yeah this really does suck bitch, its genuinely just pinball with austin powers flavortext...
i still havent seen the second one i dont think but
i got a giggle, twice. out of this.

uh , it rlly sucks though
especially the mission objective shit which deadass does Not matter in pinball whatsoever atleast not in one as transparently vanilla as this, which is ironic for a game abt a hypersexual british guy.

final thoughts: i sent myself into a booming laughing fit seeing "gotham games" on this bc this made me immediately thought bubble up bruce wayne trying to run a fund for kids charity and having a game made free for kids to play with him coverin the expenses and the result being this bull shit n them hating him

Good lord, this is weird.
In my original ActRaiser review, I mentioned that its simulation aspect was really charming, and that I'd be skipping ActRaiser 2 in favor of Renaissance since I read the latter brought back the sim stuff.

... I guess I need to pay more attention to what I read, because this game went WAAAAAAAY too far with it. On top of the town building and helping your followers, you now have tower defense segments. And all of them are stretched super far.

One of the things I enjoyed about the original SNES game was its pacing. You do a little bit of sidescrolling, a little bit of town building, then back to sidescrolling, and neither aspect felt dragged out or overstayed its welcome. I actually don't mind the tower defense segments of Renaissance; I grew up with those kinds of games, so I can appreciate it. What I don't appreciate is how there are multiple segments in the same land. If it was one big demon invasion per land, that would've been fine; kind of a way of testing how well you helped your followers before the showdown. But that's not how it's structured here.

Also I don't appreciate the writing. Another cool thing about OG ActRaiser to me is how... Honest it is. You're God, you have an obedient angel to do your bidding, and your followers constantly display their faith on you. No witty commentary, no jokes. Very straightforward, and it made that game's ending feel very effective as a result.

Here, the angel is a smug bastard who eats your offerings and says shit like "I mean, you could strike your faithful children's houses with lightning, but we know you wouldn't do that right? LAUGH TRACK", and while the followers mostly remain the same(from what I've played anyway), you now have "Heroes" that you can recruit for the tower defense segments who are not very enthusiastic about your godhood.

Finally, while this isn't a negative to me: This game looks fucking rough dude. I actually laughed out loud when the first stage loaded and I could count the pixels around everything except the HUD. I kinda loved it actually???? In a twisted way, I guess. (Props for the Alucardesque afterimages, too)

I'm kinda disappointed honestly. I didn't grow up with ActRaiser, but after finishing it just hours before trying Renaissance, this felt far less enjoyable than the original. And by what I've read from other users' reviews, the game just gets more and more bloated and repetitive later on.

Careful what you wish for, I guess.

This game is an utter work of art in my eyes. I knew that i'd fall head over heels for it from the "Anti-RPG" tagline toted around alone but I didnt think id be so into it that id 100% the damn thing (which may not matter to whoever's reading but Ive never done this before especially with an RPG)

But to the actual points of the game,
This game has aged incredibly fucking well and still holds up all these years later because its way of "meta" and messages about love, morality, and video games as a whole are still so potent to this day. Every character in Moon feels less like youre trying to "Save" them and more like youre crafting your own story about making connections with other people and understanding the different passions felt by the characters, though youre also reminded semi-often that these Are still video game characters.
I think everything about this game is satisfying from its art direction of putting together clay figures,sprites, pre-rendered environments its all so fucking good and mouthwatering its genuinely three favorites of mine all rolled into one. This is was simultaneously such a tender as fuck game but also one that still has that separated degree of wanting you to Not stay super attached

Even if getting everything with no ingame checklist(i used notes app to keep tabs on shit) would probably be next to impossible (for me anyways), I had so much fun seeing each and every little thing the game had to offer and seeing each event play out. I think if i were to pick out any negatives with the game itd be how the action meter Does kinda just stop mattering after a bit but that in it of itself kind of removes the tension from The Hero wandering around and you shift into this state of thinking where you realize this and thats Okay because you arent stressing over grinding before everything ends because youre on the inverse of his progression path.

Also i think the fishing in Moon is actually really cool, except for when im being timed, when im being timed it makes me wish the guy that designed the fishing had their nutsack hair cheesegrated off their body.. but that aside most of the minigames are cute and funny

Final thoughts: kind of all over the place on this because I dont want to talk spoilers and want people to just maybe see this and take a chance on one of the best games ive ever played and will ever play in my life, thank you love-de-lic for giving me a similar feeling that rekindled my love for series such as the MOTHER franchise yet also giving me a completely different kind of warmth that permeates the 4th wall so hard that it hits you like a bullet. Even when I needed help from a guide the payoff felt so good, hell most of the game I discovered by simply bumbling around and doing random shit & it was still a great time

so yeah

that unused ending gets a similar message across from the regular one but wow is it dark as hell

the clis song is kind of cute after you hear it 9 times

i spent like 53 hours playing this game and i checked on avg how long it takes ppl to beat it after and tht shit said "23-25" hours for 100% completion
so that means i spent atleast 10 extra hours on that stupid ass fishing tournament which is... hillarious

the best interactive dont be a shut-in + go touch grass PSA ever

poppas is a cunt

thts all i got, cya

Really fun little ride :)
It's actually hilarious how i hit the third ending before hitting the other two, at first i thought i found a bug but its just genuinely funny like that if you deny the darkness demon's offer and makes for the shortest run of the game by far

Cant believe it's free rlly, delightful vibes


final thoughts: GOT YOUR ASS HANDED T O Y O U
WATCHED FROM HERE AND ATE SWEET GOO!