The story centers on the player character Corona, a boy who has just turned 14 years of age and must inherit his late father's sword to fight the monsters that threaten the human race's existence.

As the story progresses, numerous animals join the hero and aid him with special abilities, often granting the player passage to previously inaccessible areas.

Sega's North American branch passed on publishing duties in its own territory and the game was instead picked up by Atlus USA for a 1995 release, albeit with a different English translation.

[7] These individuals founded a new developer under the name GAU Entertainment and released the run-and-gun game Ranger X for the Genesis before renaming the company to Nextech.

Despite a few standout franchises like Phantasy Star, Shining, and Lunar being exclusive to its consoles, Sega was losing that region's market to its biggest competitor Nintendo and the plethora of quality RPGs available on the SNES.

[6][9] Producer, planner, and writer Yayoi Onda stated that Crusader of Centy was conceptualized as an action RPG that would be easy for anyone to play.

Despite not having traditional RPG elements like experience points, she explained that the developer wished to give the player a sense of growth through the gradual acquisition of new abilities.

[6] Onda wrote the story for Crusader of Centy to be lighthearted with several plot twists, but felt she made the dialogue too long-winded in places.

Yamamoto admitted that designing the overworld map was a challenge between having to create its terrain in pixel form and implementing the hit detection for the areas with which the player could interact.

[6] Main programmer Yukihiko Tani revealed that he did not want the numerous ideas the designers put forth in the planning stages to go to waste due to programming limitations.

[1][7][11] According to GameFan magazine, an official for Sega's North American branch disclosed that the subsidiary was given the option to localize either Crusader of Centy or Beyond Oasis in its own region, ultimately choosing the latter.

[19] Next Generation rated it three stars out of five, and stated that "Centy is a mirror image of the immensely popular Zelda, and is a load of fun that Genesis owners have yet to experience.

[24] The main producer, designer, and writer of Crusader of Centy, Yayoi Onda, went on to serve similar roles for the Nextech Sega Saturn RPG Linkle Liver Story.

[10] Media outlets have reported that pre-owned physical copies of Crusader of Centy command relatively expensive sale prices within the video game collecting community in the decades following its original launch.