Play:
What's more, Galerians: Ash deals with almost every troubling gameplay issue that G1 presented. To begin with, since enemies are much more plentiful in G:Ash, Rion has been given a repertiore of means to avoid taking damage, from throwing up a psychic shield to diving out of the way. The pseudo-lock function of the PS1 prequel has been replaced with a legitimate lock-on feature, which automatically activates in close range. Aditionally, there are some new power-inducing drugs added to Rion's arsenal (but only two), and all powers can be upgraded as a reward for beating bosses. Because of the upgrade scale, damage points and hit points are assigned to every attack and enemy. This makes it MUCH easier to tell if an enemy has a resistance to the power you're using.

The basic mechanics of using Rion's powers is unchanged, except for one thing: you can no longer hold shorts until you need them. This is almost a nonfactor, however, because shorts are easier than ever to induce. The stronger Rion's powers get, the faster they use AP, and Rion's AP still increases while he's walking around. That last point has been tweaked for the better, thanks to the addition of a tension meter. It basically measures how on-edge Rion is, and thusly, how quickly his AP meter fills. Finally, G:Ash gives you rewards for killing things. While in G1 you were better off running away, this time enemies leave restorative items and HP or AP bonuses. Yes, that does mean that Rion's stats are rising throughout the game.

However manifold the play improvements are in this game, they almost all directly deal with problems from the first game, and the game's new format has a host of new problems associated with it. First is the camera. It's actually not bad; it's free 98% of time and snaps behind Rion at the press of L2-- provided there are no obstacles in it's way. What's really annoying is that because the camera is poor at squeezing between Rion and walls, whenever he enters a room, it's aimed at Rion rather than where the enemies are. Also, I died a time or two thanks to the camera getting stuck behind walls, because this game has no proximity transparence effects (to make the wall clear so Rion doesn't get whacked while you can't see what's going on). In other camera related issues, Rion can't move and use the first-person view at the same time, so while you're trying to figure out where to go, the enemies are baring down on you.

Audio/Visual:
While not a game of fantastic graphical detail, G:Ash gets points for style-- some things about this series never change. Smooth, shiney surfaces with sharp edges, while not especially difficult to render, do succeed in being very stylish and suiting the mood of the game in this case. The G:Ash is rather poor with organic shapes, however. Enemies are blockier than they should be, and human (looking) characters are uniformly stiff-looking. Fortunately, the FMV cutscenes have no such problems. Well, about half of them don't. The rest use the in-game models. But the good ones are very good-- not quite on the same level as industry giants like Square, but pretty close.

G:Ash is similar to it's predecessor in the sound department too-- mostly ambient noise with snatches of tunes interspersed throughout, only this time the snatches are longer (but, to the best of my knowledge, don't sample Nine Inch Nails). Once again, G:Ash has a great intro, but in a very different way. This time, we are treated to a bombastic, electric guitar-supported, symphonic/choral peice. Since G:Ash hasn't seen this side of the Pacific, there is much joy in the acting department. Ishida Akira (Rion) and Miki Shinichirou (Ash) give typically excellent performances, and Nogami Yukana's preformance as the wearily sardonic and seductive Nitro was a remarkable surprise.

Replay:
If there is one flaw that would discourage people from buying Galerians: Ash, it would be the game's length-- it's a bit over 10 hours the first time through, and 5 or less if you know what to do. It offers extra difficulty modes and secrets to unlock for trips through, but it's still 5-10 hours of going through the same three levels. Speaking of which, if there were two things that would discourage people from buying this game the second one would be lack of variety. Three levels. You'll go through each at least twice in one play through. I suspect people who didn't play Galerians 1 will lose interest. But those of us who are in love with the living tragedy that is Rion Stiener and his story of the bleeding edge of sanity will play it. And play it enough times to open up that special gallery. ^_^