ActRaiser Renaissance Review - Switchdrunk

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  • čas přidán 16. 11. 2023
  • A tough game to recommend. The highs are very high, the lows are pretty low. Enough with the tower defense stuff, please.
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Komentáře • 426

  • @Locksmith97
    @Locksmith97 Před 7 měsíci +171

    I'd actually recommend Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin as a sort of modern Actraiser-esque game. It swaps the basic town building for an easy to learn/hard to master farming system, but it's mixed with plenty of side scrolling action stages and bosses.

    • @SNESdrunk
      @SNESdrunk  Před 7 měsíci +68

      That one has been on my Steam wishlist for a while, just waiting for the price to go down

    • @mynameisbeenice2949
      @mynameisbeenice2949 Před 7 měsíci +7

      ​@@SNESdrunkThe switch version will probably be on the eshop black Friday sale. Only difference with that version is the farming sections are 30 fps.

    • @Willtendo2
      @Willtendo2 Před 7 měsíci

      ​@@SNESdrunkthe physical switch copy is $20 on Amazon currently.

    • @Ivan-jq7pf
      @Ivan-jq7pf Před 7 měsíci +3

      @@SNESdrunk Seconding this recommendation 100%. Another thing it has in common with Actraiser is fantastic music, although of a different style. Great character design and (Japanese) voice acting for an indie game too.

    • @0Fyrebrand0
      @0Fyrebrand0 Před 7 měsíci +1

      Huh, never heard of that one but it sounds interesting. Will have to check it out!

  • @EdmondDantes224
    @EdmondDantes224 Před 7 měsíci +33

    I'm kinda the exact opposite about the town-building in the SNES original. I liked that it was so uncomplicated and was mostly "story time" and also a chance to level up. It meant it did not overstay its welcome, while at the same time being a fallback if you feel like one level is all that separates you from your ability to beat a level.
    Expanding on that just feels wrong to me, but so does removing it entirely.

    • @sjake8308
      @sjake8308 Před 5 měsíci

      The only thing wrong with the town building levels on the original was that it got the shortest, least interesting piece of music in the entire game. Not that it was bad per se, it more that it was the tune I'd hear most yet it was both the weakest track and had a short loop.

  • @seaotter7927
    @seaotter7927 Před 7 měsíci +70

    Just here to say that I love SNES Drunk.

    • @elgatofelix8917
      @elgatofelix8917 Před 7 měsíci +1

      He can't stop complaining. He complained that the city building was gone from Act Raiser 2 and now that it's back he is still crying.

    • @someoneelse1534
      @someoneelse1534 Před 7 měsíci

      *Switch drunk

  • @TimedRevolver
    @TimedRevolver Před 7 měsíci +39

    The tower defense thing should have been limited to building towers to help manage the monsters, not a focus of the sim section. Like one of the sim goals being to get your town safe so the towers aren't needed, and the 'victory' is seeing them torn down by villagers.

    • @KainsAddiction
      @KainsAddiction Před 7 měsíci +1

      Tower defense bullshit killed the game. I just stopped playinv

    • @TimedRevolver
      @TimedRevolver Před 7 měsíci +6

      @@KainsAddiction It should have only been to help manage enemies.
      Let the player do other things without having to just keep vigil on the villagers constantly.
      In the original, I had to stop giving construction orders to go shoot more monsters.
      Towers would help with that.

    • @PlasticCogLiquid
      @PlasticCogLiquid Před 7 měsíci +2

      @@TimedRevolverThat would have been a welcome change, instead they killed an otherwise great game. Pretty sad

  • @RappingNinja
    @RappingNinja Před 7 měsíci +11

    I actually loved Renaissance. The town-building stuff in the original is SO basic and simple. Renaissance at least tried to do something more challenging/participatory with it…. but I could’ve used a MUCH lower rate of tower-defense segments.

  • @thebearup
    @thebearup Před 7 měsíci +37

    This could have easily been solved with a "classic" mode that trimmed the city building sections back to align with the original. As it stands I prefer the original to the remake.

  • @LeinaDZiur
    @LeinaDZiur Před 7 měsíci +21

    I have the same criticism regarding Cult of The Lamb. The game is just lovely in every way, but as time progresses, you spend more time taking care of your cult than fighting, and when you do fight you have to speedrun instead of explore stuff because by the time you come back, half of the cultists died.

    • @SECONDQUEST
      @SECONDQUEST Před 7 měsíci

      Ehh. I feel like that game is too easy during the sim sections. Build a thing that makes poop fertilizer, make food, then assign jobs. Everything takes care of itself.

  • @DesertRainReads
    @DesertRainReads Před 7 měsíci +6

    The Tower Defense sections actually made sense. The heroes actually made the quest more personal as well, they all made sense in the end too.
    I thoroughly enjoyed this game and this is coming from someone who beat the original. The music is god tier and the fact they fixed the glitch in which the wrong music played in Fillmore Act 2, that right there made this an instant win.

