 Tzz… That's drunk. In the past I've gone over games that I thought were good recommendations if you were into stuff like Link to the Past or Super Metroid but, I got to thinking, if I were to pick a game that's the hardest to recommend something similar, what would that be? My mind immediately went to Actraiser, not just because it's two different genres that seamlessly and organically work together, but because it's such a damned good game but hey, let's try it anyway, so here's a list of a few games that, if you dig Actraiser, I think you'll dig these games, too. Keep in mind, though, that many of these aren't going to fit Actraiser's exact criteria. I mean, it's hard enough to find a game featuring two different genres that works as well as that game does, let alone action platforming, with a top-down protection shooter, pseudo-town-building thing, but we're gonna give it a shot. I'll sum up very quickly, in case you live under a rock and somehow haven't played Actraiser, you play as God, floating around in the heavens above the world where folks down below pray to you and ask for help, ridding their part of the world of demons and monsters and stuff, and in exchange, give you offerings that you can use to help other towns. You also take a more direct role in town development by guiding townspeople around to destroy monster lairs, clearing obstacles out of the way, and shooting demons and stuff with this little angel guy. This game was seen as massively ambitious for its time, and it's held up extremely well by today's standards. It's absolutely worth playing today. Now, I do need to make sure I mention Actraiser 2, if you haven't played the Actraiser sequel. Well, if you're expecting more Actraiser, you're in for a bad time. The sequel is purely a side-scrolling action platformer and a really friggin' hard one too, one of the hardest on Super Nintendo. And there's none of the town-building stuff where you interact with your followers, it's a bummer. I mean, it's not a bad game, but I think John Riggs put it best when he said, this game could have been anything, it's just not Actraiser. So yeah, just keep that in mind if you're considering playing Actraiser 2. So what games are similar to Actraiser? Well, there's not many, but I'll do my best here by starting with a game that came out at around the same time from the same developer Enix, and that's Soul Blazer. This is a top-down action RPG, move from one dungeon to the next, and every monster layer you destroy unlocks a new part of the town you're reviving, so to speak. So no, it's not quite the same as Actraiser, but bringing these towns back to life piece by piece does give it a similar feel. It's actually quite cleverly done, especially since you never know what effect a destroyed layer is gonna have exactly. Plus, I should mention that the story in Soul Blazer is unusually dark for the time. It can catch you off guard. Soul Blazer is a game that more people should check out in general. I like it better than stuff like Illusion of Gaia, and I think it's safe to say that if you dig Actraiser, you'll get a kick out of Soul Blazer as well. Here's an unusual game developed by LucasArts called Big Sky Trooper for Super Nintendo, and this one is definitely a little more reminiscent of our subject at hand. The way the game is structured has you flying a spaceship, visiting different planetary systems to rescue captured colleagues, or finding upgrades for your ship so you can explore even more stuff. Before you can set foot on a planet, however, you have to blast away at all the asteroids floating around that are in the way, and after that, you drop down to the planet and take out all sorts of slime monsters and navigate huge mazes to try and accomplish your task. This part of the game actually uses the same engine as Zombies 8 My Neighbors and other LucasArts game, and this game has that same back-and-forth between different game modes that Actraiser has, albeit the action stages are top-down instead of side-scrolling. Big Sky Trooper is an interesting playthrough that's well worth checking out. And from here, we only get Weirder with Chaos Seed, a super Famicom game that never left Japan that's since received an English patch, and geez, where do I even start with this one? Okay, so, you play as the leader of this group of cave dwellers trying to save their dying planet, and the only way you can do this is by creating Feng Shui within the planet itself. You actually build caves with each cave representing a different element, and for your planet to regain health, the caves have to flow together harmoniously so they can grow and feed off of each other, so to speak. It's kinda like Sim City, where in order for residential areas to thrive, they have to be near parks and away from industry, and for industry to thrive, it needs to be near airports and seaports and that sort of stuff. What's really cool here is that you can't just throw a bunch of caves together willy-nilly. First, you have to clear out each cave of a variety of different enemies, and that's done in top-down real-time action, and as you can see, the sprite animation here is frickin' awesome. So yeah, if I were to compare Chaos Seed to another Super Nintendo game, it would have to be Actrazer, it's just a bit more complicated. But if you like Actrazer, then you'll get a big kick out of Chaos Seed. Speaking of complicated, there's also SD Gundam G Next, one of several different Gundam super Famicom games that never left Japan, but this one in particular is a good match for what a game like Actrazer represents. There's an overworld map where you guide your team and plan out how and where to attack the enemy, and for each battle, the game transitions to real-time action where you fly around like crazy, making stuff go boom. This one does have an English patch, but it's only partially completed, but still, there's enough there that you can give this game a try and see if it's up your alley. It's a good balance between strategy and real-time combat. Okay, let's get into some stuff I've never shown on this channel before, like Dai Chikun Crisis Do Natural, a PC engine game that never left Japan, thanks to Giant Bomb for the tip about this one. It's one of the earliest examples of real-time strategy since this game was made way back in 1989. You play as a group of anthropomorphized animals that have to clear a series of islands filled with monsters and obstacles so they can plant a bunch of trees, and once they reach the percentage goal, which takes a long time, then you fight a boss in a one-on-one fight. One thing I like about this one is that there's just a lot going on. There's never a dull moment here, especially since your companions are all AI-controlled, so you always gotta keep an eye on them. Unfortunately, there's no English patch available for this one yet, but it's still playable as is, and it's a really interesting playthrough that defies any conventional genre categorization. Now, for some people when it comes to stuff like Actraizer, maybe they're not looking for something as on-the-nose as a game that combines action with town-building or sim elements. Some folks would just like to find something just as ambitious. That combines two different genres that normally wouldn't go together. Sigma Star Saga for Game Boy Advance is a perfect example of this, since it's a story-driven top-down action RPG. Only midway through the action, you get summoned by a spaceship hanging out overhead, and you gotta fight an armada of enemy ships that are threatening the surface below. This is a really cool idea for a game, and while it's not perfect and definitely needs some kinks worked out, it's a unique playthrough for the Game Boy Advance that not many people talk about. It's definitely something different. In that same vein, there's also stuff like Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure for Nintendo DS, and this game will friggin' break your brain. On the top screen, you've got a typical side-scrolling action platformer, but every enemy you defeat gets sent to the bottom screen as a puzzle block, where you have to keep the blocks down through puzzle-league-style chains of colors which can result in chain reactions that give your character power-ups and such. But if you let the blocks pile up too high, then enemies up top are revived, and you could be in for a bad time real quick. Again, this is a really cool and ambitious idea for a game, and yeah, it's definitely a bit rougher on the edges, but man, I could feel my brain spinning in my skull trying to keep all this different stuff going. I really like this game. Finally, for years now, my go-to recommendation for anyone looking for something similar to Actraiser has always been the Dark Cloud series. I personally have always been partial to Dark Chronicle or Dark Cloud 2 for PS2. It's a fascinating playthrough that combines all sorts of stuff without overwhelming the player with too many options. We've got old-school action RPG combat, auto-generated dungeons, weapon crafting, and town building. That's right, you gotta rebuild the world by collecting Geostones, which you throw into a machine that creates a blueprint for a town layout, so to speak, so you can put down everything from houses, trees, rivers, all sorts of stuff, so long as you're able to collect all the appropriate materials. You can even recruit villagers to live in the towns that you build. Dark Cloud 2 isn't perfect. It's the kind of game where you're gonna want to consult a walkthrough at least a few times, but hey, to me, this is the closest thing we'll ever get to an updated take on the kind of gameplay experience that Actraiser first created. Alright, that's all for now, and I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.