I played this game with my cousin. She did the playing and I made maps and charts and directions in a notebook, so that when we died or had to do a section over, we could go through it faster the next time. It was a combined effort.
add in some Parasite Eve and System Shock, and ya got Galerians as a whole. Dorothy is just SHODAN, but instead of hediously mutated monsters. She created a squad of Tetsuo Shima-clones as her children.
Ok the game is really cool BUT are we not going to talk about Dr Lem showing up at 22:35 with a cane that ENDS WITH A SMALL SHOE MATCHING THE PAIR OF SHOES HE WEARS ? That's the most incredible design detail I've ever seen in a character I'm howling
A friend and I used to whisper 'Galerians' during the loading screens every time it would flash. Then, we started saying it randomly at school. The rest is, as they say, Galerians, Galerians, Galerians. Good to see this old gem getting the love it deserves after all these years.
I used to speed-run this game years ago. Still a very unique, obscure premise for a game, but can be frustrating at times. Especially if you short and run out of delmetor in the area or stage you're in. Which can result in having to start the game all over. I still have my original copy from 99 and the art book that was later released too. I should play it again sometime soon. I very much appreciate you checking it out! Fun Fact: As far as the soundtrack goes, many of the tracks are ambient pad loops with some synths n effects sprinkled in. But some, mostly boss fights and some areas, are literal rips from some Nine Inch Nails songs. There are a lot of hints and references to their music in-game too, like some of the writing on door locks and other equipment too. Not sure how they got away with some otherwise seemingly blatant sampling, but I'm not complaining.
"Games that are interesting or try something different, even if they don't fully succeed at it, the effort and the passion is more important than a good game." Brilliant line. Wish more people thought about games this way.
So glad you're covering this. It was such a weird and overlooked game that I thought was a fever dream because I couldn't remember the name. I've been replaying it recently, and it definitely does have some really frustrating elements, but is also way ahead of its time in others. I'm frankly surprised that there was no mention at all of the notorious "uncollectable ring" softlock!
Calling the chemicals "pp" is one of those unfortunate, and frankly odd choices. Maybe they were required to keep that name, or the people working on the english version were really checked out
Fun Fact: the voice actor of the father is Richard Epcar. Ever since I heard his voice as Batou in GITS, I've always loved his emotionalless yet charming delivery. This isn't really that surprising though as he has literally done hundreds of voices but its always a nice treat when he shows up. I especially loved him as Ziggy in Xenosaga and he was fantastic as ACE in The Nonary Games: 999. I will say that his delivery in Galatians isn't his best, probably because it was a small budget and the direction probably wasn't all that there.
If a few voice actors are bad I blame the VA's. If ALL of the VA's are laughable it's always the direction. I don't care if you just grab 25 randos off the street, at least one should sound passable compared to the rest but if they all suck? It's always a terrible director.
Bro, you have unlocked a memory I didn't know I had still, I have never played the game tbf but I remember seeing a trailer and I was mesmerized, I think I had a crush on the protagonist (I was like, 8, come on). I definitely know what to play this holiday season
10:50 That childhood obsession with psychic powers was what made me buy Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy from Blockbuster's "no one wants to rent this" shelf when I was a kid. That was another game with numerous gameplay issues that were completely outweighed by having the coolest psychic power-based combat of any game I've ever played.
I played the demo for that so much, even just telekinesis was so cool, especially at the time i dont think id played a game like it i mean i didnt play half life 2 till i got orange box second hand so that was probably the first time id used physics like that.
this is how you reach immersion by blending the concepts of the story with the gameplay mechanics and topping it off with the matching aestheics... and this concept in crazy .. a mentally unstable ki with psycic power.. giving the ''rage meter'' its litteral meaning.. and having your healing item be ''pills'' .. im already sold.. nice touch keeping the spoiler at the end im gonna need to try this blind
God I remember renting this as a kid. I couldn't get out of the lab cause the game was to hard for my little kid brain and kept over using his powers and dying. Man I would love to play this again.
I have been watching these obscure game videos for nearly a decade now and yet you somehow always seem to make videos on games I have genuinely never heard of.
Yeah, it's kind of wild the amount of engrossing shows/movies/books/plays/games that we'll never get to experience due to the sheer amount of artistic content out there.
Mandalore is good for that as well. And Nitro Rad. Petronious and I Don't Have a Nose Reviews are good too. Those last three focus mainly on 3D platformers, though Nitro Rad also has great love for horror games. With all the indie and smaller time developers, the list of interesting but little-talked-about games may be getting bigger every month. From Zeno Clash to Samorost, from Cookie Cutter to Knight's Contract.
