Captain_N77
02-26-2013, 05:43 AM
The original Actraiser was one of the highlights of the SNES launch window for me. I honestly had no idea that there was ever a sequel until well into my adulthood and have been eager to try it out ever since. A few weeks ago I found a copy of Actraiser 2 in a local shop for a good price and finally got to try it out. Here are my impressions of the game.
Totally dig the good vs evil, God vs satan thing going on here. 7 deadly sins and all that jazz. However, removing the city building/management aspect from the game kind of undercuts the whole caring deity looking out for the people thing. Actraiser 2 feels like a simple action game...I guess because that's all it really is.
The graphics and music are a real treat, as they were in the first game. However, I didn't ever get that "wow" effect that I got from the graphics of the first game. It's a little hard to put into words, but the look of Actraiser 2 seems a bit dreary compared to the first. Still, I think the game looks really nice. No complaints about the tunes though. I think they tied in really nicely with the look and feel of the game.
The controls underwhelmed me at first. The Master moves pretty sluggishly, and the flying/gliding mechanic seemed like nothing more than a platforming tool. After a few happy accidents, I realized that not only did the glide+thrust technique have it's uses, but the double jump and glide are really crucial for certain parts of the game, especially some of the boss battles. The downward thrust was far more useful than I originally thought it to be as well. At first I was thinking, like most hack n slash games, you want to get into range and slash away. Then I realized that you can do massive damage in this game by getting right on top of your enemies either by the glide+thrust or downward thrust techniques. The cool thing is that some of the tougher enemies and bosses take multiple glide thrusts or downward thrusts, and if you are quick enough with your directional changes while glide thrusting or keying up repeated downward thrusts, you can pile on the damage with little or no damage to yourself. Of course if you goof up you'll pay the price for it. I just thought that was a pretty cool aspect to the combat, as opposed to the usual get your space and hack away convention.
The difficulty....oh the difficulty. I had read Actraiser 2 was more challenging than the original, but I also remember what a cakewalk the first Actaiser was. There were a few times playing this game that I thought I would just have to swallow my pride and give up. Eventually I was able to complete the game on the Normal difficulty setting, but boy was it a stiff challenge at some points along the way.
Overall, I was fairly happy with the game. It certainly is not the classic that I consider the first Actraiser to be, but I'm glad to have played this game and have it in my collection now. I remember getting excited a few years back when SquareEnix renewed the trademark or whatever on the Actraiser name and thinking there might be a sequel. I'm guessing now that it only had something to do with the Virtual Console release of Actraiser though. I did read that one of the SE guys had said a few years back that he would like to do a new Actraiser. So who knows, maybe the series will return again one day.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this game? It obviously is a game that slipped through the cracks for a lot of folks. The only other person I know(personally) that has played this game is the guy who owned the shop who sold me the game. If you haven't played it, I'd encourage you to give it a try. So yeah, anybody have any thoughts on the game?
Totally dig the good vs evil, God vs satan thing going on here. 7 deadly sins and all that jazz. However, removing the city building/management aspect from the game kind of undercuts the whole caring deity looking out for the people thing. Actraiser 2 feels like a simple action game...I guess because that's all it really is.
The graphics and music are a real treat, as they were in the first game. However, I didn't ever get that "wow" effect that I got from the graphics of the first game. It's a little hard to put into words, but the look of Actraiser 2 seems a bit dreary compared to the first. Still, I think the game looks really nice. No complaints about the tunes though. I think they tied in really nicely with the look and feel of the game.
The controls underwhelmed me at first. The Master moves pretty sluggishly, and the flying/gliding mechanic seemed like nothing more than a platforming tool. After a few happy accidents, I realized that not only did the glide+thrust technique have it's uses, but the double jump and glide are really crucial for certain parts of the game, especially some of the boss battles. The downward thrust was far more useful than I originally thought it to be as well. At first I was thinking, like most hack n slash games, you want to get into range and slash away. Then I realized that you can do massive damage in this game by getting right on top of your enemies either by the glide+thrust or downward thrust techniques. The cool thing is that some of the tougher enemies and bosses take multiple glide thrusts or downward thrusts, and if you are quick enough with your directional changes while glide thrusting or keying up repeated downward thrusts, you can pile on the damage with little or no damage to yourself. Of course if you goof up you'll pay the price for it. I just thought that was a pretty cool aspect to the combat, as opposed to the usual get your space and hack away convention.
The difficulty....oh the difficulty. I had read Actraiser 2 was more challenging than the original, but I also remember what a cakewalk the first Actaiser was. There were a few times playing this game that I thought I would just have to swallow my pride and give up. Eventually I was able to complete the game on the Normal difficulty setting, but boy was it a stiff challenge at some points along the way.
Overall, I was fairly happy with the game. It certainly is not the classic that I consider the first Actraiser to be, but I'm glad to have played this game and have it in my collection now. I remember getting excited a few years back when SquareEnix renewed the trademark or whatever on the Actraiser name and thinking there might be a sequel. I'm guessing now that it only had something to do with the Virtual Console release of Actraiser though. I did read that one of the SE guys had said a few years back that he would like to do a new Actraiser. So who knows, maybe the series will return again one day.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this game? It obviously is a game that slipped through the cracks for a lot of folks. The only other person I know(personally) that has played this game is the guy who owned the shop who sold me the game. If you haven't played it, I'd encourage you to give it a try. So yeah, anybody have any thoughts on the game?