Castlevania+Civilization=ActRaiser
User Rating: 8 | Actraiser SNES
Actraiser is a great game.It was released in the early life-time of the SNES so it has sub-par graphics on the system, overall it feels like a Genesis game, it should have been made for the Genesis i don't know, that's what i feel.It was made by the former company Enix that later fusioned with Square.The game consists of 2 parts that alternate all the time:action & strategy, simulation something like that.You play the role of a God known as the Father that lives in a floating palace along with an Angel.Your mission is to regain your powers that were stolen from you by the Dark Lord Satan(lol) & to repopulate the planet below you by getting rid of the monsters that roam free.There are 6 towns:Bloodpool, Fillmore, Cassandora, Aitos, Marana & Northwall, each set in a different location, swamp, desert, mountains etc.In order to repopulate a town, you must first battle the monsters in an action side-scrolling level, stage.After you defeat the boss at the end of the level, humans re-populate the city & you begin to take care of it, to protect it & listen to the wishes of the people.They also find items that offer you as a gift but they also want you to find & rescue some of their family members that are in dificulty or lost throughout the land.You can find them fast as you are above all the time so you can see the whole city.As their god, you must also build their city by giving simple commands to the townsfolk, in which direction should the city expand but sometimes, you are forced to use your special powers in order to remove some natural obstacles, then you must take care of the rice fields & stuff by creating rain showers or bright sunlights etc, depending on the situation.Each of these actions require you a small amount of MP.But, as the town grows, monsters reappear so you must take care of them with your trusty companion, the Angel which launches arrows at them.There are multiple monster lairs in the nearby of each City.You can seal them by expanding the city over the location of each lair.When all of them are sealed, the townsfolk beg you to destroy the last remaining monster lair, which is a big one.You cannot seal this one, you must descend & fight the monsters there in a 2nd side-scrolling stage so there is a total number of 12 stages, 2 for each City.In this stages, the Father(you, the God) take the form of a knight, warrior, paladin whatever, that wields a sword.You have again the MP meter for some brief special attacks.The game overall is very hard.Especially at the side scrolling levels.Punishing difficulty completed by a small amount of HP make Actraiser a very challenging game.The gameplay is stiff, you are required to do exact & critical moves all the time.The music is a strong component:excellent tunes, especially the ones from Bloodpool & Fillmore, that stay in your head long after you turn of the TV.The end of the game is epic, you are forced to battle all the bosses once again+the Dark Lord Satan, all of them gathered on a lone island that materialises in the ocean only after you've saved the towns, all 6 of them.After you leave a city, it can develop all by itself without your help & you can monitor them & see the growth or decrease of the population.
The game becomes boring at some point, during the building phases, you are asked all the time by the angel in which direction should the town develop, moreover, the townspeople always use the same formula of speaking, when they adress you you get to feel asleep in those moments or throw the controller at the screen, lol.But you can also choose the text speed at the begining of the game.
ActRaiser requires a lot of patience & nerves of steel, it's not for the weak, it's a very rewarding game by the end of it & it has little replay value, just a little.Overall it's a nice mash-up of Castlevania style gameplay & Civilization.
