A game I woul often access the sound test screen and just listen to the tracks, reminds me so much of my childhood this and phantasy star 2 were the second games I got after sonic included then john madden 92, memories.
Beyond Oasis (Genesis) and it's sequel Legend of Oasis(Saturn), Arc the Lad series (ps1-ps2). You can try these action rpg. It's close to Zelda like game.
One of my favorite games of all time. Got it way too young as a child and really grew with the game. I distinctly remember being around 7-8 and being able to read enough to make it to the treasure of troy and finally having the game click for me. Its such a specific and beautiful memory because it was this frustrating experience when I was 5 but realizing I learned how to read enough and navigate the map was so monumental for me. So thankful my Dad got this game and Dragon Warrior for me when I was way too young to be playing them. Its genuinely hard to hear the OST without getting super emotional. I can't stress how much this game put me onto RPGs especially first person dungeon crawling RPGs.
The music. The story. The combat. The memories. I played this game over and over again with my Dad. When he passed, I got the game complete and I play it every year. Thank you for this video.
A few interesting things I ran into back in the day with this game: If you let the music play on the screen where you enter your name, It will keep rising in pitch, higher and higher, to the point where it's basically unlistenable. Eventually, it will loop to the Genesis's lowest tones and eventually get back to the same notes it played when you first entered the screen. There was a comedic scene in one of the inns where something you do prompts an NPC to hit you with a frying pan, which leads to the 'rest' music. It actually takes some hit points. If your hit points are too low, you will hear your player's 'death scream' and the game will berate you and tell you need to start over. In my first playthrough of this game, I somehow poisoned or cursed myself with something in one of the dungeons, and it made the stats to my character extremely low. I beat the game in that state just thinking it was really hard. When I played through it again, I didn't get that curse and it was quite easy to beat comparatively.
A particularly underrated about this underrated game is the music.Easily a top-ten soundtrack on the system. And, honestly, just in terms of the TECHNICAL aspects of the sound, like how full-sounding the instruments are? Maybe THE best. Not even kidding. I have not delved into the technical details, but many of the best soundtracks used the FM and PSG chips in unison to create fuller-sounding instruments. Sonic 1's "Green Hill Zone" is the canonical example. I'd be pretty shocked if that wasn't the case for SoV.
Sword of Vermillion was the third game I purchased for the Genesis back in the day. I was really getting into RPGs and after playing through Phantasy Star 2 which also came with a hint guide… I figured this was also a massive RPG to enjoy. The way that opening scene hits you with the dozen layers of parallax scrolling clouds let me know I was about to embark on a wild adventure. The most memorable aspect of this game for me isn’t the story, the variety of gameplay or the graphics… it’s the music and the sound. Sword of Vermillion’s soundtrack tells the story almost as well as the dialogue. The starting village music made you feel the people of the village were so hopeless and in need of a savior. I also really loved the sound effects and voice audio even though it’s mostly screams, grunts and bone crunching damage sounds. The dungeon music somehow made me feel that the marble pillars were dank and wet. The boss tracks really made you feel like a superhero… and lastly the triumphant music change when you defeat the final boss really made you feel like the world you just saved owed you something. The game can be frustrating and getting lost without the right useable items can really make you fear for your life. Sword of Vermillion is also one of my favorites and I’m glad you covered it. I’m really excited to hear you are going to cover Phantasy Star III. I’m hoping you can show it in a positive light because of how my impressions of it have killed it for me. PS3 was one of the biggest let downs for me as a kid… coming hot off of PS1 and PS2… the “pitch” for PS3 made it sound like you were going to be transported not only into a new world… but you would be there for generations! Everything about the game just crushed me… the lack of music variety, the boring cookie cutter towns that were nearly indistinguishable from the next… the dungeons were all mostly rectangular mazes that had as much visual variety in a top down view as Sword of Vermillion had in 3D mode. The monsters had unserious animations… some which are comical in a bad way. Lastly the combat was uninspired and I found myself just mashing the regular attack button for everyone and healing occasionally making the game even more monotonous. Realizing the game was made by a completely different team made me feel better… and PS4 more than made up for what PS3 lacked. The story went by too quick and by the time I was moving onto the next generation… I had already forgotten the characters of the previous… no characters were fleshed out or stood out for that matter… none added any fun or personality… and till this day… having completed it maybe a half a dozen times since its release… I could only tell you a few memorable moments… because my disappointment was the most memorable part. Thankfully I never bought this from the store because I would have been devastated paying $80 for such a forgettable RPG. If I had one Video Game fairy tale wish… would get an M2 remake that was more of a “do-over” than a remaster fixing all of the problems and really bringing it up to the same quality as the other three PS games. Looking forward to your take!
Thank you so much for sharing! Yeah, I really love the soundtrack too and agree totally! Re: PSIII, I totally hear you and share many of the same sentiments. =)
I got PSIII for my birthday. I loved the series and I was the very first of my friends to get it. After they saw it, I would remain the sole PSIII owner. I should’ve known that when it didn’t even come with the hint book (Sold Separately). 😂
I was surprised to hear so much negativity over PSIII. It was reviewed well at the time with an average of 8. I had only played PS1 on SMS so I wasn't put off by not seeing the characters and I think the music is the best in the series, with alot of variety. This is only an 8Mb/512KB game which is criminal. The team had a very difficult job finishing the game and were under pressure and criticism internally during development and were considered unsuitable as a team, having just finished Golden Axe iir (although maybe something else as GA is quite a bit earlier on reflection). Anyway, PS3 is a break from traditional rpg games because they wanted to speed up combat. I can't remember what the names of most of the spells do, so you really need to memorise what Rever does and such. I think this break from a slower pace of battling was the team's aim, in order to speed up progression and levelling, by pressing down, A more or less every single fight to auto battle (they just use their hand weapons). You can press a button to halt the auto battling if you look about to die and escape or heal. I think this is the big divider here. Having battles be so surface and lacking depth. There is a new system of columns, rows and groups in PS3. Certain spells and weapons harm a side, row or column. This adds something to the combat but it's at odds with a system designed for speedy resolutions. You have to get into the rhythm of PS3 and then it is being played as intended I feel. You walk slow but everything is close together. The walk speed and distance between locations is carefully considered to make the distances feel like you've travelled, but unless you get lost, it's never more than 15 seconds to your next destination or battle. This is the only PS game I know anything about and it's the only one I can remember the story to. I found the story to be quite mind blowing as a matter of fact. It wasn't cliched or predictable at all. There characters have no character at all though. None. That's it. They just tell you what just happened and what to do next and that's it. From artwork to musical score, this game really hits with me. I'm not a big rpg person so maybe I'm an outlier because I don[t understand the genre. But I would appreciate battle that are more quick to resolve, especially if those battle are similar or grindy. PS3 is the anti-grinding rpg game. I give it 8/10.
