Actraiser Review (SNES)
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- čas přidán 6. 09. 2024
- Hot off the trails of the first three Ys titles, Masaya Hashimoto and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki split from Falcom to go do their own thing elsewhere. Forming Quintet and pushing Action RPGs forward at a rate Falcom couldn't quite keep up with when the two crossed paths on the Super Nintendo again. Let's look at their humble beginnings with Actraiser in this review.
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Man, 13k subs and no one’s asked where you’ve been. It’s an interesting life, isn’t it?
We enjoyed your Drill Dozer review!
"Babe wake up new Avobeup review just dropped".
I was thinking "Oh it's sort of like a 16bit Dark Cloud" a minute before you brought it up.
Good video.
The funny thing is that the game they made after this is even closer to Dark Cloud than this.
I really love how ambitious ActRaiser was for the time that it came out.
Thanks for covering it!
Besides Mario Kart, F-Zero, Zelda and maybe a few others, this is probably the only SNES title I could still play. When this was new, there was nothing really like it in the US. It was so far ahead of it's time for 1990! It still holds up today. Underrated gem if there ever was one.
1 small suggestion - Given you are learning Japanese and also playing JPN versions of the games, you should comment on level of difficulty of Japanese in the game.
Like if I'm also learning Japanese, how easy is the text to read as a learner.
This is a good idea but unless you are doing the same course it will probably depend on what you have already learned. I guess the most important things are how much text and how much of it is Kanji.
Yeah, I don't think I'd be a good judge of that since I shot up to the level I'm at now in half a year by going very hard at it. If I'd have to make any guess, I'd put this game below JLPT N5 level, but I don't put much stock in JLPT either because I've had an easier time communicating than some people who passed N1 that I know and I'm probably around N3 or so? Language is a bit too fluid for rigid ranks like this.
Game has kana only, no hard words. You can kinda just see it in the sections I show the JP version.
Yo, this is a great channel. Subscribed. Going to go through the back catalog now!
I'm doing the same! 😆
It's great to be reminded of this game, I really enjoyed it for the most part. it's not perfect, but still a bit underrated imo. Thank you for covering it, and even the Japanese version too. Part of the reason I studied jp as well; it's so fun to be able to compare the differences in these old games that no one else cares about.
It's kinda mixed in with religion and action adventure which= to greatness. Great childhood memories
Conceptually this game looks right up my alley, even if the gameplay does look a bit rough. Great video!
Good video. ActRaiser seems cool. I love the design of the protagonist's armored statue
Quintet marathon... Studying japanese... Yep, I'm sensing a Brightis video in the future!
This is great,thank you 😊
amazing soundtrack
Town building + Action games are pretty cool
Kinda miss everoasis
I read somewhere that killing action stage monsters boost potential population based on action stage scores. I can believe that, but never confirmed it. All I know is I've only ever reached max level one single play through ever. Most of the time I'm one level short and my population won't grow anymore anywhere.
I've never been able to hit max level either, so I have no clue. Wouldn't surprise me if it's linked that way somehow.
I've had this game for a long time (like 90's long) and can confirm that the score totally matters. My strategy was always to wait in an area of the level that was fun or had a lot of monsters, so I could rack up points killing them until the timer runs out. You'd potentially waste a life, but if the zone you died in had a 1up you could essentially do this until you had more than enough points to max out a city. Also, IIRC the score stays between both action stages in a level, so if you didn't get enough points on your first go, you can finish up before the boss.
This was a treat to see in my feed
Hey, are you taking a break from CZcams? Planning to release something soon?
I really enjoyed Actraiser when I first played it but I did feel that both gameplay modes could have been a bit better.
Nice! Glad to see you're covering all the Quintet SNES games. ActRaiser 2 is a personal favourite of mine and probably the most misunderstood Super Nintendo game of them all. If it was called Super Ghouls and Ghosts 2 instead of ActRaiser 2 people whoul think it's on the level of Super Castlevania 4 rather than "the disappointing one where they took out the city sim elements"
Agreed, Actraiser 2 is amazing if you actually give it a chance, but hardly anyone ever does.
It really is, it's so rare to find an old, tough as hell action platformer that's actually never cheap and is all about learning patters and being smart with your movement. It reminds me of dark souls in a lot of ways
@@RAS-gz5yb It's insane how many movement and attack/magic options they even managed to fit into it, and then then you've got both reading enemy patterns and abusing your invul frames and the enemy hit/hurtboxes, once you actually start to understand how the game works it feels so amazing to play.
I think a lot of people try to play it like it's contra, never make it past the first mini boss and write it off as too hard and unfun. Like if you don't take advantage of the shield or learn how the glide works you're never getting anywhere. It doesn't help that they made the western version much harder; the Japanese difficulty is the perfect amount imo
@@RAS-gz5yb Probably didn't help that the first stage the game defaults to is Industen and actually getting to the boss of that level is pretty tricky without getting a handle on the movement.
😊
I was a little confused. So the US version is harder but more balanced than the JP one?
I've always been a bit in the minority who feels ActRaiser is just... OK, at best. The sim elements are what make the game shine, with the platforming honestly being... kind of bland, IMHO. The Castlevania comparison is apt, but simply put, ActRaiser is no Castlevania -- there's far less complexity and depth to its platforming sections than can be found in ANY Castlevania game. The level designs are serviceable, the enemies and bosses are fine, and the magic is... also serviceable... but there's just nothing about any of it that really breaks any new ground. I've always felt that SkyBlazer, by Sony Imagesoft, is a far better take on ActRaiser-style platforming, essentially being everything ActRaiser's platforming sections try but ultimately fail to be.
In all honesty, for as clunky as Ys III is, I still ultimately think I prefer Ys III's gameplay to ActRaiser's, because at least Ys III feels like it has... I dunno, an identity? ActRaiser just feels like Quintet was playing it safe, and doing everything they could to just create an average-to-good platformer without taking any real risks or trying anything interesting.
Again, that's JUST looking at the platforming sections, though. I did own and enjoy ActRaiser back in the day, and that largely comes down to the sim sections, which REALLY elevate the game -- they're what make ActRaiser worthwhile, and are kind of the reason I find ActRaiser II to be... largely a waste of plastic and circuitry, if I may be so harsh. Heheh.
The graphics and music, too, make ActRaiser stand out, as remember, this was early-days SNES. This was one of the first games Nintendo Power previewed for the SNES, and was one of the games I was most looking forward to when I got my SNES at launch. It was a showpiece for the new hardware, and a pretty decent one -- though I do wish there were a bit MORE parallax, as far too many stages take place inside caves or what-not and just throw parallax scrolling by the wayside. And... I mean, I was playing my new 16-bit machine at the time! I wanted all parallax, all the time, dammit! ;)
Props to you for the video essay, though, and for the Inugami Korone shout-out! Yuzo Koshiro being a Koronesuki just makes him all the more awesome, and shows that he has good taste in vtubers, since Korone is unquestionably the best! Heheh.
SkyBlazer, now that game is a real gem.
It really is incredible for the time that the game had two game modes, and the fact that neither are too simple is very praiseworthy
FILMORE-STAGE 1 INTENSIFIES!!!
Edit: From what I hear the remake is not very good and most people still prefer the SNES original.
Yes, more Japanese action rpg!
Wish you reviewed ys ps2 remakes tho.
Try ever oasis next
It's such a shame how much of a bad rap Actraiser 2 has, it's easily my favourite platformer on the SNES, I think most people were just too disappointed by it not having the sim sections that they never really gave it a fair chance.