Sega Genesis Receives Zelda Clone Crusader of Centy – Today in Retro Gaming – June 16th, 1994
Nintendo had the Legend of Zelda series since the 8-Bit days. Sega kind of was lacking in the action game with light role playing elements category. Sure, Sega had the Phantasy Star series but that was more of an answer to Square’s Final Fantasy series than Zelda. It took until June 1994 before there was an adequate competitor to the Legend of Zelda, aimed at A Link to the Past on Super Nintendo.
Atlus picked up Crusader of Centy after Sega passed on it so that they could focus on Beyond Oasis. Atlus took on the challenge of bringing the game over and the eventual lackluster press it would receive. Gamepro and Electronic Gaming Monthly both were critical of the quality of gaming fans would get out of Crusader of Centy.
The backstory to Crusader of Centy is pretty cliché- you play a young male who lives in a town with a weird rule. At the age of 14 the boys in the town must go out and prepare for battle. Honing their skills with weapons and understanding enemies are just part of the adventure. In the beginning your character cannot even talk with other humans in the game. He can only talk with animals and plants until he reaches the “right of passage” so to speak. That is when the second half of the game begins and you can speak to people again. Weird mechanic.
Crusader of Centy is pretty much as much a clone of Zelda as you can get. The action is viewed from the same angle, your character has a sword and a shield and is young and takes on a life changing quest. Sure, a lot of that is simply cliché to the genre but having your character cut grass and other foliage and obstacles in a very similar manner is not.
Funny. Never even heard of this. As a fan of Zelda...would you recommend checking it out??
Wholeheartedly YES! Esepcially if you are a fan of Zelda.
Dammit! Lol
I've never played it, but this game has a fantastic soundtrack: "Battle 1" is great and "Battle 3" is on a whole 'nother level of utter excellence (assuming that you're not one of those who goes [quoting a commenter] "Yep...sounds like Genesis. Aggressive rumbling farting"). "Tower of Babel" is a wonderfully upbeat area theme, while "Burn Daisy" is a lovely, jazzy tune.
The Genesis is under rated as far as sound goes. With the right composers behind the sound chip it can be a great machine for audiophiles. The problem is, not many companies paid much attention to working that sound chip and instead went with, as said quite well, "aggressive rumbling farting" sound and music and called it a day.
The FM synths kind of require a mental adjustment because they weren't nearly as common in American systems. There's the Sound Blaster cards in early DOS machines if I remember right, but...
It's a dramatically different soundworld, as it were, from the pulse and square and triangle waves of the NES and from the orchestral sound of today's games. FM synths can be very difficult to work with - they really are synths. I'd argue that the sound engineers were more important than the composer was (at least, where there were separate sound engineers and composers) when it came to the literal waveforms reaching the ear.
In good hands, though - the results are fantastic. Sega's soundtracks are great examples. Others I'd recommend are Castlevania: Bloodlines, Warsong, Streets of Rage, The Adventures of Batman & Robin, Time Trax, and Light Crusader. FM synths require a lot more care to make 'em sound good than PSGs or orchestras - the latter of whom basically takes care of itself.
Streets of rage 2 is best soundtrack on Genesis
Thunderforce 3 is good too
Just a LITTLE on the RARE side of games. Ugh.
That is the understatement of the year. Lol. The prices on this one are ridiculous.