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This an unreleased FMV game pushed as an “erotic thriller” for older audiences. With a reported budget of 2-3 million dollars, Sega’s new division SegaSoft aimed to expand the experiences available on Saturn, PC, Macintosh, and PSX. Although Sacred Pools made a legendary debut at E3 1996, the press panned the game for its quality and it was quietly pushed aside to never be heard from again. In May of 2022, Joe Cain, avid game collector and former game tester at Sega of America revealed that an old colleague - David Gray, who worked as an associate producer on the game alongside high-ranking members of SegaSoft, had prototype discs that were given to him as a parting gift in 1999 during the final days of SegaSoft which contained alpha builds for Saturn, PC, and PSX. They were made available for public download in Oct/2022. If you crave mystery, power, and seduction, step into the world of Sacred Pools. The once secure, safe, and beautiful island of Amazonia is now a land of temptation and danger. Sacred Pools exploits today’s technology creating a new level of gameplay so unreal you have to feel it to believe it. The game’s story revolves around the mystical sacred crystals on the far-off island of Amazonia. The island was once a safe area but has now become a dangerous spot littered with lust and desire. On your way to the titular sacred pools, you’ll encounter a plethora of far-out sci-fi enemies, who you’ll need to navigate past to get to the crystals. Although the game featured many scantily clad women, none of the footage contained any fully naked bodies. The game’s VNRS technology (“Virtual Navigation in Real Space”) allowed seamless 3D movement in FMV environments. There is not much information about VNRS (for all we know, it could just be marketing mumbo jumbo) but you can see a crumb of it in gameplay. There are hardly any cuts in Sacred Pools. When you have to make a turn, the camera follows your POV. It often does feel like 3D. The focus of the game is exploring the mazes littered across the world. You get few clues as to where you should go, and you’ll often end up at a dead end, lost, face-to-face with an enemy. You watch the camera trudge down the wrong way and then watch it reverse. The mazes make the game feel extraordinarily slow at times. |
