Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark – PlayStation 4 Review

Overview – developed and published by Inti Creates in collaboration with PQube Games, Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is the latest entry in the dark fantasy adventure series. Take on the armies of the underworld as demon maid sisters Kirika and Masha, who are on a quest to revive their beloved Demon Lord, in full metroidvania action. This title is available on all platforms (xbox delayed until june), with a link to each version of the game available at the bottom of this review.

Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank PQube for providing the copy of Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark that was used for this piece, via the keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.

Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting with the story. I will be focusing on the core of the gameplay experience, as to not spoil any of the surprises that the game has in store for players. For the sake of brevity, I will be referring to the game as Gal Guardians 2 during the review. Assets used are from provided press kit.

Story – the Demon Realm is engulfed in endless conflict, with battles between the strongest beings called Demon Lords, fighting for control over the realm. The demon maid sisters Kirika and Masha, return from a trip to find the castle of their master Maxim in ruins. Rushing inside, they encounter Lyzenorg, who defeats their master and reduces him to a shell of his former glory. Now they set out on a mission of revenge to fully restore their master.

Gameplay – Gal Guardians 2 is a full on Metroidvania adventure, expanding on the existing concepts and gameplay of the previous title Gal Guardians: Demon Purge. In this adventure, the player now has a large interconnected map to explore, with multiple regions and locations within the Demon Realm. As the demon maid sisters Kirika and Masha, the player must battle powerful foes as they seek to restore their master, the Demon Lord Maxim.

In order to achieve this goal, the player must collect the bones of the defeated Demon Lord, as they have been scattered across the realm. As they make their way through the different territories, the player will face numerous dangers. To overcome the hazards present, the player must use the powers of the demon sisters, combating dangerous foes and navigating hazards. The two sisters have distinct combat styles that compliment each other.

In single player, the sisters can be switched freely during the action, with the player only controlling one of them at a time. However, there is the option for local and online co-op, allowing two players to work together to take down the demonic forces. This system is good for those who want to go it alone, or to have a companion working alongside them. Two player co-op is also fairly rare within the metroidvania genre of adventure games.

The older sister Kirika is armed with demonic firearms, allowing for long range strikes at the cost of power. There are two types of shot, the rapid fire sub machine gun and shorter range shotgun blast. To use Kirika’s attacks, ammo is needed with the rapid fire using single rounds, whereas the powerful blast uses several rounds at once. The ammunition for the guns is infinite, but it does require frequent reloading to keep the attacks going.

Masha is equipped with a powerful thorn whip, which deals higher damage up close allowing three attacks to be chained together. These attacks are at a shorter range, but will deal significant damage to any enemy within range. While in the air or on the ground, the whip attacks cannot be chained together. The whip isn’t Masha’s only form of attack, as she can also use Demonic Seeds to unleash devastating attacks, these are limited and must be collected as loot drops.

Throughout the adventure, the player will be able to collect loot from enemies that have been defeated. These drops often consist of recovery items, money and sub-weapons. Speaking of sub-weapons, the two sisters have two slots that can have items assigned to them for use during the adventure. These special items provide a variety of offensive tools for the sisters to use, with both shared and specialist weapons they can use.

During the adventure, the player can find items like Kunai knives, heavy swords, bombs and even summonable familiars. The shared items are all the same color, with a purple shade to them, whereas the ones specifically for Kirika are pink, and the ones for Masha are green in hue. Both the specialist and shared items can have additional buffs on them, like increased health, weapon damage and resistances to status effects.

The sub weapons will require the player to use Demon Power, shortened to DP on screen. These are limited and must be replenished when they have been depleted. To recharge the DP, mana jars must be collected from dropped enemies and destroyed items. If the player has no DP, they will be unable to utilize the sub weapon they have chosen. The resource pool of DP is shared between the two sisters, so efficient use is critical to success.

Then there are the movement skills that players have access to, allowing for the various platforming challenges to be overcome. The players start with a standard jump and dash, which will help get around most of the areas. But when playing with a companion, players will be able to perform some tricks that they may otherwise not. These include using each other to boost, bypass some hazards and use the special co-op transform skill for interesting shenanigans.

Due to the dangers of the demon realms, there are persistent risks that the player will face. This means that damage will often happen to the sisters, taking away their health at varying degrees based on the difficulty. If one of the sisters is defeated, they will be reduced to bones, but they can be revived if the player can stuff their soul back in fast enough. If both sisters are defeated, they will be sent back to a discovered save point.  

The save points are tea tables, where the player can recover lost health and depleted Demon Power. These function as checkpoints, where the player will be sent back upon death. While at the tea table, the player will be able to use it as a warp point for fast travel. The player can warp to the castle and throne room from the tea table (discussed further below), with the ability to warp back from the tables located in these two areas.

