For being the first game that they would ever make, Quintet absolutely knocked it out of the park with the original ActRaiser, blending together typical, yet still fun and engaging platforming elements with easy to understand, yet still enjoyable god game segments spliced in between. It was an odd mix-up of genres to be sure, but one that absolutely paid off, and made for one of the best early entries in the SNES’s lifespan. So, after all that was said and done, Quintet wanted to move on from ActRaiser, looking towards other kinds of games they could make in the coming years, and they did so with both Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. However, in the mix of all that, Enix of America, the company that helped publish the first game, requested a sequel to ActRaiser from Quintet, one that would specifically be made under their specifications, and one that would be made more appealing to “Western audiences”. For anyone who is familiar with the development of… well, anything, those kind of intentions always mean bad things will come, but nevertheless, they went ahead and made this sequel, which would simply be known as ActRaiser 2.

Going into this game, I knew about the “infamous” reputation it had when compared to the original game, with it not only getting rid of the god game segments all together, because apparently we can’t handle that type of shit over here, but what was left was also deemed vastly inferior to its predecessor. I didn’t wanna go into it with low expectations, thinking that the game was gonna be dogshit, so I kept high spirits, because after all, the platforming segments from the original was still fun, so maybe this game would be able to replicate that once again. However… that’s not quite what we got out of this. While I certainly wouldn’t say the game is bad, it doesn’t come anywhere close to the quality of the original game, and the problems that it does have, coupled with the piece of soul that is missing from the full package, is noticeable when you try the game out for yourself.

The story is typical for that of a sequel, where after Tanzra’s defeat from the last game, his minions, including the seven deadly sins, work to raise Tanzra back from the dead to rain havoc on the world once more, so it is up to the Master to rise up once again and take him down, which is typical as all hell, but then again, what more can you expect from a sequel that was never meant to happen. The graphics are pretty good, being an improvement over the previous game, but not substantially different, which is all fine in my book, the music is pretty good, having plenty of tunes that fit right in with this world, and are pretty good to listen to, the control is about what you would expect, although some of the actions you can perform can be a little tricky to figure out at first, and the gameplay is also what you would expect, but with several changes made, both of which benefit and hinder the overall package.

The game is a 2D action platformer, where you take control of the Master once again, go through plenty of different stages all across the land, use your mighty sword or powers to defeat many different foes that you will encounter along the way, gather plenty of HP and MP pick ups to assist you when you need a helping hand, and fight plenty of big, bad bosses that will certainly test your skill, precision, and patience. It is all what you would expect if you were someone who played the original ActRaiser, and it works well… enough, for the most part, and there are some new features here that do make it differ somewhat from the original.

For starters, unlike the original game, where you had to earn the different spells you could cast and equip them as such, you automatically have them at all times, where you have to charge them up, and then unleash them whenever hitting a specific direction or being in a specific pose. These work well enough, and they can deal loads of damage to enemies and bosses, but I don’t typically like to rely on them all the time, and I generally save them for boss fights. Alongside this, the Master now has a double jump, where upon the second jump, he can deploy wings, and glide safely over to another platform that he wants to land on……… and I fucking hate these things. Yeah, they do help you reach other areas, but more often than not, it is very finicky trying to position yourself correctly when flying through the air, and whenever you land, the Master likes to do this sliding motion, which can lead to your death. Sure, there is a way you can make that a lot easier on yourself by just holding up, but this will lead into another issue that I will get to in just a second. Aside from all that though, there isn’t anything too new going on here, and for the most part, it all works well enough to where you can get a grip on it.

What doesn’t work, however, are the couple issues that severely drag this game down. For some reason, the Master went to the Belmont School of Walking, and as such, he moves at a snail’s pace, especially compared to the first game, where you could speed through plenty of stages. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for most of the game, but there were plenty of times where I would try to jump towards a specific platform or ledge, and yet I wouldn’t make it all because the Master just refuses to go above 2MPH. But that isn’t too much of an issue compared to this game’s main issue: it is BRUTAL. The first game was already challenging enough, but at least that difficulty felt fair, but here, oh my god, it is relentless. There are enemies placed all over that you will need to deal with, making it really hard to properly use those wings I mentioned earlier, which is also coupled by level design that is complete ass, making it so that there are several situations where it feels like you can’t go through without getting hit. That’s not even getting into how the bosses can also be pretty damn tough at times, and with the amount of damage you can take at once, it is no wonder why people would get sick of this game after a while.

But, with all that being said, I wouldn’t say that the overall experience was completely terrible… it just isn’t that good either. It manages to get the job done, and when you overcome the challenges present before you, you do feel pretty relieved and satisfied. Not to mention, the overall aesthetic of the game does exude the same charm and energy that the original game had, with you getting to hear about the many towns of the land and what they have to go through in-between levels. Of course, none of that really excuses the bullshit parts that you will run into, along the two, count em, TWO, boss rushes that you have to do to beat the game. Seriously, boss rushes are already bad enough in games, but you expect me to go through two of them for this game? That is quite a lot to ask of me, game, especially after what I had to go through earlier.

Overall, despite the energy, charm, and charisma of the game still being as strong as ever, along with the main gameplay itself still being fun enough to go through, the many different challenges, handicaps, and moments of bullshit you have to go through to conclude your journey really drag this whole thing down, to where I can only say that the game is ok, and nothing more. I would recommend it only if you LOVED the platforming sections from ActRaiser one, as well as those who are big into old school platformers in general, because there is enough here to entertain those crowds, but there is not enough here to justify die-hard ActRaiser fans to check this game out. But hey, if it's any consolation, at least this is the last that we would see of the ActRaiser series (aside from a remake), as we would never get any kind of sequel to follow up this one… which is honestly a blessing in disguise. Not sure what else they could pull out of their ass to make you suffer for a third title.

Game #499

Outside of the good graphics and overall presentation, this is a pretty frustrating game, and arguably, one of the most difficult games on the SNES.

This is immediately felt when you play the first level. The enemies respawn very frequently, you're really slow, and the worst of all is the double jump and how they decided to go with it.
Double jumping quickly turns into a hard to control glide, and combined with the wide areas you need to jump through, together with badly placed enemies, be prepared to die and repeat the levels a lot.
These issues become more and more evident and annoying with each passing level, turning this into an unsatisfactory to beat game.