  • @Cheesewiz680
    @Cheesewiz680 Před 7 měsíci +14

    I actually liked the TD stuff, it could have been better but I think it was a logical step in the right direction for this remake, and the hero stuff is pretty cool once you get a few towns in and have a handful of them to control the TD sections become a lot more interactive

  • @flansburgh1100
    @flansburgh1100 Před 7 měsíci +29

    This game has been nestled cozily in my Steam wish list since it came out, and there it will stay until it drops under 5 bucks or shows up on Humble Bundle. I'm not paying full price for that.

    • @KainsAddiction
      @KainsAddiction Před 7 měsíci +1

      Thr tower defense shit ruins the game

    • @UNSTABLE111
      @UNSTABLE111 Před 7 měsíci

      I paid full price..I finished it, and was pleasantly surprised how much I liked it..having not played the original...than again, I like the tower defense stuff
      ..it had some minor rts elements with the heroes..

  • @hungrygoriya
    @hungrygoriya Před 7 měsíci +22

    Thanks for the video on this one. I've been very curious about it since I wasn't totally swept off my feet by the original Actraiser (I found the combat sections a little clunky), and this tells me plenty about whether it's for me or not. Also, I couldn't help but hearing Castlevania in the song that played at the end and other parts of your video. It sounds so much like the song from Bloodlines on the Genesis called Reincarnated Soul, which I think plays during the first stage? Anyway, awesome video, and thank you for talking about some Switch stuff that I know nothing about!

    • @Worgen33
      @Worgen33 Před 7 měsíci

      I was wondering about that song, it really sounded more like a Castlevania song then one I recognized from Actrazor. But, its also been years since I last played Actrazor so I might have just forgotten the particular song.

    • @ChibiKami
      @ChibiKami Před 7 měsíci

      I always felt that ActRaiser's music in general could have come right out of a Castlevania game, so you're not the only one

    • @EdmondDantes224
      @EdmondDantes224 Před 7 měsíci +1

      The music sounded Castlevania-esque to you too huh? The whole time I was thinking "this sounds like Actraiser by way of SOTN."

    • @hungrygoriya
      @hungrygoriya Před 7 měsíci

      @@EdmondDantes224 I definitely felt some of the visuals were SOTN-ish too! Glad it's not just me!

    • @o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o
      @o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o Před 6 měsíci

      If you want ActRaiser but with better combat sections then play ActRaiser 2. It's a really fun game - just not as special as the first one. The slow hero takes some getting used to but he has a really cool and interesting set of moves - it's much better (for those few who actually gave it a chance) than the simple "sword, duck, jump, spell" power set of the Master in the first game.
      (Then you can satisfy your longing for the wistful story and setting of ActRaiser 1 by playing Illusion of Gaia or something immediately afterward.)

  • @BrunoCarvalhoPaula
    @BrunoCarvalhoPaula Před 7 měsíci +89

    I was so freaking hyped up for that remake... and then it is a complete dud. I think they did well with the action segments but the city parts are MUCH worse than the original

    • @yangofice8361
      @yangofice8361 Před 7 měsíci +2

      same

    • @justsomebody-1665
      @justsomebody-1665 Před 7 měsíci +3

      You just summarized the video

    • @jonathandixon7760
      @jonathandixon7760 Před 7 měsíci +8

      Big fan of the old. But I was even hesitant in the first action section in Renaissance. The fighting was fine, but the visuals look like a no-budget Indy mobile game.
      And then I got to the overworld and put the game down in 10 minutes.
      The only thing that seemed to get better was boss fights. Everything else was too busy, ugly, repetitive, and just offering nothing that a hundred other games don’t do better.

    • @TalkSickMass
      @TalkSickMass Před 7 měsíci +6

      It's possible it was a mobile-only title at first.

    • @akiradkcn
      @akiradkcn Před 7 měsíci +2

      ​@@justsomebody-1665he didn't? Thats not what Drunk said at all

  • @edgeninja
    @edgeninja Před 7 měsíci +6

    I actually didn't mind the tower defense sections at all. It was only in the final, post-game town where you had such a HUGE area to defend that it got frustrating.
    Praying for a Soul Blazer remake next.

    • @obsoleteworlds
      @obsoleteworlds Před 7 měsíci

      Sounds similar to the frustration of the original game's boss rush.

  • @kornsin
    @kornsin Před 7 měsíci +4

    As one of my favorite SNES games I was super thrilled hearing about this remake. When I heard the music in the trailer I was astonished so when the vinyl was released I instantly pre-ordered it. If the Tower defense sections were cut to about 50% it would be so much better but I have really been enjoying my time with everything outside of the Tower defense sections.

  • @7milesdavis
    @7milesdavis Před 7 měsíci +2

    Always enjoy watching these in the morning with my coffee, thanks man. I’m finishing Second Story R right now.

  • @elsiebartlett6808
    @elsiebartlett6808 Před 7 měsíci

    Thank you so much for this review! I’d love to see more reviews like this of remakes or continuations of classic snes games. Have a great day!

