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Galak-Z: The Dimensional |OT| Macross the Universe

yami4ct

Member
Finished Season 3 today. Was almost disappointingly easy compared to S2. Once I got the swing of the new enemies, all it took was to get some good momentum built up on a run and blew right through. Last level was an absolute joke. Commander units are interesting, but they didn't really force me to change up my strategy in meaningful ways at all.

I continue to adore how this game plays and looks in-game, but man everything around it is really bad. The mechanical design is spot on in capturing that 70s/80s sci-fi anime thing they're going for, but the rest seems to miss the point completely. Story doesn't pay homage to that in any meaningful way and the character design just isn't that great. Worst offender is the dialogue, though. It's so bad. Such a huge missed opportunity there to really carry that same feel into the story. Would've made it a much better experience for me.

Also, tech issues are still really bad. Numerous crashes and still get stutters that cause me to die or take unneeded damage. Game should not have come out if it had this many crash bugs. Frame rate at least seems to be getting better with each patch, so they're continuing to fix it. Shame it launched in such a state.


It's great to use against enemies, though. Fly past it and then turn around and shoot at it right as the enemy is about to go through. XD

Yep. Just chucking enemies into the lava is fun as well. Thing to note, Lava does not damage non-enemy objects. Don't toss a satellite in there thinking it'll take it out for you. Did that once and I had no choice but to die. Satellite was just sitting under the lava and I had no way to hit it.
 

Ashtar

Member
I still get a good amount of hitching, and I still die a lot. Game is kind of frustrating in that way one minute you;re doing fine next you're fighting a couple hammer heads and some pirates and your life is over. I've only made it up to 2-3 or 4 but I tried to go farm level 1 again for some crash coins and got murked by white tusk smh.
 
For anyone who may get the "new season unlocked" bug that refuses to let you progress through the main menu that I just got, I've found that you can actually interact with the thing if you load the game up and let all the intro stuff play out and don't hit any inputs.

Then let it sit at the main menu until it tells you that you have (incorrectly) unlocked a new season. I've noticed if you haven't pressed an input yet, THEN you can dismiss that and continue as normal. Otherwise it just hard locks.
 
Just beat it. I died once in season 1 when I boosted into lava and that's it. I hardly used the mech, I just kited everything, abused strafe, and dashed at things then vaulted over them for big damage.

Now to wait for season 5.
 

Trojan

Member
This game is great, but I surprisingly haven't as found it as hard as I was expecting through the first two seasons. Didn't die at all, although I can see how quickly it could happen. I've been making a point to find all the crates in each mission and usually end up with a pretty stacked loadout by the 4th and 5th missions.
 
This game is great, but I surprisingly haven't as found it as hard as I was expecting through the first two seasons. Didn't die at all, although I can see how quickly it could happen. I've been making a point to find all the crates in each mission and usually end up with a pretty stacked loadout by the 4th and 5th missions.

Seasons 3 and 4 are where the difficulty ramps up, and it becomes much more about loadouts and combat strategy. The first two seasons were a breeze as long as you're careful.
 

IbukiLordSA

Member
In season 4 at the moment, 4-3 some of the enemies are super annoying though.

Would be cool if a stats page could be patched in, to see how many times you have finished the game or how quickly.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Finished Season 3 today. Was almost disappointingly easy compared to S2. Once I got the swing of the new enemies, all it took was to get some good momentum built up on a run and blew right through. Last level was an absolute joke. Commander units are interesting, but they didn't really force me to change up my strategy in meaningful ways at all.

The relevant ways the Captain level units change up the combat are due to living much longer--the Pirahna(?) things with like 15 shields can be a huge pain and basically require dedicating all your fire to until they die, where the early versions are complete junk and easily destroyed at your leisure. The Captain Hammerhead ships are also a real pain, as are the shotgun raiderships as they often survive long enough to get close even through sustained fire while the earlier units will probably die before they become a problem.

It's all about the set of enemies though--no single enemy is much of a threat in season 3 or 4, it's when you find like 4+ that combat is tense.
 

BSpot

Member
Ok. I completely deleted my save from my PS4. Started a new game from 1-1 and STILL did not get a Resume option when I beat 1-5. Only to start a fresh chapter on 2-1.

WHYYYYYYYYYYY?


I'm about to just give the fuck up on this game.
 
Ok. I completely deleted my save from my PS4. Started a new game from 1-1 and STILL did not get a Resume option when I beat 1-5. Only to start a fresh chapter on 2-1.

WHYYYYYYYYYYY?


I'm about to just give the fuck up on this game.

That's intentional. There is no way to keep upgrades between seasons.
 

BSpot

Member
Wait, you're saying all the upgrades you work towards getting are stripped from you after each season? Really? I made it to 3-something in my first game and didn't notice this. Also is it right that it doesn't say "Resume" when starting a new season or is this a bug?

This game just feels like it's sole mission in life is making you feel bad for caring.

When I ended Season 1 I had like 1500+ credits but starting Season 2-1 (not using resume, because it wasn't there) I had a fraction of that. Like under 500..
 
