Been playing some Galak-Z on PS4 today. This is a game I’ve had my eye on for a while, and it’s finally been released.
Galak-Z, for the uninitiated, is a “roguelite” — that is, it incorporates some aspects of roguelikes (most notably permadeath and randomly generated elements) while adding some persistent elements and making the overall experience a bit more friendly and accessible to the average person who gets frightened by ASCII.
It’s actually got quite a bit in common with the indie darling Rogue Legacy from a while back, in that there’s a constant sense of “progression” even when you’re fucking things up repeatedly, because even when you mess up, you’ll be unlocking stuff that might make future playthroughs a bit easier. Make no mistake, though, Galak-Z is a challenging game that is not afraid to kick your arse.
At heart, it’s a top-down space shooter in which you complete various missions that usually boil down to “find dungeon, find thing in dungeon, destroy/collect thing, escape”. This simple structure works in the game’s favour, as it keeps missions short and snappy with the possibility of variations along the way according to map layouts and the enemies you’ll encounter. And treasure, of course; one of the most fun aspects of Galak-Z is gradually outfitting your ship with all manner of death-dealing machinery and hoping it will save your life when one of those bastard Hammerhead ships starts chasing you.
Rather than simply tasking you with surviving as long as possible, Galak-Z is mission-based. To be specific, it’s split into five “seasons”, each of which requires you to complete five episodes in a row without dying in order to progress to the next. In a charming nod to ’80s era Saturday morning cartoons — which the game’s whole aesthetic is based on — each episode has a randomly generated title and writer, plus some enjoyable banter between the playable protagonist A-Tak and the heroine Beam.
I’m not sure what the game’s longevity will be like as, having not yet finished the first season, I can’t say with confidence whether the later missions are more adventurous and complex. It’s certainly holding my interest right now, but I feel it may need a bit more to keep me playing in the long term. It remains to be seen whether it will provide that for me, I guess — count on a situation report when the time comes!
In the meantime, I made another video with ShareFactory detailing the game, how it works and what it’s all about. Take a look!
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Good article, Pete, and nice use of Sharefactory lately. By the way, if you missed Fairy Fencer F on PS3, they released it on Steam this week. Knowing how much you love Compile Heart/Idea Factory rpgs, it’s a must have. I ended up enjoying it a lot. The combat system and all the character development options really made it a great experience. Anyways, keep up the good work.
Yep, I saw! I actually have a PS3 version knocking around — I got it on release, but haven’t played it yet. It’s on the backlog for sure, and I very much want to play it before the PS4 version arrives. I hear great things!