  • @despawn7663
    @despawn7663 Před 7 měsíci +8

    I was hyped like so many and started to play, I was excited by the visuals, the music, everything was jiving. Then as i reached the end of the first zone i came to the realization. I enjoyed the original even better, so i stopped not even completing the first area. Just to let the memory preserve itself. I still bought it, sound track and everything to support it!

    • @PlasticCogLiquid
      @PlasticCogLiquid Před 7 měsíci +1

      Same here

    • @jasonwismer2670
      @jasonwismer2670 Před 7 měsíci +2

      Perfect description of how I felt as well.

    • @cloudlessx
      @cloudlessx Před 7 měsíci +1

      For me it wss Final Fantasy 7 remake. I gave up after a few hours and went back to play the original.

  • @thenostalgiafactor5023
    @thenostalgiafactor5023 Před 7 měsíci +4

    Total length of video: 380 secs.
    Total length of "Switch Drunk": 2.5 secs.
    .66% of the video was spent listening to "Switch Drunk".

  • @JazGalaxy
    @JazGalaxy Před 7 měsíci +11

    I think that the problem with x-rays or is that people don’t realize that the illusion of the city part being more complex is what makes the original so good. Everyone wants it to be more complex, but there really is no solution there that would actually add to the game. The brilliance of the original was in what rather than what it actually did.

    • @MidlifeCrisisJoe
      @MidlifeCrisisJoe Před 7 měsíci +1

      Uh, no. Actually making the city building more complex would actually add to the game and is what people actually wanted. SnesDrunk even pointed out the perfect example of exactly the level of complexity needed, which is Age of Mythology. Essentially a town focused RTS, a step or two down in complexity from full sim city.

  • @Denny-Thray
    @Denny-Thray Před 7 měsíci +4

    I could kinda see what they were going for.
    ActRaiser is a combination of platformer and sim, and both parts of it are relatively simple. And when I think simple sim/strategy games, the first thing to come to mind is Tower Defense.
    It's hard to make a sim/4x game that doesn't make hours and hours melt away, and part of the 'special sauce' of ActRaiser is rapidly going back and forth between the platform action sections and the town building sections... with the latter improving your power and performance in the former.
    If you made the sim sections too complicated and to the point where they were hours and hours long, then the two styles of gameplay no longer mesh together well and the game becomes a sim game with random baffling action segments.
    It's a hard 'secret sauce' to manage, and this team tried it by introducing tower defense segments. It might have worked, but the tower defense segments they came up with just plain aren't fun. They are tedious and boring at best, and frustrating and trial-and-error inducing at worst. They don't feel satisfying to solve.
    I like someone that someone else suggested. Make it so you can build towers that help your angel with monsters, that get torn down when the final boss of an area is defeated and the monsters go away. Or make it so the townbuilding sections are more like RTS games, like Warcraft 3, with each area being like controlling a different race, with different units and building types.
    Honestly, the best modern game I can think of that gives an ActRaiser "feel" is Dragon Quest Builders. It's a combination action RPG and town-building game. :)

    • @goranisacson2502
      @goranisacson2502 Před 7 měsíci

      Agreed on this. SNES Drunk's suggestions are the kind that SOUNDS logical on a surface level- I like action AND the city building, so surely I'd like the city building if city buiilding was more advanced! What is my closest reference to a more advanced form of strategic city building game? A 4X-style strategy RTS! Do that, it will surely work!
      But nah. I think that'd make the game more complex than fun, but also doing so "properly" would kill the pacing AND be a big waste of dev-resources. In order to make a good 4X-strategy game like... first off you couldn't mix that properly with the sidescrolling action parts. There NEEDS to be a certain lightness to both parts to be "Actraiser", whereas 4X demands a sort of "heaviness", a depth that would require the developer to invest too much in that side of the game, get experienced devs that could do such a game justice. I fear it would ultimately just create two very different styles of games that just do NOT go together, the "spirit" of one genre is just not a good fit for the spirit of the other.
      Pity that the mixture they did go with here didn't work either, but I do think that on the whole tower defense was a better pick.. they just had to "nail it" but... didn't.

  • @qactustick
    @qactustick Před 7 měsíci +3

    Bought this immediately after the announcement that it was a shadow drop. I actually enjoyed the whole game from start to finish, and the addition of postgame content was icing on the cake! It only got somewhat tedious for me after all of that, when I decided to go to max level since it's one of those games with an absurdly high level cap.

  • @yoldgoose
    @yoldgoose Před 7 měsíci +3

    I recommend Smelter as a modern Actraiser update. Super fun game with great pixel art to boot

    • @gametimewithunclejer
      @gametimewithunclejer Před 7 měsíci +1

      Came here to say this. I reviewed Smelter when it came out a couple years ago. Quality stuff.

    • @thewingedavenger1007
      @thewingedavenger1007 Před 6 měsíci +1

      I agree on Smelter, and I also think SNESdrunk is harsh on Sol Seraph, which is actually a fun game.

