level, which was fixed with a 2018 a patch. Orta was made backward compatible for the Xbox One on April 17, 2018. Sega produced 999 Orta-themed Xbox consoles for sale through their Sega Direct service; the design was pure white with a printed image based on an Ancient Age fossil. A guidebook featuring was published by ASCII Media Works on February 21, 2003. A novelization was written by Yu Godai, illustrated by Shinya Kaneko and published by Media Factory on December 17, 2004. Buildup Entertainment collaborated with Sega to release 500 cast statues of Orta and her dragon in April 2004. Reception Orta met with "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator website Metacritic, receiving a score of 90 out of 100 based on forty-one critic reviews. Its visual design, unlockable content, and faithfulness to the series were consistently praised, while critics were displeased with the short play-time and dated, on-rails structure. Opinions of the controls and the increased difficulty were mixed. In their review, Famitsu gave it praise for its visuals and gameplay, positively noting both high challenge and freedom of choice for players. The dedicated sibling magazine Famitsu Xbox gave it a higher score than the main magazine, citing it as the best Xbox release to date and lauding its adaptation of the series gameplay and quality of its graphics. The three reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it high praise, lauding its graphics, gameplay and unlockable content compared to other rail shooters of the time; common points of criticism were its high difficulty compared to earlier Panzer Dragoon games, and its short campaign. Edge felt the additional controls and variety hindered enjoyment compared to Sega's earlier rail shooter Rez, and described the music as less memorable than earlier entries, while lauding the art design and number of unlockable extras alongside nostalgia for earlier entries in the series and genre. Eurogamers 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. 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.