 SEGA DRUNK When it comes to top-down adventure games on the Sega Genesis or Mega Drive, there's stuff like Beyond Oasis and, uh... I guess, Landstalker kind of counts? There doesn't seem to be too many out there. However, there is one game that I don't hear talked about very often at all for whatever reason, Crusader of Senty, known as Soleil. On the Mega Drive, it was released in summer of 1994, five years into the Genesis lifespan, during a time when Sega was gearing up for the release of the 32X in the US and Sega Saturn in Japan. So just like Super Nintendo stuff like Kirby's Dream Land 3 or Donkey Kong Country 3, it's possible Crusader of Senty just got lost in the shuffle. I should let you know right away that this game is one of the most expensive Genesis or Mega Drive cartridges out there, and I seriously doubt it's because it's rare in any sense, since there's at least 25 to 30 cartridges for sale on eBay at any given moment. This might be one of those cases where the game commands a high price because there just aren't that many games like it on the system. Crusader of Senty might come across at first glance as Zelda in Sega's clothing. I'll get to that a bit later, but this game does offer a lot of its own qualities. If anything, it's probably closer to some of the Wonder Boy games in terms of content, gameplay, and visual aesthetic, just with a top-down viewpoint instead of a 2D side-scroller. You play as Corona. No, not that Corona. A kid who just turned 14, and according to town law, he's now mandated to train to become a knight, and right away we're met with some ominous backstory as he inherits his father's sword and shield. He died protecting the city, so expectations are high for Corona, and I can't say the same about the beer though, but anyway, meanwhile, there were monsters long ago. They went away, and now they're back, I guess. The game is pretty vague at first about the enemies here. It's not until later, until that's revealed. The game makes you earn that knowledge. Corona is curious about his fate as a knight, so he consults a fortune teller. Hey, why not? What's the worst that could happen? Well, this happens. Corona loses the ability to communicate with humans. Instead, he now communicates fluently with animals and flowers. Corona's not dissuaded though. He makes the most of it by recruiting animals to help him on his quest, which is really cool. You can have up to two in your party at once, and you can activate each of their special abilities by pressing the C button. For example, your pet dog will stay where he is, and freeze any enemy that runs into him. Flash the Cheetah will help you run faster and jump farther. Rio the Armadillo can turn into a makeshift platform that can help you cross lakes. There's up to 16 animals you can recruit. It's really cool, and definitely helps this game stand out from its peers. The game reveals a bit of variety in the way you recruit some of these animals too. Like to recruit the Cheetah, you have to win this race. That's kinda cool. You also collect coins as you go, and you use those to buy abilities, among other things. Right away, you can spend 20 to buy a throwing sword technique, which is pretty cool. Just hold the A button to charge your attack and activate it, so to speak. You can use this ability to create paths and activate blocks and such. Certain animals can enhance that ability as well, like the flying squirrel who enables your sword to ricochet from walls. Later on, you can also spend coins to increase your HP, and there's other abilities you simply learn along the way, like jumping. As I briefly mentioned earlier, this game gets compared a lot to Link to the Past, probably because of the similar viewing angles, similar background tiles, and the fact that you can cut grass, I guess? The similarity is kind of end there, though, where Link to the Past is puzzle-heavy, Crusader of Senti is more story-driven. There are plenty of puzzles in Crusader of Senti, but nothing that approaches the kind of stuff you do in Zelda. The emphasis is on the narrative here. For instance, once you defeat the dragon, Merida, that concludes that part of the story, and you move on to something bigger and better, with Korona using his newfound communication abilities to reason with the monsters that keep showing up. Also, unlike Zelda, there's no big overworld map here. You're locked into a path with set locations. If I had to compare this one to a Super Nintendo game, it'd be something like the twisted tales of Spike McFang, especially since both that and Crusader of Senti have a light-hearted tone to them, and both are pretty dang short for adventure games. Like Spike McFang, this game expresses its light-heartedness through some goofy dialogue and some fantastic sprite work, like this wolf boss here that looks like something out of Ren and Stimpy. Simply put, this is one of the best-looking Genesis games ever. It makes great use of the limited-color palette and does an awesome job with some of the boss's sprites. The music also fits the game perfectly and reminds me of stuff like Robotrack or even the Perodius games at times. If I had to nitpick this game for any flaws, I'd have to say this game is pretty linear for an adventure game. It's straightforward in point A to point B, and sometimes going back to revisit point A again. There's some backtracking here that might put some people off. Also, some of the enemy design is just... Lech. And like I said earlier, this game is pretty dang short. I would have liked some more to this story. I thought it was pretty interesting, but oh well. Anyway, yeah, Crusader of Senti is well worth checking out. A few weeks ago, I made a video about Super Nintendo games starring dogs. Most of those games were average or mediocre at best, so I gotta say this is the best 16-bit game I've played featuring a dog. Sorry, Secret of Evermore. I really enjoyed the hell out of this one. It's the total package, the visual design, the sprite work, the music, the fact that you can recruit animals and equip them just as you would weapons or armor. It's a fun time. I just wish there was more to it. It's an expensive cartridge though, so just go ahead and play Crusader of Senti any way you can.