I'm a big fan of genre mashups. For a while now, the best way to get my attention and stand out from within the neverending tide of new releases is to do "genre 1 + genre 2" to make combinations I haven't seen before. Sometimes these result in great new games that do something innovative, and sometimes they produce an incoherent mess, or just an underwhelming experience. And whilst I associate most of this school of design with modern indie games, I knew that they certainly weren't the inventors of this approach; and I thought I had to pay my respects to the OG weird genre mashup : Actraiser (and yeah I know there were weird genre mixes even further back depending on what you count but remember that video game genres are bullshit anyways so its fine)

The strength of a hybrid gameplay model is 2 fold. One is that its an in-built tool for pacing wherein one mode is a nice change of pace/a break from the other. Though more conventional, games like Persona (3 onwards), XCOM, Recettear etc keep the line going up and down with their respective gameplay models. When I'm tired of hanging out in P5 I can do a dungeon and when Im tired of that I can go back and eat a giant burger in Shibuya. The other is that the gameplay modes can feed into each other and make what might be two vastly different mechanical exercises integrate more closely through these connections like getting weapon fragments from killed aliens in missions in XCOM to build laser rifles back in the base to kill aliens more efficiently to get more fragments etc.

That last part is usually the make or break for the genre hybrid in my experience. At best, the two tie seamlessly together in a way that it makes you wonder how no one thought about this before, at worst both become a slog or one feels bolted to the other unnaturally, you resent one mode from keeping you away from the other. There is also a third approach, where you simply don't try all that hard to integrate the two modes or even at all, which can also work.

Actraiser kinda tries to integrate its city building with its castlevania-esque action platforming, but not super hard. And I think it works in that respect. You play as an avatar of "the NOT Christian God" helping various settlements to grow in population by directing them to build towards available land, clearing swamps and foliage, killing demons who respawn until the towns grow close enough to their lairs to close them etc. You do this so more people can worship you, which makes you more powerful and therefore more able to foil the plans of "NOT Satan". Its a cool (and you'll forgive me for using this word) ludonarrative, wherein a symbiotic relationship exists between god and those who worship him, God protects his flock from evil who in turn make him stronger. It also pre empts the usual narrative question of "how can there be an antagonist to an omnipotent being?" by making the battle between good and evil also a battle for the hearts and minds of people, the will of the creator being realized through their work.

This is brought up more explicitly during the Maranha Arc, an island with a pretty substantial presence of monsters, leaving you to constantly kill the demons in the overworld lest they get 5 seconds to burn the peoples' crops. The narrative of that particular episode involves the people being seduced by the dark forces and eventually even the temple priests who communicate with you go over to the demons' side. After you defeat the evil demons they explain that they were deceived by the demons due to the hardship they suffered, their faith wavering when faced with hunger and violence. This reminds a bit of the story of Job from the bible, who was tested at the behest of "the adversary" to prove to God that his faith was only due to his blessed circumstances. Ultimately Job endures great suffering without turning his back on God which leads him to be greatly rewarded.

There is also the matter of the "demons" being based on figures from other religions like the minotaur, pharaohs (who were the gods' representatives on earth in egyptian mythology) , various others from nordic and hindu mythology etc. The master is a jealous god, angered by these "false idols", its no surprise the game was subject to censorship when being localised in the west to avoid the more overt references to christianity and religion in general. As much as the game is a metaphor for monotheism I think there's also a hint of Buddhism, possibly due to Quintet(the studio which made Actraiser) being a japanese studio. There is mention in the epilogue of reincarnation and whilst in keeping with Christian lore, the idea of humans being straying from righteousness by the allure of demons who keep them in suffering on this earthly realm through violence smacks a bit of Mara, the demonic representative of death, rebirth and pleasure, who tried to stop Siddharta Gautama from achieving enlightenment.

Actraiser does a lot with very little, in this respect, and I kind of wish there was more to this, the game is rather brief and most of the "point" is relayed right at the end after the final boss rush, at which time I'm a bit too high off of the victory to meditate on human's tendencies to abandon religion when their living standards rise. Actraiser is definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The menuing and UX of the city building is a bit clunky, not being able to do anything whilst a town is being constructed is ok, but can you just let me use my powers without having to show me the slow text box explaining its use every single time I use them? The platforming is good, has that weighty movement reminiscent of a Castlevania 1 but the hitboxes can be a bit dodgy, sometimes in the enemy's favour, sometimes in the player's. Hitting enemies at floor height remains kind of a crap shoot all the way to the final boss. I am pretty shit at the game but thankfully Actraiser is a lot more generous with the wall chicken than CV1 is. And hell, worst case scenario you can go back and increase the population to upgrade your max health. Not a big fan of the final boss gauntlet, its always a gut punch reading a guide for a game who says "yeah this boss is bullshit, just use your fuck you spell to kill him quickly, the other bosses can be fought normally".

In the end though, I enjoyed Actraiser, I think its rightfully seen as a classic and will rank highly if I ever make a list of my favourite genre hybrid games. I have heard that the sequel abandons the god game aspect entirely, and that sounds like kind of a waste... I'll play it eventually but not anytime soon.

So, you're God. No work-arounds, you're simply God, and you take care of your people and your creation. People go to the temple to revere you and give you offerings that help you. People's faith strengthens you.

At the end of the game, once you're finished with your work and have defeated evil, people stop visiting temples. Why? Because they don't need you anymore. The game reveals itself as a bitter allegory of people's relationship with religion, a very common theme in Quintet's games in the 90s.

ActRaiser utilizes God simulation mechanics to make the player a direct participant in creation to form a bond to the people that have faith in you and make the finale more resonant.

Spend any time in the indie space and you'll be bombarded by a sea of 'genre 1 + genre 2' projects with fleeting aims and fanatical foundations. And it's not that these games are fusions of disparate playstyles, but rather tandem affairs - usually doing one thing for a bit then alternating to another. Sometimes they pull it off - having one gameplay style drive the experience while feeding experiential unlocks into the other more passive mode. Even games that don't advertise themselves as mashups do this. But I don't know an immediate project to point at that succeeds at doing it without having two gameplay styles with absolutely no threads or reward systems feeding into each other at a large-scale level.

Actraiser does this - and well. Not the first of its kind by a wide margin, but maybe the one with the highest contrast between its play types. One-part classicvania-style action game, another-part god-sim. Besides some HP boosts and low-level items you can get for the action stages, there's no overlap in how the two interface. Taken at face value individually, they're both just ok - the sim is somewhat sluggish with how you have to direct your town's growth towards vantage points while constantly being locked out of the menu that lets you do that, and the classicvania shtick has some bad levels and bosses near the end. Combining them doesn't 'fix' either, but there's a good rhythm between how the game divides and transports you to each step. Every area is 'Act 1 -> Sim -> Act 2', though after the first level it feels more like 'Sim -> Act 2 -> Act 1': A low-profile breather gameplay style followed by an imposing challenge, and ended with a breadcrumb into the next major worldbuilding bits and conquest. It's a great fluctuation in theory and in practice.

