I was just gonna say something about that. yeah I think the thing that made most evident that this was hot trash was the games double jump. most jumps require a double jump, and this double jump is laughably inadequate, to get the height you actually need you have to charge a melee attack, jump, double jump, release the charge to do an upswing. and this is for nearly EVERY jump in the game. why couldnt he just jump higher? why not make 10 louder?
Mannn, the first Dark Cloud on PS2 was my 100% by FAR favorite game for the PS 2. I never got to play the second one, or even new it existed until well into my adulthood, but I still want to play through the first again one day and then experience the second for myself as well right after, if I actually could.
ActRaiser was one of the first games I ever played on the SNES. My friends mom put the huge deposit on her credit card and rented the system from the video store and this was one 2 games we rented with it, (the other being Super Mario World). Needless to say, we didn't sleep for a week. ActRaiser blew us away in every aspect. It's still one of my all-time favorite 16-bit games.
As soon as I saw the title/video theme, my mind went straight to Dark Cloud 1&2. Those games have always been my go to "Actraiser-likes". DC1 was a damn good launch title for the PS2 that doesn't get talked about enough these days.
I sank so many hours into Dark Cloud 2. It's such a beautiful game! Its gameplay is super rich and varied, its music is superb, its characters and story are unique and interesting, and its world's areas are fun to explore.
A more recent game that combines two genres is Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. It combines side-scrolling action gameplay with a rice farming sim. The rice farming is so accurate that apparently players in Japan have been using the official Japanese government rice farming guidelines as a walkthrough.
This is such a great recommend! I bought it on a whim because it looked neat, and thought 'surely the rice planting is generalized for gameplay purposed' but to know it's so accurate, definitely a must try!
Hey, I'm the guy that did the partial translation patch for SD Gundam GNext back in what feels like caveman times. Unfortunately the way the rom was structured didn't lend itself to easy translation. My romhacking skills are... well... bad, but I did what I could. If you want a game that's basically the same but with a more complete translation, look at SD Gundam X. It's the first game in that series (GNext is the third) and its rom DID lend itself to easy translation. The gameplay is nearly identical; mainly fewer faction choices and the live battles move a little slower. The translation isn't quite as good (not that GNext is). I was literally using the project to introduce myself to Japanese. But it's basically a complete translation. Romhacking(dot)net has the patch up on it if you're interested.
If you love Dark Cloud 2, Rogue Galaxy is the spiritual sequel. It no longer has the town building element but keeps the rest of the gameplay adding in a bunch of AI companions and various sub-systems like a puzzle game factory mode you use to craft new equipment. One of the last great Level-5 RPGs in that style.
Guardian Legend is a great game, which like Actraiser, combines to different styles of game play. This one is a top-down shooter and also and top down adventure.
There's a fanmade sequel "The Guardian Legend Shadow of Naju" So far it's been pretty faithful. Although the hitboxes are different since it's a flash application instead of a NES rom. It's very: "If you liked TGL and want more of the same."
The Guardian Legend for NES was another one like this. A shoot em up with action adventure levels. Was incredible for it's time and still worth playing.
Just a note: Enix didn't develop ActRaiser or Soul Blazer. Both were made by Quintet, which is why the Soul Blazer trilogy came out under different publishers.
Quintet developed soul blazer, but Enix still published it. The game had the Enix tag in the opening, I owned the original cartridge game back in the day.
OMG, thank you. I remember discovering ActRaiser completely by accident in the early 90s at Albertson's. I was blown away by how fun both parts of the game were, and have loved recommending/talking about it to people over the years. Thanks for this video, and for all of you in-depth, well-made content. Edit: I realize maybe it is necessary to add that in the early 90's, the Albertson's where I lived had a huge section at the front of the store dedicated specifically to a VHS and video game rental department. Writing this makes me feel old.
Correction: Soul Blazer (as well as its "sequels" Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma) weren't developed by Enix, only published by them. The developers behind them were Quintet, a company that was made up of ex-employees of Falcom, the creators of Ys.
@@GamingDreamer There's a really bad "Actraiser spiritual sucessor" on steam called "SolSeraph" but dont play that game. The action phase is clunky and boring and the town building is a really bad tower defense. SNESDrunk actually made a video about it. It's a bit sad since it was published by SEGA, this failure will probably be seen as a "people don't want a game like Actraiser" even tho the problem was this particular game was shit.
Fun video! I'll bet someone else already mentioned The Guardian Legend being another game that seamlessly meshes two genres together, but that could have worked here too I think. Keep on keepin on man!
