Beyond Galaxyland Review (PS5) – Beyond Galaxyland is a fun, ambitious title with much to offer. I’ve always enjoyed a turn-based RPG set in a futuristic setting with planet jumping and world-destroying threats.
Beyond Galaxyland does many great things, from its excellent writing and story to its great characters, but its hit-and-miss combat system and limited exploration leave much to be desired.
Beyond Galaxyland Review (PS5) – An Ambitious Indie Project With Plenty Of Joy To Offer
A Tale Of Love, Loss, And Conspiracy Across The Galaxy
You take on the role of Doug, who, along with his pet Guinea Pig, Boom Boom, falls into a portal while running from a human who looks possessed. When Dough wakes up, he’s on a different planet brimming with alien life and robots. Boom Boom has been modified and enhanced to know how to shoot a gun and slowly learn to communicate with Doug.
Doug finds out that Earth has been destroyed by an unknown entity called The End, and he was saved by a mysterious alien race who have made it their mission to save life from various planets that The End. While Doug is sent to a planet full of other humans, he makes it his goal to return to Earth.
As you may expect, things don’t seem exactly how they should, and questions arise. A mysterious being is trying to show the universe that these saviors are not who they make themselves about to be and a conspiracy of what The End truly is.
The story starts relatively slow, but as you progress, the questions begin to take form, and the story keeps me coming back. There is a lot to digest from it, and it’s one of the highlights of Beyond Galaxyland.
Great Characters And World Bring Beyond Galaxyland To Life
The cast is another highlight. Though simple and straightforward in his personality, Doug is surrounded by a great cast. Boom Boom speaks like a child, learning words by repeating what others say. Marty is a flying robot with a hologram face, which helps you along the way as he tries to understand his purpose.
Along with other party members, their dynamic is excellent, and each uniquely adds to the party. The world is also full of colorful characters and aliens. A giant Sloth guards a spaceship you need to travel. Insect-like beings swarm the underbelly of planets you visit with hate for humans.
The world of Beyond Galaxyland is brimming with personality, and I wish there were more to the game’s exploration to explore the various planets you can visit and interact with the residents of these planets.
Simple Exploration Leaves A Lot To Be Desired
Beyond Galaxyland is a Pixle 2.5D game, so you’ll mostly move left and right during exploration. Though I don’t have any issue with this decision, it does limit your ability to explore the world.
Most planets you visit consist of small areas with a mission for you to complete and nothing more. There’s also nothing to go out of your way for outside of chests that provide crafting material, which you can buy in a shop, and artifacts to equip your party, most of which you can craft, buy, or steal off your enemies.
You can move into the foreground and background while exploring, which you can only do in areas the game tells you you can do with arrow indicators.
My biggest issue with the exploration is how dark or bright it is. Even with HDR turned off, it was not easy to see where I was going or what was ahead of me. It got worse when I could even see an enemy attack coming to avoid it.
It’s also hard to locate chests or other interactive items in the environment unless you see the prompt appear as you walk by it.
Being A Photographer In Space Has Its Benefits
As you explore, you can take pictures that record all the species around the galaxy. These pictures are also used for most side quests requiring you to document a species and turn the photos into various citizens. It’s also used when in combat.
Suppose you take a picture of an enemy before battle. Their health will appear, so you’ll quickly know how much health they have during combat. This is also something you can do during combat and is a must when taking on bosses, as that will be the only time you can capture their picture during the game.
Combat is my biggest gripe with Beyond Galaxyland. Though it tries to do something unique, it’s a double-edged sword. Combat is turn-based, where you can attack. Use abilities, summon monsters you’ve captured as abilities, and use items or skip your turn.
Ability Points System Hurts Combat
Everything you do in combat utilizes Ability Points. You gain an Ability Point to use a character’s ability whenever you strike an enemy. The issue is that all three party members in combat share these Ability Points. It would be a strategic system if the game didn’t force you to use abilities they want you to use constantly.
Whenever I saved up enough ability points, I had to use a specific ability to disable an enemy shield or cure a de-buff. Only abilities can cure specific de-buffs in the game, and there aren’t any items to use.
What makes this worse is your party’s accuracy. I miss half of the attacks I try to execute, even though my accuracy is 96%. It’s baffling how it’s calculated. Every time you miss an attack, you lose an Ability Point, so you’re constantly juggling your Ability Points, and I found myself saving my Abilities for Boss battles.
It’s a real shame that so much of the game’s battle system relies on a system that affects the entire party rather than individual characters. Though it’s a unique system, I found it a hindrance more than an advantage system.
Gotta Catch Them All
During combat, you also have to watch out for enemy attacks. As an attack is about to connect, you can block the attack and mitigate the damage. It’s a nice feature that keeps you on your toes and helps you go longer in battles.
Capturing monsters is another cool feature in Beyond Galaxyland. When you weaken an enemy to the brink of defeat, you can capture the monster using a Capture ability. When acquired, you can equip the beast, which also levels up and learns new skills.
You use your SP or Summon Ponts to summon them, and they can pull off some excellent abilities, like providing shields for the entire party, casting Regen, and striking enemies with elemental damage.
Like your ability points, though, using these summon skills costs so much SP that I reserved to use only during boss battles. Some cost so much that I could only use one or two skills per person before I was out of SP.
A Beautiful World Lacking In Some Musical Hits
The Pixel models and animations are suitable for most of the game. The world is unique in its design, and the various planets feature their own architecture and habitats. The characters also look great. Even though they are pixilated, you can always tell the emotion they display through the models.
The sound design is decent. However, there isn’t any voice acting, which is a shame as it could have added so much to the characters’ personalities and the excellent writing to hear them talking. The soundtrack is hit-and-miss. It features good electronic music and many repetitive tunes around the towns, making it sound like a 90s cartoon.
For those looking for a unique RPG across the galaxy, Beyond Galaxyland will scratch that itch. It tells a fantastic story full of conspiracies while building a universe, I want to keep exploring. Its great characters have excellent dynamics, and I latched on to each one. It’s just a shame that its exploration and combat could have used more work.
Beyond Galaxyland release on PS5 and PS4 on September 24, 2024.
Review Code kindly provided by PR