ActRaiser retrospective: All's right with the world | Super NES Works

An in-depth look at one of the most unique games ever to appear on Super NES: The god-sim/RPG/platformer ActRaiser. With its incredible soundtrack, challenging action, and low-calorie simulation mode, ActRaiser manages to be far more than the sum of its decent individual components. It stands as a classic for the ages, and this retrospective attempts to explain why.
Special thanks to Steve Lin of the Video Game History Foundation for providing access to the packaged copy of the game for this video.

[@JohnZyski]

The music for ActRaiser was just SO good.

[@StiffAftermath]

2021 - the year of our lord has returned. Enter Actraiser Renaissance.

[@onionheadguy7094]

I got this, a snes, mario, and mickey in a big brown paper grocery bag that said from santa on it for Christmas. It was the greatest most memorable xmas gift ive ever been given.

[@boodro2122]

That's similar to how I received my SNES Classic. Sonic paper bag

[@sleepinglionarchives]

The music was always stellar, there's a wonderful orchestral version on CD, every single piece was played by a symphony, highly recommended

[@luisguillermojg]

6:01 Ah, so that's where Extra Credits got the music for their history episodes. Great episode.

[@0palheart]

Oh, i was wondering where i heard that tune before!

[@K1z0ku]

It was bugging me too

[@StiffAftermath]

Actraiser changed my life. To this day, it still influences my art, my music and game design.

[@zerobyte802]

IMO Actraiser has some of the best graphics ever produced for the SNES. I remember seeing screen shots of it in Nintendo Power and being blown away by how great the SNES's graphics were going to be. They looked even better in motion than in screenshots, which is often not the case. It's hard to describe how amazing this looked through the eyes of my high school self who'd been playing games since Space Invaders and Pac Man. SMB3 had great graphics, sure, and the Sega Genesis looked good, but THIS was a whole other league of awesome graphics. From the few screenshots (all from action mode), I envisioned the game being something akin to "Battle of Olympus" (which would've been pretty awesome too) but when it finally came out and I first experienced the Master's descent to Earth to personally battle monsters... well, that was amazing in a way nothing could've prepared me for.

[@mortenera4423]

I guess you could've been prepared by Sim City, but not everyone was able to afford a computer

[@mindcrome]

For me it was the music that made me get the game. First saw the game at someone's house. A family friend that I knew was a small time house dj/producer but also a gamer. He was amazed by ActRaiser and the soundtrack that the game was pumping out. The quality of the music from a cart based video game was unreal for the time. I remember this friend going on and on about how it would cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to get keyboards and MIDI players and sample disks to match the sound quality of the music chip in the SNES. Same friend also saved me from wasting money on a Sega CD (Once the novelty wore off, you realized the games would be crap. Of course there are exceptions)

[@Thing27826]

@@mindcrome I felt the same way. After years of hearing NES (and even Genesis) audio, the SNES was a revelation. Actraiser may have been the second title I ever played on the system, after Super Mario World. SMW sounded nice but Actraiser was in a class of its own. I simply couldn't believe what I was hearing from the moment I turned it on. To a kid obsessed with orchestral movie music, that moment was awe-inspiring. It's hard to transmit to others how revolutionary Actraiser was, and felt, 30 years ago. It was the absolute bleeding edge of gaming audio, the Turbografx-CD excepted, but who had one of those?

[@otakubullfrog1665]

This was one of those games I knew I had to try as soon as I got my Super NES Player's Guide from Nintendo Power. That guide really did a great job of hyping up the early SNES library in general and this game certainly lived up to the hype.

[@jodyanthony]

Think you're gonna miss that January 24th date for the next episode :P I love everything that Quintet was involved in. I can't wait to see you cover the rest of their games.

[@ztoxtube]

Yuzo's soundtracks on Genesis were great, but people were basically shocked when they heard what he created for Actraiser. It swept me off my feet then and still does.

[@tommyzorera]

One of the best games ever. Holds up today and never replicated or duplicated. Prayed for a sequel on the Saturn back in the day!

