Dark Savior Selected for SHIRO! September Community Challenge

This September the SHIRO! community will choose Garian’s fate in Climax Entertainment’s mixed-genre classic Dark Savior ! Can you reach the captain’s quarters in time?

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Participants will pursue the murderous monster Bilan through a massive ship, to Jailer’s Island , and beyond. Venture through the parallel timelines and uncover the truth!

Speedrun  challenges will take place for each of Dark Savior ’s five parallels. The “ Fastest Savior ” prize will be awarded to that talented player who manages to achieve the lowest combined completion time across all of the game’s parallels.

Players competing in the Speedrun categories must be playing 60Hz versions of the game. PAL owners are welcome to join in on other parts of the fun. Final times are shown following a completed parallel. We encourage participants to record their top times and submit the runs to  speedrun.com .

Returning this month are the Community Awards , mystery prizes that seek to reward participation. The “ Bounty Hunter ” award will be given to all participants who complete all five parallels. As for the rest of Community Awards , these will remain secret until the end, so you will just have to wait and see!

In addition to the heart pumping action, September’s challenge will include “book club” style discussion prompts. Look forward to weekly discussions on the SHIRO! Discord server related to Dark Savior ’s story, characters, presentation, impact, and more!

Weekly discussion topics:
•  Week 1: Sept. 1 to 8: Parallel I
•  Week 2: Sept. 9 to 15: Parallel II
•  Week 3: Sept. 16 to 22: Parallels III & IV
•  Week 4: Sept. 23 to 30: Parallel V

As has been the case with previous SHIRO! Community Challenges, custom  SHIRO!  Dark Savior prizes — this time in the form of magnets made by community member Xiden — will be awarded to all winners, with the winner of the “ Fastest Savior ” category receiving a bespoke challenge T-shirt.

Link to the game’s manual: https://archive.org/details/Dark_Savior_1997_Sega_US

RULES:

Contest Dates: September 1 to 30

•  Real Sega Saturn hardware for speedrun awards; emulators and MiSTer FPGA are OK for general playthroughs and discussion.
•  No Action Replay or Pseudo Saturn cheats.
•  60 Hz only for speedrun awards, 50 Hz is OK for general playthroughs and discussion.
•  Photos of parallel end credits and save must be shared to Discord channel (required for verification)
•  The challenge organizers reserve the right to request video evidence for submissions.

 To submit your score, please post a photo on the SHIRO! Community Challenge Discord channel and complete the submission form .

6 Speedrun Awards:

• A Hunt for the Evil — Fastest completion time for Parallel I
• A Hunt for the Heart — Fastest completion time for Parallel II
• A Hunt for the Lies — Fastest completion time for Parallel III
• A Hunt for the Truth — Fastest completion time for Parallel IV
• Marathon of Death — Fastest completion time for Parallel V
• Fastest Savior — Lowest combined completion time all Parallels

6 Community Awards:

• Bounty Hunter — Completed all Parallels

For the rest, you will just need to wait and see!

Climax Entertainment’s Dark Savior released as a Sega Saturn exclusive, hitting Japanese and North American store shelves in 1996 — arriving in PAL territories early 1997, mere months before the release of the studio’s followup Alundra . The game, billed at the time as a sequel to the much-loved Mega Drive/Genesis classic Landstalker , proved to be more of a spiritual successor. The ambition of Dark Savior ‘s mixed-genre gameplay and branching storylines was admired by reviewers and Sega fans alike, even if not all aspects of the moment-to-moment gameplay stuck the landing.

Check out Bo Bayles’ piece “ Extending the Demo: Dark Savior ” for a deeper dive into the inner workings of the game.

	Rasputin3000
		Archaeologist of many things. Longtime enjoyer of the Dreamcast that found his way to the Saturn in 2016 thanks to its vibrant fan community.