Actraiser Renaissance

Back in the day, loved the original Actraiser on the SNES. Given this, I do like the action sequences much better than the quasi-defense you do in the original, however - the interruptions on the original seem a bit more in pace with growing the town. Unfortunately, gave this remake one another go today just to see why I stopped playing it a while ago - and it's absolutely jarring in the amount of interruptions you get even in the first stage of Fillmore (past the initial 2 action stages). I get that they're trying to build you up for what's to come, but it's really horrible to be stopped every 5 to 10 seconds of gameplay with "hey, this happened"... also, fort mechanics? ugh. So - if you're more a fan of the "Action" than the tower defense style games, then this isn't for you - and if you like games that don't interrupt you FREQUENTLY in the first 10 minutes of play... then give this a pass.

doesn't hold a candle to the original.

I decided to stick with the game and finish it out of stubbornness, because the platforming segments were as good as they were in the original. I was hoping what I heard about the tedium of the town management part of the game was over-exaggerated but no, it was so bloody boring. The original game had a really good mix between some cool action platforming levels and some decent Sim City styled town management. The whole game can take like about 4 to 5 hours to finish. The amount of faff and really badly mobile-port tower defence segments slowed this remake down to a crawl, and the visual novel story segments were also so bloody boring compared to the brief but nuanced bits of narration in the original. By the time I had unlocked the second action-rpg platforming level, a full 1 and a half hours into the game, I was so soured towards the experience I almost didn’t care that those segments had been well recreated and were genuinely fun. Eventually I got into a flow with the tower-defence segments but only after putting the difficulty on easy, wouldn’t have gotten to the good bits of this if I hadn’t have done that. IMO, Quintet’s SNES games deserve so much better than this overblown mobile port.

I once saw someone describe Metallica's Lulu album as "This is what happens when two titans come together, and no one is in the room to tell them 'No.'" That feels remarkably relevant here, because if there is any through line in Actraiser Renaissance, it's that it's all a bit much--and yet, it's all a bit lacking. Like most people playing this game today, I enjoyed the original immensely when I was younger, and I was excited about the possibility of a remake. The original also had a consistent problem being in its own way, and constantly interrupting the game with dialogue and other crap that you almost certainly didn't care about because you were having fun doing whatever you were doing. The remake takes that issue and dials it right up to 11, as though the game is terrified that if it leaves you alone for 10 seconds you might realize it sucks and stop playing. But it doesn't really suck--it just has some really sucky parts, and it has a lot of really sucky garbage stapled onto the original. First, let's talk about the quests. They bring nothing to the table. You basically level up from completing them, but most of the quests are things you're going to do anyway. For example, there's one quest to seal a monster lair. Did anyone playing the original ever say, "Well, golly gee, gosh darn it, I sure would like to go over and seal that monster lair, but the game has not given me a quest for it, so I guess I'll just leave it"? No. Players sealed the lairs, without a quest telling them to, because that's what it meant to play the game. Imagine starting NES Super Mario Bros. and the game stopping EVERYTHING to proclaim "New quest! Jump three times! Reward: 10 coins and one mushroom" That's essentially what the quests are in Actraiser, even if they get somewhat more complicated as the game goes on; it remains throughout stuff that you are already going to do anyway. The game could just as easily award experience directly for doing the things, instead of awarding you experience for completing that quests that involves doing the things. The difference is that one lets you actually just play the game, and the other constantly interrupts you in a way that makes Kokiri fairies embarrassed. The big new addition is a tower defense section, which I don't necessarily have an issue with. The original was a bare platformer and bare god simulator. The remake is a bare platformer, bare god simulator, and bare tower defense. In my opinion, adding the tower defense was the most sensible thing they did. Unfortunately, the tower defense isn't much fun. Tower defense works because enemies have clearly defined paths, and your task is to set traps and keeps and things along those paths to kill the enemies as they rush toward your rift portal or whatever. With Actraiser, your roads form blocks of buildings that give enemies way too much freedom of movement. And if that wasn't bad enough, they enter from portals that spawn seemingly anywhere, so you can't even enter a new region, scout the tower fortress spawn points, and try to direct your people in a way that limits enemy movement. And with the tower defense, of course, comes a hero system. They each have their own levels, but thankfully you don't have to worry about finding gear for these people and equipping them, but as I write that I don't know how Actraiser Renaissance *doesn't* have equipment for you to find for your heroes. The lack thereof shows Square-Enix / Sonic Powered had at least *some" restraint. But no, the only things to find for your heroes are character-specific scrolls that give them experience, which seems to be the only way for them to gain levels? You'll definitely need them for the tower defense sections, though, because everything else is useless except the level 3 towers. Don't worry--there are only two types of towers you have to worry about (those being a melee gate, and an archery tower). Maybe you get more later in the game, I honestly don't know and don't see myself playing further to find out. In theory, you can use your Miracles during these sections, but you absolutely cannot rely on them. Your spells also have levels ranging from 1 to 3, but even the level 3 Lightning spell isn't enough to kill a mob of enemies that are *weak* to lightning. Oh, yes, miracle weaknesses and resistances are a thing. But no, they don't matter, because even a miracle to which an enemy is weak isn't going to kill it, so the only difference is "by how much did the miracle not kill the enemy." Even if miracles were useful, though, SP is basically non-renewable during the sieges. Potions occasionally drop that restore 5 SP, but your cheapest and weakest spell requires 10 SP. And you won't find more than 2 or 3 SP bottles during a tower defense section. I've got hundreds of hours in Orcs Must Die! 2, Kingdom Rush, and some other tower defense games. I love the genre. And I completely agree that tower defense was the next logical step for Actraiser's genre mashup. The problem is that it's all pretty bad. Remember Spore? It promised all these wonderful things as players could take their organism from amoeba to intergalactic conquerors? Remember the reality? A game of good ideas stretched far too thin and rendering everything feeling bare and empty? That's Actraiser Renaissance. The god simulator isn't *good*. The graphics are muddy, interruptions are constant, and the ability to interact with the world is too limited (as an aside, one of those few ways is your angel's bow, which for some unknown reason has *arrows that curve* as they travel, and will completely go around enemies. Is this a failed homing arrow because they think players can't handle the task of aiming arrows?). I don't expect the depth of Civilization 5, but I think Actraiser Renaissance could have aspired to the depth of Spore. The platforming is also not good. It's tolerable. But if this platforming is all the game was, and it had no nostalgic name attached to it, no one would like it. I've played some great sidescrollers and platformers. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Order of Ecclesia, Hollow Knight. And I'm not saying Actraiser needed huge Igavania kind of levels, but those are good platformers with engaging level design and interesting obstacles. Even Super Mario Bros. 2 had more interesting platforming sections then Actraiser Renaissance does. These criticisms apply to the original, as well. In the original, the platforming was stiff and often actively unfun. Using the Angel on the overworld felt good, but the actual god stimulation was also empty. But we forgive the original because that was the 90s, there was much less processing power and storage to work with, and the game itself dared do something that had not been done. Renaissance doesn't deserve the leniency that we show the original. All these things could have been fleshed out and made to feel complete. And I simply refuse to believe that the alpha testing people didn't unanimously say "This pacing is horrific. Interruptions are constant, and it makes every task tedious, because you know you'll get interrupted 2 or more times by villagers telling you how proud they are that they tied their own shoelaces. So don't get this. You can find the original in countless places. And then there is Retroarch, which when is on Steam now. Actraiser Renaissance just isn't a lot of fun. 2+ hours to leave Fillmore, and it doesn't feel like it was meaningful content. It felt like it was a lot of talking, a few legitimately bad but mercifully short platforming stages, and a few tower defense sections that went for much longer than they should have. Even if you find it on sale, don't bother.