@@iwanttocomplain The “generations” style of gameplay had never been seen on these shores at the time of release. I replayed and beat the game with every combination back in the day. The best ending of the game was like….hello, Earth….which was mind blowing. I personally thought this was the end of Phantasy Star. When IV started being shown in the magazines, many of us wondered how it would connect back to III. It was a nice surprise to encounter one of the crashed world colony ships not too far into the game.
I miss renting stuff from Blockbuster! It's the way I played Phantasy Star IV (had to rush during the summer to finish it before due date to avoid late fees!)
@@TieryasXu Haha, Well the other game I rented that month was Sword of Sodan, so it wasn't all wine and roses for me :P But it was a great experience, got to play more games than I normally would have back then.
Great layering on the title screen! Probably the most I’ve ever seen. Sega definitely pioneered the real-time start screen. And Sega did eventually make an rpg similar to sword of vermillion, it’s called Virtual Hydlide. It’s basically a 32bit version of this and hydlide.
Agreed on the layering! I haven't played Virtual Hydlide yet, but I really enjoyed Super Hydlide despite its many flaws (hope to cover that here one day).
100% agreed , would luv to see this game remade by someone who understands the original and could improve the overall gameplay without ruining the essence and/or changing it too much ; ie there are some simple obvs improvements that could be made to the dungeon exploration and boss fights that would not hurt but only improve the game
I was so eager to have Sword of Vermilion. An RPG on the Genesis! And once I got into it I had a lot of fun. Didn't fully appreciate the writing at the time, so I'm loving all the subversions you've pointed out here. Sadly I stopped playing when I got far enough that I couldn't keep track of everything in my head anymore. I even sold the Sanguios book by mistake, got it mixed up with the healing spell I already had. It was both cool and frustrating how similarly spells of the same element were named. Not sure if I want to try replaying this or not. I remember how much silly fun I had chainsawing through enemies with that tiny sword and a turbo button. :D
This game started as a rental for me that I became obsessed with beating. Ended up purchasing it as I couldn't beat it during the rental period (showing my age). Going back to it nowadays, the movement speed and random encounter rate make it seem like such a slog to progress through, but an overlooked classic for sure! Great video!
Maybe it's called the Sword of Vermilion because blood is vermilion in color. It's a statement of its power and potency in battle. Thanks for the video and review!
I remember when this game came out when I was a kid, I must have been around 9 years old. I would see screenshots of it in magazines, particularly one with a side view fighting a big dragon, it was on of those games that looked really good in screenshots and I really wanted to play it, but somehow never ended up owning it or renting it.
Loved playing this back in the day, I’m not sure we finished it though. I did revisit and got quite a bit into it. I think playing it on one of the Genesis collections and using the gameplay speed up option will save you a bit of time wandering around the maps, although the one I used would mess up the music when you returned to normal speed.
This game was a gem back then indeed. I wish they would remake this without changing anything about the story or quests. Faster walk speed and perhaps a refined combat system that is more inline with modern beat em ups; would be awesome. Doesn't need to be a triple A title; just a well made sprite based game.
I think this was my 3rd Genesis game, behind Altered Beast and Ghouls and Ghosts. Back then, I had to go out of town to buy Genesis games. What I never see people recall is that Sega at the time had to convince many retail stores to carry their product after the Master System flopped. I had my Genesis a year and a half with just AB and GnG with no other games as the nearest TRU was 2 hours away and my parents were not about that. This was one of those games that blew the barn doors off other RPG titles at the time. I can’t tell you how many times I listened to the sound test mode with my headphones.
I spent a lot of time playing it at a friend's house when I was a kid. I really enjoyed it and had some great memories, but for the life of me couldn't remember the name of the game. Recently, after some searching, I finally figured out the title and bought a copy off eBay. Can't wait to play it again!
I played this RPG on my Sega Genesis in 1992, and over time I've replayed it like 5 times on emulators. It's fun and it's a shame that this franchise won't be revived.
Great video, mate. You've got a new subscriber. I'm shocked at how you don't have way way more subs, considering how good you are. So I hope you eventually get the subscriber count you deserve.
I got this game with my Genesis Model II (a year after my SNES) along with Mortal Kombat and Thunder Force II. Sword of Vermilion and TFII will always have a special place in my heart.
Hope you enjoy it! Again, it's old school style so there are some frustrations with grinding and random encounters, but it brought back lots of good memories =)
Hey Peter, thanks for the video, I did play that game a couple of time back then and I though I know everything about it! Even how to become very strong with the cursed items! But I think I never did the quest for the Dragon shield, always fun to learn new stuff!
Sega Sound Team did some tracks live. Everything about this game is underrated. I play through this at least once a year. Last City BGM is still rocked on my running play list.
I got this game from a friend in the early 90's. I really liked this game but was never able to beat it. I think I never had enough time. The music is epic.
This was my first RPG I've played and I have a lot of good memories of playing it alongside with my brother and cousin. Still one of my favorites of all time! Thanks for this video :)
I enjoyed this game too, it was on a genesis system preloaded with games (at-games I think) a licenced one. So many good games just go under the radar.
I had this game and the reason why I remember it. My dad had bought the game on the way home from work. He often surprised me doing something like that. However, when he came home with Sword of Vermilion was the same day my report card came and I had some bad grades. He got upset and I was grounded for a while and couldn't play my Genesis at all for a good while.
In 1990 this game was impressive. Today … hitboxes, game? And the game's music, like so much for the good ol' Genedrive, Megasis, whatever, is definitely a high point. If you enojoyed SoV and still do, see if you can track down a copy of Exile, you'll like it.
