(written on 1/6/24) By Depths

^ thats me!

Been a little while since I've done a review! Sorry about that! burned myself out lol,,
Fun fact when you set a schedule for one review a week your gonna burn out when you do like 3 a week,, it's too much!

But yeah! During my break I played through a lot of games
(Phantasy Star, Bucky O'Hare, Super Mario Bros 2, Kid Icarus, Golvellius, Actraiser 2, Legend of the Mythical Ninja, & Parasite Eve.)
And I just keep thinking about Actraiser 2. So lets talk about it!

(I dont talk about it much because idk you have eyes but ahh i do love these graphics)

But before that I feel I need to give some context. Developed by Quintet (known for the Actraiser series, Illusion of Gaia, & Terranigma)
Published by Enix, and Released in November 1993 in America.
And as you'd expect this is the follow up to Actraiser 1, A action-platformer/city sim/shmup with over all pretty chill game play.

so uh, Actraiser 2,, isnt chill, or a city sim/shmup, its a purely insane action-platformer, its a lot, like heres the controls.

You have A basic sword swing, swings forward by default, pushing up lets you swing up, and down lets you swing down.
you also have magic! honestly I didnt fully use this mechanic but you hold a button to charge then depending on if your holding nothing, holding up, in the air, holding down, ect it'll do sonething different.
btw you start each level with a limited amount of magic orbs (uses one each time you use magic)
as you'd expect you have a basic jump BUT! if you push down while jumping you'll attack downwards (farther downwards than the normal sword swings down attack)

ALSO! Most importantly, you have a double jump, on your 2nd jump by default you'll enter a slow downwards glide that you can attack during, but when you land you will slide,, a lot.
Now if you hold Up! after double jumping you'll enter a even slower glide allowing you to get more distance, (and most importantly you wont slide when you land)
Lastly!! if you hold Down when you double jump you'll dive bomb! being able to attack everything in your path! (also if you have enough hight the dive bomb will level out and let you cross very large gaps)
I totally forgot to mention this but you also have a shield! pushing Up blocks things from above, and pushing nothing blocks things infront of you..
lastly pushing down lets you duck.

Congratulations to anyone who read all of that lol,
Point is the controls are a lot, and heres where I reveal the fact the game itself makes little to no effort to teach you the controls
while yes, the manual explains things, its a lot, this game has a VERY high learning curve for being a action platformer.

(Level 1 Mid boss)

On top of everything making the start of this game rough your able to access levels in nearly any order you want
(except for having to beat everything to unlock the final)
and if you choose a hard level as your first lol, your fucked. Luckily, the manual does suggest a level order to keep the difficulty curve somewhat nice.

Sadly though, the first level it suggests is imo the worst in the game, while yes, one of the easier levels, its just, poorly designed? at least as a first impression.
If you try and just run past enemies the game will experience massive amounts of slowdown.
The mid boss lacks a clear hitbox leading to frustration (you have to basically stand inside the bosses teeth in order to hit it).
Theres a platform in the 2nd half of the level thats surrounded by instant death spikes,
but its drawn in that snes fake 3d style where the hitbox for the platform is very unclear and you WILL fall through it.
And lastly the main boss of the level has a borderline instant kill move, the only way I found to manage it was to just kill the boss really fast with magic.

Let me remind you that this game is a follow up to a chill, simple, action-platformer/city sim. yeah, its a very rough start.
And this game does have a very rough reputation with actraiser 1 fans.
Luckly for me, I'm not a huge Actraiser 1 fan, and luckly for everyone, its really only this first level I have major issues with.
And I beg everyone who's trying to get into this game give it at least 2-3 hours before making up your mind on it.

(Final Boss, Honestly a bit underwhelming but for how hard it was to get to this point, having it be not the most difficult thing in the world was a welcome break)

From this point onwards the game continues as a incredibly hard action platformer that just, clicked with me,
when I first started playing retro action platformers there was a huge sense of pride in making progress
in these really hard video games that I didnt know if i could beat or not.
Over time that pride died, as I got better at the games it was like, yeah of course I can beat this,
Actraiser 2 brought that pride back, and I highly recommend the game for that alone.

Whats interesting about the difficulty though is for the most part its not obtuse, but also its not purely skill,
a lot of it comes down to just figuring out what strategy to use and ahhhhhhhh its good!

I might be out of things to say,, but yeah! if you can get past the opening, and get past the fact this isnt Actraiser 1.
You'll find a hidden gem of a action platformer very good!!!!!!! 9/10!!!!!!!!

(sorry for this review having so many rambles and lacking tons of images, im currently sick while writing this lol,, nap time!

(Click to go back to the SNES reviews page)

(psst) as you'd guess the music playing is all from the actraiser 2 ost