Crusader of Centy: SEGA's Zelda Clone on the Genesis | Gaming Historian

[Music] by 1994 the north american console wars were relentless nintendo and sega ruthlessly competed for dominance over the video game market and it was very close one market analyst said we would put nintendo and sega about dead even but in japan it was a different story nintendo had a sizable lead over sega and one reason was their impressive array of role-playing games role-playing games were extremely popular in japan enix's dragon quest series made national headlines when kids skipped school to stand in line and buy dragon quest iii nintendo had an all-star list of rpg franchises including final fantasy dragon quest the mana series breath of fire and more sega had a few notable rpg titles like fantasy star and the shining series but their selection paled in comparison to nintendo's offerings sega had to turn things around so in 1994 they announced the mega role playing project they plan to launch seven rpg titles in 10 months for the mega drive and its add-on the mega cd on the cover of each game would be a gold mega role-playing project emblem and the first game to launch under the project was one of their best it was called shin soseki ragnacenti an action rpg that had a strong resemblance to nintendo's popular legend of zelda series ragnacenti was developed by nextech a studio co-founded by sega in 1992 but the game's origins can be traced to a company called gao entertainment gao entertainment's first game was ranger x an excellent shoot-em-up on the genesis ragnacenti was only their second title in april of 1994 nextec acquired gow entertainment which gave them additional resources and support from sega two months later on june 17th 1994 shin soseki ragnacenti was released in japan the game begins with a brief cut scene a long time ago the world was filled with darkness and inhabited by monsters but then one day the world became full of light which sent the monsters into hiding humans continued to thrive and evolve in the light eventually monsters began reappearing players took control of corona a 14 year old boy from the town of soleil on his birthday corona inherits his father's sword and shield and sets off to explore the world and figure out why monsters are suddenly reappearing ragnacenti looks like a clone of the legend of zelda the main character is a boy with a funny hat you can change the main character's name the game has a top down view you can cut grass instead of a life bar of hearts it's apples link fires a sword beam while corona literally throws his sword but ragnocenti had its own unique features too corona moves in eight different directions instead of the usual four he jumps which adds platforming to some of the game's dungeons ragnacenti's best feature is the animal companion system in the game corona gains the ability to speak to animals but loses the ability to speak with humans this means he has to recruit animals to help him save the world he can equip two animals at a time and each one gives him a special ability flash the cheetah lets corona move faster dippy the dinosaur lets him traverse rough terrain chile the penguin gives corona sword an ice attack it's cool to try different combinations of animals to see how their abilities work together corona begins the game with almost no abilities even basic skills like jumping have to be discovered according to the developers this was intentional producer yayoi onda stated that there aren't any experience points since this is an action rpg but we knew that people would still want to be able to develop their characters that's why we made it so that jumping and sword swinging are things that are learned throughout your journey to give it that sense of growth graphically the game is gorgeous ragnacenti's use of color is impressive and rivals some super nintendo games the sprite work is really well done especially on some of the boss enemies there are also little details that stand out like footprints when corona walks in the sand with all the comparisons to zelda you would think ragnacenti would have an open world to explore but it actually utilizes an overworld map graphic designer toshiyo yamamoto claimed the map was the hardest part of making the game i drew all of the terrain beforehand and had to decide which parts the characters couldn't be in it felt like putting together a puzzle ragnocenti mostly sticks to a linear narrative so there isn't much exploring there aren't any difficult puzzles to solve and most players won't have any problem finishing the game there is some backtracking but everything is easy to get to thanks to the map sega wanted an easy to play action rpg and ragna senti delivered it was a game mega drive owners had been waiting for japanese publication beep mega drive declared your plans for summer vacation are here right away magazines around the world showed previews of the game electronic gaming monthly wrote with a huge world of swords and sorcery it's a mystical story to explore in the classic zelda style this is the kind of game the mega drive has needed for a long time let's hope sega will bring it out here which was a good question would sega bring ragnacenti to north america japanese role-playing games had not taken north america by storm but were gaining popularity the super nintendo in particular was in a heyday of rpgs the sega genesis on the other hand had established itself as a console for cool kids and older gamers it was filled with action games and sports titles but sega did release ragnacenti in europe under the name soleil in january of 1995. if europe got a release why not north america ultimately a decision had to be made sega of america liked ragnacenti but there was another game from the mega roleplaying project that stood out the story of thor developed by ancient the team behind the streets of rage series it was a cross between a beat-em-up and an rpg in the end sega of america chose the story of thor they renamed it beyond oasis and published it in march of 1995. that left ragnacenti without a north american publisher luckily atlas software saved the day atlas software was the us subsidiary of atlas a video game developer in japan originally atlas software localized their own games for the north american market but they also found business localizing obscure games from other companies atlas software tended to make games in limited quantities which made sense considering the risk involved they saw potential in ragnacenti and agreed to publish the game in north america but the name had to be changed shin soseki ragnacenti became crusader of senti atlas software published crusader of senti in march of 1995 at a retail price of 69.99 it was an interesting time to release a game on the genesis the video game industry was transitioning to a new generation of 32-bit consoles like the sony playstation sega's new console the sega saturn took the retail world by surprise just two months after crusader of senti came out plus they were pushing their 32x add-on for the genesis it was a mess but also a clear sign that the industry was ready to move on from the 16-bit era judging by the value of the game today it's fair to assume crusader of centi didn't sell a lot of copies but critics overwhelmingly loved the game video games the ultimate magazine said fans of the legend of zelda will be pleased to make the acquaintance of crusader of senti a remarkable zelda clone that pays off big in the playability and value departments the genesis needs more games like this next tech would go on to make a sort of spiritual successor to crusader of senti called linkel liver story on the sega saturn but they never fully revisited the game in 1997 sega bought out next tech they continued to develop their own titles as well as assisting other companies by 2003 next tech became an independent studio and renamed themselves nex entertainment but in 2016 the company officially dissolved ultimately the mega role plane project didn't convince rpg fans to abandon their super nintendos some of the titles were just ports of games released on other consoles but there were some really good original titles as well crusader of senti is one of them it's pretty rare to find an action rpg on the genesis let alone one this good and it's not only a rare type of game it's just a rare game period crusader of senti is one of the most expensive cartridges for the sega genesis and it hasn't been re-released in any official capacity at this point emulation is the best option definitely give crusader absentee a try even if it is just zelda on the genesis funding for gaming historian is provided in part by supporters on patreon thank you [Music] you

