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ActRaiser Renaissance releasing today
- Thread starter L Thammy
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Lies.I don't think the OST is Yuzo Koshiro's best work. There is just one track that towers over everything else:
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that is a very accurate descriptor holy shit. Tomba 2 came to mind too.
Actraiser is in my top five games off all time, an absolute classic. That Renaissance trailer/announcement was an amazing surprise, completely out of left field, and my mouth was literally hanging open at the end. After the Filmore music hit, there may or may not have been a lump in my throat.
Ok so I am installing it now on steam. I guess they took the brave approach for a low budget remake, which is to modify some of the original design.
Guess I'll see how it goes.
Guess I'll see how it goes.
Alright. I finished the first act. On the whole, I think it's a bit of a low quality remake, and I'm not sure it really justifies $30. The fact that the mobile versions are $20 is a telling sign.
I love the fact that they adhered to the movement of the original for the most part. The Master's moveset is expanded from the original, and the combos are really good. It really feels like a GBA/DS era Castlevania game in this respect. You're still committed to jumps when you make them, and you have to plan a bit carefully. On normal mode, the game seemed a bit easy until I got to the boss. I died once there, but I did appreciate that the boss wasn't exactly the same pattern as the original, while still maintaining the same moves for the most part.
Overall, I think the gameplay is pretty solid.
However WHAT IN THE WORLD is going on with the graphics and performance? This does not perform well on Switch in handheld mode at all, and parts of it look downright ugly. The animations appear to be very choppy at times, and I'm extremely disappointed here. The weird 3D protagonist is odd too, and I'm not a big fan of it. The presentation leaves a bit to be desired, and it lacks that SNES era Quintet charm. Which is not a good thing considering this is a beloved cult classic.
EDIT: Performance is much better docked on the Switch, and from what I understand, the PS4 version has good performance too. Still, something to keep in mind.
The remixed music is fantastic, no complaints there.
I would say hold off for a price drop, as this is not a very high quality game in the presentation department. I don't understand how it was acceptable to release this as is, but the fact that there were mobile ports has me asking questions. I don't regret my purchase, but the game would have had to be absolute crap for me to regret it. Your mileage may vary.
Gonna play this the rest of the night. I'm onto the simulation portion now.
I love the fact that they adhered to the movement of the original for the most part. The Master's moveset is expanded from the original, and the combos are really good. It really feels like a GBA/DS era Castlevania game in this respect. You're still committed to jumps when you make them, and you have to plan a bit carefully. On normal mode, the game seemed a bit easy until I got to the boss. I died once there, but I did appreciate that the boss wasn't exactly the same pattern as the original, while still maintaining the same moves for the most part.
Overall, I think the gameplay is pretty solid.
However WHAT IN THE WORLD is going on with the graphics and performance? This does not perform well on Switch in handheld mode at all, and parts of it look downright ugly. The animations appear to be very choppy at times, and I'm extremely disappointed here. The weird 3D protagonist is odd too, and I'm not a big fan of it. The presentation leaves a bit to be desired, and it lacks that SNES era Quintet charm. Which is not a good thing considering this is a beloved cult classic.
EDIT: Performance is much better docked on the Switch, and from what I understand, the PS4 version has good performance too. Still, something to keep in mind.
The remixed music is fantastic, no complaints there.
I would say hold off for a price drop, as this is not a very high quality game in the presentation department. I don't understand how it was acceptable to release this as is, but the fact that there were mobile ports has me asking questions. I don't regret my purchase, but the game would have had to be absolute crap for me to regret it. Your mileage may vary.
Gonna play this the rest of the night. I'm onto the simulation portion now.
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I fucking love the original but I'm absolutely terrified to see a classic get defiled. I think I'm going to sit back in awe that this even exists and bury my head in the sand so I don't have my nostalgia shadow bombed
Wishlisted it. Will buy at some point if PS4 impressions are good.
lmao
This looks like an ancient, abandoned mobile game that someone at Squeenix suddenly discovered while it was gathering dust in a random hard drive.
lmao
This was one of my favorite games back in the day on SNES. I've cleared it so many times....
Not sure why they really needed this graphical change since the original still looks good and this is kinda....hm.
It will be interesting to see how much new content there is.
If this graphical style and faux-orchestral overlay is supposed to justify the $30, I'll probably pass.
Not sure why they really needed this graphical change since the original still looks good and this is kinda....hm.
It will be interesting to see how much new content there is.
If this graphical style and faux-orchestral overlay is supposed to justify the $30, I'll probably pass.
This looks like an ancient, abandoned mobile game that someone at Squeenix suddenly discovered while it was gathering dust in a random hard drive.
it looks better in motion but… it's a bold choice lol
Reading impressions, it sounds like they added a lot to the gameplay? You apparently have way more moves like dashes and ground pounds, and upgradeable stats and spells for the action sections, and there's much more mechanically going on in the citybuilding phases, such as units to attack monsters, upgradable fortresses, archer towers, traps to lay on roads, etc. Like it has tower defense sections now.
I'm wondering who is behind this now - I see on Steam an obscure Japanese developer named Sonic Powered LTD is involved. They seem to have originated in the late 90s after Quintet folded... I wonder if some of the original staff are involved and that is why the developer was chosen.