I feel like in the PS1 and PS2 era the developers tried to inovate more than what we have now. I feel like some current games are so generic while some old games were so unique. I haven't seen a game like Kouldelka or Shadow Hearts for example. A mix between horror and turn based RPG? Amazing.
Yeah, I think some of that is time. Time makes the really bad games sink into oblivion, along with good games that never got proper support. There's also the aspect of the elements that made a game seem overdone seeming new when outside that era; coming across a game like Galerians today will feel like a completely different experience, which is always cool to see when younger fans experience them.
For me, Kya: Dark Lineage comes to mind on what you mention. 3D platformer with art direction like Rayman, but fairly in-depth combat system like a fighting game. Seen some people say it's Tekken-like, specifically. And also God Hand. Closest recent thing to something God Hand-like is Clash: Artifacts of Chaos, which on its own merits is very much worth checking out as well.
I loved this game sooo much as an edgy teen, I even bought the art book. Thanks for making this video! The nostalgia hit me quite well. If you love Shou Tajima's artwork, check out the series Multiple Personality Detective Psycho (MPD Psycho). it's a manga that was drawn by the game's character designer, and it's quite edgy and desturbing. I'll make sure to share the vid❤
@riskibiznu5377 Is there any good fanlations of the later volumes out there? I have the first 11, but I really want to read the rest. Curse Dark Horse and the way they just drop a manga series. They did that with my other fav manga series, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (also written by Eiji Ōtsuka), too.
Damn, I'll definitely check that out. MPD Psycho always kind of stuck out to me as something I should read, and now I'm sure of it. Didn't DH drop this, though? They've got such a bad habit of that. (Goddamnit, i want all of 3x3 Eyes already.)
I knew this game because Tajima Shou, who drew the manga MPD Psycho, did the art concept of it. Those artworks were super cool and sharp, but I never knew the real plot. Thanks for sharing that. Always looooove the 90s cyber punk style. So awesome. If you are interested in the art concept, MPD Psycho is definitely recommended.
I wish Dark Horse printed more. Like a lot of manga titles the owned the distribution rights to in the 00's, MPD Psycho is OOP unless you pick up the Japanese volumes. The market prices for most eng volumes are ridiculously expensive.
I'd like to see a remake or remaster for Galerians 1. Such a neat concept crossing RE with Akira psychic powers. Can say the same for Psi Ops The Mindgate Conspiracy too.
With more modernised tech especially physics and lighting, this game would be a wonderful remaster. Heck, seeing that girl get hit in the face with a table with modern physics and lighting would make it worth it
I agree.. But i was leaning more towards Souls like Game for this if it was ever remade. I feel like it would be fun if this was an open world game rather than RE 0 or RE1 Remake based.
Galerians does have horror in it though. I assume you meant lacking horror aesthetically/enemy-wise instead of thematically though. Thematically there's literal children being used as disposable guinea pigs, pumped full of drugs until they're psychotic weapons on leashes, and the entire city is run by a man-made horrific flesh computer-cyborg entity with a god complex and a habit of cloning kids. I mean, even Rion has to constantly pump himself with drugs to keep using his powers to survive. I really like the setting of Galerians, the movie and the first game although some design choices and narrative decisions are, indeed, best described by _"WTF?"_ That's why it bothers me it ended up as a dead and gone franchise. The setting could've had so much potential in the hands of a better writer.
