Gal Guardians has been a very pleasant experience, no doubt Inti Creates has made another retro style game with a good level of quality, still, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed in some aspects.
For starters, I didn't know what the hell Gal Gun was before learning about this game, when I first saw it announced I thought it was a new IP from Inti Creates that would expand from the foundations of Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2... But no, when I found out that the creators of Mega Man Zero were also the creators of "this", and that this game is specifically a Spin off of Gal Gun.... my disappointment was immeasurable and I simply won't see Inti Creates in the same way again, and it was a bad taste in my mouth that stayed throughout my playthough with this game, I'm just not a fan of that kind of school anime setting and fan service, the game is much more than just that, but frankly I would have preferred something different, especially in a game that I won't play alone because it's two player.
But well, talking about the gameplay, as I mentioned before, this game is a kind of spiritual sequel to Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 2, so we have the typical structure of a classic Castlevania where we must go through several levels to reach the top of the castle and defeat Dracula, and being Inti Creates, obviously it has a touch of Mega Man game, because each boss we defeat will give us a new ability. I think the most striking aspect of this game is the fact that we have 2 characters that we can switch between with a single button, Maya focused on melee attack and Shinobu specialized in ranged combat. The captivating thing here is that the game can be played in two-player cooperative mode, which makes it very fun especially for the fact that the playable characters are very different and need each other, so teamwork is essential. All this added with a very well polished control scheme and a wide repertoire of Sub-weapons, make this a game with a very solid and complete gameplay. Compared to Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, this game has only 2 playable characters instead of 4, but it makes up for it by making the abilities bigger and more unique.
What I can't speak so highly of is the recycling of enemies, as it's quite easy to notice that there are a lot of elements from this game that have been directly reused from Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2, which seems a bit negative to me, given that this game is supposed to belong to a completely different IP, in that sense I would have preferred to see something much more novel and not a simple "copy and paste". However, thankfully new enemies were introduced and some of these are interesting, as were the bosses, which were decent challenges with interesting patterns and behaviors.
Where this game did leave me completely disappointed is its music. These types of games should mandatorily for me have a good memorable and catchy soundtrack, that's one of the aspects that make Mega Man and Castlevania games iconic. It's strange especially because Inti Creates games usually have good soundtracks, but I guess this game is the exception, as the songs aren't memorable at all, they're just decent and that's it. In the end I literally had to play with Castlevania music playing in the background to make amends for this. But well, at least where I have no complaints is in the art of this game, as the pixel art is beautiful, similar to that of the Castlevania games on DS, colorful and detailed, with very good animations and visual effects.
And as always, being an Inti Creates game, it is implied that you must play this game 2 times to access the true ending, and although it is not something I dislike, honestly it is an aspect that I would have liked to see better worked.
Conclusion
Gal Guardians is possibly one of the most misunderstood games of recent times. No, just because a game is in pixel art and takes place in a castle with a gothic setting doesn't automatically make it a Metroidvania. This game is a platformer like those of the 90s, yes, the levels have alternate routes and hidden collectibles, but it's far from being Metroidvania, think of it as something like Mega Man X.
It's a good retro style platformer, in fact, it has very good quality elements and it's quite fun, but even so, I feel it left a little to be desired. Maybe if this game had a different story and a good soundtrack I would have rated it an 8/10, I don't know. I would honestly prefer to see a Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 3 with the visuals of this game in the future.
For starters, I didn't know what the hell Gal Gun was before learning about this game, when I first saw it announced I thought it was a new IP from Inti Creates that would expand from the foundations of Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2... But no, when I found out that the creators of Mega Man Zero were also the creators of "this", and that this game is specifically a Spin off of Gal Gun.... my disappointment was immeasurable and I simply won't see Inti Creates in the same way again, and it was a bad taste in my mouth that stayed throughout my playthough with this game, I'm just not a fan of that kind of school anime setting and fan service, the game is much more than just that, but frankly I would have preferred something different, especially in a game that I won't play alone because it's two player.
But well, talking about the gameplay, as I mentioned before, this game is a kind of spiritual sequel to Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 2, so we have the typical structure of a classic Castlevania where we must go through several levels to reach the top of the castle and defeat Dracula, and being Inti Creates, obviously it has a touch of Mega Man game, because each boss we defeat will give us a new ability. I think the most striking aspect of this game is the fact that we have 2 characters that we can switch between with a single button, Maya focused on melee attack and Shinobu specialized in ranged combat. The captivating thing here is that the game can be played in two-player cooperative mode, which makes it very fun especially for the fact that the playable characters are very different and need each other, so teamwork is essential. All this added with a very well polished control scheme and a wide repertoire of Sub-weapons, make this a game with a very solid and complete gameplay. Compared to Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, this game has only 2 playable characters instead of 4, but it makes up for it by making the abilities bigger and more unique.
What I can't speak so highly of is the recycling of enemies, as it's quite easy to notice that there are a lot of elements from this game that have been directly reused from Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 1 and 2, which seems a bit negative to me, given that this game is supposed to belong to a completely different IP, in that sense I would have preferred to see something much more novel and not a simple "copy and paste". However, thankfully new enemies were introduced and some of these are interesting, as were the bosses, which were decent challenges with interesting patterns and behaviors.
Where this game did leave me completely disappointed is its music. These types of games should mandatorily for me have a good memorable and catchy soundtrack, that's one of the aspects that make Mega Man and Castlevania games iconic. It's strange especially because Inti Creates games usually have good soundtracks, but I guess this game is the exception, as the songs aren't memorable at all, they're just decent and that's it. In the end I literally had to play with Castlevania music playing in the background to make amends for this. But well, at least where I have no complaints is in the art of this game, as the pixel art is beautiful, similar to that of the Castlevania games on DS, colorful and detailed, with very good animations and visual effects.
And as always, being an Inti Creates game, it is implied that you must play this game 2 times to access the true ending, and although it is not something I dislike, honestly it is an aspect that I would have liked to see better worked.
Conclusion
Gal Guardians is possibly one of the most misunderstood games of recent times. No, just because a game is in pixel art and takes place in a castle with a gothic setting doesn't automatically make it a Metroidvania. This game is a platformer like those of the 90s, yes, the levels have alternate routes and hidden collectibles, but it's far from being Metroidvania, think of it as something like Mega Man X.
It's a good retro style platformer, in fact, it has very good quality elements and it's quite fun, but even so, I feel it left a little to be desired. Maybe if this game had a different story and a good soundtrack I would have rated it an 8/10, I don't know. I would honestly prefer to see a Bloodstained Curse of the Moon 3 with the visuals of this game in the future.