I felt like the AI was pretty consistent depending on the enemy type so you can exploit that to your advantage. Certain enemies will always chase, certain enemies fail against strafing, etc. I started every fight shooting from a distance and then boosted in reverse while shooting. This helped weaken the groups considerably. You can also drag enemies away into friendlier territory if they spawn in cramped areas. I honestly don't get why people think it's tough unless they're having problems adjusting to the controls (understandable, its not for everyone) or they're going in guns blazing and not abusing the tools given to the player. You have so much control over your ship and the AI isn't very smart.
 
Wait, you're saying all the upgrades you work towards getting are stripped from you after each season? Really? I made it to 3-something in my first game and didn't notice this. Also is it right that it doesn't say "Resume" when starting a new season or is this a bug?

This game just feels like it's sole mission in life is making you feel bad for caring.

When I ended Season 1 I had like 1500+ credits but starting Season 2-1 (not using resume, because it wasn't there) I had a fraction of that. Like under 500..

There is no "resume" between seasons. The only thing you get is 250 salvage for every crash coin you have left over
 

SerTapTap

Member
Weird. I Started 2-1 with less than 1/3rd of my salvage, but had all 10 of my Crash coins.

As YianGaruga mentioned it's a set amount per crash coin. I usually use up all my salvage except whatever I get in the last level, so it's much nicer for me to get up to 2500 salvage instead of 100% of whatever I had
 

BSpot

Member
I know but I'm confused if it was working as intended or a bug. I didn't use my Salvage. I had 1500+. When I started 2-1 (didn't die... just started the next level after beating 1-5) I had 500 salvage and STILL had all my Crash Coins.

I'm confused. It doesn't matter. Sounds like some of this is just game bugs, of which there are many still, it seems...) Some of it is just obtuse/unexplained format for how the game works.

I'll rescind about 40% of my rage in my last post. :p
 

yami4ct

Member
Blew through Season 4. It was even more disappointingly easy than Season 3. The run I was on that closed it out didn't even feel like a good one. I started playing like crap in episode 1 and lost some health, lost even more in 2 and was down to 1. Of course, Repair Kits weren't showing up in shops, so I thought I was screwed. Managed to pick some health up in 3, but lost it again. Ended up being able to buy one in episode 5 to get myself back up to 3.

Upgrades were all terrible for me, too. A bunch of laser parts I never use mostly. I did get some speed and sword upgrades, and that helped quite a bit. Season 4 boss was an absolute joke. Just blew all my missiles on it and then dashed around until it died.

Overall, I really liked the game. I don't think anything lived up to the fun I had in season 1 and 2, but it was still enjoyable. It's too bad the game is launching incomplete and a technical mess. It feels almost like an early access game in that way. Really held me back from enjoying it to the fullest when I constantly had to worry about frame rate problems, hitches and crashes screwing up my progress.
 

HoJu

Member
though i've only just completed season 2, i feel like the game's difficulty feels artificial and cheap. the enemies are easy to beat in low numbers, but at times they throw so much at you that you can't keep track of what;s going on. hopefully they have stronger ai in the later seasons, but i whenever i die it usually comes so fast that i don't even notice i'm getting hit.

also the episodic structure is extremely shallow and pointless. there is no overarching story for each "season" because each episode has a random "story", which is solely a told via an intro and is forgotten the second it's over. it tries to be cute with the whole "written by ____" and having the credits play after every season, but fails because of its empty pandering. i wonder if this was more fleshed out before they added the roguelike elements to the game.

on a more positive note, they did a great job with the level of control you have for your ship, as dodging and shooting feels precise and satisfying.
 

IbukiLordSA

Member
Completed Season 4 last night, died 3 times and was super frustrating sometimes, was just getting damage from who knows where and the drops where awful. Last time around I picked up Mech Sword +1 and 100% damage on Mech Sword charge, with that I got through the whole season really easily, it was pretty much a cake walk after these 2 upgrades, the rest of the drops were awful, barely got anything, mostly salvage, finished the game with only piercing shot and precision muzzle, had no other upgrades so thank goodness for the first 2 that I got.

I would love for this game to have a mode where you can play from season 1 to 4 without having to start from scratch after each season, just to see how insanely powerful you can get with all the upgrades, could be quite fun.

Looking forward to season 5 release.
 

Dingotech

Member
Just finished the game, died once in season 1 and twice in season 3.

The Mech is god-like inside lairs against enemies in the later game, just boosting into them with your shield up and charged up sword just smashes them to pieces. You get all sorts of good things like extra damage and stun from knocking them into the walls.

The final boss was fairly tough, I couldn't get a good rhythm going to dodge his fire. Thankfully I had 7 health and 5 shields at the beginning of the fight! I used my pimped out missiles with +100% lock on speed, fire damage, and 2 missiles per shot to carve him to pieces.

Overall I found the game well worth the price, if only due to how badarse I felt boosting around corners and strafing around enemies once I got a hold on the controls. :D
 

Lemnisc8

Member
I've now changed my mind about the mech being a bit meh. Spent an hour or so on season 4 just being super aggressive, and holy hell, I just wrecked.

