Sega announces SolSeraph, a spiritual successor to ActRaiser

Sega announced a new platform/strategy hybrid called SolSeraph today, and it's a clear homage to the beloved ActRaiser series that originally appeared on the SNES in 1990. SolSeraph will launch on Steam July 10, alongside modern consoles.

You take on the role of Helios, Knight of the Dawn, angel for hire, and guardian of humanity. Your job is twofold: to guide human settlements by building homes and defenses to protect them from hordes of monsters, and then of course dispatching those monsters personally.

The game flips between a retro action platformer in which you'll be running, jumping, and hitting things with a sword; and a top-down strategy mode that looks like a hybrid of a colony builder and tower defense game.

The trailer, as you can see, includes several clear throwbacks to ActRaiser, even including a nod to the pseudo-3D map effects you might remember from the SNES' Mode 7 graphics rendering.

SolSeraph is developed by Ace Team, the studio behind the Rock of Ages series, Zeno Clash, and Deadly Tower of Monsters, so some zaniness can probably be expected.