It just came out 2.5 hours ago, but from what I've played of it, the game seems pretty stellar. The control scheme is definitely interesting and takes some time getting used to it, but it appears as though its not going to be too obscure to get in your way. I like the variety of moves at your disposal, whether you want to use missiles, throw explosive barrels at dudes or just shoot them to death. I've had a few moments where everything was blowing up and the framerate didn't really hold up, but that just makes the explosions look cooler! (Even though I'm pretty sure that's not what the developers intended...)

Also its been said a lot but you sure need to be careful and methodical in that game, very early on they start throwing enemies at you that can take a lot of bullets and you have to make sure you are keeping up the pressure on them while still not getting hit, because losing any health is never advised. Definitely wondering how the difficulty is going to ramp up from here. I feel like it was a weird design choice to say "You can turn into a mech!" even though all that really does is give you a couple extra moves at your disposal, but at least it looks cool, I guess.

Also, I encountered the same "unable to grapple" bug as brad did in the quick look, hopefully this game isn't too broken, we'll have to see.

Only put about an hour in and really like it myself. Movement feels tight and knowing when to book it when in a bad spot is really important so far only one death and it was totally my own fault.

I've just made it to season 3 and things are certainly getting a lot tougher now. I'd only died once in season 1 so far (by blindliny dodging into some lava) and pretty much just been blasting through, but now the game really starts to shine.

Also so far I vastly prefer the ship over the mech form. Only using the mech for sneaking and throwing exploding barrels at things.

I'm really digging it so far.

Played for a little over an hour. Died in episode 4 of season 1 and called it a night after hopping back in for another episode. I dig it a lot. The control feels fantastic and it's just enjoyable to play.

I love how it plays. I made it halfway through season 2 but died.

This game's got styyyyllllleee for sure. I wasn't feeling the art while watching the quick look but it totally works when you're actually playing it.

Has anyone noticed any audio glitches/bugs? They keeping popping up for me and I only notice it because the music is real dope.

The only bugs I experienced so far are audio bugs. Mostly just story dialouge getting skipped because of random chatter by A-Tak and a few weird cases of random enemy phrases getting spouted over and over again while loading into a level.

Played for an hour last night and loved it even though I died because I was playing recklessly. Hope this doesn't come across as too reductive, but it plays like a space anime luftrausers rogue-like? And I love everything about all of that. Can't wait to get back into it.

I played a half hour before work. The first giant mech I met on level 3 cornered me and killed me. Cool game.

I had the game crashed during the cutscene at the end of 1-5 and it made me restart the whole season over again. If it had happened at the end of season 2 I wouldn't have cared so much because I really just wanted to unlock the mech. Ah well, at least it's been super fun to play.

I only played a bit before work this morning, but I love it do far. Great feeling controls, awesome sound design, and a gorgeous art style. The entire thing feels like a perfectly cohesive package. I wasn't able to make it too far, though; third episode in season 1 and I stupidly got in over my head. I can't wait to play more tonight.

It's really weak there's still no confirmation of an EU release date.

Scratch that, it's out at midnight! Brilliant! Better put the headphones on charge...

Was liking it during Season 1 and now I like it waaaay more with the mech. So much more fun weaving around shots and charge slashing everything.

it's a really very good video game

I think the game itself is great, but it could have used some more time in the oven.

LOTS of framerate drops, which is a huge bummer. Nearly unplayable during bigger fights, like bosses. Also strange how every line of dialogue on the ship is cut a bit short.

"I'M HUNGR-" - Beam

Lots of hitches, seemingly when enemy shields recharge? Even got some hitching and audio drops during the first season's credits, which was weird. I hope this stuff gets fixed, because as enjoyable as I find the game, it's definitely in spite of these issues.

I had that audio cut off bug and tried to fix it with a restart..which then the game wouldn't load into the menu until I then restarted the PS4. That did resolve the initial problem but..yeah some rough edges.

i'm real bad at it but i love it

You know when it's randomly generated when you get two of the same missions right after each other. I barely escaped the first "kill all bugs" mission, with no money and near death there was no way I could have completed that mission so I had to start from scratch again.

