Before SEGA AM2 brought Shenmue to Dreamcast owners everywhere, they created a Japanese RPG in the late 80’s for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. That title would help SEGA-AM2 dip their feet into the console market, that first game was Sword of Vermilion. The game was a early Genesis/Mega Drive title and was one of the spotlight games in SEGA’s timeless “Nintendon’t: advertisement campaign.
While Sword of Vermilion was ambitious for its time, it wasn’t really known as a great game and possibly one of the lesser known games by the publisher. But regardless of that status, the soundtrack for this game is actually great. Composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (After Burner, Out Run, and more) and Yasuhiro Takagi (Virtua Racing, F355 Challenge and more), both composers who where literally at the top of their game during this time period.
This game’s soundtrack is so diverse, just looking at the song titled ‘Statts’ on the start of the article and then listening to ‘Elias’ track above, you can tell that the composers could go from having a moody dark track to a joyous, upbeat track at the drop of a feather. Really shows you that these guys where really ahead of their game in terms of variety of sound.
If you ever played Sword of Vermilion long enough to get to a boss battle, you would have had the joy of listening to the above tune. With a wonderful use of piano hooking you with the melody, the composers made serious moments like fighting a last boss a joy.
The last track I’m going to share of this game’s OST is the shop music. I don’t know what it is about this track but it just always reminded me of ‘The Hobbit’. I’m not talking about the Peter Jackson Trilogy or anything, but the book. Just something about this sparks a sense of adventure in my mind.
So what did you guys think about the soundtrack for Sword of Vermillion? Did you like it or hate it? Have a favorite track? Let us know below.
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One of my all time fav rpg back in the days.
Ah, played this game to death back in the day.
It’s fun how you mention the shop theme in particular, I always kinda liked how they had a different, more “grand”-sounding shop theme in larger cities, compared to the small-town shop theme you posted here.
Also, the “Last City” music (for the city of Cartahena) is decidedly fitting to give the player a sense of impending evil, with its hard percussion and almost “prog rock”-esque melody. Definitely worth a listen.
beat it 3 times.I remember my friend describing the game to me before i even owned it!grat soundtrack.
My favorite RPG on Sega Genesis. I even loved this more than Phantasy Star series. My fave tune was ELIAS.