半額で買いました。昼飯1回分で遊べたので満足です。 グラフィックだけ綺麗になり、まんんま当時のゲームのままでした。 もっといろいろ追加要素があるのかとおもったら、ただなつかしさを感じただけでした。 あ、最後のおまけのステージがあったのはよかったです。 1回やったら多分もうやることはないなー

This is pretty good and you may like it if you are a fan of the original. It does a good job of capturing the same feel as the original. The new combat is still a little heavy like the original, but is more responsive and I found it a bit easier to perform the attacks that I intended. The ability to swap magics during a stage and to use MP instead of spell charges made every spell useful compared to the original where only 1 or 2 spells were worth using. They did a good job to make a new game that honors the original. There is even an extra map and stage added after the completing the main game. There are a few problems with this game though that really don't make sense and I didn't find fun. These features seemed to only be added to increase the playtime (and waste the player's time). The tutorials and "calls to the temple" are excessive and persistent throughout every map which made the town building seem like it was on rails and scripted. The original had some of this, but it is excessive in the remake. They also added this tower defense type game into the town building phase that was boring, time consuming, and didn't have any real strategic depth. Problems with this are that it takes time for the town to provide resources to build and upgrade defenses and the defenses have set locations that they can be built and have a preset limit. Players are expected to just put whatever defenses will fit nearest to the temple and use spells and the heroes to win. It happens much too often and doesn't fit into this style of game. They introduced heroes for each region with their own stories that are used in the defense game, but they should have either just used them for story or found something more fun to use them in or made a good tower defense game. Even as a fan of tower defense style games, this one is just bad. The heroes fit well for each area and their stories were a good addition. Overall, I'm glad that they made this game and I enjoyed playing it. I felt the same enjoyment as the original when playing the parts of the game that followed from the original and I think it was worth enduring the bad parts that they added to play though this game. However, I am not motivated to replay it again in the future like I do the original which I enjoy playing again every few years.

Headline: More than just a nostalgia trip – I couldn't put it down. I’ll be honest: the initial price tag kept me away for a while. I finally snagged it for 1/3 of the price during the Winter Sale, thinking it would be a quick, small investment to kill some time. I didn't expect it to completely take over my gaming schedule. The Gameplay: You play as a god-like protector, balancing high-speed action with society-building. Movement feels fluid, and while some magic attacks are admittedly OP, they are visually stunning and provide helpful buffs that make you feel truly powerful. The New Additions: The Story: 28 years after the original, the world-building here is fantastic. I was deeply enthralled by the personalities and the relationships between characters. The Heroes: Renaissance introduces legendary heroes. While some regional placements feel a bit odd, their inclusion adds a great layer to the narrative. The Mechanics: The tower-defense and town development aspects could use a little more polish, but they are completely doable and satisfying once you get the hang of it. Verdict: The bosses aren't punishingly difficult—as long as you pay attention, you'll figure them out. If you like a mix of action and strategy with a story that actually makes you care, don’t sleep on this one (especially on sale).

Remember playing this on the SNES. Good times. Updated graphics and they added the siege mechanic (which is ok i guess). Great game.

The platformer parts are pretty fun, but the tower defense parts just kind of suck. The game just doesn't give you enough control over pathing and such to create viable chokepoints, especially in more open areas like Kasandora or Alcaleone. Bottom line: If you want to waste a few hours it's fine, but do yourself a favor and wait for a 75%+ off sale.