PS1 REVIEWS: Galerians

The massive success of Capcom's Resident Evil games heralded the appearance of many pretenders to its Survival-Horror throne, very few of them ever getting close to the level of proficiency needed to match the leaders. Despite being developed by a little-known developer, Galerians was one of the closest games to reach the level of Capcom's marquee Survival-Horror franchise.

#A21: Galerians:-
Year: 1999, 2000.
Genre: Survival-Horror.
Publisher: ASCII Entertainment, Crave Entertainment.
Developer: Polygon Magic.

"Well, it looks like the rabbit is out of its cage. Return to your room and you won't get hurt"

Set in a far future world, the story of Galerians follows the escape of a boy, Rion, from a mysterious medical facility while coming to terms with his hazy memory and powerful telekinetic abilities. In his escape, Rion is clued on the state of his family and his connection to a powerful telepathic connection to a childhood friend. Aiming to catch Rion is the mysterious group that was experimenting on him at the beginning of the game along with a group of superhumans called Galerians.

The mystery surrounding the world and Rion's place in it drives much of the plot, and a lot of that plot is revealed in brilliant CGI scenes for the time. Yet, I was most impressed not by those scenes, but by the brilliant mechanic of revealing information on the world through Rion's telepathic ability. Basically, Rion can "examine" places and objects in the world telepathically, uncovering their past in a revealing cut-scene or still image. For example, by examining a sink, Rion is sent a flashback to the moment his mother was killed next to the sink, dropping an important ring in the process.

Telekenesis is also Rion's main offensive weapon

Besides the mystery of Rion's power, the setting of the world itself is interesting due to the contrast it employs. The medical facility that encompasses the first level is sterile and futuristic, while a hotel you visit later is grungy and suggestive of a wildly unequal world.

Overall, I wouldn't say that the story of Galerians or its world is particularly brilliant, but I do think that it was a well-realized place for gaming at the time, and is still interesting today despite some rather ugly visual designs.

"I am sorry Rion, humankind's future is in your hands"

A PS1 Survival-Horror game is almost defined by its similarity to Resident Evil, and as such, Galerians is a bonafide game of the genre. Featuring tank controls and fixed-camera screens, it moves and plays like a classic Resident Evil game.

I have stated before that Survival-Horror games were basically Action-based point-and-click Adventure games. You move from room to room finding items to solve "puzzles" to unlock more rooms, with the combat being a simplistic mechanic that taxes your inventory management more than your dexterity.

Dealing with multiple enemies will tax your tank control skills though

So, how fun is Galerians within the trapping of the genre?

In the puzzle department, the game doesn't have as interesting a set-up as the Resident Evil games beyond the aforementioned telepathic examination mechanic, but it is not its weakest system. That would be reserved for the game's combat mechanics, which simply require you to utilize the poor tank controls to the best of your abilities to avoid attacks while looking for an opportunity to charge an effective attack which gets boring quickly.

Yet, despite some pedestrian puzzles and boring battles, the game remains mostly fun. At least, it remains mostly fun outside of some terrible boss battles that you should hope you have enough resources to withstand or you would otherwise be blocked to advance.

Boss battles oscillate between being super frustrating and boring

"I can feel your suffering; when you feel pain, I feel it too"

Although Galerians could be accused of wholeheartedly copying its game mechanics and structure from the much more successful Resident Evil franchise, it cannot be accused of not bringing anything original to the table since its use and advances of CGI are notable.

With many story scenes, both small cut-scenes and longer expositional scenes, being completely computer generated, the game needed a whopping three discs to encompass it all despite being rather short. Those CGI scenes were some of the best on the PS1 and still look rather decent even if they aged terribly today.

Something aged better/worse than others

Something else that aged terribly was the English voice acting, which was a mixture of acceptable hamminess and cringe-worthy performances. Nothing as iconically awful as a "Jill Sandwich" remark, but the weak voice acting nonetheless.

Outside of the CGI scenes and the bad voice acting, the rest of the production is par the course with good 3D character models and interesting hand painted backgrounds. Musically, the soundtrack wasn't very memorable to be honest besides an interesting opening video score.

In Conclusion:

Classic Survival-Horror games with tank controls are not must-play games today like they were in the early days of the PS1. Yet, they still have their own charm, and as far as those games go, Galerians is absolutely one of the better ones.

Final: 7/10 (Recommended for genre fans)

Something about to burst...

Pros:

• A good story with some solid themes
• Brilliant CGI Scenes for the time
• The telepathic examination mechanic is brilliant
• Good 3D character models

Cons:

• Some boring puzzles and combat
• Terrible boss battles
• Poor voice acting and lack of notable music
• Some of the graphics and CGI scenes did not age well
  

Tips:

1. Use telepathy to interact with everything.
2. No need to kill all enemies.
3. Learn how to run and avoid enemies to preserve ammo.
4. Shooting requires charging time, so master the timing to avoid getting attacked.
5. You can only fight one enemy effectively, so move around to isolate enemies when more than one presents themselves.
6. In the hotel stage, visit all rooms.

There is some actual horror in the game

Series:

For those reading one of my PS1 review blogs for the first time, here is the basic concept:

I already reviewed both major Generation 4 consoles, and am now reviewing Generation 5 consoles. I already finished reviewing the Sega Saturn, so I am now reviewing the PS1. In these reviews, I take a top 100 games list and review the games that interest me in that list.This time, my review series is based on this list from Retro Sanctuary and other sources, since the PS1 can handle a list bigger than a top 100.

No, seriously, there are some truly horrific images in the game

Next Game:

I have thankfully enjoyed Galerians, which was an example of a good Resident Evil clone.

Next, after another report on the addendum list, I am going to revisit one of my favorite games on the PS1, Grandia, which sits at #29 on the Retro Sanctuary list. It would take me a long time to finish it, but I am sure to love every minute of it.

Stay tuned.

For Previous PS1 Game Reviews:

The List 

This blog was originally posted in Cohost on July 12th, 2024.