Crusader of Centy

Voices of: N/A
Developer: Nextech
Rating: K-A
Genre: Action role playing game
System: Sega Genesis
1995

Times Completed:
Tim: 1

Summary: Corona embarks on a quest to become a swordsman, but soon finds himself in a globe-spanning mystery.

Review:
Tim: Crusader of Centy is a game that was never on my radar as a kid. It's definitely a lesser-known Sega Genesis title, although it's a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of RPGs and action RPGs are a fun genre, too. This game is definitely worth playing- its quirky, has a solid narrative, and ends up being quite entertaining. It might not be a true classic, but its a solid game.

You play as Corona, a 14 year-old boy who begins exploring his world. You travel down an interesting path- at a certain point, you lose the ability to speak with humans and can only talk to animals. You're able to recruit quite a few different animals, equip two at a time, and use their powers to aid you on your quest. This is certainly a differentiator for the game. I thought these mechanics were interesting. While you spend much of the game just hacking at monsters, using your animals in various ways provided a nice boost. There's quite a few puzzles where you need to make use of your animals' ability to progress in the game. Now, that being said, this feels more interesting cognitively than fun to actually play. I admit I didn't experiment much with the animals- I don't think I ever used your dog, for example. They felt like an afterthought to me. Now, yes, I did equip the two animals at all times, but it was mostly the Cheetah and one of the animals that powered up your sword.

This brings me to another slight issue I had with the game- while it has some nice, almost open-world tendencies (although the game is still very linear, you can walk around the world map), it wasn't always clear where you should go and what you should do. I started playing without a guide, but I soon found myself backtracking and getting stuck. It wasn't too long before I just decided to follow a guide. I didn't use it step-by-step, but I did consult it frequently. The game is challenging if you were trying to figure it out yourself. Some of the obstacles and puzzles in your path requires using different animals and their uses at the right time is oftentimes not apparent. A number of times, I read the solution to a challenge and I thought, "How in the hell was anyone ever supposed to know that?" Maybe the game was really pushing for exploration and innovation, but it felt like a massive time suck to me. I was perfectly content learning which animals and I needed and then figuring it out for myself from there. The game definitely feels complex at times, you're running back-and-forth all across the world map.

The visuals are simplistic, but they work. I liked the color scheme and the depiction of the characters and monsters. I'm not sure if it really pushed the graphics as hard as they could go, but I had no issues with how the game was presented and it did leverage the power of the Genesis (for that time).

The game does feel a bit stripped down in terms of RPGs- there's no actual experience points, statistics, or levels. You do get stronger as the game progresses, but it's relatively easy to understand that aspect of the game. There's pros and cons to that perspective, but it does put the emphasis on game play. I thought the overall narrative was good- it was interesting to follow Corona's journey and there are some quite unexpected moments along the way. The story with the monsters and their plight was unexpected, but really cool.

I enjoyed Crusader of Centy and as an RPG fan, I'm really glad I took the time to play this game. It's more simplistic to pick up, although Corona's journey does have twists and turns and I'm thankful I had a guide to help me. Admittedly, the game borrows heavily from multiple other games- there's new things here, but many that are borrowed. This is a fun game, but not so great that I'd want to sink 30 extra hours into exploring and figuring out everything for myself.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Game, We Recommend: Golden Sun, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Gunstar Heroes, Ecco the Dolphin