[@dialaskisel5929]

A great review of my second favorite game of all time (behind Final Fantasy Tactics). And you hit the nail squarely on the head with every bit of it. The individual parts are all just fine (aside from the music, which is just the best), but they intermesh to create a sense of scope and atmosphere that makes the game hit harder than almost anything else I've ever played.

[@MaidenHell1977]

I still remember the first time I played this game, the soundtrack left me stunned...I had a pair of small computer styled speakers for stereo sound for my audio needs. It was pure magic in those days. I hunted down a cartridge back in the mid 2000s and I'm proud to have in my collection. amazing retrospect as always, sir!

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

Imma so happy this seemingly forgotten gem from SNES era got the remake it deserved

[@TanookiSuit]

This right with Gradius III were my first two buys for the system after knocking off Super Mario World entirely in two weeks. I love them both, but this one far more. While not terribly long, the video really says it all. The game is just unique and magic, amazing in so many ways, and due to the fair brevity of it it's a great one to often revisit and finish without being a crunch, slog or a strain to do so. Also outside of the love people throw to all things Square then, it has a few of the best sounding and orchestrated scores in a game on the system. The discovery of 'music' in the game back in 1991 was mind blowing getting that from a cartridge and still is captivating.

[@matthuck378]

Actraiser is one reason the SNES is my favorite console, overall.

[@TL3742]

At first, it seems like a crying shame that a sequel or remake hasn't made its way onto 3DS or Switch, but maybe you are right: the fact that the game is so unique and "lost" is a part of its charm, and a reason for the very study of Retrogaming itself.

[@NeoKad99]

I am from the distant future of 2021, and I have got news for you!

[@MrKeech666]

My younger brother got this game on day 1 release, and once I saw the visuals and heard the cinematic score I sold my Genesis.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

Sonic wants to know your location xD

[@zlindauer5315]

Most memorable moment, buying at release, beating first night, wishing i had rented it. 50 bucks was alot when i was 16. Hell 50 is alot now lol! nice vid!

[@kricku]

In the European version you can choose to play the action stages only. It took me years before I realized there's a full adventure/sim mode with a save feature. I didn't know English! Also I used to think the game was hard until I realized in the adventure mode you get your MP back. It's only glossed over but that's a shit ton of magic that kills every late boss effortlessly until the boss rush!

[@willmistretta]

This feature is in the other versions. You do need to beat the main game first to unlock it, however.

[@kricku]

Still makes it hard to miss the sim mode :P

[@MGPCycling]

And now we have the Actraiser sequel on the switch. Would love to see you do a followup to this video with the new one that has come out, given how singular this game was. Glad I just found your channel a couple days ago. So much to bon) binge watch 😊

[@MynameisHukos]

Actraiser is one of the weirdest games in Koshiro's history, given his history of working with synthesized instruments on both the Genesis and the old NEC PCs (and iirc, the Genesis sound hardware is pretty similar to older japanese PCs). Despite how good Actrasier's OST is, it seems like Koshiro was more comfortable working with synth than samples - which would explain to me why he never returned to the SNES.

[@MynameisHukos]

He did? I forgot about those. Kind of easy to forget about Act Raiser 2 though.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

I am so looking forward to your retrospective on Quintet RPG trilogy.

[@baddmatt9588]

Actraiser has one of the best soundtracks of ANY video game ever release before and since. Final Fantasy IV and VI I would argue is slightly better!

[@fireflocs]

I never figured out how to build things in ActRaiser. That was something of a stumbling block to progressing.

[@willmistretta]

You don't build things. You just clear land and your people build automatically.

[@fireflocs]

Well that would explain it then.

[@Jbayz]

Lol

[@theSato]

Now -here's- an interesting game.

[@kaseybrown7664]

All hail our beloved Lord and Master.... ActRaiser.

[@gullpayne]

I think super nes works is my favourite works

[@JetstreamGW]

There's a new version of Actraiser available on Steam now. New graphics and everything. Reviews have been swingy, but a lot of the negative reviews seem to be nostalgia based.

