One of my favorite game, the mix of action and simulation is awesome.
This game is the best genre-bender, for me. I wish the sequel had kept to this format, though it probably still wouldn't have held up to how neat this game was.
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.
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.
I didn't expect this Super Nintendo platformer / god game that I picked up on a whim to genuinely put me in the emotional position of a loving deity. I love my people and I really enjoyed nurturing them while I could.
I love the ending, I'm so glad they grew up and no longer need me <3
I love the ending, I'm so glad they grew up and no longer need me <3
Very cool fusion of RPG, Civilization, and Sidescrolling action game, but none of the pieces are as good as the whole.
Art is kind of bad, music is great in some areas, terrible in some other places, but all in all a fun time.
Art is kind of bad, music is great in some areas, terrible in some other places, but all in all a fun time.
Koshiro's soundtrack was so epic, 20th Century Fox stole his ending theme. Also, this is the only game where you play as a god instead of killing one in the end.
The blending of genres is really neat, but it isn't all that great or fun
An underwhelming platformer & a monotonous city builder combine into a lacklustre game. Good music though.
What if Sim City said it's time to kill Satan?
I like Japan's version of Catholicism better than the one I grew up with. Better Satan. Enix was killing it in this era with innovative games like this one and Soul Blazer. Looking back, they're not flawless, but they're top tier for SNES. The audio for this game is unrivaled. The music's legacy still perseveres, and they absolutely nailed the "getting hit" moan when your character takes damage; nobody has topped it yet.
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 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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Infernally hard and addictive.
Cool game. I would love a modern game with the exact same setting, but with more fleshed out combat/platforming/rpg elements/a better sim mode. But as an idea really cool
Loved the platforming segments, but wasn't a fan of the building segments.
Incrível como esse jogo te prende, não pelo seu estilo de "construção" mas sua história simples, muito bem feita , batalhas cativantes que em pouco tempo acaba, eu sofri um pouco com alguns boss mas não me arrependo de ter conhecido essa franquia aleatoriamente
Where else can you play as God, kill all the other religions, and then leave the planet because the people don't need you anymore?
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.
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.
I know this is unexpected...
The old testament of blending genres...(or at least one of). That ost is biblical
i had a copy of this game and idk how but it kept showing up randomly every time i moved so i kept thinking it was following me
Really great hybrid game. Truly one of a kind.
It's fun but I feel a little cheap playing it because I just tanked damage a lot of the time instead of learning how to dodge certain enemies and bosses, it's just easy enough to let you do that despite movement being a little clunky too. I had the chance to play this a few years ago since it was in my family's old game collection but I never actually beat the final boss rush until now, which also turned out easier than I'd thought.
Eu dou um enorme desconto para esse game só pelo seu conceito sensacional. A forma como ele consegue unir dois gêneros raramente (nunca?) associados, plataforma e city building, é fantástica, através de sua narrativa, é incrível. Ele é um jogo de plataforma mais ou menos e um city building simplesinho, mas um simulador divino com poucos competidores, mesmo anos depois de seu lançamento.
This game is so cool and unique. Very cool concept that no one has successfully aped yet.
Após eu ver o anuncio do remake na direct, não sei porque decide jogar o original, mas o mais surpreendente é saber que eu nunca tinha jogado algo tão bacana no SNES, ele é um jogo de plataforma bem simples e ao mesmo tempo um simulador de cidade que também é bem modesto, porém esses dois elementos juntos, fizeram um jogo com uma proposta interessante e imersa.
i beat this in a single sitting on accident. i just started playing and then out of nowhere i was at the final boss
Cool action platformer/city-building genre fusion. Neither half of that equation is all that good, but both are elevated by interplaying with each other in a unique way.
The video game version of honey dill sauce. Two game genres that shouldn't work together but are even better together. We have a tradition to play this game through every year!
Full review over at my website: https://www.nepikigaming.com/reviews/actraiser/
''Quintet did the unthinkable and grabbed not one, but two completely different genres and combined them into a truly memorable experience. And not only that, but they synergize really well with each other–both through themeing- and gameplay. A weakened God has to restore the world by taking out demons in the platforming stages, while restoring his power by having more believers in the simulation part. Both of these aspects are also easy to understand, as the platforming has a satisfying difficulty curve to it where patience- and observance is always rewarded. Surprisingly, the simulation part might actually be my favourite aspect of the game as it is pretty easy to work with for someone not usually a fan of the genre, and it also has some engaging combat while the digits go up. Due to it being relatively easy to understand, neither of the gameplay are necessarily deep. The simulation part does have some advanced tech to it that you most likely won’t even know about unless you are a completionist, and the platforming does allow for a lot of situations where just whaling at enemies will do the job–particularly when it comes to the fun-but-not-very-difficult bosses. And while deeper gameplay could possibly have made the game even better, I am already highly satisfied with the amount of fun I had playing through the game, which is the most important part to me.''
''Quintet did the unthinkable and grabbed not one, but two completely different genres and combined them into a truly memorable experience. And not only that, but they synergize really well with each other–both through themeing- and gameplay. A weakened God has to restore the world by taking out demons in the platforming stages, while restoring his power by having more believers in the simulation part. Both of these aspects are also easy to understand, as the platforming has a satisfying difficulty curve to it where patience- and observance is always rewarded. Surprisingly, the simulation part might actually be my favourite aspect of the game as it is pretty easy to work with for someone not usually a fan of the genre, and it also has some engaging combat while the digits go up. Due to it being relatively easy to understand, neither of the gameplay are necessarily deep. The simulation part does have some advanced tech to it that you most likely won’t even know about unless you are a completionist, and the platforming does allow for a lot of situations where just whaling at enemies will do the job–particularly when it comes to the fun-but-not-very-difficult bosses. And while deeper gameplay could possibly have made the game even better, I am already highly satisfied with the amount of fun I had playing through the game, which is the most important part to me.''
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.
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.