The onset of fall has made me inclined to nostalgia in recent years. It could be the turning of the leaves serving as memento mori, or Western civilization’s accelerating slide over the brink. Either way, this time of year gives me the itch to play classic games. And few games embody the West vs West ethos better than Enix’s platformer-sim ActRaiser.
Released for the Super Nintendo in 1990, ActRaiser has been grandfathered into lesser classic status. Fair or not, it isn’t remembered quite as fondly as early system-sellers like Super Mario World, Castlevania IV, or F-Zero. Some attribute its not-quite-there controls to launch title weirdness (though contra common belief, it came out months after the SNES launched). But tight platforming isn’t ActRaiser‘s main selling point.
What this game does better than – perhaps unlike – any other SNES title is feature a novel combination of two genres: platformers and sims, with a dash of JRPG for spice.
Indeed, ActRaiser‘s strength lies in the dynamic interaction of its two play styles. In the platforming sections, players control a powerful deity known as the Master. The Master’s goal is to eliminate monsters and demons, and these sections provide a good dose of action and challenge. The controls are responsive enough for the era. And while the platforming offers a mix of combat and exploration, it’s light fare compared to the likes of Castlevania or Metroid. But even though they’re a bit short, the side-scrolling levels are adequately satisfying.
That brings us to the simulation aspect. This was Enix’s chocolate-in-my-peanut butter stroke of genius. It adds depth to what would otherwise have been pretty but rather vanilla late 80s style platformer. In this mode, the Master guides his people in rebuilding civilization. In each territory, players direct the growth of a small village, helping it develop by slaying demons, performing miracles, and shaping the land. This unique blend of genres was groundbreaking for its time and still holds up well today.
The graphics of ActRaiser are impressive for a game of its era. The sprite work is detailed, and the environments are beautifully designed, with a good variety of settings. It’s a prime example of the kind of pixel art sadly left behind by the high def revolution. And later remasters, while impressive-looking, just can’t recapture the magic.
ActRaiser‘s soundtrack is an equal, or even greater, highlight. Composed by Enix’s house band back when game studios had house bands, the score enhances the overall game experience. Somewhat overshadowed by later musical tours de force like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, there are at least a couple of legendary tier masterpieces here. Just one listen will have you humming the Kasandora theme all day:
While ActRaiser‘s dual gameplay modes are engaging, it’s not without its flaws. The difficulty is uneven, at times fluctuating from a cakewalk to controller-throwing Nintendo Hard. The early and late platforming sections especially may frustrate some players. However, overcoming these challenges is a rewarding experience for those who persevere.
ActRaiser‘s storyline is one of the game’s most intriguing aspects. And it’s yet another pre-Ground Zero relic that would never fly today. Try to imagine a Current Year studio releasing a game in which you play God, and the trope is played straight. No Evil Church of Evil clichés here. The Master is a good deity on a quest to free the world from the clutches of evil. And Western devs should hang their heads in shame at a Japanese publisher’s ability to tap the power of faith. Which they do with primitive 16-bit tools to sometimes devastating effect.
After the midpoint of the game, you receive a message that a man has suffered mortal wounds while fighting the monsters that attacked his village. With his last ounce of strength, he staggers to the temple a makes the priests one final request: to die bathed in his Master’s tears.
Your priests offer the petition.
And while you can’t avert your servant’s death, you can send the rain …
And in one stroke of a crude early 90s sim command, ActRaiser forges a deeper and longer-lasting emotional connection between you and what had been a tiny, insignificant sprite than some RPGs take 60 hours to build.
That, dear readers, is Beauty. It’s God as the ultimate hero: terrifying scourge of evil and loving Father who remembers His people’s sacrifice.
Nor is that just figurative, because unlike far too many works of even Christian fiction these days, ActRaiser takes the risk and kills the little petitioner it just made you bond with.
That is how you make an emotional connection with readers, dear authors.
You give them something, make them care about it, then take it away.
That doesn’t mean you can’t give it back later. But there has to be an excruciating price attached.
If you take away only one lesson from this post, let it be that taking away readers’ woobie >>>>>>>>>> handing it to them on a silver platter.
Anyway, ActRaiser is a woefully unsung masterpiece that continues to stand the test of time. Its combination of action, simulation, and narrative elements, along with its impressive graphics and evocative soundtrack, makes it an underappreciated gem of classic gaming.
For anyone seeking a rich and rewarding adventure that challenges your reflexes and strategic thinking, ActRaiser is a must-play title that will leave a lasting impression. And an essay in the craft worth studying by authors of the digital age.
