Divine Sealing: An Adult-Oriented Shooter Slipped Past Sega's Licensing
Plenty of Mega Drive curiosities came from small studios working around the console's licensing rules, and Divine Sealing is one of the most unusual. It is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up made by Studio Fazzy and published by CYX in Japan in May 1992. Sega Retro, our main source, counts it among the earliest unlicensed Mega Drive releases and one of the few unlicensed games both developed and published in Japan. It launched at a premium price of 9,800 yen.
At a glance
- Created by: Studio Fazzy (developer), CYX (publisher)
- Released: May 1992 in Japan, unlicensed
- Genre: Vertical shoot-'em-up
- Structure: five stages with no power-ups
- What sets it apart: adult artwork shown after each stage, which is the game's main hook
What you actually get
You fly through five vertically scrolling stages. Unlike most shooters, there are no power-ups to collect, so the ship stays as it is. What the game is remembered for are the cutscenes between stages. They contain adult (+18) artwork, and Sega Retro notes they were meant to keep players pushing forward. The game ran at the less common 256x224 resolution and reused the sound driver from the 1991 shooter Task Force Harrier EX.
An unlicensed oddity
Studio Fazzy appears not to have known about the console's TradeMark Security System, the check that looks for the word "SEGA" at startup. Divine Sealing skips that check, so according to Sega Retro it runs only on early and mid-life Mega Drive hardware. Our edition plays on any Mega Drive or Genesis, including PAL consoles.
Contemporary buyers of adult software reportedly liked it for its production values. Its later reputation, especially outside Japan, is more mixed. Treat it as a historical curiosity from the console's unlicensed fringe.