I like Soul Blazer better than Illusion of Gaia too. I'm honestly addicted to the record screen theme which I believe is called "Into the Dream". Used to spend a good amount of time listening to it before start playing.
I missed out on that one (can't buy everything, ya know?), but I remember seeing the marketing/previews for it and thinking it looked pretty dope. Was it any good?
@@drgribb it's good. definitely underrated. I'm not sure how well it even sold. I never hear people talk about it. I believe there's a demo on the E Shop.
Actraiser was a very unique amalgam of vastly different gameplay. It isn't easy to find a game that plays similarly. The level of analysis required to create that list must have been a difficult task. This is my favorite video by you. Bravo!
Good list, thanks! Mind you Soul Blazer (and ActRaiser, Gaia series, ...) were only *published* by Enix. They were developed by Quintet. They are definitely worth mentioning because it's amazing what this small company has meant for the SNES. They also kind of disappeared mysteriously according to Internet legend. But take that with a grain of salt :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintet_(company)
It's rumoured that they became Shade, who are still around to this day. Shade made The Granstream Saga for the PS1 which bears several similarities to Quintet games, and is worth playing if you get a chance.
Legend of Mana is not quite the same but does feature world building. You have to literally build the world map as you go along, and placing different locations either closer or further away to your home has different effects when you visit them.
A couple games that I was thinking could have been on this list is Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance, and the Kingdom Under Fire games. The first mixes RTS, and rpg dungeon crawling, while the later mixes RTS and Dynasty Warriors style action combat.
Was very excited to see Max in the thumbnail. Dark Cloud 2 has been one of my all time favorites since i played it at age 13, and i played Actraiser specifically bc i saw it was similar to DC2
I brought this up on his podcast when I was a guest. It could have been called anything like 'Angel Crisis' and probably revered better but since it's just called ActRaiser 2, it immediately has that measuring stick to live upto which falls short. Fun game, great graphics, great soundtrack, just not the ActRaiser I wanted.
Thanks for all your videos and content. Really like coming home after a stupid day at work and watching some interesting stuff about one of my favorite consoles.
I'm a huge fan of ActRaiser and have played everything i thought possibly could feel similar including Soul Blazer and Dark Cloud, but for a more modern game that combines specifically a feeling of town progression with that action-combat style of game, Dragon Quest Builders 2 was so very much worth it! it has a phenomenal story to boot, and don't let the brand of Dragon Quest fool you, you don't need to playing any other game to know what's going on. Also, most people (myself included) might be put off that it looks like Minecraft, but once you get playing you realize the comparison is only surface deep. I can't reccoment Dragon Quest Builders 2 enough for anyone who likes ActRaiser for the town-sim sections, as you get to build entire communities from essentially scratch!
Soul Blazer is FREAKING AMAZING! I missed this game 'back in the day' and having recently run through it, I can only say I'm so sorry I did. On the bright side, I discovered a new, exciting, massively enjoyable game later in life. :)
Oh man, Big Sky Trooper. That was one of my rental store discoveries as a kid. It was way better than I expected, and had a lot of personality. I haven’t played it in years, thanks for reminding me it existed.
To add to this list, white knight chronicles is fantastic! Fills the hole that never getting Dark Cloud 3 has left in my heart. Unfortunately the servers have shut down so you can only play offline, but it's such a good game.
I was thinking about Dark Cloud 2 before watching this, what a surprise to see it! No one talks nearly enough about that game, but I can see why a lot of people wouldn't enjoy it. I really loved the atmosphere and art direction of the game, and the soundtrack had quite a number of chill tracks. I might have to replay it one of these days!
ActRaiser 2 is one of the best platformers of all time. I know people are much more fond of the first one because of how unique it is, but seriously AR2 is so good. The magic system was cool, the level design was tight and meaningful, and the bosses were super cool. Once you get good enough at it to progress far into it, it is such a blast. That said, Square needs to do a proper modern ActRaiser again back with the old world building. Could even add some roguelike elements into it for more replayability.
Henry hatsworth! I like this game , very fun and underrated. Actraiser 2 Is action focused but still a good game and looks beautiful, great 2D art style and graphics.
Great video! I love Act Raiser and Soul Blazer (By Quintet, not Enix btw) so seeing these other more obscure games is great! :D Keep up the great work!
