NFTs in Rent A Hero Z prove you should be careful what you wish for

I have a real good news/bad news situation for you, but prepare yourself, because – if you’re like most people reading this site – the bad news is going to wipe out all the good. Ready? The good news is that Sega has revealed that the Rent-a-hero back. The bad news is that it’s going to include 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 much information about it, other than a tweet and a press release from the company (spotted by Time Extension). All we know is that it’s called Hire a Hero Z and SEGA created a theme song for the project Master Hiro and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.

If you are not smart, Hire a hero is a Japan-only Mega Drive/Genesis RPG. It was later remade on Dreamcast (later ported to Xbox) as Hire a Hero #1Also only released in Japan. If you’ve never heard of it, that’s understandable. But even here in North America, where we’ve never had an official release, it’s a beloved possession.

I think this announcement is a big indication that Sega is making good on its strategy of prioritizing live service and Web3 titles and leveraging its existing properties to do so. I was very skeptical when they announced the return of games like Crazy taxi And False Nobi. While False Nobi seems like a faithful new entry, the new Crazy taxi seems to be positioned as a multiplayer game, and will most likely be a live service with cosmetic microtransactions. And that’s optimistic. It could easily have Web3 elements as well.

It’s great to see Sega return to classic licenses, but their goals take away all my enthusiasm. I wanted a new Crazy taxi for a long time, but if it’s a GaaS, I’m out.

No release date or platform has been announced yet for Hire a Hero ZMore is expected to be revealed during Tokyo Game Show.

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