ActRaiser Renaissance

 Switch
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 26 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 26
  3. Negative: 3 out of 26

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  1. Sandrick
    Sep 24, 2021
    9
    I've played through the original countless times, changed the battery on my SNES cartridge once. Actraiser was the game, other than SMW and Pilotwings, that sold me on getting the system back in 1990 when it launched. Saved up a lot of allowance for that and it was my first real purchase as an "adult" of 11 yrs old.

    I was HIGHLY skeptical of this remake, especially since the first that    I've played through the original countless times, changed the battery on my SNES cartridge once. Actraiser was the game, other than SMW and Pilotwings, that sold me on getting the system back in 1990 when it launched. Saved up a lot of allowance for that and it was my first real purchase as an "adult" of 11 yrs old.

    I was HIGHLY skeptical of this remake, especially since the first that I ever heard about it was after the Nintendo Direct on 9/23/21. There was absolutely no hype or previews for this game in any gaming news whatsoever. I threw caution to the wind, and boy am I glad that I did.

    They did a wonderful job of preserving the nonchalant two styles of gameplay that consist of the action and strategy portions. It is by no means a difficult or complex game, but what it does have- what it always had- is a lot of charm.

    I truly appreciate the art in the cutscenes that elaborates on the text-based story portions. I really like the ways in which the gameplay has been expanded: horde invasions occur every once in a while and demand that you fortify your city with tower defenses. It is still very basic combat compared to many other strategy sims we have these days, but again, that is the charm of it. It isn't punishing to the level that the player becomes frustrated. The only small gripe that I have with the strategy portion is that there is a lot of dialogue. Every time I am about to use a miracle or upgrade a fortress, the action seems to pause and take me to the temple because they have something to tell me-- but it is a minor issue. The text could have been streamlined a bit, but it DOES serve to help flesh out the original's bare-bones story a bit more.

    Now the action sequences-- at first, the 3D style is a bit jarring. When you are so used to the old-school charming graphics of the 1990s classic, that is bound to be the case. The hero has a light trail that follows him (a la Alucard in SOTN) and feels a little floaty comparatively, but let's be honest... he controls a LOT better than the very stiff hero in the original. There was never a time that I was pissed because it was hard to hit an enemy. There are more attacks now. You can do an uppercut-style slice, forward 3 hit, ground pound, and magic can be changed on the fly. In the original, you had to choose your magic before you started and were bound to that for the entire level.

    Also, the levels have been tweaked so that they are not as punishing either. If you fall into the water you don't die, but you do take damage.

    There is a LOT of new content on display here, including heroes in each region that help defend your civilization. Altogether, I was very pleasantly surprised by this unannounced gem of a title. The team that put it together should be very proud. They did a wonderful service to Actraiser 1990 and added a large amount of new content that not only fits the game but adds a depth to it that I never knew it could have. I am only at the third region in the game (6 hours in maybe?) but I am loving it so far.    … Expand
  2. dharma
    Sep 25, 2021
    9
    Actraiser Renaissance is essentially a remastered version of the so called cult classic. I played the original but never completed it, but its unique combination of platforming and world building got me hooked from the get go. This remastered version came as a surprise and a highlight for me in the latest Nintendo Direct. I couldn't stop playing it, it's that good. They also got YuzoActraiser Renaissance is essentially a remastered version of the so called cult classic. I played the original but never completed it, but its unique combination of platforming and world building got me hooked from the get go. This remastered version came as a surprise and a highlight for me in the latest Nintendo Direct. I couldn't stop playing it, it's that good. They also got Yuzo Koshiro back to remaster and create a new soundtrack for this game, wow... A great purchase and with this version, essentially one of the best games on the Switch outside Nintendo's usual outings.… Expand
  3. Ony1
    Sep 25, 2021
    9
    This is a fantastic budget remake but with lot of heart and care, very oldschool but with modern Quality life improvements il list some of the pros, cons and Mixed:

    Pros: Combat has been expanded and improved The Sim town builder mode is even better and more involved, has a tower defense mini game intergraded. Expanded story and Lore Fantastic Music Great Artstyle Mixed: The master    This is a fantastic budget remake but with lot of heart and care, very oldschool but with modern Quality life improvements il list some of the pros, cons and Mixed:

    Pros: Combat has been expanded and improved

    The Sim town builder mode is even better and more involved, has a tower defense mini game intergraded.

