Death Crimson (1996) — thirty years after "since I'm here"

August 9, 1996: a game whose official genre was "darkness" hit Sega Saturn shelves

Hello, this is Toki. Episode 26 of "Today Is Release Day." Today's find: Death Crimson, released on August 9, 1996 by École Software for the Sega Saturn. Thirty years ago today, exactly.

The genre, as printed by the publisher itself, was "darkness." It arrived as the second title supporting the "Virtua Gun" light gun controller, following Sega's Virtua Cop. École Software had originally been a CAD company; this was its second console game under president Takayuki Manabe, after the puzzle game Pappara Paon.

From the thumbnail of "デスクリムゾンのエコールロゴからデモ画面まで。", officially published in 2024 (YouTube, Death Crimson Channel)

Almost nothing that follows is a compliment. I picked this title anyway, because a piece of software called "the worst in history" in 1996 now has an official channel and an anniversary article in Famitsu thirty years later. That fact alone is worth a page.

An evolving gun, a flying squirrel you must not shoot, and a logo you cannot skip

The game itself is a straightforward rail shooter: you move automatically through 3D scenes from the viewpoint of hero Combat Echizen (real name Kosuke Echizen — a code name that conceals nothing) and shoot the enemies that appear. Six rounds, reload by firing off-screen. So far, so ordinary.

Its hook was the "evolving gun." Crimson, a pistol said to erode its owner's mind as it grows, fills a gauge on hits: stage one adds a scope showing enemy positions, stage two unlocks option weapons such as a machine gun and bomb shot, and beyond that you gain extra lives. As an idea, it was fairly bold for a 1996 light-gun game.

The problem was everything around that idea. The reticle drifts the harder you aim, and drifts with quirks you have to learn. Enemies appear out of nowhere. There is no invincibility window after taking damage, so three enemies at once means instant death. You start with one credit. And every game over sends you back to the manufacturer logo screen, which cannot be skipped — that floating mask, reportedly modeled on a sculpture at Lake Tōya in Hokkaido.

On top of that, the man in white and the flying squirrel that appear among the enemies must not be shot; hitting them damages you. Neither the manual nor the game says so. As a footnote, the design documents state that "flying squirrel serum is the cure for KOT syndrome," the plague driving the plot. The game did not lack material — it lacked room to show it. Manabe later said development lasted only five months.

The live-action footage in the opening was shot at the ruins of Yura Fortress on Tomogashima island, Wakayama Prefecture. Manabe crossed over alone to film it. Today it is a pilgrimage site for fans.

The scores of 1996: 13 points in Famitsu, 297th out of 297 in the reader race

The reception of the time is told by the numbers that survive. The Cross Review in the August 16, 1996 issue of Weekly Famitsu (No. 400) gave 3, 3, 4 and 3 — thirteen points total. Then editor-in-chief Hamamura Tsushin acknowledged the concept but criticized the balance and hit detection: three points. Another reviewer wrote that it "feels like an attempt to imitate Virtua Cop that falls short in every respect." In a Cross Review where scores below two are almost never given, that is thirteen out of forty.

Sega Saturn Magazine dated August 9, 1996 (Vol. 13) — the release date itself — ran three reviews: "Are you seriously releasing this?" (2 points), "An undigested system — no!" (4 points), and "Even with the Virtua Gun this is rough" (3 points). Average: 3. SATURN FAN's reader "report card" came to 14.1 out of 30.

The decisive blow was the reader race. Entering Sega Saturn Magazine's reader ranking in the November 22, 1996 issue, Death Crimson placed 297th out of 297 titles that had met the vote threshold, averaging 1.0909. On a ten-point scale, that figure requires nearly every voter to give a one. Across the column's 145 installments until it ended in 1999, it took last place 69 times, including 18 consecutive times, and finished the final tally 945th out of 945. That is how it earned the name "king of last place."

And yet, among the reader comments in that debut ranking, this one is on record: "Personally a 10, objectively a 1. […] Truly worthy of the name emperor. The legend begins now (laughs)." In November 1996, that reader had already seen what was coming.

The makers left a record too. According to Manabe, the survey postcards returned to École in the months after release carried words like "Die!" and "I'll kill you!" But around a year after release, cards began to arrive saying "Don't let this discourage you — keep going." That shift within a single year is, to me, the whole story of this game.

2024: the official video, twenty-eight years late. And 2026: what that line meant

The "thread to the present" I look for in every episode is unusually thick here. On July 9, 2024, the YouTube "Death Crimson Channel" posted an official video running from the École logo through the opening movie to a demo play sequence. Manabe announced it himself on X: "About 25 years late, but here is the Death 1 movie." The description added: "Being official doesn't mean the image quality is good, but feel free to use it however you like." That is the video embedded above.

The famous lines are all in there. "They're coming from above! Watch out!" — while climbing the stairs. "What is this staircase!" — while descending a perfectly ordinary staircase. And "Since I'm here, I choose this red door!" — facing a door that is not red, and of which there is only one.

And today, August 9, 2026. In its thirtieth-anniversary article, Famitsu relays Manabe's explanation of that line. "Since I'm here" meant "let's go through the door we chose and bring something back." As for "the red door," he had wanted the line to be "I choose this door with the red jewel on it," but it ran too long and was shortened — in the fiction, each door bears a jewel: red for Echizen, green for Danny, blue for Greg. It took thirty years for that line to get its meaning back.

A note on what happened in between. Death Crimson 2 came to the Dreamcast in 1999, and Death Crimson OX to arcades in 2000 — the latter was finally judged as "a normal game." In March 2018, the anime Pop Team Epic parodied the opening at the start of its final episode, crediting École and Manabe in the end roll. That November, twenty-two years after release, composer Kunitaka Watanabe issued a soundtrack CD he had re-recorded himself.

The date August 9, 1996 is one I have to write down

An article never feels finished to me until I have written the year, so here it is again: August 9, 1996. That same day, Sega Saturn shelves also carried SEGA AGES Vol. 2 Space Harrier and World Heroes Perfect, while Street Fighter Zero 2 arrived on PlayStation. Lined up like that, one fact stands out even more sharply: the title that looked least likely to sell on that shelf is the one people talk about most thirty years later.

A footnote: according to the design documents, Danny, Echizen's comrade-in-arms, was born on August 9, 1960 — the same day and month as the release. Coincidence, or someone having fun? When I find a coincidence like this, I admit it makes me a little happy.

Is there a game you cannot forget even though it reviewed badly? One where the score of the time and your own memory never quite agreed? I would like to hear about it.