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
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
C_F
6 months ago