  • @johnnybrasil1572
    @johnnybrasil1572 Před 7 měsíci +2

    Loving the Switch Drunk series!!! There was a new actraiser like game in the indie direct showcase, so I hope this strange subgenre will be kept alive.

  • @MidlifeCrisisJoe
    @MidlifeCrisisJoe Před 7 měsíci +3

    Your review pretty much mirrors my own back when the game came out. Solid remake of the action stages, interminable tower defense crud caked over that gold. However, I still think the biggest dropped ball is that this remake wasn't named Actraiser: Resurrection.

  • @JackieWohlenhaus
    @JackieWohlenhaus Před 7 měsíci +22

    The tower defense could have been such a cool plus, but the build options are so limited. I enjoyed it but felt hamstrung. I got it on sale and felt like I got a decent deal though.

  • @rickybankemper2122
    @rickybankemper2122 Před 7 měsíci +3

    Sounds like Actraiser needs to get the same treatment that Harvest Moon got with Stardew Valley. Where are these ActRaiser loving indie devs at?

  • @mikeogden1980
    @mikeogden1980 Před 7 měsíci +1

    You really nailed exactly how I felt about the game. I was so excited when it was announced, but I just couldn't finish this one. The tower defense stuff just totally killed it for me.

  • @MCastleberry1980
    @MCastleberry1980 Před 7 měsíci +2

    I was HYPED and got this the day it was announced and launched, and it just gets in its own way too much to be fun.

  • @Ragesauce
    @Ragesauce Před 7 měsíci +10

    I think we look back so fondly at this age of gaming because of the innovation each game came with. Gone are the days if new ideas, current developers are just completely out of touch.

    • @mojebi3804
      @mojebi3804 Před 7 měsíci +1

      and yet people eat it up

    • @ValkyrieTiara
      @ValkyrieTiara Před 7 měsíci +4

      Inscryption
      Sayonara Wild Hearts
      Vampire Survivors
      Hades (hell, anything by Supergiant)
      Immortality
      Deathloop
      Returnal
      The Outer Wilds
      That's just the popular games I could think of from the last 2-3 years. There are tons of great, super innovative games these days made by wonderful devs doing amazing work. You're just too stuck in your retro bubble to see them.

    • @mojebi3804
      @mojebi3804 Před 7 měsíci

      @@ValkyrieTiara Those games are not that popular and a few them are good only in the context of comparison, certainly not if we consider what could be done. Vampire Survivors? That was good for killing a few hours but come on.

    • @goranisacson2502
      @goranisacson2502 Před 7 měsíci +1

      @@mojebi3804 Funny thing is that most of those games have probably sold more than Actraiser did, and could as such in one way be seen as "more popular"... but perspectives have shifted so much ion what makes a "success", and with so many other games coming out there's so little time to focus on one game before another comes out.

    • @ValkyrieTiara
      @ValkyrieTiara Před 7 měsíci

      @@mojebi3804 Don't move the goalposts. The games being popular or not have nothing to do with the point. The OP said there are no new ideas and innovation, and devs are completely out of touch. This is demonstrably untrue.
      I only mentioned popularity to acknowledge that there is even more modern innovation happening deeper in the indie dev scene. And the idea that they're "not that popular" is COMPLETELY LAUGHABLE. They're only "not that popular" compared to the very largest franchises like Pokemon and Call of Duty. With the exception of Immortality and MAYBE Sayonara Wild Hearts, the weakest among them is Returnal which is over 700,000 total sales. That is very successful for any indie game. Sayonara Wild Hearts has over 200,000 units sold JUST on Steam, and it's mostly known as a Switch game. Hades has sold over 7 million units JUST on steam, and is in the top 100 performing games of all time on the platform. To say nothing of Switch, Playstation, and other platform sales. That's an ABSOLUTE smash by ANY metric.
      It's also worth noting that Actraiser itself was NOT a very popular game at the time, at least not in the west. It sold about 600,000 copies. That puts it WELL below such world-famous SNES carts as "Derby Stallion III", "Wonder Project J", "Derby Stallion '96" and "Super Tetris 2 + Bombliss". Also only about 200,000 of those 600,000 were sold in English speaking regions, putting it well below all but the weakest performers on my list, even adjusting for gaming's rise in popularity over time. Actraiser is famous today both because it's an excellent game that has stood the test of time and ALSO because Quintet's later work would go on to be incredibly popular and influential, caused it to be found and elevated as a "hidden gem" by retro fans. But in the early 90s? I was the only kid I knew who had even heard of the game, and only because I had a magazine that did a feature on it. Nobody I knew or met had ever played it, much less owned a copy.
      tl;dr You are wrong on every conceivable level lol The majority of the games I listed are VERY popular, and even if they weren't then neither was Actraiser, and even if NEITHER of those were true (which they are) it doesn't actually matter anyway because none of this was even salient to my point to begin with.

