Seraph

First impressions:
OK, so like many of us someone at Sega wanted more Actraiser and got sick of waiting on Square Enix. To that end we have Sol Seraph, and it makes no secret of its inspiration (why would you bother, really?)
From the jump it will seem familiar to anyone who has played Actraiser. Don't let that trip you up because it's doing a lot of things differently. In a way it's mirror image, because now the action sequences feel like an afterthought and the strategy sequences are much more involved.
The action sequences are, frankly, a little disappointing. The controls are noticeably sluggish. Not unplayable by any means, but there is a definite delay between press and action. There is a lot of afterswing animation that cannot be interrupted as well. Combine this with enemies that attack right at the edge of the screen (ranged are the worst about this) and you get a number of cheap hits that are pretty frustrating. It's hard to find a flow. There are an array of attack and defense moves but a lot of time the best option is to just jump and attack.
The use of foreground and background is neat but it's hard to tell if the enemy is on your plane. Leads to a lot of waiting or just running headlong into them. All in all the action bits have left me a little flat so far.
The world building is considerably better. I don't play tower defense games so it took a minute for me to shake the mindset I had around Actraiser's simple building and shooting. Careful resource management is a must because you can paint yourself into a corner quickly. The hints are helpful but don't hold your hand so you at least *feel* like you're figuring it out. You have to stay on top of things because multiple waves of demons will start streaming in ruining everything before you know it! I've died a few times this way but it doesn't feel as unfair as the action sequences. All in all it feels like the bulk of the attention was paid to this part of the game.
Visuals and sound are both just serviceable. Graphics are pretty plain but nice enough. Music is a little repetitive but fine. It's a budget title so I'm not about to go in hard on the assets. They get the job done.
All things considered it's worth the asking price. If someone tweaks the controls for the action sequences in a patch my feelings will definitely not be hurt though.

Yes, this is the ActRaiser spiritual successor in the same spirit of Bloodstained, Yooka-Laylee and Mighty Number 9 were to their series. Right down to the near-identical SNES controls.
Instead of Christian lore, we have Greek mythology this time. You are Helios, personification of the Sun, and you are worshiped by tribes who need your guidance to build and defend their lands.
The side-scrolling stages are almost a 1:1 gameplay match to ActRaiser. You have a sword, spells, and double-jump thanks to your wings (the only feature inspired by the less popular ActRaiser 2). There are even some Sim-mode power upgrades hidden in some stages, so explore. Yes, there are "checkpoints" in most stages, despite what some other reviews said.
"Sim" mode is similar to ActRaiser, complete with weather effect spells. New is the fact that you have to build barracks and archery towers to defend your town base. There are Monster Lairs too, but this time YOU go into them and clear out the monsters rather than the townspeople (but you still need to to guide their roads to the Lair like in ActRaiser).
If you were worried that the game is described as "tower defense" rest assured the sim mode is primarily about building huts, fields and roads to Monster Lairs just like ActRaiser. The tower defense aspect is an additional feature.
The graphics are adequate. The music is regrettably less epic than ActRaiser and especially ActRaiser 2 (the only aspect of ActRaiser 2 that was better than the original game). The main thing is that the gameplay is accurately inspired and expanded upon, and thankfully not too inspired from ActRaiser 2.
Difficulty is closer to ActRaiser than ActRaiser 2, thankfully.
Worth the price if you were a fan of ActRaiser. This is obviously a labor of love for the genre.
Thank you, Sega and ACE Team. If only Square Enix would someday give us an official ActRaiser 3.

Patricio Meneses' music is REALLY GOOD in this game.
Yuzo Koshiro did ONE track and it's the blandest thing on the whole soundtrack. They've really been hyping up his involvement, but it's nothing. Meneses, however, killed it.
Anyway. I was really excited for this. ActRaiser is one of my favorite games and ACE are a developer who don't always make great or even good games, but always make interesting games full of ideas. Sadly, they've really missed what made ActRaiser greater than the sum of its parts.
-You can't speak to your villagers
-You can't use your miracles to help your villagers
-You don't receive offerings and give gifts to your villagers
-You do not facilitate trade between your villages to unify the world
-Aiding your villagers does not grant you extra MP and spells
-Growing your villages does not increase your HP
-There is no reason to go back and forth between multiple villages or revisit a village you have cleared
-There is no reason to care about your villagers.
All of this has been removed. Villagers speak during the game, and they have problems and their dialogue is well written, but you play no part in it, there is no way to interact with them at all. Your villagers were the glue that held ActRaiser's two parts together and made them feel like a whole. You cared for them and they strengthened you in return. They were the heart of the game.
SolSeraph is instead a tower defense game and a platformer game which you take turns playing in almost complete isolation, and they are both overly simple and mechanically archaic.
This was originally a Do Not Recommend review, but honestly I was just having a bad day yesterday. I really am rooting for Ace Team, always, and for a $15 price tag I can adjust my expectations. I can only hope they've had a good long think about what made ActRaiser special before starting SolSeraph 2.
Oh and get rid of the tower defense stuff too, we're all sick to death of TDs.

