Sammy Entertainment Galerians: ASH PS2

Galerians: Ash has a great setting and interesting ...

Posted Jun 10, 2005 - Galerians: Ash has a great setting and interesting characters but the gameplay is a bit flawed. This is a sequel to a Playstation game and continues from that game but fortunately there's a long, well done intro that summarizes the events from the first game. And what a job it does! It really sets up the dark, almost sinister mood of the game. Long story short, a computer program developed by humans starts to question god and her role in the world. She goes crazy and destroys the city. The main character, Rion, injects her with a computer virus and she's wiped out. But before she goes, she starts a backup program. Her drones known as the last galerians wake up and in this game you must prevent them from getting her back online. The characters are interesting and have incredible psionic powers, like the kids in Akira. The powers themselves are fun to use, but there are quite a few shortcomings that make the game less enjoyable. When you want to use your powers you must charge up your attack. While you're charging, the character is unable to move. This usually results in a lot of cheap hits from the agile enemies. So in order to survive in the game, you've got to stay arms length away and pretty much use a hit and run/dodge manuever. Aside from the inability to move, the camera in the game also causes problems. In a battle, it is constantly rotating/ revolving around your character. So if you get motion sickness, you've been warn. Honestly after a while you'll get use to it and adapt. But one thing you won't adapt to are the confusing puzzles. Throughout the game, you'll have to find/fetch items like keys in order to open a locked door and move the story along. Some of the keys are located in far off places so it'll take you quite a while to locate them. In one instance the puzzle doesn't even make any sense (you're suppose to locate a "key", then bring it all the way back to the basement level, and throw it into a hole that seems to be connected to another dimension and then a new "key" will pop back out) No where in the game did it explain or point out this special hole so I was literally wandering around the level for several hours trying to figure out what to do. Ultimately it's the story that will make you want to finish the game. And when you do there's no good reason to play it a second time. I finished the game with a sense of missed opportunity. Galerians: Ash had so much potential but the execution fell short.

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