Valraune

I wasn't kidding about the hilariously bad fixed camera angles by the way. I am literally not there at this angle, what you see is an enemy, not me. There's also a door on the wall that is also obscured by the statue hahahaha. Again, less of an issue in Stage-B at least and I hope that continues moving forward.

I briefly mentioned enjoying Galerians a bit when I did the post about backlog bingo, but I've now made it through to the second disc of the game and figured I'd do a little bit of an update on the matter. There really are a number of things I do rather enjoy about Galerians and some of the things that I didn't enjoy weren't as frequent when in the second main area of the game thankfully so my general opinion is a bit better overall.

I think the premise of a psychic kid with select powers as weapons that use energy being the ammunition is cool. I also think the system at play where the more you use your powers or more time that passes, a gauge builds up and eventually you go into a fever state. Can't run, take damage over time, but any small enemies instantly die when you walk to them. There's a unique level of risk/reward about letting it build up as well as a whole new form of resource to consider as you walk through areas. It's worth noting that when the bar is capped out you do not instantly go into fever, but you do when you make an attempt at using one of your offensive powers.

Going into rooms with enemies within, knowing this you can choose to step in with a full AP bar, trigger fever to kill them with ease to make later traversal easier assuming you have the delmetor and/or recovery capsule to fix your current state. I actually really like this. I think using sense to see the location of a puzzle item, or key item while at the place you use the item is kind of cool. It helps mentally guide/map where to go. This is less of an issue in the 2nd area compared to the 1st, the 2nd is pretty easy to navigate.

Let's consider other pros of Galerians. The way in which the powers/resources and things of that nature work I do think are very cool and interesting. But hey, this game was in 1999. Did you know this game lets you pull up a small version of the whole area map onto the screen without having to swap to a map screen at the press of a button? It makes it so snappy to just, quickly look at a map as you're moving and then put it away for visibility and just go to where you're trying to go next. This is super awesome!!!

This game does however have uh, some issues kind of. Again, some of these cons feel more egregious at the first area of the game and less of an issue in the second. Let's start.

• Alright, sometimes in the first area this game has some of the historically bad fixed camera angles I've ever seen. Like for real some of these I cannot see where I'm even at.
• Oh boy, my favorite. So, I complimented the map system and for what it's worth it certainly deserves that praise given the release date. It does come with a drawback though in that none of these rooms are described, you really have to mentally map out what is what. The first area is rough, a lot of rooms feel very samey and blend together whereas the second does have a few unique enough landmarks that aren't too difficult to remember.