SolSeraph

As someone who has finished ActRaiser 1 and 2 on the SNES, I understand the disappointment some reviewers felt that this wasn't an exact replica of ActRaiser. I don't understand why they wouldn't recommend it, though. If you enjoyed ActRaiser, you will enjoy this. It shares the same concepts from the first game in the ActRaiser series, but adds tower defense to the city simulation portions. As a fan of tower defense games, it was a welcome addition. (A concept copied by Square Enix for the recent remake.) No, the platforming isn't as good as ActRaiser 2, and no, the city simulation isn't as good as ActRaiser 1, but it does a better job recreating the feel of ActRaiser 1 than ActRaiser 2 did. I highly recommend it.

Just saw some 2+ hour review/guide of Actraiser for SNES on Youtube and it got me thinking of buying the remake on steam but then I remembered I've had this in my library for awhile so gave it a shot. I'm gonna have to say it is not that good. Certain aspects are ok, the world map is actually beautiful and the music is great as well. The gameplay however is kinda bad, it's very janky and just something about the game models and animations just gives me this vibe that it was rushed. Almost as if the developers wanted to make a spiritual successor of Actraiser but just tried to get it out as fast as possible. So yea the action areas of the game are very bland and like I said the combat is not good. Which brings me to the city building part of the game... or should I say lack there of. It's not a city builder at all, it's a tower defense game, sure you need to build houses and farms just to create people so that you have people to enter your tower defense structures. That's not a city builder in the least bit. From looking at screenshots or quick clips it might look like one but I assure you it is not. This to me is not worth more than 5 dollars which I think I bought it for when it was on sale. If you are curious and don't mind paying that then go for it but it's really not a good game. 1.5 star out of 5 for me.

Not sure why this game gets so much hate, it's actually very good. Does it measure up to Actraiser? Realistically no, but that is a high bar to cross because it is legitimately one of the best games on the Super Nintendo. That said, it is an excellent take on the genre and I can recommend it to fans of that type of game. The "building" mode is essentially a Tower Defense game, the ultimate objective is to build out your town enough to where you can seal the enemy lairs by building temples near them. You do the building yourself rather than the town auto developing based on where you place roads, but you can place roads so you can spread out the village a bit, and this is key to being able to seal the lairs, as there is finite building resources that you have to manage, as well as managing food and population and arming your towers. After you get the temple built and manned, then you can enter the lair as long as it's not in the middle of an enemy wave. Once you defeat all of the lairs in an area, the final one will open up so that you can beat the area permanently. And the 1st and last stage follow the same basic formula as Actraiser, where you go through a linear stage and eventually face up against a boss. The regular lairs act as mini stages rather than the people sealing them, you usually get a minor upgrade such as to magic or health when you clear these. My main complaints about the game is that the difficulty is kind of all over the place, not to a ridiculous degree but the mini stages are super easy compared to the regular stages, you'd have to really try to die on those. I still haven't beat the 2nd area boss yet as it's very tough, but I was able to kill the 3rd area boss with a lot of ease comparatively. Also there are definitely some cheap hits that have that old trial and error feel of the old school games, perhaps that's intentional, but still pretty annoying. If you want a game LIKE Actraiser, I think you'll really enjoy this. Gameplay is solid, tower defense is basic but fun and fast paced, and it has very good graphics and music for a cheaper indie title. However, don't expect it to be exactly imitating Actraiser, it is definitely inspired but if you're looking for a game that plays exactly like it, this isn't it.

The action / platform parts are passable but the tower defense parts are mind numbingly dull.

Eh. What can I say? The only reason im going to finish this one is because it pretends to be ActRaiser Sadly, the most it shares with ActRaiser are the frustrating platforming and boring combat(although, ActRaiser had a good excuse for that) To anyone else who doesnt share the nostalgia....no, just no. Awful "action" controls (overhead controls are actually pretty good) Terrible level design, some of them dont even really qualify as levels -- just screens where you move left and right. Really bad music OMG, the tower defense part -- I dont mind resource management, at all....but building placement doesnt make any sense, you clearly have green tiles to build there and "you cant build there" you usually just end up clicking the mouse around wildly until it lets you build it....somewhere. My question is, why? Why butcher this so hard? Its been over 20 years, youd think you can at least make the fight scenes better, like, make some cool combat, make it fun -- make the enemies not goblins and spiders and fish. Make interesting pitfalls or obstacles. It doesnt have to be Sekiro or anything, but like....combat was way more fun and interesting in ActRaiser. AND WHO DECIDED TO MAKE THE HERO LOOK LIKE A POWER RANGER WITH ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WINGS!!?!? I donnoe -- without the nostalgia factor, Id say this game is a turd. Maybe they should have just made it a resource management game / tower defense, focus on one game...instead of making two bad ones.

Heavily influenced by ActRaiser, but it stands on its own as a really solid, if kind of short, game. Nice combo of Tower Defense and Platformer. It makes for a really nice speedrun, and it is frequently on sale for just $5. It is absolutely worth a try. My biggest complaint...there is no hard mode.

How can a game be WORSE than something made over 30 fuc king YEARS ago?! Well, this game is the answer. Boring, slow, stupid tower defense where the enemies slowly walk down the same paths. In the original, when a monster lair was defeated - it was defeated! In this one - they continue to spawn enemies...so what is the point of defeating them?! The graphics are awful and little better than the original 16 bit. Also, the side-scrolling is worse and less engaging than the original. What a disappointment and waste of money.

So many good ideas, and not a single one is finished or polished to the point that it works. Charge attack? Cool, but you forgot the animation that shows that it's charging up... Take that example and apply it to every single aspect of the game. It's literally the beta groundwork of a good game, but in it's current state it's unfinished trash.

Langweilig, billig gemacht, ist nur tower defense + jump and run in einen Paket. Schon mit 2* Springen geht mir auf die nerven.

I hate to say, but this game was not what I had hoped for. A spiritual successor to Actraiser that doesn't have the same spirit in it. The sim half was reduced to being a tower defense game, with resources heavily restricted. There was no interaction with the villagers, like destroying a rock with lightening, so that the villagers may reach fertile lands or powerups for your character. You don't lead them to goodies for you, and their growth is no longer your growth. You don't have towns need resources and technologies from other towns to fully thrive. Even as your towns grow in size, you don't see them grow in advancement. The straw roof houses stays straw roof houses. The two halves of the game don't really connect. You don't see little Timmy wander into the dark clouds knowing that his parents will beg you to save him in platforming mode. The only connection between the two modes is that you use the TD mode to unlock the platform levels, and 5 platform levels to initialize new towns. There are some changes in here that might've been major improvements had they been handled better. This game could have been good with a few small changes. The tower defense pressure and resource management had the opposite problem, too much for one, not enough for the other, respectively. Music was good though! They did get that right! ACE Team, if you guys want to make a SolSeraph 2, I offer my services as a consultant to provide refined concepts for development. I guarantee I can bring in good reviews, not mixed ones.