Galerians: Ash

"Proving Sequels don't always work out"

I'm very disappointed in this, I really hoped that I could rely on this game to deliver a good dose of psychic bedlam. Alas it falls just short.

Rion is the main character and I knew him from when I played the snippits of the first Game. He was a prepubescent boy then, now he's all grown up and looking "pretty". Unfortunately only in the Cutscenes - during the game he's not only a stick figure of a human, You Can See His Pixels

CHARACTERS - 10/10 I loved all the characters - well except:

Lilia but no one likes her she's a neurotic, whining and completely helpless little princess. I think they may have wanted her to stand around and look good but if so they failed. She's got absolutely no ability to look after herself. She simply calls on Rion and is utterly irritating.

Now the Galerians and Humans were all excellent. Pat was cool, ASH was understandable, Nitro was truly disturbing, Parano was loathesome, Spider was pitiable and Rion was...well he was a pretty good character though there's a problem when you like the villains more than the hero. Cass and Romero were interesting and pretty well developed in their actions of course. Lilia made me want to go psycho and throw nalcon at her.

GRAPHICS - 3/10 very disappointing, I felt like this game was originally meant for the PS but got thrown onto the PS2 hurriedly. Everything looked clunky and too synthetic.

MUSIC - 2/10 Music? there was music? I remember some good, atmospheric music once or twice but other than that it was all sound effects that grated on my nerves.

CONTROLS - 4/10 - not bad, though the fact you couldn't really move much was highly irritating to me. They tended to feel a bit sticky after a while and with all the running through the same areas the Roll comand was more for breaking the vicious cycle then anything else

ABILITIES: Nalcon, Bustanor, Red, Breakaron and - oh that other one that was as useful as a wet noodle in a street fight. I was very disappointed. The powers did barely any damage at times and then racked up the dementia to cause you to Crash! It was never a fair exchange!

PLOT: 10/10 I loved the plot, the twists Nitro brought in especially she was the greatest intigator of plot turns. I did like the plot, alas getting from one event to another could be a ridiculously long and painful task.

SCENERY: 6/10 Okay but it was repetitive: Base -> Digital World -> Power Plant ->Base -> Digital World -> Power Plant. Plus there was a lot of wide spaces that felt barren and uninteresting. Not only that but you were only ever challenged by the occasional locked gate here and there. And event hen opening it usually didn't take much thought.

GAME WORLD - 3/10: Yes three out of ten. A point for each area in the game. There was no diversity, in the last game there were a few different places that looked realistic and had characters to converse with. Here you barely ever saw other human beings and were outside the grim buildings once, to run across a helipad to a bunker. It felt very monotonous and after a while you could navigate an area blindfolded.

PUZZLES: 1/10 - there were no actual puzzles, more errands, you had to get ammo from one place or a key card or a spark cable, the challenge came from being able to stand having to run back between two points several times just to open a door. It was a let down.

ENEMIES: 4/10 - Arabesques, Rabbits, mutants and HAZMATs that's pretty much it. You had minor, simple strategies to defeat them and the only challenge came from when you were forced to fight many of them in a small area. I didn't even bother nothing the attack patterns of enemies, all you needed was to hit them with Red from behind and then Nalc them. D-Falon never worked on anything other than Rabits anyway

BOSSES: 5/10 -I enjoyed the boss fights, they were pretty good actually. They were quite repetitive but were a nice break from fighting the wash-rince-repeat enemies all over the level. I even noted how the fighting styles matched their personalities.
Parano: A brutal coward, he attacked with blades but never got close
Nitro: destructive and proud nihilist who floated above and teleported around using lots of flame attacks
Spider: Shy and scared, he retreated and fought from the shadows a lot

You get the idea. I enjoyed the boss battles and there was a little strategy in each at least...just not all that much

VOICE ACTING: 6/10 - okay, the character voices matched up well. Except for Rion's child voice mysteriously breaking... I disliked Lilia's voice. But that's because she's a whiny...y'know

IMPROVEMENTS FROM THE ORIGINAL: 0/10 none. In fact they removed your Scan ability! No secret movies anymore. They gave you two powers that really weren't that much fun to use, in fact they were so hard to use they became unreliable to a certain point. Bustanor was nice but Breakaron was dull and their refills were incredibly rare.

EXTRAS: 2/10: A few hidden movies and lots of pictures. It was a let down, after running around areas pointlessly and dealing with Lilias voice and vast floor plans with no interesting featrues all you get are a few images

OVERALL: I'd say rent it but running from one place to the other takes way too much time. Maybe buy and then sell on soon after. It's not much fun to replay, but the first time around you might have fun with the plot. Ultimately it's a let down especially in comparison to the original. I'm giving it 4/10 with great disappointment

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 05/24/06