Master of the Monster Lair for the DS. You design floors of a dungeon to meet certain requirements, but also to be convenient for your own use as monsters drop resources. Both a top-down "town" builder, and a fairly standard jrpg battle system. With a touch of town sim elements, since this is your career and you fulfill resource requests from places like the local furniture store. I had a LOT of fun with it for a while, but it's unreasonably grindy. All of your materials come from killing monsters, and you need/want a lot of materials. So after a constructing a couple floors you'll find yourself marching through all the monster dens of each floor on your way down to the one you're working on, every in-game day. (Swinging your magic talking shovel is tiring work, you can only do so much per day) A really neat game that's well worth trying out if you like mixing genres, especially building+???.
Without having played _ActRaiser_ yet (it's on my ever expanding list), I would like to mention the first _Drawn to Life_ game on the Nintendo DS. The main gimmick of the game is that you use the stylus to draw your own character (there are pre-made ones, if you're not a pixel artist), as well as other elements in the game; however, the basic structure of the game is reminiscent of _ActRaiser_ - you, the player, are literally God and create a hero (as in, your character) to save your people. In between the side-scrolling levels you walk around a village that gets more and more areas, people and buildings as you unlock them in the levels. It's a really fun game, one of my favourites on the DS!
Exactly what I been wanting. I love both Actraiser games (1 is way better though) and I been thinking about revisiting it. I beat it back in the day so some more simile games would do.
I was in AWE of Actraiser when i 1st saw the 1st early screen shots in EGM and Nintendo Power!! When i 1st played it the sunmer of 1991 i was COMPLETELY blown away at the soundtrack 1st of all that Sony sound chip made it shine and could NOT believe all that was coming from a cartridge instead of CD-ROM lol Which ironically was very foreshadowing of what would come later for Sony. The graphics on this game was a world away from the NES i could not fathom the leap forward in detail and shading and paralax scrolling!! The RPG element really brought a different perspective to the whole just hack n slash side scroller. That scene as you enter the lair to THIS DAY still gives me chills as the 1st day i played it 30 years ago!! Actraiser has stood the test of time!!!
I watch 100s of youtube channels for both entertainment and practical purposes. Retro gaming is my favorite genre, and SNES Drunk is my #1. Here's how I would rank my favorites. 1) SNES Drunk 2) Cinemassacre: James & Mike 3) Cannot be Tamed 4) Cinemassacre: AVGN 5) Nintendo Complete 5a) World of Longplays 6) KBash 7) Mike Matei 8) Metal Jesus Rocks 9, 10, 11 tie) Sega Lord X, Xygor Gaming, Scott the Woz
Wow, never thought about the similarities between Sacrifice and Brutal Legend before. Also - wow, Sacrifice is a deep cut! Doesn't get mentioned much these days. *thumbs up*
Good call on Big Sky Trooper. I pride myself on knowing a lot of retro games and especially. Lucas Arts games but I’ve never heard of that! Way to surprise me! Have a great day man, love your videos so much
I’ll go a simpler route and say Legendary Axe II on the Turbografx. It loses all the city building as it’s a straight ahead action platformer, but the feel of the action is more Act Raiser than Act Raiser 2 ever was
Actraiser was my favorite game back in the day. I remember playing Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle) back in the day, and that led to Georama getting implemented in White Knight Chronicles before Level-5 went with their Inzauma Eleven, Professor Layton and Yo-kai Watch properties.
Here's some off-the-wall suggestions for games like Actraiser that fit quite well: A couple of old-skool J2ME mobile phone games: Tornado-Mania by Digital Chocolate - combines two different "genres": a Katamari Damacy style part where you destroy the world with tornadoes and collect buildings, and a 2nd city builder part where you put the collected buildings back into a working town Dungeon Town by Kairosoft (makers of GameDevStory): first a town planner game, but with a secondary game where you recruit adventurers to raid monster-filled dungeons to seal them and get treasure to build more town - very Actraiser! The Bullfrog classic Dungeon Keeper is also a bit Actraiser-ish. A town (well, dungeon) planner thing with a demonic monsters and knights theme. Great humour too.
I first rented this game from Family Video back in 1998, and fell in love with it. Found a used copy at FuncoLand a few months later for $37, bought it and enjoyed many years of playing this masterpiece.
Love Act Raiser and never knew Dark Cloud 2 was a town builder RPG! Btw, you should play Goemon's Great Adventure, one of the few side scrollers on the N64 and probably the best (and the hardest) one.
I loved Actraiser and Soulblazer, thanks for the recommandation, I'check out a couple of them at least. Chaos Seed looks cool and closet to Actraiser ! :)
Even if I don't have interest in the games being talked about I never miss a SNES Drunk vid, always a pleasure to see the different games that are out there and between Drunk and Sega Lord X, I get my fill of retro gaming goodness.