The end of the game has a text crawl where the cherub tells you how all the civilizations have been doing, and I couldn't be bothered to read it cause the text moves as slow as hell. Hope the master is doing ok up there with all that free time of his.

CINEMA.

Simplesmente maravilhoso em todos os aspectos, ActRaiser merece um beijo e todo meu carinho que jogo INCRIVEL!

De começo eu fiquei muito perdido no que fazer mas nada que uma boa lida rápida em um detonado não me ajudasse. Depois disso foi só alegria, sua gameplay tanto do anjinho e nas fases em que você é uma estátua braba funciona muito bem, só achei o controle dele de pulo um pouco diferente dos outros jogos de plataforma o que me deixa um pouco irritado durante as fases, mas obviamente eu não poderia esperar algo tranquilo e que me acalmasse, a velha Capcom fazia jogos absurdos em dificuldades e qualidade e actraiser é um deles.

Claro, eu to exagerando. Ele também não é tão difícil assim quanto to dizendo, na real ele é ate tranquilo, só que tu tem que ter paciência em ambos os modos de jogo pois a pressa aqui vai ser sua inimiga em tudo.

E é impossível elogiar esse jogo e não dizer de sua história e suas reflexões passadas através dela que impactam muito bem, mesmo sendo um jogo do início dos anos 90, ele tem uma narrativa muito bem construída e agradável que desenrola de um jeito que você não espera, apesar de ficar repetitiva em alguns momentos.

Enfim, ta esperando o que? JOGA ACTRAISER tu precisa eu to te falando

Dear God, please watch over me and bless my writing so I can turn in a really kickass review of ActRaiser, and also give me a gamer girlfriend and a copy of Shadow the Hedgehog for the Nintendo Gamecube because mine has a scratched up disc and won't load Mad Matrix. Amen.

I feel like only a few years ago nobody knew about this game, but by now I probably don't even need to explain ActRaiser's main hook to you. As every other review on this page points out, the blend of action-platformer and city builder should not go together, but Quintet was able to take these two radically different genres and blend them so well that ActRaiser never for a moment feels like it lacks cohesion.

The gameplay loop is also very focused despite juggling two totally divergent gameplay styles. The player assumes the role of The Master, one part gladiator and one part community planner. Each location opens with an action stage where The Master is tasked with cleansing the land of its demonic presence. Once the area boss and its minions are defeated, the player can begin building a new human settlement. Laying down roads, performing miracles, and closing demonic portals helps your civilization develop and grants The master additional HP and SP. After a certain point in a settlement's progress, you'll hop into another action stage, fully liberate the land, and then move on to the next location.

The action stages play great. Some really solid and at times challenging platforming, great boss encounters, and excellent level design make these every bit as engrossing as the city building that breaks them up. Performing well in stages provides additional benefits to building your city, which in turn levels up the player for subsequent action stages. It's a really satisfying way to tie the two gameplay styles together and reward the player for excelling in both.

City building is nowhere near as complicated as other city builders of the time, cutting out a significant amount of micromanagement, though it never becomes a totally brainless affair. If anything, this speeds up the rate at which your city develops while giving the player tasks that can be completed quickly. This helps the game maintain a fairly snappy pace, and it never feels like you go too long between action stages, or vise versa. It's this more concise system of city building that makes ActRaiser work.

It's unfortunate that the recent return of ActRaiser screwed up this formula so badly, but then that was also true of its direct sequel (which I'll get to soon.) If you really sit down and break the games systems apart it's not hard to see why it works, but whether through over thinking or just plain buffoonery, nobody has been able to replicate it since. Thankfully, ActRaiser is pretty easy to play today, and it's not like it's hard to figure out SNES emulation (but that would be stealing and stealing is wrong and if you do it you're going to get a visit from The Master and you are NOT going to like it.) If you're looking for a good platformer or a good city builder, you can't go wrong here.

One of only a few launch year titles for the SNES, and certainly the most unique of that bunch. It's kind of a marvel how they executed such an honestly crazy idea so well. You would think alternating between sidescroller levels and city building simulators would be insane and get monotonous really quick, or that you would vastly prefer one to the other, but I pretty thoroughly enjoyed both for the whole game's runtime. I found myself a lot more attached to the towns I was creating than I had anticipated, especially due to the beautiful and very satisfying ending the game leaves on.

It doesn't require as much time as it sounds like it would, only 4-5 hours I would say. Would definitely recommend this one, I promise it's simpler than it may seem.

While basically every generation of games has brought forth a new wave of innovation and experimentation, I've always felt like the one with the SNES is one of my favourites and most interesting on this front. This felt like around the point where developers as a whole got a better grasp on design conventions and rules, allowing them to mess around with them and think of some very novel experiences as a result, not to mention having a shiny, new system that allows these ideas to be executed with a bit more finesse. Actraiser is one such example but it ends up going a step further by being a game that genuinely is more or less one of a kind, as I cannot think of any other game that combines action platforming with city management/ god game. Of course ideas alone don't make for a great game, but despite some flaws here and there, ActRaiser also is just an awesome game in general.

I feel like one of the biggest ways in which this game succeeds is the way that the core loop is downright evil in how addictive it feels, essentially being a constant positive feedback generator that makes every moment not only feel satisfying, but also gets you excited to get to the next section of the game as well. This is due to the way the god game and platformer sections feed into each other so cleanly and support each other throughout the entire playthrough. The upgrades in the game are entirely provided to the player through this management part, whether it's health, magic, or even special items. This makes it feel extremely rewarding to make each town flourish and expand, knowing that it will net your rewards that make you feel considerably more powerful. This in turn makes you look forward to the next platforming section in order to test out your new abilities and feel stronger, which causes the player to continue expanding their cities to accomplish this. Once the opportunity to take one of these on appears however, all progress on a city is forced to stop, making you also want to get through the platforming stage in order to further expand and increase your own power. Every moment of the game leaves you wanting more because of this, and I think it's really cleverly handled to create a true sense of drive.

Of course it also helps that the game itself is mostly great and capitalises on a sense of approachable, intuitive simplicity. When you actually look at this a bit closer, you realise that the whole management stuff is very mechanically simple, mainly requiring you to shoot down flying enemies and give your villagers direction on where to expand to next, sometimes performing miracles to clear their paths or to help them increase the population. All the stuff like food or infrastructure is determined by the citizens which leaves you to only the broader tasks. While this might seem like a failure to capitalise on an interesting premise, I feel that its simplicity is great as it means that things feel more evenly balanced between the two sides, and there's less of a chance for there to be needless distraction, culminating in a more streamlined experience. Despite this, each town feels very alive and unique thanks to the way the town leaders come to you and talk about the town's own problems and customs. Seeing the difference in cultures between each area helps make the world as a whole feel varied and alive, and makes you really want to help all the people through their problems. This especially is great with some later plot points reinforcing the fact that each of the people you've helped are their own entities and were happy to help you back in order to destroy the monsters, making you once again remember that despite all you can do, you still couldn't have done it without these others.

