ActRaiser

Overview

ActRaiser is a series of two games (ActRaiser and ActRaiser 2), both developed by Quintet and published by the pre-Square merge, Enix. The games, despite being in the same franchise, differ quite a lot in gameplay, story, style, and graphics. ActRaiser was well-received by critics and fans, and is considered a classic on the Super Nintendo, while ActRaiser 2 was considered more of a disappointment because of its departure from ActRaiser's gameplay.

ActRaiser

ActRaiser told the story of Master, a deity who ruled a civilization. Throughout the game, the player must control civilizations in unique city-building sequences (all the while warding off monsters with a top-down view controlling a little cupid), "cleanse" areas of monsters so that they're fit for living in (using a statue that has been embodied with some of the Master's power). The game was released on November of 1991 in North America for the Super Nintendo, to great critical acclaim. It was later released for the Virtual Console.

ActRaiser 2

ActRaiser 2 differed greatly from the gameplay of ActRaiser. Instead of having the city-building aspect, this game was a pure side-scroller. ActRaiser 2 was also criticized for the insane difficulty of the game; even lower difficulties proved to be quite the challenge. Despite this, the game was still considered to be a good game in its own regard, but not that much of an ActRaiser game in general. ActRaiser 2 continued the story of Master regaining his power from evil monsters (this game is known for paralleling the stories of other stories such as The Divine Comedy). ActRaiser 2 was released in November of 1993 on the Super Nintendo.