With the right power ups season 4 becomes super easy.

Eager for moar content!
 

Kysen

Member
Controls are needlessly complex, could be made so much better if the right stick controlled facing. Abandoned game.
 
Controls are needlessly complex, could be made so much better if the right stick controlled facing. Abandoned game.

I thought the control layout was fine. You can't use the right stick to control direction since you need your right thumb to use the face buttons.
 

Trojan

Member
Today is the day I'm going to beat Season 4! Had a couple of super frustrating deaths - one from my TV that froze and other from a dumbass move I did - but I'm feeling the flow today.

Expect another heartbreaking death

EDIT: YES, finally finished it. By the end, I was basically indestructible due to my upgrades:
-Health +8
-Shields +4
-Assault Muzzle
-Huge Blaster
-Auto Fire
-Supercool Core
-Pierce Shot

The assault muzzle + huge blaster is OP. I like it better than using precision muzzle.

Great game, wish Season 5 was out.
 

MogCakes

Member
I recently bought this game.

MY GOD. GIANT WHITE SPACE BUG. I took a beating from the surprise rock bug and a sentinel earlier, I didn't think I'd make it.
 

baconcow

Member
Galak-Z: Variant Mobile coming 2016

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/galak-z-coming-to-mobile-in-2016/1100-6429960/

I'm ready to double dip since my dreams of Vita version was crushed.

Wait, what? They are bringing it to mobile but not the Vita ("Unity on Vita along w/ our intense physics & AI make it a no go"). Will the mobile one be a completely different type of game, or is it something we could have had on the Vita? I looked forward to the Vita version for a long time.
 

jkooXL

Member
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!
 
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!

Any news on season 5 for PS4?
 

Nymerio

Member
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!

Are you going to implement native steam controller support? That would be amazing.
 
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!

Arcade Mode sounds good to me, I got to 2-5 and then got squashed by boss before I could learn much. I've been exploiting stealth and running away too much and totally failed to adapt in a small closed off area. I put down the game for a few weeks after that and have only just come back.

Will Arcade come to PS4? I the long term I hope I would turn off Arcade but while I'm still learning how to play its a bit too much.
 

Drencrom

Member
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!

Nice, are you adding the arcade mode and season 5 to PS4 too?
 

jkooXL

Member
Yes, there is Steam Controller support, I'm traveling on business so haven't had a chance to try it out myself yet however. Arcade mode WILL be coming to PS4 for our next update, and Season 5 is in production now, and we will be a very cool twist on the GALAK-Z gameplay!
 

AU Tiger

Member
We've announced our PC ship date!! Next week on Steam!!

http://www.pcgamer.com/galak-z-pc-release-date-arcade-mode/

Tons of work put into this (why it took a bit longer than expected heh) but it was well worth it. A load of polish, a new Arcade Mode (checkpoints after every mission instead of every 5) for people not able to dedicate themselves completely to the rogue-like design of the original, a whole slew of new Steam Trophies, Mouse and Keyboard controls, the works!!

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts on it!

When will you guys patch in the 4K textures we were originally promised?
 

jkooXL

Member
You can play through the whole game in Arcade mode, but it won't unlock the Rogue Mode Seasons. If you play in Rogue mode, it *will* unlock the Arcade mode seasons. Once we're through launch and Season 5 we may look into doing a High-res texture pack, the only place you'd be able to see it would be in the backgrounds, but it might be interesting if time and resources allow!
 
I'm incredibly busy, but if anyone can shoot me a PM with the latest info to update the OP, that'd be super appreciated. Otherwise, I'll do it later this week.
 

Zekes!

Member
I started playing this again in short bursts to unwind from all my school work. I picked up in season 2 and it's been kicking my ass. I gotta get used to the controls again and learn not to be so stingy with my missiles. There have been a number of occasions where if I had just used some missiles I would have probably made it out in one piece.

I really love this game though.
 

Salsa

Member
bought on steam

blazed through the first season on Arcade without dying and it felt a bit too easy

should I replay on Rogue to continue the campaign that way? or does it get WAYYYY harder
 

Salsa

Member
im disappointed I cant just start Season 2 on Rogue and gotta replay the first one in that difficulty since I didnt know Arcade was a new thing for PC.. I pretty much aced everything while on Arcade and i kinda just wanna blaze through it on Rogue rather than doing as-well again

I get it, tho
 

AcridMeat

Banned
From what I understand it gets very difficult around 4. You're too impatient man.

Game is great on PC, don't know what took so long D:
 

Ketch

Member
anybody else having issues getting their DS4 to work with the game on PC? I've tried both with and without ds4windows. with ds4windows I get nothing, without ds4windows the game recognizes the controller but the inputs are all messed up. down on the analog is left in game, right trigger is down in game... =(
 

Ketch

Member
beat episode two this morning on rogue. A little disappointed that the jump from 2 to 3 isn't as significant as the jump from 1 to 2.
 
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