The 2D platformer sections are really the main thing that stop me loving this even more, even though I still think there's a lot to love in these areas. While the game feels rough and a bit slow up here, it ends up being somewhat acceptable due to the way it feels more like these sections are vessels for a spirit of adventure, for the spectacle, for the aesthetic, more than to provide a perfectly tight, polished experience, and on this front, things work so well. Basically every stage has its own unique atmosphere and aesthetic to it, looking beautiful in the process to craft a true sense of scope to it all, with the unique settings further making every level cool to progress through. The first few levels are also incredibly clever in how they teach the player the intended way to approach the game and keep expanding upon it. This felt particularly clear in the way the 2nd area forced the player to abandon any of the bad habits that could have been picked up beforehand. The fairly slow, clunky way in which the character moves makes it seem as if the easiest and best way to progress through many situations is simply to tank the damage and trade blows, but this concept is destroyed in the 2nd stage thanks to almost every obstacle being tailor-made to punish greed and overly aggressive play. It feels like a borderline insurmountable challenge at points as long as the player continues approaching things in this reckless manner, but the moment it clicks that the game is meant to be a more methodical one, it all feels very easy for the most part, which is something that I think is indicative of a stroke of genius design.

The issue is that the last couple of stages feel like they lose a lot of this underlying nuance and replace it with annoying difficulty that almost just tells the player "you have enough health at this point that you shouldn't even bother trying to approach things properly anymore, just rush in and you'll probably get through". It feels like all sense of well designed challenge is removed in favour of either being a cakewalk or being unbearable with its "gotcha" moments, and it makes the ending section of the game feel as if it falters a bit, even if the final level and scene do make up for it to some extent. I also feel like these parts don't really expand upon anything either or do anything all that unique, with its differences largely being minor or superficial rather than causing any meaningful change in how the player is made to perceive the challenges ahead of them. Even so, these moments aren't enough to stop me loving this game for how unique and largely amazingly put together it is. It's not the most polished game by any means, but it's got so much heart and charm behind it and ended up being a game I could barely put down once I picked it up. A hidden gem that's one of the most inspired titles on the SNES, more people need to play ActRaiser! More people need to know ActRaiser!! Play ActRaiser, it's so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't expect much from this game and it matched up to that.

Presentation wise the game is great. The graphics are good for an early SNES title with good sprite work and discernible environmental obstacles and backgrounds. The enemies are also varied in each world, but sometimes their patterns are had to get at first. It doesn't help that they occassionally change to. The audio is probably the best part, with music that seems ripped off of an epic.

Gameplay is decent, but the controls made me despise it. You control like a tank in this game. To change where you look you need to move in that direction for 2-3 seconds. The jumping is okay, but you have no way of forcing yourself back on the ground (ie cancelling it, speeding it up) so some specific sections can get frustrating. The boss fights aren't even that great either, ranging from OK at best to frustrating at worst, tending towards the latter. But on the bright side, the final boss fight was good, being challenging yet fair. The rest feel cheap. Their patterns are easy to get but you rarely have any way of hitting them. They simply brute-force their way past you, chipping away your health. It doesn't help the jumping is so slow that you have to stay still while doing it to avoid getting hit. But in the normal moments the gameplay is good with some fun platforming and decent room for exploration. It's unfortunate that the magic spells are really only useful as a clutch rather than being something that can add a little depth to the game.

The sim mode was neat but I didn't get the appeal of it. It was very basic to me and just felt more like padding to the actual meat of the game which is the sidescrolling. It feels more like a gimmick of genre-bending than anything else.

There's some novelty to be found in that it blends two distinct genres, but apart from that I don't find ActRaiser enjoyable.

Eons of memes and bantz about many portrayals of, and commentaries on, gods and religion in Japanese pop media all threaten to frame Quintet's debut as a schmaltzy creation myth. The last thing I expected was a translation of Japan's cosmogony into a commentary on the monomyth, hiding its version of the pre-Imperial hero god Okuninushi (or Onamushi) behind a Judeo-Christian façade. But that's the level of creativity and innovation that the studio's founding staff and contractors strived for. Set aside the simple yet subversive premise and you'll still have one of the most fun and clever hybrids in console software history. ActRaiser's influence never traveled as far as it ought to, largely materialized in series like Dark Cloud, yet it's more than earned its cult classic reputation. Not that I'd call this the Velvet Underground & Nico of xRPGs, but it's a valid comparison. Few if any video games marketed for a wide audience tackled such a broad, charged set of themes and sensations in such a formative period for the medium, no matter the imperfections.

As unwieldy as it sounds, this fusion of two strongly contrasting genres—side-scrolling action platforming and the primordial god simulator—likely couldn't have been bettered in 1990. Bullfrog's seminal Populous had only arrived on Japanese PCs in March, and I've found no evidence of PC-98 developers working with Peter Molyneux's blueprint. We know, however, that the founding members of Quintet, having left Nihon Falcom during the development of Ys III, had finished 70% of what became ActRaiser before having second thoughts. Whether or not they'd seen or played a certain PC-based god game is yet unknown. (Ironically, their former employer's own Lord Monarch shows Yoshio Kiya's own infatuation with Western imports like Populous, though that game's an early real-time strategy wargame.) The group's growth and frustrations while working on Ys and related PC xRPGs might have pushed them to do something risky for a console audience they hadn't yet catered to. Why not bring the essence of a complex Japanese PC simulation title to a workmanlike action platformer a la Dragon Buster or Castlevania?

The waxing and waning divine works its wonders amidst spirits and sovereigns. It takes on forms both distinct and recondite, like shadow to light. Beyond the waking minds of souls freed into a bourgeoning world lives the idyllic hero, desirable yet unknowable, a paragon which leads through belief up until that faith is no longer needed or traditional. Such tales of good versus evil, or many shades past, endure across time, often as aspirations, warnings, and the subject matter of popular art and entertainment. It's this fascination with mythology, and what it means to people and their worldviews, which anyone playing ActRaiser (among other games letting you "play god") must engage with.

Now the goal was to evoke that feeling of playing god, a paradox given the player's inability to shape the game outside those possibilities which developers set for them. They compromised with a dual-avatar story, where both a chiseled holy warrior and boon cherubic messenger shape separate but linked sections of the world. Main writer and planner Tomoyoshi Miyazaki wisely chose to represent this god's duality of presence. In the sky castle, we are without form, and the angel merely a presenter for this abstract interface set among the clouds. But it's not long before the player descends, their guiding light inseparable from the extra-textual, animating a statuesque warrior into action, all to smite and vanquish the dark. On the flipside, the winged child soon becomes our vessel with which to reinvent this realm we've conquered, swapping out fantastic inhabitants for mundane, moldable men and women. Both characters exemplify the almighty in ways we can bond to, but never deny questions about the powers, limits, and mysteries behind what's sublime and what's imagined. To "play god" is also to probe one's identity and ability in context.