An excellent and unique action game where you must rid the world of monsters, SolSeraph is an addictive city-builder game along with hack and slash action game-play. There's symphony music abound and giants to slay. You, a god and near all-powerful, must help the people below and rid the lands of evil. SolSeraph is ultimately worthy of your time and your wallet.
Most people are going to say SolSeraph is a homage to ActRaiser, a Super Nintendo game where you played as a "god" to help rid the lands of monsters and assist in building the cities below. They aren't wrong in that sense, but what SolSeraph does is something a bit better in terms of city management; it adds more detail and "tower defense" mechanics. There's things to build like crops, housing, defenses. You can also create weather like rain, lightning, or sunlight. It's addictive and unique in how it's portrayed in the game, very detailed. All of this has real-time effect on the game-play, affecting enemies and/or your structures. This is the "overworld" function; the top-down or overhead view of this part of the game. The second part(s) are the side-scrolling action phases.
The side-scrolling aspect is sort of basic from what I've played so far. You move to the right, jumping, hacking, and slashing enemies along the way. Different enemy variations fill the path to keep things interesting. However, there's not much more than that. You go through the levels and collect mana, health, energy orbs to assist in your duties as a god. What i would have liked to see is more detail in the side scrolling aspect. More things moving around, more details, weather effects. A more serious and darker tone in the intro stage rather than bright and colorful, in order to set the tone.
The main character weapon seems a bit weak at the start. I think any weapon yielded by a god should be highly unique and powerful. Something horrifying to the enemy and powerful in hand. I like how the enemies move in and about the background and foreground to give depth (side scrolling phases). So far, this is a great game and works very well with a game-pad/controller. For the price alone, it's well worth your investment. Highly recommended
Pros:
-Unique game-play mechanics not common in today's games
-Excellent graphics and music/audio production
-Superb controls. Works well with a game-pad/controller
-Great price. I've payed three times as much for games with less than half the fun.
-Published with loving care from your loving father, SEGA
-ACE Team. Pros all the way

Cons:
-Side scrolling aspect stages could use more detail(s). Weather effects, physics, snow and water propagation/floods, etc
-Main character starting weapon seems weak and not powerful. It should send the very flames of fire and lightning from the bowels of creation right into the enemies eyeballs.
-Armor and weapon drops, weapon crafting, seem to be lacking
-The city dweller with the most kills in each town should be summon-able in the side scrolling aspect and/or named leader of his/her town

As someone who has finished ActRaiser 1 and 2 on the SNES, I understand the disappointment some reviewers felt that this wasn't an exact replica of ActRaiser. I don't understand why they wouldn't recommend it, though.
If you enjoyed ActRaiser, you will enjoy this. It shares the same concepts from the first game in the ActRaiser series, but adds tower defense to the city simulation portions. As a fan of tower defense games, it was a welcome addition. (A concept copied by Square Enix for the recent remake.)
No, the platforming isn't as good as ActRaiser 2, and no, the city simulation isn't as good as ActRaiser 1, but it does a better job recreating the feel of ActRaiser 1 than ActRaiser 2 did. I highly recommend it.