I know it's a roguelike and all but ship repairs are way too expensive in my opinion, 300 for a shield bar that's temporary? Come on. :(

So here's a qestion for you guys:

The delivery of Beam's dialouge seems really fast to me, is this just the actress's normal delivery, was it edited this way, is it a bug .... or is it intentional?!

Oldschool anime had English dub that was often delivered in this way because the the japanese language version took less time to deliver the dialouge then the English version took (I think), resulting in the English voice actors having to rush through their lines.

Am I just a crazy person and imagining this, or did they actually work this weird little detail in to the game?

Anyway, really digging the game so far. I haven't reached season 2 yet but have a good build going atm.

Well there's a bug that will have it cut off the very end of a line and immediately play the next one so maybe that's what you're getting? She sounds fairly normal otherwise.

It's got a lot of style and charm, but is super difficult. It's got that "Spelunky" formula of learn by dying, and I'm really enjoying it. I love games that teach you by failure, as that was the style of most games when I was a kid back in the NES/SNES days.

If you guys think it's tough now wait until you reach the Hammerheads with higher ranks.. I've been killed by a lone HH two times!

It's pretty good though I've had to reset the game at least 3 times in the short time I've spent with it so far. All 3 were due to controls no longer working in the game, prolly after skipping a cutscene.

Just cleared through season 3 and man.. This games a gem. The way you can seamlessly go from stealthing with the mech and plucking ships from a patrol, to juking bullets with the ship and unleashing missiles is so satisfying. My only minor gripe is that I kind of wish that quitting out didn't reset the season.

Finished up Season 4 and the game has me clamoring for more. I hope they eventually release more content for it (past season 5). The controls and mechanics are really fun, but atm the game is a lil too easy. Exploiting the strafe and dodge mechanic with the ship and you'll never die. Using the boost, shield, and sword attack in tandem with the mech is ridiculously powerful.

The final fight didn't even feel that intense (though it was a really cool boss fight, looking forward to more of that) because I was just the ship doing large strafe circles around him, constantly shooting and occasionally launching a barrage of missiles until he was dead.

They have a really good thing here with so much more potential content wise.

Couldn't agree more, I just beat S4 too. Lots of potential but it needs different content.

I have heard from the developer that if the game sells, they have plans for content past season five.

You can quit out from the Exelios, it's just quitting mid-mission that resets it.

This game is a dream come true.

I was over the moon as far as excitement goes when this game was announced, and it was a long wait to get my hands on it. Now that I have, it is pretty much everything I hoped for. A lovingly inspired arcade action mecha space rougue-like with sweet sweet loot. The controls are a dream once you get used to things (breaking that whole dual stick mindset takes some doing after all these years) and getting enough luck to where you find an awesome upgrade just feels so satisfying. I am at the end of season one and already have found some incredible laser and ship upgrades, that I am sure I will be heartbroken if I lose.

One of my favorite games of the year easily.

So even though I like it, I feel like the design of this game isn't up to the standard set by other roguelikes like Spelunky and FTL. I felt like both those games really went for a certain style that's punishing but pretty fair. Those games were really good at making you learn and master their mechanics in order to advance. In the case of Galak-Z, it seems like they go halfway to being punishing in one area, but the all the way in others. The fact the you aren't able to heal between missions is a pretty big bummer for me. Although there's a fair amount of opportunities to heal (they give you that healing item most of the time in the shop), losing health in a mission is pretty demoralizing and if you lose 2-3 health in the first mission, there's really no point in even continuing, because you probably wont be able to get it back when you need it.

The lack of persistent upgrades is a pretty big part of this genre, but I feel like its something this game needed more of. Getting some salvage at the start of most of your runs (by acquiring crash coins) is cool and all, but when there isn't really an upgrade that you want in the shop, it makes it seem like you're already starting the run at a disadvantage. I'm not saying give me permanent shooting upgrades for all my runs, but at the very least let me pick from all the blueprints I've acquired when I first start a season. I never really see the upgrades I want in the shop, and that kind of sucks.

