Month / August 2023

by lawrenceofcanadia

Sword of Vermilion – Review

I have mixed feelings toward RPGs. On the one hand, I love the extended adventure and stories of derring-do, but I dislike the grind and monotony of fighting the same demons over and over again to gain experience points so your players can level up. Sword of Vermilion (1989) decided to mix things up a little. The question is, were the innovations novel and interesting, or were they a misstep for the game creators?

Title screen (screenshot taken by the author)

Sword of Vermilion is a single-player action RPG developed and published by Sega and released for the Mega Drive in 1989 (1990 in North America and 1991 in Europe). It was later released with the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable’s Sega Genesis Collection (2006), and was available on the Wii Virtual Console (2006), the PlayStation 4 as part of Sega Genesis Classics (2018), and Nintendo Switch Online in 2021. For this review, I played the version found on PlayStation 4’s Sega Genesis Classics (2018).

Plot

Life was good in the peaceful Kingdom of Excalabria. That was until the evil King Tsarkon of Cartahena invaded, destroying all their farmland, and laying waste to this once-prosperous land. Seeing that nothing could be done to save his kingdom, King Erik of Excalabria entrusted his only son to his most loyal knight, Blade, and ordered him to take his son far away to safety. After a long journey, Blade finally found a home in the village of Wyclif where he raised the king’s son as his own but never told him of his royal lineage. After 18 years had passed, Blade’s health began to fail. On his deathbed, he reveals the now-adult prince’s identity and retells the story of his father’s fate. The prince, who has grown into a strong and skilled warrior swears vengeance upon King Tsarkon and sets off to avenge his father and retake his kingdom. To defeat King Tsarkon, the prince must travel the land of Vermilion to find and obtain eight Rings of Good. However, King Tsarkon already possesses the Rings of Evil…

Gameplay

There are four different views in this game:

  • Town View – Typical RPG view from overhead with a slight angle.
  • Battle View – Sparked by random map encounters, it is similar to the Golden Axe (1989) style view and allows you to take full control of your character. Using weapons and magic, you can opt to engage the monsters or flee.
  • Dungeon View – First person perspective similar to Shining in the Darkness (1991)
  • Boss View – Sideways viewpoint where you must defeat a powerful boss.

In Town View, you use the D-pad to move around the towns. When you wish to interact with someone or something, you press ‘C’ to bring up a menu with the following options:

  • Talk – Talk to a character
  • Item – Select an item to use
  • Str – See your characters stats
  • Open – Open a treasure chest or door in a cave/dungeon
  • Magic – Select a magic spell to use or to ready for use in battle (some spells require more magic points per use than others). You cannot change your choice of spell during a battle.
  • Equip – Equip a new weapon or piece of armour
  • Seek – search directly in front of you
  • Take – Take an item from an opened treasure chest.

To cancel, or return to the previous screen, press ‘B’.

In the towns, you will find armourers (to upgrade your weapons), potion shops (for healing and egress items), and magic shops (spells).

Town View (Screenshot taken by the author)

In Battle View, you will fight between one to eight enemies of varying degrees of strength and speed. You can run around the screen evading their attacks, slash at them with your sword, cast a magic spell on them, or flee. Naturally, the better your armour the less damage you take, and the better your weapons and spells, the more damage you inflict on the enemy. When you defeat an enemy or group of enemies, you earn experience points and Kims (money) proportionate to the difficulty of the battle. Once you earn a certain amount of experience points, your level and stats increase.

Battle View (Screenshot taken by the author)

In Dungeon View, when in a cave or dungeon, the HUD splits into five boxes. The largest one in the top left shows your first-person perspective. The slightly smaller one in the top right shows an almost overhead view of the map of the dungeon level or the area of the overworld. The three smaller rectangular boxes show you hit and magic points; your experience and Kims totals and the last is which magic spell you have equipped. You move by pressing up on the D-pad to go forward, down to go backward, and left or right to turn 90 degrees either way. It is during these parts of the game that you will have random map encounters.

Overworld View (Screenshot taken by the author)
Dungeon View (Screenshot taken by the author)

In Boss View, you can only move left or right. However, you can crouch to evade boss attacks and swing your sword when both crouched and standing. You cannot jump or block, but swinging your sword will destroy any fireballs thrown at you by the boss.

Boss View (Screenshot taken by the author)

How Does It Handle?

The Town View is standard for most RPGs. It is simple to navigate and the menu system is easy to use.