@@dungeonchillpart of the beauty of sci-fi for me is how naturally it can have horror elements, or not. You can have speculative, optimistic sci-fi or you can have a story like Intersteller for example. It's a film I feel portrays the ways sci-fi can be horror without fully devoting itself to typical horror tropes. The idea of landing on a strange planet for ten minutes, only to return and realise you've missed most of your kid's childhoods in the blink of an eye, is to me infinitely more horrifying than a lot of stories that are labeled as horror. Tldr playing around with genre can be a lot of fun and mixing sci-fi and horror is like apples and english cheddar
@@ThommyofThenn Oh yeah, and it gets so much worse when one likes a whole bunch of obscure and/or forgotten IPs. 🤣 - *Galerians* - *Fear Effect* - *Vanguard Bandits* - *In Cold Blood* - *Singularity* - *Nocturne* - *Arx Fatalis* - *Theocracy* _(The game, not the political system.)_ - *Asghan The Dragon Slayer* - *Enclave* _(the game, NOT the Fallout faction.)_ - *The Blade of Darkness* - *Drakan: The Order of the Flame* _(and it's sequel)_ - *Warlords: Battlecry 1-3* - *Armies of Exigo* - *Demise: Ascension* _(Aka. Demise: Rise of the Ku'tan or Infinite Worlds)_ - *Siege of Avalon* _(fortunately updated for modern systems as SoA: Anthology)_ - *KKnD* _(Krush Kill n' Destroy)_ Edit: - *Metal Fatigue* (How did I forget that one...) Those are just from the top of my head. Some far more obscure than others. 🤔
@@RuSosan Heard about Metal Arms? Ps2 era 3rd person shooter. Where you play as a robot on a planet of robots. Was incredible even as an adult. A sequel was planned but executive meddling ruined it I believe
>If you want avoid spoilers, go to this timestamp Me running from kitchen while having hands dirty from bread dough to stop video. This was truly full ANGRY POINTS moment
Never heard of this game before but I think it's themes are interesting. The scientist explaining God to the computer and telling her that creations must obey their creators, it made me feel sorry for her. Then she takes this idea and decides to become the God of her own race. This idea of creations being subservient to their creators relates back to the scientists using their own children as tools to defeat their other creation, the computer. With Lion at the end, If he is a galerian then he is disobeying his creator by killing her whereas if he is the real Lion then he, while doing the right thing, is still just a puppet of his father. It's very much like Frankenstein in that you could interpret the moral as "Don't mess with the natural order of things or you will create an abomination" or " If you treat your creation inhumanely, don't be surprised when it betrays you".
I rented the sequel to this game from blockbuster as a kid with no prior knowledge of the original or even that there was one... most confused week of my middle school life. Every few years I have flashbacks about the game and spend a few days trying to remember the name/ premise only to promptly forget and repeat the cycle, this video is now bookmarked, thank you sir.
Oh man galerians, never rhought I would see anyone talk about this game series. My intro into this universe was through the sequel galerians:ash on the ps2 and damn was it a fun/annoying/crazy/weird genre of a game.
It is kind of sad that living fandom for this game doesn't exist, though it may be for the best. I actually want to make a fangame for Galerians one day. The idea is to make it to expand the lore just a bit in a non intrusive way and add character development for badies which was a thing that both games and anime lacked. To accomplish that goal and not bloat already existing universe I came up with idea in which Dorothy runs simulations in digital space where she ensures that her galerians are obedient to her as well as analizing their combat abilities and how to improve them. I want the protagonist to be Cain while Birdman, Rainheart, Rita and even Dorothy would be the characters with which you can talk or interact while in the house that Dorothy created in an attempt to try to live as a functional family together. I don't know if I want to include characters from sequel or not though. For the gameplay base I want to take action mechanics from Galerians: Ash, modernise them, get rid of the bad stuff or improve it and add simple platforming and puzzles, resulting in a hack and slash type of game with a psychic twist in to it, then wrap this all up in format of separate missions which act as experiments/training excercises for Cain and put house segments between to function as safe hub where you can upgrade Cain's abilities, replay old missions or interact with other characters in a way, I assume, it is done in sitcoms, though not completely about comedy. Sorry for bad english.
Why is it people who apologise for supposed bad english, actually speak better english than most people do? Anyway, yeah it's a wonder this game doesn't get more attention really. Would be nice to see a remake or something inspired by it.
I remember the cg anime playing on MTV2 late at night and loving it. I really was in the target demographic for everything Galerians was about. Wish I had the chance to play it back then.
I don't understand why Galerians get's so much hate It's an underrated game. I remember reading a review in a Playstation UK magazine and they gave it a 5/10 back then I didn't follow the mainstream opinions and I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't know of Shou Tajima who has a very unique art style and has put out some great manga like MPD Psycho. I can't say the same for the sequel Galerians:Ash because it lost a lot of its stylistic appeal going from pre-rendered backgrounds to fully 3D ones and even though the story had potential the execution of it wasn't great but I suppose that has something to do with Chinfa Kan not being involved with the project.
Personally, I think a 5/10 just means it's average. It looks like a cool game, though there do seem to be some mechanics that make the gameplay experience difficult
The only major problem I have with this game is that Rion sounds like he's 8 rather than a teenager. Takes me out of the world every time he talks. Don't get me wrong, the game has issues but I think they can be overlooked in general
Omg I found 1 of the only 12 people who know this game existed, and even made an hour long look-back at it. This game left such an impression on me as a teen. I'm glad to see that I have remembered it correctly mostly - the 90's emo melodrama, the industrial/goth atmosphere, the character designs, the teenage power fantasy. I did also remember it being this really odd and wacky, yet strangely charming story with a lot of untapped potential. I hope you do a vid of Galarians Ash, which was so bad that I couldn't even finish it.
