Gal Guardians: Demon Purge is a 2D side-scrolling action game was released in 2023 for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Inti Crates and published by PQube, and it is a spin-off title of Gal Gun series.
If you're a massive fan of side-scrolling action like myself when growing up playing a several of great classics from the retro days era like Mega Man, Castlevania, Duck Tales, and Ninja Gaiden, as well with the later days of indie games like Shovel Knight, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, and Azure Gunvolt Striker, then you'll be really interested in game like this featuring a two anime chicks went on demon hunting and start kicking ass, so that is Gal Guardians: Demon Purge.
Now first of all, it is a spin-off game based on the something really strange rail-shooter series called Gal Gun, a game where you take control of male student trying to fends off waves of female classmates, who are running after him, while searching for his true love girlfriend.
To tell you the truth is that I'm not a massive fan of the romance related stuff, but I have nothing to against it.
The series does share with decent spin-off title like Gal Gunvolt Burst which is a crossover title between Azure Gunvolt and Gal Gun being fused together, just like how Inti Crates did a similar thing with Mighty Gunvolt Burst which is crossed over between Azure Gunvolt and Mighty No.9, which I consider these title a fun side-scrolling action featuring a playable guests.
So going back to this review, Gal Guardian: Demon Purge is one of the side-scrolling action game that got me interested to play because it's a combination of Azure Gunvolt and Castlevania in terms of gameplay style which featuring a two playable demon hunters with single solo or 2-player co-op play, so I really liked the idea of having a 2-player playthrough in this title just like from any other side-scrolling action game such as Shovel Knight did a similar thing with the 2-player co-op play which is why I've bought the PS4 copy to play it and see how the game really went.
The answer is yes I did manage to enjoy playing it which is why I am here to share my thoughts on this side-scrolling action title with several of pros and cons that I will discuss it through my details such as combat, teamplay, bosses, and so on.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game focuses with two Kamizono sisters named Shinobu and Maya headed to school academy until the whole building turned into a dark-looking castle filled with demons, led by a mischievous demon girl named Kurona, which causes two sisters went on their demon hunting job to fight them all, as well as finding out the mystery of what happened to the school that became like this and the students that had gone missing.
The story is quite a straightforward to follow, as you're just a both demon hunters went on slaying a hordes of demons throughout the castle, rescuing a several of missing students who can share their stories about the incident, and defeat a vampire lady who are responsible for putting a dark curse on the school that turned into a castle is kinda similar to Konami's Castlevania does share with the similar plot of how the vampire delivers the wicked curse to the hometown that harms the innocent people which led the vampire hunter went on the adventure to defeat the evil in order to lift the terrible curse.
It's really different from Gal Gun main series which I kinda like having a spin-off game went on different approach rather than the original root from the main series itself which is why it made the game quite interesting with different storyplot and the styles of presentation.
I adored the two anime duos such as Shinobu and Maya kamizono which I finding them quite likeable with their cool personality and cuteness as being a demon hunters are surely badasses, where as the Kurona as a villain of the whole game which I consider her as crude and arrogant villain just wanting her revenge on Kamizono sisters, but I got to say that I've preferred her older counterpart (Adult Kurona) in later scenes, yeah you know what I've mean right.
The presentation are sure fantastic because I really liked the Castlevania eques of the settings throughout the areas which I adored the dark and gothic themes that been featured in the game.
Each of the levels shares with many style of sceneries such as Castle Gates filled with castle walls with pinkish clouds around the outside, and the inside castle has medieval design around the rooms. Ceremony Hall has goldish and regal-looking hallways with theatre hall, arch of pillars, and basement wine-cellar room. Mysterious Cave has crampy open-spaces with wrecked pirate ship at the background, and the waterfall streaming through the grounds. Courtyard has water fountain and green plants around the area. Library filled with large bookshelves all over the place in top floor and has toxic-waste room on ground floor. Clock Tower had a bunch of clockwork stuff like cogs and mechanics spins around everywhere in the room. Castle's Peak has a heavy winds drifting everywhere outside and has demonic objects inside the castle.
Overall, it has interesting story, cool duos, and fantastic presentation settings.
Gameplay
You take control of these two sisters in single solo or local co-op play on 2D perspective view, as your main goal is to defeat many bosses in each levels.