Though we're ostensibly the alpha and omega, mortality still matters to us, as The Master incarnates on this Earth in a limited extension of being. Nothing in this game holds back from trying to kill you, whether it's insta-death pits and lava or just an odd thing flying from the side of the screen. ActRaiser plays nice, though, particularly in its NA and EU versions with reduced difficulty and added extra lives. Most levels have smartly-placed checkpoints, letting you learn each segment without running out of time that easily. There's only a few collectible power-ups, either for score or health and 1-ups, but finding those breakables and wisely rationing magic use for the tougher fights is critical. Even if you can't ever Game Over for obvious reasons, starting the action stages from scratch can feel crushing, the good kind that encourages skill and concentration. The "fail state" in sim mode comes from your angel losing all their health to enemy attacks or collisions, at which point you can't fire any arrows. Overworld nasties will take advantage of this temporary vulnerability, snatching up residents, destroying homes, and even razing all your hard work with earthquakes (damn those skulls!). All these challenges and setbacks mirror those of the families we're fostering, or even the monsters one slaughters for that juicy high score. It's a piece of humble pie to counterbalance these grand themes.

All this came to mind as I flew from one region to another, enjoying the safe game loop that ActRaiser makes the most of. On their own, neither the action or sim sequences rank with the best in those genres, even at the time. The Master's stiff controls and lack of mobility options (my kingdom for a Mega Man-ish slide!) often don't match the severity of enemy attacks and zone control later on. I'd be hard-pressed to call the town management engaging just on its own, with very few means to affect what villagers build and very straightforward terraforming puzzles. If one really wanted a top-notch, side-scrolling action game for SNES, let alone other systems and arcade boards, then there's no shortage of options. SimCity might not exactly classify as a god game now, but it fit the earliest definitions back when most started playing it on PCs or, of course, Nintendo's enhanced port. It's the mutual interactions between these modes, simple to understand and swap between, which creates that vaunted positive loop of advancement. The game's main coder and director, Masaya Hashimoto, had figured out with Ys that you could mix even a decent graphic adventure and Hydlide-like action RPG to create something special. No wonder it works here!

The salad of once contradictory, now inter-weaving ideas continues with ActRaiser's locales and cultural tropes. Fillmore's mysterious, metamorphic forest of foes gives way to a city-state in the making, with one of the shrine worshipers playing oracle and then martyr for The Master's cause. Way later on comes Marahna, a Southeast Asia-like region whose darkest jungles and ornate temple of evil clashes against the hardy, pragmatic people you guide to self-sufficiency. Enemy and boss designs range across typical European and Asian fantasy faire, from dwarfs and lycanthropes to serpents and tengu, with big bads like the centaur knight and ice dragon playing to regional theme. These entities would seem banal and rehashed from competing games, but regain some staying power when framed via this conflict between them and amorphous monotheism which you embody. One can sense the sensory and conceptual distance between this god and its subjects, either those it subjugates or the civilizations it cultivates. No one prays to you from the comfort of their own homes; all must congregate in shrines to communicate with the great beyond, something they can imagine but never fathom. Only by your actions does the world change, reflecting values of nurture over nature and other Abrahamic virtues. Any dialogue between this universe's denizens necessarily involves upheaval.

In this way, the final level, a boss rush much like any other from the era, becomes more than just content reuse. It's the cataclysm of God vs. gods, a refutation of polytheism. But it's just as likely a nod to the religious lore Miyazaki would have been most familiar with, the Kojiki and its narrative of Japan's beginnings. Following in the wake of Susanoo, that hero of chaos, Okuninushi emerged from exile in the underworld to defeat his evil brothers who had forced him there. In its manual, ActRaiser draws a direct parallel, with The Master having fallen in battle to Tanzra (or Satan in the JP version) and his cunning siblings. Only after a period of recovery does our god return to the world, long forgotten but ready to reassert a moral order of society and positivity. The Master and Onamuchi both face trials, personages, and climactic battles to unite their lands and usher their peoples from prehistory into history. As such, the dynamic between The Master and Tanzra, already Manichean and inextricable by definition, is also a less than didactic allegory for the national myth Miyazaki & co. (and players) were familiar with.

Quintet uses these devices, both subtle and obvious, to motivate your journey as expected, and to pull the proverbial rug out from underneath. Imagine doing all this hard work, slicing and jumping through obstacle courses, then sparing villagers from demonic intervention as you pave new roads and fields for them, only to become invisible, beyond recognition. Onamuchi himself acquiesced to this fate, ceding the earthly kami's rulership of Japan to Amaterasu's heavenly lineage. The concept of divinity you brought to these societies was once pivotal to their survival and eventual growth, a uniting force transcending the chaos surrounding them. But in a stable, almost arcadian state of affairs, this godly example now has each and every human finding faith in themselves and others, not in The Master and its herald. ActRaiser ends with a striking inversion of the game's most iconic cinematic tool, the constant Mode 7 zooming in on each action stage you visit. Finally, after the bittersweet revelation that no one visits any shrines anymore—that your own creation has moved on from you, emotionally and ritualistically—the game zooms out, the continents shrinking into nothing as this reality ceases to consider you, or vice versa.

I was genuinely agape when this happened. The game had shown some forward-thinking use of video games' formal elements, mainly to emphasize the uncanny gulf between the clean user interface and what diegetic actions/consequences the buttons led to. But this moment went well beyond those little touches, demonstrating how Miyazaki, Hashimoto, and others at Quintet sought a novel style of storytelling, moving on from the face-value imitation of manga and anime in previous works. For all its issues and missed opportunities, ActRaiser nails these once one-of-a-kind twists that shake you up, simultaneously indulging in new audiovisual potential while using it to the medium's advantage. These surprises aren't as common as I'd hope for throughout the game, but when they happen, oh do they succeed! Moments like Teddy's bad luck in Bloodpool, the archetypal albatross appearing both in Kasandora and Marahna, and the implied Sigurd-Gudrun couple reincarnated by the world tree in Northwall all stick out here. Everything of this sort is still all too simple compared to ye olde Disco Elysium of today, yet effective as a kind of heightened fairytale in-between the melee and management.

The word I'm looking for is alchemy, the transmutation of ordinary elements into a greater whole. It describes the very compound term ActRaiser, a portmanteau I'd expect to see in a game jam ditty. What distinguished this amalgalm of systems from others around the turn of the '90s was this focus on story, not just another player-fellating genre hybrid for its own sake. It's because this adventure makes a micro-critique of our indulgence in power fantasies, and their relation to founding myths, that the individually unpolished bits you interact with remain fun and worthwhile. Perhaps the harvesting and trading of offerings between the cities is a fetch quest underneath, but it rarely feels that meaningless. I just want to gift the Kasadoran a far-off tropical remedy for their troubles, or clothe the citizens of icy Northwall in wool from Aitos. And yes, the final platforming gauntlet might as well be a greatest hits of the adventure's most irritating design quirks, but damn does it push all your skills and patience to the limit. This potion Quintet's concocted leaves a mysterious aftertaste.

