Why'd they drop the sim aspects for the sequel? Hell, its even a big selling point on the box.
Did people not like the sim parts? I always found them pretty fun.
>>2871927
2 sucked compared to the first one. Without the sim aspect it's basically any other platformer out there.
The sim tied to the combat sequence is what made act raiser so badass in the first place. Made you feel like you were actually defending your subjects since you always had to go stomp the ass of whatever monster that eventually was discovered through building the city.
>>2871963
I don't even think it's as good of a platformer, the hitboxes seem fucked up compared to the first one. Soundtrack isn't as boss either
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g572XXNGjW4
>>2871989
You sure ain't confusing the down stab invincibility frames with bad hitboxes?
>>2871998
It does have shit hitboxes hear and there. Like the ant queen boss. You can hit her straight in the face, but it won't damage her. The upper part of the head takes damage, but not right in the middle and below. I think deliberately so, since the fight would otherwise be pretty easy.
I love the game. Not the needlessly harder American version, at least not on normal.
>>2871927
>Why'd they drop the sim aspects for the sequel?
From producer Robert Jerauld (http://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."
>>2871927
Because the sim parts are boring, and Actraiser 2 is a far better game than Actraiser 1.
I'm suprised that box art was allowed since that angel wing looks suspiciously like an erection covered by a white sheet.
>>2872261
OMG. BANANAS ARE OFFENSIVE!
>you have issues.
>>2872267
I'm just saying. Especially since it's right under the RAISER part of the title...
>>2872278
yeah. and the white stuff in the water is semen according to your logic. again... you have issues. lol
>>2872018
how am I not surprised, of course it was a filthy gaijin that ruined my glorious nippon actraiser
>>2872287
Those towers are vaguely phallic too
Just face it, it is obviously subliminal messaging to make people subconsciously want penis.
>>2872261
>being so gay you just see dicks everywhere, all of the time, regardless
>>2871927
Because they sucked. The only people who liked the sim portion of 1 were either people who never played any sims on PC or someone who sucks so much at them they need something that holds their hand to the end.
>>2872343
>Dude on the box has two giant penises coming out of his back
>and like 6 more on his head
>and he's staring at 4 more dicks out in the distance
>and rivers of semen, too
>100% excitement, like we don't know what that means
Guys I'm pretty sure we're looking at the gayest thing ever here.
>>2871927
cause, sims are for autists and not platformers
The sim parts weren't really that good. It didn't matter much where you built your town, and you spent a lot of time shooting enemies while you waited for your townspeople to finish doing shit.
>>2872350
I liekd them so fuck you and your gay ass opinion.
I found ActRaiser 2 to be one of the most solid platforming experiences of all time. It's shameful that its devs look back on it as a "mistake."
Not every sequel has to live in the shadows of its predecessors. Nothing wrong with developers experimenting with new ideas, or genre shifts. Granted, I can understand that people are disappointed due to their expectations, but I think the only real mistake was calling this an ActRaiser game in the first place. If it were a stand-alone title, I don't think the reception would be as bitter.
For comparison though, I do think ActRaiser 2's action sequences were handled much better than in the first game. If you do only one thing and you do it right, then that's better than producing a game whose development has to involve compromises between two halves.Which is to say I didn't even like ActRaiser 1.
>>2873593
It was a mistake in expectation management, at least. A bad one. They made an arguably better game, and they made a much more polished game. They extended the series nicely. So in itself, yes, the game is a success. But I bet that from the average player's perspective it's a failure, because so many people loved the weird combination of play styles and the richer plot development in the first game, and the developers put nothing at all into the game to guide dumb kids etc. toward appreciating the good thing they had made. They set the player up to be disappointed with the game. I'm sure not everybody was disappointed, but it seems like that's the default reaction, and they could maybe have seen that coming if they had considered what kinds of things fans tended to say about the first game. (Probably people said a lot about the genre mixing and story and nice audiovisual presentation, and not nearly as much about the painful shallowness of both citybuilding mode and action mode.)
>>2871927
Haha wow they did put it right on the box. How stupid of them. People loved that citybuilding stuff, yeah. Or that's the impression I get from my own experience and everything I've ever seen said about this series, anyway.
> At the time, I was convinced that players wanted action. They wanted to be challenged and pushed to new levels.
That poor guy, thinking such things. Challenge is a niche product for weirdos. Normal people want delicious candy (of one sort or another).
>>2874206
Go join the special olympics then. No skill needed.
Found a local selling this for $15. I'm on it.
>>2872024
Interesting opinion, anon.
>>2874216
The games are literally the same, skill based trials. Your attempt at humor, fell flat.
>>2871927
What does the name mean anyway? What does an "Actraiser" do, raise acts? If so, what does that mean?
>>2875524
it's probably some literal translation of some japanese phrase
the sim elements would be good if they weren't more or less linear
>>2875524
You "act" as a "raiser" of civilization by being the god of city building, or something.
Or you raise a city for your subjects to act within.