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Galaxy Angel: The Review


Ranzo

2906 views

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rbdNTnDkk7k/UCNmZS3GSgI/AAAAAAAAAMA/ejekvK6piMw/s640/GA+(cut).png

( In a galaxy far, far away. )

The Setup

It all started with a flash game. It's hard to believe that my love affair with Visual Novels and my dalliances with manga and anime all sprang from the same source but it's true. Of course, I had watched anime before on both Fox Kids when I was real little, and on Toonami when I was older. The thing of it was I never really tried to seek it out on my own. If a show that I was watching stopped being aired then I stopped watching it. That all changed when I played the Galaxy Angel Sim Date when I was still a freshman in high school. It was on Newgrounds, which was at the time the most popular site for dumb flash games and videos. Of course, being the pervy high schooler that I was, I wanted what was in the adults only category. That's where I found Galaxy Angel Sim Date. Now I don't know exactly why but for some reason I really came to love that game, and I was very interested in finding what it was based on. That led me eventually to the anime, the manga, and much later to the visual novel. The internet can be a weird and amazing place.

The Story

GA- The Duo

(Tact Mayers, the man himself)

The Transvaal Galaxy has been gripped in terror! Exiled Prince Eonia and a huge fleet of unknown vessels have undertaken a massive Coup d'état against the Emperor of Transvaal, and the White Moon! Hope is not lost however, the famed Angel Wing has managed to escape with the last of the royal family aboard the Elsior. Now the fate of the entire galaxy is up to...you, apparently. You are Tact Mayers, a greenhorn layabout who usually leaves all the important work to your adjutant, Lester Coolduras. Unfortunately for your dreams of sloth you are chosen for a daring rescue mission. It's not all bad though as you are also given command of the strongest strike force in the galaxy, powered by only cute girls. Life, it takes and it gives. Basically, the plot is that you must attempt to outrun Eonia's forces for as long as possible. At first, the Angel Wing might not trust their new fresh off the boat commander but who knows, it's a long voyage, anything can happen, even dare I say it, love. Galaxy Angel is without a doubt a pure space opera. It wears it on it's sleeve and dances with it in the dark. It might not be the most intricate of plots but it is still filled with a lot of powerful moments. But just who are the mystery girls?

The Characters

https://animetree.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ga-intermission.png

(Forte and Mint to the left, Vanilla and Ranpha to the right, and Milfeulle in the middle)

Characters are important to any story and in my humble opinion these are some of the best, even if they might not be the most well developed. More than that I've grown up with these characters so I know them backwards and forwards. Each Angel pilots their very own Emblem Frames, which are one of a kind ships powered by the fabled (and convenient) Lost Technology. Here is a breakdown of the characters and what they pilot.

Mifuelle Sakuraba: She pilots the Lucky Star and is the epitome of a air headed girl. She loves to cook and is gifted with a unholy amount of reality breaking luck. Milfeulle also happens to be the "main" girl of the VN.

Ranpha Franboise: Ranpha pilots the Kung Fu Fighter and is basically your typical energetic, and tsundere girl. She works out a lot and loves fortune telling.

Forte Stollen: Forte pilots the Happy Trigger and is in many ways the older sister of the group. She is obsessed with ancient firearms and is an avid collector.

Vanilla H: She pilots the Harvester and is the youngest and most quiet of the troupe. Vanilla is able to control nanomachines incredibly well and is an excellent healer.

Mint Blancmanche: Mint is the pilot of the Trick Master and the source of all good things in this world. Mint is a telepath and because of this does not trust anyone easily. She is obsessed with cute and sweet things.

The story is centered around them with each chapter centered around a specific member of the team. This gives you a chance to get to know each of them while getting closer at the same time. At a certain point the story it is possible to choose a character and their specific route opens up. There are also quite a few noteworthy side characters like Lester Coolduras who engages you with a galaxy spanning bromance. By some weird design the combat effectiveness of the Emblem Frames are determined by the mental states of each pilot. Your job as the commander is to basically make nice with them or else their performance will suffer. This leads me to one of the more unique aspects of Galaxy Angel, the gameplay.

