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Getting Slain in Actraiser by the Level 1 Boss

Have you ever wanted to be the mayor, savior, city planner, statue, and sword wielding avatar of an entire planet? If so, Actraiser for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a game for you. It turns out that you play the character called, “The Master.” And you are some kind of benevolent urban planning, magic wielding, warrior god. The game is ridiculously awesome and it gets better stage after stage. The main things that make Actraiser a must play are: The music, gameplay, graphics, replayability, learning curve, challenge and interactivity. Actraiser starts you out in a sky fortress then switches to a Two-Dimension (2D) Side Scrolling action game. The gameplay is very intuitive, you can jump and slash with your sword. You can also duck which is a plus. An awesome thing about the beginning of the 2D part of the game, is that you are a glowing orb of energy coming from the sky. And then you enter into a statue and the statue comes to life. I love games that start bombastically like that.

The action in the first stage is similar to that of Strider for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). You jump around and either avoid or kill monsters. One thing to remember is that if you don’t necessarily walk in a straight line and explore a little bit, you may find statues that you can open by slashing them and inside you may find powerups like apples that give you health, or gems that give you points, or ammunition for your magic. But the most fun part of the stage is when you get to the boss. My suggestion to beating the boss is to observe the patterns of the boss. Then get in tight and slash like crazy. Also make sure that you have a good amount of health before fighting the boss because they can take a lot of damage.

After you beat the first stage you then get redirected to your Sky Fortress and you are told by your assistant who is a little cherub that you can go to the surface of the planet, to where you purified the land from monsters. This is where the urban planning comes into play. This part of the game turns into a 2D Top View (Bird’s Eye Perspective) City Simulation Game. This is almost like a very simplified version of Sim City. But instead of doing zoning, you direct the flow of how the people will build. The problem is that there are monsters flying around and they can abduct people or sometimes cast lightning on people and it is very unfortunate. But the cool thing is that during this part of the game you control the Cherub. And he is equipped with a bow and arrow and can shoot the monsters. When this happens the Master gets magic points which you are able to use towards creating impressive natural weather and seismic miracles. These miracles include, rain, lightning, earthquakes and others. These become more important as the game progresses and you need to do them in order to solve certain problems for your people.

Speaking of your people, when the citizens of a town need to tell you something they pray at the temple. This is a really beautiful part of the game because you start to have empathy for the citizens for the towns and cities you protect. And some of the interactions that happen in the game are really emotional and heart wrenching. As the game continues, you free other towns from monsters and then direct the growth there. But sometimes the people have problems that you cannot immediately solve. For example, there was this one town that was doing very well and was growing nicely. But for some reason there was unrest in the town and the people became violent and started to fight with each other. I was unable to help then and they wouldn’t stop fighting even if I caused earthquakes or rained on them. They were upset. So I decided to help another town and eventually there was a person who went looking for some strange ruins in the desert. The people of this town were really worried for this man because they loved him very much. After much searching I was able to find the person. So when I directed the flow of growth in that town to spread forth and rescue the man, they rushed him to the temple to help him. But they were too late at the man died. But even though it was very sad the people of this town coped with their suffering by composing a piece of lamentation music for the man. At this point in the game you can actually hear the song that they created and it is such a touching and beautiful song. And they offered the gift of “Harmonious Music” to the Master so you can use it at a later time. So what I did next was to give the Harmonious Music to the town that was engaged in fighting and unrest, and the music calmed the hearts of the people. They were able to feel the emotions of the composer and it brought peace. That is just one of the many deep experiences you will have while playing this game.

After you help a few towns become cities the people may find new magical powers that you can use when you are in the 2D Side Scrolling action mode. These spells are very visually impressive but there is one in particular that does insane amounts of damage. It’s called, “Star Fall.” When activated Star Fall will rain down tiny meteors on your enemies, hitting everything on the screen. The reason why this spell is great is because each meteor counts as a hit of damage. So if you use it on a boss, you can hurt them bad. Other spells require you to line up the shot or be really close in order to get a hit. But Star Fall just requires that you stand there for a minute. It is easily the best spell in the game.