You will start off with the basics such as pushing the left stick or d-pad button to move the player such as running and crouching, and pressing the cross button to jump on the platform, while holding the down button then hit the cross button to jump down the platform from the narrow gap.
You can switch any of the two duos by pressing the left or right trigger to change which each of them has different combat system such as pressing the square button to use attack such as Shinobu's gun works effectively on mid-range shot distance and Maya's blade uses as close-combat range attack which deals heavy damage against the foes.
Depending on any of two duos has their own abilities which you can also perform their sub-weapon attack by hitting the circle button which I will discuss each of these sub-weapons after you have obtained it by defeating each bosses.
Stuff like you can use throwing daggers to throw it at the long-range attack, penguin that freezes the objects or enemies, scythes that deals much heavier slash damage, umbrella that allow you to fly through and reach at the longest distance platform, grenade that allow you to throw on cracked surfaces or enemies deals with explosive damage, rocket launcher that allowing missiles to lunch on target enemies deals with explosive damage, grapple hook lets you cling onto a top-wall ceiling and jump right off onto the higher platform.
Each of these sub-weapons are limited with the weapon points which you'll see on the top-left corner of the screen to see how much you have used it till its ran out meaning that you will not able to use sub-weapon attack when the weapon point are fully empty, but you can increase it by collecting the purple jar item can be found anywhere in the levels, and you can also switch the sub-weapons by pressing the left or right shoulder button.
While the purge gauge meter on top-left corner of the screen are fully filled-up, you can also perform a special attack by hitting the triangle button which fires the devil's bullet which instantly kills off the enemies, but also uses up purge gauge fully.
In co-op, your team can able to cool stuff such as use each other as platforms, revive each other via CPR, transforming into mascot, and of course the screen clearing team attack that wipes out all enemies as well as bosses.
You can obtain some upgradable items which can be found hidden in any areas such as the bullet capacity of Shinobu's gun, and player's attributes such as health, defence, and attack which reduces damage from enemy's projectiles and increasing player's damaging attack.
So far, the game itself plays quite decently throughout the playthroughs in all thanks to not just combat system itself, but also a platforming design, exploration, bosses, and having a choices of playing single solo or local 2-player co-op just adds the game's overall experience.
The combat are actually quite straight-forward to play especially playing with two duos with their's advantages stuff like Shinobu has mid-range firing and more health capacity, where as Maya has lower health capacity but has stronger short-range attacking system.
The sub-weapons works really well throughout the game which allowing the player being able to traverse the higher platforms and deals a effective damage on enemies.
The platforming segments fills with numerous of hazards such as spikes, flames, slimes and other stuff which requires the player to avoid these obstacles without taking so much damage in order to get to next area just adds up the overall challenge.
Despite the game is more of the linear approach where your goal is to being able to reach it at the boss stage to its end, it is good to explore around the level to discover the cool hidden secrets, as well as rescuing many missing students, and obtaining upgrades items that improves upon your attributes.
The major highlights of the whole game are having both single solo and local 2-player co-op because you can able to choose to play it alone or even better by teaming up with your friend to join fighting through the dark castle just adds up a fun major part of the game.
The game shares with great bosses except one which I will discuss it further on the review, so stuff like you have the giant vampire bat that fires bunch of small bats, the jazzy white rabbit uses the electric guitar that firing the electrifying projectiles, the ghost knight that welds the both large sword and shield, the large green piranha fires the large beam out of the mouth, the baphomet uses the black magic spells to fire out projectiles, and the statue of fallen angel scatters with the spinning cog of blades are actually pretty good, but I find Kurona boss are stupidly tough because not only she's summons her dumb little minions gets in the way, but also a damn laser projectiles just takes a severe damage hit makes it quite impossible to dodge the thing which took me more than 10 tries till I beat it, so I didn't had an issue with the previous bosses which are actually fine, but this damn thing just absolutely absurd to play.
There are one of the thing that I don't like in the game is that in single solo when one of duos just dies in the boss battle which causing other one to start back to the checkpoint system instead of carry on fighting where you left off, and then head over to the boss level which you will notice the boss's health bar slowly replenishes their quarter of the health after the one of duo's death, so that is kinda annoying that you don't want to start back to the checkpoint system again, so thankfully it didn't happen on the 2-player co-op where you can still continue the fight as normally after one of your team player are being knocked out which you can still later revive them during the battle.