[@angelriverasantana7755]

The game had its technical issues, yes, but it did a decent job at bringing the OG back and added a neat wrinkle of tower defense to the God stuff

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Actraiser, the first true Super NES masterpiece. And to think it came out within the first month of the SFC's life in Japan!

[@RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS77]

One thing that I think is interesting is that this game is substantially changed from the Japanese version, in my view to the better. The overhead sequences are much, much faster in the US version (which can make them feel a little hectic when there are a lot of demons, but is preferable to the slow-as-molasses original) and the action has been tweaked to be less punishing.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

yeah the manticore fight is dark souls kind of unfair in the japanese version

[@meh6722]

Good morning view about one of my favorite games for the system.

[@THE_GIN_MASTER_]

Yes! I've been looking forward to this episode. One of my all time favorites!

[@dezm101]

love this channel! super stoked for this episode :D

[@Michirin9801]

I used to play the hell out of Act Raiser but I've never beaten it... I really should go back and get that done...

[@jamesmoss3424]

I play ActRaiser it's a classic snes game A+.😀👍🎮

[@bw2273]

Jeremy, great work as always. What did you use to capture the sound from the game? It sounds fantastic

[@boodro2122]

He doesn't care enough to respond to his subscribers.

[@DarkHeroAkutare]

Wait, Enix of America demanded they not include sim elements in the sequel? *That's* why that happened? Somehow I feel insulted.

[@o_o_o_o_o-o_o_o_o_o]

It's still an excellent game though. It has the polish and challenge that the action sequences in the first game lack. It's less special, but more solid.

[@IKKIsama14]

I love this game and Soulblazer even more!

[@ericspratling9252]

Respectfully I must disagree about the spell quality. Stardust is handy for the early parts of the game as well as with big/multiple targets, but after you finally get it, in most circumstances the Magical Aura spell has highest damage the potential. Anyway great video. Actraiser rules.

[@igotkings]

I never knew each demon lair had a finite limit of monsters to spawn.

[@willmistretta]

It almost never comes up because it would take forever to deplete and it makes no sense to.

[@TheJadeFist]

Neither did I, but if it's like he said, having to kill hundreds would take forever.

[@RPGBros]

thanks for the vid!!!

[@dreamcastfan]

I’ve just got to the bit where Jeremy mentions you could potentially clear out an enemy lair by killing every enemy in it. I wonder if manually clearing out the lair in Aitos where the follower dies would allow him to survive? I did once try using a turbo fire pad to clear out a lair but I think the game gets wise to someone camping on the lair and sometimes lets the demon evade the arrows. I suspect it wouldn’t work as I (stubbornly) always use rain on the part of the Kasandora desert where the men get lost. Despite doing this they still always die from dehydration even though they’re on lush grassland. Also, kudos for mentioning that you basically have to be a dick to your worshippers by murdering them by earthquake or thunderbolt to help maximise the population of a region. It’s a brilliant dilemma, do you do what makes the game easier by killing people or do you let your non-optimal settlements stand and try to beat the game in a weakened state?

[@JeremyParish]

These are good questions, and I hope someone with a lot of patience finds the answer.

[@robintst]

Wish ActRaiser 2 wasn't such a let down with how much nicer it looks over the first one. If you remove the simulation mode with the towns then is it really ActRaiser anymore? They just turned it into a plain old action-platformer that, while it had some of the best visuals on the system, couldn't hold a candle in the gameplay department to others in the genre like Demon Crest or Super Castlevania IV.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

Agreed. Not to mention Actraiser 2 is basically Dark Souls 2D

[@SeanBarkerNegaScott128]

Wait, the next episode is gonna come out last month?

[@4ppleseed]

Are you going to trash Super Tennis??? That game is two player fire (and the sound track is burned into my heart). Please be nice ❤

[@MrJWTH]

Vic Vega If he didn’t mean it that’s way I wonder how he’ll react when he plays several far worse tennis games down her line.

[@delaorden]

The music is great, but you are going to hear so much the music of the god overworld that you are probably going to hate it.

[@defunctchannel942]

Did you use the Super Nt for this, or OG hardware? Just curious if you were convinced to make the switch

[@JeremyParish]

Original hardware.

