Game Discussion of The Week: ActRaiser

I have really good memories of Actraiser. Sure, the Sim element isn't exactly deep by today's standards, but it was definitely effective in giving you some investment in the world you were saving. It isn't a game I go back and play often, but I think it holds up very well.

Here's the Undertow review.




Here's an episode of Game Sack that features it though (the other half is about Alex Kidd)

Sadly this wasn't a game I discovered when it actually came out in the sense that I knew of its existence but I refused to play it at the time.

I identified myself more with high testosterone games such as Contra The Alien Wars, Robocop Vs. Terminator, Alien Vs. Predator, Killer Instinct, and the Mortal Kombat trilogy.

What turned me off was the map with the little angel that reminded of everything an RPG is, and therefore everything that I didn't want to deal with.

It turns out publishers knew about these ideas and specifically asked the developers to remove those aspects from the sequel and give it more testosterone and a Contra like feel in order to appeal to kids with my mentality.

It was an extremely dumb decision because as I grew up older and wiser and rediscovered this game as the piece of art it is I recognized those are the elements that made the game timeless and that without them made the series disappear into obscurity.

However the greatness of ActRaiser was so vast that it is literally impossible for it to not re-emerge into mainstream, reborn in what we know today as the Dark Souls series.

If Bloodborne is Castlevania then ActRaiser is in my opinion without a doubt Dark Souls, as Dark Souls compilates both the RPG elements, the atmospheric lore, the medial fantasy, and even the brutal challenge of the sequel, while still keeping the more serious characteristics that something such as Ghosts & Goblins never had.

When I look at this game and I see the theme, the artwork, the gameplay, the atmosphere, the lore, the fantastic music, I end up seeing the class, the elegance, the distinction, the prestige of a renaissance period genius work such as a painting or a sculpture.

Not many games come close artistically to the level of the first game. One of the most underrated masterpieces of all time that should share as much authority as names such as Castlevania and Zelda.

Looks like a cross between Rastan and Populous, in a good way.

Weird thing I noticed rewatching those videos. I whistle the Actraiser overworld theme sometimes out of habit, but for years I had assumed it was a Dragon Warrior/Quest tune.

I would rank it as godly, but then again just like Castlevania and Zelda I had become completely blind by their own awesomeness.