Welcome to Our Little Secret, and if REALLY just wandered in at random, wait right here while I get a palm frond and a bunch of grapes to feed you while I tell you the basics. You guests who know the score can go ahead and help yourselves to all that's available. I hope you have a maddeningly good time here!
Well, Galerians is a series of two games, the first being a 3 disk PlayStation game that was developed by Polygon Magic and published by Ascii. It was released in Japan in 1999. The English version was published by Crave Games in 2000. It is part of a genre known on this side of the Pacific as Survival Horror, and as such Galerians is often called a Resident Evil clone. But it is more interested in telling it's dark little story of death and madness than it is in either survival or horror. The sequel, Galerians: Ash is more action oriented, and continues the story 6 years after the first game. It was released in Japan in 2002.
| Influences acknowledged by the Galerians Staff |
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| Biohazard |
Final Fantasy |
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| Akira |
Scanners |
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| The Crow |
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Galerians tells a gritty noir tale of a dystopic future, centering on a boy's decent into sin and madness after being abused by a corrupt government system. Nearly nothing happy happens in this game, and the little that is happy is usually tinged with despair. Herein lies the reason I make a distinction between Galerians and the rest of the Survival Horror genre. This game is scary, but not in the adrenaline-pumping shock-horror way (though it does occasionally do the shock-horror thing). Galerians is thematically disturbing - it's the revulsion of walking through a hospital full of battered and dying experiment subjects, or watching the hero pop a few more pills in order stay on his feet, and knowing that he can't change the system fast enough to save anyone. That's heavy stuff; more than some people want to deal with. It's rather adult and sophisticated, and the fact that it's on console, and that Crave thought highly enough of it to risk releasing it in North America, makes it even more special.
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