Wow, I had no idea! I played a bunch of this game when I had the Apple Arcade trial going, but the entire time I played was with the sound off.

As far as game soundtracks, the best one I’ve heard is for Henry Hatsworth.

... PC games ... inconsolable ...

I miss snow immensely since moving to the west coast 20 years ago. Lookin’ at the NYC blizz pics with envy.

This has become one of my favorite series of articles on the site. Thank you very much for sharing. Please keep em coming!

Clicked for Terminal Velocity, was disappointed.

Thanks for sharing the memories!  One thing I wanted to share but couldn’t fit into the article was the scene in the middle of the game with the girl who turns into a monster in the cave, and then runs back to the village to “apologize”.....when you get back, everyone is injured or dying.  That was the earliest memory…

I grew up in the Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 era, and I love chiptune music. Granted, my first game system was a GBA, so I did get exposed to some of it that way. I’m not quite sure why I love it. There is something about the minimalism and catchy simplicity of it that is charming to me. It has a character and personality to it…

Oh I know there’s other top tier soundtracks on Sega Genesis. Streets of Rage 1&2 and Midnight Resistance, Ranger X and McDonald’s Treasure Land Adventure to name a few, but Devilish manages to not only get sounds out of the Genesis that don’t seem possible. They’re also great original tunes that defy the conventional …

As an irredeemable pedant I furrow my brow at people constantly typoing this game as “Sword of Vermillion.” Maybe Vermillion would be a better/cooler title, but there is in fact just one L. Perhaps those thus afflicted can carry the extraneous L on their person as a badge of shame.

Dem’s fightin’ words!

It’s almost as good as the Devilish soundtrack. The best soundtrack ever produced on the Sega Genesis.

The first time I played this game was shortly after I got my first Genesis, probably late 1991-early 1992. It wasn’t the first game I played on the system (after all, it did come with Sonic 1), but the music made an impact from the op title:

“Chip-tune” music just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t know if it’s because I never had the volume on when I was playing 8/16-bit games, I’ve been spoiled by video game sound design post-1995, or I’m dead inside (most likely the latter).

Thanks for highlighting one of my favorite VGM tracks from when we got a genesis with sonic 2 and - somehow despite not being famous - sword of vermillion.

This game was so very excellent.  The music still plays in my mind randomly.

My brothers and I used to play the hell out of Sword of Vermilion. It’s a damn good game. Personally, I’ve always put it (and Shining in the Darkness) just a tier below the Phantasy Star series. Sega definitely knew how to make an RPG.

I remember loving this game as a kid, grinding away at the random battles on the map, terrified to actually go in a dungeon!

Wow, I think Boss B kicks way more ass than Boss A.

You know, in retrospect, that music was really good and different. I played that game a ton when it game out; it was tough. I do recall liking the music, and listening now, it definitely stands out compared to other games from that time.