  • @legomech1946
    @legomech1946 Před 7 měsíci +2

    ActRaiser - an amazing game that somehow no one can replicate the magic of. I don't own a Switch, but man I feel like I would play this version for the music alone. Just the few bits you sampled sound awesome!

    • @cvdinjapan7935
      @cvdinjapan7935 Před 7 měsíci

      Actraiser Renaissance is not a Switch exclusive. In fact, the Switch version was the worst version of the game to get, especially at launch. I got the PS4 version. Don't get this game. The original is better by far. Just listen to the soundtrack, play the original, and support the composer directly if you want to support him.

  • @dariusq8894
    @dariusq8894 Před 7 měsíci +2

    Actraiser has some of the best SNES music of all time. If nothing, this remake prompted a CD release of the soundtrack which includes the original tracks along with the remix.

  • @HerreraAlonso
    @HerreraAlonso Před 7 měsíci

    Love these videos, i recommend some retro games that ive seen, owlboy, eastward, cybershadow,va11 hall a,hyperlight drifter

  • @benabaxter
    @benabaxter Před 7 měsíci +3

    There's a certain art to negative reviews. I don't like the choice to make them a kind of freak show where you get to laugh at somebody. This review made the right choice. It informed me against buying the game, and it mostly made me sad at the missed potential. Well said, drunk.

    • @cormano64
      @cormano64 Před 7 měsíci +4

      Agreed. I much prefer a somewhat focused review even when speaking about the perceived negatives instead of just being overall dismissive and vitriolic, as that tends to be very grating and unproductive.

    • @elgatofelix8917
      @elgatofelix8917 Před 6 měsíci

      Its sad when people trust reviews over judging games for yourself and forming your own opinions. But letting other people form your opinions for you is a growing trend these days so not too surprised really

  • @CreativeMindsAudio
    @CreativeMindsAudio Před 7 měsíci +1

    I loved this game, and i enjoy TD games so that was nice bonus for me. I get how it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea though and it was a weird choice to implement. A sort of turn based civ like town simulation/evolution could have been a cool addition instead of the TD mode though.

  • @lindsaywheatcroft8247
    @lindsaywheatcroft8247 Před 7 měsíci +1

    The pre-rendered sprites immediately put me off. I was just watching a video on how OG 8-bit sprites with three or four frames can look more dynamic than later generation counterparts with smoother motion, and it really brought home how uncanny mobile device games look. It’s like how the perfect cameras and rendering in Gemini Man make it look like a soap opera rather than an action movie.

  • @Wolfburns
    @Wolfburns Před 7 měsíci +1

    I really enjoyed this game a lot when it came out but by the time I was finished I found it firmly in my "No need to replay" category. The constant clicking on buildings for resources ala mobile games really killed it for me. I did enjoy the tower defense, somewhat. It felt limited and not really fleshed out enough either. Overall I am glad I played, if not for at least getting to own the new OST which is amazing. I will stick to the SNES version for a yearly replay. Thank you so much for your work!

  • @renewagain6956
    @renewagain6956 Před 7 měsíci +2

    Completely opposite opinion of Tower Defense games. I also played DTD in the 2000's during workout downtime (memories) but definitely didn't get burnt out on it (Bloons is awesome, btw).
    30% action and 70% sim sounds like the perfect balance for me. I already have this game on steam but never opened it. Gonna have to give it a try now.

  • @JLE8811
    @JLE8811 Před 7 měsíci

    Freaky I was just playing this last night.
    I truly loved the OG AR. That game is like main-lining nostalgia.

  • @richardleedahl1308
    @richardleedahl1308 Před 7 měsíci +4

    i bought this game as soon as it was released. when i found out about the tower defense stuff, i quit and never went back. one of the most disappointing games to me

  • @kcrules1234
    @kcrules1234 Před 7 měsíci

    Thank you and have a great rest of your day

  • @knightrider4545
    @knightrider4545 Před 7 měsíci

    I'd say your video hits the nail on the head to a greater or lesser extent. However, I did play the SNES version and I recently finished this version. Both are good in their own rights and I do like the expansion of what they did but I'm with you bring out another game and expand upon what they've already done and the things that you had mentioned would also be good.

  • @bananaboy4900
    @bananaboy4900 Před 7 měsíci

    I never had a SNES, Sega beat, so I always wanted to play this game. Finally on the Switch I got that chance and I loved it. I see where you could have some gripes about it, but I really think it was still great, this many years later.

  • @Ratralsis
    @Ratralsis Před 7 měsíci

    I got ActRaiser with my SNES the same Christmas back in the early 90's, and while it took my tiny child brain a long time to work through it, I was so proud when I finished it. I've replaced it many times in the 30 years since then, so I was SO pumped to play this new version of the game.
    I played through it once and will probably never touch it again.

  • @njsteere
    @njsteere Před 7 měsíci

    I hope Dunkey name checking you brings in some traffic. Love watching this channel.