[@m0dus.troll3ns]

Could you recommend any reading/listening/viewing that covers the end of Quintet?

[@JeremyParish]

Not really… it just kind of went dark and faded away.

[@0tt0z]

Actraiser is one of the first snes games i rented back then. I enjoyed the game. I was disappointed in the 2nd game.

[@flygandekrabban]

17:40 well, John Williams ripped off Gustav Holst's planet suite, so I think it's fair game :)

[@KefkaJr]

Playing Quintet games paved the road that led to my atheist awakening.

[@chicopapass]

6:00 Extra Credits History anyone?

[@CarozQH]

Finally.

[@JeremyParish]

OK, I'm dying to know: What's it like to have zero chill?

[@CarozQH]

I didn't mean "Finally he uploads a new video!", what I meant (and should have probably written) is "Act Raiser, Finally a great game in the early SNES release schedule!"

[@JeremyParish]

Haha, fair enough!

[@Evilatem]

The only other games that have a sim style where the activities you do in the sim part feed into the action part is the last 3 games in the Persona series. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hYuvgICGathkjas

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yuzo Koshiro brazenly ripping off John Williams is even more blatant in the orchestral arranged album. The "World Tree" piece - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3eZipaqp7aKfKcm51s - is so openly plagiarizing elements from the Death Star battle that it's almost a wonder Williams and\or LucasFilm didn't come after him. He didn't even change the orchestration! Oh, and in case there's someone out there who somehow thinks this is all a coincidence... No. Not a chance. One of Koshiro's earliest jobs was doing an incredibly faithful conversion of Williams' Star Wars soundtrack to an X68000 port of the arcade game. He has zero plausible deniability here. That soundtrack, BTW, is genuinely impressive for how accurate it is despite going through a pretty low-fi FM synth chip... kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnbQgIeImKx4pck

[@TanookiSuit]

It's an absolute crime that no one at Enix, Square-Enix has ever chosen to revisit this outside of the god awful Act Raiser 2 with that very sloppy controls, nasty difficulty, removal of the sim, and the cheap skate removal of the battery for a long lame pass word. I've been wishing for over 20 years I could get a crew together online to make a proper sequel even at one rate in college working on sprite and background tiles for such a thing.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

I was just thinking to give AC2 a shot despite the negative reviews pointing out the ridicolous diffilcuty, removal of the sim mode and not really connecting to the previous game in a meaningfull way. But now that I know it have no saves I'm just like hell no! Did Quinitet earned not enough cash or what?!

[@TrevRockOne]

John Williams copies lots of classical music.

[@ReivecS]

I played this game as a kid for the first time at a friend's house and I remember the feeling of awe that I had the first time you fly down to the ground to start the action sequence with the spinning world coming closer and it being in sync with the epic sounding audio. It seems silly now but at the time this blew me away both visually and audibly. I still get chills when I hear certain parts of this game being played. I think this style of game could be done in the modern era and done well, but I don't have faith that any major development firm would do it correctly.

[@bosschono5610]

That blew my mind as a kid too. I thought it was amazing. The descent to the ground in Actraiser and the keyhole opening up in Super Mario World definitely stuck with me over the years.

[@Tripplebeem]

My first play was on a rental from the local Blockbuster and it rocked my world. I remember thinking that a video game would never look better than Actraiser!

[@FallicIdol]

The rocket pack in Pilotwings did the same for me. I get it

[@LunarKnite]

Yuzo Koshiro is probably my favorite video game composer because of this game (And the Etrian series). Birth of the People is one of my all-time favorite tracks. I lament the fact that we haven't gotten a game like ActRaiser since it came out, but it also means it gives me plenty of reason to keep going back to it.

[@jasongarrett768]

Thank you for this. It really cuts to the heart of why so many love this game. Never played anything quite like Actraiser before it or since. I've long wished for a revival or remake but this retrospective does remind me how much of a strange alchemy was involved with the creators that might not be easily replicated today. And wow, I had no idea that it was partially responsible for Final Fantasy IV's (all-time favorite) soundtrack as well. That's another episode I'm eagerly awaiting. :D Now to listen to every Fillmore Act 1 cover on KZbin.