The way the content is distributed in that game is also a little weird. Obviously, you're meant to die and replay the seasons a lot, but having only 4 (and later 5) seasons right now makes it so that you either finish the game fairly quickly, or you don't feel like you're progressing at all. If you compare that the two games I mentioned at the beginning, those games do a MUCH better job of making you feel like you're learning, progressing and getting better each and every time you play. Sometimes I feel like I've learning absolutely nothing in a couple runs of Galak-Z and I really kind of want to blame the game for that. And if you throw in the bugginess, audio glitches, stutters and framerate dips then it makes it seem like this game maybe needed a little more time to iron out some of this stuff.

Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying my time with the game, I just wish I liked the design decisions they made a little more. I'm absolutely being quite nitpicky about the stuff I don't like, but its only because the game is built on such a solid mechanical foundation that I want more out of it. The movement and the combat are both really well done and its exciting in a way that keeps me coming back. When you have a run that gets you a bunch of items that you want and your ship is super powerful, its awesome to just run through missions annihilating everyone. But its also a game that has enough problems to hold it back from me classifying it as "Amazing", which is definitely a shame.

I'm hoping they patch it a bit. It's fun, but there are some pretty nasty bugs that keep cropping up. The worst two are the ones that stop me from being able to grapple or use my sword with the mech and another that makes me have unresponsive stick with the fighter. Dying because of either issue is intensely frustrating.

Also, I might not be far enough into the game, but does the mech ever get weapon upgrades? Everything I find is for the fighter's lasers, which means that I can pretty quickly get a fighter that vastly outperforms the mech in almost every fight.

@lawgamer: Yea the mech gets upgrades. All the ones I got were dmg boosts for the sword, or absorb more hits with the shield.

Can someone upload a gameplay video from Season 4? Just want a feel for how the game is then.

I polished off Season 1 last night.

I really like the feel of movement and the way you've got to consider engangement before jumping into the the intensity of combat.

There are definitely a lot of hitches and glitches. I kept getting bits of geometry flashing here and there and lots of audio hitches. It's enough to make me wait a week or so before continuing to see if they can put together another patch.

@fredchuckdave: The second half of the Quick Look EX is from Season 4.

Really loving the game so far, I am also a lot more in love with the skull coins/continue mechanic after having to do it twice to finish off Season Three and I finally got to Season 4 last night and so far have only played 30 minutes or so of it. I haven't ran into too many glitches myself except a few odd times where an enemy got stuck and was easy to kill. The framerate definitely suffers in larger fights though, I hope they can optimize it or at least when the PC version comes out it avoids those issues.He

Here is my first session in Season 4:

Rest of my play through is in this playlist if anyone is interested, it's generally raw gameplay with no commentary except a few moments where I unplugged my headset and you can hear my PSN party briefly:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjFXXqwHICCXeH7mYHlYqssnIFAztV-Aq

It has a really good premise but it isn't blowing me away by any means. It's like a hard 7.75 so far.

This game's pretty rad. I've beaten a season each of the past 3 nights (and haven't died once). But it feels great and the combat's awesome. It consistently goes from 0 to 100 in terms of intensity, which is a nice balance and keeps each fight engaging.

It's a really neat game. But I don't know how much I'll play after finishing it, unfortunately. For a roguelike, I do feel that it's a little easy without enough hooks to keep you coming back. Unless it's got a ridiculous amount of depth hidden beneath the surface like Spelunky. I beat Rogue Legacy twice in a dozen hours and never went back to that, and I anticipate Galak-Z having the same longevity (still, it could break my top 10 of the year).

I'd give it... I dunno, probably 4 stars due to the strength of the gameplay.

Haven't tried it but it looks cool

After getting past seasons one and two with no trouble, I have died about five times on the third season. Shit definitely got real, and I'm super glad the game is tougher now.

