Video games - ActRaiser 2

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	Video games - ActRaiser 2

ActRaiser 2 is a side-scrolling platform game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released by Enix in November 1993 and is the sequel to ActRaiser
, although in storyline sequence it is actually its prequel. It tells a religious story of God's battle with Satan and his seven deadly sins, parodying the famous religious epics Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno.

Story

The game begins with the universe over-run with evil, with God (The Master) battling with Satan (Tanzra). Tanzra, once The Master's servent, lead a rebellion against The Master, but lost and was banished from Heaven.

Ripped and torn, the slain body of Tanzra fell to the underworld. Feeding on the intense hatred each held for The Master, Tanzra's seven deadly sins and their minions combined their power to raise the spirit of their mighty leader. Tanzra, now vowing revenge for his defeat by The Master, unleashed these demons upon the world. The player in this game assumes the role of The Master, aided by an angel associate known as Crystalis.

Some of the stages in the game are meant to be ironic regarding the blighting nature of Tanzra's demons. The townsmen in the city of Leon are sent to the underground prison of Gratis for not paying their taxes by a newly appointed king named Kolunikus who is afflicted by Greed. The final staged level of the game pits the player against a mechanically engineered god in the city of Humbleton, a battle of Envy (a satire on the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel).

After the player slays the first six deadly sins, the Tower of Babel appears in which you fight the final sin, Envy, and then descend into Hell where you fight the seven sins again as well as Tanzra himself, whom is frozen waist-deep in a lake of ice (just like Satan was in Dante's Inferno).

During the game's credits, it shows the statue of The Master slowly erode, symbolizing the growth of civilization and the slowly growing self sufficiency of man. The wings eventually fall off. This explains why The Master has wings in this game but not ActRaiser, which is actually second in story sequence.

Note: In the original Japanese version, The Master is known as God and Tanzra is known as Satan. Nintendo of America removed the religious names, as they tended to do back in the SNES days before the ESRB rating system.

Gameplay

Whereas ActRaiser combined platforming with simulation, ActRaiser 2 is solely a side-scrolling platform game. This was disappointing to many gamers who felt that the varying styles of gameplay found in ActRaiser lent the game originality. As a side-scroller, the game was known to be very difficult, even if the game was set to the easy mode.

The Seven Deadly Sins

Notice that the First Six Sins are manifested as Demons. The Last Sin, "Envy", does not have a manifest demon representing it. Instead, it is represented by a newly-built Tower of Babel (USA: Tower of Souls) which is a deliberate attempt by the people of Humbleton to reach Heaven and prove their technological superiority to God (The Master). It could be argued that the clockwork boss at the top of the tower is powered by the actual demon Envy.

Sloth (USA: Fatigue)
Lust (USA: Jealousy)
Gluttony (Oddly, kept the religious name in the USA version)
Wrath (USA: Fury)
Pride (USA: Deception)
Greed (USA: Doom)
Envy (USA: No mention)

Secrets

There are two hidden areas in the game that you can access with special passwords and by setting the game mode to hard.

BJQX YRKC DLSZ - Banishing of Tanzra from Heaven (from the demo)
Xxxx Yyyy Zzzz - Final Battle with Tanzra from Actraiser 1

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for ActRaiser 2 ]

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