Imagine if they actually retained the world-building simulation sections tho, this had the potential to be one of the best SNES games if it did. Alas, the first game was maybe a bit too forward thinking for most people so they made a safer game, albeit they tightened up the action gameplay and made it look very pretty instead.
It's pretty solid otherwise. I think they put most of their resources into the graphics. The controls are decent, but all SNES controls are just a bit wonky. Not a fan of double jumping right into a glide, it's certainly something you have to get over, get used to and embrace as traversing a lot of the levels requires mastering it. Most of the levels have a boss and midboss and while I can't say every boss fight is super intuitive, they do usually look pretty cool.
It's pretty solid otherwise. I think they put most of their resources into the graphics. The controls are decent, but all SNES controls are just a bit wonky. Not a fan of double jumping right into a glide, it's certainly something you have to get over, get used to and embrace as traversing a lot of the levels requires mastering it. Most of the levels have a boss and midboss and while I can't say every boss fight is super intuitive, they do usually look pretty cool.
i always thought this game was way too hard but i wanna try it again anyway
After the love affair that was the original Actraiser, this was the drink-in-the-face conclusion to a bad date that you never saw coming. I can understand wanting to go new directions with a game, but this sequel never worked for me despite spending many hours trying to warm up to it.
It's okay to like ActRaiser 2
Real hard game, but it's alright if you like the punishment. An okay sequel that sadly removed the town element.
backwards difficulty curve where if you learn how to beat the first level, you're rewarded with a solid action romp
I like to play devil's advocate for this game (heh) but it's hard. Like everyone says, no city-building sim, the game is HARD, not normal levels of hard, but REALLY hard. On the bright note, the game is really beautiful, and the music is pretty good too.
It's hard to hate on Quintet because of this one, and if you play on easy, it might even be an enjoyable experience (although you can't see the true ending if you do, c'mon!!!!). Either way, after seeing the amount of damage enemies do on the true ending last stage, I'm happy I didn't do it.
It's hard to hate on Quintet because of this one, and if you play on easy, it might even be an enjoyable experience (although you can't see the true ending if you do, c'mon!!!!). Either way, after seeing the amount of damage enemies do on the true ending last stage, I'm happy I didn't do it.
One of the highest learning curves you will ever see in a game. Getting past level 1 can take hours. The graphics are amongst some of the best on the super nintendo. The controls are slow and confusing to understand at first, but the game rewards your patience with a deep 2D action experience unique to this game. The removal of the god simulation hurt the pacing and the difficulty might be a bit to high for beta's.
It didn't need to be like this.
I've never sat down to research the development of this game, though I suspect the city building mechanic in the first game wasn't viewed in as favorable of a light as it is today. Tastes of course change, and it's certainly plausible that early 90s audiences just weren't receptive to ActRaiser's balancing act of sim and action the way folks are today. It's also possible there was a gas leak in Quintet's offices. I don't know, who's to say!
In any case, ActRaiser 2 abandons the unique identity of its predecessor in favor of mediocre action. Even using just the action stages of the original as a guide, ActRaiser 2 falls short by a mile. Level layouts just aren't as fun to navigate, and given how punishing the difficulty is, I often found my patience being tried on repeat attempts. It's not like trial and error is something I inherently have an issue with, after all I love the Castlevania and Souls games, but this is a fine case of a game that struggles to maintain the balance between difficult and fun, often falling on the wrong side. Ultimately, I was never able to fully find my footing here, and whether that's due to poor design of the game simply failing to grip me, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this game has its defenders, but when it comes to action games on the SNES, there's a long list of other titles I'd rather play before going back to this one. It's also a hard game to approach as a proper sequel to ActRaiser. Perhaps my opinion is a bit too colored by that, but it does make it really hard to get into this game when so much of what I liked about the original just isn't here.
I've never sat down to research the development of this game, though I suspect the city building mechanic in the first game wasn't viewed in as favorable of a light as it is today. Tastes of course change, and it's certainly plausible that early 90s audiences just weren't receptive to ActRaiser's balancing act of sim and action the way folks are today. It's also possible there was a gas leak in Quintet's offices. I don't know, who's to say!
In any case, ActRaiser 2 abandons the unique identity of its predecessor in favor of mediocre action. Even using just the action stages of the original as a guide, ActRaiser 2 falls short by a mile. Level layouts just aren't as fun to navigate, and given how punishing the difficulty is, I often found my patience being tried on repeat attempts. It's not like trial and error is something I inherently have an issue with, after all I love the Castlevania and Souls games, but this is a fine case of a game that struggles to maintain the balance between difficult and fun, often falling on the wrong side. Ultimately, I was never able to fully find my footing here, and whether that's due to poor design of the game simply failing to grip me, I couldn't say.
I'm sure this game has its defenders, but when it comes to action games on the SNES, there's a long list of other titles I'd rather play before going back to this one. It's also a hard game to approach as a proper sequel to ActRaiser. Perhaps my opinion is a bit too colored by that, but it does make it really hard to get into this game when so much of what I liked about the original just isn't here.
Mudança absurda em quesito gráfico, história é a mesma coisa então nada inovador, a mecânica de voo me atrapalhou e estressei um pouco com alguns bosses, mas, independente disso o jogo é muito bom, consegue ser muito desafiador para quem gosta de dificuldade
loses the speed of the first game and the sim stuff that defined it but has some sick pixels and is still the best game adaptation of milton
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
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
Ignoring the favourable response to the first game, Enix unwisely left out the creation portion this time around, all that's left is hack and slash hijinks. Bloody hard hijinks let me tell you. Anyone who's ever played this game will remember with horror the dreaded leaf jump, the Queen's head and the Ice Woman. It all looks stupendous but you can't help feeling it's missing exactly what made the first game so brilliant.
