cw: sexual assault, rather gruesome deaths
so there's video games i love and then there's video games where i would consider my religion. galleria is the latter because it's one of the most ambitious rpgs i've ever played and i can't really explain its scope except it's fucking massive.
the story is about a girl named eureka who's a spirit medium of sorts. she's looking for a job and she finds herself in this strange mansion where she's summoned you, the player, to help her find shit in this multidimensional dungeon that's totally not inspired by the wizardry games. you help her and the cast out doing epic fetch quests but the catch is you're never meeting them the next day.
think of yourself as the worst multidimensional fedex. in the dungeon, time flows "normally" for you. but when you're back on earth, days or months have passed. you have to get your bearings and try to follow this rather intricate story that tackles political themes, sexuality, and so on.
and like, you start reading about the struggles of characters against rather Cosmic themes. and these characters are like teenagers.
i'm not talking "anime teenagers" where for some reason the kids start loving motorbikes or some shit. they're like actual teens, the ones who keep appearing on tiktok and have like puberty problems. those teens. i hate them because i was one of them.
and for me, one of the most incredible things about the story is how it's really about a bunch of teens dealing with the most adult shit. there's some hardcore themes about feeling fatshamed because your mom's ugly, you don't know how to express yourself after you hear someone randomly dump some trauma to you, or you have no idea what the fuck to feel about the turbulent political climate where everyone's dying around you. and these are just teens dealing with rather Adult stuff that i'm sure no adult can really handle irl as much as they pretend to say so on twitter.
the setting gets more and more elaborate, its stakes becoming bigger and higher. you end up cheering for these awful teenagers who just want to be together (it's yuri, which is even better) and you get swept away by the insane scope of it all. the final story beats broke my heart many, many times. i wept like i was kenshiro from hokuto no ken. it's really Something.
and like, i don't want to be more explicit than what i've written. i think a lot of people who've played galleria feel the same. part of what makes the game so exciting is how surprising it is. you think the story's gonna stop at this scale, but nope: it keeps escalating. the plot detail from the first hour is actually important in the 50th hour of your gameplay time. there's So Much Stuff that a ten hour video essay might not be able to cover it all.
like i'm dead serious about how crazy the plot and setting can be.
but in the end, it's still a game about two hurt girls who should be together. and you the player are helping them overcome the odds and get together. it's this 60-100 hour game where each gameplay element forces you to do some crazy shit and asks you how much you really want the plot to be resolved. do you want to end the story in a half-assed way or do you want to see the happy ending the two girls deserve?
as a drpg, galleria is pretty top-notch too. very cool wiz-like exploration and all. but i think people who are going to buy it as a drpg don't need me to explain. the audience of this post is people who aren't sure about this drpg thing or why i'm obsessed with galleria.
because i think it's kinda hard to explain galleria in the end. i could talk about how cool the gameplay is, but it's the Spoilers that really excite me. it's the extreme content that has upset me (please do take the cws nisa has put seriously, i actually think they've done a good job in being clear about this) and why i feel very invested with these rather realistic and somewhat unlikable characters. the stuff i can't really talk about but really feel about.
i know i'm kinda a broken clock when it comes to recommending games i really love. but galleria is likely a top three title for me, perhaps more so than demons roots on some days. it's a game that i seriously think about and just go "damn, i'm glad nippon ichi actually funded this wild auteur project that's more ballsy than an eroge".
what a title. i hope this post is useful lol.
