While the homebrew scene for legendary video game systems grew steadily since 2010, one epic little handheld has been overlooked quite often: the Sega Game Gear. Fabien Morand, alias cireza, has teamed up now with 2Minds to release a new game, which we take a closer look at in this article: The Sword of Stone!

 

Facts:

Developer/Publisher: cireza, 2Minds
Platform: Sega Game Gear
Release: May 10th, 2024
Genre: Visual Novel, Adventure
Number of Players: 1

Development

On February 27, 2023, Fabien Morand registered on the SMS Power! boards under the name cireza. Fabien is another Sega fan from France who presented his own homebrew project for the Sega Game Gear: The Sword of Stone. Fabien Morand entered this game in the SMS Power! Coding Competitions 2024 and took the 4th place in the coding category, narrowly missing out on the 3rd place. The voting was so close that even the second place was not far off, and with such a close result, the 2nd place was within reach as well. The game was programmed with devkitSMS by Sverx. Cireza himself stated that he had only been working with the Master System and Game Gear hardware for nearly a year when he presented The Sword of Stone to the public. He also used Graphicsgale, BMP2Tile, assetstobank, deflmask, Tiled, Eclipse as IDE/Notepad++, and Excel, as well as Gear System for testing of the development. Morand also used a McWill Game Gear and an Everdrive for further testing. By the time the game was presented, he had already invested a lot of time in his project and was able to showcase its progress with a few screenshots, and the response on the SMS Power! forum was highly positive. Maxim, Kagesan, Kusfo, Sverx and many others provided cireza with valuable programming tips during development. The numerous posts spanned several pages and went into great depth, providing a wealth of learning for any programmer who reads through them. Some forum members even offered to help with possible translation work, and this assistance has been accepted for the instruction manual, which was translated from french into english, german, spanish and italian. However, the game itself is in English only.



The Sword of Stone from 2Minds for the Sega Game Gear

Fabrice Dumas, most of you know him as Ichigo, offered cireza the opportunity to produce the game for collectors' shelves at home, and this led to a collaboration between the two. Ichigo had a transparent case made for The Sword of Stone, which allows the circuit board to be clearly seen. The cover artwork was once again designed by the very talented Yeti Bomar, and Shenron helped cireza to test the game. The quality of the case, the instructions, and the poster are absolutely outstanding once again, even if the cardboard box doesn´t have a hang tab, which will certainly not bother many people. The game cartridge also has battery-backed memory. In August 2025, the 2nd batch of the finished game has been shipped to the happy gaming community, after the first batch has been shipped in may 2024.
According to cireza, a Master System version of The Sword of Stone is not planned, but it has not been ruled out either. He made a possible Master System conversion dependent on the success of the Game Gear version, but also pointed out that a conversion for the Master System would be very time-consuming. After completing The Sword of Stone, cireza began working on new projects, making a Master System port of the game even less likely, but we can look forward to some new upcoming games in the future, which he´s forging for us.


Top: Yeti Bomar at work
Bottom: The beautiful circuit board from 2Minds


Title screen


It´s worth to talk to
people


Options


Our heroes need companions to progress

Character selection


Some actions can only be performed by certain companions


The magical map is revealed piece by piece

The rulers are guarded by knights who know how to defend them well

Story & Gameplay

While you were out for a walk on the beach, a strange object draws your attention. Buried in the hot sand, lies an old, partially burnt book. As it is still early in the day, you decide to sit down and start reading...
This mysterious novel, entitled "The Sword of Stone", tells the story of a world called Mindevil. Tensions are rising between the four kingdoms and a conflict seems unavoidable. In the middle of these upcoming battles are three courageous heroes who will play a determining role in the story: Cill, Volk and Leaf.
Each carries his own past, tied to the kingdom where he came from and beyond. In their quest for peace, the three adventurers will meet allies who will help them, and even sometimes share revelations concerning the true intentions of the kingdom´s leaders. Their personal journeys will eventually become a quest for truth along the various chapters of the story... It´s up to you to guide them to it´s conclusion.
The Sword of Stone is a visual novel for the Game Gear with adventure elements, in which you can roam freely through a world called Mindevil. You play with several characters in seven chapters and start the game with either the fighter Cill, the monk Volk, or the hermit Leaf, and during the game, new opportunities arise for a second chapter with each of the three characters. The heroes can defeat certain enemies in the game, but not others. At the beginning of the game, you receive a magical map that records and displays each newly explored area. The goal of the game is to uncover the truth behind the story and the world of Mindevil.


A look at the map of the country of Mindevil

The four kingdoms of Mindevil are Holybanner, ruled by Goldrhan; Viaflora, ruled by Elanar; Cindersun, ruled by Sin-Tarin; and Blugust, ruled by the enigmatic Holtrung. In the center of the country is a place called Cliff's Town, which should be your first port of call at the beginning of each chapter. The heroes also find some companions, such as the blind woman Morgane with her mysterious powers or the magician Xavir from the Blugust Kingdom. The game has two phases: the movement phase allows the heroes to wander through Mindevil, and the event phase allows interactions to be managed. This means that during this phase, conversations with other characters take place or battles with monsters are held. You can look around the place you are in and examine it. If you find objects, you can examine them as well or open doors, but you can also attack enemies. Sometimes you also have the opportunity to ask a potential ally to accompany you. In the main menu, you can save the game, view the map, or check the current status of your team, which explains what abilities the team members have and what the items in your inventory can be used for. With the directional pad, you can navigate the heroes through the land and with the Start button, you can access the main menu.