  • @DrSurgeonGuy
    @DrSurgeonGuy Před 7 měsíci +1

    Loved ActRaiser, but I always took it as part of the "Quintet Quartet" as I call it.
    ActRaiser
    Soul Blazer
    Illusion of Gaia
    Terranigma
    All dealing with similar themes & concepts without necessarily taking place in the same world(though maybe they did)
    Such experimental & groundbreaking games.

    • @cormano64
      @cormano64 Před 7 měsíci +2

      Soul Blazer at least did. God from Actraiser is directly mentioned as the one who sent you down to the land to save humanity.... after it's been pretty much wiped out for the second time in the series.
      He sure likes to wait until the last minute to get off his ass and do something about it. =P

    • @lhfirex
      @lhfirex Před 7 měsíci +1

      @@cormano64 Kinda funny how the English translations, by censoring "god" (generically, not like Zeus or the christian God) and replacing it with "The Master," accidentally made these two games directly related. In the JP scripts they're only connected thematically.

  • @jeremybarnett3945
    @jeremybarnett3945 Před 7 měsíci

    SNESDrunk: “…Newgrounds…”
    Me: “That’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time. A long time…”

  • @argylega
    @argylega Před 7 měsíci +1

    I have come really close to pulling the trigger on this game several times because I loved the SNES original, but I'm glad now that I waited because I *hate* tower defense.

  • @AltimaNEO
    @AltimaNEO Před 7 měsíci

    I loved the sim part of act raiser on SNES. This might be up my alley.

  • @jasonz7788
    @jasonz7788 Před 7 měsíci

    Awesome review thank s

  • @MarsJakehall
    @MarsJakehall Před 7 měsíci

    Honestly had great fun with Renaissance, didn't mind the TD parts at all and everything else felt improved or the same!

  • @acarbonbasedlifeform70
    @acarbonbasedlifeform70 Před 7 měsíci +2

    That click after switchdrunk makes me laugh for no reason

  • @kibagami25
    @kibagami25 Před 7 měsíci +1

    I loved the first for the snes. I like how they remade it and they kept the original game play. I understand that the world building needs to be improved but i like the original. I wonder if you can get the special ending like the snes version? Will need to play this for sure. Please make more videos with remakes from other consoles.

    • @o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o
      @o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o Před 6 měsíci

      What special ending? I think I've done everything in SNES ActRaiser and I've only ever seen one ending.

  • @dan47483
    @dan47483 Před 7 měsíci

    Wasn't expecting a Bloons reference today

  • @mikesilva3868
    @mikesilva3868 Před 7 měsíci

    Great review 😊

  • @SimplyPsyke
    @SimplyPsyke Před 7 měsíci

    Sooooo much time w/ Desktop Tower Defense back when I was overnights at a call center in the 2000s.

    • @SNESdrunk
      @SNESdrunk  Před 7 měsíci +1

      Same, that game was a lifesaver, same with Gorillaz Tiles and Doodle God

  • @MackMainSupreme
    @MackMainSupreme Před 7 měsíci

    That music sounds like Castlevania SOTN, I know I've heard that score B4.

  • @Scaash
    @Scaash Před 7 měsíci

    This game was a Birthday present from my mom when it came out orginally. I had no idea what it was, it wasnt the game i asked for that year but I am soo glad she took a chance. Thanks to the person selling games convincing her to buy it for me. Many good memories came from this game.

  • @YoshMaster
    @YoshMaster Před 7 měsíci +1

    I still love tower defense games when they are not mobile games that are made to be way too hard so that you will buy stuff. Tower defense is such an interesting genre. I especially love it when you can upgrade and gain technologies to make you stronger as a meta progression.

  • @Lexi_Eve_16
    @Lexi_Eve_16 Před 7 měsíci

    This looks amazing
    I want to buy a copy!

  • @deathsnitemaresinfullust2269

    I Loved the SNES one, my friends Grandma owned a copy for the Daycare she ran and we would play over there. I only ever got to play it like 2 or 3 times but that's all it took for me to want to buy the game.... I just never actually saw one in the wild.
    😅👍

  • @GodOfThings
    @GodOfThings Před 7 měsíci

    As someone who grew up with the original ActRaiser, I didn't mind the tower defense sections for the most part. There were a lot of them, yeah, but 'boring' isn't the word I'd use to describe them.
    The tough pill to swallow is that I also find this game tricky to recommend to people. I liked the game, but not on the same level as the original, and while there are different difficulties to play on, it's not really the kind of game that lends itself well to repeat playthroughs unless you're sticking solely to the action stages.
    My hope is that in the future we do get another game in the series that just knocks it out of the park, and I believe it's possible.

  • @youremakingprogress144
    @youremakingprogress144 Před 7 měsíci

    I enjoyed the original (and still do), so this game would interest me. Thank you for the breakdown of its ups and downs.

  • @TheRavenwolf666
    @TheRavenwolf666 Před 7 měsíci

    I haven’t had the chance to play Actraiser Renaissance but I did enjoy playing the original on the SNES. Creating houses and stuff is ok. I even enjoyed Actraiser 2 which is one of my favorites.

