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I really wanted to recommend this. And I would have, if this was purely the translation hack I was expecting and hoping for (actual translation portion of this review at the end). However to my disappointment, this is FAR more a difficulty hack in disguise. And thus, due to the now-needlessly-tedious platforming sections, I cannot recommend this.

This game is all about a balance between the platforming and building-sim sections. Both were quite good as-is. The pacing in the US version was perfect. But the deeper I got into this hack, the more I started to dread the platforming sections. And while the sim sections are now also far slower to get through, it still wasn't nearly as punishing as the platforming sections. On the very first Fillmore stage, you'll see there are new obstacles and more brambles seemingly placed at random. The additions felt thoughtless and clumsy, rather than providing new interesting gameplay. I still finished the first stage without much problem; the changes just make it more of a slog rather than being more enjoyable. This gets more pronounced as you continue on, as stages became simply too difficult/punishing... and again, not in a good way.

Same goes for the bosses. I'll use the example of the stage 5-1 boss in the jungle, because it was the worst part of the changes. This was nearly unfinishable for me, since it takes SO tiresomely-long to beat within the time limit. Even you have magic fully-saved-up, it was STILL a slog. The platforms for this boss have been rearranged to make it needlessly tedious to jump up on the far end, then jump across the entire two-screen-wide area just to get to the opposite end and get one hit in, all while its firing projectiles at you which do far more damage than before. You have a very small window of time to hit it, which you may now easily miss and have to go back across the platforms again trying not to get hit by projectiles. This in itself would still be tolerable if the boss didn't have FAR more health than before as well. Each time you manage to get a hit in, it either does one sliver of damage, or such little damage it doesn't even register on the health meter. I only defeated this boss without running out of time thanks to save states, just to see it was even doable at all. While I'm not the best Actraiser player the world, I never considered this 5-1 boss to be tedious nor difficult in the vanilla version. Much like other difficulty changes throughout this hack, I vastly would've preferred the untouched, original version here as well.

On the positive side as others have stated, the new translation is near-perfect, including the decensored elements. Really appreciated seeing the more mature religious bits from the original Japanese version which referred far more directly to Christianity. Rather than "listening to the people," the townspeople are now outright praying to God, rather than fighting "Tanzra" you're going up against Satan, etc). This was all SORELY needed in the US version, and Aeon Genesis did a phenomenal job here! If only it wasn't bogged down by everything else. If there ever comes a day where this is re-released as a truly pure translation hack without all the needless changes to difficulty, I couldn't recommend this enough!

Being able to play the original version of this game is great, and the translation is very solid. The original US release of this game was heavily censored to meet NoA's ironfisted rules of the 90's, thus this translation is the only way to have an experience that is as close as the creators intended other than learning how to read Japanese and playing that version of the game. The side scrolling stages are also more challenging in this version which is welcome.

Mechanically speaking though, the US release is simply better because of its Quality of Life changes. Changes like SP going up whenever new structures are built, only rank 1 and 2 houses being destroyed when using Earth Quack miracle, your score being reset when you die meaning if you are going for a max population run you need to reset the entire level and not die so that your score is not too low, or the waiting time for citizens building structures being 4 times shorter... that is not hyperbole by the way, there is A LOT more waiting in the Japanese version. And that's just the main things that stuck out to me, there are several smaller issues with this version as well.

The definitive version of this classic would have the Japanese levels, the US QoL additions, and this translation. Sadly that does not exist. This version should be played for the definitive translation, but in terms of enjoyability of the gameplay, not the script, the US version is the definitive version.

First off, I just played through this game and documented all of the minor errors I found in the script. There's about 5 or 6 very minor ones.

There's also a few scenarios, like when you level up or take an offering, where the text is in the wrong position of the chat box by a few pixels on each side, and the text trails off the screen. Again, not that big of a deal.

Now the meat and potatoes. I don't speak Japanese, but this translation seemed VERY well done! It looks like the translator really went the extra mile to make this top notch. I'd HIGHLY suggest anyone who loves the US version to PLAY THIS VERSION!

See how ActRaiser was TRULY meant to be played!

P.S. You'll probably get your butt kicked in "Special" mode in this version, too! Way more challenging, folks, but way better too!

Really improves your enjoyment of Actraiser's story. There are some pretty deep moments in this game, surprisingly, and the uncensored/improved text is much better than the original translation.

There was no review here so wanted to provide one!