Despite the odd choices for visual style and technology, there seems to be real care for the artwork and evoking the mood of the original.
Despite the odd choices for visual style and technology, there seems to be real care for the artwork and evoking the mood of the original.
This looks like an ancient, abandoned mobile game that someone at Squeenix suddenly discovered while it was gathering dust in a random hard drive.
How's the framerate on the PS4 version? Are the animations choppy at times like Switch?
I just started the city building phase so I can't speak for that. In the action phases however there are a number of new moves. By default, The Master has a three hit combo, and you can modify the combo by holding up while pressing an attack. There's also an uppercut style attack. All of these pretty much lock you into the attack animation, so it's intentionally stiff like the original. You can backdash too, like the Iga Castlevania games. On the whole, I like this part.
The art direction (besides the cutscenes) is very disappointing, but I still bought this on PS4 and I just might buy it again for Switch and Steam because we NEED to support a Quintet resurgence!
I really hope they re-release the original ActRaiser and ActRaiser 2 somehow...Nintendo Switch Online??
I really hope they re-release the original ActRaiser and ActRaiser 2 somehow...Nintendo Switch Online??
yeah, the movement options and expanded moveset are actually really fucking good feeling. plays a lot better than the original.
The Famitsu video on the previous page seems to be from PS4 and it looks fine. I'm downloading it myself right now.
That's good to hear. I'm gonna switch over to 4K once I finish work here.
Dude, same. That GeForce leak keeps getting shit right. Ugh, can't believe Actraiser is back!
City building portions actually look pretty great, aesthetically. I wonder what happened to make the action stages look so bad?
Waiting to see how much it costs on PS4. It looked terrible. Still haven't played that other rip-off… SolSeraph?
Saw the price…
ouch… $30
I'll wait for the inevitable sale.
Saw the price…
ouch… $30
I'll wait for the inevitable sale.
Seriously. I have the original here and absolutely love it but I can't bringt myself to play a game that looks like this.
This looks like an ancient, abandoned mobile game that someone at Squeenix suddenly discovered while it was gathering dust in a random hard drive.
This wasn't what I was looking forward to when I was hoping Quintet games would be back.
So far, yeah. It's a true remake, although graphically kind of bad in spots.
Gonna say something probably controversial but, I kinda dig the way it looks like an older game, frame rate issues aside.
Okay hell yeah, they brought Yuzo Koshiro back to do the composition & arrangement! Wouldn't want the music in any other hands.
The art style is not really doing it for me though. It's weird, all the key art looks great, but the gameplay just looks... rough.
I think it could be the ambiguity of the original sprites & tiles are gone. Everything in this looks a bit too "sharp," without much room for interpretation. It doesn't help that background tiles usually look completely flat against the backdrop.God I mean, "The Master" almost looks like they're from another game.
It feels like a lower-budget PSP Remake, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the visuals feel unpolished imo
I do really like the logo treatment though, that looks great.
The art style is not really doing it for me though. It's weird, all the key art looks great, but the gameplay just looks... rough.
I think it could be the ambiguity of the original sprites & tiles are gone. Everything in this looks a bit too "sharp," without much room for interpretation. It doesn't help that background tiles usually look completely flat against the backdrop.
It feels like a lower-budget PSP Remake, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the visuals feel unpolished imo
I do really like the logo treatment though, that looks great.
Funny thing is, the overall visual style and effects are super authentic to what you saw in 90s Japanese games on the Saturn and PS1. The same kinds of rim lighting, super shadows, and translucent magic effects.
It kind of feels like the developer couldn't create hand-drawn content for the action stages with sprites, nor a fully 3D polygon driven game. So they fell back on some older design strategies and techniques.
It's accurate to say it looks like Skeleton Warriors technologically but with better art.
It kind of feels like the developer couldn't create hand-drawn content for the action stages with sprites, nor a fully 3D polygon driven game. So they fell back on some older design strategies and techniques.
It's accurate to say it looks like Skeleton Warriors technologically but with better art.
To be honest I know some people are are going to really like how it looks.
Woah. Already seeing the new features in the City Building feature.
The miracles now have levels to them off the getgo.
OP
OP
I honestly never liked the spritework of the original Actraiser that much, which may be why I'm less bothered by the remake in that area. A lot of the sprites feel a little too simple to me, reminding me of the pillow shadow of novice sprite artists.
The graphics don't bother me all that much but the talk of changes to the city building are music to my ears. Young me at least loved that part of the game.
Just finished the first action stage on PS4. Seems to perform just fine. I'm definitely enjoying it.
To be completely honest, with how everything looks and sounds, if you told me that this was a PSP remake of Actraiser that got shelved for a decade and then ported to modern systems I would believe you 100%. To be clear, I'm not saying that in a bad way, I just like the aesthetic of it.
To be completely honest, with how everything looks and sounds, if you told me that this was a PSP remake of Actraiser that got shelved for a decade and then ported to modern systems I would believe you 100%. To be clear, I'm not saying that in a bad way, I just like the aesthetic of it.
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