wfmag.cc \ 61ReviewRated
ReviewA genre-mixing spiritual successor without a sol
ctRaiser was a peculiar game,
namely due to its unorthodox
mixture of action platforming
and city-building strategy. It’s also
nearly 30 years old, which is
pertinent when you consider how much better
it is than SolSeraph in almost every aspect of its
design. Developer ACE Team’s latest is, of course,
a spiritual successor to the 1990 SNES game,
yet it somehow feels even more dated than the
original. While ActRaiser was
innovative and experimental,
SolSeraph is a poor mimicry
that fails to muster the same
creative spirit.
Structurally, both games
are nigh-on identical, with isometric city-building
sections interspersed with 2D action platforming.
Neither of SolSeraph’s two halves is any good, but
the side-scrolling levels are the more egregious of
the two by a clear margin. There are basic sword
attacks, you can shoot arrows, and there’s a block
that can also morph into a backdash. It’s simple
stuff, which isn’t inherently bad on its own, but
the controls are unresponsive and everything
wrapped around these levels is uniformly dull.
There’s really not much to say about the level
design other than you run from left to right and
occasionally need to jump. Enemy designs are
uninspired too, with bats, blue guys, skeletons,
and little deviation from these familiar tropes.
Some of the bosses are visually interesting,
but rarely fun to fight.
A surprising amount of your time is actually
spent waiting for enemies to slowly enterfrom either the background or foreground.
This encompasses the general flow of each level,
as you wait for enemies, hit them a few times,
and then repeat. Some enemies enjoy peppering
you with arrows from off-screen, while others do
everything in their power to stay away from you.
There’s nothing enjoyable or satisfying about
fighting any of them, and they mostly feel like
they were designed just to irritate you. All you
need to do is look up the word ‘bland’ in a
thesaurus, and you’ll have
myriad ways to describe
SolSeraph’s action platforming.
The city building doesn’t fare
much better either, although
it avoids a lot of the previous
frustration by virtue of its simplicity. Each level
begins with the same rigmarole as you build
houses, farms, and lumber mills to accumulate
resources and people. Then you use these assets
to construct barracks, archer towers, and other
structures that will help to defend the town from
an encroaching band of monsters. At this point,
it becomes little more than a rudimentary tower
defence game, where the easiest way to win is by
simply building more stuff.
There’s no nuance or strategy to be found
here, which is indicative of SolSeraph as a
whole. It does nothing to evolve or improve on
its 30-year-old foundation, instead opting for
an insipid replica that lacks any of the same
charm or compelling ideas of its inspiration.
ActRaiser pushed boundaries when it was
originally released, but its memories were better
off left in the past.SolSeraph
A
VERDICT
An uninspired and sleep-
inducingly bland replica
of a much better game.20 %
GENRE
Action, strategy
FORMAT
PS4 (tested) / Switch
/ PC
DEVELOPER
ACE Team
PUBLISHER
Sega
PRICE
£11.99
RELEASE
Out nowInfo
ReviewRated
REVIEWED BY
Richard WakelingHIGHLIGHT
The city-building/tower defence
half of SolSeraph may be lacking in
complexity, but at least it performs well
on a controller. Constructing buildings
and pathways is done with ease,
thanks to an intuitive control scheme
that disperses any longing for a mouse
and keyboard. SolSeraph isn’t a good
game, but it could’ve been worse.“It somehow feels
even more dated
than the original” It can look good in fleeting moments, but
applying the character portraits – reminiscent
of 1940s Disney animation – across the whole
game would’ve made for a striking art style.