BUT WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON YAOI
I finally beat Galerians: ASH just a few minutes ago! (STUPID ASH AND HIS STUPID BEYBLADES WERE HOLDING ME UP) Yaaay.
You know what, I'll admit it. I had a lot of fun playing this game.
Now, I'm not gonna say that this was a good game by any means. Actually, it was kind of horrible. Not the WORST game I've ever played (that honor belongs to Digimon World), but it's definitely not winning any medals. Nonetheless, I was always eager to play it - I never had to force myself to get over to the PS2 and pick it up, which... sometimes I've had to do for other games. I honestly had a good time with it. I'm gonna assume there's a few reasons for that attitude - A) I'm a Galerians fan already, B) I came into playing this game with absolutely zero expectations, and C) I wasn't taking it seriously at all. It makes a huge difference if you buy this game expecting a sequel that will live up to (or even surpass) the original game or if you buy it expecting complete and utter crap that you'd probably rather forget afterwards.
Since I was in the latter camp, I ended up pleasantly surprised! It was actually playable and I only wanted to bang my head into the wall some of the time.
The biggest flaw with this game is the terrible environment/monster design, IMO. Even looking at it as a standalone game and not as a sequel to Galerians, the atmosphere is godawful. All the settings are the exact same poorly-textured gray-black metal halls, and that's only slightly exaggerating. Really, really boring. It's especially boring compared to the first game, which had those wonderful oldschool seperately-rendered backgrounds and a variety of settings to travel through. The monsters are just stupid. I could design better monsters than the ones in this game. They looked more like rejected concepts from Final Fantasy VII and VIII than Galerians monsters. Even the Rabbits, which they reused from the last game, got a terrible redesign that made them totally different enemies. I have no idea what the monster designer was thinking. LET'S MAKE A GIANT PURPLE MONSTER THAT PUNCHES YOU WITH GLOWING RED FISTS AND SHOOTS SOUNDWAVES. SOUNDS TERRIFYING.
Gameplay is also an issue, mostly because I have no idea what they were even going for. Horror action game, I guess? In any case, it's clumsily-designed and not very intuitive. The horror element of the game is almost entirely missing, discounting certain plot elements (like Nitro's clothes. /ZING), and it feels more like a really watered down Jet Force Gemini or something. Or a third-rate sci-fi game... which is basically what it is. Talk about genre shift. Anyway, the gameplay was boring and clumsy and occasionally frustrating, but it was very playable - certain boss fights were really difficult thanks to the weird controls and bad camera angles, but if you keep trying, you can definitely win. It just takes a lot of patience. (Fortunately, I have a lot of that thanks to also enjoying all the new Sonic games. YOU SEE THIS GIRL? SHE OWNS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG AND SONIC THE HEDGEHOG '06. AND SHE LIKES THEM AND STILL PLAYS THEM)
OKAY THE PLOTSKI. Actually not that much more ridiculous/corny than the one in the first game IMO. Wasn't so bad. I didn't like the fact that they moved it into YOU ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE HUMANS IN THE WAR AND IN THEIR BASE. The elimination of the element of isolation basically removes any creepiness the first game had, which was kinda minimal in the first place. But I could deal with it.
The big issue with the plot was CHARACTERIZATION. Mainly with Rion and Lilia, but there were some other questionable points as well. Ash's backstory was really ham-handed; they tried to make you feel bad for him, but... you really just don't. Because he's an asshole. So his mommy was mean to him? You're still not really going to want to forgive him and feel sorry for him after he molests Rion and gets Lilia killed, not to mention he's trying to nuke the entire planet. WOW WHAT A POOR BABY. Rion and Lilia basically turned into cardboard - I don't know what happened there. They have no notable personality traits in Galerians: Ash whatsoever. Rion's anti-socialness is gone (everyone in the base is mean to him, like the producers were trying to IMPLY he was still kind of a jerk, but he never does anything to support their attitudes or that characteristic) and he has some really weird lines in the game that will just make you go 'bwuh?' Suddenly, he's adopted some kind of 'benevolent overseer of the humans' attitude? I could swallow the 'Rion is sympathetic' bit, because it is slightly true - he felt bad about killing the Galerians in the first game - but it just seemed like that small facet of his personality was expanded to ridiculous proportions. Again, they dropped the 'anti-social' part of personality entirely. Lilia was hugely disappointing - I was excited that she had grown up into an important and intelligent scientist, but her role is actually extremely minor. She seems bizarrely cold towards Rion and... well, towards just about everyone. Wasn't she the one in the original who begged Rion not to kill Rita? I don't even get what happened there.
