I admit it, I have taken an excessively long vacation. I was insane by inaction.
But here, by this humble act, I return to the section to which I gave birth”The Rare Bottoms” with a delivery from 1989. A title not entirely unknown but without a doubt, one that the Argentine under 40 gamer had hardly played because it was very difficult to obtain.
the rafts ofprovided
Given the current news regarding Nintendo and the preservation of classic video games, it is important that through Steam, retrogamers can access at least a brief catalog of titles. That’s what it offers us “Sega Megadrive and Genesis Classics”.
As the description says:
“More than 50 titles that cross all genres. From all-time classics like Sonic and Streets of Rage 2, to deep RPGs like the Phantasy Star saga. Arcade action, shooters, beat’em ups, puzzles, old favourites, hidden gems”.
The text is real. Is fulfilled. It delivers on a level that surprised me because I came across several RPGs that were always an isolated wasteland of Sega’s 16-bit console. But not because they didn’t exist. I propose to list sega role-playing titles: the saga phantasy starthe saga shining forceboth Langrisserthe Uncharted Watersthe Dragon Slayer. Lots of other video games like Vixen 357, Gauntlet IV (arcade port), Piratesi Gold, Shadowrun (!), Landstalker, Surging Aura, Beyond Oasismany based on popular anime of the time, such as Yuyu Hakushoor that of nadia. There was. But they did not reach our shores. Sometimes because they didn’t have an outlet outside of Japan (with which the rest of the world could only play them via emulation) and others because they might come out but nobody cared about them. At least not to the little place in the suburbs.
The crazy thing -perhaps- is that for the Super Nintendo it was more common to see some Legend of Mana, Zelda or final-fantasy. Back, they were not the common ones. The ones we spent from using so much were fighting video games, sports games or some action that Action Games had put on the cover. Twenty times I took home a Virtual Bart only to get frustrated and return it the next day bitching about not being able to get past the level of the water pumps. But of course, it’s not like I could rent…
yesword of Vermillion (SOV)
Yes, Sega no longer releases consoles, but as a company it is still alive. Why this clarification? Because the internal studio that developed SOV continues to work and, for example, is the one who produced “Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown”.
Sega AM2 had a dozen titles under its belt when it was commissioned to produce an RPG, one of the genres in which, at the time, SEGA’s recent 16-bit console, the Genesis/Megadrive, still didn’t have a leg. wide.
The studio had a fairly successful development history having birthed the arcades of both After Burnersthe glorious Outrunand the Space Harrier, among others. An RPG and for a home console was a totally new challenge and from which they would practically move away until today.
It would finally come to light in Japan in December 1989 and two years later (unthinkable for today’s times) in the United States and Europe. The production was carried out by the legendary Yu Suzuki who by 1989 had been hitting it for more than five years and would do it again with practically every new project until his relative disappearance at the beginning of the millennium.
The file in question
SOV tells us a fairly normal story of heroic fantasy. The Kingdom of Excalabria is unexpectedly attacked by a former friend of King Erik V, the maddened King Tsarkon of Cartahena (pronounce CARTAGENA) possessor of the eight rings of evil. Before dying, King Erik V asks his best man, Blade, to take care of his son and raise him as his own.
18 years pass and the young man *us*hears the truth of his origin on Blade’s deathbed, now an old man. Thus, as a legitimate prince, he leaves the small town of Wyclef to collect the eight rings of good, recover Excalabria and take revenge.
To achieve this we have to travel from village and city to village and city, collect information, complete missions, kill bugs and bosses, collect gold and improve our equipment. I just described any RPG because as practically the first RPG that the console knew, SOV It’s just any RPG. However, it has some curious details. The first thing that jumps out is its number of viewing modes. In the villages we have a top down 3/4 view like any RPG of the era. The four cardinal points take us to any point or NPC.
As soon as we leave the cities and go into the woods or caves, the style changes to first person (as in phantasy star or those that we reviewed at the time on this website).
For the battles with bugs, which are in real time, we have a vision from above but with eight movement positions either beat’em up to shit our steaks or flee from the sides.
And for boss battles – which are usually pretty thick sprites – it’s sideways like in fighting games. And you can’t use magic. Just our sword.
One might think that it is confusing but in reality it comes out quite harmonic.
By the way, we must remember that it is not only a 16-bit console video game, but it is also one of the first video games that the console came out with. The limits were not explored even by chance. It could almost totally compete with some Nintendo title, Master System or other previous consoles of the era. That’s why despite the number of viewing modes, none of them look super “cute”. barely passable. And the rush in development is noticeable when they fall into the old resource of putting the same bug but with a different color palette. In fact, the number of enemies is very limited. What changes aside from his strength and stamina are his powers. In the case of SOV the green bugs are the weakest and the gold ones the most complicated.
Dying, until we get hold of the mechanics, is common. However, in a fairly modern move, the video game avoids us “GAME OVERS” Violent and they simply send us to the church in the nearest city where a priest strips us of half our gold for the poor and sends us to move. In churches, even without dying, we can heal from damage and curses. One of the most powerful items, if not the most powerful, is the Death Sword that hits more than the homonymous Vermilion Sword but we cannot unequip it until we go through a sacred refuge because it is cursed.
Thus, as with any other role-playing video game, we will go walking, and helping NPCs. Collecting maps of the 14 existing cities that will be given to us after completing missions or having obtained a specific ring. In the meantime, we level up. It is not difficult to do it nor are there many levels. Barely 31. That way we’ll be ready for the final battle. That it is not with Tsarkon because the developers did not paint them or were thinking of making a sequel. Probably the second.
Throughout the conference we will be accompanied by the sublime music of Hiroshi Kawaguchi. Those who are aware of Hiro’s career will have shaken the shit more than once with his compositions for Lode Runner, Hang-On, the After Burners and so many more.
Conclusion
Sword of Vermillion It is a role-playing video game that would be a little hard to get hold of in 2022, but that, nevertheless, offers a good dozen hours of fun and nostalgia for a genre that has come a long way but not always with original ideas. RPG fans should know what this is about.