SWORD OF VERMILLION

 SWORD OF VERMILLION is a good, easy role-playing adventure game with some
outstanding elements. (This review is based on the Sega Genesis version.)

 You play a young man raised in a remote village. The dying words of the man you
believed was your father reveal your real identity and destiny. Your true
father, King Erik of Excalabria, was destroyed (along with his kingdom) by his
neighbor, the evil King Tsarkon of Cartahena. To avenge your father and banish
evil from the land, you (the prince) must collect the eight rings of good, and
then defeat Tsarkon.

 VERMILLION is similar to Sega's previous RPGs in many ways, with the greatest
exception being that combat is arcade-style rather than menu-driven. You have
experience levels, and points for hits, spells, strength, intelligence, luck,
armor class, and dexterity. The weapon you wield affects your strength, and your
armor and shield affect your armor class. Otherwise, statistics only vary with
experience level. Magic is not acquired by level, but bought in stores. You are
limited in the number of spells (books) that you can carry.

 Cities and towns are shown in a one-quarter view, much like in PHANTASY STAR
II, but in VERMILLION you can enter and explore buildings. Here, you talk to
people to gain clues about what's going on and what to do next. You'll also find
shops for items, weaponry, and spell books, as well as inns, churches, and
fortune tellers. While exploring the countryside and caves, you'll have a 3-D
forward view, plus an overhead map view. If you don't have a map for the area
you're in, the map view only shows the immediate area. Maps for the surrounding
area can usually be acquired from people in towns and cities; cave maps can only
be found in the cave itself.

 When you encounter regular monsters, you'll switch to a one-quarter overhead
view. Here you'll be limited to your sword and one magic spell (which you choose
before combat). Combat with bosses is viewed horizontally. When dealing with a
boss, you're unable to run away or use magic. If you die, you'll be resurrected
at the last church you visited, at the cost of half your money.

 When not in combat, you can access your statistics, items, and magic through
menus. _Not_ mentioned in the manual is the ability to set the scroll speed for
messages (just push the Start button to get the speed menu).

 The graphics are very good. Especially notable are: the large and well-drawn
bosses; the begin- and end-game sequences; and the amount of detail in the
cities and towns -- inside buildings you'll find fireplaces, dressers, tables,
bookcases, and even stairs to higher floors!

 The music is also superior, mixing medieval themes with modern instrumentals
(one of the cave themes even reminds me of the "Peter Gunn" music). The guitar
riff/bolt of lightning in the opening screen lets you know right away that
you're not playing ZELDA!

 The most outstanding feature of this game is the narrative. The story line is
sensible, detailed, and varied. The dialog is of such quality that personality
is discernible in the people you meet. It's also possible to read between the
lines and guess what the prince is saying and asking the people he meets. The
English spoken in the game is very good, too (often not the case in Japanese
imports). I strongly applaud the storyline's designers and translators.

 The countryside consists solely of roads, mountains, and trees. A little
variety in the form of rivers, deserts, snow, and oceans would have been nice.
In the 3-D view, mountains and walls show up simply as cylinders. While this
makes 3-D scrolling possible, it just doesn't look very good.

 The combat is weak, particularly the swordplay. You have only one swing, in
whichever direction you're facing; I'd have liked more sophisticated moves. This
problem is most noticeable when fighting the boss monsters.

 VERMILLION is probably too easy to finish. Despite the claim on the back of the
hint book for "hundreds of hours of adventure gameplay," I finished in less than
40 hours. Combat is too simple and too easily won, even with the bosses. Also,
as in other Sega RPGs, there's no intellectual challenge, no puzzles to solve.
And despite the great strengths of the narrative, it suffers from extreme
linearity.

 With its detailed but linear storyline and ease of play, VERMILLION feels more
like a graphic novel than an RPG or arcade videogame. It's enjoyable, but I hope
that future efforts by Sega in this direction will increase the detail and
challenge of the combat and intellectual tasks to match the quality of the
narrative.

 SWORD OF VERMILLION is published and distributed by Sega.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253