This isn't even mentioning the fact that both kids were in denial that Rion was a Galerian at the end of the last game. In this one, they both just accept it as fact with no discussion or anxiety or anything. It's really weird.
The BL is random and I'm still not exactly sure why it's in there. Not that it would be any more acceptable if Ash was a girl. I'm really confused on why they shoehorned kissing into this game, and twice. I'll be fair and say that sure, the first time is forgivable - they were trying to make Ash creepy, whatever. And since Ash is a new character being developed, it's a believable part of his personality - he's a computer program, what does he care about kissing some human guy? But Rion kissing him? What. THERE ARE NO EXCUSES FOR THAT OTHER THAN YOU WANTED FANSERVICE OR SOMETHING, BUT IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE THIS GAME IS REALLY GEARED TOWARDS ANIME FANGIRLS AND ESPECIALLY ONES OF THAT NATURE. AGAIN, they completely dropped big parts of his previously-established personality! I know people go 'IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO TRANSFER THE VIRUS' but jeez IT'S NOT LIKE HE HAD TO KISS DOROTHY. He just had to stick his hand out at her and scream a lot. That's how Rion solves his problems, man. ( I'm also bitter because IF YOU REALLY WANTED RION TO KISS SOMEONE COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN LILIA JEEZ SERIOUSLY )
That said, I actually ended up liking Ash. You can make fun of me. It's definitely not because of his sob-story background; it's more because I have a weakness for his character type. Non-human evil guys who are so smug and dominant you wanna punch them in the face. They always get me. ( Look at my favorite characters from other series and you'll see this pattern. ) Also, I just love making fun of him so much that I ended up being happy whenever he appeared onscreen. That's that. The other Galerians were also pretty okay, although Spider was really boring and predictable. For all my whining, I think Parano is really cute, and Nitro was actually quite cool. I just wish she had better outfit design lmfao IT WAS REALLY HARD FOR ME TO GET OVER THAT AND ACTUALLY APPRECIATE HER CHARACTER
It's a completely terrible sequel to the first game, but I ended up separating the two of them mentally. When I think of them, I barely think they're connected. Rion and Lilia's personalities getting trashed definitely helped along with that. They're in the same universe, but they seem like totally different stories. Maybe that's why I don't hate it - G:A doesn't corrupt my vision of Galerians.
THAT SAID I ALSO ONLY SPENT $4 ON THIS GAME SO I GOT A GOOD DEAL. IF I PAID FULL PRICE I WOULD HAVE REGRETTED IT.
You know what, I'll admit it. I had a lot of fun playing this game.
Now, I'm not gonna say that this was a good game by any means. Actually, it was kind of horrible. Not the WORST game I've ever played (that honor belongs to Digimon World), but it's definitely not winning any medals. Nonetheless, I was always eager to play it - I never had to force myself to get over to the PS2 and pick it up, which... sometimes I've had to do for other games. I honestly had a good time with it. I'm gonna assume there's a few reasons for that attitude - A) I'm a Galerians fan already, B) I came into playing this game with absolutely zero expectations, and C) I wasn't taking it seriously at all. It makes a huge difference if you buy this game expecting a sequel that will live up to (or even surpass) the original game or if you buy it expecting complete and utter crap that you'd probably rather forget afterwards.
Since I was in the latter camp, I ended up pleasantly surprised! It was actually playable and I only wanted to bang my head into the wall some of the time.
The biggest flaw with this game is the terrible environment/monster design, IMO. Even looking at it as a standalone game and not as a sequel to Galerians, the atmosphere is godawful. All the settings are the exact same poorly-textured gray-black metal halls, and that's only slightly exaggerating. Really, really boring. It's especially boring compared to the first game, which had those wonderful oldschool seperately-rendered backgrounds and a variety of settings to travel through. The monsters are just stupid. I could design better monsters than the ones in this game. They looked more like rejected concepts from Final Fantasy VII and VIII than Galerians monsters. Even the Rabbits, which they reused from the last game, got a terrible redesign that made them totally different enemies. I have no idea what the monster designer was thinking. LET'S MAKE A GIANT PURPLE MONSTER THAT PUNCHES YOU WITH GLOWING RED FISTS AND SHOOTS SOUNDWAVES. SOUNDS TERRIFYING.