Dark Cloud 2 is phenomenal, but quite grindy. If you don't mind ze grind, it's highly recommended and just keeps giving you new stuff to do. Awesome stuff.
Absolutely love the Dark Cloud series, imperfect gems with a TON of charm & a weapon upgrade system I love to this day. The building is more complicated in 2, but it also allows for creativity & adding your personal touch. Herny hatsworth is a game I was just trying to describe to my wife. It was a hard game to describe then and still is now, but is a ton of fun and extremely creative.
probably not exactly in the same vein, but Dragon Quest/Warrior VII has you recruiting a bunch of villagers to build a new village. it's more of a side quest but I thought of it while watching this. great video, thanks a lot for compiling such a niche list!
You just got me craving to play Actraiser again. Its been too long. And soul blazer looks great gotta check that one out and I've never heard of big sky trooper. Looks kinda rare, ill keep my eye out for it Thanks drunk you know how to put me in a good mood on a Tuesday morning.
![Is Rygar [NES] Worth Playing Today? - SNESdrunk](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lNDBRIc9yBM/mqdefault.jpg)
SolSeraph is trash. ruclips.net/video/u03Fm0uNZv4/видео.html
Forgot about this review! Out on my bday, none the less! An unwitting present from Drunk?
No, no it is not. It's just a coincidence.
I was just gonna say something about that. yeah I think the thing that made most evident that this was hot trash was the games double jump. most jumps require a double jump, and this double jump is laughably inadequate, to get the height you actually need you have to charge a melee attack, jump, double jump, release the charge to do an upswing. and this is for nearly EVERY jump in the game. why couldnt he just jump higher? why not make 10 louder?
@@maoumcdugan Because this jump goes to 11
Mannn, the first Dark Cloud on PS2 was my 100% by FAR favorite game for the PS 2. I never got to play the second one, or even new it existed until well into my adulthood, but I still want to play through the first again one day and then experience the second for myself as well right after, if I actually could.
@@maoumcdugan But you can jump again after 11.
ActRaiser was one of the first games I ever played on the SNES. My friends mom put the huge deposit on her credit card and rented the system from the video store and this was one 2 games we rented with it, (the other being Super Mario World). Needless to say, we didn't sleep for a week. ActRaiser blew us away in every aspect. It's still one of my all-time favorite 16-bit games.
Same here. Love your story with it. I can totally imagine that being my story as well. Actraiser was/is my fav SNES game.
love this story.. for me happened with terranigma rental
I am so glad you included Dark Cloud 2 in this. The Dark Cloud series is probably my favorite series on the PS2. It needs more love.
As soon as I saw the title/video theme, my mind went straight to Dark Cloud 1&2. Those games have always been my go to "Actraiser-likes". DC1 was a damn good launch title for the PS2 that doesn't get talked about enough these days.
I sank so many hours into Dark Cloud 2. It's such a beautiful game! Its gameplay is super rich and varied, its music is superb, its characters and story are unique and interesting, and its world's areas are fun to explore.
A more recent game that combines two genres is Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. It combines side-scrolling action gameplay with a rice farming sim. The rice farming is so accurate that apparently players in Japan have been using the official Japanese government rice farming guidelines as a walkthrough.
This is such a great recommend! I bought it on a whim because it looked neat, and thought 'surely the rice planting is generalized for gameplay purposed' but to know it's so accurate, definitely a must try!
👀 shit yeah
It's an snes game?
Hey, I'm the guy that did the partial translation patch for SD Gundam GNext back in what feels like caveman times. Unfortunately the way the rom was structured didn't lend itself to easy translation. My romhacking skills are... well... bad, but I did what I could. If you want a game that's basically the same but with a more complete translation, look at SD Gundam X. It's the first game in that series (GNext is the third) and its rom DID lend itself to easy translation. The gameplay is nearly identical; mainly fewer faction choices and the live battles move a little slower. The translation isn't quite as good (not that GNext is). I was literally using the project to introduce myself to Japanese. But it's basically a complete translation. Romhacking(dot)net has the patch up on it if you're interested.
ActRaiser was magic for me. One of those games that you always think that there's more things hidden so you play and play to find it
I'm glad you mentioned Dark cloud.
For years, I wasn't able to put a name on that childhood memory.
Thanks a lot :)
ActRaiser is such a special, timeless game.....
Agreed. Years ago when I first bought a Wii, Actraiser was the very first game I played on it. Doesn't get old.
