Actraiser: Renaissance

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DaHeckIzDat
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Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby DaHeckIzDat » September 25th, 2021, 1:18 am

I know there are some fans of the classic Actraiser games on here. So...guess what just released on PS4 and PS5?
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ActRaiser
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby ActRaiser » September 25th, 2021, 11:02 am

I bought it for the Switch yesterday and will give it a go tonight. Anyone else notice they lowercased the R in raiser?

Weirdos.

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ActRaiser
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby ActRaiser » September 27th, 2021, 11:06 am

I played through Fillmore last night. Usually, you can do everything in under an hour. It took about 3 and a half hours for me. They added a tower defense mechanic to it in addition to going down and playing a side scrolling mini level to close off the demon portals. I actually like the change up with coming down to close the portals up. The tower defense mechanic sort of works. You also get a champion of sorts that you direct during the invasions.

It's way too early for me to write a review but as first impressions go it's sort of an HD reimagining of the game. It's not a 1:1 copy. The music is still as awesome as ever. The dialog is pretty good and tells a similar story which is cool. The mechanics and Simcity portions of it are different as are the side scrolling levels.

The $30 price tag is steep but I gladly paid it to show support for the game.

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MSR1701
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby MSR1701 » September 27th, 2021, 3:20 pm

ActRaiser wrote:I played through Fillmore last night. Usually, you can do everything in under an hour. It took about 3 and a half hours for me. They added a tower defense mechanic to it in addition to going down and playing a side scrolling mini level to close off the demon portals. I actually like the change up with coming down to close the portals up. The tower defense mechanic sort of works. You also get a champion of sorts that you direct during the invasions.

It's way too early for me to write a review but as first impressions go it's sort of an HD reimagining of the game. It's not a 1:1 copy. The music is still as awesome as ever. The dialog is pretty good and tells a similar story which is cool. The mechanics and Simcity portions of it are different as are the side scrolling levels.

The $30 price tag is steep but I gladly paid it to show support for the game.


For $30, including a copy of the original game, or including elements from the sequel (or both!) would have made the tag less off-putting. This is on my Wishlist (Switch), though I may hold out for a physical release (hopefully with a blasted soundtrack CD with the ORIGINAL music, and not just the re-orchestrated tracks. Was VERY happy to see the original audio as an option, though was sad to not see a 16-bit graphic aesthetic...

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ActRaiser
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby ActRaiser » September 27th, 2021, 3:26 pm

MSR1701 wrote:
ActRaiser wrote:I played through Fillmore last night. Usually, you can do everything in under an hour. It took about 3 and a half hours for me. They added a tower defense mechanic to it in addition to going down and playing a side scrolling mini level to close off the demon portals. I actually like the change up with coming down to close the portals up. The tower defense mechanic sort of works. You also get a champion of sorts that you direct during the invasions.

It's way too early for me to write a review but as first impressions go it's sort of an HD reimagining of the game. It's not a 1:1 copy. The music is still as awesome as ever. The dialog is pretty good and tells a similar story which is cool. The mechanics and Simcity portions of it are different as are the side scrolling levels.

The $30 price tag is steep but I gladly paid it to show support for the game.


For $30, including a copy of the original game, or including elements from the sequel (or both!) would have made the tag less off-putting. This is on my Wishlist (Switch), though I may hold out for a physical release (hopefully with a blasted soundtrack CD with the ORIGINAL music, and not just the re-orchestrated tracks. Was VERY happy to see the original audio as an option, though was sad to not see a 16-bit graphic aesthetic...


It's a remake of the 1st game. It's not the original game. There's more added to it and the art style is more Japanese/Anime. Of course, maybe that was the original design intent and we got what we got with the 16-bit style. Some of the art is a bit different. It's not bad and may even be great. I'm not quite sure yet. For newcomers it's probably great.

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ActRaiser
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby ActRaiser » September 27th, 2021, 4:05 pm

I will add my 3.5 hours on the first level is from me trying to get my population maxed out. I couldn't get above 422 but am thinking the limits on this game differ from the original. I feel like the limit was roughly just over 900 but in this I can't seem to get above that. You have to build forts which take up land/population. I destroyed all of mine to see if that would let me get higher but that didn't do it. Hopefully, I didn't mess things up by getting rid of all my forts. I can always add them back again hopefully before the next skirmish arrives.

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MSR1701
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby MSR1701 » October 13th, 2021, 11:31 am

With the game being our for a bit, what are everyone's thoughts?

As of this post I have held off of buying the digital, partially for the price tag, mainly because I would LOVE to get a physical with a CD of the soundtrack... We LOVES the soundtrack to this, yes we do, precious... 8-) :lol:

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ActRaiser
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby ActRaiser » October 13th, 2021, 1:38 pm

I played all the way through Bloodpool and most of the way through Kassandora. I was stymied on a tower route and need to redo things to survive the monster onslaught. I think that will let me close the final lair and then off to the boss.

It's ActRaiser but with lots and lots of chattiness. The pacing to let you chill and do your own thing in the Simcity portion isn't really there. It keeps prompting you with things to do or pleas to here. It's not bad, just different. Before you were the sole person saving everyone. Now, each level offers up a guardian of sorts for you to direct which further increases the chattiness of your angel and your minions.

Is it worth $30? Heck yea! If only to continue the franchise and for us to get something a bit more polished.

It's not perfect, although, the music certainly is.

I think of it like this, if it sells then they'll hopefully make a sequel. Download or not I'm glad I paid for it. It's been fun experiencing it on a new console.

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Retro STrife
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby Retro STrife » October 13th, 2021, 5:39 pm

Thanks for the heads up - I would have totally missed this release. I'm a "new" ActRaiser fan, as I just played and beat the SNES game in 2021, which I posted about a few months back (https://videogamecritic.com/forums/view ... 12&t=19676).

I have to admit, I'm really surprised to hear they remade this game. I know serious SNES retro gamers rave about ActRaiser, but I always thought of it as being really under the radar for the average 90s gamer. I owned an SNES growing up and didn't know about it until reading the VGC's review on this site! But anyway, good to see the re-release and good to hear from ActRaiser here that it's a solid product. I played the original too recently to give it another run-through, but I'm gonna keep this one in the back of my mind for the future.

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MSR1701
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Re: Actraiser: Renaissance

Postby MSR1701 » January 5th, 2022, 3:12 pm

I finally bit the bullet late last year and bought the digital game, VERY glad there is an option for the SNES soundtrack.

...and I finally get why so many descriptions above sound like a Tower Defense discussion... the changes to the Sim mode's gameplay are fine if they are in another game or optional, as an element added in to the core game, not a huge fan.

Still, much better than I was expecting.


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