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“In the beginning, there was only Chaos, as far as the eye could see, until one day Sky Father and Earth Mother drove the Chaos away and made the world. They made the stars and the sun and the waters and the land. And then they made plants and animals, and finally, their favorite creation: humankind. When they were done, Sky Father and Earth Mother left the world, so it could grow freely on its own.
But the Younger Gods were arrogant and cruel. They resented humans because humans had been granted the gift of storytelling; the gift of memory. So, they tormented humankind with fires, storms, and floods, until all the tribes were scattered across the land, struggling for survival. But Helios, Knight of Dawn, the child of God and Man, came to humanity’s aid...”
After a short story introduction, you play as Helios, Knight of Dawn. After flying over the land, you descend and land at a place called the Plains of Widhu. From here you find yourself in front of a big circular stone with five of the Gods depicted upon it. This is where you play the game as a platformer, making your way through the level defeating anything in front of you. While here, you’ll be given information on how to attack etcetera as you progress. You will have various monsters and creatures that make their way towards your plain of movement from either the background or foreground of the screen.
You have your sword, bow and shield to help you defeat the monsters and creatures you come across. Swinging your sword will not cost any mana but the bow will cost mana each time you fire it. Your shield can be raised to help protect you from incoming arrows or other flying objects. As you make your way through the level you’ll have to jump and double-jump, either over obstacles or to higher areas and platforms. You will also make your way underwater, where you’ll have piranha's, huge jellyfish and armoured crustaceans all standing in the way of your progress. When you near the end of the level there’s a small circular object; standing on this will allow you to save your progress before you continue towards the levels boss, which is waiting for you close by.
After defeating the level boss you’ll slam your sword into the ground and take off in flight, after which you will find yourself above the ground, a dark sinister cloud surrounding some sort of building with a light emanating from within. Hovering over the light is a dark object with eyes on the side. Before you can check out this mysterious object and cloud, you can feel someone calling you from the north. So, you fly off heading north to see who is calling you, where you come across some open land with a bonfire in the middle. Hovering over the bonfire, you’ll be able to select it; this will then set off some chat between Pria and Manu. It was Manu, an older man, who had called out to Helios; Pria is Manu’s granddaughter. It’s from here that you’ll start the tower defense part of this game; the bonfire must be protected from what is about to head your way.
The humans will build around the bonfire and other nearby buildings you construct as they don’t like to live in isolation. You will need to give the humans commands on what to build and do. To start with, you’ll need to build housing so that you can increase the population of your newly created town. Each house you build will increase your population by five. Erecting houses and other buildings will cost you varying amounts of wood. To build anything, you’ll need to open the Building Commands and then select the building you want to construct. To begin with, not everything is unlocked, but they will unlock as you progress. You need to build a house by the bonfire and from there you can spread out around the surrounding area.
Once you’ve placed your house, Pria will speak to her grandfather about the land that is covered by dark clouds, and from where all the animals have fled in fear. As there now are no animals to hunt, you’ll need to grow your own food. Helios has powers which he can use to manipulate the weather; you can use these powers to make Rain and Lightning, summon a Sun Guardian and Speed Up Time. Using the Rain power will fertilise the land, allowing the people to grow food. Controlling the weather will cost you energy, although should you run out of energy you can just replace it by flying through the clouds to absorb more. Once you have fertilised the land you can then select the Farm from the basic building's menu and place the farm where you fertilised the land.
Farms and other buildings will require workers to man them; different buildings will require a varying number of workers. Farms will need one worker to farm for food, and you’ll require more farms as your population grows. However, before your population can grow you will require wood to expand your town, which can be collected from nearby trees. To collect the wood, you must first create a pathway to the trees and then build a lumber mill beside the trees. Once built, you will need to assign workers to chop down the trees.
After building the lumber mill, strange creatures will soon appear from the north. They will follow a path which goes through your growing town and towards the south. The creatures are coming from a place that’s hidden under a dark sinister cloud. To combat these creatures, you’ll be required to build some Barracks. To build Barracks you will need to select them from the Building Commands and by selecting the Defense Buildings. As you progress you will unlock new basic and defensive buildings, such as Archery, Magic Towers and Forges etcetera.
You will need to build these in the north for now; you won’t have long before the creatures start making their way to your bonfire. You can see how much time is left before the incoming creatures start their assault in a bar at the bottom of the screen. If they reach and destroy your bonfire then it’s game over and you’ll have to restart. The incoming creatures come from within a lair, above which are dark clouds and a dark object with eyes. To push back the dark clouds, you will need to build a shrine/temple. Once this happens and the creatures have stopped attacking, then you can fly Helios over the creature’s lair and attack the lair.
THE FULL REVIEW CAN BE VIEWED IN IT'S ENTIRETY HERE AS IT WAS TOO BIG TO POST HERE.
Positives
+ Town building, Tower Defense and Platforming all in one game
+ Nice graphics
+ Good story
+ Has achievements
+ Has cards
Negatives
- Resources can be a little limited
As Helios, rid the world of the Young Gods and help humanity thrive in the world created by Sky Father and Earth Mother.
8/10
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Although the game is short, the story`s writing is great, the game has 2 sequences.
Action Sequence - The action sequences are, frankly, a little disappointing. The controls are noticeably sluggish. Not unplayable by any means, but there is a definite delay between press and action. There is a lot of afterswing animation that cannot be interrupted as well. Combine this with enemies that attack right at the edge of the screen (ranged are the worst about this) and you get a number of cheap hits that are pretty frustrating. It's hard to find a flow. There are an array of attack and defense moves but a lot of time the best option is to just jump and attack.
The use of foreground and background is neat but it's hard to tell if the enemy is on your plane. Leads to a lot of waiting or just running headlong into them. All in all the action bits have left me a little flat so far.
Tower Defence Sequence - build your tribes defences and resources to defend against the oncoming waves of monsters until you can get into the action phase to defeat the boss of each area.