[@THE_GIN_MASTER_]

Here's an 8-Bit cover of "Fillmore" that I use to open my podcast with. It sounds amazing in 8bit IMO. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHaXc4eBiKmYmas

[@Goldfire345]

You're in luck a remake just dropped this very week on just about every platform including mobile

[@jasongarrett768]

@@Goldfire345 I stood up as soon as that reveal started. Absolute highlight of that entire Direct for me. :D

[@roberto1519]

So, did you like the remake?

[@shabmaster7128]

We have entered a time warp where it’s still January.

[@chadkirk150]

I can't wait until you get to Soul Blazer.

[@ThisismineIguess]

You ever have one of those games you rent on a whim and you're blown away? Actraiser was one of those games for me. Rented it after a birthday party for my cousins at Chuck-E-Cheese's, was completely taken with it.

[@Nuclearlandlord]

Will there ever be ActRaiser vs Hellraiser?

[@jonmkl]

This idea is solid gold

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

I only appreciate ActRasier now that I'm an adult. When I was a kid, I rented it and found it astonishingly boring, which is interesting because I didn't feel that way about SimCity. Maybe it was the religious aspect - like most kids, religion was thrust upon me and I didn't get a say in the matter, so to play a game where religion was a theme was unappealing.

[@jonriede6846]

you do a great job with these videos. I discovered them about a week ago and have been on a solid binge. keep up the good work!

[@TheJadeFist]

Bloodpool's boss is harder in the japanese version, the NA release they adjusted the camera down a bit, and slightly different platforms. In the japanese verion, you can't see the bottom platforms from standing on the higher ones, which made it kinda frustrating as you can't keep an eye on the boss let alone jump to the bottom platforms without falling off. And i'm not sure 100% but I don't think you can even stand there where you showed the easy way to fight that boss. A bit unrelated, but you also couldn't cast magic the same, because spells cost more to cast (or maybe it was fewer spell points ealier?) You pretty much weren't going to use magic of any kind until fairly late in the game.

[@massivepileup]

Also it's super satisfying to have your people swarm out and turn the barren land into a big city. The misguided final Sim City had a similar appeal despite its shallow core. Also it helps that you don't have to check stat screens to tell if your settlement is doing fine since the problems are big and visible and usually shootable with a bow.

[@otakuworldwide]

And now a remake.

[@absolutezeronow7928]

ActRaiser is still a banger of a game 30 years later. Would love to see this on modern consoles. Quintet definitely made a game here that still holds up as one of the SNES's best.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

Boi do I have some good news to you :) Actraiser Remake on switch,ps4,mobile and PC just released

[@aprat]

I would play this at my friend's place all the time, but i could never beat the boss rush. UGH!

[@Mitchell_Parent]

I didn't believe in God as a kid, but this was great game.

[@geovaughan8261]

Actraiser Renaissance is yet another option for those looking to experience this game with a modern translation and more contemporary style. I really enjoyed it myself.

[@NukeOTron]

Actually, the Quintet people didn't exactly disappear about twenty years ago. ...more like sixeen. Their last works were Robopon 2 (if not under their names, but it's too obvious the moment you play it) and Magical Houshin, the GBA equivalent of Mystic Heroes.

[@gdripresents]

Quintet was around until at least 2006, but they were mostly doing sound or minor work.

[@binkbonkbones3402]

9:08 biblical *CANON* %^}

[@davemarx7856]

The Book of Master Chapter 3 Verses 8-10 & 14 8 : and yea, the cherubim did combat the army of satan 9 : and when the grody skulls were smacked down, man and woman did pray 10 : and in the wisdom of the master, they did build roads and junk 14 : thus were all the people destroyed for their poorness

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

lol I wish the bible was like this xD

[@Gravadel]

A lovely restrospective on a game near and dear to my heart. Thank you!

[@MrSammersELsoho]

This is great quality content!

[@dislikebutton1799]

Best Metroidvania on the Super Nintendo right here.