Throughout the Demon Realms, the player will encounter fearsome bosses. When a boss appears, the player will be locked into a deadly battle with them in a closed arena. Each of the bosses will have their own special attacks, gimmicks and attack patterns that players need to overcome. Upon defeating the bosses, the player will often receive a reward for overcoming the danger. These rewards can often be key to progressing the story.

One of the most important rewards that can be obtained is the Bones of Maxim, which have been scattered throughout the realms. These Bones are very powerful, as they are integral to restoring the power of the Demon Lord. As the player collects bones, they need to return them to Maxim’s throne, where the sisters will level up as bones are deposited. At set amounts, a level will be gained and this is integral to the progress of the sisters in their quest.

As the two sisters level up, they will gain new powers, like the ability to double jump and dash in the air. With these new abilities, the areas that may have otherwise been unreachable, can now be explored and further expand the options for players. Defeating powerful enemies isn’t the only way to obtain the Bones of Maxim, as there will be chests and enemies that can contain them. There are a set number of bones per region to collect.

When the player levels up their sisters, they will increase their health, damage and DP with each level gained. The Maxim Bones aren’t the only way to improve the powers of the sisters and Maxim, as there are special upgrades just for the Demon Lord. These special emblems will provide special bonuses, like additional attack power and defense. But be careful, as there are some that will come at a cost, adding a risk reward element to play.

Throughout the realms, the spirits of Maxim’s servants have been scattered. These spirits can be collected and returned to the bones of servants in the castle. As they are returned, new upgrades and features will be added to the Castle, expanding the options for players. The new facilities that can be found include storage, a blacksmith to upgrade items and even a chef. Restoring the castle will provide much needed upgrades for the sisters.

The last thing to discuss are the Karon ferry service. These special demons allow the player to quickly move between ferry points, but the player must have activated them first. The Karon require coin for the player to gain passage, much like the underworld ferryman they are based on. Like the tea tables, the player can use these to go to the castle. But the tea tables can only move between the Throne Room, Castle and the last use table.

There are many more secrets that players can uncover, but I don’t want to spoil those for players. So with the gameplay covered, it is time to cover the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.

Controls – Gal Guardians 2 has a pretty easy to use control system, with the movement on the thumbstick, actions on the face buttons and special functions on the shoulders. All of these inputs work well, but if players choose to, they can fully remap the inputs to something more preferable. The overall feel of the gameplay is smooth and responsive, with the inputs working well. I recommend remapping movement to D-Pad, as it fits the style much better.

Difficulty – there are three difficulty settings in Gal Guardians 2. These are Casual, Veteran and Challenger. The Casual difficulty gives an extra 200 health, recoverable at save points making it the best for those taking it easy. Veteran is the standard difficulty, providing a balanced challenge for players. Challenger is the ultimate challenge, with stricter death rules, more damage and higher drop rates. All three of these options are fairly well balanced, working well.

Presentation – the visual style for Gal Guardians 2 has that old-school feel to it, with a retro style to the pixel art sprites. This combines well with the environments that are highly detailed, have a fantastical vibrancy to them. The animations of sprites are smooth and fluid, which looks beautiful in motion. Then there are the anime style portraits and CG images, which round out the gameplay visuals with a nice bow. There is also plenty of fanservice present.

Then there is the opening, which works well setting the tone for the experience, se to the backdrop of the theme for the game. The music is a great touch for the game, with the different musical themes working well for each setting. There is also a use of musical cues for different key sections, where the home base music plays when in a safe area. The dialogue is entirely in Japanese, with a voice cast that plays their roles very well.

Final Thoughts – I had not played the first Gal Guardians game, having missed out on it when it was released, but when I was given the chance to play this, I did not hesitate to take it on. There is a rather deep and enjoyable metroidvania on offer, with plenty of content for players to sink their teeth into. This is all wrapped in a narrative that is fun and engaging, with characters that are charming and endearing, making it easy to play for extended periods.

There are a couple of minor hiccups, with repeated backtracking and some clunky action at times, but this doesn’t have a significant impact on play. The addition of local co-op is a lot of fun, with the potential for some interesting sequence breaking. I am unsure how the online system functions, as I was unable to try it out during play. In general, I am very happy to recommend Gal Guardians 2 to everyone, as both a well-rounded metroidvania and fun 2 player adventure.

In the end, I give Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark a final score of 4.75/5. This is a fun and well balanced metroidvania adventure, offering something that is pretty unique, with a solid challenging gameplay, chaotically fun 2-player co-op and plenty of fanservice. If you want to check out this release for yourself, a link to each version of the game will be below.

Link to PlayStation version (HERE)

Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)

Link to Steam version (HERE)

UPDATE – Link to Xbox version (HERE)