What would you do if you were transported to another galaxy moments before Earth is unexpectedly destroyed? That is the scenario Doug and his pet guinea pig, Boom Boom, face in the Beyond Galaxyland. This part turn based RPG, part creature collector, is filled with various quests to undertake, from taking photos for people to trying to tear through space and time itself to save Earth. You know, your standard RPG stakes.
Galaxyland is a pocket of space where sentient beings from all over the universe have been transported over hundreds of years when they walk through portals on their home planets. Some have, like Doug, arrived as their planet faces annihilation, while others stumbled across the portals when no threat was present. Most of the aliens live together on the core world of Neo, though Erros is primarily the home of humans, and a few other planets around have their own people too, and little hubs to visit.
Each of these planets provides Doug with places to rest, allies, shops to pick up consumables like health tonics, and artifacts to help improve attributes for battles. Beyond Galaxyland also features crafting allowing you to put together the tonics along with making artifacts, as long as you have the correct blueprint and ingredients. It is a simple process to craft, but you can only do so at save points. In fact, you can only save at save points too and there is no autosave. Helpfully, there are plenty of these dotted across the galaxy.
The core of Beyond Galaxyland is battling, and there is quite a bit to it. You can sneak up on an enemy and get in a preemptive strike, before your party of three characters – Doug and two companions of your choice – settle in for the fight. Each character has their own unique abilities. For example, Doug can scan enemies to learn more about them, such as their health and type, while Boom Boom can restore some HP for the whole party.
Abilities use ability points that are in a group pool, so you do have to think about which one will benefit in the moment. You can regain ability points using basic attacks, but some enemies have their own moves that can take away ability points. In addition to ability points, each character has their own summon points, which is where the creature capturing comes in.
Doug can capture enemies, including some of the bosses, and once captured they can be assigned to characters. Each character can equip up to four summons, and each of those summons can level up. Summons also have types, which have strengths and weaknesses against enemy types. For example, it is not a great idea to use an electric type against an electric enemy as you are more likely to heal it than hurt it.
As you battle, your main characters will level up too, opening more areas for them to adventure in without getting killed in one hit. You will move back and forth between the planets of Galaxyland a fair bit as more quests become available, and the quest log will show you the minimum level you should be to try and attempt a quest. The quests themselves follow a generally similar pattern in that your party needs to go somewhere to retrieve an item or speak to someone, with the questline finishing with a boss battle. The boss designs are very good too, as are the various enemies, and the different attacks can make fights interesting.
Outside of the battles and creature collecting, Beyond Galaxyland falls down a bit in various ways. First, there are numerous bugs. For example, on the planet of Arcos using the lift to get from the first floor to the top floor would see Doug fall through the surface. The only workaround I found was by going down to the lower floor and then using the lift to go to the top floor. There were also a few occasions where Doug and co would fall from a platform and end up in the background, making it impossible to interact with the foreground.
The platforming itself is not fun either, and the game would flow much better without it. It feels like, on the course to include so many different elements, there has been a bit of quality loss in some areas. The game includes racing and that could be better as it does not have any real feedback to it and the navigation can be cumbersome when moving.
The story of Beyond Galaxyland is serviceable, but feels familiar despite its setting. It is the classic fish out of water tale, facing off against insurmountable odds. The characters are decently written, though there isn’t a lot of depth to them. Boom Boom could become a fan favourite due to his backstory, while Pablo kind of appears and you learn very little about him through the story.
The visual design is a real strength, though, even if some effects are a bit heavy handed – I turned some off so that just walking around didn’t look so blurry. The world designs are each distinctive and the various peoples you meet and creatures you face all look great too. The soundtrack is very good too, and some of the tunes are a properly good vibe, especially some of the boss tracks.
Beyond Galaxyland is a game you could get through in a few days. Completing the story and the majority of side quests took me approximately 15 hours.