Andrew Reiner, in a second opinion for the magazine, praised Smilebit's effort in recreating the series' original gameplay and their graphical and technical achievements on the platform, but noted a lack of innovation over earlier entries.

[6] GamePro described Orta as existing as two entities: one "a 10-stage rail shooter, an archaic and straightforward game style that's been all but shunned and forgotten in this modern era of fully immersive 3D worlds", the other "a massive sensory overload machine" due to its complex and beautiful level design.

[73] GameSpy's Christian Nutt felt Orta would appeal to both hardcore gamers, and those who appreciated music and aesthetics more due to these elements being so strongly presented, with his main complaint being pacing issues and an unoriginal if well-told story.

[74] IGN's Hilary Goldstein only felt negatively about its short length potentially turning off players compared to other recent Xbox releases, otherwise praising it as one of the best rail shooters available.

[2] Jon Ortaway of Official Xbox Magazine felt Orta was a worthy successor to the earlier Panzer Dragoon series, lauding its graphics and audio, with his main complaints being its high difficulty and harsh checkpoint system.

[80] As part of its review in 2002, Famitsu gave Orta a Platinum Award, ranking it alongside Metal Gear Solid 2 Subsistance and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.

[84] Orta has been consistently listed as one of the best games for the original Xbox, by publications including GamesRadar, Digital Trends, and IGN, which described it as the "pinnacle of rail shooters".

[85][86][87] Alex Wawro of Gamasutra called Orta the best Panzer Dragoon game for gameplay refinements and the technical and graphical achievements made possible by Xbox.

[9] In January 2011, Darren Jones of Retro Gamer said that it had aged well, predicting it would be seen as a genre classic, and that it represented the older development ideals of Sega as a risk-taking company.