If you love Dark Cloud 2, Rogue Galaxy is the spiritual sequel. It no longer has the town building element but keeps the rest of the gameplay adding in a bunch of AI companions and various sub-systems like a puzzle game factory mode you use to craft new equipment. One of the last great Level-5 RPGs in that style.
A day where SNES Drunk talks about Dark Cloud is a good day
I am still waiting for DC3.
@@lm4585 We all are.
Hopefully one day...
@@lm4585 My proudest day was platinuming the PS4 release of DC2.
Yes
Holy based
I'm playing this now lol. Very first thing I thought about was Actraiser. Can't believe I skipped it back in the day.
Guardian Legend is a great game, which like Actraiser, combines to different styles of game play. This one is a top-down shooter and also and top down adventure.
Well, it is a Zelda clone + Shmup
too bad it never got a snes remake, i played the hell outa that game lol
There's a fanmade sequel "The Guardian Legend Shadow of Naju"
So far it's been pretty faithful. Although the hitboxes are different since it's a flash application instead of a NES rom.
It's very: "If you liked TGL and want more of the same."
Enter tgl as your password for the guardian legend and you'll only play the shooter segments, hard as hell but still great.
I just commented the same! Loved it. Still worth playing.
The Guardian Legend for NES was another one like this. A shoot em up with action adventure levels. Was incredible for it's time and still worth playing.
Just a note: Enix didn't develop ActRaiser or Soul Blazer. Both were made by Quintet, which is why the Soul Blazer trilogy came out under different publishers.
Quintet developed soul blazer, but Enix still published it. The game had the Enix tag in the opening, I owned the original cartridge game back in the day.
Ye, and the game is set on the same universe as Actraiser.
OMG, thank you. I remember discovering ActRaiser completely by accident in the early 90s at Albertson's. I was blown away by how fun both parts of the game were, and have loved recommending/talking about it to people over the years. Thanks for this video, and for all of you in-depth, well-made content.
Edit: I realize maybe it is necessary to add that in the early 90's, the Albertson's where I lived had a huge section at the front of the store dedicated specifically to a VHS and video game rental department. Writing this makes me feel old.
Sigma Star Saga was actually made by Wayforward. The company behind Shantae.
Dude! That game was great
@@LeoRex13 Agreed.
I still own my copy of SigmaStar Saga.. Excellent game
@@dustingibson1796 I haven't even played Sigma Star Saga yet.
Do you think Wayforward will make a sequel?
"If you like SNESDRUNK videos, you'll like this SNESDRUNK video"
Correction: Soul Blazer (as well as its "sequels" Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma) weren't developed by Enix, only published by them. The developers behind them were Quintet, a company that was made up of ex-employees of Falcom, the creators of Ys.
Never knew they came from Falcom.
Dark cloud 2. . . The low health beep beep beep haunts me
"I HAVNT SAVED IN 40 MINS, NO GOD NO!"
Also look into Sakuna: of Rice and Ruin. Combines Actraiser and Harvest Moon mechanics with side-scrolling action.
Seconded!!
Was thinking about ActRaiser the other day! Small world
i was thinking about it this morning
i was thinking if there indie games like it
@@GamingDreamer There's a really bad "Actraiser spiritual sucessor" on steam called "SolSeraph" but dont play that game. The action phase is clunky and boring and the town building is a really bad tower defense. SNESDrunk actually made a video about it. It's a bit sad since it was published by SEGA, this failure will probably be seen as a "people don't want a game like Actraiser" even tho the problem was this particular game was shit.
Fun video! I'll bet someone else already mentioned The Guardian Legend being another game that seamlessly meshes two genres together, but that could have worked here too I think. Keep on keepin on man!
I like Soul Blazer better than Illusion of Gaia too. I'm honestly addicted to the record screen theme which I believe is called "Into the Dream". Used to spend a good amount of time listening to it before start playing.
You kind of want to stay in the dream to keep listening to it.
Ever Oasis on 3ds involves town building, action RPG combat (see: secret/trials of mana), and puzzle solving.
I missed out on that one (can't buy everything, ya know?), but I remember seeing the marketing/previews for it and thinking it looked pretty dope. Was it any good?
@@drgribb it's good. definitely underrated. I'm not sure how well it even sold. I never hear people talk about it. I believe there's a demo on the E Shop.
Actraiser was a very unique amalgam of vastly different gameplay. It isn't easy to find a game that plays similarly. The level of analysis required to create that list must have been a difficult task. This is my favorite video by you.
Bravo!
Good list, thanks!