I liked at as a whole. Lot of fond memories. One negative thing i will say is the game peaks early on with the king demon. The game gets gradually more frustrating with less and less story payoff. It ends with a whimper.
played this a long time ago, right after Phantasy star 2 when I went on an rpg binge. I remember liking this but somehow only the beginning stuck with me.
I heard of this game via the PSP Sega collection, and my English was poor back then. I didn't have a clue what to do in the game, lol. I played the collection for the Sonic, Golden Axe and Ristar games.
I need to play this one. I always liked the music in it. I had been led to believe the gameplay wasn’t very good and the story uninteresting, but it seems like it has interesting towns and I don’t want to spoil too much. Thanks for the video.
I remember my older brother didn't like the dude taking his money so he went and bought the equipment with the best sell back rate and maxed out on it. Left himself with pennies, then did that part of the quest and goes and resells everything he bought just so he can have some decent starting cash lol.
There are very few Genesis games I've ever beaten/played through. I still have yet to get the "good" ending for Sonic the Hedgehog. I can never get all the goddamn Chaos Emeralds! I've actually never played Sonic 2 or 3 past the first couple levels. Geez...I'm really racking my brain here as to what Genesis games I beat. TMNT Hyperstone Heist. Golden Axe 1 & 2. Pit Fighter. Oh snap! I rented and beat Flashback in a single weekend. And I FINALLY beat Out of This World 7 or 8 years ago, which is one of my prouder gaming moments.
I didn't know about rpgs as a kid lol but I woulda been so into it as i am now as an adult. As a kid I played more side scroller games like Sonic and earthworm gym, dynamite heady, bucky'o hare mario etc on sega and nintendo.
The Genesis has some great RPG's in its library - especially when you include the Sega CD RPG's - but I think it was unfairly overshadowed by all the great RPG's on the SNES. One of these days I'm gonna mod my Genesis Minis 1 and 2 - the 1st for Genesis games and the 2nd for Sega CD games - and FINALLY delve into all the games I never rented or played, but always wanted to. I think one of the reasons I never rented this game is because of the super cheesy cover on the case. I remember seeing it all the time when I would rent games. The Immortal is a Genesis game I rented BECAUSE OF the front of the box. Sword of Vermilion is a game I never rented for the exact same reason. Always judge a book by its cover. That's what I always say.
This game does have some fairly large flaws by modern game design standards (somewhat tedious/repetitive dungeons especially), but it definitely was very good for its day and is super underrated. It had a surprisingly good "tone," really nailing that mythic, legendary feel. I was also really struck by the "depth" of some of the NPCs compared to other RPGs at the time. I played the hell out of this game when I was a kid, it was easily one of my favorites on the Genesis. I sort of viewed it as the 16 bit, highly upgraded, more "mature" version of Dragon Warrior I (Dragon Quest). I always wanted a sequel (with updated game design, more features, etc., which really would have made this game incredible!), but the game has been largely forgotten, unfortunately.
this game was tough to get into. I bought it at a flea market or a yard sale like 30 years ago, played it for about an hour and put it down because it was overwhelming to figure out for younger me. I still haven't played it, but I still have my physical copy and a digital copy or two bundled with the Sega Genesis collection on Steam/playstation 2. Maybe I'll finally get around to completing it soon after watching this video! 😅😅
Geez, i got screwed with hint books back in the day. I didn't even know Sword of Vermillion was supposed to have a guide with it. My copy of PS2 never had the book as well. I need to revisit SoV. I remember liking it back in the day... good OST and lots of digital SFX. Also really liked the large, up close side view boss battles. Ever play Rent-A-Hero? Always thought that was the same creative team that did this game because it looks like they took the same graphic engine. Even has the same side view for combat but less RPG and more adventure.
12:49 Look at the back of that box. This box is why I never played this game long enough to even see the main battle screen. If I had known that most of the battles were done in a top down action form, I very likely would have at least rented it, as I always avoided the turn based simplistic RPG's, no matter how good the story was. The first RPG I ever got into was Chrono Trigger, having already tried and quit FF6 and a few others without enjoying any part of them. I got a little more into things like Secret of Mana on SNES, but the setting bored me, I was much more into fantasy in games, and I had some I loved on Genesis like Shining Force. But from the pictures on the back of this box I assumed that the battles would be very boring turn based affairs perhaps set in that first person screen, and I sure didn't think that big shot was an action fight, I thought it would be turn based from the HP and MP and the general setup. The front isn't any better either, as it looks like a male version of Barbie Horse Adventure, and does not conjure the idea of action either. They just didn't know how to sell this to an American audience. Add to all this the other "Sword of" game, Sword of Sodan, being one of the worst games on the platform, and this game just had a lot working against it that's kept it in obscurity. But I'm going to try it out, at long last, because I want to try out that combat system. Thanks for making this.
I should really do a LP of this game some time. It's been so long since I last played it. Funny thing, I dislike first person rpgs, yet even so I couldn't stop playing this one.
Phantasy Star 2 was indeed excellent. And Sword of Vermillion was also wild and groovy. Granted, outside of the interesting and complicated stories, the gameplay was clunky despite pushing some boundaries with the Genesis' hardware.
My issue with this game is that I tried it after played Phantasy Star (1 & 2) and Ys. I never got into it's battle system but even liking the exploration, the story didn't catch me at the time. It's a game that still in my backlog since the very early 90s and now is too much buried, so never tried again. Maybe I was too young in 1990 to really appreciate the story you told in this video and your opinion about the combat system may be right and I didn't give it the deserved effort. Because of your video I decided to advance this game some hundreds of positions on my backlog... so, possibly will be trying it between 2030 and 2035 lol EDIT: I miss the effort that videogame companies used to spent to deliver quality game documentation, even that it wasn't that common on consoles. In the 90s I was introduced to PC gaming and loved things as the real flight maps of France that came with Red Baron or the colossal 1100 pages FALCON 4.0 manual. But even simple console games used to have good manuals. My favorite was the Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday for the Mega Drive, that has almost 100 pages and contain some deep information about Buck's universe and the expanded AD&D system for sci-fi. Would be very nice if some modern games developers at least deliver some PDF or online manual... in most cases it would be way better than the actual lame ingame tutorials they use to do. Cheers!