Gameplay is also an issue, mostly because I have no idea what they were even going for. Horror action game, I guess? In any case, it's clumsily-designed and not very intuitive. The horror element of the game is almost entirely missing, discounting certain plot elements (like Nitro's clothes. /ZING), and it feels more like a really watered down Jet Force Gemini or something. Or a third-rate sci-fi game... which is basically what it is. Talk about genre shift. Anyway, the gameplay was boring and clumsy and occasionally frustrating, but it was very playable - certain boss fights were really difficult thanks to the weird controls and bad camera angles, but if you keep trying, you can definitely win. It just takes a lot of patience. (Fortunately, I have a lot of that thanks to also enjoying all the new Sonic games. YOU SEE THIS GIRL? SHE OWNS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG AND SONIC THE HEDGEHOG '06. AND SHE LIKES THEM AND STILL PLAYS THEM)
OKAY THE PLOTSKI. Actually not that much more ridiculous/corny than the one in the first game IMO. Wasn't so bad. I didn't like the fact that they moved it into YOU ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE HUMANS IN THE WAR AND IN THEIR BASE. The elimination of the element of isolation basically removes any creepiness the first game had, which was kinda minimal in the first place. But I could deal with it.
The big issue with the plot was CHARACTERIZATION. Mainly with Rion and Lilia, but there were some other questionable points as well. Ash's backstory was really ham-handed; they tried to make you feel bad for him, but... you really just don't. Because he's an asshole. So his mommy was mean to him? You're still not really going to want to forgive him and feel sorry for him after he molests Rion and gets Lilia killed, not to mention he's trying to nuke the entire planet. WOW WHAT A POOR BABY. Rion and Lilia basically turned into cardboard - I don't know what happened there. They have no notable personality traits in Galerians: Ash whatsoever. Rion's anti-socialness is gone (everyone in the base is mean to him, like the producers were trying to IMPLY he was still kind of a jerk, but he never does anything to support their attitudes or that characteristic) and he has some really weird lines in the game that will just make you go 'bwuh?' Suddenly, he's adopted some kind of 'benevolent overseer of the humans' attitude? I could swallow the 'Rion is sympathetic' bit, because it is slightly true - he felt bad about killing the Galerians in the first game - but it just seemed like that small facet of his personality was expanded to ridiculous proportions. Again, they dropped the 'anti-social' part of personality entirely. Lilia was hugely disappointing - I was excited that she had grown up into an important and intelligent scientist, but her role is actually extremely minor. She seems bizarrely cold towards Rion and... well, towards just about everyone. Wasn't she the one in the original who begged Rion not to kill Rita? I don't even get what happened there.
This isn't even mentioning the fact that both kids were in denial that Rion was a Galerian at the end of the last game. In this one, they both just accept it as fact with no discussion or anxiety or anything. It's really weird.
The BL is random and I'm still not exactly sure why it's in there. Not that it would be any more acceptable if Ash was a girl. I'm really confused on why they shoehorned kissing into this game, and twice. I'll be fair and say that sure, the first time is forgivable - they were trying to make Ash creepy, whatever. And since Ash is a new character being developed, it's a believable part of his personality - he's a computer program, what does he care about kissing some human guy? But Rion kissing him? What. THERE ARE NO EXCUSES FOR THAT OTHER THAN YOU WANTED FANSERVICE OR SOMETHING, BUT IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE THIS GAME IS REALLY GEARED TOWARDS ANIME FANGIRLS AND ESPECIALLY ONES OF THAT NATURE. AGAIN, they completely dropped big parts of his previously-established personality! I know people go 'IT WAS THE ONLY WAY TO TRANSFER THE VIRUS' but jeez IT'S NOT LIKE HE HAD TO KISS DOROTHY. He just had to stick his hand out at her and scream a lot. That's how Rion solves his problems, man. ( I'm also bitter because IF YOU REALLY WANTED RION TO KISS SOMEONE COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN LILIA JEEZ SERIOUSLY )
That said, I actually ended up liking Ash. You can make fun of me. It's definitely not because of his sob-story background; it's more because I have a weakness for his character type. Non-human evil guys who are so smug and dominant you wanna punch them in the face. They always get me. ( Look at my favorite characters from other series and you'll see this pattern. ) Also, I just love making fun of him so much that I ended up being happy whenever he appeared onscreen. That's that. The other Galerians were also pretty okay, although Spider was really boring and predictable. For all my whining, I think Parano is really cute, and Nitro was actually quite cool. I just wish she had better outfit design lmfao IT WAS REALLY HARD FOR ME TO GET OVER THAT AND ACTUALLY APPRECIATE HER CHARACTER
It's a completely terrible sequel to the first game, but I ended up separating the two of them mentally. When I think of them, I barely think they're connected. Rion and Lilia's personalities getting trashed definitely helped along with that. They're in the same universe, but they seem like totally different stories. Maybe that's why I don't hate it - G:A doesn't corrupt my vision of Galerians.
THAT SAID I ALSO ONLY SPENT $4 ON THIS GAME SO I GOT A GOOD DEAL. IF I PAID FULL PRICE I WOULD HAVE REGRETTED IT.