I actually found the Galerians movie at a library years ago, and they were VERY proud of featuring Slipknot in the soundtrack. I'll admit that even if the story made zero sense, they really nailed the uncanny, grungy aesthetic that alot of those bands would use in their music videos at the time. They really went all in on making a very specific thing. As for "black sheep" games, I'm not sure it counts as survival horror but I've always had a soft spot for this PS3 game called Folklore, it's a sort of folk horror, mystery, monster collection RPG... thing that never really took off. And I haven't played this other one but I've always wanted to see someone do a deep dive on a dreamcast game called Maken X, it looks magnificently bizarre.
Folklore is very pretty for sure with interesting summoning-based action gameplay. The same developers also made the character action/hack-and-slash game Knight's Contract. I've heard of Maken X/Maken Shao as well. Mainly looked into the concept art for all the characters. Some truly bizarre, artistic and intriguing stuff, and on the technical front the artist has interesting skills too.
Never got around to try Folklore, as i had an xb360 back in those days, sadly. As for MakenX, i remember the game being very clunky, but a manga exist, by Q.Hayashida, and i'm pretty sure an anime exist too.
I love all the unusual games that were released back in the day. These days there are almost no major releases that are willing to do something out of the box
I call Galerians 'survival thriller'. Yeah the game does have a slight sense of 'horror' atmosphere, but it is a lot more of a 'thriller' type story. I love this fucking edgy 'survival thriller'. I actually like Galerians: Ash (not as much as the original though). I can't remember off the top of my head, but there were some things I really didn't care for in it. Didn't stop me from enjoying it over all. The new powers were fun with how the gameplay changed (though some just felt like other versions of stuff returning). I need to check if I unlocked the mode that makes those new powers show up more over the OG ones. Pulling off a good short is so damn satisfying. Especially if you've been saving it explicitly dodging single spread out enemies for a big group to wipe out. In regards to a 'black sheep', I have a weird love for Countdown Vampires
I own the movie version, Galerians: Rion. It was made using the same style and engine that they had for Galerians: Ash. Ash was a sequel and they needed footage from galerians for flashbacks so they completely remade all the cutscenes from galerians alongwith some connecting scenes and the boss battles were animated for the movie too. Their are changes from what exactly what happened in galerians but i liked it. Fun fact when image entertainment brought the rights they pulled alot of strings in the music industry to load the english version with tons of licensed songs and they even got it shown on MTV. The dvds have the original japanese music or the licensed music, both with the english dub. Hell the movie was sold as a UMD so you could watch it on your PSP if you wanted, no joke.
I remember playing this on release because I was craving more RE clones after beating Silent Hill. I think this also took inspiration from Parasite Eve, maybe? I did enjoy some locations, probably. The RE clone backgrounds are really all I can recall from the experience besides finding the combat sort of weak.
Literally just made note of the parasite eve similarity and came to the comments to see if anyone else noticed it. Even the theme song gave me PE vibes. I love this!
OMG it exists! I was the only person I know who watched the anime movie for the sole reason of it being added to a bootleg DVD of "10 top sci fi anime!!!!" or something like that. I had no idea it was based on the game
34:38 the throw is funny but what I find more funny is the lil pose that Rionn strikes. Its like the ending move of a choreography number 19:53 ive seen a few of these in stuff from the early 2000s, but had never paid them much attention until you mentioned it here lol. And I really appreciate you playing games you find interesting rather than whatever is trendy at the moment. That's specifically why I subbed here is because these games are fascinating. the only one I had heard of before was the LSD dream emulator game
Never heard of this.. much like everything on this channel 😂 EDIT : Wonder if an equipment capacity limit and unlimited-medicine-dispensing machines would fix the mentioned problems. Still, such a different combat system sounds creative at least.
god, I remember this was one of the games dad has in his video game disc folder and I put this in to the ps1 before as a kid and the intro with the rapid beats and rion screaming would play with bizarre looking characters on the crt I hid behind the couch because it just made me feel so uneasy and whatnot 😂 meanwhile dad also played games like kowloon's gate as well which was full of eerily bizarre characters so as a kid I did a lot of hiding ahahahah
These vids have been getting me through the toughest time in my life. Losing my parents and losing the girl I love. Drifting away from the rest of my family. But these vids make me feel better. I feel at peace and watching your uploads have done nothing but help me and make me feel safe. Thank you man. I fucking appreciate it. Keep doing what you do. I hope nothing but the best for you and look forward to what you upload next:)
I went through something similar myself all at once about 20 years ago. Im not gonna say 'it gets better' when you lose your parents and your love. Because that loss will always be there. But what it does get is less raw, less immediate. You will remember them and not feel like you got gut punched, but able to reflect on the good memories you have with them and smile. It takes time, its like healing a wound. Hang in there and take care of yourself, internet stranger.
