Actraiser Renaissance Review (Nintendo Switch)

by Jim Smale · October 4, 2021

This Actraiser Renaissance Review will have us visit Heaven, earth, and mankind – Create and destroy everything according to our will! Experience the revival of the ’90s classic hit “Actraiser”

Actraiser Renaissance Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
2.7GB download size.
16 save slots.
3 difficulties – Easy, normal, and hard.
Soundtrack – classic or Renaissance and can ve changed from the pause menu.
Can rebind controls.
Action-platformer and base builder gameplay.
Tutorial signs as you play.
Sky Palace is where you go to save and change game difficulties.
Descend into the world (settlement) to play out your Godly powers and build structures, attack enemies, unlock the ability to attack enemy spawners, and use the weather to grow crops, terraforming the world below.
Civilization level is where you rank up the settlement and get to build better structures.
The settlement stuff plays out like a tower defense as you build structures to create materials that you use to build defenses.
Structures have health and get destroyed.
Gets very addictive.
Philotas are champions that you can level up with chronicles (earned by playing) and these guys are the ones who attack enemies, you can move them directly.
Enemies are ever-present, when you are flying around in settlement build mode you personally shoot down enemies for SP whereas in sieges you just move the Philotas around.
Temple allows you to see any quests.
You have to build up your settlement numbers to enable the ability to attack and shut down enemy spawners.
Damage numbers pop on the screen.
The two genres work well together.
An absolute time killer.
Big boss encounters and plenty of them.
Excellent fit for the handheld due to the settlement management stuff.
Simple easy to learn controls.
Checkpoints within levels that also give SP and health back.
Excellent background animations and light work.

Actraiser Renaissance Review Cons:

Not the best for explaining the whole settlements management stuff.
Loading times are all over the place.
The slight slowdown in places.
So much to take in.
A lot of stop-start notifications and mission updates whilst dealing with the settlement.
Takes a little while to get going and all click onto place.
Reuses character models a lot.
Cheap Ai in places.