Beyond Galaxyland
Game Title: Beyond Galaxyland
Released: September 24, 2024
Game Length: 17 Hours
Grade: A
Gameplay
Setting: Every now and then a game comes along that you find a number of people recommending in various corners of the Internet. You begin to wonder if you should spoil yourself checking out the official trailer or the release trailer. I'm here to say that watching previews of the game will not prepare you for what took the developer five years to build. The game is designed in a way where you will be doing something new in a different setting with the most unusual characters almost every hour. You can call them popcorn trips as you continue to fall blindly into new adventures on each world. My perception of the story where you explore the inside of people's dreams or save the universe was nowhere near the actual driving force behind the game. In reality, you are merely along for the ride as you continue guessing what sort of crazy you are going to run into next as twists and turns change your ultimatum.
Weirdness: It might seem a little quirky, but there is a wonderful level of style when you immerse yourself in the 2.5D environment. Just listen to that soundtrack. Conceptually, the game is a hodgepodge of various gameplay elements. You can shift between the background and forefront sections whenever you see arrows. You can take pictures of species for individual rewards, gold for collections, detailed charts of enemies out of battle, and their element and health displayed in battle. You can avoid enemies by not engaging with them, preemptively attack them ahead of battle, or defeat them outright for rewards without a fight. When you do participate in a battle, you can choose to steal once from every encounter, scan them for information, attempt to capture them, or flee when permitted. Like Pokemon, there's also an elemental side to the game with strengths and weaknesses that come into play when you summon creatures to attack your foes. Though these are meant to be on a very rare occasion as they expend points that don't replenish until you reach a save point. Speaking of which, the game does not save automatically but there are plenty of rest areas to buy supplies or prepare ahead of time before a boss battle.
Options: To further the mystery, the game hides the identity of the main characters on the splash screen until you encounter them in the game. A controller is recommended. I had to use the features to turn off rumble and white flashes during battle. The game will always ask you with a prompt if you are sure about moving to a new area (unless you ventured to the edge of the screen) or warn you if something seems dangerous. The game is very nice when introducing new concepts or mechanics. You can sometimes skip parts of the game, especially if you have seen them before.
Battles
Tactics: Combat is a bit different than your standard turn-based adventure. Every strike from both sides is a gamble to accumulate ability points from all characters since you earn one each time you successfully hit or block your opponent. You lose two for each time you miss to strike or fail to block the enemy's choreographed attacks. You can choose how many times to strike your opponent (up to a certain point) and reserve the rest of your blows to automatically receive one ability point. Your skills can range from healing, stealing, attacking multiple foes at once, dishing out a critical blow to one target, and escaping. Using items to replenish your vitality takes a full turn while using items to remove ailments will only cause you to wait half as long. You can freely swap characters with additional members of your team (multiple times if you want to check on their status) as long as your main protagonist at that time remains in battle.
Equipment: Each character has a standard weapon that can occasionally be swapped out for a better one you might find on your adventure. Other than that, your primary source of items will be in the form of four equippable artifacts. At first, these little accessories will be very minor in nature, adding 5% block or 2% accuracy. With parts you gather off foes or buy from stores, you can craft or upgrade a number of these to be more effective as time goes by. Any artifacts you might steal off bosses will prove to be invaluable by reducing or nullifying elemental damage.
Experience: Characters only gain experience by participating in battle. Swapping characters into a fight doesn't count unless they perform some kind of action. Although you do still obtain loot if an attack defeats an enemy, you will not gain any experience striking down low level enemies outside a match. Experience is awarded even if a character is in the back row at the end of a match or has fallen in battle. As a warning, make sure to complete the side quest for obtaining spare parts for a new character. They start at level 1 regardless of what level you might be. There are no level requirements for equipment, but there are level recommendations for visiting certain planets.
Summons: Perhaps the most unusual aspect is the summoning system. Although you are only permitted to have 50 in total, that will prove to be more than enough if you capture two of every enemy and one of every boss. There is a place you can permanently sell off your excess summons. You can slot four summons for each character. The cost to use one is dependent on what skill you are using with some legendary attacks costing more than what your pool may contain on its own merit. Most summons will be able to cast a single target spell and gain enough levels after a few matches to learn a multiple target spell. There are occasions where your creature will not have a "spell" ready until they hit their maximum level. Items can be consumed to replenish your used summon points if you need them before reaching a save point. Be aware that using an element on an enemy with the same color will heal them. While most elements are designed to be offensive, those with white elements are mainly defensive in nature.
Planets
Sections: Galaxyland is the name of the galaxy you can explore with a clunky ship once you obtain one. Although each planet doesn't necessarily fit into the same mold, they normally come with an introductory segment, main portion with platforms and puzzles, extended area after finishing the first part of the main story, and a secret boss. For example, you can visit the luxury cruise ship but not get in until you get a golden pass. Something might need to happen on the planet while you are away to open up a new passageway. Like Mega Man, each planet has their own boss that can provide you with a nullify artifact, special services, and summon creature to fight against other bosses. When and how you proceed doesn't necessarily matter as long as you are capable with your current conditions. Though be aware that the main story will manipulate who you might have available and where you might be able to go. There will come a time after you install a warp drive when you must type in coordinates into your ship to visit new locations.
Activities: The game can throw out the occasional mini-game to mix things up. They will ask you to fight off incoming enemies for a short time in a sort of real time side-scrolling shooter. You will dodge security cameras as you explore inside a ventilation system. There's a brief moment where you are collecting evidence for a murder mystery. Hit a number of hidden targets scattered across the worlds to unlock "remixed" boss fights in the arena. There's a couple of races both on a scooter and in your ship. Side objectives are plentiful that help guide you with their convenient markers on the map to obtaining things from unknown areas. There can sometimes be a hidden chest when revisiting sections of the game where there was a cutscene or boss fight. After you finish the game, you can replay the game with all your perks in place and a new outlook on the game's features.
Summary
Review: There was a combination of factors that made this game a wild ride. Everything was passionately stylized with the music, environment, combat, and characters. A developer's hallway you can visit after obtaining an endgame item shows how much changed over a period of three years with the removal of the turn display, artwork of the avatars, and improvement of the shadow effects. A player can choose how much they want to do fighting secret bosses, completing objectives, and finding hidden compartments. The one drawback has to be how abrupt the ending was without a proper epilogue tying off loose ends. I definitely recommend this game if you want to try something different.