Sword of Vermilion

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NTSC-U/PAL NTSC-J
Sword of Vermilion
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Virtual Console, Steam, Nintendo Switch Online
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP, EU) Sega of America (US) Sega Corporation Sega Corporation
Developer: Sega R&D 8 M2
Genre: RPG
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1989-12-16 ¥8,5008,500 G-5502 US 1990-11 $79.9579.95 1302 US ▼ (Sega Channel) 1994-06-01 SUBsub EU 1991-04 1302 FR 1991 UK 1991-04 £49.9949.99 1302 AU 199x CA 199x AS 199x JP ▼ 2007-02-27 600pts600 US ▼ 2007-03-05 800pts800 EU ▼ 2007-03-02 800pts800 AU ▼ 2007-03 800pts800 US ▼ 2010-10-26 $2.992.99 71114 EU ▼ 2010-10-26 €2.492.49 71114 DE ▼ 2010-10-26 €2.492.49 71114 UK ▼ 2010-10-26 £1.991.99 71114 AU ▼ 2010-10-26 $3.493.49 71114 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 71114 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71114 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71114 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 71114 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 71114 US ▼ 2019-02-01 $0.990.99 71114 EU ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71114 DE ▼ 2019-02-01 €0.990.99 71114 UK ▼ 2019-02-01 £0.790.79 71114 AU ▼ 2019-02-01 $1.351.35 71114 JP ▼ 2021-12-17 SUBsub US ▼ 2021-12-16 SUBsub EU ▼ 2021-12-17 SUBsub UK ▼ 2021-12-17 SUBsub AU ▼ 2021-12-17 SUBsub

Sword of Vermilion, known as Vermilion (ヴァーミリオン) in Japan, is an action RPG game developed by Sega R&D 8 under Yu Suzuki and released for the Sega Mega Drive in late 1989. It was brought to English-speaking nations in 1991 where it shipped with a 106-page hint book.

Plot

Erik V, king of Excalabria, is overthrown by Tsarkon, king of Cartahena. Before he dies, Erik tells his most trusted servant, Blade, to take his infant son and the family heirloom, the Ring of Wisdom, and escape, raising the baby as his own. Eighteen years later, Tsarkon's forces approach Wyclif, the town where Blade took the baby, requiring Blade to reveal the boy's true identity as Prince of Excalabria and sending him off to save the land by collecting a series of rings starting with the Ring of Wisdom.

Gameplay

Areas

You control the Prince in four different ways, depending on where you are:

Towns

When in towns, the game takes a top-down view. opens the menu (described below). You may only enter buildings whose doors are open. Each town might have any of the following buildings: a church (where you can get cured of poison and curses and can save your game), a weapon shop (selling weapons, shields, and armor), a tavern (which does not appear to sell anything), an inn (where you may rest), an equipment shop (which sells consumable items), and a fortune teller's building. Furthermore, one NPC in each town will usually give you a map of an area in the overworld when you talk to him. Each town has a building (for instance, with Parma, the castle) where you must go and talk to someone (with Parma, the King) who will tell you how to get the next ring.

Overworld/Dungeons

In the overworld and dungeons, the screen splits, with a 3D perspective on the left screen and a map on the right, with some status information on the bottom. and move forward and backward; and turn 90° in the particular direction, and opens the menu. The map on the right will only show what is immediately visible to you unless you have a map (and in the case of dungeons, which are dark by default, a light). Along the way, you will be stopped randomly by enemies who will take you into battle, find people who you can talk to, and find chests you can open for items, the latter usually placed in dead ends.

Battles

Battles take place in a top-down area the size of the screen. You always start facing down at the center of the battlefield, regardless of how many enemies there are and where they are, so act fast! uses your sword, which you must have equipped beforehand from the menu. uses the battle magic that you have readied beforehand from the Magic menu. Each enemy you kill gains you money, called "kims", and experience points. The battle ends when you either die, walk out the left/right sides, or kill all enemies on screen. If you are killed, you will be restored at a church, and the pontiff will take half your money for the poor.

Archmonster battles

When fighting an arhcmonster, which are bosses of this game, the battle will take place from a 2D side perspective. moves you forward, moves you backward, makes you duck and swings the sword, the attack can also destroy certain projectiles. You can't escape or use magic during archmonster battles so it's a fight until either player or arhcmonster dies.

Menu

When not in a battle, press to open the menu. You have eight options:

• Talk: talk to a person you are immediately next to/in front of/behind
• Item: use or discard collected items
• Str: show incremental screens of status; shows the next screen
• Open: open treasure chests and doors
• Magic: cast, prepare, or discard magic spells
• Equip: put on, take off, or discard weapons, shields, and armor
• Seek: look around for unusual things
• Take: take an item from the opened treasure chest

makes a selection. at any time exits first a submenu, then the whole menu.

Pressing  START  opens another menu where you may choose how fast you want dialogue to appear.