The Battle View is quite novel for these sorts of games. Usually, they are turn-based affairs. I actually prefer this more involved form of battle. I like how you can easily choose to flee random map encounters without having to go through a menu system. However, I dislike the fact that you cannot block an enemy’s attack. What is the point of having a shield if you cannot block with it? I also dislike that you cannot change your magic spell during the battle. Since different spells are more effective against different enemies, and you cannot predict which you will fight, it feels cheap that you cannot change your spells in battle.

The Dungeon View will be familiar to fans of dungeon crawlers. I like how the map is in darkness until you use a candle (which has a time limit on the light), or a lantern (unlimited light) and that you need to find a map to open up the whole dungeon/cave.

The Boss View is, again, quite novel for this sort of game. I just wish you were able to use your shield to block the boss’s attacks and that your player was more manoeuvrable.

Another annoyance was when coming across treasure chests, you have to select open, and then select take if you want to take the item. These actions are pointless as far as I can see because none of the treasure chests contain booby traps or anything else to your detriment, and there are no items that you wouldn’t want to pick up. It would make more sense to have the option to replace an item you’re carrying or decline to pick it up.

Overall, the changing views, which change the gameplay, are a great idea and stops the game from becoming monotonous too quickly.

Graphics

Let’s start with Town View and Overworld/Dungeon Views. Although the colours are not as vibrant as Phantasy Star II (1989), they are a bit more detailed and mature. Yes, it looks a bit less childlike. Oh, but why do the characters all look like they have green face paint on? The Battle View, however, pales in comparison with Phantasy Star II (1989) which is much more detailed and interesting to look at. The Boss View offers the opportunity to be really detailed with the sprites and it does just that. It’s just a pity that the sprite movement is labouriously slow.

Music & SFX

The music is ok, but for me not very memorable. The piece that plays over the Town View sounds like it has a quirky/spooky feel and would be more fitting in a game like Addam’s Family (1993). It’s not the heroic sort of tune I’ve become accustomed to whilst playing RPGs. The music for the Overworld View is more appropriate and adds a feeling of dread to your travels.

I like the sound the word makes when you swing it during Boss View (Oddly, this sound is not in Battle View) and the dying sounds the beasts make when you kill them. Feels very arcadey to my mind. Other than that, SFX are quite minimal in this game.

Replay Value

Unless you’re an RPG fan and a glutton for punishment, I don’t think this game has much replay value. There are no extra difficulty settings or alternate endings.

Did I Complete The Game:

No, I got as far as Cartahena and was just done with the game. I could not be bothered to finish it.

What The Critics Said:

Computer and Video Games: “…Sword of Vermilion offers a vast, sprawling adventure that’ll have you up burning the midnight oil for many a month before the before the quest is finally complete…The combat screens may not be complex, but it’s great fun whipping out your sword, chopping up all-and-sundry, and testing out your new magical powers as well. Graphically, Sword of Vermilion is a mixed bag, with 3D screens looking decidedly rough, but this is more than made up for with the excellent town graphics and detailed sprites. It’s the sound that lends a perfect atmosphere to the proceedings with some of the best music ever heard on the Megadrive. Overall 91%“.[1]

MegaTech: “What makes this vast RPG so attractive are the great graphics, excellent sound and the arcade-type combat system which replaces the boring exchange of hit-points found on most RPGs. Overall 93%“.[2]

My Verdict:

“I think the game has a good story and a great mix of different aspects to keep it interesting. Even if it doesn’t quite work as well as it should. I just got bored with it in the end and had no desire to finish it. RPG fans may have more patience than me.”

Rating:

What are your memories of Sword of Vermilion? I would love to hear your thoughts, and don’t forget to follow and subscribe so that you don’t miss my latest reviews! You can also find me on Instagram: @nicklovestogame.

[1] Leadbetter, R., ‘Review – Sword of Vermilion’. Computer and Video Games. (June 1991). Issue 115:114-116.

[2] ‘Alternatives – Sword of Vermilion’. MegaTech. (Xmas 1991). Issue 1:30.

by lawrenceofcanadia

The Chessmaster – Review

Chess is one of those games that I find rather intimidating. People who excel at chess are considered incredibly intelligent…which is probably why I suck at the game! The Chessmaster franchise was originally developed by Ubisoft and published by The Software Toolworks (formally Software Country). The first instalment of the franchise was released under the name of The Chessmaster 2000 (1986) for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Macintosh, MSX, and ZX Spectrum. Since its humble beginnings, technology (and gamer expectations) had moved on. How would the mighty SNES deal with those expectations?

