I knew writing a review for Beyond Galaxyland was going to be a bit difficult because I was so immediately impressed by it when I previewed it back in August that I probably gushed about it way more than is usually appropriate for a preview. In some ways, this review may feel a bit perfunctory but honestly, I was excited to take the opportunity to weigh in on it in a critical capacity.
And after spending even more time with it, much of what I said during my preview remains true. Beyond Galaxyland may look like a simplistic and straightforward RPG, but it’s built on a foundation of good ideas, unique invention and impeccable presentation.
I am going to repeat, ever so slightly some of the things I said in my review, but only because I did such a good job writing about them that there aren’t a lot of ways I can improve on them—sometimes this ability is a blessing and a curse. The story concerns a teenager named Doug getting whisked away to the titular Galaxyland: an idyllic menagerie of planets run by the supposedly benevolent DreamCore corporation.
Despite being told that Earth was destroyed by a cataclysmic force known as “The End,” Doug doesn’t believe the faceless megacorp, and before long, he is on a sci-fi adventure worthy of Luke Skywalker. Together with a recently retired robot and his now sentient and anthropomorphized guinea pig named Boom Boom, he’ll fly between the various planets of Galaxyland, meeting new friends, and potentially learning the truth behind The End and Dreamcore’s true intentions.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect Beyond Galaxyland to charm me as much as it did.”
While it’s not exactly the most original plot, particularly for the sci-fi genre, it makes up for this with a lot of creativity in its moment-to-moment storytelling. Every new world has an interesting mini-story that introduces fun new characters and really helps flesh out this world. There’s a great sense of humour that runs through the majority of the story, while still maintaining its more serious and dark tone in the more important moments.
But Beyond Galaxyland enhances its story through simple yet nuanced gameplay mechanics. As I mentioned in my preview, the game has players exploring the various worlds on a two-dimensional plane, jumping back and forth between the foreground and background to expand the scope of levels. Despite their somewhat linear structure, levels feel very expansive and interesting to move through with a bit of light platforming that feels really tight.
The true standout in Beyond Galaxyland is the combat. Like I said in my preview, Sam Enright was inspired by the classics of turn-based RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII and what he’s made here feels like a solid combination of old-school sensibilities with new-school thinking and modernization. Battles themselves are fairly straightforward—utilizing an ATB system where the time it takes characters to attack can be affected by different elements.
Players can choose between standard attacks, special abilities and summons—which I did mention in the preview, but I’ll explain again here. What I liked about this system is how it all works in tandem with its own elements. When players choose a standard attack, there’s a bit of a Paper Mario-style Action Command system, where players can choose how many times they wish to attack—this works the same for timing blocks when on the defensive.
However, there’s a bit of a catch: every successful attack will add a point to the group’s pool of Ability Points, while missing an attack will subtract. It can feel a bit frustrating when losing points—being punished for RNG that’s a bit out of your control—however, it does add for an interesting system of choosing when to attempt a full-out assault, or when to reel back and conserve extra points, since any unused attack points go into the pool.
It keeps battles exciting and interesting, consistently balancing and focusing on attacking and mitigating when to use incredibly powerful abilities without letting players become too reliant on them. Then there’s the Summon system which…well it’s essentially Pokémon—I even made the joke that the capture ability summons a little ball that looks suspiciously like a Pokéball.
“Beyond Galaxyland may look like a simplistic and straightforward RPG, but it’s built on a foundation of good ideas, unique invention and impeccable presentation.”
If players weaken a monster enough, they can attempt to capture it. Once captured it can be assigned to any character, giving them a range of abilities that don’t draw from the pool—using SP instead. The more players use a certain monster, the more they will level up and learn new abilities. It’s an interesting addition to the combat that gives players a lot of freedom and versatility and not really locking any one character to a specific role.
Visually, Beyond Galaxyland has a really unique style which lands somewhere in the middle between the hyperdetailed 16-bit style of games like Narita Boy, and old 90’s MS-DOS games like King’s Quest. I wish I could pin down a name for this style—initially reminded me of Sheltered for having a very similar style. Every world has an incredible amount of detail and is incredibly stylized, utilizing a wide variety of colours and being brought to life with dynamic lighting and pixel effects.
The soundtrack is equally inspired by combining the sci-fi motif with distinctly hip-hop themes that give the game a truly distinct vibe. One thing I really enjoyed about Beyond Galaxyland’s music is how it transitions every area’s overworld theme to the battle theme by changing the tempo, drum track and expanding on the melody. While RPGs having a memorable battle theme is somewhat of a staple of the genre, I really like how Beyond Galaxyland bridges the gap and makes each world feel more dynamic through the music.
Honestly, I didn’t expect Beyond Galaxyland to charm me as much as it did. Despite appearing like a simple and straightforward RPG it finds a way to build on established ideas in such interesting ways that it genuinely never feels slow and never feels dull. For a game made mostly by one person, it is incredibly impressive and I genuinely can’t wait to see what Sam Enright comes up with next.