The Gameplay

https://animetree.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ga-gameplay-1.png

https://animetree.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ga-gameplay-2.png

(Combat Inaction)

The gameplay is pretty basic but it works. After every mission you briefing you give the Angels their orders and they engage in ship to ship combat. Each Emblem Frames have their own special advantages and weakness. For example the Kung Fu Fighter is the fastest but has the weakest shields while the Happy Trigger is the slowest but with the most firepower. Each ship also has a special ability that can be used effectively once a certain bar is filled up. When it does you can give the Frame a command and they will use it against the enemy. (The only one that does not is the Harvester, Vanillas special attack heals all the of the Frames.) Like I said before the gameplay is very bare bones though they often throw some new elements in play like stronger enemy types or more complicated objectives. There is one last ship that I have yet to bring up which is the Elsior, which is another piece of lost technology and the flagship that everyone resides in. It has extremely weak firepower though it mostly makes up with that by having the power to completely heal each Angel Frame. It's poor combat effectiveness and slow speed is easily the most annoying parts in the game. With it's awful firepower it is always advisable to keep it way out of enemy range. While that may be easy enough at first there are several missions when you must escort it through enemy lines which can be incredibly frustrating. The graphics also reflect the fact that this Visual Novel was released in 2002 so don't go expecting that much in that way. Still, the battles can be very thrilling at times and I think it would be quite a loss if the gameplay was not present. The later games really improved the mechanics quite a bit while keeping to the core concept. The second aspect of the game is moving around the Elsior and talking with the crew. This improves the relationship and combat effectiveness. It's pretty basic stuff and it is real easy to see just how each angel thinks of you.

Meh, it's only the 2nd chapter

(Oh yeah did I mention that this is all determined by a telepathic space whale?)

Final Thoughts

What can I say Galaxy Angel is still one of my favorite Visual Novels and I have a great deal of affection for it. It might not have the most compelling of stories, but it does something extremely well and that is make you feel invested with the characters. It can be pretty powerful stuff when they start to actually like and trust you. This is the first part of a great trilogy and it serves as a wonderful jumping off point. The only problem with the game is that since it was released in 2002 it is quite difficult to get working on modern computers. Despite that setback I would really recommend checking out. You might come to love it too.

6 Comments


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OH, SO THAT IS WHAT YOU'RE WRITING ABOUT!

I should stop seeing fuwa reviews since they only make me wanna play multiple VNs at the same time even though I'm horrible with time management. xoD

Also Forte must be strong (PT Jk you won't get, but, I had to make anyway).

Anyway, Noice review, you've been improving. :mare:

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3 minutes ago, SeniorBlitz said:

OH, SO THAT IS WHAT YOU'RE WRITING ABOUT!

I should stop seeing fuwa reviews since they only make me wanna play multiple VNs at the same time even though I'm horrible with time management. xoD

Also Forte must be strong (PT Jk you won't get, but, I had to make anyway).

Anyway, Noice review, you've been improving. :mare:

Thank you! It's real hard reviewing a game you love without just let's say just repeating THE GAME IS GREAT! MINT IS THE BEST! THE GAME IS GREAT! MINT IS THE BEST! over and over again.

Also Forte=Fuerte yeah I get it :jinpou:

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3 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

Also Forte=Fuerte yeah I get it :jinpou:

huehuehue

3 minutes ago, Ranzo said:

Thank you! It's real hard reviewing a game you love without just let's say just repeating THE GAME IS GREAT! MINT IS THE BEST! THE GAME IS GREAT! MINT IS THE BEST! over and over again.

I would be in a similar situation if I made a review to Dmmd. If I ever do a reviewing blog like the others, that is.

Now I have the idea in my mind.

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Ah, those Sci-fi tropes... Sunrider series also have that "lost technology" talk all over the place. :D

It's a shame there's no official English release though, this would sell like hotcakes on Steam. :)

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My encounter with Galaxy Angel was through Animax, in which they broadcasted the anime. As for the impression, well I think more or less it's just two parter anime in one episode and full of gag, not that I remember my impression back then lol (It's at 2006). So more or less I just forgot about this, until back at 2010 when I ask someone for VN Recommendations (Not through internet) and I saw the name 'Galaxy Angel'. Long story short, I managed to saw all of the trilogy translated, and obviously realized that the VN and the anime version was very different.

