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[BadBurger]

Finishing up the third area. I can't tell if it's the game or either of my DS5's but I keep having issues with the side scrolling parts. Button inputs just not taking, or severely sluggish controls overall at times.

Still enjoying it, just funny and weird to me that I can play the original on my handheld SNES emulator (takes the cart) and it's more responsive than this PS5 remake in 2021.

 

[borborygmus]

Really getting tired of all the tower defense stuff. It'd be different if it were decent tower defense - but the location you can put the fortifications is basically random and always leaves at least one or two paths that cannot be guarded except by your heroes. Placing the towers is nice and all but they seem to do almost no damage to most enemies (even when upgraded). The fail conditions always change too - so it's required a lot of trial and error on my part which means I'm typically playing these sections two or three times each.

I wish you could skip over this stuff completely. It really feels like it doesn't belong here.

This.

Honestly, all the additions are negative. The original is by far the better game.

 

[Punished Miku]

This.

Honestly, all the additions are negative. The original is by far the better game.

Just got 100% on the game. All I'll say is that the tower defense parts increase in difficulty. By the end I was basically acing it. You have to come up with the correct placements, use the correct miracles and even the correct heroes. They not only have different attack strengths but each hero has a hidden ability for forts on their ally profile page.

 

[borborygmus]

Just got 100% on the game. All I'll say is that the tower defense parts increase in difficulty. By the end I was basically acing it. You have to come up with the correct placements, use the correct miracles and even the correct heroes. They not only have different attack strengths but each hero has a hidden ability for forts on their ally profile page.

Those are some good tips, but honestly I aced almost all the tower defense parts and didn't have much trouble with the game overall (normal difficulty). I just thought the tower defense gameplay was poorly designed, repetitive, and not a lot of fun, and it feels like an excuse to give the new mobile game animu characters something to do and pad out the game.

I admit am a harsh critic, so anyone who reads my impressions should take that into consideration of course.

 

[Rentahamster]

Those of you who finished the game - worth the full price, or in hindsight would you have waited for a sale?

 

[Pejo]

Those of you who finished the game - worth the full price, or in hindsight would you have waited for a sale?

If you liked the original, definitely worth the price. If you can get past the graphics, the game itself is great. The additions are fun without losing the soul of what made it good to begin with.

 

[Erdrick]

This.

Honestly, all the additions are negative. The original is by far the better game.

The remastered soundtrack is fucking magnificent though. No denying that.

 

[Punished Miku]

Those of you who finished the game - worth the full price, or in hindsight would you have waited for a sale?

Totally worth it. Couldn't put it down and got 100% completion in 30 hours. Easily the best Actraiser.

I do think its worth it if you're a fan of the series, and you get the side benefit of supporting a series that actually could use the support - considering its been dormant for decades. SQEX will watch sales numbers I'm sure.

 

[Andyliini]

I have been holding off while waiting for a physical release to surface, but by now chances seem pretty slim.

 

[DGrayson]

Totally worth it. Couldn't put it down and got 100% completion in 30 hours. Easily the best Actraiser.

I do think its worth it if you're a fan of the series, and you get the side benefit of supporting a series that actually could use the support - considering its been dormant for decades. SQEX will watch sales numbers I'm sure.

Damn you sold me.

 

[Punished Miku]

Damn you sold me.

Just get through the onslaught of tutorials and you'll have fun.

 

[jshackles]

Those of you who finished the game - worth the full price, or in hindsight would you have waited for a sale?

I'll have to admit that I haven't finished it yet, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to muster up the strength to do so. I absolutely love the original game to tears, but the force tower defense sections in this game really sap all of the fun out of it for me. Really, any game that allows you to play for 15 minutes or more and then puts you in a fail state where you have to reload from that far back is the kind of thing I typically try to avoid anyway. So many times I've died in this game (always the tower defense, never anything else) and have had to restart these sections over and over again. It might be more fun if the game had like... predefined paths for the enemies, but it doesn't. You get a limited number of towers to place, and if you don't have them in the right spot the enemies will just completely bypass them. There is no way of knowing which route the enemies will take, so a lot of it feels like trial and error. There are tower defense games I love, but this is not one of those. In fact, it takes away so much that I almost get irrationally angry even thinking about it because it shits up one of my favorite SNES games.

The story is also WAAAAY too drawn out. It's cool having the additional narrative, as well as reasons for having "heroes" in the tower defense sections, but there are several times I feel like it just goes on a bit too much. Voice acting would help here tremendously. They've also removed a lot of the original game's freedom - you can no longer just fly where you want and do the towns in any sort of order, you have to do them all in a pre-defined way.

