by Flying Omelette

Does the story of ActRaiser 2 make sense to anybody? 1. Although we're not told how much time has passed since the events of ActRaiser 1, it sure must've been a lot, because the entire world has changed! Isn't it just a little strange that absolutely none of the old towns still exist? Or that the shape of the land has completely changed? 2. According to the opening dialogue and the manual, the story goes that Tanzra's most powerful demons have resurrected him. Wow! What a retcon! If these are Tanzra's "most powerful" demons, then where the heck were they in ActRaiser 1?? 3. Where did the Master's wings come from? Now, a possible theory is that the spirit of the Master brings to life the form of the statue that it possesses. Perhaps, the reason he has wings is simply because the statues the people made of the Master were made with wings. BUT there's still a problem with that theory...Presumably, the opening sequence is a recreation of the final battle from ActRaiser 1. And in this scene, the Master has his wings! If this is a recreation of that fight, he should not have them, because he did not have them in ActRaiser 1! 4. The opening sequence that recreates the final boss fight of ActRaiser 1 is just *wrong* on every level. It's not just the wings. First of all, the Master fights his way through a bunch of enemies that not only didn't exist in ActRaiser 1, but shouldn't exist at all, because there were no minor enemies in Death Heim where the Master confronted Tanzra. Just the Act 2 bosses, which don't appear in this recreation. In fact, this battle doesn't look like it's taking place in Death Heim at all. It looks like it's taking place in the sky, possibly outside the Master's (destroyed?) Sky Palace. Death Heim was inside a volcano in the ocean! Also, the Master never faces Tanzra's first form (his disembodied head), and he blocks Tanzra's fireballs with a shield. Again, he had no such shield in ActRaiser 1. There is one possible explanation for this...Perhaps this scene is not supposed to be a recreation of ActRaiser 1's final boss fight, but rather a new opening to this game's story. It's possible that what we're seeing is Tanzra, after being resurrected by his demons, attacks the Master's Sky Palace, and the Master fends him off. Though it certainly looks to me like Tanzra is destroyed, maybe he really isn't. (But this still doesn't explain why the entire world changed.) A third explanation is that it's possible this scene is "retconning" ActRaiser 1's story. Remember in the beginning of ActRaiser 1, in both the Angel's dialogue and the manual, we're told that Tanzra attacked the Master's Sky Palace, and the Master lost. The Master sealed himself inside the Palace to recover, and that's how Tanzra was able to roam free on the earth and conquer it. Maybe this scene is an "alternate universe" version of that story where the Master wins the battle, and thus the events of ActRaiser 1 never happened. Tanzra never destroyed civilization, which would explain why none of the towns of ActRaiser 1 exist in ActRaiser 2. What exists in ActRaiser 2 would've been the civilization that Tanzra destroyed in ActRaiser 1. Actually, this explanation makes the most sense to me. Finally, a nitpick that can apply to either ActRaiser game...Why is it that the Master can fight in a "human" form when he's in the sky, but has to inhabit a manmade statue to fight on earth?? Or is there a statue in the Sky Palace that he has to possess when he wants to do stuff? I'd think that'd be rather inconvenient, don't you? What happens if it gets broken? And who built it??