For the VN itself, while one could argue that more or less it's Grisaia predesscor because we can think the 2nd and 3rd part as the fandisc, I say that Galaxy Angel itself is better than Grisaia for the trilogy (Of course each of Grisaia VN is better than Galaxy Angel VN, but that's another story). The reason is simple, because they consistent with the coupling throughout the trilogy - you can chose the heroines that you wanted to be with at the sequels. While there's also additional routes that was added for the 2nd part like Grisaia, it's still possible to happen because we can have Tact end with no one at the first VN (Quite a Guide Dang It though) unlike Kajitsu in which the only way that it was possible for the trilogy to be happened was through the infamous anime adaptation lol.

As for my impression of the first part, it's definitely outdated looking from the engine. There's no voice playback, only 10 slots for save, and most definitely an unintuitive way to save everywhere. I did thought I could only save at certain point, which mean it'll be a pain if I need to chose between the ladies. Turned out that I just need to press ESC button, and that's after I asked about this at VNDB. That said, other than those technical problem I did managed to like this VN a bit even though the story was pretty simple. Oh and I also like that the seiyuu who voicing Galaxy Angel were well known, Like Yukari Tamura and Miyuki Sawashiro. I think that's all for what I can say in regard of Galaxy Angel for now.

PS - By the way, quite an interesting review there. Also if I may ask something, did you interested to play the sequels @Ranzo? Like your Mint avatar by the way.

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13 hours ago, littleshogun said:

My encounter with Galaxy Angel was through Animax, in which they broadcasted the anime. As for the impression, well I think more or less it's just two parter anime in one episode and full of gag, not that I remember my impression back then lol (It's at 2006). So more or less I just forgot about this, until back at 2010 when I ask someone for VN Recommendations (Not through internet) and I saw the name 'Galaxy Angel'. Long story short, I managed to saw all of the trilogy translated, and obviously realized that the VN and the anime version was very different.

For the VN itself, while one could argue that more or less it's Grisaia predesscor because we can think the 2nd and 3rd part as the fandisc, I say that Galaxy Angel itself is better than Grisaia for the trilogy (Of course each of Grisaia VN is better than Galaxy Angel VN, but that's another story). The reason is simple, because they consistent with the coupling throughout the trilogy - you can chose the heroines that you wanted to be with at the sequels. While there's also additional routes that was added for the 2nd part like Grisaia, it's still possible to happen because we can have Tact end with no one at the first VN (Quite a Guide Dang It though) unlike Kajitsu in which the only way that it was possible for the trilogy to be happened was through the infamous anime adaptation lol.

As for my impression of the first part, it's definitely outdated looking from the engine. There's no voice playback, only 10 slots for save, and most definitely an unintuitive way to save everywhere. I did thought I could only save at certain point, which mean it'll be a pain if I need to chose between the ladies. Turned out that I just need to press ESC button, and that's after I asked about this at VNDB. That said, other than those technical problem I did managed to like this VN a bit even though the story was pretty simple. Oh and I also like that the seiyuu who voicing Galaxy Angel were well known, Like Yukari Tamura and Miyuki Sawashiro. I think that's all for what I can say in regard of Galaxy Angel for now.

PS - By the way, quite an interesting review there. Also if I may ask something, did you interested to play the sequels @Ranzo? Like your Mint avatar by the way.

Yeah it sounds like your timeline on GA discovery is about the same as mine. It was like late 2006 when I found out about Galaxy Angel. They had a few legitimately serious episodes thrown in each season and they were usually very well done. But yeah the anime is completely different from the manga or the VN though the character traits pretty much bleed through.

Well with Galaxy Angel Moonlit Lovers there is a new character introduced. That's what makes them really good sequels you grow with the characters naturally. Yeah it is incredibly outdated which is a real shame because there are a lot of great moments in the VN. If you start from Moonlit yeah you get a nice recap but you loose the opportunity of slowly getting close to each character. Unless you go for Chitose that is. I managed to somehow get it working on my laptop but it can barely make it through the opening menu on my newer computer.

Thank you for your kind words! Yes, I played through both Moonlit and Eternal Lovers though I don't think I did every single route. I think I only played through Mint's story in Eternal.

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