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.
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.
Disregarding the fact that this sequel dropped it's city sim mechanic from the first game, it is a visually stunning platformer with great enemy and level variety. Although, I do find that the boss design varies in quality. Some are a fun challenge with good patterns that rely on the games mechanics, some are piss-easy, and some have incoherent patterns that I did not feel were fair to fight. Unfortunately I also find the soundtrack to be repetitive and boring. It's unfortunate because Yuzo Koshiro composed the music again coming back from the first game and I don't find it to be nearly as good.
Un juego que te machacara desde el inicio sin piedad por la gran curva de dificultad que posee, elimina el sistema poco profundizado de gestión del primer juego, reemplazandolo en su lugar con un sistema de combate bastante variado, haciendo que cada ataque y movimiento sean cruciales en todos sus niveles.
Su implacable dificultad pueda ser la causa de que la gente se aleje de este juego ,pero si tienes paciencia y algo de habilidad, te encontrarás con un desafío muy limpiamente diseñado, que forzará al jugador a ser sensato a la hora de avanzar haciendo que los errores se sientan como causa de la falta de precaución y no como propios del juego.
Los jefes siguen siendo algo bastante hit or miss, teniendo unos bastante interesantes y otros algo molestos con patrones algo dificiles de preveer, pero si te adaptas todos estos son superables muy fácilmente.
Muy recomendado para la gente que dice que Dark Souls es díficil y ver si se adaptan a un sistema que verdaderamente exige toda la paciencia y atención de tu parte.
Su implacable dificultad pueda ser la causa de que la gente se aleje de este juego ,pero si tienes paciencia y algo de habilidad, te encontrarás con un desafío muy limpiamente diseñado, que forzará al jugador a ser sensato a la hora de avanzar haciendo que los errores se sientan como causa de la falta de precaución y no como propios del juego.
Los jefes siguen siendo algo bastante hit or miss, teniendo unos bastante interesantes y otros algo molestos con patrones algo dificiles de preveer, pero si te adaptas todos estos son superables muy fácilmente.
Muy recomendado para la gente que dice que Dark Souls es díficil y ver si se adaptan a un sistema que verdaderamente exige toda la paciencia y atención de tu parte.
they put god in a less shallow game
At the request of Enix of America, Actraiser 2 ditches its predecessor's careful intertwining of genres to only include the platformer segments, and aside from being super devoid and hollow in comparison, it's also somehow so, so much worse to play. The Master is so fucking slow this time that a wooden crate could beat him in a footrace, and combined with bulky enemies flat out spammed across every level it makes for one of the most miserable platformers I've sat through.
There may be strong graphics and presentation but there is not a moment of enjoyment to be found here for the whole runtime. It's certainly no affront to humanity or anything, but as such a bitterly disappointing sequel it would probably be better off not existing.
There may be strong graphics and presentation but there is not a moment of enjoyment to be found here for the whole runtime. It's certainly no affront to humanity or anything, but as such a bitterly disappointing sequel it would probably be better off not existing.
I know people are mad the sim part of the game got cut from this one but it's still mad fun
I feel weird going on this websight amid two and one star ratings and publicly announcing that I love the hell out of this game, but the heart wants what the heart wants. I may have only logged it twice but I’ve played it like maybe ten times in my life.
One of the most beautiful games ever put to zeroes and ones, from the painterly graphics to the outstanding Yuzo Koshiro score. Genuinely impressive character design, especially the boss battles inspired by each of the seven deadly sins in a way that’s not obvious and stupid for once.
Oh sure, the master moves like how old people fuck and it’s difficult to the point of impossible unless you have a professional twitch channel, but then again you’re acting like you’re not playing this on an emulator with save states anyway. Stop lying and have a little more respect for yourself.
Yeah I like the simulator stuff from Actraiser as much as the next guy, but who cares it’s not in this one when this one is as gorgeous as it is
One of the most beautiful games ever put to zeroes and ones, from the painterly graphics to the outstanding Yuzo Koshiro score. Genuinely impressive character design, especially the boss battles inspired by each of the seven deadly sins in a way that’s not obvious and stupid for once.
Oh sure, the master moves like how old people fuck and it’s difficult to the point of impossible unless you have a professional twitch channel, but then again you’re acting like you’re not playing this on an emulator with save states anyway. Stop lying and have a little more respect for yourself.
Yeah I like the simulator stuff from Actraiser as much as the next guy, but who cares it’s not in this one when this one is as gorgeous as it is
While the term “action game” is well-defined for 3D games, it’s more nebulous for sidescrollers. There isn’t a landmark title that fills the role of Devil May Cry to separate the casual hack-and-slash games from the more demanding action titles. At least, there isn’t one that’s popularly accepted, because Actraiser 2 has enough depth and challenge to fill the role. At the start, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s a simple spin on the Castlevania formula with its plodding movement and combat, but the game will beat the shit out of you until begin appreciating the real capability of your moveset. It’s a fantastic example of character growth not being tied to a progression system, but through smartly designed challenges that prompt discovery of unobvious mechanics. To put it simply, there’s a reason the player character is called “The Master”. The hero of the story will be the person who pays attention and learns; everyone else will be destroyed.