History

Development

The game was developed by Sega R&D 8, a department known for their Taikan game arcade works such as OutRun, After Burner and Power Drift. However, programmer Tomoharu Kimura (who later founded Genki) came to department head Yu Suzuki with a proposal: a Mega Drive RPG with 3D visuals. The main development team consisted of 7 people: 1 director and game designer Hiroshi Hamagaki (Sada), 2 programmers and game designers Tomoharu Kimura (Madoka) and Keiji Okayasu (Namako), 2 graphic designers Key and Gudon [NOTE: One of these two people has the initial H, most likely in their surname], and 2 sound designers Hiroshi Kawaguchi (Hiro) and Yasuhiro Takagi (Yas). Developing an RPG proved far too difficult with such a small team, so various members from R&D 8 eventually chipped in, including notable people like programmer Satoshi Mifune (Bin) and graphic designer Toshihiro Nagoshi. The game took 10 months to develop.

The name Vermillion was chosen because it is a shame of red, and the person who named it saw red as the colour of RPGs and freedom.

The game's soundtrack runs on a custom sound driver, reprogrammed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. His style of music often included PCM samples for drums, which the early Mega Drive sound driver SMPS was not designed to handle. Kawaguchi redesigned it to use the 68000 for processing instead of the Z80. The first song Kawaguchi composed for the game was the title theme, which includes the sound of thunder to show off the game's use of PCM samples. Unlike most songs Kawaguchi composed, all members of the development liked the song from its first demonstration, whereas he usually one or two complaints when exhibiting a new song. The name entry music is also notable for not looping completely back to the beginning, and as it is programmed to raise its pitch at certain intervals, it can go higher and higher forever. Kawaguchi decided not to create a loop point because very few people would stay on the name entry screen long enough to notice, something he has since noted would not have gotten past more modern test teams.

Legacy

The game was re-released as part of Sega Mega Drive Collection for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It was also released for the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on 27 February 2007, Europe on 1 March 2007 and North America on 5 March 2007. It was also released as part of Sega Mega Drive Classic Collection Volume 3 for Windows and is available for separate purchase on Steam.

The game has a Japanese guide book in the form of Vermilion Attack Manual Book. It also would receive a soundtrack in 2009 as Vermilion vs Rent A Hero Original Soundtrack, which also contains music from Rent A Hero.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Sword of Vermilion	Sword of Vermilion
English (US)	Sword of Vermilion	Sword of Vermilion
Japanese	ヴァーミリオン	Vermilion

Production credits

• Director: Sada
• Scenario Writer: Namako
• Game Design: Sada, Namako, Madoka
• Chief Programer: Madoka
• Chief Designer: Key
• Main Program: Madoka, Namako
• Program: Bin, Zeas-Q, Lalf2
• Sound Program:
  • 68000: Hiro
  • Z80: Yas
• Background Design: Key
• Player Design: Gudon
• Boss Design: Gudon, Papa
• Enemy Design: Gudon, Papa, Robo
• Opening Design: Jiji
• Title Design: Key
• ASCII Design: Key
• Map Design: Sada, Namako
• Map Edit: Coma, Lucy
• Sound (BGM): Hiro, Yas
• Sound (Effect): Yas
• Game Check: Dog
• Manual Write: Madoka, Namako
• Player: (player's name)
• Producer: Yu Suzuki
• Special Thanks: Yu, Bin

Source:

In-game credits

The following developers are known, but their pseudonyms have not been identified.

• Design: Toshihiro Nagoshi (possibly Robo or Jiji)

Source:

Developer mentions

• Japanese cover artist: Hiroaki Shioya

Source:

Sega TV Game Genga Gallery

File:Sega TV Game Genga Gallery.pdf

Digital manuals

• 

  Steam manual

• 

  Mega Drive Mini JP manual

Magazine articles

Main article: Sword of Vermilion/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advertisements

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #2: "October/November 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #15: "October 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
• GamePro (US) #15: "October 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
• VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) #21: "October 1990" (1990-xx-xx)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #16: "November 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #16: "November 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
• Game Players Sega Guide! (US) #0101: "Vol. 1, No. 1: Fall 1990" (1990-10-xx)
• Sega Visions (US) #3: "Winter 1990/1991" (1990-xx-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1989-11: "November 1989" (1989-XX-XX)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1989-11: "November 1989" (1989-XX-XX)

Television advertisements

File:Vermilion MD JP TVAdvert.mp4

JP

File:Vermilion MD JP TVAdvert.mp4

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 60 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 73 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 70 Console XS (UK) PAL 81 Computer & Video Games (UK) 91 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 70 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 89 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 68 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 53 Joystick (FR) 88 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 77 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 72 Mega (UK) PAL 86 Mega Play (US) NTSC-U 73 MegaTech (UK) PAL 90 Mean Machines (UK) 82 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 87 Player One (FR) 94 Play Time (DE) 73 Power Play (DE) 71 Raze (UK) PAL 82 Sega Power (UK) 91 Sega Power (UK) PAL 75 Sega Power (UK) 95 Sega Pro (UK) 80 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 81 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 61 Tilt (FR) 75 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 82 VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) NTSC-U 80 Video Games (DE) 71

	78
Based on 31 reviews

Sword of Vermilion

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual PCB

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual Hint Book

Mega Drive, UK
Cover
Cart Manual Hint Book PCB

Mega Drive, CA
Cover

Mega Drive, AS†

Mega Drive, AS† (Wywy)
Cover
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Sword of Vermilion/Technical information.

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Mega Drive
• Nintendo catalogue pages: US, UK, AU
• Sword of Vermilion on Steam