Left: People often have valuable tips for the heroes
Right: Cill meets Xavir - will he accompany her?

Button 1 is used to interact with game elements, and button 2 is used to exit the menu and return to the movement phase. A new chapter of the story can be started on the title screen and completed chapters are saved thanks to the backup battery. You can continue a chapter you´ve already started or adjust various options such as text speed and character spacing. You can take a look at your already completed chapters or delete your entire game progress. In The Sword of Stone, you cannot go Game Over. However, it´s highly recommended to save regularly.
The battles in this game do not follow the usual patterns you know from most RPG adventures. Rather, progress at certain points depends on the characters you have in your party. For example, Cill can only defeat spiders, while Xavir can only defeat slime monsters. If you can't defeat a specific enemy, you have to find another way to move on.
The graphics are reminiscent of classics such as Golden Axe Warrior or Miracle Warriors, and the amazing music is no different and stays in your ears. The game plays very well on the Game Gear, and I couldn't find any bugs that would affect the gameplay.

Gordman´s opinion

In 2013, I got a Game Gear Carry All Case for just 10 bucks. The Game Gear looked perfect, but it was technically in a poor condition, so a few years later I sent it to England for a complete overhaul, and it came back in great condition shortly afterwards. It wasn't until now, in 2025, that I was able to really play on it for the first time, and The Sword of Stone gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. The artwork looks great, as you'd expect from the talented Yeti Bomar, and the game manual is beautifully designed. Ichigo is just talented in so many ways. Cireza has made an impressive debut as a programmer with The Sword of Stone, coming up with a very mystical story that reveals itself more and more and leads to a very interesting ending that once again reminds me of the matrix. It should be noted that The Sword of Stone has two endings, a good one and a bad one, and the way you reach the good ending is absolutely genious. I´m playing video games since my earliest childhood days, but this ending is a unique and brilliant experience.
The graphics and color palette are typical Sega style, and I find the music especially impressive, considering that cireza recorded it “by ear.” This music easily rivals the soundtracks of the Sega adventures of the 8-bit era. When you encounter the rulers, an incredibly exciting atmosphere is created that gives me the chills. I really liked that. I also think the way the main characters come together and how you discover more and more of the map is cleverly done. Even the enemy positioning is so well thought-out that I'm really impressed by Fabien Morand, who told me how complicated that was. I mean, it's not just the programming itself, which is certainly the most difficult part of development, but also to create a good story.


Left: At the beginning of the game, you´ll find a book and start to read it - what´s going to happen?
Right: Is there a way to get past these stone giants?

All heroes experience their adventures in different ways, and because the opponents always stand in the same places, I find it really impressive how Fabien has designed the map. Once again, the version from 2Minds looks absolutely fantastic in every aspect. The transparent game cart is a great idea, and the entire cover looks incredibly designed. I admit that I often got lost in this game, which is why I recommend taking small notes on the side in case you discover something important. Using the map on paper could also be very useful if you don't have a cartographic memory. I had the most issues with the second chapter of Volk, and I am very grateful to cireza for the valuable tips he gave me. Fortunately for me, I can say that I am not the only one who got stuck in some places. If you are having similar problems and could need some help, you can check out the thread about the game on SMS Power! The playing time can vary depending on how well you can navigate through the map, but even good players will still spend a few hours on it. If you accidentally repeat long dialogues by pressing Talk again after a conversation, you have to skip through the entire dialogue again, which can take up to a minute. It would have been nice if you could have skipped these dialogues with the Start button. All in all, however, The Sword of Stone, which focuses on the story as a visual novel, is an interesting experience for me, and I find it really impressive what cireza has created with his very first game. It's not only a beautiful collector's item, but also great for relaxing evenings on the Game Gear. Maybe it's time for Sega to start paying attention to the homebrew scene and do something with it. A big shoutout to the french Master System community, which is still one of the most faithful to this little 8-bit legend!


Concept drawings by Yeti Bomar

Availability

The Sword of Stone was available for purchase in the 2Minds Shop and is out of stock now. During the rest of the year 2025, 2Minds may add new copies, so keep an eye out. The game may be re-released by another publisher one day, and again, I can only recommend following cireza on the SMS Power! boards to stay up to date.
 

Links

- Thread on SMS Power!: [WIP] GG : The Sword of Stone
- Coding Competitions 2024 Video: The Sword Of Stone - cireza - SMS Power! Coding Competition 2024
- The Sword of Stone in the 2Minds Shop: The Sword of Stone

Do you like my work? If you´d like to help me paying the yearly server bills for the Game Treasure, you could send me a voluntary donation via Paypal to marco_kelm@yahoo.de. I am very thankful and happy about every help!

All used pictures and screenshots in this article belong to their respective owners and have been taken for journalistic purposes only. Thanks to everyone who was involved in the development of this amazing game!

 


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