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Post by runinruder on Jul 2, 2011 19:04:36 GMT -5
ActRaiser has been mentioned by a few folks around here as an old favorite. It's certainly one of my favorite SNES games, and exchanging a few words on it in threads here got me reflecting on my "history" with it.
It was probably the only early SNES game that really intrigued me. I distinctly remember a screen shot showing the centaur boss really capturing my attention. I love hack-and-slash games, and the side-scrolling scenes seemed right up my alley. But I didn't get an SNES until late '92, and at that point I wanted to pick up all the sequels to my old NES favorites that were out (Zelda, Contra, etc.), along with the titles that all the magazines were making a big deal about at the time (Street Fighter II, Super Star Wars, etc.). So my SNES collection during my childhood consisted of a lot of disappointing follow-ups and "EGM Platinum Award" winners, but no ActRaiser.
In '98 or '99 I was revisiting some of my old stuff and my then-girlfriend and I happened upon a used-games shop that was selling some very cheap SNES carts. I finally picked up ActRaiser... along with SNES Pit Fighter. This was a very memorable juxtaposition of good and bad: ActRaiser, a 10/10... and SNES Pit Fighter, quite possibly the single worst video game ever made (and I really mean this).
So yeah, one of those two games received a hell of a lot of play time that night. As I'd long thought I would, I dug ActRaiser's hack-and-slash scenes--they were extremely easy but played really well--but what was truly surprising was how darn addicting and enjoyable the Populous-type parts were. Even my girlfriend was hooked on those scenes. The game was an immediate favorite of ours.
I've played through it a few times since then, but the last time was a few years ago (mostly due to me not having the time or desire to play much SNES stuff in general). I still hold the game in very high regard. Ironically, most of my fond recollections of it revolve around the "strategy" parts, though I remember some of the awesome boss designs too. Hopefully I'll get around to giving it another good play soon.
Anyone else want to share any stories/thoughts about ActRaiser?
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Post by ECM on Jul 2, 2011 19:56:56 GMT -5
It's not only my favorite SNES game, it's also one of my all-time favs.
The first time I ever saw it was in an issue of EGM and, iirc, the caption said something to the effect of "Actraiser does things in 6 megs that most Genesis carts can't manage in 8" or words to that effect. They went on for several months singing its praises, even though most of the focus was, of course, on the side-scrolling sequences...and, somewhat oddly (or so it seemed at the time), the musical score.
All this praise, of course, blackened my Sega Genesis-loving heart (like any good fanboy), but I had to have it once I found out about the Populous-inspired sequences, a game I loved to death on Genesis. (Plus, my God, a fusion of arcade action and god game?? My heart be still!)
So the day it released, on a stormy, windswept, afternoon in November 1991 [footnote:1]Actually, I have no idea what the weather was like, nor if I got on day one--close for sure!--but run with it.[/footnote], it was mine, thus beginning a 20-year love affair with a fiery passion that has yet to abate.
The thing that gets me is that, while the arcade sequences are solid, they are far short of spectacular. Of course you wouldn't know this reading the game mags at the time, as they went on about how amazing they were, both play-wise and graphically (OK, it has nice graphics, but it's not all that and a quiver of arrows). And the 'simulation' sequences, while entertaining, are entirely insufficient as the basis for a full game.
Ah! But! It's here, where "solid" and "entertaining" meet, like, say, five metallic lions--not particularly powerful on their own--fusing into a giant, sword-wielding, robot, now ultra-powered, and then laying waste to an otherworldly beast bent on world destruction...and...err...basically, the sum is (far) greater than its component parts.
/cliché redeemed (?) by elaborate, hyperbolic, over-the-top analogy...in reverse
This odd combination of 'just good enough', made for an epic experience, that, sadly, the folks at Enix America just didn't get--at all (see: Actraiser 2...Christ).
And...my God...the soundtrack! This was the game that cemented the rep of Yuzo Koshiro in the hearts and minds of game geeks everywhere, with his soaring symphonic score, putting the newly-minted Sony sound chip in the SNES through its sampled paces! It's probably the best soundtrack on the system (silence Square fans, lest I smight thee!) and, in a way, set the stage for being...completely disappointed w/ every subsequent SNES soundtrack. Sigh.[footnote:2]The sound chip was *fantastic* for sampled sounds, horns and the like but, really, the fluffy 'pastel'-sounding soundtracks, w/ their airy over-reliance on said horns in virtually every game on the platform, just did *not* work for me except in a select, few, games.[/footnote]
It's actually a crime against gamers that this has never seen a follow-up (Act2 doesn't count!), with the few times it's been attempted under the guise of different names, it's been a pretty mixed bag: Dark Savior was clearly inspired by it but neither side of that game really made up for the faults of the other and FFCC: MLAAK actually nailed the simulation elements at, perhaps, the expense of no arcade action (plus, being a WiiWare title, it never really stood a chance, memory-wise). There are others (one GameFan editor insisted that Valkyrie Profile was basically Actraiser-as-RPG), including some of Quintet's own spiritual sequels, but none of those ever managed to scale the same, glorious, heights.
