I’ve got a real good news/bad news situation for you, but brace yourself because – if you’re most people who read this site – the bad news is going to blow away all the good. Ready? The good news is Sega has revealed it is bringing Rent-A-Hero back. The bad news is that it’s going to incorporate NFTs.
Yes, Sega is partnering with a Korean company, Line, and more specifically Line Next, “LINE’s venture dedicated to developing and expanding the NFT ecosystem.” We don’t have a lot of information about it aside from a tweet and press release from the company (spotted by Time Extension). Mostly we know that it’s going by the name of Rent A Hero Z and SEGA created a theme song for the project Master Hiro and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.
If you’re not savvy, Rent A Hero is a Japan-only Mega Drive/Genesis RPG. It was later remade on Dreamcast (later ported to Xbox) as Rent A Hero No. 1, also only released in Japan. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s understandable. However, even over here in North America where we never got an official release, it’s a beloved property.
I think this announcement is an important indication of Sega making good on its strategy of prioritizing live service and Web3 titles and leveraging its existing properties to do it. I was very skeptical when they announced the return of games like Crazy Taxi and Shinobi. While Shinobi seems like a faithful new entry, the new Crazy Taxi looks to be poising itself as a multiplayer game, and is, in all likelihood, going to be liveservice with cosmetic microtransactions. And that’s being optimistic. It could easily also have Web3 elements on top of that.
It’s great to see Sega return to classic licenses, but their goals eliminate all of my enthusiasm. I’ve wanted a new Crazy Taxi for a long time, but if it’s a GaaS, I’m out.
No release date or platforms have been announced for Rent A Hero Z. More is expected to be revealed at the Tokyo Game Show.
Published: Sep 20, 2024 01:28 pm