SolSeraph

How can a game be WORSE than something made over 30 fuc king YEARS ago?! Well, this game is the answer. Boring, slow, stupid tower defense where the enemies slowly walk down the same paths. In the original, when a monster lair was defeated - it was defeated! In this one - they continue to spawn enemies...so what is the point of defeating them?! The graphics are awful and little better than the original 16 bit. Also, the side-scrolling is worse and less engaging than the original. What a disappointment and waste of money.

SolSeraph, developed by ACE Team and published by SEGA, is an ambitious hybrid that attempts to revive a classic design philosophy by merging two very different styles of gameplay: side-scrolling action and top-down strategic management. Inspired by older genre-blending titles, it sets out to recreate that dual-layer experience for a modern audience. What it delivers is a game with a strong conceptual foundation, though one that doesn’t always fully realize the potential of its ideas. The game places players in the role of Helios, a divine guardian tasked with restoring humanity and defending it from encroaching monsters. This premise drives the game’s dual structure. In one half, players directly control Helios in side-scrolling action stages, fighting through enemies and navigating environmental hazards. In the other, they oversee human settlements from a strategic perspective, guiding villagers, constructing defenses, and protecting territory from waves of invading creatures. The constant shift between these modes is meant to create a sense of balance—one focused on direct action, the other on long-term planning. The action segments are straightforward and accessible, offering…

I love ACE Team, and I wish I could recommend this game, but no developer can nail it every time. If you were a fan of ActRaiser on the SNES growing up, this is basically a spiritual sequel, but it doesn't quite have the same oomph. Overall Sol Seraph is just "okay" whereas ActRaiser is a classic. I'd only really recommend this game if you want to support ACE Team for the other great work they've done. There are moments of good game design here, but it feels incomplete, and it needed some more play testing. It's not buggy, but there are small things that just feel off. Sol Seraph is a tower defense game where "boss fights" (located in hubs on the strategic map) are fought in a 2D platformer adventure game. These 2D platformer segments feel very undercooked. For example: [list] [*]Some enemies can approach from the background or foreground. The distance before you can hit them is poorly telegraphed, leading to some unnecessary damage that adds up. [*]The attack animations have a sort of wind-down portion, where you can't really cancel out of them easily. This can lead to you sort of standing there and taking damage. [*]The jump height feels just a smidgen too short. Many of the …

Unreal Engine 4 ActRaiser. And surprisingly, unlike most UR4 games, it doesn't feel too terribly sluggish. It's a coin toss between which is better, the official ActRaiser remake (Renaissance was it? Originally made for mobile phones so... not ideal) or this, which was developed for native PC. Of course the SNES original beats them both - the action is still the same 'bum rush the boss and hope your life bar's longer' but SolSeraph swaps tower defence for the town simulator. Despite some decent character writing (there's some chuckles to be had, well done) the bits from the original ActRaiser where you get life/magic power-ups from developing the town or calling down lightning strikes in suspicious areas on the map to reveal magic are gone. The replacement for that - shorter side-scrolling beat 'em alls to pick up HP/MP extensions - isn't bad but you can tell this is the part where the budget starting biting into things. Even at full price you could do much worse than this (coughs at Renaissance).

I could overlook most of the faults this game has, but the wine mom humor is unforgiveable: [i]"I'm just a relic of the past." "Does the past still like soup?" "Always." [/i]

Half baked, jank fest is the best I can say about this. The graphics are OK, but character and enemy animations are terrible. Movement in water and out are rubbish. The enemies just don't really make any sense. It's like they had a mish mash of assets available and just threw in whichever they saw first. Couldn't force myself to play past the first boss with how terrible the game play is. The story, if there is one, doesn't show anything interesting of itself at the beginning of the game. Even if it improves later, I can't see it being worth getting to that point.