Another great thing about Actraiser is that as your towns grow in size, you actually become more physically powerful in your avatar form. So if you have enough healthy citizens in your towns you will end up having more hit points when you play the 2D Side Scrolling stages. This becomes increasingly important as you enter more difficult stages and fight more challenging bosses. By the time you get to the last stage you will need all the health you can get. One thing that you might encounter in the game is the fact that technology and civilization levels change as towns become cities and people become more advanced in their dwellings. Some town have homes that can hold more people and are more efficient. But since you want the most amount of Hit Points when you play the game you will probably want people to be living in an efficient of dwellings as possible. So one way to “Encourage” people to upgrade their towns and houses is by intentionally destroying homes and citizens and then letting them build more advanced ones. People get killed in the processes. But destruction is a fitting punishment for sloth. If you are a kind god then you won’t resort to such drastic measures. I guess it all depends on your personality type.

The 2D Side Scrolling Stages are so fun. There are enemies to jump over and attack almost everywhere. And the environments are interactive as well. There sometimes are hills that you can run down and pick up speed when you do. Dangerous bridges cross your path. Traps including pits of spikes lurk in the lairs of some areas. And the enemies you fight are all different in their movement patterns and attack types. So it is a varied and challenging experience. This game isn’t as hard as many other 2D action Side Scrollers but it never loses fun and excitement. The challenge is perfect for someone who wants difficulty, without massive amounts of frustration.

Fortunately, you can download and play Actraiser on the Wii Virtual Console. So if you have a Wii then I really hope you bust out Actraiser. Because it is the kind of game you can beat in a couple sittings over a couple days with little stress or gamer’s thumb. You are able to save your game and you don’t need to use a password system or anything.

Overall, this is one of my favorite games of all time. It is the perfect blend of action, fun, interactivity, story and inspiration.

-Tyler

Just in case you wanted some nightmares.

Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption is a great Action/RPG Game

In the year 2000 a very special thing happened. Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption was released for the PC. This game is an Role Playing Game (RPG) that is about a French Crusader named Christof Romuald. He was shot by an arrow and was wounded, and he was brought to Prague to heal. There Christof meets the beautiful nun, Anezka and he falls in love with her. But there is a silver mine that became haunted by a powerful vampire and her flesh-crafted minions. Christof is sent to investigate the mine and fights with the vampire. After the battle Christof is turned into a vampire by a local elder who believes that Christof would be a powerful ally in her upcoming war with the other vampire clans. This is where the game gets amazingly awesome. You get vampire abilities and it feels like you want to gain as much experience points as you can by achieving objectives and killing enemies, because those points can be used to directly boost your stats or give you new abilities. The graphics and engine for the game are excellent. The characters look very good for the amount of polygons used, and the lighting for the game is exceptional. The attack animations and movement are great also. When you sometimes kill an enemy with a critical hit if you use a lethal weapon (usually a sword as opposed to a mace ) there is a chance that you will chop the head off of your enemy.

The story for this game is great and what really makes it hit home is the amazing voice acting. All the dialogue in the game including notes and papers you find on your journey are voice acted with amazing skill. You really feel like Christof loves Anezka and he is willing to travel to the ends of the Earth to find her again. At it heart, Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption is a love story. As a man, I wasn’t exactly sure that I wanted to play a game about a romantic love story. But after listening to the characters talk to each other I immediately got emotionally involved in the story. I felt like I was playing the part of Christof and being able to choose dialogue options at specific points in the game deepened the immersion. The story is also about redemption and the struggle to maintain someone’s humanity while in a perilous situation. Christof has to choose whether or not if he wants to embrace his vampire ways or else labor to become human again. Christof also teams up with other women that fight in his coterie (that’s like a vampire team) and they share their sympathies for Christof and sometimes offer themselves discreetly to him. But Christof stays focused on being with his true love, Anezka.

The combat system in Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption is top notch and very enjoyable. It is basically a click-and-slash game but you can select spells and vampire discipline abilities from your list and then right-click to activate the ability. So you will spend most of your time left clicking on enemies and keeping an eye on your health and blood levels to see how you’re doing. Sometimes there is a slightly delayed reaction to when you hit an enemy to when they pull back and are hurt but this isn’t Tekken or something so it doesn’t take away from the fun. What is really fun is combining skills in the game. There is a skill called Prison of Ice which is part of the “Blood Rituals” discipline category, and if you use it, you will freeze your enemy for a few seconds as well as do some damage. What is rad is that you can get this other skill called, “Celerity” which basically means rapidity of motion. Celerity allows you to attack much faster and even run faster. You should MAX this skill because at higher levels you can run blazing fast. So the combo is you make sure you have celerity activated and then you freeze your opponent with Prison of Ice, then you hack away at your enemy super fast while it is frozen. This combo will let you beat any enemy in the game and will basically make you unstoppable.

