Sword of Vermilion

"Ehhhh...not bad, but not necessarily good."

Sword of Vermillion is an admirable effort, but lacks a good plot, strategic battles and interesting dungeons. In fact, to break down each of these core components in terms of this game, we could say that the plot sucks majorly, the battle system is horrendously done and extremely boring, and the dungeons almost always consist of the same ole' boring grind.
And yet, I'm hesitant to say that I hate or even dislike Sword of Vermillion. If you're looking for a quick RPG-ish fix on your Sega Genesis, then by all means, you should give this game a shot. But you should be forewarned : you'll probably lose interest in this game fairly quickly, so don't spend a big chunk of change trying to get your hands on it.

The story is quite bland, and goes basically as such : You are the son of a king (but were adopted by a commoner). Upon your "father's" death, you realize that, it is your place as the son of a king, to go out there and try to end the war...blah, blah, blah. I guess that's what upsets me the most about this game -- the story is an uninspired sham. This wouldn't be so bad if the gameplay was fresh and innovative and addictive, but sadly, the gameplay turns out to be shoddy, poorly put together, and, to be blunt about it, just no fun.

Sword of Vermillion might have been better if it had been produced as an action title, sort of in the vein of the Golden Axe series. Cut out the pointless look-alike dungeons, cut out the atrocious story and cut out the whole leveling-system as well as the battles it's attached to. You might wonder why I would say this, and my reasoning is as simple as this : In Sword of Vermillion, just about EVERYTHING feels like a dull and monotonous chore...and therefore, the fun-factor gets dragged away kicking and screaming much too fast.

If you're looking for some genuinely good RPG's, especially for the Genesis, then I would immediately recommend the Phantasy Star series. Heck, I would even suggest Light Crusader LONG before I would suggest playing Sword of Vermillion.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/11/05