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 (ActRaiser, This Saturday, Ragnarock, ACT NOW TO RAISE THE RAWWWWWWWK!!!)
CLASSIC GAMING
ActRaiser
Developer: Quintet
Publisher: Enix
Genre: Action/Sim
Year: 1990
System: SNES
Nowadays, videogames incorporate several elements of various genres that it's harder to pigeonhole them as strictly an RPG or strictly a Puzzle game. Back in the old days it was very easy to do so, you knew what game was what and could easily explain "oh it's that beat-em-up they released last week". But then in those days, whenever a game tried to mix two styles of gameplay, well it becomes pretty memorable. But did they do it as well back then as they can now?
 (The most adorable little bastard dragon ever you'll soon hate)
Story - Amongst a world ruined by monsters and devoid of humanity, you are God. Yes, that God, the one that 2 billion people worship nowadays. Well not if you have the non-Japanese version thanks to Nintendo's policies so you are just The Master, who must cross the six various regions. Satan, or rather, Tanzra the Evil One, is your nemesis and after a three-day battle against his limitless minions, The Master/God returned to His Sky Palace to tend to Hs grave wounds, erect a barricade around Himself and sleep to recover.
In this time, Tanzra/Satan managed to conquer the world and fill it with monsters in all six lands with powerful guardians keeping a stronghold over each. A few hundred years later, God/Master awakens to see the world ravaged by evil, so He aims to eradicate them once and for all with his powers and the help of his Angel. Yes, one angel only, I suppose there was a redundacy at some point.
Gameplay - The main purpose of this game is to travel to each of the six areas and eradicate all of the monsters and fill it with people. In every region you will have the action part where you traverse the barren landscape to defeat a variety of enemies before dealing with their leader, then the simulation part where you try and build a civilisation, and lastly the second action sequence where you fight more enemies and deal with the actual boss of the region in their lair.
 (The almost unknown Street Fighter 2.5 with the final boss Akumanticore)
The action sections are very simple as you traverse the monster-ridden landscape as Master/God's personal avatar. In fact, my only complaint of the game is that it's too simple to control and doesn't offer enough variety for a game such as this. You only have your magic and your sword. No shield, no complex moves, just the one slash attack and a magic power of your choice which you choose beforehand in the Sky Palace (which serves as the Hub of the game where you can move to other areas, save your progress, change magic and so forth).
The multitude of enemies you face here are difficult perhaps only because of the lack of moves you could have. Admittedly your sword has some reach on it and can deal with enemies quite well but no blocking or anything? You're GOD/THE MASTER, how can you not take a shield with you? I'm sure Michael or Gabriel had one at least. Plus, the magic is only limited to how many scrolls you have on you, not like MP or so.
 (Just another average day in Mexico City ZOMG TOPICAL)
The simulation sections are basically a religious SimCity but way more simpler and made difficult by the enemies. First you have the temple where two of your worshippers dwell, and you must build the town around them by directing them to clear spaces so they can build on it. However, every area is taken over by the oncourse of nature so you have to use your Miracles to clear the way such as Lightning to burn trees, Rain to get rid of deserts, and Sun to dry up marshlands or snowy lands. These require SP to use which you regain by either killing a monster or having the town built more. The monsters come in four forms which I'll list in terms of difficulty.
 (Even with such little story, some sparks of emotion burst through)
Your Angel must use his arrows in order to kill them which he can only use if he has any health. Health for the Angel is regained by the population building more of the town.
Keeper Bats - Easiest of the bunch, these guys love to kidnap four or five of your population and can be killed with one arrow.
White Dragons - Irritating buggers they are, they cast lightning on homes to kill all inside them, requiring three arrows to kill and if you try and hit them when near enough, they love to dodge.
Demons - The opposite of your angel, they love to curse crops so people will starve and require four arrows to take down.
Giant Skull - Oh. Holy. Fuck. These guys are instant death, they go directly to your source of power, the temple and require EIGHT FUCKING ARROWS to kill. They also love to charge attack your Angel.
You also have a variety of weapons to use the people can offer you when they find them in their lives, as well as finding Magic Scrolls or Source of Lifes (which are basically extra lives to use), you have Bomb which eradicates all enemies on screen as well as Bow and Arrow which turns all the arrows into one-hit kills for a while. The people of one town can learn a skill by themselves which you can give to another town. One example being a town learning music to soothe their hearts, which you can use with another town that's having a clash with themselves and get rewarded.
 (Circumcision in the dragon world, because God "loves" them too)
Other than what the people ask of you and building the town, you also have to direct them to Monster Lairs so they can seal it up with holy powers so the monsters of that lair do not pester you ever again. There is also a small sidequest feel to this if you really push on and explore every area by helping the people with items from other towns or make them cover every single blade of grass to build towns on. And finally, after a certain population number has been achieved, you gain a level, adding an extra point to your health as both Angel and yourself in the action parts.
Graphics - Being half-action and half-sim, the graphics will differ depending on what part of the game you're doing. The simulation is very basic. Tiny little people mill around the town with their little dogs and horses and houses and crops. Your angel is three times their size and the monsters range from the same-size Demons to the OH SWEET JESUS MONOLITH Flying Skulls. The landscape is nothing much to talk on other than feeling quite alive when the people mill about everywhere.
 (Rita Repulsa won't take any of your attitude shit anymore)
The action parts however are more fun visually with a whole plethora of monsters to face against from Manticores to Ice Wyverns, showing a nice bit of nosediving into mythology to get a few of these characters. The sceneries of each area are good in their atmosphere from the jungles of Marahna to the full moon castle of Bloodpool. The bosses are the best animated of the bunch with an interesting....religious underline. Consider the fact two bosses are a Pharoah's head and a snake-headed Hindu-style goddess. Yeah.
Music/Sound - One of the biggest reasons this game is memorable is the soundtrack itself. A beautiful sweeping score that's even been orchestrated later on in life, every song is touching in its own way from the lonely theme of Northwall to the songs of Kasandora. Kasandora's theme will surely be the most remembered for its context at least as the first music the world itself ever had, and all of this wonderful dramatic and sad soundtrack is made by Yuzo Koshiro. Maybe you heard of him, banging out rave themes in Streets of Rage or pounding out themes from the Master System games of Sonic 1 and 2. A DJ managing to bring this sort of classical feel to a game is amazing in itself.
 (This is totally not about Christianity trying to dominate over other relgions, noooooooope, totally not)
All in all, I expected much more from this game after all the glory I heard of it as this innovative exciting action/sim game. And it is innovative, it is a bit exciting and it is an action/sim game. But I expected some better combat in the action section, something more innovative in those lines like rolling dodges or so, but we can't have everything. It's not a fantastic game, but it is a classic for its innovation, its touching small story and the balls to make you God.
Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 2
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4"Videogames are bad for you? That's what they said about rock 'n' roll." - Shigeru Miyamoto  Hail Slither, The Eternal Champion!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Well to be fair, Actraiser came out early in the SNES life, so I think it's pretty good considering when it came out. It IS a good game, but personally the strategy parts bored me. The second game is much better.
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Rank: You're gonna stick that where?
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Damn all these classic enix reviews that you're doing really brings me back. Enix made some great games back in the day. Ever since they merged with Square all their creativity went flying out the window. Seriously, the merger made sense from a business standpoint but quality-wise the games released by Square-Enix are by and large crap compared to the stuff released by Square and Enix respectively before they merged. Anyhow great game ActRaiser was. I'm the leetest one here 
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