Debut software on vintage PCs & consoles could often vary wildly in robustness. Every developer getting something to market on Day 1 has to learn a newly enhanced architecture as quick as is feasible, a feat many can't achieve. ActRaiser stands toe to toe with ritzier, more sophisticated SNES classics that were still on the drawing board in 1990. Koji Yokota and Ayano Koshiro of Telenet & Falcom heritage, among a host of talented artists, go ham with color schemes that the PC-88 and Famicom could merely have dreamed of, enriching the greebles and decorative patterns of dungeons and biomes. Tasteful use of parallax scrolling, alpha-blending transparencies, and other visual effects works in tandem with clean yet florid art direction, bearing the hallmarks of paperback book covers and Dungeons & Dragons. Ayano's brother took up the mantle of music and sound design, a daunting role considering the SNES' new sample-based sound chip. I'm more a fan of Yuzo Koshiro's orchestral work within the confines of FM synthesis, another tall order for musicians and programmers of the day. But this remains one of the system's most memorable and defining soundtracks, with melodious militant marches and more pensive ambiance in abundance. Figuring out how to cram so many instruments, pitch and volume bends, etc. must have been an ordeal for him. My ears tell me it was worth it.

It's a shame, then, that the Koshiro siblings only helped Quintet again for this game's long-debated sequel. The rest of the company continued to evolve, recruiting new talent to develop more ambitious xRPGs dealing with stories and personalities both grandiose and relatable. Hashimoto and Miyazaki's startup had firmly diverged from their old employers' conservative milieu, and future triumphs like Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, Brightis, and Planet Laika are testament to Quintet's longevity. Us players, having embodied the holiest in both mortal and supernatural ways, can only look back on the studio's works and progeny, subject to critical reverence and dismantlement alike. Somewhere, out in the cosmos, The Master could be liberating new planets, or perhaps dooming them to the curse of civilization we're all too familiar with. That builder's spirit, a lathe of heaven…it's rarely if ever about reaching the end, but savoring the stops along the way, those flips in perspective. ActRaiser toys with players and the perspectives offered to them, engrossing us in the champion's cause while suggesting that this isn't the best of all possible worlds—just the one we must cherish.

Suffice to say, I'm not looking forward to all the gratuitous changes I'm spotting in ActRaiser Renaissance. The most I can gather is that its deviations can't harm the original ex post facto. Until next time, I'll just be listening to Fillmore's FM-synth beta version in the green room.

Over the past month or so, I have been taking the time to venture a little further out of my comfort zone when it came to the games that I typically played for a few reasons. One, I needed some other things to play while waiting for Super Mario Bros. Wonder to come out, and two, I have been very curious about these franchises that I had heard so much about, but never got around to playing them before. So, I decided to change that, and I have managed to have a really fun time doing so at this point. If it wasn’t for this little exercise of mine, I never would’ve gone into Dragon Quest, Blaster Master, Metal Gear, or StarTropics as soon as I did, and I never would’ve made those reviews alongside them, so needless to say, I feel pretty proud of myself for taking the time to finally check some of these games out. Not only that, I have also managed to discover plenty of new favorites for myself in the process, such as the case of today’s topic, ActRaiser.

I had known about ActRaiser for quite a while now, first discovering it from the original episode on it from The Completionist, and even though this game wasn’t part of a HUGE franchise like the other ones that I had tried out, I still wanted to give it a shot, as it looked very promising. Not to mention, I am just a big fan of whenever games mix genres together, because it could potentially lead to some neat ideas and creating some new sub-genres. So, I decided to finally give the game a shot, and I am really glad that I did, because the game is actually really damn great. It may not be original when it comes to the gameplay segments, but combining these two genres together ended up making a surprisingly solid package that I enjoyed for almost all of the way through, and it has me looking forward to the other games in this short series.

The story is about God losing a battle against Satan, and having to retreat to the heavens to regain his power, and after hundreds of years, must return and regain his faith in the people while fighting back against Satan and his minions…………….. yes, that is actually the plot, and it fits surprisingly well for what this game is, the graphics aren’t really all that exciting or original compared to other SNES titles, but for being one of the earliest games on the system, they do look really nice, and they take advantage of the Mode 7 at every chance they get, the music is pretty good, providing plenty of great tracks to listen to along your journey, even if a good number of the tracks are repeated often enough, the control for both sections of the game work pretty well, although sometimes the control for the platforming sections can be pretty stiff, but it is still more then functionable, and the gameplay is pretty unique, taking two well-known genres and combining together in a way that is rarely ever seen done before and since.

There are two major types of gameplay to be found here, with the first being your typical 2D action platforming sections, where you take control of this armored warrior controlled by God, take on twelve or so different levels from across the land, defeat plenty of enemies either using your mighty blade or whatever magic spell you have at your disposal, gather plenty of scrolls, food items, and items that give you points to aid you on your heroic quest, and take on plenty of threatening, yet surprisingly doable bosses that will test your jumping and attacking skills. All of this is typical of the platforming genre, but it is all done really well here. The gameplay does feel very satisfying in these sections, where you have a pretty good speed to where you won’t feel like you are slogging along, and the stages themselves are long enough to not feel completely unnecessary, but aren’t short enough to where they are a waste of time. Not to mention, it does feel very satisfying to use your sword attacks and magic spells properly to take out a lot of these foes, so whenever you do get the chance to complete one of these levels, it is a lot of fun.

The second gameplay element is the one you will most likely be spending the most time in, the city building/god game portion, where you will take control of an angel under the command of god, help the people below by clearing up the land around them and leading them towards locations to build their towns and seal up monster lairs, defeat plenty of monsters that will be swarming the field as you try to complete these tasks, gather plenty of offerings from the people to use to not only aid yourself in taking care of the monsters, but to also help the people in their time of need, and level yourself up to get stronger, giving more health to not just the angel, but also to the warrior for the regular platforming stages.

Out of the two gameplay styles, I was actually somewhat dreading these sections, because I am someone who doesn’t typically play any city building or god games of any kind, so needless to say, I was going in completely inexperienced, and I thought I was going to HATE it. However, at the end of the day, I ended up loving these sections just as much as the regular platforming segments. These sections actually end up being pretty straightforward, where you can learn how to do things pretty quickly, and the game gives you enough hints to where you always know what to do next, while also not giving too much hints to the point of where it feels like hand-holding. It is just that right balance of difficult and player-friendly, which made these sections much more fun as a result. Heck, maybe even because of this, I may actually try out other city building or god games out there, but I better not get ahead of myself when I say that.

Despite how much I ended up loving this game though, I wouldn’t say it is perfect by any means. For one thing, the game does get pretty repetitive as you keep going, as you start out in a platforming stage, then you go to the god game, then back to the platforming, then to the god game, and so on and so forth. It is like this throughout the whole game, and while there aren’t too many of either sections, it is enough to where it does feel, again, kinda repetitive. That being said though, they always introduce some new elements within the god game segments to where it doesn’t feel like that much of a waste of time. As for the platforming sections though… they do get a little more tiring. Yes, the level themes are different for the most part, but nothing too major happens to change up the stages, and it does get pretty annoying when it comes to the last couple of stages. As for any other complaints I have with the game, I do have one: the boss rush at the end. Now, I can KINDA excuse this, as there is a sense of progression throughout the game with your levels, so this boss rush doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time, but nothing changes with the bosses other then them being faster and more difficult, so it still does come off as padding for the sake of it.