Mind you Soul Blazer (and ActRaiser, Gaia series, ...) were only *published* by Enix. They were developed by Quintet. They are definitely worth mentioning because it's amazing what this small company has meant for the SNES. They also kind of disappeared mysteriously according to Internet legend. But take that with a grain of salt :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintet_(company)
It's rumoured that they became Shade, who are still around to this day. Shade made The Granstream Saga for the PS1 which bears several similarities to Quintet games, and is worth playing if you get a chance.
That's my bad, rookie mistake
Legend of Mana is not quite the same but does feature world building. You have to literally build the world map as you go along, and placing different locations either closer or further away to your home has different effects when you visit them.
A couple games that I was thinking could have been on this list is Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance, and the Kingdom Under Fire games.
The first mixes RTS, and rpg dungeon crawling, while the later mixes RTS and Dynasty Warriors style action combat.
Was very excited to see Max in the thumbnail. Dark Cloud 2 has been one of my all time favorites since i played it at age 13, and i played Actraiser specifically bc i saw it was similar to DC2
I geek out a bit when one RUclipsr I follow references another RUclipsr I follow. So I really dug the John Riggs quote.
I brought this up on his podcast when I was a guest. It could have been called anything like 'Angel Crisis' and probably revered better but since it's just called ActRaiser 2, it immediately has that measuring stick to live upto which falls short. Fun game, great graphics, great soundtrack, just not the ActRaiser I wanted.
@@JohnRiggs
Some exec at Enix America was responsible for the game losing the sim aspects.
Act Raiser, Soul Blazer, and Dark Cloud 2 all in one video? Best SNES drunk video EVER.
Thanks for all your videos and content. Really like coming home after a stupid day at work and watching some interesting stuff about one of my favorite consoles.
To anyone watching this video, there's now a full-on remake of this game called Actraiser Renaissance, and it's really fun!
Official Remake or Fanmade?
@@Justforvisit Official! It's on Switch, PS4, mobile, and PC
It stinks!
I actually just replayed Soul Blazer and Dark Cloud 1. Im about an hour into Dark Cloud 2. I have players guide too.
You had me at Dark Cloud
I'm a huge fan of ActRaiser and have played everything i thought possibly could feel similar including Soul Blazer and Dark Cloud, but for a more modern game that combines specifically a feeling of town progression with that action-combat style of game, Dragon Quest Builders 2 was so very much worth it! it has a phenomenal story to boot, and don't let the brand of Dragon Quest fool you, you don't need to playing any other game to know what's going on. Also, most people (myself included) might be put off that it looks like Minecraft, but once you get playing you realize the comparison is only surface deep. I can't reccoment Dragon Quest Builders 2 enough for anyone who likes ActRaiser for the town-sim sections, as you get to build entire communities from essentially scratch!
Soul Blazer is FREAKING AMAZING! I missed this game 'back in the day' and having recently run through it, I can only say I'm so sorry I did. On the bright side, I discovered a new, exciting, massively enjoyable game later in life. :)
It's nice to see Dark Cloud 2 getting some recognition, it's definitely my favorite PS2 game of all time.
Oh man, Big Sky Trooper. That was one of my rental store discoveries as a kid. It was way better than I expected, and had a lot of personality. I haven’t played it in years, thanks for reminding me it existed.
I like this series (games you might like). :D
To add to this list, white knight chronicles is fantastic! Fills the hole that never getting Dark Cloud 3 has left in my heart. Unfortunately the servers have shut down so you can only play offline, but it's such a good game.
I want to thank you for making this video and hope you have a great rest of your day
I was thinking about Dark Cloud 2 before watching this, what a surprise to see it! No one talks nearly enough about that game, but I can see why a lot of people wouldn't enjoy it. I really loved the atmosphere and art direction of the game, and the soundtrack had quite a number of chill tracks. I might have to replay it one of these days!
Yes drunk!
I like ur logo
@Samson Themighty ...I reckon so
Brilliant variation on your usual format. Thank you!
every time you bring up chaos seed it blows my mind. will get around to it eventually
THE HORDE on 3DO .
Build the city, then defend it from the horde. Was a very funny cinematic action strategy game.
I played Henry hatsworth a lot, i never tought it would get mentioned anywhere, the game is like super forgotten.
Dark Cloud 2 is one of the most addictive games I ever played. I once had something like an 18-hour marathon with that game.
I sure love dark cloud 2, still go back to the soundtrack every now and again
I know this might seem left of field but I feel like the Dragon Quest: Builders games on Switch may count in this category
A+ as always man. Great recommendations. I'm sure the research took some time on this one.