  • @mymusic3354
    @mymusic3354 Před měsícem

    "Swwwwitch drunk" in multiple part harmony 🤣😂🤣

  • @charlesc2095
    @charlesc2095 Před 6 měsíci

    I usually dont fall for impulse buys, but being a massive fan of the original and played since I was little, I literally bought it within a minute after the announcement. Boy did I regret it.

  • @wolfgod6443
    @wolfgod6443 Před 7 měsíci

    iirc The difficulty of the tower defense got lowered significantly which might play a part in making them feel "boring". I like the sims elements regardless because they're relaxing and empowering. You are God after all. I would have to replay to personally confirm. As a remake I think it expanded on every idea the original had, and that should absolutely not be overlooked or diminished. So many remakes are lazy cash grabs but this actually made this a "remake" without taking out the soul of the original. My favorite addition is personally going into the monster delves and destroying the nest. That's something I always wanted in the original. The writing is also great which is vital because there's a lot of it lol.

  • @RockerDanM
    @RockerDanM Před 7 měsíci

    I adored the original Actraiser with its action sequences and the sim town building was a ton of fun, simple but engaging enough to keep me wanting more. Bu the time i got to the end of the main story i was sick of the tower defense. It was fun at first but got stale. I did enjoy the boosted powers in Renaissance and the soundtrack is stellar.

  • @cybercop0083
    @cybercop0083 Před 7 měsíci

    The remake of Mario RPG is imminent, so SNESdrunk is reviewing ANOTHER cult game‘s remake. What a curveball😍😍😍

  • @lhfirex
    @lhfirex Před 7 měsíci +1

    This seems like a "buy it on a big sale" for me, and on Steam instead of the Switch. I do think a version with a deeper but easy to automate sim section would be pretty good, though. I think that's what makes the original's sim section fun even though it's basic: You're in control of how the city progresses, but it isn't full of micromanagement or carefully constructing your town.
    Hell, instead of tower defense, they could've just added more events that want you to use your weather powers to help out in each town. The original does it to teach you what the powers can do, but then some powers you never really have to use again (like the wind).

  • @darkestlost
    @darkestlost Před 7 měsíci

    My goodness this music just give me cheers is just awesome!! Kind have a casltevania too wow yuzo is incredible!

  • @Athalfuns
    @Athalfuns Před 2 měsíci

    For sure they could've made it way better, but this is 2008+ where 99% games are either repetitive money grabs or attempts to money grabs with the least amount of effort and investment "humanely" possible. So I appreciate this remaster a lot and it was worth what I paid for it. It would be great if it was on gog instead of steam tho, or at least have a physical copy that installs it offline. You know, like when we used to own the games we bought...but it's still far better than what we had before it.

  • @Jokerwolf666
    @Jokerwolf666 Před 7 měsíci

    I still remember the first time that I rented Actraiser 1 for SNES. It was the first time I remember choosing a game that didn't end up being garbage and I was quite impressed.
    The funny thing is had they just used the SNES Graphics it would have been such a good version of the game

  • @blehgopie
    @blehgopie Před 7 měsíci

    I was unironically pretty hyped for this when it was announced, but when I watched some gameplay of it on Twitch and saw that the town building segments were padded to hell and reeked of mobile game design decisions, it really killed my hype.

  • @zombizzle_
    @zombizzle_ Před 7 měsíci +1

    ActRaiser is one of my all time favorite games (even the SIM sections) but I can't bring myself to play this remake.

  • @Alianger
    @Alianger Před 7 měsíci

    Can you play sidescrolling only like you could in the original (JP ver. IIRC)?

  • @miragebangbravern2024
    @miragebangbravern2024 Před 7 měsíci

    To be honest as someone who isn't into tower defense games but love the original Actraiser game, I am glad at least that it is closer to that.

  • @bildo1977
    @bildo1977 Před 7 měsíci

    This needs a more thorough release with a game that takes full advantage of modern hardware. I feel like this game was a test run. There was no news of development, and we only got a launch trailer.

  • @dungeonsanddrinking1265

    The OG Actraiser is one of my favorite SNES games and it was a shame that it never got a decent sequel. There is so much that could have been expanded on but alas... it was not meant to be.

  • @smokeldogg
    @smokeldogg Před 6 měsíci

    There’s a game called Smelter that is heavily influenced by Actraiser but has more of an RTS feeling to the world building sections.

  • @djipminderman4840
    @djipminderman4840 Před 7 měsíci

    You could have switched out the joycon-click soundeffect for the sound when you open up a bottle or can

  • @Boss_Fight_Wiki_muki_twitch
    @Boss_Fight_Wiki_muki_twitch Před 7 měsíci

    ActRaiser... i had forgotten about it... sim city + side scroller

  • @emanuelesangregorio8943
    @emanuelesangregorio8943 Před 6 měsíci

    You know what, If I remember correctly the original Actraiser was developed by Quintet. another great game from Quintet was Terranigma and I would really love to see something more, even just a remaster maybe, of that dead franchise. I always wondered what is the current state of legal rights for these games, and I know James Portnow (Extra Credits) really wanted to do something if the chance arised.