[@hisham_hm]

4:00 wtf is the wolf doing to the- oh, nevermind

[@CascadianExotics]

One of my favorite games of all time!!! That music score, tho....

[@Coolman13355]

Video game soundtrack aggression

[@RhymeMastaMasse]

What is that ending song? I really like it

[@thcollegestudent]

Somewhat mysterious circumstances? That sounds like an episode waiting to happen.

[@randmiller88]

This was the first SNES game I ever bought, aside from Mario World the pack-in of course. :)

[@Polyh3dron]

One of my greatest Christmas gifts as a kid was a SNES console bundled with Super Mario World... and Actraiser. Game blew my 10 year old mind. The game itself, but the music even more so.

[@jonaszprzybycien6545]

A truly flawless review! I agree with everything you have said about this game especialy when you mentioned the little things that make this game feel less distanced than other god-sims.

[@lilwyvern4]

One of my favorite aspects of Actraiser is its tone. God games often give you carte blanche with amorality; your subjects only exist as faceless means to the end of your complete dominion. Metagame actions notwithstanding, Actraiser does a great job of reinforcing your little puny humans as simple-minded, troublesome, but ultimately well-meaning people. You care about the little guys because their presence makes you stronger, but also because it's just satisfying to see your combined work make the world a better place. The ending of the game (spoilers for a 33-year-old title) with your temples sitting empty as the people of the world no longer need your divine guidance to survive comes off as a proud parent watching their children fly the nest. Bittersweet, but ultimately happy. I can't think of another game that does the "your efforts have made the world a happier, better place" thing quite as effectively.

[@PersianImm0rtal]

Was the RF footage at tthe end, lmao? Classy.

[@HyperRoboTenguris1984]

Another great game I played when I was young, and still play on occasion! :)

[@TechWithSean]

This game blew my mind the first time I rented it as a kid.

[@rabiroden]

The Enix USA producer responsible for pushing the sequel away from the god sim elements admitted in a recent interview he regretted the decision. It's a shame, but I feel for him. gaming.moe/?p=331 "ActRaiser 2 - This was one of my first - and most important - mistakes in my career. At the time, I was convinced that players wanted action. They wanted to be challenged and pushed to new levels. I pushed Enix away from retaining the sim part of ActRaiser and toward a more challenging action title. I made that decision because I believed I knew what the consumer wanted. The release of that game taught me quite a bit about the need to really listen to consumers. You can’t get caught up in making games for yourself believing that you speak for the consumer. You have to take the time to really hear what people have to say, read all the feedback, read all the comments, truly understand what people seek in their experiences. I removed the soul from ActRaiser and that was a really tough lesson to learn, but it’s one that has really helped me along the way."

[@Djungelurban]

These videos are all great, but I sure wish this was as comprehensive as the "Game Boy Works" series. So many Japan only SNES/SFC games out there that I would love to see get the "GameWorks" treatment...

[@JeremyParish]

If you wanna give me an extra six hours for my work day, I'm game.

[@Djungelurban]

Let's say I just meet you half way and I'll give you a Patreon sub instead? Sounds fair right?

[@JeremyParish]

Sounds perfect for the $3000/mo. tier

[@Djungelurban]

And if I had an infinite supply of human kidneys to sell then that would be cake... But in the mean time you have to make to with $6.

[@xcar0982]

I bought recently the game, and is very good, a little frustrating, but good

[@SaxcatGamingCorner]

One of the best games of all time.

[@Padoca]

Truly a masterpiece.

[@steevlan]

Why do I always forget that Yuzo Koshiro did the music in this game? I mean, it makes perfect sense that he does, but for some reason I mainly associate him with Super Adventure Island as far as SNES games go. But I actually owned this one, and I even knew at the time that he did the music.

[@91-mph73]

Let us know when u get to Super Mario RPG (or Soul Blazer)

[@esotericmissionary]

Great video! Well worth the wait. And that soundtrack is, indeed, the best! I listen to it regularly. Although, it has been quite a few years since I fired up my copy to defeat Satan yet again. Maybe sometime soon....