    Expanded story and Lore

    Fantastic Music Great Artstyle Mixed:

    The master looks diffrent and more anime? i think he looks awesome but some people might not like it.

    2d combat graphics are a bit jarrin and look like HD ps1/Saturn style

    Sound effects lack oomph compared to the Snes version{his iconic grunt was removed :( }

    Cons:

    Switch version has a bit of frame rate issues specially on handheldmode nothing awful but it can be noticable for people sensitive to this, on ps4 and steam this does not to be a issue.    … Expand
  4. BlueMikey
    Sep 27, 2021
    5
    Actraiser Renaissance is probably the purest example of a remake completely failing to understand what made the original great and ruining the gameplay experience.

    I should note that I adore the original Actraiser. It is absolutely a Top 10 SNES game for me. Quintet made some of my favorite games back in the day, including Soul Blazer. So I literally bought this without looking at the    Actraiser Renaissance is probably the purest example of a remake completely failing to understand what made the original great and ruining the gameplay experience.

    I should note that I adore the original Actraiser. It is absolutely a Top 10 SNES game for me. Quintet made some of my favorite games back in the day, including Soul Blazer. So I literally bought this without looking at the product description, so certain it would scratch an itch I have felt for years.

    Is the original Actraiser here? Yes! You can play the same platformer game which is generally as enjoyable as the original. The artwork is *significantly* worse when compared with Quintet's original sprite work, but the orchestrated music is beautiful. Unfortunately, the music ends up being the only good addition to the entire package.

    You also can play the same sim game. Your little angel flies around, killing monsters who try to do the villagers harm. You tell villagers where to build and to destroy lairs. You shape the landscape to make it more livable for each town.

    Yes! Actraiser is here. But it's buried under layers of new content. Somehow, Square Enix took a classic, wonderful game, and with every new addition (other than the already noted great music arrangements), they managed to make it worse.

    The most obvious and annoying of these is their terrible tower defense sections. I should note that I do not love tower defense games, but slapping it into the sim-portion of a game not built for it feels very sloppy. Make no mistake: if you complete this game, you will spend more time in tower defense than you will in platforming. By the time I hit Bloodpool, every time tower defense came up, I sighed, rolled my eyes, and resigned myself to my fate.

    There's also a new quest system to finish for each town. The quest system is made up of a few primary types of play. About a third to a half of them revolve around the awful tower defense. There are quests to take out the monster lairs (more on this in a few). And there are tasks that revolve around improving the towns. The quest system is bogged down in things just not working properly. For example, one quest might be to get a town to a certain population level. But when you do that, you can't turn in the quest right away. You usually have to wait for a day cycle to complete. For some quests to complete or show up, I had to leave the town completely and then come back. I mean, sure, the quests keep you on track, but there shouldn't be much to keep track of in this game: kill the bad guys, make the town big. Done.

    Regarding monster lairs, you can't just kill them whenever you have access to them. You have to wait for a quest to show up to let you kill the monster lairs. And then when you do want to kill them, you have to fly down into a tiny room and kill things inside of it with platforming gameplay. This sounds cool, more gameplay!, but the rooms are poorly executed. Most are just monster closets with tons of monsters that disappear as soon as you beat the big baddie, so you just attack/magic spam the baddie until dead. They're boring.

    Also in the quests, when you are trying to 100% the game, each town has two quests to go back into the main platforming levels to kill a certain number of enemies of a certain type. But here's the problem: none of the monsters you killed in your original playthrough counted, and you have to go back into each level *at least* two more times to find enough monsters to kill. Why? Why am I just redoing levels I already beat for a quest that doesn't matter? Square Enix really wanted to frustrate you to death here.

    One other thing that bugs me in the changed gameplay...magic is now done by MP instead of a certain number of casts each time. Additional MP is earned by finding statues within each platforming level that, for the most part, are very simply placed. Plus, you take all your magic types into each level with you and can change them. These two changes made most late game levels absurdly easy. There's so much magic and MP to be had that you can basically spam it whenever you want throughout each level and have plenty for the bosses.

    There's a new, convoluted story involving "champions" that emerge out of each city. The stories are nonsensical, and the characters are uninteresting. Instead of focusing on my villagers as a whole, now we're supposed to be focused on these elevated humans. Why is my angel wasting so much time talking to these people? Yelling at them?

