Crusader of Centy/Soleil

[Apollo Chungus]

www.hardcoregaming101.net/crusader-of-centy/

One of the action-RPGs that came out during the Mega Drive's later years, it initially looks like a Zelda-clone but actually becomes its own thing very quickly. This had been listed on the wanted article for a few years, and I decided to tackle it so that I'd have something productive to do during spring earlier on this year. It's also worth mentioning that literally the day after I sent off the article to Kurt, the Gaming Historian did a pretty cool video on the game that covers things that I probably should've done some looking into, such as the game being made as part of the "Mega Role-Playing Project" project to bring more RPGs to the Mega Drive.

As an additional note, I wanted to mention this interpretation of Centy's subtext by ResetEra user Mama Robotnik (better known for doing a ton of research into the cancelled Legacy of Kain games): www.resetera.com/threads/when-sega-took-on-zelda-they-really-went-for-the-jugular.111554/ SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME, but it's a fascinating reading of the game that goes in a very different direction from my own reading as presented in the HG101 review, and I thought it'd be a good idea to put it out there.

[blackdrazon]

One thing I learned about Centy when playing the game on RetroAchievements is that it has a hidden health-up apple, which can only be grabbed off-screen in the extreme left corner of an obscure map. Getting it when you already have "full" health causes your health bar to swap over to a second set of HP that will only ever hold this one hit point! For the life of me I couldn't find a single person mentioning the apple outside of the RA achievement. I should really have asked the achievement creator if they found it themselves or something...

[ommadawnyawn2]

Good overview that covers the important things without major spoilers. This is a good game overall, with great presentation and player mobility, though I did find it a bit too linear, sometimes obtuse (like at one point where you have to talk to an NPC three times), and I also found the bosses easy overall unlike you.

I also thought the translation had some issues personally though I didn't write down exactly what when I played through it years ago (just this: "the talking rug, parts of the intro, the bit at Babel tower") and I don't know japanese so I don't really know for sure. But regarding the moral nuance part of the story I thought the game did a pretty bad job at that, since there's no hint of pacifist monsters or them running away or anything before that part where you turn into one, and after that it's back to killing them while the game says it's wrong several times. Meh.

I never even heard about this game back in the day, nor Beyond Oasis. If Sega were trying to take on Zelda then they could've done a bit more marketing perhaps.

Edit:
Just remembered I found an out of bounds shortcut at one point in this game on my own, the one time I've done so IIRC. 
gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916377-genesis/69787673

[kaoru]

I was super jelly at my friend back then for having a Mega Drive with Soleil. It looked so cool and you could talk to animals and shit! Then I got Terranigma and all was well.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Talking to animals is cool. Borrowing their abilities to run super fast and jump 5-10m is cooler!