The side scrolling combat sections are definitely more floaty than the original. I play the original pretty often and the controls are TIGHT. This doesn't bother me so much, but it's definitely a huge departure from what was.

The music is amazing though, no denying that.

Thanks for listening to my TED Talk.

 

[Punished Miku]

I'll have to admit that I haven't finished it yet, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to muster up the strength to do so. I absolutely love the original game to tears, but the force tower defense sections in this game really sap all of the fun out of it for me. Really, any game that allows you to play for 15 minutes or more and then puts you in a fail state where you have to reload from that far back is the kind of thing I typically try to avoid anyway. So many times I've died in this game (always the tower defense, never anything else) and have had to restart these sections over and over again. It might be more fun if the game had like... predefined paths for the enemies, but it doesn't. You get a limited number of towers to place, and if you don't have them in the right spot the enemies will just completely bypass them. There is no way of knowing which route the enemies will take, so a lot of it feels like trial and error. There are tower defense games I love, but this is not one of those. In fact, it takes away so much that I almost get irrationally angry even thinking about it because it shits up one of my favorite SNES games.

The story is also WAAAAY too drawn out. It's cool having the additional narrative, as well as reasons for having "heroes" in the tower defense sections, but there are several times I feel like it just goes on a bit too much. Voice acting would help here tremendously. They've also removed a lot of the original game's freedom - you can no longer just fly where you want and do the towns in any sort of order, you have to do them all in a pre-defined way.

The side scrolling combat sections are definitely more floaty than the original. I play the original pretty often and the controls are TIGHT. This doesn't bother me so much, but it's definitely a huge departure from what was.

The music is amazing though, no denying that.

Thanks for listening to my TED Talk.

The predefined paths for the enemies are hidden in the objectives. Itll say game over if temple destroyed, meaning they are going for the temple. Game over if you lose 4 farms, meaning they are going for the farms. Also the heroes have hidden fort buff abilities on their profile page. Also spam the consumable barriers nonstop because they get replenished super fast.

 

[jshackles]

The predefined paths for the enemies are hidden in the objectives. Itll say game over if temple destroyed, meaning they are going for the temple. Game over if you lose 4 farms, meaning they are going for the farms.

This is all well and good, except that it's not as helpful as you might think. Yes, I understand that the enemies will try going after my temple (or farms, or whatever) - but there are also a bunch of different places they can spawn, and from those spawn points there are typically tons of roads they can take to get there. The whole thing feels like a constant exercise in frustration to me. I just finished Kassandora, and it's probably the worst offender for this because it's just laid out in a bunch of squares.

 

[Punished Miku]

This is all well and good, except that it's not as helpful as you might think. Yes, I understand that the enemies will try going after my temple (or farms, or whatever) - but there are also a bunch of different places they can spawn, and from those spawn points there are typically tons of roads they can take to get there. The whole thing feels like a constant exercise in frustration to me. I just finished Kassandora, and it's probably the worst offender for this because it's just laid out in a bunch of squares.

Yeah that is true. But I'm just trying to help since I didnt have that much difficulty with it. Some parts are a bit overwhelming but I was learning things I didnt realize early on that helped. Like how much it helps to check which miracle the monsters are weak to (they'll have an up or down arrow) or using the archery towers on the correct enemies kills them almost instantly. And just spamming the consumable barricade items or using the bells to lure enemies near an archery tower so they all get hit.

I guess its not for everyone. Also the desert level is hard and I had to leave and get other heroes and come back.

 

[Punished Miku]

Also don't be afraid to rebuild forts. It doesn't cost anything since you get supplies back.

I lost once on a part where my temple kept getting overrun. Couldn't figure out what to do. So I literally every fort I had all around just the temple. Left the entire town unprotected. But on that one particular fight they jut went for the temple and it worked.

After you lose you will know 100% where they're going.

 

[p_xavier]

I finally managed to play this game. First game in years that I can't stop playing, I never had played Actraiser before so didn't know what to expect. Highly recommended.

 

[Pejo]

I finally managed to play this game. First game in years that I can't stop playing, I never had played Actraiser before so didn't know what to expect. Highly recommended.

Yea if it wasn't for the awful awful art and graphics, this would have been my favorite remake in the past 5 years, easily. It's a shame that S-E didn't devote enough talent/budget to make the side scrolling stages look better. I can even forgive the angel gameplay part as being ok. But damn, it looks like an indie game from 2005. The additions from the original game mostly fit, and the music was great.