  • @nisenazo
    @nisenazo Před 7 měsíci +4

    ActRaiser 2 was actually pretty damn good though. The first game's simulation stuff gets a bit tiring after a while so more focus on the action really hit the spot for me.

  • @danielrecommends
    @danielrecommends Před 6 měsíci

    I've never finished this game for exactly the reason's you described. The tower defense parts are so long and tedious and I kept dying so I just stopped playing. I agree the music and side scrolling action is great and feels a lot like the original. I'd prefer a mode where I could just play through those levels only and skip all the world building stuff.

  • @zekossss
    @zekossss Před 7 měsíci

    Somebody says in video words "Yuzo Koshiro" - I immediately need his photo, this is the way.

  • @Lukamusic81
    @Lukamusic81 Před 4 měsíci

    I loved Actraiser on SNES. this looks pretty good.

  • @BubbleWild
    @BubbleWild Před 7 měsíci

    Welp, you just made me download Desktop Tower Defense ❤.

  • @Juvi797
    @Juvi797 Před 7 měsíci

    Bro, those action sections makes me think of ActRaiser getting a Sega Saturn release.

  • @DQSpider
    @DQSpider Před 7 měsíci

    I never understood the people wailing about the text and tutorial things in AR because *the original does exactly the same thing*. Some people just have to find faults and seem above liking things, I guess.
    That being said I rather liked the tower defense sections and thought they added a lot of tension and variety. The idea of more in-depth simulation is interesting but that could tip into imbalance with the action sections VERY easily. Part of the magic of the original Actraiser is that all of it was very simple. As HG101 observed, it was more than the sum of its parts.
    I would have liked to see a more expanded moveset like Actraiser 2's, personally. I know the sequel is widely hated but it really had a lot to offer once you got into its rhythm. But again, that could tip into imbalance pretty easily, so the mild expansion in AR works well.
    I really liked AR and thought it was well worth thirty bucks, even if it didn't fulfill my every wish. Drunk's review here is pretty fair, unlike so many others. That being said I give it a very strong recommendation to anyone who likes Actraiser.

  • @GretchZ
    @GretchZ Před 7 měsíci

    Switch drunk is a pretty good description of me in the 2000s

  • @wlpaul4
    @wlpaul4 Před 7 měsíci

    I was not expecting the music to go that hard.

  • @travisedwards3543
    @travisedwards3543 Před 7 měsíci

    1:31 isnt that a song from aria of sorrow?

  • @TheGameHoard
    @TheGameHoard Před 7 měsíci

    I had actually just reviewed the original ActRaiser yesterday and was wondering if I was missing out not playing the remake, but it sounds like I made the right choice playing the original

  • @LordelX
    @LordelX Před 7 měsíci

    I loved this game, and I didn't mind the tower defense sections. I really hope Square Enix doesn't let this franchise sit dormant for another 30 years...

  • @gavinwigg8057
    @gavinwigg8057 Před 7 měsíci

    To support what happened with AR2, there were a LOT of people back in the day who did not like the AR1 building functions. AR2 was jot ansequel, but rhey did listen to their audience foe what it's worth.

  • @maverick_loneshark
    @maverick_loneshark Před 7 měsíci

    Interesting.
    I haven't played this version yet but your review has me curious.
    In theory this sequel (requel?) should be slightly better than the original ActRaiser, yet by adding Tower Defense elements it sort of becomes kind of worse?
    I mean, I can still dig a game of TD once in awhile.
    Perhaps the problem was that it wasn't varied enough or that it was too monotonous (maybe only two levels should have been TD based, and other ones should have been more Sim City-ish or maybe one could have even been almost exactly like one of the original levels).
    I liked the original ActRaiser, but in retrospect I feel like the sim part was kind of too linear in the sense that you would ultimately wind up with the same kind of results no matter what you did.
    If anything I would have suggested making it so that failing a region could have been a real option that opened up new alternatives or had a cumulative effect on the game's ending.

  • @nobodyatallvallejo3672
    @nobodyatallvallejo3672 Před 7 měsíci

    That soundtrack! 🔥

  • @subliminallime4321
    @subliminallime4321 Před 7 měsíci

    I was enjoying it, but for some reason I was having an issue with screen tearing on my PC & the V-Sync option didn't seem to do anything... I ended up abandoning it after a few hours.

  • @happybeejv
    @happybeejv Před 7 měsíci

    I recommend DIVINITY DRAGON COMMANDER
    Where i switch between a king simulator rpg that has a dating sim aspect//and a real time tactics game with the gimmick to switch into third person mode as a DRAGON WITH A JETPACK
    Its steampunk themed.

  • @BaldoFlores_godmetal
    @BaldoFlores_godmetal Před 7 měsíci

    I liked this game...its weird, i dont particularly like tower defense games...yet i get oddly addicted. Same thing happened to me with Brutal Legend