So, yeah, the game is freaking awesome. I still play it regularly today, though I always opt, now, for the substantially more difficult SuFami rev. But if you haven't ever played this, well, go hang your head in shame, flagellate yourself, give me 1000 push-ups, and then, when your arms no longer work, say 1500 Hail Marys. After that, though, make sure you play this game!
I pray to God we get a sequel, someday!
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Post by runinruder on Jul 2, 2011 20:58:32 GMT -5
That really does sum it up best.
I have to confess that I actually liked ActRaiser 2. At first I hated it due to the absence of the Populous parts and the shittiness of the controls. But once I got the hang of those controls, the gameplay felt okay, and I enjoyed coming up with plans for taking down the bosses.
I eventually got rid of it, though. Despite the excellent production elements, something always felt kind of second-rate about it to me, the cumulative effect of shoddy packaging, controls, and level design (that basically just had you do a lot of wandering around). I'd never get rid of the first one, that's for sure.
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Post by ECM on Jul 2, 2011 21:09:00 GMT -5
I made so many attempts at those controls and just could not deal with it, especially not coming from the first game's spot-on precision. If they'd fixed those, it might have been a good action game but with those controls *and* no sim sequences...argh. (It was pretty, though.)
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Post by Borsalio on Jul 3, 2011 0:50:33 GMT -5
some of Quintet's own spiritual sequels I played a ton of both Actraiser and Soul Blazer as a kid, but it wasn't until much later that I noticed, hey, these two games have the same damn sound effects and a similar plot! Someday, if I ever find myself with an abundance of free time, I should do a run through Actraiser, Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma all in order. Maybe Granstream Saga too, if I can get over the creepy faceless people. |
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Post by ECM on Jul 3, 2011 15:23:52 GMT -5
I actually did do the 16-bit titles (minus Actraiser 2!) all in a row about 6 months ago and, man, Actraiser really does just outclass all of them. (Terranigma, especially, is just not a very good game.)
It may be going a bit too far (I know a lot of people that love Illusion of Gaia, for example) but I think Quintet is pretty close to being a one-hit-wonder. Or, perhaps more accurately, a one-time-AAA-wonder.
(I'd still like to try Solo Crisis in English, however!)
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Post by Borsalio on Jul 3, 2011 16:32:11 GMT -5
Yeah, I was never too big on Terranigma either, I imagine the whole "Not released in the US" thing made some people over-value it a bit once they found it via emulation.
I enjoyed Illusion of Gaia when I played through it as a kid, but I haven't touched it since. I wonder how it would hold up? I can't remember too much about the plot (other than that poor, poor pig).
Soul Blazer, though, I really liked, probably more than Actraiser. So I'd give them at least two hits.
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Post by ECM on Jul 3, 2011 16:43:37 GMT -5
Man, the thing w/ all those RPGs on SNES and the like is that, playing them years later, you realize how absolutely shallow most of them are, story-wise. (This isn't necessarily bad, it's just a bit surprising since nostalgia tends to make them seem more epic than they actually were.)
I think Illusion of Gaia had some interesting ideas (the exp system is novel) but, overall, it really didn't hold my attention (then or now) and I really had to force myself through it the last time around.
And, yeah, I think Soul Blazer is probably their second-best game.
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Post by elchevalier on Jul 3, 2011 20:36:31 GMT -5
I love the game, that said, i can't help but speed up all the parts regarding the town building. I like that stuff too, but well, the real meat of the game is obviously in the action/plataforming.
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Post by ECM on Jul 3, 2011 20:37:16 GMT -5
You're fired! And get me that model thingee!
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Post by feilong80 on Jul 4, 2011 15:27:33 GMT -5
Actraiser was a huge favorite of mine as well. I'm having a hard time remembering any SNES games that I owned between it and Super Mario World, actually. I think I had the unfortunate luck of getting games like Bill Laimbeer's combat basketball during the early days of the SNES, so Actraiser is pretty much the first game post SMW that I remember being really awesome.
It is also the first game I remember that had truly emotional moments, like making it rain for that guy, and that amazing moment when man first creates music (yes, that hits some huge weak points for massive damage for me). I also think it had some poignant things to say in regards to man and his relationship with God.*
And yes (since I am probably irritating ECM by over intellectualizing the game) it had terrific gameplay. But as others have pointed out, it was a true case of gestalt: none of the parts were awesome, but together they fit together with near perfection.
*Interesting that this comes from probably functionally atheist/Buddhist/Shinto Japanese devs. It is fairly common for Japanese devs to use Christian lore for their own purposes, and sometimes they do it in a way that bugs me, but in this case I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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