ActRaiser 2 is one of the best platformers of all time. I know people are much more fond of the first one because of how unique it is, but seriously AR2 is so good. The magic system was cool, the level design was tight and meaningful, and the bosses were super cool.
Once you get good enough at it to progress far into it, it is such a blast.
That said, Square needs to do a proper modern ActRaiser again back with the old world building. Could even add some roguelike elements into it for more replayability.
Act Raiser 2 sucks. it has nothing to do with Act Raiser.
Dark Cloud 2 was an amazing game back in the day. Played lots and lots of it. Monica was one of my first game crushes as well lol good times
I fought so hard to get that panther bikini!
One of my favorite games. My one complaint was finding/seeing all the little boxes that would spawn your health upgrades.
Henry hatsworth! I like this game , very fun and underrated.
Actraiser 2 Is action focused but still a good game and looks beautiful, great 2D art style and graphics.
Omg dark cloud 2 is one of my favorite games ever
FireStriker is a mishmash of genres worth playing any way you can.
I’m glad you mentioned Sigma Star Saga. It’s a great find.
Great video! I love Act Raiser and Soul Blazer (By Quintet, not Enix btw) so seeing these other more obscure games is great! :D Keep up the great work!
Master of the Monster Lair for the DS. You design floors of a dungeon to meet certain requirements, but also to be convenient for your own use as monsters drop resources.
Both a top-down "town" builder, and a fairly standard jrpg battle system. With a touch of town sim elements, since this is your career and you fulfill resource requests from places like the local furniture store.
I had a LOT of fun with it for a while, but it's unreasonably grindy. All of your materials come from killing monsters, and you need/want a lot of materials. So after a constructing a couple floors you'll find yourself marching through all the monster dens of each floor on your way down to the one you're working on, every in-game day. (Swinging your magic talking shovel is tiring work, you can only do so much per day)
A really neat game that's well worth trying out if you like mixing genres, especially building+???.
Without having played _ActRaiser_ yet (it's on my ever expanding list), I would like to mention the first _Drawn to Life_ game on the Nintendo DS. The main gimmick of the game is that you use the stylus to draw your own character (there are pre-made ones, if you're not a pixel artist), as well as other elements in the game; however, the basic structure of the game is reminiscent of _ActRaiser_ - you, the player, are literally God and create a hero (as in, your character) to save your people. In between the side-scrolling levels you walk around a village that gets more and more areas, people and buildings as you unlock them in the levels. It's a really fun game, one of my favourites on the DS!
I have wanted this list since I was a kid playing ActRaiser, pre-RUclips. Great work!
If I ever made my own game it would be like ActRaiser
Man actraiser was an amazing game. I cant believe 30 years later its still completely unique. There has been not a single game like it since then.
Oh yeah, Henry Hatsworth got a mention! This gane is so friggin cool, one of my favorite on the system!
Exactly what I been wanting. I love both Actraiser games (1 is way better though) and I been thinking about revisiting it. I beat it back in the day so some more simile games would do.
I was in AWE of Actraiser when i 1st saw the 1st early screen shots in EGM and Nintendo Power!! When i 1st played it the sunmer of 1991 i was COMPLETELY blown away at the soundtrack 1st of all that Sony sound chip made it shine and could NOT believe all that was coming from a cartridge instead of CD-ROM lol Which ironically was very foreshadowing of what would come later for Sony. The graphics on this game was a world away from the NES i could not fathom the leap forward in detail and shading and paralax scrolling!! The RPG element really brought a different perspective to the whole just hack n slash side scroller. That scene as you enter the lair to THIS DAY still gives me chills as the 1st day i played it 30 years ago!! Actraiser has stood the test of time!!!
I watch 100s of youtube channels for both entertainment and practical purposes. Retro gaming is my favorite genre, and SNES Drunk is my #1. Here's how I would rank my favorites.
1) SNES Drunk
2) Cinemassacre: James & Mike
3) Cannot be Tamed
4) Cinemassacre: AVGN
5) Nintendo Complete
5a) World of Longplays
6) KBash
7) Mike Matei
8) Metal Jesus Rocks
9, 10, 11 tie) Sega Lord X, Xygor Gaming, Scott the Woz
Sacrifice, Herzog Zwei and Brutal Legend are kinda similar. Dawn of War 2 for a smaller scale RTS without base building and which has boss fights.
Wow, never thought about the similarities between Sacrifice and Brutal Legend before.
Also - wow, Sacrifice is a deep cut! Doesn't get mentioned much these days. *thumbs up*
Hey, just wanted to tell you that I checked out the HD Mode 7 emulator you talked about in the Lock On video and it’s really cool!