Well you definitely put a good spin on this game but any time I've tried to play this I just can't figure out we're to go or what to do. Maybe I'm just dumb lol
I did not know that this came with a hint book, but I did know Phantasy Star II did, imagine doing that game with at best a Sega hotline for help? I should subscribe because this was great
Not sure I can agree with everything you said here. I owned and played SoV back in the day. Game has several half finished elements that hang it up. As you say, every town has it's own problem. But it all boils down to trek to this cave, get the thing, fight the boss, go to the next town and repeat. Even granting the era it came out in. The gameplay loop is barely concealed. There are no side characters of note. The end is pretty abrupt on top of it all. I've thought about SoV from it's narrative point of view. Every RPG worth it's salt is about something. FF6 is about fighting for what you believe in. Lunar is about faith in friendship. Parasite Eve is about the virgin Mary having Tokophobia and so on. I don't think SoV's developers intended it to have a deep narrative arc. But I think they landed on one by accident. SoV is about melancholy. Our hero works through a repetitive cycle over and over. In service to a destiny he didn't know he had. Didn't ask for and that he lost a father for. He marches through a world already in ruin. Where evil won and destroyed his birthright before he was old enough to remember it. Now he's just the clean up crew.
I wanted this game so bad. It looked so awesome. But it was NINETY DOLLARS at Toys-R-Us. Mom vetoed that immediately. You lucky rich bastards who got to play. I got to play in an emulator 20-30 years later, and it turned out to be go to the town, go to the huge dungeon, map it, fight endless random encounters until the end, go to the new town, go to the next huge dungeon,etc. Do this seventeen time and the game is over. I would have loved it back in the day but there's just not much there. This sure is a glowing review for a game that's really pretty simple.
Yeah I was in the same boat! Could not even get a Sega Genesis for a few years and so played all the games at a friend's house. When I eventually got a Genesis, he loaned me games like Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star II, and I was super grateful! I got my current copy complete for just around 20$ a few years ago and was pretty happy to finally get it.
The issue is this games release year was so full of high quality games it got drowned out buy how many games to pick from there were. This one also got stateside when its STYLE and art was considered outdated. Despite being a solid game.
A classic me and my family grew up with in the 90s; the game seems 'sparse' graphically at first to most people I've introduced it to and combat is slow and awkward, but I'll hand it to the team, the story's various beats, characters and even the twist at the end with Tsarkon was really ahead of its' time!
@TieryasXu Oh yeah, and the many times I sent my older brother goofy screenshots of the game with my cat or other things in them or any other memes and jokes I made referencing the game always makes both our days!
I loved this game when I was a kid. As I was struggling to reach the next town to load up on supplies, I find that the next town was destroyed. Never seen that before. Was just thinking how amazing it would be if someone remade this game using Skyrim. Forget trying to create silly new games with bad stories, just recreate the classics in FPS.
I loved this game back in the day. Do you remember what the mysterious lonely tree by the Malaga cave was all about? It's mentioned in chapter 24 of the hint book.
Love SOV. The opening blew me away in 1991. Even if you are low on hp, you can use skill to keep going to either a town or to the next level. There was nothing like thus when it came out. Only downside are that the random encounters can be a little too often and it becomes a bit boring/frustrating. Herzog Zwei is the greatest Genesis game ever made.
Beat this game like a million times. Definitely underrated and misunderstood. Always wondered what was supposed to be under that tree before malaga in the hint book...
Awesome channel man! What a great find. Thanks. I love the game choices.
Thank you so much!
Played at release. Still bump the soundtrack in 2024
Soundtrack is great!
Same! Loved the soundtrack to this game
...especially those groovy castle beats...
Still play the soundtrack probably once a week. Dungeon 2 slaps.
A game I woul often access the sound test screen and just listen to the tracks, reminds me so much of my childhood this and phantasy star 2 were the second games I got after sonic included then john madden 92, memories.
I remember as a kid being really surprised at the whole “real time” combat system. I had never played an RPG that was basically also an action game.
Beyond Oasis (Genesis) and it's sequel Legend of Oasis(Saturn), Arc the Lad series (ps1-ps2). You can try these action rpg. It's close to Zelda like game.
Ys3 on snes was good too
Don't deny it. Anyone who played this game and couldn't let go, was put under a spell by this game's sublime ost. The music is that great in this one.
I won't deny it! =)
Also, don’t deny you hit reset to watch the cool intro over again
I concur.
Great OST. I Just transcribed several tracks and I'm currently practising to play and record videos on classical guitar for UA-cam soon :)
@@redmondbarry449 you got my sub
One of my favorite games of all time. Got it way too young as a child and really grew with the game. I distinctly remember being around 7-8 and being able to read enough to make it to the treasure of troy and finally having the game click for me. Its such a specific and beautiful memory because it was this frustrating experience when I was 5 but realizing I learned how to read enough and navigate the map was so monumental for me. So thankful my Dad got this game and Dragon Warrior for me when I was way too young to be playing them. Its genuinely hard to hear the OST without getting super emotional. I can't stress how much this game put me onto RPGs especially first person dungeon crawling RPGs.
Thank you for sharing!
The music. The story. The combat. The memories. I played this game over and over again with my Dad. When he passed, I got the game complete and I play it every year. Thank you for this video.
Thank you so much for sharing!
A few interesting things I ran into back in the day with this game:
If you let the music play on the screen where you enter your name, It will keep rising in pitch, higher and higher, to the point where it's basically unlistenable. Eventually, it will loop to the Genesis's lowest tones and eventually get back to the same notes it played when you first entered the screen.
There was a comedic scene in one of the inns where something you do prompts an NPC to hit you with a frying pan, which leads to the 'rest' music. It actually takes some hit points. If your hit points are too low, you will hear your player's 'death scream' and the game will berate you and tell you need to start over.
In my first playthrough of this game, I somehow poisoned or cursed myself with something in one of the dungeons, and it made the stats to my character extremely low. I beat the game in that state just thinking it was really hard. When I played through it again, I didn't get that curse and it was quite easy to beat comparatively.