    There's one other new thing that I'll decline to include here since it's a bit of a spoiler, but it involves almost entirely playing a bunch of awful tower defense, so just trust me when I say it sucks.

    I'm sorry, SE. I wanted to love this. I hope you do Soul Blazer, but I hope you let it keep its soul rather than whatever you thought you were doing here. Don't add, just upgrade.    … Expand
  5. Inkdagger
    Sep 30, 2021
    5
    Lots of problems with this one. This is mobile quality video game at the price of $30. The art style is a mess and looks like it was made by 5 people who didn’t communicate with each other. The side scrolling action felt like a budget version of Castlevania SoTN with overly stiff controls. The level design was as about uninteresting as it gets. Meanwhile the over-world experience suffersLots of problems with this one. This is mobile quality video game at the price of $30. The art style is a mess and looks like it was made by 5 people who didn’t communicate with each other. The side scrolling action felt like a budget version of Castlevania SoTN with overly stiff controls. The level design was as about uninteresting as it gets. Meanwhile the over-world experience suffers from some significant size and zooming issues that impede the player ability to understand what the heck is going on - particularly during tower defense segments

    I like the general concept and the IP. But we should expect better execution than this.    … Expand
  6. Stevie-e
    Oct 1, 2021
    5
    Loved the original which I played to death but this remake just doesn't have the quality feel of that... Especially the action section which just don't have the weight & feel of the original... Pretty disappointed
  7. thryce3
    Nov 29, 2021
    9
    Let me preface this by saying I've been waiting for more Actraiser for almost 30 years. Renaissance does a great job of capturing the feel of the original with more modern gameplay. It adds a tower defense aspect to the simulation sections, which wasn't necessary but I ultimately enjoyed. The action parts are less methodical and generally easier, but still very enjoyable. Of course theLet me preface this by saying I've been waiting for more Actraiser for almost 30 years. Renaissance does a great job of capturing the feel of the original with more modern gameplay. It adds a tower defense aspect to the simulation sections, which wasn't necessary but I ultimately enjoyed. The action parts are less methodical and generally easier, but still very enjoyable. Of course the music from the original is some of if not THE best video game music of all time. The new versions sound as good as ever and I was smitten from the opening notes.
    The other major addition is the heroes of each realm. This leads to more dialogue and more involved story elements. I enjoyed this as well, but it does take away some of the simplistic charm of the original.
    Unfortunately, this also leads to the games biggest disappointment. When speaking to the heroes, the angel refers to the Master as "they". At first it's just confusing as it makes no grammatical sense. It doesn't even happen that often, but that just makes it more jarring when it does. It ultimately has little impact on the game overall, but that's what makes it so irritating. It could just not be there and everyone would be happy. It really is a shame, because I'd honestly give it a 10 if it weren't for that.
    For someone new to Actraiser, I expect he or she would get a fair amount of enjoyment, but it won't set his or her world on fire. Fans will find a lot to love, but it won't replace the original. I just hope it gets enough attention to do an Actraiser 2 remake (maybe with added simulation) and then Actraiser 3!    … Expand
  8. Grimleaf
    Oct 14, 2021
    8
    I was excited to play this remake and it didnt disappoint nor exceed my expectations but I am glad to support the attention to forgotten gems like actraiser. I could have done with a bit less of the horde sieges and more sode scrolling but all in all I'm ha happy with the additions to the game and I hope square remakes or makes sequels to more of their underappreciated ips.
  9. holandeses301
    Nov 14, 2021
    10
    one of the pleasant surprises of the year, it keeps 100% of the original while including elements that in my opinion are very welcome.
  10. zdemigodx
    Sep 25, 2021
    9
    I'm at around 20 hours, its a very fun game, I remember being a child and being completely lost on what to do, the remake gives me a chance to really enjoy the game many years into the future.
  11. Nintendopost24
    Oct 8, 2021
    7
    Considered one of the best Super Nintendo games by a community of fans who have made it a cult (and very expensive ...) retro game for years, Actraiser was one of those games for which we really weren't expecting a remake. With his arrival, all the wildest dreams are allowed when it comes to the Square Enix catalog. So yes, the game has mechanics that are sometimes archaic and have agedConsidered one of the best Super Nintendo games by a community of fans who have made it a cult (and very expensive ...) retro game for years, Actraiser was one of those games for which we really weren't expecting a remake. With his arrival, all the wildest dreams are allowed when it comes to the Square Enix catalog. So yes, the game has mechanics that are sometimes archaic and have aged badly, that's a fact. But on the other hand, the proposal we are given takes us completely out of our comfort zone, and Actraiser Renaissance is sometimes "fresher" and more original than some modern games. Available in a very well optimized Switch version, and at a low price, Actraiser Renaissance is one of these important titles in the heritage of video games, and I can only recommend it strongly.

