Waifuvania
Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is a sequel to the previously released Gal Guardians: Demon Purge. Unfamiliar with the series, I went in not knowing what to expect and the games Story and premise is pretty simple. The world is made up of an Angel, Human and a Demon Realm, in the Demon world you play as two maids who are returning from a getaway and on returning to the castle they reside and where they work for a Demon Lord, they see the castle is on fire and are currently being attacked by an outside force. The force in question is of course other Demons where the evil Demon Lord Lyzenorg wreaks havoc on the Demon Lord of the castle Maxim, as the girls try to intervene it is too late as Maxim seems to explode into thousands of bones, the treacherous head maid now turned evil Lysa fights the two sisters and after it soon becomes apparent Maxim isn’t really dead and still roams about as a small but cute spirit head and knows where his bones are and helps the girls navigate the world in order to collect them so that he may be revived and his body restored to life.
Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark from the get go plays like a Castlevania game but with anime-style characters, a lot of fan service and many areas to explore and uncover with a anime-style story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. These characters seem immune from death, well being demons and all that’s hardly surprising and even though the game appears dark with blood, gore and death, it still does a good job of being wierdly and very cosy.
There are several difficulty settings so even if you aren’t familiar with these types of games like me you can opt for the Casual setting where you will have the easiest time, I still like a challenge so I went for Standard difficulty and I still found it not too bad in terms of difficulty, if you enjoy a good bit of fair game you won’t go wrong with playing the Standard difficulty.
Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark has you play as both protagonists, Kirika who is a gun specialist who favours long range guns and Masha who is preferable to get close and personal with her giant whip. You can switch between both on the fly and adapt to the situation based on their playstyle. While Masha definitely hits harder with her weapon, Kirika is definitely weaker where she better suited firing from long range and you can use her dash to fire off a giant shotgun attack which does more damage. The disadvantage here is that her bullets wane rather fast and you must wait for them to recharge, equally Masha takes the brunt of damage as she will most likely be in enemies range for the most part. Both sisters can be equipped with a secondary weapon but using these consume DP so can not just be used haphazardly.
Being a Castlevania style game means there’s lots of different ways in which you can progress including secret rooms and areas which require precise jumping or a bit of wall hugging against a suspicious wall. These areas can provide loot or an upgrade so it is always worthwhile to explore. Not only can you collect money and materials from enemy drop and from treasure chest but also which is the most important is the bones of Maxim as mentioned earlier. These bones are the lifeblood to levelling up and unlocking new skills which in turn can allow you to traverse previously inaccessible paths.
The games aesthetic is really well done and does the job of conveying an evil world. The castle although looked quite blandish to begin with has a lot of character the more you explore and the forest also had the same issue for me, but the more you play the more you come across the small intricacies that are really well done such as reflections, and some of the later areas look really fantastic with many more mechanics going on. If you aren’t into anime style games then the cutscenes will not be something you enjoy but fans of anime and Castlevania will have a great time, there’s plenty of cutscenes and tongue in cheek which you can expect.
From a replay-ability point of view, the game does a good of this as there are a lot of areas to explore including secret areas, there is a map that is accessible and easy to understand. It tells you where essential things are such as save points or if you have opened a chest in a specific area, no area feels wasted either, if you fall from a great height you can expect to end up somewhere else entirely rather than just in a dead area where you have to start over. The game does have a fast travel mechanic but you can expect to go out and backtrack often if you need to go somewhere which may be frustrating to some. The game even features co-op which really does make the game more fun than it really should be. If you have someone else to play the game with either online or local co-op then I would really advise to explore this avenue.
The game does have some really good iconic boss fights all of which get progressively harder and whilst they can possess a challenge they are done so in a way that feels fair. If one of your maidens does die they can be resurrected by the other in comical fashion but this does mean that you will be open to attack which isn’t at all great in some boss fights especially so it is better not to die, which is sometimes easier said than done.
Overall Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark has surprised me, in the first moments of the game it didn’t grip me but I found myself enjoying it more as I progressed, not having played the first game in the series nothing was lost on me from a story perspective so you can definitely get stuck in if that is something you were concerned with. I found myself really engaged in the story just for the charm and I grew to enjoy Maxim as an adorable spirit head more than I cared to admit, he will also provide some beneficial bonuses in the game later on which was also surprising. Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark has a great art style and the music fits the game for what it is.
A PlayStation 4 Review Code was provided by PQube. This article is featured on OpenCritic