Thanks for sharing that! Wow, beating the game with a curse! That's incredible!
A particularly underrated about this underrated game is the music.Easily a top-ten soundtrack on the system. And, honestly, just in terms of the TECHNICAL aspects of the sound, like how full-sounding the instruments are? Maybe THE best. Not even kidding.
I have not delved into the technical details, but many of the best soundtracks used the FM and PSG chips in unison to create fuller-sounding instruments. Sonic 1's "Green Hill Zone" is the canonical example. I'd be pretty shocked if that wasn't the case for SoV.
Sword of Vermilion, Warsong and Shinning in the Darkness are my favorite genesis rpgs
I haven't played Warsong but def a fan of Shining!
@@TieryasXu warsong got a remaster on switch. It's called langrisser
Sword of Vermillion was the third game I purchased for the Genesis back in the day. I was really getting into RPGs and after playing through Phantasy Star 2 which also came with a hint guide… I figured this was also a massive RPG to enjoy.
The way that opening scene hits you with the dozen layers of parallax scrolling clouds let me know I was about to embark on a wild adventure.
The most memorable aspect of this game for me isn’t the story, the variety of gameplay or the graphics… it’s the music and the sound.
Sword of Vermillion’s soundtrack tells the story almost as well as the dialogue. The starting village music made you feel the people of the village were so hopeless and in need of a savior.
I also really loved the sound effects and voice audio even though it’s mostly screams, grunts and bone crunching damage sounds.
The dungeon music somehow made me feel that the marble pillars were dank and wet. The boss tracks really made you feel like a superhero… and lastly the triumphant music change when you defeat the final boss really made you feel like the world you just saved owed you something.
The game can be frustrating and getting lost without the right useable items can really make you fear for your life.
Sword of Vermillion is also one of my favorites and I’m glad you covered it.
I’m really excited to hear you are going to cover Phantasy Star III. I’m hoping you can show it in a positive light because of how my impressions of it have killed it for me.
PS3 was one of the biggest let downs for me as a kid… coming hot off of PS1 and PS2… the “pitch” for PS3 made it sound like you were going to be transported not only into a new world… but you would be there for generations!
Everything about the game just crushed me… the lack of music variety, the boring cookie cutter towns that were nearly indistinguishable from the next… the dungeons were all mostly rectangular mazes that had as much visual variety in a top down view as Sword of Vermillion had in 3D mode. The monsters had unserious animations… some which are comical in a bad way. Lastly the combat was uninspired and I found myself just mashing the regular attack button for everyone and healing occasionally making the game even more monotonous. Realizing the game was made by a completely different team made me feel better… and PS4 more than made up for what PS3 lacked.
The story went by too quick and by the time I was moving onto the next generation… I had already forgotten the characters of the previous… no characters were fleshed out or stood out for that matter… none added any fun or personality… and till this day… having completed it maybe a half a dozen times since its release… I could only tell you a few memorable moments… because my disappointment was the most memorable part.
Thankfully I never bought this from the store because I would have been devastated paying $80 for such a forgettable RPG. If I had one Video Game fairy tale wish… would get an M2 remake that was more of a “do-over” than a remaster fixing all of the problems and really bringing it up to the same quality as the other three PS games.
Looking forward to your take!
Thank you so much for sharing! Yeah, I really love the soundtrack too and agree totally! Re: PSIII, I totally hear you and share many of the same sentiments. =)
I got PSIII for my birthday. I loved the series and I was the very first of my friends to get it. After they saw it, I would remain the sole PSIII owner. I should’ve known that when it didn’t even come with the hint book (Sold Separately). 😂
I was surprised to hear so much negativity over PSIII. It was reviewed well at the time with an average of 8. I had only played PS1 on SMS so I wasn't put off by not seeing the characters and I think the music is the best in the series, with alot of variety.
This is only an 8Mb/512KB game which is criminal. The team had a very difficult job finishing the game and were under pressure and criticism internally during development and were considered unsuitable as a team, having just finished Golden Axe iir (although maybe something else as GA is quite a bit earlier on reflection).
Anyway, PS3 is a break from traditional rpg games because they wanted to speed up combat. I can't remember what the names of most of the spells do, so you really need to memorise what Rever does and such.
I think this break from a slower pace of battling was the team's aim, in order to speed up progression and levelling, by pressing down, A more or less every single fight to auto battle (they just use their hand weapons). You can press a button to halt the auto battling if you look about to die and escape or heal.
I think this is the big divider here. Having battles be so surface and lacking depth. There is a new system of columns, rows and groups in PS3. Certain spells and weapons harm a side, row or column. This adds something to the combat but it's at odds with a system designed for speedy resolutions.
You have to get into the rhythm of PS3 and then it is being played as intended I feel. You walk slow but everything is close together. The walk speed and distance between locations is carefully considered to make the distances feel like you've travelled, but unless you get lost, it's never more than 15 seconds to your next destination or battle.
This is the only PS game I know anything about and it's the only one I can remember the story to. I found the story to be quite mind blowing as a matter of fact. It wasn't cliched or predictable at all.
There characters have no character at all though. None. That's it. They just tell you what just happened and what to do next and that's it.
From artwork to musical score, this game really hits with me. I'm not a big rpg person so maybe I'm an outlier because I don[t understand the genre.
But I would appreciate battle that are more quick to resolve, especially if those battle are similar or grindy.
PS3 is the anti-grinding rpg game. I give it 8/10.
@@iwanttocomplain The “generations” style of gameplay had never been seen on these shores at the time of release. I replayed and beat the game with every combination back in the day. The best ending of the game was like….hello, Earth….which was mind blowing. I personally thought this was the end of Phantasy Star. When IV started being shown in the magazines, many of us wondered how it would connect back to III. It was a nice surprise to encounter one of the crashed world colony ships not too far into the game.
@@54321ZachMr I picked up PS4 then put it straight back down. It must be the disconnect in art style or how irritating I found the writing.
Oh, it's a great game. Hard for a kid, but I made it most of the way through. Went back years later and beat it. Glad ppl are still playing
One of the first games I ever rented from Blockbuster :D
I miss renting stuff from Blockbuster! It's the way I played Phantasy Star IV (had to rush during the summer to finish it before due date to avoid late fees!)
