Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark Review

Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark tells the story of Kirika and Masha, each with their unique styles, as they go on a mission to revive their master, the Demon Lord Maxim, and restore him to power. You’ll need to explore a castle and all its surrounding areas to successfully bring your master back to his former self.

Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is a 2D Metroidvania game where players will be exploring various areas within and around the castle. The genre also calls for a bit of backtracking as often times, you’ll come across where you can’t progress because you have yet to acquire a specific skill such as double jumping or a specific weapon, such as a spear to break walls.

While the game can be played in co-op, playing solo allows you to swap at any time between both characters. Kiria attacks from a distance with her gun while Masha uses a whip for some up close action. As you’ll kill enemies, you’ll also pick up sub-weapons that both characters can use. You’ll find things like daggers, long swords, grenades, and spiders. Using them will drain your DP (magic points) meter, which can be replenished by picking up blue vase like items.

Along with sub-weapons, you can pick up health items that can be saved up to (barely) replenish your health when you’re in trouble. Hearts can also be dropped from dead enemies or found in destructible walls similar to finding meat in walls in Castlevania games. And also passive enhancements that can be equipped on your master’s floating head such as a triple jump or lowering your HP by 20% but increasing your DP by 20%.

Both characters also act as “lives”. If either character dies, you’ll automatically switch to the other one and you’ll be given the chance to revive the deceased character by mashing X. But if you fail to revive your sister and the second character dies, it’s game over and you’re back at the last save point you saved. Given the increasingly challenging environments, the game does have a level system, however instead of being with the traditional XP, it’s via the bones you collect. Returning the bones to the throne room will give you “XP” and thus allowing your characters to level up their HP, attack power, DP meter.

Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark looks great in all of its pixelated glory. Both protagonists and enemies are detailed in terms of their design, the enemy variety gets progressively better the further you get. Bosses are also very diversed. As with any Metroidvania, each new area is uniquely designed with its own color palette, theme and challenge. The soundtrack is fine; it has that orchestral feel that is reminiscent of Castlevania, but it’s not as quite impactful as Konami’s flagship vampire-killing adventures.

The game does have some problematic nuisances. First off is the difficulty spike. Even on Casual, once you’re out of the first area, enemies become twice as hard to kill and both characters take a lot damage from enemies. Additionally, there’s no checkpoint so when you die, you’re warped back at the last save “room” (basically a patio ensemble) you saved at. While as a whole it’s not that problematic, it’s a pain in the ass when you finally arrive into a new area and there’s no save point and you get massacred by the stronger enemies.

Also, while not a problem per se, I get that the Metroidvania genre is not for everyone due to the constant backtracking. There’s nothing more annoying that exploring, hoping you’re on the proper path and ending up on the wrong one because you have yet to find the skill required to let you proceed and having to retrace your steps. Also, as odd as it may sounds, the inventory seems unclear. Despite having room in my inventory, I’d keep getting Inventory full when trying to pick up certain items when my inventory was in fact not full.

Overall, Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark is one of the best Metroidvania I’ve played. Combat is solid, having two characters to swap between brings a layer of strategy and makes boss battles really fun. Each area is fun to explore. Admittedly, the abrupt difficulty spike every time you reach a new area and constant back and forth with the Throne room to level up are two nuisances that might irritate some players. But once you adapt to the difficulty spikes and learn to amass the bones until it’s worth while, you’ll find a fun, addicitve and challenging Metroidvania. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s definitely worth your time and money.