Gal*Gun: Double Peace Review (PS4)
Gal*Gun: Double Peace is certainly an odd game, one in which you shoot girls with euphoria after a cupid-like angel makes many girls confess their love to you – but who do you love?
Yes, Gal*Gun can be described as a love story and, whilst it may not be the greatest love story of our time, it does give me a reason to shoot girls with euphoria which is pretty great. You play as an ordinary highschool boy who suddenly finds himself irresistible to all girls but if he doesn’t find his true love by the end of the day, then he’ll never have a chance at true love again. When two old friends return by the names of Shinobu and her sister Maya, it’s perfect chance to reunite and pick one to confess your feelings too but who knows, maybe you won’t pick either of those two! There are several routes to follow so you can pick your favourite girl, and each route is roughly a couple of hours long so Gal*Gun invites replay.
So, it was always obvious that story and characters were never going to be the strongest aspect of Gal*Gun and my mind hasn’t changed now that I’ve played it. It’s the on-rails shooting that kept me coming back and the visuals, both of which lend themselves to a carefree, enjoyable experience that doesn’t try to be anything other than fun. Colourful, addictive and boasting multiple routes to play (plus true endings!), Gal*Gun knows exactly what it is and relishes in it, providing laughs and a sense that you understand the game better with each playthrough as you learn the quickest and most effective way to shoot euphoria at the girls, and work towards collecting all the items scattered around, so that you can rack up higher scores.
You can choose to shoot the girls all willy nilly, but you want to focus on their weak spots to take them down with one shot – this is highlighted by Japanese text that pops up when you aim at certain parts of their body. You can choose to take multiple routes which helps on replays, and you’ll need to do it if you want to collect all the items for side-quests (which are limited to shooting certain people and finding requested items) and, well, for collection purposes. Being on-rails all you have to do is aim and shoot as you’re forced along selected paths, and it’s nice seeing an on-rails game as we rarely have those anymore. There’s also a mini-game in where you rub girls and the resulting euphoric explosion affects surrounding girls too, so I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fun with that! Plenty of mini-games revolving the girls who’s routes you pick include a lot of rubbing and tugging, too.
Gal*Gun on PS4 is undeniably a better looking game than on Vita, and it performs far better too. Whilst the Vita version suffers from some notably rough visuals and has a number of framerate issues, the PS4 version runs flawlessly and allows the art style and colour to really come to life. It’s not going to be the finest game you’ve seen on either platform but it more than captures the joyful tone of the game and I didn’t expect anything more, and I found myself pleased with the bright colours and bright tones. PS4 is definitely superior in this aspect and whilst that’s to be expected, it’s a shame that the Vita port doesn’t do much to stand next to it. Gal*Gun does, however, support cross-saving between the PS4 & Vita versions.
If you want to hear your girls moaning in English then you’re out of luck here, but you can hear it loads in Japanese! There’s quite a lot of spoken dialogue, especially as this game is part visual novel, and I have no problem with it – there is characterisation which is portrayed adequately although this isn’t a particularly deep game, but a whole lot of the spoken dialogue is moans and other noises of pleasure, meaning you may not want to play this with family around. Honestly, you don’t want to play this around family regardless of the audio!
Gal*Gun is harmless fun that doesn’t really wow on any level, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a funny, engrossing game that’ll keep you coming back for more, although you may become a tad burnt out like I did before completing all routes. This is a game that’ll definitely stand out amongst 2016’s releases, even if it’s not one of the best, which is something that not all games can claim to do. If you’re interested in Gal*Gun then chances are you will not be disappointed with it, but it certainly isn’t a game for everyone! And on a final note that’s not entirely related to the game itself, I’d be happy to see this come to VR someday.
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