ActRaiser is Overrated!

[shrapnel]

I bought ActRaiser because of the constant positive comments and constant "best snes game ever" remarks, plus the 5/5 review and the fact that square made it was enough for me to buy it. I have played the game for the first time in my life about 2 weeks ago, and have recently beaten it.

Action-mode: I'm not going to go into too much detail here because most of you already know that the action element is sub-par to average at best, almost any game review site will tell you that. Nothing really stands out here, granted the music is very good and there are some interested boss fights. Still it just seems thrown together.

Simulation-mode: Ok where do i start?... the fact that i heard you could build cities really made this game standout for me (being the avid sim city fan that i am). However once i got to my 2nd/3rd city i thought to myself..."this is it?!". This wasn't a simulation at all, i mean there is hardly anything to simulate! All you do is scroll in the direction for your towns people to construct eventually filling up the map and covering monster lairs in the process and you get to do the same thing six times . I mean you couldnt get the people mad if you wanted to, you could destroy the damn city and they would just rebuild it and not care! So i ask: where is the challenge? Is the challenge shooting arrows at the constant spawning monsters? i dont really see the incentive in that given how no matter what the monsters do, whether hit you or damage the town, it cant hurt you in the long run, i mean hell you could loss all of your life and as a consequence you cant shoot your arrows for awhile. Maybe the challenge is the repetitive clearing of an area from sand/swamp/snow/trees one little square at at time, going through the menu for each square, ya that was real fun .
Now lets talk about when the towns people get upset or something comes up that requires your intervention, don't worry about strategy or figuring out what to do, they pretty much tell you exactly what to do each time. Sometimes you might need to figure a situation out, like the people will get mad for no particular reason and you need to find a way to 'calm' them down... well sense you have no options to sway the mood of the people, you really have no choice but to move on to another town until they invent something that helps the previous city. and before you know it you get something like this: "we invented music, give it to someone to calm them down" christ could they make it any more obvious. However because pretty much every event happens in a linear fashion its almost impossible to screw anything up in sim mode. And yes there are a few secretes in the game which is nice but isn't nearly enough to save the game.
So all in all i must say that Sim-mode is just boring plain and simple, its so pathetically easy that it insults your intelligence.

However i will give the game some props for the "professional" mode they offer after beating the game. Other than that I do not see at all how this game deserves 5 stars, i will give it 2 for a cool concept they didn't pull off. So im asking you people out there who took the time to read my honest opinion of the game to give me a reason to like the game, am i missing something all together? I try to be fair when judging games, i wouldn't give a game an instant 5 just because i played it as a kid, or if its made by a certain company that has made real popular titles.

Also im aware that there is an ActRaiser topic, however i feel this needed its own thread (not like the forum is that busy anyway) and i also wanted everyone to get a chance to defend their game and see what they had to say about my review, mods feel free to merge this topic if you wish.

[SKTTR]

You have beaten it and give it 2 stars?? ...and want to discuss it???

You know, when talking about the best games we always have much to complain. when talking about the really bad games,.. ah burn it, we don't talk about bad games, they just drop into oblivion.

In a game you really like, you'll track down everything that could've done better. I do it myself often enough but that just doesn't seem fair in a case like this. 2 stars really has to be quite a ****ty game don't you think?

ActRaiser was one of the first SNES games and it's unique until today. We just want more of it. We want it to last longer and have it more complex.
(Now I don't count ActRaiser 2, which absolutely deserves no more than 2 stars).

In the end, if you're not happy with ActRaiser no one can help you.
Most people giving it 5 Stars is no guarantee that you'll love it.

[Sektor]

Originally Posted by shrapnel

I bought ActRaiser because of the constant positive comments and constant "best snes game ever" remarks, plus the 5/5 review and the fact that square made it was enough for me to buy it. I have played the game for the first time in my life about 2 weeks ago, and have recently beaten it.

Action-mode: I'm not going to go into too much detail here because most of you already know that the action element is sub-par to average at best, almost any game review site will tell you that. Nothing really stands out here, granted the music is very good and there are some interested boss fights. Still it just seems thrown together.

Simulation-mode: Ok where do i start?... the fact that i heard you could build cities really made this game standout for me (being the avid sim city fan that i am). However once i got to my 2nd/3rd city i thought to myself..."this is it?!". This wasn't a simulation at all, i mean there is hardly anything to simulate! All you do is scroll in the direction for your towns people to construct eventually filling up the map and covering monster lairs in the process and you get to do the same thing six times . I mean you couldnt get the people mad if you wanted to, you could destroy the damn city and they would just rebuild it and not care! So i ask: where is the challenge? Is the challenge shooting arrows at the constant spawning monsters? i dont really see the incentive in that given how no matter what the monsters do, whether hit you or damage the town, it cant hurt you in the long run, i mean hell you could loss all of your life and as a consequence you cant shoot your arrows for awhile. Maybe the challenge is the repetitive clearing of an area from sand/swamp/snow/trees one little square at at time, going through the menu for each square, ya that was real fun .
Now lets talk about when the towns people get upset or something comes up that requires your intervention, don't worry about strategy or figuring out what to do, they pretty much tell you exactly what to do each time. Sometimes you might need to figure a situation out, like the people will get mad for no particular reason and you need to find a way to 'calm' them down... well sense you have no options to sway the mood of the people, you really have no choice but to move on to another town until they invent something that helps the previous city. and before you know it you get something like this: "we invented music, give it to someone to calm them down" christ could they make it any more obvious. However because pretty much every event happens in a linear fashion its almost impossible to screw anything up in sim mode. And yes there are a few secretes in the game which is nice but isn't nearly enough to save the game.
So all in all i must say that Sim-mode is just boring plain and simple, its so pathetically easy that it insults your intelligence.

However i will give the game some props for the "professional" mode they offer after beating the game. Other than that I do not see at all how this game deserves 5 stars, i will give it 2 for a cool concept they didn't pull off. So im asking you people out there who took the time to read my honest opinion of the game to give me a reason to like the game, am i missing something all together? I try to be fair when judging games, i wouldn't give a game an instant 5 just because i played it as a kid, or if its made by a certain company that has made real popular titles.

Also im aware that there is an ActRaiser topic, however i feel this needed its own thread (not like the forum is that busy anyway) and i also wanted everyone to get a chance to defend their game and see what they had to say about my review, mods feel free to merge this topic if you wish.

I agree, actraiser is massively overated, i was thinking about getting it then played it over a friends house and was very dissopointed. Its not what i thought, a big letdown

[link64]

I did not think the action parts were overrated.

[yoshi175]

I think it's a good game the acton is very hard

[Hendo]

Originally Posted by shrapnel

i also wanted everyone to get a chance to defend their game and see what they had to say about my review

Jeremy Parish - a writer with some respect from the Ziff-Davis / 1up.com group described ActRaiser as "disappointingly unique".
I think that's all that needs to be said.

[fire deity]

I first completed super mario world when i was 2 years old, thats right, 2. But it is still one of the best games ever created to this day.

[iNma]

Originally Posted by fire deity

I first completed super mario world when i was 2 years old, thats right, 2. But it is still one of the best games ever created to this day.

Nice to see we're on topic, and that our comments have even a smidgeon of relation to the conversation above them. Indeed

[link64]

Originally Posted by fire deity

I first completed super mario world when i was 2 years old, thats right, 2. But it is still one of the best games ever created to this day.

And you remember this.

[antster1983]

Originally Posted by iNma

Nice to see we're on topic, and that our comments have even a smidgeon of relation to the conversation above them. Indeed

Yes. Still, shoes are nice aren't they?