Overall though, despite the repetitiveness at times and the boss rush, I still found myself really enjoying ActRaiser all the way through, and I would say it is a wonderful game from the SNES era that I feel deserves a lot more attention then it gets, both back then and nowadays. I mean, it did get a sequel and a remake, but aside from that, no more love was given to this series, which sucks, because I feel like a lot more could be done with it from here. I definitely do recommend it for those looking for something new from the SNES to play, as well as for those who a fan of Quintet’s later games, because for being their very first game they ever made, it is a really solid first attempt. Let’s just hope they don’t screw anything up with the sequel. Let me just take a look at that real qu- AAAAAAAAAND they got rid of the god game sections. Dammit, Quintet, you had something great going there, so why did you take it away?!

Game #382

Actraiser deserves a lot of credit for how it weaves its disparate halves - one part good-but-not-great action platformer, one part rudimentary town-builder sim - into something more than the sum of its parts. A lot of it comes down to the effectiveness of the premise: the main character (Master schmaster - we know you're playing an avatar of the Judeo-Christian God with a capital G) draws power from people's faith in Him, so building up the population and quality of life in the various cities you're building will net you level ups and magic spells which will increase your effectiveness in the action segments. It's pretty insightful too, showcasing both the foibles of man (asking you for help with problems they created on their own) but also their occasional bigheartedness (their first instinct on discovering something cool is often being to offer it to you and ask you to use it to benefit other cities too).

The other thing this game does really well is to give the player enough tools to mitigate the old-game jank that is inevitably a part of the package; almost as if it's aware of its own bullshit and gives casual players an out. The platforming sections are pretty strong; I'd liken it to a Classicvania-lite where the stiffness of your controls facilitate a more deliberate style of play. Its main weakness is some wonky difficulty spikes and the lack of a reliable way to attack above/below you, a deficiency that some boss encounters (most notably the final boss) cruelly exploit. However, many of these battles can also be cheesed with the right spell if you find yourself stuck. The town-building segments have a particular monster that is an absolute pain to deal with: the skulls are the fastest, most damaging, and cause the worst disasters... but given that you get access to several one-hit-kill bombs and any damage caused during the sim sections is temporary and reversible, things never get too frustrating.

Not bad at all for a 33 year old game, and one of the first to come out on the SNES!

An interesting mix between an RPG, a 2D side-scroller and a city sim is one way to describe ActRaiser. Due to that, it may not be to everyone's taste, but it piqued my interest enough to play through it.

If you've played any of the games from the Quintet trilogy (Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia or Terranigma), you'll find some familiar things here. This makes the game a sort of spiritual prequel to those games.

Despite the game's mix of genres, the overall mechanics aren't very complex. The side scrolling stages are pretty much what you'd expect from any side-scroller released around that time, so you only have a jump, a normal attack and a magic attack. Go through a stage, fight some monsters, do some platforming and fight a boss at the end. Very minimalistic, but above all, it encourages learning enemy patterns and making the most of the little you have.

Although simple in nature as well, the city sim element is the spice of this game. You have to guide a location to prosperity by using your powers over nature to free up space and give people orders where to expand.
Of course, their expansion isn't something to ignore, as people in this game are the equivalent of XP, so it's better to have more than less. Also, you receive some nice items (as as they're called in-game - offerings) in return.
There will be monsters that will try to sabotage this progress, so you'll have to protect the people while they expand. The entire thing is like a pretty basic 2D shooter.
Once people expand enough in a certain direction, they can seal a monster spawning point (lair) so it doesn't bother you again. You can't command people to build specific things which is a shame.
Regardless, it's satisfying to watch a place grow and see the progress of slowly intertwining these separate locations with each other.

Overall, despite its simplicity, ActRaiser has a nice flow to it, which binds it together pretty well and makes it a solid game. It's also around 6 hours long, so it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Who knew smashing together sidescrolling action and town building could work so well?

ActRaiser is SUPER fun. I always had this game in the back of my mind thanks to the theme of Fillmore, one of my favorite Yuzo Koshiro compositions. After playing through every Castlevania game, I was still hungry for more sidescrollers, and that's when it resurfaced in my sea of interests.
(Speaking of Castlevania: God's damage sfx sounds oddly similar to Simon's lmao)

You play as God, alternating between cutting through demons in sidescrolling stages, then listening to the pleas from the people you've just saved in a simulation mode. Helping them with their problems and defending them from overworld demons increases your health and MP for an easier time with the sidescrolling portion of the game, not to mention new spells.

Full transparency, I was initially skeptical about this setup. "Won't the whole simulation thing take a big shit in the game's pacing? You'll be all fired up from killing demons, then you have to stop to help some farmers grow wheat?"
But the simulation mode isn't very complicated at all. You don't need to carefully manage a ton of different resources, the requests from your followers are easy to accomplish, and while you wait for them to build houses/farms and move around, you get to defend them from overworld enemies that want to kidnap them/destroy their buildings/destroy YOU(seriously, fuck that giant skull), so you don't just sit there staring at the screen.

It looks good for an early SNES title, showcasing some of that hot scaling and rotation, and the music needs no comment from me; it's Yuzo Koshiro goddammit, of course it's perfect. It's only a shame that Fillmore, the theme that drew my attention to ActRaiser in the first place, only plays ONCE in the entire game. Shaving off half a star from the rating for that crime alone.

The other half is from the controls. It's not a difficult game, but sometimes you'll be missing jumps or running into enemies because you can't control yourself in mid air all that well. Flying enemies were a constant source of frustration.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time here. Sadly, I hear that the sequel removed the simulation mode and is 100% sidescrolling action, which I do love, but I became enamored with taking care of these little 4 pixel long scrimblos. Maybe I'll check ActRaiser 2 out some other time, but for now, I'm jumping over to Renaissance.

Played on the Wii U Virtual Console

Yes, I technically had to abandon the game because I couldn't beat the end boss rush, but having completed every other aspect, I feel this review stands as a qualified opinion


These days you’re liable to seeing video game mash-ups from different genres, but back in the 90s, a then-new company called Quintet seemingly pioneered this tactic with their debut title ActRaiser(+). Shoving city building and godhood systems into an action platformer schematic, ActRaiser stood as a unique first-year release for the SNES, one that concurrently launched Quintet into mainstream discourse.

If you’ve been a part of any retro community, chances are you’ve read skyrocketing praise for ActRaiser over its various elements, and while they definitely do warrant respect, I feel the lack of a genuine sequel may have boosted the base game’s reputation into abnormal parameters. What do I mean by this? Well, as you guys have no doubt experienced by now, the best sequels are the ones that take the good from their predecessor and make it even more exemplary: they iron out the kinks, chisel new systems, and smelt the entire product into a revolutionary package: ACII, Half-Life 2, Arkham City, DKC2 -- we still look fondly upon the original, but recognize that significant improvements were done in the follow-up.

ActRaiser’s problem is that it didn’t get a true sequel(++), meaning any lauding it’s garnered from 4th gen enthusiasts smacks of the kind of superior advancements fans would’ve physically seen in a theoretical ActRaiser 2. This isn’t out of disingenuity or anything of the sort, but more-so nostalgia combined with the admittedly-novel concepts bolstered by the game.