    Full review, in french, on my blog Nintendo Legacy. You can follow me on Twitter @NintendoLegacy1    … Expand
  12. starrymia
    Oct 10, 2021
    4
    Someone seems to be downvoting even moderate reviews (normally it's only negative reviews that get blindly downvoted) so I doubt anyone will be reading this, but here goes:

    Actraiser was one of the best early video games. It made a relatively simple sim game, made interesting by the inclusion of a relatively new idea: Lots and lots of characterization, fables, and dialogue! Also, the    Someone seems to be downvoting even moderate reviews (normally it's only negative reviews that get blindly downvoted) so I doubt anyone will be reading this, but here goes:

    Actraiser was one of the best early video games. It made a relatively simple sim game, made interesting by the inclusion of a relatively new idea: Lots and lots of characterization, fables, and dialogue! Also, the plot is a beautiful story about the unity of people in bad circumstances, and people should hear it out.

    Did you know that one of the very first video game music concerts was of Actraiser? Look up the Orchestral Video Game Music concerts from the 90s. It was THAT big and influential.

    But there were a lot of parts that I didn't like and that my family and friends didn't like either. For example, there are a couple parts where you get dumped into the sim engine for 20-60 minutes (depending how long you chase butterflies) with nothing happening except for watching people cultivate the land, which forces the player to get to know the engine's limitations very intimately. The pauses in the action mostly take place in Kasandora, although early Fillmore and all its tutorials count too.

    For another, the action game engine is just bad. Diagonal jumping is somewhere between hard and impossible, and there's no momentum curve (like in any Super Mario) where your character slowly picks up speed and gradually slows down when you're not moving. Momentum was added to the first Mario game to make it feel more lively and less like you're piloting a robot. Without that, Actraiser has always felt like you're guiding a fighting game character over long distances. Have you ever walked from one side of the screen to the other in Street Fighter? Even that feels like a long way to walk with that kind of a movement system. So, walking through massive levels with lots of enemies feels less lifelike than it could, and it takes a while.

    Someone else on here complained that this game was changed too much from the original. I actually disagree; this release could have added a lot more than it did and fixed a lot more than it did.    … Expand
  13. LastResource
    Jan 14, 2023
    10
    worth it and glad to play this game again. so much memories and nostalgia within this 16bit game in the franchise.

Awards & Rankings

66
#66 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Cubed3
    Dec 20, 2021
    60
    The rearranged soundtrack coupled to new compositions is stunningly awesome, as Yuzo Koshiro recaptures brilliantly the spirit of the original and the gameplay of the side-scrolling sections is even better than in the original. However, the questionable choices in the art direction, the bugs, poor performance and the, at times, way too wordy expanded script, mar the experience in such a way that what should have been the masterful return of a masterpiece instead turns out to be a nice introduction to the classic for new audiences, but not much more. There's no shaking the feeling that this re-release was not treated with all the care that such an important landmark title deserved. The extra content sweetens the deal somewhat, and encourages fans of the original to come back for more, but the price of admission for such an end result is a bit too much perhaps.
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  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Nov 30, 2021
    68
    Nice remaster of an unusual game that successfully blends together platformer, strategy and god-sim genres. Playing as an omnipotent deity is a rare treat these days, and the great soundtrack makes it even better. [Issue#256, p.59]
  3. RPG Fan
    Oct 27, 2021
    90
    There’s nothing like Actraiser Renaissance‘s seamless genre-blending, and the surprising depth in each facet makes the game all the more timeless. The extensive main campaign is followed by newly added post-game content that keeps the surprises coming, including an additional area to develop and a score mode. The ways to approach Actraiser Renaissance are as boundless as the content it provides, making it a revival that is well worth experiencing.
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