Speaking of drawing on the power of faith to fuel storytelling, my upcoming adventure novel features a wide array of varying religions striving, cooperating, and battling for the souls of a dark fantasy world. Back the project now to get the book before launch, and get my acclaimed Soul Cycle eBooks today. That’s just for starters, since we’ve got a cornucopia of sweet perks like the poster, T-shirts, and one last chance to be in the book!
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“Some attribute its not-quite-there controls to launch title weirdness (though contra common belief, it came out months after the SNES launched).”
Yes, but the Japanese release was less than a month after the Super Famicom launched. Enix of America seemed to be going through some struggles in 1991 that may have delayed the planned US launch of ActRaiser a bit, as Dragon Warrior III suffered from a six-month delay.
Fun fact: The Super Famicom launched with just 2 games: Super Mario World and F-Zero.
Quintet was a fascinating company that I wish had more exposure. They seem to have just vanished after 2002, but all of their games are at least somewhat interesting. Even the games they made before they formed Quintet.
They started with the first three Ys games, themselves an allegory of sorts with Adol Christin being the Christ figure (it’s in his name, even) and plenty of obvious analogs from the Cloak of the Holy Spirit to the Tower of the Shadow of Death, and they carried that over when they formed Quintet.
Unlike the then growing trend of anti-theist storytelling, Quintet had always been interested in both what a person might do with the power of godhood and what being God even means at all, but from the perspective that God, at the source of it, is not evil.
It seems that after the SNES, they moved to the PS1 and all of their games became co-developed projects. Unfortunately, we barely got any of those. I hear just recently someone finally put out a translation of Planet Laika, but they just kind of seemed to drift off.
Regardless, their work is well worth playing even today. They definitely rank in there with the best of the Golden Age of gaming, and of JRPGs, too.
This also reminds me that it’s kind of a surprise that ActRaiser got away with as much as it did when localized, as that was the point when Nintendo really started pivoting away from allowing any religious imagery in its games. This is the same time frame when the church and priest in A Link to the Past got changed to “Sanctuary” and “sage”, after all, and one of the reasons for the delay in [i]Dragon Warrior III[/i] I mentioned above was that Nintendo forced them to change the Priest class to “Pilgrim” at the 11th hour.
Somehow I spent all these years ignorant of the fact that Quintet made the Ys games!
They were the original dev team before they broke off. It all clicked when I learned that.
One thing I appreciate is that Falcom has kept the spirit of those games alive over the years with every new entry and have never managed to delve into the lesser tropes of the genre. In a lot of ways, the Ys series is the closest thing today to getting new Quintet games.
Was just checking out some Ys stuff with my Turbo Duo-owning friend. That is some concentrated black tar 90s nostalgia!
What a fantastic game. The music, artwork, scope, and of course, gameplay.
The more emotional parts of the story didn’t hit me as hard at age 9 as they would now, but I remember lots of memorable little vignettes where the people ask God for something, and God delivers. As a young Christian, it all made sense to me and I imagined it WAS God Himself and not a generic “Creator” that I was playing as. If that made the statue Christ, I’m not sure; I just saw it as another way God interacted with the world.
Quintet made interesting games. I played Soulblazer and Illusion of Gaia as a kid, along with Actraiser, but only played Terranigma some 10-15 years ago. I remember that having a few Gnostic elements, but I could be misremembering. Interestingly, that game’s treatment of Christianity was a whole lot more sympathetic than its treatment of Islam. Leave it to the Japanese and their outsider perspective.
Great post Brian. Thanks for reminding us of this gem.
Thanks for reading and for the poignant comment!
My history with that Quintet series maps to yours.
NB: I reviewed Terranigma here: https://brianniemeier.com/2020/07/terra-incognita/
Okay, so it wasn’t faulty memory on my part. How’d I miss your post about Terranigma? Anyway, Quintet was a talented development team. On the one hand, it’s too bad they didn’t make more games. In the other, they ended, for whatever reason, before they had time to become a parody of themselves.
No worries. It’s just the algos trying to gaslight you.
“Outsiders giving Christianity a fair shake” is as good a description as any for Quintet’s approach. And you’re right, it’s better they went out while they were still beautiful.
And since you like globetrotting stories about different religions interacting in a secondary world, I think you’ll dig my upcoming fantasy adventure novel.
Get it early here: https://igg.me/at/the-burned-book
So great to see you reminisce about ActRaiser! I hope you also play / review Soul Blazer, which I consider the sister title to ActRaiser (shares a ton of SFX and a parallel premise), and also features Quintet’s unabashed spirituality and bittersweetness.
Your hopes are not in vain. Soulblazer is one of my most beloved SNES games, even more than ActRaiser.
Huzzah!
The Soul Blazer review is now live: https://www.patreon.com/posts/soul-blazer-92312312?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link