@@TieryasXu Haha, Well the other game I rented that month was Sword of Sodan, so it wasn't all wine and roses for me :P But it was a great experience, got to play more games than I normally would have back then.
Really enjoyed this game on the Genesis collection.
Check out the instrumental version of the start screen music.
Talk about a game that could make an amazing comeback!
That would be great!
Great layering on the title screen! Probably the most I’ve ever seen.
Sega definitely pioneered the real-time start screen.
And Sega did eventually make an rpg similar to sword of vermillion, it’s called Virtual Hydlide.
It’s basically a 32bit version of this and hydlide.
Agreed on the layering! I haven't played Virtual Hydlide yet, but I really enjoyed Super Hydlide despite its many flaws (hope to cover that here one day).
This game bascially invented "Vampire Survivors", hence it feels as satisfying using various crazy spells on incoming hordes.
100% agreed , would luv to see this game remade by someone who understands the original and could improve the overall gameplay without ruining the essence and/or changing it too much ; ie there are some simple obvs improvements that could be made to the dungeon exploration and boss fights that would not hurt but only improve the game
The first RPG I finished. I remember that my heart bumped as crazy during the boss battles.
Such a great game! Got it christmas of 90 and didnt leave my house until I beat it! The soundtrack was amazing!
I was so eager to have Sword of Vermilion. An RPG on the Genesis! And once I got into it I had a lot of fun. Didn't fully appreciate the writing at the time, so I'm loving all the subversions you've pointed out here. Sadly I stopped playing when I got far enough that I couldn't keep track of everything in my head anymore. I even sold the Sanguios book by mistake, got it mixed up with the healing spell I already had. It was both cool and frustrating how similarly spells of the same element were named.
Not sure if I want to try replaying this or not. I remember how much silly fun I had chainsawing through enemies with that tiny sword and a turbo button. :D
This game started as a rental for me that I became obsessed with beating. Ended up purchasing it as I couldn't beat it during the rental period (showing my age). Going back to it nowadays, the movement speed and random encounter rate make it seem like such a slog to progress through, but an overlooked classic for sure! Great video!
Thank you!!!
Maybe it's called the Sword of Vermilion because blood is vermilion in color. It's a statement of its power and potency in battle. Thanks for the video and review!
yeah that makes sense! And thank you!
I was recommended this game by a coworker back in 2014. Never heard of it, but I played the rom and wasn't able to put it down.
I remember when this game came out when I was a kid, I must have been around 9 years old. I would see screenshots of it in magazines, particularly one with a side view fighting a big dragon, it was on of those games that looked really good in screenshots and I really wanted to play it, but somehow never ended up owning it or renting it.
Loved playing this back in the day, I’m not sure we finished it though. I did revisit and got quite a bit into it. I think playing it on one of the Genesis collections and using the gameplay speed up option will save you a bit of time wandering around the maps, although the one I used would mess up the music when you returned to normal speed.
This game was a gem back then indeed. I wish they would remake this without changing anything about the story or quests. Faster walk speed and perhaps a refined combat system that is more inline with modern beat em ups; would be awesome. Doesn't need to be a triple A title; just a well made sprite based game.
I think this was my 3rd Genesis game, behind Altered Beast and Ghouls and Ghosts. Back then, I had to go out of town to buy Genesis games. What I never see people recall is that Sega at the time had to convince many retail stores to carry their product after the Master System flopped. I had my Genesis a year and a half with just AB and GnG with no other games as the nearest TRU was 2 hours away and my parents were not about that.
This was one of those games that blew the barn doors off other RPG titles at the time. I can’t tell you how many times I listened to the sound test mode with my headphones.
OMG I loved this game AND phantasy star AND herzog zwei (amazing RTS). Sword of vermillion was one of the first games with a new game + feature
Thank you for this. Sword of Vermillion was my very first RPG way back and what ignited my love for the genre. So many memories! ❤
Soundtrack is still amazing.
I spent a lot of time playing it at a friend's house when I was a kid. I really enjoyed it and had some great memories, but for the life of me couldn't remember the name of the game. Recently, after some searching, I finally figured out the title and bought a copy off eBay. Can't wait to play it again!
The first rpg I ever played and I remember it fondly.
yessss more old school genesis coverage
A great game with an infectious soundtrack. Glad to see some praise for this title.... Thanks!
I played this RPG on my Sega Genesis in 1992, and over time I've replayed it like 5 times on emulators. It's fun and it's a shame that this franchise won't be revived.
I think the creature/demon design is the most impressive aspect of the game imo.
Great video, mate. You've got a new subscriber. I'm shocked at how you don't have way way more subs, considering how good you are. So I hope you eventually get the subscriber count you deserve.
Thank you! Very kind of you to say!
I got this game with my Genesis Model II (a year after my SNES) along with Mortal Kombat and Thunder Force II. Sword of Vermilion and TFII will always have a special place in my heart.
Love the Thunder Force series!
Had this game for a minute and with the book .. just started playing it right now after watching this . Nice review.
Hope you enjoy it! Again, it's old school style so there are some frustrations with grinding and random encounters, but it brought back lots of good memories =)
The soundtrack to this game is so damn good! Every track is legit kickass
I couldn’t remember the name of this game for decades and suddenly this video pops up.
Hey Peter, thanks for the video, I did play that game a couple of time back then and I though I know everything about it! Even how to become very strong with the cursed items! But I think I never did the quest for the Dragon shield, always fun to learn new stuff!
Sega Sound Team did some tracks live. Everything about this game is underrated. I play through this at least once a year. Last City BGM is still rocked on my running play list.
I got this game from a friend in the early 90's. I really liked this game but was never able to beat it. I think I never had enough time. The music is epic.
This was my first RPG I've played and I have a lot of good memories of playing it alongside with my brother and cousin. Still one of my favorites of all time! Thanks for this video :)
Thanks for watching!
I enjoyed this game too, it was on a genesis system preloaded with games (at-games I think) a licenced one. So many good games just go under the radar.
