Light Crusader

Light Crusader is an action-adventure game focused on exploration, combat, and puzzle solving. The game is played from an isometric perspective and sees the player primarily traversing a large dungeon, fighting enemies and solving puzzles, in order to rescue the kidnapped people of Green Row. The player is also allowed to freely roam Green Row to talk to townspeople or buy items from shops. Other towns can be found in the dungeon that give the player similar options but with different people to converse with and additional items to purchase from shops.

The player assumes the role of Sir David, who has a variety of abilities at his disposal. Aside from basic running and jumping, David can attack with his sword at a standstill, or while moving or jumping, and by lunging in midair. He can also make use of four different kinds of elemental magic, which are the core classical elements. Magic can be used either individually or combined with another element to create an attack or, in the case of certain combinations, give a buff to David.

The game is entirely set in and around the town of Green Row, which is ruled under a monarchy. The town has a castle for the royal family, an inn, and various houses and shops owned by the townspeople. Upon the outskirts of Green Row is a farm, as well as a graveyard hiding a multi-level dungeon. A majority of the game is spent in the dungeon, as it contains kidnapped people of the town and useful items. Further down levels of the dungeon contain people living in it, including a guild of wizards and an entire town of goblins.

The player controls a knight named Sir David, who arrives in Green Row upon receiving an invitation to visit from the town's king. Over the course of the game David confronts a wizard named Ragno Roke, who wishes to reawaken a demon called Ramiah.

Light Crusader was developed by Japanese studio Treasure as part of their partnership with Sega to develop products for the latter's Genesis console. This four game deal also included Dynamite Headdy, Alien Soldier, and Yu Yu Hakusho Makyō Tōitsusen. Light Crusader was programmed by Kazuhiko Ishida with support from Keiji Fujitake and Treasure president Masato Maekawa. The game's graphics and art were provided by Hiroshi Iuchi, Makoto Ogino, Kaname Shindo, and Koichi Kimura. Katsuhiko Suzuki was the sound director while Aki Hata and Satoshi Murata composed the music and sound effects respectively.

The project was announced in the spring of 1994 under the working title Relayer. Iuchi revealed that in its earliest stages, Light Crusader was planned as an action version of the classic RPG series Wizardry. The staff sought to improve the operability and enjoyment of pseudo-3D graphics afforded by the isometric viewpoint, but this presented challenges. Ishida said that it was difficult to program multiple joints in 3D, while Iuchi claimed that the three-quarters perspective interfered with the performance of the Genesis.

The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked Light Crusader second in popularity in its August 1995 issue, and it received a 21.7/30 score in a poll conducted by Mega Drive Fan and a 7.826/10 score in a 1995 readers' poll conducted by the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine, ranking among Sega Mega Drive titles at the number 156 spot. The game also received an average reception from critics when it was released on the Virtual Console for the Wii, holding a rating of 67.50% based on five reviews according to review aggregator platform GameRankings.

Gus Swan and Steve Merrett Mean Machines Sega praised the graphics and unique mixture of gameplay elements. They criticized that the game is often too easy and dull, and compared it unfavorably to The Story of Thor for longevity, but nonetheless gave it a very positive assessment, calling it "A superlative arcade adventure with great playability". Next Generation said that the game design reflected Treasure's experience with action games, but that the non-action elements such as the puzzles and storyline are overly shallow, and the isometric perspective creates control difficulties. They concluded, "Light Crusader is still one of the more exciting and graphically pleasing Genesis titles that has come out recently, but this is by no means a RPG".