I'm sure the game is great in it's own right, but I think it's a bit odd to suggest Sega went for the jugular when pretty much nobody ever mentions this game anymore, whereas everyone know ALTTP. This of course isn't necessarily an indicator of actual quality, but it does make me wonder how much stuff like nostalgia might be playing in to the OPs opinion here. That said, it does look great and I'd certainly be willing to give it a shot if it was rereleased in a convenient way
I'm not sure making a game that failed to resonate with a wide enough audience and hence never getting a sequel, spinoff, or even a proper port to any future system, is really considered "going for the jugular". A more apt phrase to for this game is "You come at the king, you best not miss". Unfortunately for all their best intentions, the game did miss the audience and hence is largely forgotten until brought up again in threads like this that deal with obscure and forgotten games.
Sorry that the truth hurts, but Zelda takes no prisoners. This game is not bad though.
Guys all the late-gen Genesis stuff was fucked. Even the much more remembered heavy hitters like Ristar, Vectorman and Streets of Rage 3. The only game I can think of that survived that timeframe was (the heavily marketed) Sonic and Knuckles. This was because in 1994/5:
1. Sega stopped supporting the Genesis, focusing on the 32X momentarily and when that failed, the Saturn
2. Nintendo carried on supporting the SNES, hardcore, as the N64 was still ways off
3. PlayStation and Saturn on the horizon. The PSX and Saturn launched in Japan '94. The US and EU '95.
Then you have the late-gen stuff that was Japan only like Golden Axe 3 and Monster World IV. Hell, this is a pattern of most late-gen Sega games because Sega had a tendency to drop their consoles. Like Sonic Triple Trouble, Burning Rangers and Crazy Taxi 2.
Sometimes Sega would "revive" the games by repeatedly including them in their constant Genesis collections (Streets of Rage 3, Golden Axe 3) or even with standalone re-releases (Monster World IV) but Sega are famous for treating their legacy games with nowhere near the care that Nintendo does.
To
Mama Robotnik's credit (amazing thread by the way, love this series, some of the best threads on Era) Soleil might be the greatest casualty outside of some obscure Saturn stuff because it did the Burning Rangers thing of "let's act like this never existed and never re-release it in any form ever again".
TLDR: Sega stopped supporting the Genesis, never supported this game, then or now, and Sega ultimately gonna Sega.