@@childofcascadia thank you brother. I needed this. As much I didn't want it anything you said sadly i know already. But it helps readying it and seeing it. Thank you so much.
I remember a friend had an older brother who worked at blockbuster and would order all these dope RPG’s from Japan. Galerians : Ash was one of them he had and I got to borrow. Such a weird game.
One of those games I wish came out earlier in the PS1's life cycle. A sequel exploring more of the city would have been fantastic in that same graphical style. It's really weird the steel belting, the ship style port hole windows on stuff. It's like nautical cyberpunk, clashes big time with the hospital at the start, gives Michelangelo City a really intriguing character.
If you want a horror game pick up any of these gacha games. Fgo, Arknight, blue archives, nikke, etc. these are the type of fear and pain that no other game can replicate
I thought this dream was some fever dream I made up. I vaguely remember playing this game a long time ago, couldn't remember the name. But I still remember it being probably one of the most unique IPs out there.
I used to play the beginning of this game a lot as a very young child because I liked how cool The characters in the game looked. Sadly I had no idea how to play and I kept blowing up. Can't wait to watch your video on it!!
You might be interested to know there's actually a Polish movie adaption of it: "Galerianki" It's hands-down the best movie adaptation of a game in the history of time.
I played this game on the Psp in the early 2000s when the Psp was hackable, one of my favorite "horror" game same with Koudelka, Parasite Eve 1-2, Silent Hill, Resident Evils, Dino Crisis 1-2, Fear Effect 1-2, Clock Tower, and etc. 😊
Out of context majority of the voice acted scenes sound like they came from some kind of kinky underground `90 lewd anime. On the topic of Survival Horros forgotten just or unjust by the time dark sheep Countdown Vampires also comes to mind.
I also chose psychic powers or shapeshifting as a kid for superpowers. Thank God for all the 80s manga that was just stuffed with psychic kids. I'm always down for an op kid who can scanners a dude
Please don't miss on reviewing the ps2 sequel! There are no reviews on RU-vid at all, galerians is at least known in some circles. But existence of sequel not.
On that point about you liking games that try something different even if they don't do it well, it kind of reminds me of this old WII game called Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. I know the game itself isn't that good but I really love this game because of the actual story concept in it where you are allegedly the last person on earth trying to survive a world haunted by the ghosts of the past, both figuratively and literally.
Sure it's been pointed out before by people but that Galerians soundtrack *isn't for the game* it's actually for the movie (yes Galerians had a CGI movie). The Movie came with the option for either the original Japanese voice acting and soundtrack with subtitles or the American dub and a soundtrack featuring slipknot etc.
This is such a gem. I got this game on release date not knowing anything about it. That day I was at an EB Games Store picking a copy of ISS Pro Evolution and the clerk told me about Galerians. The way he explained me the gameplay was "Tetsuo without zombies", his words, so I got it and it's was a blast. To this day, I still play it every now and then on my PSP Go. Excellent video Dungeon, you got my sub.
The hotel was my favorite part of the game too. Really brought the vibe of the game together. I really loved exploring it and all the weird ass people in it.
One of my favorite sorta survival horror games is Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. It's a more optimistic, all ages take on the genre that I absolutely adore. I could see people arguing It's not a survival horror, but it has a lot of the same conventions of the genre as a whole (limited resources, supernatural enemies, few NPCs, a constant gloom about the atmosphere, clunky gameplay.) But as I said, it also has an air of optimism most survival horror doesn't, and is more gloomy than it is scary, but that's what makes it stand out from others in the genre (and the few NPCs you meet all have nice little subplots.)
Holy shit, I've been looking for this game for ages, but I couldn't remember the name nor find anyone who had played it. Thanks for unlocking those memories, I can now die without regrets.
Psychic powers rule so damn hard. My man has patrician taste. Never heard of Galerians, so this was a great gem to uncover and your enthusiasm is relatable.
I remember my uncle getting me this game for my 11th birthday(because i loved RE:2 and Silent Hill) I couldn’t get past the mansion part. But i used to love that intro cinematic!!
