Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Reviews

In 1997's [i]Symphony of the Night[/i] there is a beautiful moment where, thinking you've beaten the final boss and conquered all your challenges, you're awed by a cutscene of a second castle descending from the heavens, identical to the one you just purified, but upside down. You don't realize it right away, but soon enough it dawns on you that your journey is only halfway over - and the challenges are only going to get harder from here. 25 years later, almost every single Castlevania-inspired title has attempted to recreate this moment, but none fail perhaps as mundanely as [i]Gal Guardians: Demon Purge[/i]. Gal Guardians is a game that feels outdated in almost every aspect of it's design. Though I seem to argue it's the case, it's ultimately disingenuous to pinpoint one specific problem that makes this game "bad". In fact Gal Guardians almost deceived me into thinking it's "good" at various points. It's a game that would have been an obscure Japanese cult classic 20 years ago, but in the modern landscape carrying a 30$ CAD cost, nothing in this game stands out in a genre already as inflated as the Metroidvania. Or... maybe the Metroidvania? This game kinda fits into the category: it has item pick-ups, alternate routes through stages, repeat visits of areas, and fast-travel, but different stages are not connected in any way. I guess you can think of it as a sequence of increasingly complex mini-Metroidvanias but your items don't reset. This hybrid status is all fine, and a nice nod to some of the earlier Castlevania titles (which I quite enjoy), but it leads to a little bit of friction on both ends. Exploring is often not worth it since you're [b]actively[/b] aware that you're going away from your destination, and speedrunning the levels like a platformer is lacking until you gain access to the movement tools that come in later in the game. Later levels are generally better - because you have more tools at your disposal and more map space to play with, but the earlier levels are not awful either. Honestly, this is a decent enough platforming experience. Not worth $30, but still decent. Fighting is fun, and I like the decision-making involved in swapping between the two sisters (one has a powerful melee swing and the other has safer gun projectiles), but again, nothing is close to touching excellence here. I will shoutout the CPR mechanic though (if one playable character dies, you can revive them by going back to where they died) since it allows the genre to keep the super frustrating instadeath pits these games are known for, but really softens the blow. As long as you make it back to where you were before, you technically haven't lost anything. I know it's a sour spot for some people, but personally, there's a sadistic side of me that really likes the uninterruptible knockback this genre is known for - makes you really have to approach situations with care instead of bluntly running in. The CPR also makes boss fights far better, because you can always revive before engaging the boss, and thus you'll never lose both sisters. This smartly makes sure you'll never wipeout and have to clear the whole level again just for another crack at the boss. I guess I should reveal now that I personally didn't appreciate when SOTN flipped its castle on me. I'm an appreciator of a nice bite-sized gaming experience, and the idea of beating a game a second time - when I had already mentally checked it off my list - is irksome more than anything. It doesn't help that a lot of the rooms are very similar to your first trek (but with the novelty of being upside down I guess). Imagine how excited I was then, when the game reveals that upon finishing the 6th stage, you get to play the ENTIRE GAME AGAIN WITH ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGES. Yeah this part blows. It turns an perfectly respectable mid platformer romp into a slog that pains you to sit through as you ponder: "Why....?" Un-hyperbolizing here, I guess you can take alternate routes throughout the stages, or use the 2nd playthrough to really hunt down those collectibles you missed. Bosses are also enhanced, adding a little novelty. But still the eternal question: "Why....?" And if you're trying to 100%, have fun playing A THIRD TIME! For some reason there's an entirely new type of collectible (it's [spoiler]girls' underwear................... yay anime :/[/spoiler]) that won't spawn in levels until you collect it from the final stage ON THE SECOND PLAYTHROUGH. You can also upgrade your sub-weapons using items you get from killing enhanced bosses - which is cool! But if we do the math here, with 6 stages and 12 subweapons, you literally CANNOT UPGRADE ALL OF THEM WITHOUT CLEARING 6 MORE STAGES. Make sure you don't miss anything this time around to need a 4th playthrough :) To cover the missing parts: - visuals are fine. I quite like the sisters' designs, and both the sprite and portrait art are well made! - sound design is completely forgettable - story is generic anime (bad) but also kind of knows how campy it is (good) - bosses are good except one really cringe one as a prequel to the final fight - subweapons are mostly useless but a few are really cool movement tools and/or cover awkward angles otherwise - game has voice acting in English (for gameplay, not cutscenes), and it's like good? - there's a super attack you can do by filling a meter that's sooooooo funny. It takes like 5 seconds to start up so you're guaranteed to miss whatever you were actually aiming for, but if you do end up hitting some random target (often a basic enemy that dies in one hit anyways) the game goes into a 20 second long animation where the entire screen shakes and blows up with particle effects. It's such a useless and inept attack that it loops around to being hilarious every time you misinput it (because god knows you'd never choose to use it on purpose). In closing: Don't get me wrong, there are good things about the game. But it's really hard to recommend knowing what else is out there. It sticks to it's inspirations so closely that even the small innovations it does make are not enough to pull it out of the mire of archaic game design. I guess this is the result of Dracula's Curse 25 years later.

Akamatsu Hitoshi > Igarashi Koji

nice

Excellent throwback to the style of Mega Man Zero games, but modernized and somewhat easier with a great co-op option. I highly recommend co-op for this game because it enhances the experience, truly one of the best 2-player 2D platforms out there in terms of gameplay.

Game has good graphics and tongue-in-cheek humor. Controls are smooth and crisp. I enjoy the mix of classic Castlevania and Metroidvania; it's a good mix I haven't encountered to this point. Would recommend to anyone who's a fan of either Metroidvanias or classic Castlevania gameplay.

I went into Gal Guardians only knowing that it was made by a developer that I liked and thinking it was a Metroidvania. What I discovered is that it's extremely light on the "Metroid" and very much a modern "Castlevania-like." And I absolutely loved it. Every chance I had I was playing this game for it was (spiritually) the forgotten GBA gem I never knew I needed. Movement felt great, the levels are interesting, and, while it proudly wears that Castlevania influence, the difficulty is fair, even on the hardest difficulty. Story wise, the game is a big anime cliche. You control two high school sisters, who are also professional demon hunters, who take it upon themselves to save their school and 39 classmates (38 girls and a one perverted guy) after it's been merged with a demon dimension. A few levels in there is a classic hentai trope that I would've hoped would be behind us in 2023 ([spoiler]Tentacle, or in this case, Vine Rape[/spoiler]) and, during the second half of the game, a scavenger hunt to find all the girl's missing [spoiler]panties[/spoiler]. While the [spoiler]rape[/spoiler] being a throwaway joke bothers me, the rest just struck me as funny. I also didn't realize this is a spin-off of the Gal Gun series (a series I know almost nothing about), so that puts it more in perspective, now knowing what the premise of those games are. The only gameplay gripe I have is the complete lack of a map system or any indication levels you've beaten having any remaining collectibles. The game has a "compass" system that's interesting and works for finding students and some rare items, but is absolutely useless for finding the 40 MacGuffins in the post game. Thankfully, there are a few guides on Steam that make this more tolerable, but even a little guidance in the game would've been appreciated. Anyway, fantastic game, highly recommended, and a perfect game for the Steam Deck.

It's like Curse of the Moon, only with Gal Gun characters and much better graphics. Absolutely a must-have for fans of Gal Gun and metroidvania games.