To illustrate what I’m alleging, let’s start with the city building: it’s entirely linear. Each area has you start off with a giant piece of land that you then have to direct your worshippers towards industrializing (an activity they consequently conduct square-by-square). There’s no strategy, no worrying about environmental or economic factors, no catalog of dwellings to select from, nothing. Once your people seal off the adjacent monster lairs, you don’t even have to concern yourself with their safety (not even from such phenomena as natural disasters or surprise incidents). Throughout your tenure, you’re occasionally hit with a scripted dilemma, but almost all of these have to be resolved instantly in order to progress further.

The god prayers are handled a bit better insofar as you’re actually given agency whether to grant them or not (i.e., not smiting the requested mountain), but these don’t result in any noticeable consequences outside of your character not gaining a power-up or extra magic scroll (more on those later). Regardless, the lion’s share of scenarios ultimately demand completion for the sake of unlocking the hidden boss cave in the region, meaning they’re just as mandatory as the obligatory city ones.

Don’t get me wrong, these aspects provide a lot of that simple dopamine gamers have come to love from modern-day releases -- seeing each village get constructed from the ground-up, in particular, reminded me of the renovation system from the Ezio games wherein you’d instantly behold the fruits of your labor. I liked the interactions that came about between the citizenry and your protagonist: how they’d treat you reverently, make earnest requests, and offer alms in your honor. Despite the limited dialogue, it’s a relatively-accurate representation of how faith operated in older civilizations, and while ActRaiser doesn’t really address any deeper themes on the topic (save a blurb at the end), I do think this part has contributed to the game’s continued fervor.

On that note, what exactly is the premise of ActRaiser? Well, in the original Japanese script, you were literally the Abrahamic G-D trying to save humanity from the influence of Satan and his 12 minions. Of course, that kind of on-the-nose storytelling wouldn’t have flown back in the day, and so western markets renamed him The Master, and his opponent Tanzra.

Regardless, the gist is your typical good vs. evil scheme. One of the things I appreciated about ActRaiser was how you never actually see your persona: during the action scenes, he inhabits a gold guardian, while the town simulations have him directly interact with an anonymous Cupid. The former decision, in particular, end-ups being an unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally?) wise integration as it subsequently explains how your deity is able to be “defeated” by lesser enemies.

You’ll be conducting these fights during the platforming sections, which is arguably where ActRaiser succeeds the most. Quintet would later garner fame for their trilogy of ARPGs, and it’s clear they cut their teeth working on ActRaiser as it is absolutely solid: you have a jump, slash, duck, and magic attack, all of which you’ll need to employ should you wish to beat the various enemies and bosses thrown your way. The jump, in particular, works really well, with Quintet having mastered the precision, weight, and height factors that go into 16-bit springing (that is to say, it’s easy to learn and do without feeling like you’re at a disadvantage).

Honestly, there are only two real problems here: first, side bounding and attacking is very inconsistent to pull off (and outright impossible for vertical jumps), and two, the game is way too bloody easy, that simplicity largely coming down to a single spell you acquire in the third world: Stardust. At the click of a button, your avatar can call down a hailstorm of galactic pellets, and man do these babies do a significant amount of damage: so much so, that bosses are rendered cakewalks. To try and counter this, the game puts a cap on the amount of times you can cast a spell/per a run (NOT per/a life; die and any previously-depleted slots remain empty), but the thing is, if you’re fully developing your cities, chances are you’re going to find the majority of magic scrolls (ammo) out there anyway, thus ensuring you’re well-armed prior to most battles (this isn’t even taking into account the number of temporary extra scrolls you can loot in-game).

I’m not sure who on the dev team thought this would be a good idea, but it ends-up undermining a lot of the programming that no doubt went into the craftsmanship of these bosses. Perhaps realizing this too late, the game forcibly reverses course during the final act wherein Tanzra is preceded by a punishing boss gauntlet that’s so frustrating, you’ll see below why it caused me to drop the title(+++).

Thankfully the levels themselves are quite stunning, taking place over a variety of locales ranging from indigenous-inspired forestry and frosty ice caves to even a Tatooine-influenced abode (no seriously, it’s got its own Sarlacc Pit). The bosses themselves exemplify this virtuosity to a tee, often being conventional monsters wrought out with gorgeous colorwork and gargantuan proportions. Enemy design, on the other hand, could be hit-or-miss: some levels throw uniquely-crafted creatures at you like forest ents, orc-like wasps, and lizardian knights, while other times you’ll find yourself scratching your head at the presence of floating eyeballs, conventional gargoyles, and even swole women!

ActRaiser, as stated before, came out early in the SNES’s life, and while the visuals for the abovementioned levels are top-notch, unfortunately the bird’s eye map for the city building isn’t quite at the same level, often looking one-step removed from Oregon Trail’s graphics. If that weren’t enough, you’re often forced to partake in this discount schmup schematic via your little Angel shooting arrows at an ever-breeding(++++) source of minions (till their grounds are sealed for good). The critters themselves are even more generic looking than their earthly compatriots and do little more than destroy structures and carry away the occasional batch of humans (as I keep saying, it’s an underdeveloped part of the game that ultimately gets repetitive in light of the lack of differentiation between continents, as well as the relative shortness of the platforming stages).

Part of me does wonder if more was originally intended with the city-building as you’re granted elemental powers (earthquakes, lightning, wind, etc…) that can theoretically affect the landscape, but which are only ever utilized during the, you guessed it, scripted events. As it stands, unless you wish to destroy your own creations Sim City-style, you’re not going to find much use for these abilities.

Ironically, the sound design operates oppositely to the visuals in that more effort was put into the aerial arrangements than their platforming equals: from the creature growls to each of your god powers, you’ll hear a distinct din compared to the ground wherein everyone is silent save their projectile attacks. Your sword literally swipes like someone breathed a hot air “ha” on the microphone, and the dialogue scroll is so awfully-screechy, I implore prospective buyers to choose the fast text speed for the sake of your ears.

The music was strung together by Yuzo Koshiro, a man who’s, of course, acquired a strong reputation amongst the RPG community. Unfortunately, he simply wasn’t given enough money here to do what he could, meaning there are a lot of repeated tracks chock-full of their own repetitive loops. Sometimes this works, as in the case of the soothing town-building tune, but other times it comes across as unintentionally lazy, such as every boss sharing the same beat. That said, I will give him credit for morphing his tracks depending on the individual theme of the stage (i.e., the pyramid has a more Egyptian horn accompaniment whereas the lava motif wouldn’t sound out-of-place in Bowser’s Castle!).

Regardless of my complaints, I still recommend playing ActRaiser by any legal means necessary. For starters, it doesn’t wear out its welcome, being completable in 1-2 sittings, and for all the downsides of its supplementary genres, the fans have a point -- there really is no other game like it.



NOTES
+For the record, I don’t know if ActRaiser was the first video game to combine multiple types of games into one cartridge. Also, does anyone know what happened to Quintet? It’s a very sketchy story when you read about their disappearance from society.