I got to say that the boss rush mode are actually pretty good where you had to defeat all bosses as much as possible, but you can also customise your settings like difficulties, items, and other random stuff to suit your playability.
The game also shares with multiple endings depending on how much you have progressed the whole game such as rescuing all students as possible or if you have collected some important key items, so if the conditions have met then this will give you a dialogue options that leads you to different endings which really adds up amount of replay values.
Overall, it has straight-forward combat, great boss battle, has 2-player-co-op, and amount of replay values.
Graphics
The graphics are looking quite amazing on a 2D side-scrolling visuals. I adored the 16-bit style of pixel-art direction just like you may seen it from the days of GBA era like Konami's Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Capcom's Mega Man Zero in terms of character's sprites and environmental design are looking magnificent that really appeals to those who grew up with the retro-days of side-scrolling genres.
I really liked the use of character's shadowy transparencies and flashy collisions hit just seems pretty good on the stages, and the texture-surfaces on every levels are looking quite bold and detailed giving a bit of the nice vibes to it, and it sure does shares with great use of parallax scrolling starting from soft and foggy background layout to hard and stale foreground design just adds the overall consistency of level design which is why it made the scrolling animation feel smooth throughout the stage.
Overall, it has magnificent environmental design, great use of parallax scrolling, and amazing character's sprites.
Music and Sounds
I got to say the original soundtrack are actually sounds pretty decent overall because instead of making it overly cute and upbeating track like from the Gal Gun main series, they wanted to create something different with more focused on gothic and intense music that fits perfectly well to its game's vampiric presentation.
It was composed by these same members including Ippo Yamada, Ryo Yoshinaga, and Ryo Kawakami, who previously worked on previous titles like Capcom's Mega Man Zero, and Inti Crates's own series like Azure Gunvolt and Gal Gun, did a spectacular job of capturing a same feel as you hear like from Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
The sound design are quite solid for its environmental noises and some jingle effects just feels appropriate throughout the stages.
The voice acting in the game are actually sounds pretty good on Japanese which has both dialogue and in-game action, but sadly the English dub had lacked the full dialogue on cutscene except the in-game action so I wish they should've have added the full English dialogue to make it sounds complete during the cutscene between the characters.
Overall, it has decent soundtrack, solid sound design, and has good Japanese voice over.
Special Features
The game does come with unlockable stuff such as boss rush mode, legendary difficulty, and has multiple endings.
Overall, an acceptable additional features.
Advantages
Fantastic presentation settings
Straight-forward combat
Great boss battle
Has 2-player-co-op,
Amount of replay values
Amazing visuals
Decent soundtrack
Disadvantages
Kurona boss battle (except adult version herself) are ridiculously tough compared to previous bosses.
Player's death takes you back to checkpoint instead of continuing the fight in single solo.
Lack of full English dialogue.
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - interesting story, cool duos, and fantastic presentation settings.
Gameplay 7.5/10 - straight-forward combat, great boss battle, has 2-player-co-op, and amount of replay values
Graphics 8/10 - magnificent environmental design, great use of parallax scrolling, and amazing character's sprites
Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - decent soundtrack, solid sound design, and has good Japanese voice over
Special Features 7/10 - unlockable boss rush mode and legendary difficulty, and has multiple endings.
Overall 7.5/10 - Gal Guardians: Demon Purge is surely a good side-scrolling action game that the Inti Crates had done it quite right so far.
You had two anime chicks start kicking demon ass all the way, has Castlevania-eques settings going on in the game, the 16-bit inspired visuals are giving us a nice throwback to GBA era, and best of all is the overall gameplay filled with fun 2-player co-op, epic boss battles, and shares a good combat and stages is what made the game worth to play.
The standard physical copy for the PS4, PS5, and Switch are worth £30 mostly on online store like Amazon and Ebay, where as the collector's edition on online retailer site such as Funstock comes with artbook, stickers, cards, and etc. could cost around £70 are only recommended for big video game collector.
The digital copy on online storefronts such as PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam should cost £20 or bit more, but slightly cheaper than the physical copy's price point.
Is it an definite a play for 2D side-scrolling action fans? the answer is still yes because it's perfect for you and your friends could enjoy the local 2-player co-op action makes the Gal Guardians: Demon Purge a worthy purchase.
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