A whole bunch of games I've never heard of before, that's my favorite kind of video you do.
Great video. I loved both Dark Cloud games. Was so glad to see Dark Cloud 2 can be played on the PS4, have restarted it again this month.
Dark Cloud is one of my all time favourites. Great game all around.
Good call on Big Sky Trooper. I pride myself on knowing a lot of retro games and especially. Lucas Arts games but I’ve never heard of that! Way to surprise me! Have a great day man, love your videos so much
SEMPAI NOTICED ME!
I *may* have gotten a huge, dumb grin on my face when you were mentioned :D
Best part of the vid
it's good to see one of my favorite YTers mention another one of my favorite YTers!
Came by to comment on the name drop. lol
Of course. You're awesome.
I’ll go a simpler route and say Legendary Axe II on the Turbografx. It loses all the city building as it’s a straight ahead action platformer, but the feel of the action is more Act Raiser than Act Raiser 2 ever was
I played and completed ActRaiser for the first time in 2019. Really awesome game.
Actraiser was my favorite game back in the day. I remember playing Dark Cloud 2 (Dark Chronicle) back in the day, and that led to Georama getting implemented in White Knight Chronicles before Level-5 went with their Inzauma Eleven, Professor Layton and Yo-kai Watch properties.
I absolutely love dark cloud 2! Amazing game! One of the best in the ps2! Mark hamill does a voice roll in it too.
This is the best video to have because this is the best kind of game to have. Thank you.
Still remember playing Act Raiser for very first time and hearing it's music, I was blown the frig away...
Here's some off-the-wall suggestions for games like Actraiser that fit quite well:
A couple of old-skool J2ME mobile phone games:
Tornado-Mania by Digital Chocolate - combines two different "genres": a Katamari Damacy style part where you destroy the world with tornadoes and collect buildings, and a 2nd city builder part where you put the collected buildings back into a working town
Dungeon Town by Kairosoft (makers of GameDevStory): first a town planner game, but with a secondary game where you recruit adventurers to raid monster-filled dungeons to seal them and get treasure to build more town - very Actraiser!
The Bullfrog classic Dungeon Keeper is also a bit Actraiser-ish. A town (well, dungeon) planner thing with a demonic monsters and knights theme. Great humour too.
I first rented this game from Family Video back in 1998, and fell in love with it. Found a used copy at FuncoLand a few months later for $37, bought it and enjoyed many years of playing this masterpiece.
Love Act Raiser and never knew Dark Cloud 2 was a town builder RPG! Btw, you should play Goemon's Great Adventure, one of the few side scrollers on the N64 and probably the best (and the hardest) one.
I loved Actraiser and Soulblazer, thanks for the recommandation, I'check out a couple of them at least.
Chaos Seed looks cool and closet to Actraiser ! :)
Even if I don't have interest in the games being talked about I never miss a SNES Drunk vid, always a pleasure to see the different games that are out there and between Drunk and Sega Lord X, I get my fill of retro gaming goodness.
Great video, I would love to play any of these, thanks for bringing these games up
Hatsworth is amazing!
Dark Cloud 2 is phenomenal, but quite grindy. If you don't mind ze grind, it's highly recommended and just keeps giving you new stuff to do. Awesome stuff.
Absolutely love the Dark Cloud series, imperfect gems with a TON of charm & a weapon upgrade system I love to this day. The building is more complicated in 2, but it also allows for creativity & adding your personal touch. Herny hatsworth is a game I was just trying to describe to my wife. It was a hard game to describe then and still is now, but is a ton of fun and extremely creative.
Too bad Level 5 doesn't make good games any more.
Nice to see Henry Hatsworth getting some love!
Love your content!
probably not exactly in the same vein, but Dragon Quest/Warrior VII has you recruiting a bunch of villagers to build a new village. it's more of a side quest but I thought of it while watching this. great video, thanks a lot for compiling such a niche list!
Great video!
Chaos Seed is a great-looking game concept.
Just came across your episode on the pod cast with New Game Plus and I had to come to the channel. Got my sub
Soulblazer is a childhood favorite I love returning to.
You just got me craving to play Actraiser again. Its been too long.
And soul blazer looks great gotta check that one out and I've never heard of big sky trooper. Looks kinda rare, ill keep my eye out for it
Thanks drunk you know how to put me in a good mood on a Tuesday morning.
Soul Blazer has been and always will be my absolute favorite SNES game EVER!
Thanks for this! Awesome recommendations