Anezka and Christof - Cutscene

Here are some helpful tips in order to play Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption and make your gameplay experience very enjoyable. Whenever you find a spell book in the game give it to Christof before reading it. Only give spellbooks that Christof already knows to other characters. Your three main physical stats are the most important, that includes Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. By the end of the game you should end up maxing Strength to 100, get dexterity to 90, and max Stamina at 100. The reason for this is because you want Christof to be your main tank and damage dealer. I’ve tried playing him as a caster and even though it is fun, it is much more fun running around and chopping people’s heads off. The other stat that you want to raise to high level is manipulation. If you get this stat high enough you can actually sell items for more than they are worth. This stat will help you get better armor and weapons early in the game and will make the game more fun. The other stats are important for gaining skills and can help you with resistances. But the ones I mentioned are the most key. While you are pumping up your key stats there are some disciplines that you should level up. The most important one is called, “Blood Healing” this skill will let you use a small amount of blood and heal your physical wounds as well as lower your frenzy rating. You should max this skill as fast as you can. The next skill is Celerity, I’d max this skill later in the game because it costs a lot of blood to cast, but later when you get the skill, “Theft of Vitae” you should definitely max it. The next skills you need to get are ones that you must find in spellbooks during your adventures. The spellbook, “Blood Magic” is something that you find in Ardan’s Sanctuary and if you put enough points into the Category you will unlock the ability, “Theft of Vitae.” (REMEMBER: You only need to gain one discipline point in a spell in order to unlock the next one down the line. So if you know you want Theft of Vitae, you should only put a single point into Blood Rage and Blood of Potency. This way you will be able to save valuable EXP that you can allot to other skills and stats.)  You should max this skill because it will let you steal blood from your enemies from long range, and it has the ability to kill humans because they won’t have any blood in their circulatory systems. Also, since the enemy vampires use blood to cast their spells, Theft of Vitae is great for draining Mages from using their powerful spells, and they will just get frustrated and will try to punch you. Later in the game you will find a Spellbook called, “Blood Rituals” you need to put a skill point into the ability, “Heart of Stone” in order to unlock the ULTIMATE SKILL, “Prison of Ice.” You should put 4 skill points into this ability or else max it. It is really up to you. You will end up using Prison of Ice for basically stunning enemies and for crowd control, rather than trying to kill them. Your physical attacks will most likely finish the job. Those are the four best skills in the game. If you max those your character will own pretty hard. But keep reading because I got more tips!

There is a stage in the game where you are in a base controlled by the Teutonic Knights. These knights are wearing protective armor so you won’t be able to bite them to feed off them. So if you put points into Theft of Vitae you can get around this problem and still drain blood. Remember: You can also drain blood using Theft of Vitae against non-human targets like spiders and wolves. This is a handy tip if you are in a bind. Well, make sure to explore this area up and down. Because there is an area where a large number of knights are protecting a room. In this room IS THE BEST ITEM IN THE GAME. This item is called the Ankarin Sword. This sword changes your attack damage type to Aggravated. This is super important because Aggravated damage can penetrate most defenses. It can even enable you to hit enemies like wraiths and other targets that are immune to Lethal and Bashing damage. Another important thing to remember is that the ability, “Feral Claws” changes your attack to aggravated, so you should use this ability when you fight wraiths early in the game before you get the Ankarin Sword. SUPER IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure to keep the Ankarin Sword and most of your magical items and blood enhancing jewelry on Christof. The reason for this is because there is a point in the game where some serious things happen and you basically loose everything that isn’t on Christof. So keep that Ankarin Sword equipped on Christof at all times! Another cool tip to remember is that Blood Enhancing jewelry stacks with each other. So if you have a necklace or ring that reduces the blood cost, then you equip bracelets that reduce blood cost, they will both work to lower blood cost even more than if just one was equipped.

