ActRaiser

Plot

The plot follows a god-like being known only as "The Master" in his fight against Tanzra, also referred to as "The Evil One". According to the instruction booklet, The Master was defeated in a battle with Tanzra and his six lieutenants. The Master retreated to his sky palace to tend to his wounds and fell into a deep sleep. In the Master's absence, Tanzra divided the world into six lands, one for each of his lieutenants; they later turn the people to evil.

After several hundred years, the Master awakens fully recovered to discover that he has lost his powers due to the lack of belief in him. As the game progresses the Master defeats the Tanzra's lieutenants and recovers his powers by rebuilding the civilizations of his people and communicating with them through prayer. After all lieutenants have been slain, the Master commences an assault on Tanzra's stronghold Death Heim, eventually defeating him.

After the defeat of Tanzra, The Master and his servant revisit the many civilizations that they had helped to build and observe the people. During their observations, they note that nobody is at the temple worshiping the Master . The servant observes that although the people once prayed to the master in times of trouble, they no longer feel a need to because they are not in danger. The Master and his servant then enter the sky palace and depart into the heavens to await a time when they may be needed.

Gameplay

One of the side-scrolling stages, showing a boss battle against the manticore in the town of Bloodpool
The player plays as "The Master", the main protagonist of the game. Although the Master is never directly controlled, the player interacts with the world by controlling an angel and an animated statue. The player plays as an angel during the simulation sequences of the game, and as the statue during the action sequences.

The overhead-view simulation mode involves protecting and guiding the Master's new civilization towards prosperity, beginning with two humans. This portion of the game requires the player to take actions that encourage the growth of the population, including road planning and using lightning, rain, sunlight, wind. and earthquakes as miracles. The Angel can interact with the monsters in the area by shooting them with arrows as well as aid the Master by indicating where to build and use miracles.

One obstacle in the simulation mode is the presence of flying monsters which attempt to impede the progression of a civilization. The source of the monsters are several lairs around the region which continuously spawn the creatures as the servant kills them. As the population expands, it can seal the lairs of monsters, which prevents them from spawning, and eventually eliminate all the flying monsters in the land. Doing so increases the civilization level of the region, allowing more advanced structures to be built and increasing the potential population. Once all the lairs have been sealed the population will begin to build the most advanced homes available to the people in that region. The Master levels up by increasing the total population of the world, granting an increase in hit points and SP, used in performing miracles.

Each area has two side-scrolling action sequences, one before the building simulation and near the end. In the action sequences, the player controls a human-shaped statue brought to life by the Master. The player must jump from platform to platform while defeating monsters to accrue a score. At the end of each action sequence, the player must defeat a boss.

The final level is an action-sequence boss marathon, culminating in the final fight against Tanzra.

Development

Religious subtext
The game is seen as an allegory for Judeo-Christian monotheism. As the Japanese text for the prequel, ActRaiser 2, reveals, the protagonist's original name was God, and the antagonist is Satan. According to Douglas Crockford's Expurgation of Maniac Mansion, Nintendo of America had a strict policy regarding game content in the early 1990s, especially in regards to material which could be deemed offensive, a blanket category which prohibited the inclusion of any overtly religious themes or plotlines in a game. Hence, the main character of the game became "The Master", although the allegory remains obvious, as he travels the globe in a palace on a cloud, accompanied by an angel; slays demons; creates life; performs miracles; and is prayed to by the populace of the world. The bosses are based on real-world religion or mythology, such as Greek mythology and Hinduism. The concept of religion is further explored at the end of the game, when the Angel and "Master" discover that the churches of the world have become empty, people having lost their concept of faith and need for a deity now that their lives have had all suffering removed. They leave the planet, to come back when needed.

Version differences

Besides the language and the subtext omissions discussed above, there were some drastic changes between the Japanese and other versions. A few graphical and musical changes were made (the original logo typeface being much more stylised, and without the intercap "R"), and the action sections are more difficult in the Japanese version. In the US/NTSC & PAL versions, time flows more quickly in the simulation mode, greatly shorting the amount of time needed to complete the area. This also decreased the number of enemy encounters. In the US/NTSC version, the Story Mode featured easier battles, while the action-only "Professional" mode (unlocked at finishing Story Mode) contains the Japanese difficulty level. In the PAL release, the Action Mode ("Professional" mode) is available from the menu screen right from the start. Story Mode features three difficulties: Hard (Japanese), Normal (American), and an exclusive Easy mode.

Ports

A modified version of the game was made for the Nintendo Super System arcade platform. This arcade version featured only the action stages, similar to the "Professional!" mode in the retail version. Among other changes, the game had a different scoring system, and was much more difficult than the retail version: for example, contact with spikes is instantly fatal to the player, instead of merely causing loss of HP.

Square Enix made a port of the original ActRaiser for mobile phones, published by Macrospace on September 1, 2004. It consists of the first three side-scrolling levels of the game, with the town-building portions completely omitted, and is generally seen as inferior to the original game.

ActRaiser also became available on the Wii's Virtual Console. It was released in Japan on March 20, 2007, in Europe on April 13, 2007, and North America on May 28, 2007. As the game was published by Enix, Square Enix currently holds the rights to the Virtual Console edition.

An unofficial Japanese-to-English translation has been released for the game which restores the Judeo-Christian references, among other changes.

Audio

Among many things, the game is recognized for its score, which was composed by Yuzo Koshiro. A single disc soundtrack for the game was released on January 25, 1991 in Japan. A shorter arranged soundtrack titled Symphonic Suite from Actraiser was released on September 21, 1991. In 2004, a medley of music from the game arranged by the original composer was performed live at the second annual Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany.

Reception

The game sold about 620,000 copies worldwide, with 400,000 copies sold in Japan, 180,000 in the USA and 40,000 in Europe.

ActRaiser was awarded Best Music of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. On December 12, 2003 ActRaiser was inducted into GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time. It was rated the 150th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.

In 2007, ScrewAttack ranked ActRaiser #1 on their "Top 10 Big Names That Fell Off", which listed games that in days past were extremely popular, whether good or bad, but have since all but faded away (Actraiser was described in a decidedly good way). It was also #10 in their "Top 20 SNES Games" list.



Download Link

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