Title screen (screenshot taken by the author)

The Chessmaster is a chess simulator released for the NES (1989), Game Gear and Game Boy (1991), and the SNES and Mega Drive in (1992). For this review, I played the SNE version.

Objective

Manoeuvre your pieces so that you can gain a “checkmate” on your opponent. A “checkmate” is when you position your pieces in such a way that your opponent cannot move their king safely out of “check”, block your pieces with one of theirs, or take one of your pieces to take their king our of “check”.

Gameplay

The game can be played in single or two-player mode. You ad your opponent begin with a full army of troops that include:

Pawn x 8 – They can move two spaces forward on their first turn but can only move forward one space after that. They can “take” an opponent’s piece if they are diagonally one space in front of them. If the make it to the last row closest to you opponent, your pawn can be promoted to either a Rook/Castle, Knight, Bishop or Queen.

Rook/Castle x 2 – They can move as many spaces as they like horizontally or vertically (forward and backward) or until they are blocked by another piece.

Knights x 2 – They can move in all directions as long as it equates to one space forward/backward/sideways and then one space diagonally in the same direction. They are the only piece that can leap over other pieces.

Bishops x 2 – They move diagonally forward or backwards in a straight line as many spaces as they like until they are blocked by another piece.

Queen – The most powerful piece. She can move in a straight line in all directions as many spaces as they like until they are blocked by another piece.

King – The king can only move one space, in any direction they wish, at a time (with the exception of “castling”, see below).

If the king is in “check”, the only move you can make is to either move the king out of check or move another of your pieces to block the check, or take the piece that has the king in “check”.

To move your pieces, use the ‘D’ pad to move the hand over the piece you wish to move and then drag them to the square you wish to place them. The computer will tell you if you try to make an illegal move.

Standard 3D view (screenshot taken by the author)
Standard 2D view (screenshot taken by the author)

Special Moves:

En Passant – French for “in passing”, it can only be performed under specific circumstances by pawns. Rather than me attempting to poorly explain it to you, follow the link to hear chess expert David Pruess explain the manoeuvre.

Castling – This is one of the first special moves you are likely to have been taught when playing chess. Your rook/castle and king must still be in their original starting positions without having been moved so far during the game and with no other piece of either colour standing between them. The king can then move two spaces towards the castle. The castle then automatically transfers to the next space on the opposite side of the king.

At anytime in this version, you can open up the options menu which allows you the option of the following:

The option screen…which can only be accessed during a game (screenshot taken by the author)

How Does It Handle?

Once you learn how the pieces move, it is easy to play. However, I’d still recommend playing in 2D mode as I found I was less likely to miss opportunities take a piece or would not spot when one of my pieces was going to be taken.

One of the things I found odd was that from the title screen, you simply jump straight into a game. You then have to open the options menu and make any necessary changes you wish to make. This doesn’t make sense to me. Why not have the options screen available before beginning a game?

Also rather than the hand, I think I would have preferred the square to be highlighted instead. I think this would make it slightly easier to navigate the board.

Fantasy 3D view (screenshot taken by the author)
Fantasy 2D view (screenshot taken by the author)

Graphics

The graphics are very basic, but some would argue you don’t need more than that for a chess game. A chessboard against a black backdrop is sufficient. The 3D fantasy mode looks ok but I think you’d expect better sprites from the SNES and maybe even a little animation like Battle Chess (1988). The fantasy pieces are fun and quirky, but serious gamers may prefer to stick with the standard pieces.

It is unclear why the 2D fantasy view is the only view that changes from green squares to blue squares.

Music & SFX

The music over the title screen (you can also turn this on throughout the game) is a very cheap 8-bit piece that is unbecoming of the SNES.

As for the SFX, there aren’t any, save for a weird duh-duh-duh-da after every move. Who on Earth thought that was a good idea? It becomes incredibly annoying almost instantly.

War Room view(screenshot taken by the author)

Replay Value

If you enjoy chess, then this game has endless replay value. There are around 16 different difficulty levels and every game will be different. For the casual gamer, it may not hold the attention for that long.

Did I Complete The Game?

I only beat the game on level Newcomer 1.

What the Critics Said:

At present, I couldn’t find and contemporary review of this game.

My Verdict

“Awful, cheap music and SFX really let this game down. I know chess is a serious game and doesn’t need all the bells and whistles, but this is a SNES game and I expected a bit more in those departments. I just hope it didn’t cost £40 on its release!”

Rating:

What are your memories of The Chessmaster? I would love to hear your thoughts, and don’t for get to follow and subscribe so that you don’t miss my latest reviews! You can also find me on Instagram: @nicklovestogame.