I had this game and the reason why I remember it. My dad had bought the game on the way home from work. He often surprised me doing something like that. However, when he came home with Sword of Vermilion was the same day my report card came and I had some bad grades. He got upset and I was grounded for a while and couldn't play my Genesis at all for a good while.
In 1990 this game was impressive. Today … hitboxes, game? And the game's music, like so much for the good ol' Genedrive, Megasis, whatever, is definitely a high point. If you enojoyed SoV and still do, see if you can track down a copy of Exile, you'll like it.
I hadn't heard about Exile, but it looks fun. I'll definitely try to check it out. Thank you!
I used to own this and didn’t appreciate it. Time to play it again with an adult mind! I like your video format
I liked at as a whole. Lot of fond memories.
One negative thing i will say is the game peaks early on with the king demon. The game gets gradually more frustrating with less and less story payoff. It ends with a whimper.
played this a long time ago, right after Phantasy star 2 when I went on an rpg binge. I remember liking this but somehow only the beginning stuck with me.
I loved this game a lot. Beautiful soundtrack and great story.
I heard of this game via the PSP Sega collection, and my English was poor back then. I didn't have a clue what to do in the game, lol. I played the collection for the Sonic, Golden Axe and Ristar games.
I don't remember playing the game, but definitely remember the name.
I need to play this one. I always liked the music in it. I had been led to believe the gameplay wasn’t very good and the story uninteresting, but it seems like it has interesting towns and I don’t want to spoil too much. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
I remember my older brother didn't like the dude taking his money so he went and bought the equipment with the best sell back rate and maxed out on it. Left himself with pennies, then did that part of the quest and goes and resells everything he bought just so he can have some decent starting cash lol.
I bought that brand new. It came with a small strategy guide, like they packed with Phantasy Star 2. :)
I loved this game. Definitely a stand out from memory.
My first RPG, loved it and maybe most underrated game on MegaDrive/Genesis
There are very few Genesis games I've ever beaten/played through. I still have yet to get the "good" ending for Sonic the Hedgehog. I can never get all the goddamn Chaos Emeralds! I've actually never played Sonic 2 or 3 past the first couple levels. Geez...I'm really racking my brain here as to what Genesis games I beat. TMNT Hyperstone Heist. Golden Axe 1 & 2. Pit Fighter. Oh snap! I rented and beat Flashback in a single weekend. And I FINALLY beat Out of This World 7 or 8 years ago, which is one of my prouder gaming moments.
Definitely One Of My All-Time Favorite Games !
I didn't know about rpgs as a kid lol but I woulda been so into it as i am now as an adult. As a kid I played more side scroller games like Sonic and earthworm gym, dynamite heady, bucky'o hare mario etc on sega and nintendo.
The Genesis has some great RPG's in its library - especially when you include the Sega CD RPG's - but I think it was unfairly overshadowed by all the great RPG's on the SNES. One of these days I'm gonna mod my Genesis Minis 1 and 2 - the 1st for Genesis games and the 2nd for Sega CD games - and FINALLY delve into all the games I never rented or played, but always wanted to. I think one of the reasons I never rented this game is because of the super cheesy cover on the case. I remember seeing it all the time when I would rent games. The Immortal is a Genesis game I rented BECAUSE OF the front of the box. Sword of Vermilion is a game I never rented for the exact same reason. Always judge a book by its cover. That's what I always say.
This game does have some fairly large flaws by modern game design standards (somewhat tedious/repetitive dungeons especially), but it definitely was very good for its day and is super underrated. It had a surprisingly good "tone," really nailing that mythic, legendary feel. I was also really struck by the "depth" of some of the NPCs compared to other RPGs at the time. I played the hell out of this game when I was a kid, it was easily one of my favorites on the Genesis. I sort of viewed it as the 16 bit, highly upgraded, more "mature" version of Dragon Warrior I (Dragon Quest). I always wanted a sequel (with updated game design, more features, etc., which really would have made this game incredible!), but the game has been largely forgotten, unfortunately.
I couldn't agree more! I loved it back in the day!
I played in high school. Yes, it made a lasting impression.
this game was tough to get into. I bought it at a flea market or a yard sale like 30 years ago, played it for about an hour and put it down because it was overwhelming to figure out for younger me.
I still haven't played it, but I still have my physical copy and a digital copy or two bundled with the Sega Genesis collection on Steam/playstation 2.
Maybe I'll finally get around to completing it soon after watching this video! 😅😅
I had this game and I finished it. Fun game. Very underrated.
Been wondering when this would get picked up! Great game
Geez, i got screwed with hint books back in the day. I didn't even know Sword of Vermillion was supposed to have a guide with it. My copy of PS2 never had the book as well.
I need to revisit SoV. I remember liking it back in the day... good OST and lots of digital SFX. Also really liked the large, up close side view boss battles.
Ever play Rent-A-Hero? Always thought that was the same creative team that did this game because it looks like they took the same graphic engine. Even has the same side view for combat but less RPG and more adventure.
I love the soundtrack to this game! I know it's nice and calm, but I love the village music.
village music is great!
Great game! I really enjoyed it when I was a child.
12:49 Look at the back of that box. This box is why I never played this game long enough to even see the main battle screen. If I had known that most of the battles were done in a top down action form, I very likely would have at least rented it, as I always avoided the turn based simplistic RPG's, no matter how good the story was. The first RPG I ever got into was Chrono Trigger, having already tried and quit FF6 and a few others without enjoying any part of them. I got a little more into things like Secret of Mana on SNES, but the setting bored me, I was much more into fantasy in games, and I had some I loved on Genesis like Shining Force. But from the pictures on the back of this box I assumed that the battles would be very boring turn based affairs perhaps set in that first person screen, and I sure didn't think that big shot was an action fight, I thought it would be turn based from the HP and MP and the general setup. The front isn't any better either, as it looks like a male version of Barbie Horse Adventure, and does not conjure the idea of action either. They just didn't know how to sell this to an American audience. Add to all this the other "Sword of" game, Sword of Sodan, being one of the worst games on the platform, and this game just had a lot working against it that's kept it in obscurity. But I'm going to try it out, at long last, because I want to try out that combat system. Thanks for making this.
If you have Switch Online, you have it. Also, the Japanese cover art is impressive
Great video, thank you for giving me inspiration to play these older gems!
thank you!!
