Crusader of Centy

Crusader of Centy is basically a clone of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that is far more worthy of the latter's subtitle, as it involves time travel. Gameplay revolves around throwing swords which have elemental powers depending on your equipped animal sidekick(s). Although the game has a surprisingly deep storyline, it's somewhat hampered by its hilariously bad English translation.

To do: Investigate the proto; nineko asked me (andlabs) if there was sound data left over. The game does not load the standard Noriyuki Iwadare sound driver that the final (and earlier games by the same team: Granada, Dino Land, and Ranger-X) uses...

Sound Effect Test#

Programming for a sound effect test begins at address $039ED0. Action Replay code 039ECE:4E71 or Game Genie code RGSA-G60R will let you access it after pressing Start on the title screen.

Save Data Menus#

A debug menu meant for quick access to the save data? The programming for it starts at $0338BE. Use the following set of experimental Action Replay codes to access it on bootup:

000352:0000 CRC bypass

0003B0:4EB9
0003B2:0003
0003B4:38BE
0003B6:4E71

A plus sign next to the entry means data exists in the save slot.

Beyond Oasis Crossovers#

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: Needs much elaboration; probably rewrite. May be related to Sega's "Mega RPG Project"?

Present at address $03BAF6-03FFFF of the US version is a block, $450A in size, of code and data from a Japanese version of Beyond Oasis (range $03BB3E-040047) which includes the top scores screen and sound test, among other things. The data is almost identical between the two, but there's slight shifts in the JSR addresses.

Both the Japanese prototype and Korean final have similar findings. Beyond Oasis was initially released in Japan more than six months after the initial Japanese release of Crusader of Centy and was developed by a different company (Ancient), so exactly what is going on here is unknown.

Graphic Tiles#

Present in the graphic data. As noted above, Beyond Oasis was released in Japan six months after Crusader of Centy and the two games were developed by different companies, yet Prince Ali's sprites were already a part of Crusader of Centy. This is indeed an odd find.

Regional Differences#

To do: Examples. Names in the Japanese and Korean versions. Japanese version has different pause menu graphics (this means rip them). See if NPCs and towns have changed names (Soleil (ソレイユ) and Rafflesia (ラフレシア) are the same in the Japanese version). Is is just me, or is the cutscene trigger for the first king cutscene (where the other kid goes to the king) at a lower spot in the Japanese version? I triggered it by going near the bottom of the upper-left passageway. Japanese version human gibberish: ※「♂♀≠{{red|＠}}￥℃{{red|?}}§＄￡！」 (red indicates characters I am not sure of)... I wonder if there is a significance in this ordering. Some of the NPCs have no name (※) in the Japanese version; compare.

Japan	Europe	US

The American Crusader of Centy and European Soleil featured two almost entirely different translations. The US version was picked up by Atlus and is a little more loose, while the European version has a bit more accurate translation and is less censored (usually in the religious context, i.e. the intro's "Let there be light", "DOG = GOD", etc.). While the European version appears to have less overall typos and scripting errors (such as awkwardly placed line breaks in the middle of words), it is considered by some people too literal compared to the "warmer" translation of the US version.

Text boxes in the Japanese and Korean versions have a transparent background; text boxes in the US and European versions have a black background.

Some layout differences exist as a result of the differing translations:

• There's an area in Camellia Desert where breakable blocks spell out the words "ART TEC" in the Japanese and European versions, which was changed to spell out "ATLUS" in the US version.
• Later on in the game, the invisible platforms in the Heaven dungeon (right before the mid-game boss battle with the fortune teller) form "DOG" in the Japanese and European versions, but they were changed to "MAC" in the US release, which was your dog's name. They were supposed to hint which animal to bring to open the boss gate.

Many of the Japanese animal names are based on what the animal in question is or what it does, usually with some emphasis added to various vowels and consonants. The European versions, likewise, name the animals after what they are (though some liberties are taken). Atlus gave the animals much more creative names in the US version.