Actraiser Renaissance [NSW/PS4/PC/iOS/Android]

[fuse]

Not a peep was heard about this during development, leading to a surprise release following the Nintendo Direct where it was first announced.



I've had a quick go on the PS4 version (on PS5) for about 30 mins or so, covering the first stage, and some of the god-sim. It's very much a ground-up remake, and although some things are great - like the stunning new keyart, and Yuzo Koshiro remixing the whole dang OST - there are other bits that are a bit more debatable.

The action scenes have a bit more dimension with the moves now, where your standard series of attacks allows you to shuffle forward a bit, and there's an uppercut move that launches you into the air, along with a downward plunging attack for coming back down - jury is still out on how this all works out, but the plunging attack feels very strong so far.

There's some very lavish 2D, high-res still art as you're talking to your cherub-y assistant and the villagers of Fillmore, and although the god-sim bits still rely on a grid layout, they look kind of what you'd imagine them to look like if the game were being made anew today. The action scenes have fared less well - a lot of it looks like its using low-res assets that've been scaled badly, and this is coming from someone who is not very demanding from a graphical tech perspective.

I get the impression this has been done on a pretty tight budget, and while it's not perfect it looks like there's some fun to be had.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Nice initial OP [MENTION=3822]fuse[/MENTION]!

I still can't quite get over how bad this looks, and like many others I hold the SFC/SNES original in high regard. The worst thing about it IMO is that now the original almost certainly won't be on the Switch Online SNES service anytime soon - not a major problem as I and many others can obviously ROM it, but irritating nevertheless.

I will say that I have got this on my eShop wishlist so I'll immediately be informed if it gets a significant price-cut of any kind. I just don't consider it to be £25-£30 worthy as is.

[Goemon]

I’ve unfortunately abandoned this after about 10 hours.

I too hold the original in high regard and was super excited to get this.

My main gripe (but not the only one) is the expansion of the sim sections. The original had a perfect balance between the two whereas this version they’ve gone completely overboard. You can spend 2-3 hours in the sim mode because you’re constantly forced into a load of tower defence sections, which can’t be bypassed. There’s too many, they’re too easy to fail and serve no real purpose other than padding out the game.

You’re not playing this game to play tower defence!

Regarding the action sections, for me the movement is too woolly and lacks the precision of the original. For example trying to get close enough to an actively moving boss to hit it, while not being too close to take a hit for touching it is questionable. This isn’t too noticeable in normal difficulty but on hard it’s just excruciating as 1 touch is a 3rd of your life (this is the main reason I dropped to normal after starting hard)

The magic is also pretty much useless as it’s way too slow and you ultimately do more damage with a few swipes of your sword.

So yea, super disappointed.

[Nu-Eclipse]

I’ve unfortunately abandoned this after about 10 hours.

I too hold the original in high regard and was super excited to get this.

My main gripe (but not the only one) is the expansion of the sim sections. The original had a perfect balance between the two whereas this version they’ve gone completely overboard. You can spend 2-3 hours in the sim mode because you’re constantly forced into a load of tower defence sections, which can’t be bypassed. There’s too many, they’re too easy to fail and serve no real purpose other than padding out the game.

You’re not playing this game to play tower defence!

Regarding the action sections, for me the movement is too woolly and lacks the precision of the original. For example trying to get close enough to an actively moving boss to hit it, while not being too close to take a hit for touching it is questionable. This isn’t too noticeable in normal difficulty but on hard it’s just excruciating as 1 touch is a 3rd of your life (this is the main reason I dropped to normal after starting hard)

The magic is also pretty much useless as it’s way too slow and you ultimately do more damage with a few swipes of your sword.

So yea, super disappointed.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/449/977/aba.gif

[fuse]

Played a little more of this, getting me in to the tower defence bits. I'm still only in Fillmore and playing on normal so there's no challenge/frustration around them just yet, but I can see how un-necessary an addition they could get. More annoying is the number of interruptions in general - from the Angel, from tutorials, from villagers wanting your attention, you bloody name it. I am sure a percentage of them will not be present in later maps once I've got the basics down, but even if there were only half as many it'd still be totally breaking the flow. I think it's going to be 30 mins here and there I throw at this, I don't think I can sit down and play it for hours without wanting to scream.