I should really do a LP of this game some time. It's been so long since I last played it.
Funny thing, I dislike first person rpgs, yet even so I couldn't stop playing this one.
Theres a place called Swaffham near where I grew up. It doesn't have a king...now i know why.
lol
Phantasy Star 2 was indeed excellent. And Sword of Vermillion was also wild and groovy. Granted, outside of the interesting and complicated stories, the gameplay was clunky despite pushing some boundaries with the Genesis' hardware.
My issue with this game is that I tried it after played Phantasy Star (1 & 2) and Ys. I never got into it's battle system but even liking the exploration, the story didn't catch me at the time. It's a game that still in my backlog since the very early 90s and now is too much buried, so never tried again. Maybe I was too young in 1990 to really appreciate the story you told in this video and your opinion about the combat system may be right and I didn't give it the deserved effort.
Because of your video I decided to advance this game some hundreds of positions on my backlog... so, possibly will be trying it between 2030 and 2035 lol
EDIT: I miss the effort that videogame companies used to spent to deliver quality game documentation, even that it wasn't that common on consoles. In the 90s I was introduced to PC gaming and loved things as the real flight maps of France that came with Red Baron or the colossal 1100 pages FALCON 4.0 manual. But even simple console games used to have good manuals. My favorite was the Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday for the Mega Drive, that has almost 100 pages and contain some deep information about Buck's universe and the expanded AD&D system for sci-fi. Would be very nice if some modern games developers at least deliver some PDF or online manual... in most cases it would be way better than the actual lame ingame tutorials they use to do.
Cheers!
Thank you and I hear you on backlogs lol
Well you definitely put a good spin on this game but any time I've tried to play this I just can't figure out we're to go or what to do.
Maybe I'm just dumb lol
I like this game a lot also. Great Music and Graphics for the time.
I did not know that this came with a hint book, but I did know Phantasy Star II did, imagine doing that game with at best a Sega hotline for help? I should subscribe because this was great
Not sure I can agree with everything you said here. I owned and played SoV back in the day. Game has several half finished elements that hang it up. As you say, every town has it's own problem. But it all boils down to trek to this cave, get the thing, fight the boss, go to the next town and repeat. Even granting the era it came out in. The gameplay loop is barely concealed. There are no side characters of note. The end is pretty abrupt on top of it all.
I've thought about SoV from it's narrative point of view. Every RPG worth it's salt is about something. FF6 is about fighting for what you believe in. Lunar is about faith in friendship. Parasite Eve is about the virgin Mary having Tokophobia and so on.
I don't think SoV's developers intended it to have a deep narrative arc. But I think they landed on one by accident. SoV is about melancholy. Our hero works through a repetitive cycle over and over. In service to a destiny he didn't know he had. Didn't ask for and that he lost a father for. He marches through a world already in ruin. Where evil won and destroyed his birthright before he was old enough to remember it. Now he's just the clean up crew.
I wanted this game so bad. It looked so awesome. But it was NINETY DOLLARS at Toys-R-Us. Mom vetoed that immediately. You lucky rich bastards who got to play.
I got to play in an emulator 20-30 years later, and it turned out to be go to the town, go to the huge dungeon, map it, fight endless random encounters until the end, go to the new town, go to the next huge dungeon,etc. Do this seventeen time and the game is over.
I would have loved it back in the day but there's just not much there. This sure is a glowing review for a game that's really pretty simple.
Yeah I was in the same boat! Could not even get a Sega Genesis for a few years and so played all the games at a friend's house. When I eventually got a Genesis, he loaned me games like Sword of Vermilion and Phantasy Star II, and I was super grateful! I got my current copy complete for just around 20$ a few years ago and was pretty happy to finally get it.
The issue is this games release year was so full of high quality games it got drowned out buy how many games to pick from there were. This one also got stateside when its STYLE and art was considered outdated. Despite being a solid game.
I actually think this game is worthy of a remake. Make it a cool beat em up rpg and it'll rock.
Always enjoy the insights of this channel!
Thank you and thank you for watching!
A classic me and my family grew up with in the 90s; the game seems 'sparse' graphically at first to most people I've introduced it to and combat is slow and awkward, but I'll hand it to the team, the story's various beats, characters and even the twist at the end with Tsarkon was really ahead of its' time!
I agree! And for the time, I thought the graphics were amazing!
@TieryasXu Oh yeah, and the many times I sent my older brother goofy screenshots of the game with my cat or other things in them or any other memes and jokes I made referencing the game always makes both our days!
I loved this game when I was a kid. As I was struggling to reach the next town to load up on supplies, I find that the next town was destroyed. Never seen that before.
Was just thinking how amazing it would be if someone remade this game using Skyrim. Forget trying to create silly new games with bad stories, just recreate the classics in FPS.
I loved this game back in the day. Do you remember what the mysterious lonely tree by the Malaga cave was all about? It's mentioned in chapter 24 of the hint book.
Is that maybe for the crimson armor?
@@TieryasXu You are right. I found a world map of the game where it was marked.
I can't wait to hear this take on this game because I found it unplayable as a kid. I haaaaaated it
Love SOV. The opening blew me away in 1991. Even if you are low on hp, you can use skill to keep going to either a town or to the next level.
There was nothing like thus when it came out. Only downside are that the random encounters can be a little too often and it becomes a bit boring/frustrating.
Herzog Zwei is the greatest Genesis game ever made.
Agreed there was nothing like it! And yes on Herzog Zwei!
This game is still on a shortlist of games I regularly replay. I know it's janky, but I love it all the same.
Yeah same here! =)
Played and beat it a few times. Underated.
Beat this game like a million times. Definitely underrated and misunderstood. Always wondered what was supposed to be under that tree before malaga in the hint book...
I think it might be the crimson armor?
"Yawn! I'm having trouble waking up" lol
It's one of the few rpgs I played all the way through. It's a weird/fun game.
Weird fun is a good description! =)
Some random personal trivia: This male npc dressed in light blue reminded me of Han Solo somehow - still does. Dunno why.
I remember my brother beating me up when i was little for saving over his game lol.
Loved this game, Warsong was another one!