If you didn’t play Actraiser the first time round you can probably take off at least one mark from our final score but what stands out about this remake is how much difference new and unusual ideas make even when they’re not executed particularly well. GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition graphics revealed as… not that great? That’s an odd choice in this day and age but made to seem all the stranger by the bizarrely low resolution of all the sprites, which, combined with the FMV backdrops used in some levels, makes the game look like some long lost Sega Saturn game, not a modern remake. Instead, they and developer Sonic Powered, who’s main speciality seems to be train and air traffic control sims, have opted for a pre-rendered style similar to the original Donkey Kong Country games. That’s not what Square Enix has done though. On the SNES Actraiser’s graphics were state-of-the-art, so you might have thought that the obvious choice for the remake was modern pixel art, something any number of indie developers would’ve been happy to help out with. But as peculiar as the concept behind the game is the strangest thing about this remake is the style of graphics that Square Enix has chosen to go for. The story beats with the heroes are repetitive too but the different lands you try to help all have their own unique features, from poisonous lakes to inhospitable deserts or snowy wastes, which you have to work around with your godly powers.įor a strategy game the god sim sections are very linear but the whole thing is so odd it remains compelling to the end. There is still an inherent shallowness to the god game sections, which also means they can get quite repetitive, as rather than moving an anonymous cursor you’re controlling a little cherub who also has to chase off constantly spawning monsters. SolSeraph took a similar path, but Renaissance manages to retain the brevity and simplicity of the original, even as it adds hero characters that you can direct around manually like a real-time strategy game. All of this is as much true for Renaissance as for the original game, but the remake adds a much more complex storyline while also turning the god sim element into more of Tower Defense game.