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January 28th, 2016 
Carl Williams 
When you have someone on staff like Yu Suzuki you have to let them spread their wings and fly. With Sword of Vermillion that is exactly what Sega did. This was Yu Suzuki’s first console exclusive title, sadly it was not exactly a sales record setting release. Sword of Vermillion was a few game engines smashed together and for many fans that was its downfall. While magazines of the time had mostly positive things to say about various parts, the detractors hurt quite a bit. Still, if you were wanting an action role playing game on the Sega Genesis Sword of Vermillion was your only choice in 1991.
My introduction to Sega RPG’s
I remember playing Sword of Vermillion back in the early 90’s. It was not as polished as Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series. It was interesting to see this game in action as the town scenes were amazingly detailed. The town detail blew away anything Nintendo had available at the time. The problems for me arose in the 3D travel scenes and in the battle sequences. While I was not all that young of a gamer I still had some major trouble with the travel scenes. Honestly, that was more on me and my lack of experience with RPG’s at the time.
The battle sequences were off to me as I was not expecting them to be played out like they are. This game can throw a doozy your way and it sucks but if you persevere you will find a cool story to traverse.
Sword of Vermillion is harder than you think
I never beat Sword of Vermillion, not then and not since. To be honest, I have not revisited this one in over a decade – or two. I personally probably won’t in the near future either as the whole action RPG genre has progressed quite a bit over the last 25 years.
If you are looking for a copy of Sword of Vermillion you can find original copies on eBay here or on Sega Genesis Collection for PS2 and PSP on eBay here
. It has also been re-released on the Nintendo Virtual Console.
This article is archived in the Hive Gaming section of the Hive.blog Blockchain. Check it out for more great content.
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Sword of Vermillion is actually my number one favorite RPG on SEGA Genesis (number two would be Phantasy Star II). At first I found the battle system is a bit silly, but once I got the feel of it I kinda like it. And then I was charmed by its catchy music and its world. And for dungeon exploring aspect, I find it more easy to play with watching the map rather than watching the main screen (Luckily they’re all shown together. Itr’s whole a lot easier to play that way.