Do you remember when I mentioned how cool the Manipulation skill was? It lets you buy things for cheaper. But in the game you can buy rings that increase your Manipulation stat levels. Now you shouldn’t wear these all the time, it is much better to walk into combat with jewelry that boost your blood levels. But if you buy rings of Manipulation and then put them on your most manipulative character, (who should be Christof) and then talk to a shop owner, you will be able to buy items at a much lower cost. This is good to know because later in the game boosting the Manipulation stat can get very expensive EXP wise. So spending the money on the rings to make all your future purchases cheaper, and to possibly bump your stat so you MAKE money by buying and selling things back to the shop owner, is a really cool thing to do.

You may have noticed your Humanity stat by now. It starts out around 7o or so and you want it to stay high. The reason for this is because your Humanity Stat will directly determine which endings you get when you beat the game. So if it is super high, you will only be able to experience the good ending. If it is super low, you won’t have a choice and you will get the evil or the loser ending. (yes there is a loser ending and it’s pretty lame, I recommend saving often before the final battle so you can check it out and laugh) So in order to keep it high, you need to make sure not to kill innocent civilians. And also the dialogue options that you are presented with affect your humanity levels. Think before you speak if you want to affect your Humanity Rating.

One thing that I noticed is that the computer allies don’t do an amazing job of managing their blood pool and sometimes they just cast stupid spells. To manage this, there is an clickable option in the options menu. It is under,”AI options” and you can configure how the AI cast disciplines from there. I usually had the option, “Use Quick Skills Only” checked. In general, I felt that it was best to equip my allies with shields and one handed weapons like swords. Later in the game where one handed swords are more rare, I used two-handed swords on my allies. I also would pump their strength and dexterity and stamina stats as usual. This helped make my allies less likely to get killed easily. The computer is good about casting blood healing so I’d MAX that skill on my allies as soon as inhumanly possible.

A final note is that there is a little green diamond that you can activate near the portrait of an ally. This means that they are instructed to hold their position. This is very important in later stages of the game where you can get burned to death by sunlight. It is also good for sending a single warrior out to pull enemies and lure them near your coterie.

I hope you enjoyed my review and tips on Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption! It is a very fun game and if you have any questions/comments/or strategies please feel free to contact me on Facebook or leave a comment.

-Tyler

Click the Angry Sun to visit the Obsolete Gamer website!

I love old and new computer and console games. And the website: Obsolete Gamer has really excellent reviews of games and related media. I first heard about Obsolete Gamer a couple months ago and I was really impressed with the reviews and editorials on old games and new games. I could tell that the writers had a real love for games and wanted to showcase games with real heart and lasting appeal. If you like reading game reviews then I recommend that you check out Obsolete Gamer. I bookmarked it immediately. The website even has stuff other than reviews also. There is news about gaming, even some gaming inspired poetry, and movie reviews on game inspired films, among other things. It is great to see websites review older games. With the advent of the Wii and the Virtual Console you can play some of the old games that are talked about on Obsolete Gamer.

Another cool thing about Obsolete Gamer is that the site has many Editorials. These editorials cover a wide range of topics from the Old Games vs. New Games debate, all the way to discussions on Atari box art. There are even some interviews on the site. Most of the interviews are pretty short and they are on people who are involved in the video game industry in some way.

A fun thing about Obsolete Gamer is that the articles are more than simple completely objective reviews. The writers share their opinions which make the reviews debatable when you read them. For example, I read their review on Actraiser and I found myself debating mentally with the writer on several occasions. First of all they gave Actraiser an 8 out 10 and I was like, “NO WAY! This game is 10 out of 10 MINIMUM!” But even though I debated with it, I still loved the review and was super glad to read a review of such a great old school game. When you visit the site you will probably find yourself agreeing and disagreeing with the writers on points they make in their reviews…BUT that’s the fun of it! Obsolete Gamer gets you excited about games and it brings you back. A smile came across my face today when I saw them write an article on Bubble Bobble. I love Bubble Bobble! It really made me happy to read that article.

Obsolete Gamer has been around since the Fall of 2009 and it is growing rapidly. The amount of reviews and articles is expanding daily and I think this is a hot website which is going to just become more popular as time goes on.

Here’s a link to Obsolete Gamer so you can check it out for yourself.