Channel: Gaming Historian

Views: 948,008

Keywords: crusader of centy, ragnacenty, zelda clone, action rpg, sega, sega genesis, 16-bit rpgs, mega drive, video game documentary, gaming historian, video game history, game historian, nextech, nex entertainment, gau entertainment, final fantasy, dragon quest, console wars, super nintendo, nintendo, super famicom, soleil, sega mega drive, hidden gems, expensive genesis, most expensive genesis games, shin soseiki ragnacenty, sega rpg, genesis, ranger x, shining force, 16-bit, rpg

Id: kCgIZIasYnE

Length: 11min 30sec (690 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/mindstormy]

This was a great game. I remember renting it as a kid and rushing to try and beat it before it was due back. Got stuck at some water temple and never played it again. I may have to go find this again to try and beat it now.

[u/janegeladao]

What were the other six games of this Sega RPG collection? Were they released in the West? If not, can you find translations online?

[u/mrbuh]

Reminds me of Neutopia for the TG16

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutopia

[u/[deleted]]

Love that channel, that guy makes really good content

[u/theRealWillowUfgood]

OH WOW, I had this game as a kid!! I didn't realize the cartridge was so rare / valuable now. I'm sure it's somewhere in my mom's attic still, I'll have to go dig it up!

But yes, very fond memories of this game. I wanted a Zelda-esque game and it delivered on all counts. Had a lot of charm to the story and the gameplay / graphics were excellent.

[u/Demonslugg]

That looks fun

[u/crosey22]

The animal partner thing looks fun. Might have to download a Sega emulator

[u/Alphaomega1115]

This game was so fun, from what I remember it feels like the translation was just BUTCHERED though.

[u/Stevios07]

Ah good old Soleil. Very good game that was.