I generally don't like roguelike games (or games with elements of roguelikes), but I'm enjoying it so far. It might get to the point where it gets too difficult and I give up, but I hope it doesn't because the controls and gameplay are perfect.

@furiousjodo: Thanks.

My hopes for additions to the game are some sort of Daily Challenge, and Leaderboards to go with it. I kind of doubt the second one but it would really be nice to be able to turn it into sort of a competition. For now I see myself sort of creating new objectives in order to make things stay interesting after a while. Stuff like no crash coin starts, not getting specific upgrades, no missile runs, and other crazy stuff like that.

A no crash coin start in Season 4 is absolutely suicide for me so far. I've resorted to going back to Season 1 or 2 in order to farm some crash coins to go into Season 4 when I mess up.

Yeah I share your sentiments. I really enjoy leaderboards in Spelunky, something like that would be great and keep me going. I thought too that S4 would be too hard without some Crash Coins but it isn't, you just have to be careful and do good on the first two levels, I beat it with a ton of upgrades and some leftover 2,000 dollars. I was thinking it might be fun to try and beat it with no upgrades other than speed, but some enemies might take forever to kill!?

I was expecting more Rouge Legacy than this. Getting set back as much as I get after death feels a bit much, but I still like the game.

I'm continuing to love this game, but I'm baffled by those calling it "too easy". This game has been kicking my ass. I've yet to make it past Season 2. I kind of hate the times that the game just throws you into a huge chaotic mess of a fight out of nowhere. It's pretty hard to come of those unscathed.

Just finished it, about a 6 hour playtime. Didn't die til season 4, but it got pretty intense and took 4 or 5 tries. Made the mistake of losing all my crash coins due to a poor level select decision, so it was a little tougher than I anticipated.

Again, a really fun game but I felt no incentive to go back aside from the gameplay. I have more games to beat right now so I uninstalled it to make space. Top 10 contender at the moment because it's a cool ass game, but I do wish it lasted me a little longer.

Didn't help that it crashed as soon as I warped out of the last level. Got my trophy, so hopefully it saves when season 5 hits?

Edit: Hilariously, the minute I beat the game the new patch started downloading. To save my crashing issue upon finishing a level, and the Can't Touch This trophy I attempted right after finishing (which it didn't give me). Oh, video games!

Really starting to get frustrated with the crash coin system. Starting a season 4 run with no crash coins feels like you're not nearly powerful enough to take on the enemies, leading to a quick, untimely demise. Then, on your next run you ALSO start with no crash coins, and so on, and so forth. Now, I don't know if I'm just getting a particularly rough RNG, but for my last 3 runs I've had to deal with 3+ raider Rhinos early in level 4-1, each with I think 90 hp. Taking all that on with a completely upgrade-free ship is just unreasonable.

I really wish there was just a little bit more persistence, or a more forgiving, balanced crash coin system. I've been thinking about just "farming" season one for crash coins, then using them to start season 4. It doesn't sound like all that much fun, but starting season 4 with a vanilla ship is just getting too disheartening.

@berserker976: I was getting frustrated too, but I found that I can cool off and earn 10 crash coins playing through season 1 again. Then you could jump into season 4 with 2500 scrap.

I do think there are opportunities for future modes and options (mods?) after they get season five out. People have already mentioned something like the daily seed and leader boards from Spelunky. In one build they showed (maybe in the Quick Look EX) they had multiple mission choices with different rewards. Endless might be fun too, just warp from one mission to another without going back to the base ship.

Glad I'm not the only one seeing this. It's a real blight on a great game

edit: oh a patch just came out

You can burn through Season One extremely quickly a second time through and quickly grab a lot of crash coins. You also don't have to finish teh whole season, so you could do 2-3 missions and get 6-7 crash coins and it would only take you 30 minutes or so and the game is still fun. Also, the mech is kind of broken in Season One, charged sword slash one shots a ton of enemies.