Beyond Galaxyland Review
It’s Life, Doug…
After debut title The Greater Good took players to a fantasy world, developer Sam Enright’s sophomoric effort Beyond Galaxyland takes them to the stars. Providing an adventure across a wide variety of locales, it does a fine job blending side-scrolling exploration with enjoyable turn-based combat and distinctive pixel-art visuals and music. An intriguing sci-fi mystery moves the story along at a decent pace, and though it ultimately leaves things more open than players would like, it makes for an easy experience to like.
Beyond Galaxyland stars a human named Doug. Following a brief introduction seen teasing the enigmatic character Malefactor, the game sees Doug returning home one day, where he is suddenly attacked by a strange being that chases him — carrying his pet guinea pig Boom Boom — into a cave with a mysterious portal. With little choice other than to enter the portal, Doug later wakes up in a sci-fi facility and is informed that life on Earth is doomed due to the invasion of an entity called the End. Robots from the intergalactic corporate empire DreamCorp inform Doug that their masters’ benevolence has seen them rescue a selection of humans, placing the survivors on a planet within the realm of Galaxyland, but forbidding the use of technology. The supposed benevolence has also been extended to Boom Boom, who has been upgraded into a much larger, fully intelligent form.
The requisite amount of neon to let one know they are in a sci-fi setting.
Doug is swiftly shipped off to his new home on Erros. However, while most of the humans on Erros are happy with their new home, Doug seeks answers to what has really happened on Earth. His adventure sees him recruiting allies and soon finding a way off the planet, where he is able to visit some of the other worlds of Galaxyland in his effort to return home. This puts him at odds with the powers in DreamCorp and in a complicated relationship with the aforementioned Malefactor, who both assists Doug and forces him into situations he has no intention of being in.
There’s a good amount of depth and mystery to the story, with an engaging cast and largely snappy writing. Doug is a likable protagonist, Boom Boom’s slow adaptation to his new intelligence and loyalty to Doug is incredibly heartwarming, and DreamCorp robot MartyBot provides some great comic effect as well as character growth as his worldview and goals are changed by events. There’s a good amount of twists and turns as DreamCorp and Malefactor’s pasts are revealed, with the underlying questions always retaining a good sense of mystery and there being plenty of emotional back and forth included. However, the game also leaves many of its important threads left hanging. It leaves a quite welcome scope to return to Galaxyland in the future, but there is a definite sense of “OK, but what now?” to the ending.
Beyond Galaxyland makes effective use of its pixel art graphics. There’s a lot of variation across the game’s eclectic mix of locations, with the 2.5D visuals making fine use of both background and foreground elements to bring them to life. There’s a good mixture of the enemy designs as well, especially with various bosses. Meanwhile, Sam Enright’s primarily electronic score offers an excellent soundtrack to the game. The music isn’t afraid to mix things up where appropriate; it provides a strong selection of varied and remarkably catchy tracks during action and exploration, but is happy to fall away and become fully atmospheric when needed.
Maintaining Ability Points is the most important element of the game’s combat.
Exploring the various locations of Galaxyland takes place primarily through 2D side-scrolling, but most locations have multiple planes that can be switched between at certain points. This allows for multiple routes, hidden rooms, and so forth for players to utilise as they solve puzzles, overcome obstacles, find items, and so forth. There is often some platforming involved as players have to jump between platforms to advance, as well as some extra actions such as cutting a path through debris or shooting a switch. Generally the puzzles and platforming are not overly challenging and decently paced, providing just the right amount of engagement for the game’s dozen-plus hour runtime. Beyond Galaxyland also offers the option for players to skip certain puzzles if they get stuck on them.
The game’s turn-based combat is initiated whenever players come into contact with an enemy on screen, with players able to get a preemptive hit in that will damage one of the foes. Combat uses an active-time system for determining turn order, while the game features standard HP and Summon Points (SP) for each character. Where Beyond Galaxyland differs from the basic template and introduces greater strategy and planning is the inclusion of Ability Points (AP). AP are shared between the party and gained by hitting enemies with regular attacks. Regular attacks grant multiple strikes, and players can elect to use all the character’s strikes, or to stop early, which results in all remaining strikes being converted to AP. The main reason for doing this is to avoid the danger of missing an attack, which reduces AP. Most of the important healing and other abilities require a decent amount of AP to use, meaning that keeping up a decent supply is vital to success.
Ability Points are used for unique abilities for each character, while Summon Points make use of captured enemies that can be equipped to them. One of Doug’s special abilities allows him to attempt to capture a foe, which is more likely to succeed the lower the enemy’s HP. Once an enemy is captured, they can then be equipped on party members, granting them access to that enemy’s abilities. Summons gain experience and level up while equipped, granting access to additional skills. It offers a fun element to facing foes and party building, particularly when some of the special boss-like enemies indicate they can be captured. Character growth is otherwise fairly standard with its automatic experience-based levels and a basic equipment system where players can equip a weapon plus a decent selection of passive bonus-granting accessories.
Humanity’s new “home” is a bit less technological.
In addition to paying attention on offence, players need to be focused on defence to both mitigate damage and keep their AP up. Whenever an enemy does a regular attack, players can press A to defend for a brief period. If they time it correctly, the damage is reduced, but if they fail to defend, then AP is reduced. It’s here where the battle system can be frustrating. Each enemy will have a different animation and timing for their attacks, so players will likely miss the window until they’ve seen the animation a couple of times, while some enemies may unexpectedly put in successive strikes. Outside of this, though, the combat is strong albeit unspectacular. Boss fights provide a decent sense of occasion, even if most don’t require too much thinking to overcome, and the game sneaks in some entertaining special encounters as well, a certain laid-back creature being a particular highlight.
The ability for players to both scan the environment and enemies works well with both the combat and a series of side quests where players need to take photos of various critters in the world. There is an appreciable amount of side content overall, with substantial standalone side quests focused on different planets that feature their own puzzles and bosses, including a couple of racing mini games. This includes a decent deal that can keep players coming back after the game has ended; loading a post-credits save will dump players just before the final boss and let them go after any content they may have missed, some of which is considerably more challenging than the final boss.
Beyond Galaxyland is a welcome addition to the RPG cosmos. Its audiovisual mixture is both distinctive and effective, while the gameplay and narrative keeps everything moving along nicely. The combat may get a bit rote towards the end, and there are some frustratingly unanswered story questions when all is said and done, but there’s no denying it’s a positive experience all the way through. It’s a game that’s easy to recommend in general, but for those whom a speedily-paced RPG that offers enjoyable exploration, some engaging sci-fi mystery, and a solid turn-based system sounds appealling, Beyond Galaxyland should be right up their alley.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Interesting setting and underlying mysteries
Good amount of side content
2.5D exploration and puzzles works well
Ending leaves many threads unresolved
Defensive button press timing can be annoying
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