++There technically was an ActRaiser 2, but it abandoned the town sim aspects entirely in favor of pure platforming. A spiritual remake called Renaissance was released semi-recently, but, as pointed out by SNESDrunk, it failed to do any kind of innovation on the formula minus adding a Tower Defense-schematic.

+++So basically you have to beat six of the previous 12 bosses before facing Tanzra who, in turn, comes in two stages. The problem is, you aren’t given any kind of health or mana replenishment throughout the ordeal, meaning you need to beat it one-go. Oh, and to top it all off, the game strongarms you into using-up several mana shots on the first thug, a sped-up version of the Minotaurus, due to said speed-up making it near-impossible to hit him with conventional attacks. It’s a shame because an easy work around to this difficulty spike (in addition to granting replenishments) would’ve been to just save the meteor spell for this moment, allowing players to beat the bosses as they were originally intended during the vanilla run.

++++Strictly-speaking, there is a limit to the number of spawns, but it’s so high you’re better off closing the portals as soon as possible.

It's incredible how as soon as the Super Nintendo was hitting the shelves, so many good games would come out. Actraiser is the most original experience of them all, mixing city management and platforming, as a God nonetheless. It's got soul and love poured into it like very few games and you can see it from its spritework, its music, its tight design and gameplay.

My only sour note is that the controls can feel stiff and it can get exhausting in the end when you've got to fight all bosses one after the other. Yet, Actraiser is able to sow a plotline like no other through gameplay alone, somber and inspiring; it always feels good to start the game, hear the first notes of Fillmore and getting back to business.

For a SNES launch game the backgrounds in the action stages look gorgeous. In each new stage i found myself standing still, admiring them like a painting. The action and simulation phases by themselves are a bit basic (with our 2020's eyes) but it's the combination of the two that makes the immersion work. You really feel like a god, looking at he world below and getting into your avatar body battling monsters a la megazords. So satisfying cultivating the lands you made safe, and seeing the world map slowly fill with houses, even from up high (brilliant art direction!). While the sim parts can get a bit repetitive, there are unique tasks given for each area that makes them feel a bit different from each other. It's not an extremely short game, but also doesn't overstay it's welcome. It's such an unique combination of genres that it hasn't been replicated since.

I also really like that the god's avatar in the action stages becomes stronger the more population your cultivated lands have (who all pray for you). A lot of Japanese games have godly entities that can't die but grow stronger or weaker depending on the amount of people that believe and pray to them (for example the beast tribe spirits in ff14 and god in shin megami tensei II. And the countless games where after it's defeat the evil god says it will return somewhere in the future as long as people still have evil in their hearts. You know the drill.) That also explains why we as god retreat forever to our heavenly realm when the people on our earth no longer have need of our protection and stop praying. Fascinating stuff!

Just two grievances. The first is not with this game, but the mind baffling idea to remove the aspects that makes this title unique for it's sequal, leaving it a bog standard (but pretty) platformer that buried the series before it had the chance to develop.
I also really, really hate boss rushes before a final boss. The most uncreative design choice there is, but unfortunately not uncommon in games of this era.

And thank you extracredit youtube channel for ruining the simmusic for me by having it at the start of each of their videos.

"Music has mysterious power.
By listening people can calm their hearts and purify their minds."

It's such a sweet little tale of the transition between the first and second stage of humanity.
First, the genesis - God created everything and God is everything, we must depend on Him, and all is how it is because He said so. Certainly a step up from living merely to sate one's carnal desires as a beast that knows nothing but pleasure felt in the moment. It gives humans the ability to think on a higher level, utilizing the materials found within reality to further the quality of life, thereby prospering. And yet - this cognitive thinking, it still feels lacking. As if humans have still not reached their full potential.
Second, the modernity - God is Dead. He is left behind as quickly as He arrives, as human progress is ever the speed of lightning. People stand on their own two feet instead of depending on a transcendental being.
And that's for the better.
Humanity is so much more beautiful without needing help from God.
It's a message that reverberates even through Quintet's very first work:
"Life for yourself. Always pursue progress. Chase after your dreams. Don't let God dictate your life."

For perhaps as long as the gaming medium has graced us, there’s existed an enduring analogy framing us gaming faithful as gods, “controlling” the lives of our digital avatars in Mario, Sonic, and whatever you named your Dragon Quest hero over their respective treks over Freytag’s Pyramid -- a feat achieved only through our divine hand. ActRaiser, the earliest champion of Super Nintendo’s treasured third-party library, takes this interpretation to its literal extreme by situating us as a literal god, slaying demons and managing towns in a unique fusion of action-packed side-scrolling and a life sim stripped straight out of SimCity.

A bizarre marriage, yet one with undeniable appeal: there’s been much said over gaming’s broad appeal to immersion – ranging from the hours of Zen-induced concentration to the sadistic glee gleaned from inconsequential mass murder – and ActRaiser’s simulator sections supply the best sort of escapism. Our angel avatar juggles everything from land construction to playing guard duty against monsters – a round-the-clock gameplay loop forging a perfect balance of stress and gratification as we field one prayer after the other. (That is, if the never-ending deluge of villager requests don’t compel a murderous divine disaster; mind you, I’d never dream of assuming the role of such a capricious god, but Game Center CX’s Shinya Arino had other, more hilarious ideas.)

It’s all never particularly deep, yet addiction’s innate in simulators such as these, and grafting an episodic narrative upon it all demanded my full attention. It’s not enough that I rescue little Teddy from a monster’s lair; no, I simply must develop every square inch of every single town until they’re bursting at the seams. It’s never necessary, but I am a fallen god recovering from a millennia-long slumber, damn it, and I shall reward my devout people for their enduring faith. What sort of benevolent entity would I be otherwise? That I’m this absorbed into ActRaiser’s world speaks to its quality.

Alas, it’s a level of commitment that I wish the action setpieces could inspire. It’s not as if our godly knight needs Super Mario World’s acrobatics or Super Castlevania IV’s flexible whip – sometimes less can be more -- but while Yuzo Koshiro’s masterful symphonies remain some of the most rousing and melancholic SNES tunes today, they’re the only qualities elevating these awkward expeditions into anything but just that. It’s true that ActRaiser’s brisk pacing ensures neither segment wears out their welcome – that our mighty knight undergoes the ever-familiar feedback loop of perks and buffs ensures a synergy between the two -- but even that can’t dispel how the stiff controls echo your average bargain-bin platformer, and much of your magic arsenal trivializes boss encounters. It’s a shortcoming I imagine the game’s hidden hard mode would solve, but sadly, I’ve already had my fill of gods.

There are those who consider ActRaiser a 16-bit masterpiece, chugging away at their villages and dwelling upon the narrative's religious allegories; myself, I’d happily consider myself among their number if it proved itself a more focused package. Sadly, Enix’s disinterest in perfecting this formula was evident as far back as its obscure sequel – in a move undoubtedly fueled by both marketability and development priorities, it omitted the god sim in favor of a full-fledged side-scrolling focused game. Perhaps that’s crystalized ActRaiser’s uniqueness over the years, but with ActRaiser Renaissance’s sudden debut last fall, might our appeals to Go-, erm, “Master” bless us with the sequel of our dreams?