Part 17: Deicide

Update 17: Deicide

Welcome back. Last time we ascended the Mushroom Tower, fighting off enemies and psychic projections until we reached the very top.







The top of the tower has a bizarre biomechanical tone. The walls look like they’re made of meat, and grotesque feminine constructs protrude from them. The creepiness is enhanced by the absolute lack of music or any other ambient sounds.









The door near the teleporter leads to a save point. I cannot stress how important it is to use this.









The area is also lined with dispensers, including one that gives out the Delmetor we so desperately needed.







We can also examine and perform psychometric readings on the glowing capsules embedded into the constructs, revealing them to be the biomechanical wombs responsible for birthing the Galerians we fought throughout the game.







Rita wasn’t being metaphorical when she said Rainheart was her brother - they both come from the same experimental line.







Rainheart, Rita and Birdman were all born here in the Mushroom Tower. But there are five capsules. Who could the other two belong to?







Well, this is certainly troubling. There’s a Galerian named Cain, who is a dead ringer for our protagonist, who we have yet to truly encounter beyond a brief glimpse last update. He’s also from a completely different experimental family than the other Galerians.





The last capsule…doesn’t have a name. I suppose the only way to get a good look at its former occupant is to do a reading.



: This is the only one without a name…

: That’s you, Rion.



: Who’re you?!



: I’m Cain. Quite a resemblance, don’t you think? I mean…we’re brothers, after all. So it should be no surprise to you that we look exactly like each other.

: What the hell is going on?!



: Heh. You’re not as bright as I thought you were. You’re my kid brother! You’re not the real Rion. The real Rion died at Michelangelo Hospital a long time ago.



: How’s your memory now? Is it still holding up for you? Or are you about to start Shorting out?



: You…you lie!

: You and I were born here together. Heh. Isn’t that sweet? Mother created us. Rion’s memory, including the virus activation program, were implanted in your mind - and your appearance was altered to look just like him. Then you were sent out to find Lilia.



: Ha ha ha! Did you really think you escaped from the hospital’s isolation ward all by yourself?



: No! It can’t be! I know, without a doubt, that I am Rion!!

: Ha ha ha! If so, then why do you have the same powers as us? Never thought about that, did you? Who are your real mother and father? I suppose you’ll say that you had lots of childhood memories, but do you really think they’re real? Fact is, you’re a Galerian, just like the rest of us. Rita, Rainheart, Birdman…and you’ll suffer the same fate. You’re one of Dorothy’s children.



: He’s lying, Rion! They’re just trying to trick you all over again!

: The truth of the matter is, I really wanted to go get Lilia…



:…but Mother chose you instead. That really hurt. Still, Mother always has her reasons.



: You were born to find Lilia…and I was born to kill you. We live only to serve Mother. We must obey Mother’s Family Program. Now it’s your turn to die…



…So. That was a pretty big reveal. The original Rion, the one we saw in the visions at the Steiner manor, is dead, and the Rion we’ve been playing as has been a clone of him all along.

You’d probably expect me to criticise this twist. It seems to come out of nowhere and not really make a whole lot of sense. But the surprising truth is that this reveal has been foreshadowed throughout the game.

Rion’s name is explicitly linked to the Family Program by the hospital computer system right before the boss fight with Lem, and in the final cutscene of the stage he quips that his parents’ faces slipped away, ‘as if I had never known them’. The Galerians all talking about how Rion must ‘obey Mother’s will’ is another indicator, as are Rita’s dying words. Then there’s the simple fact that the only beings shown to have powerful psychic abilities are Galerians or otherwise artificially created creatures like the Rabbits. Lilia is a partial exception, but the only powers she is shown to have are a low-level telepathic link with Rion and the nebulously defined power to suppress a Galerian’s psychic abilities.

Despite my criticisms of the game, I have to say I love this twist. It’s an interesting play on the classic amnesiac hero cliché, where instead of gradually recovering his memories as time passes Rion is a literal blank slate whose mind and psyche are shaped to resemble the real Rion as he proceeds through the game. I have more to say about this and the rest of the game’s plot, but I’ll save it until after the end. Discussing it here would just break the flow.



: You killed Dr. Lem. You killed Birdman. You killed Rainheart. You killed Rita.



: You? Me?

The tower begins to shake.



: The same face? The same voice? The same body?







The screen darkens until only Cain and Rion are visible.



Shooting stars begin hurtling all over the place, and suddenly it’s time to fight Cain!

Music: Galerians - Cain



Cain is a challenging boss when you first fight him. He moves quickly, teleports a lot and has a number of dangerous attacks he likes to spam. The boss arena is also a pain - it’s a large square, but the darkness and gridline floor make it hard to tell whether you’re running into the edge or not.



Cain’s basic attack is to shoot three blue fireballs at you in quick succession. The fireballs don’t track you but Cain himself is always turning to face you, so you’ll get hit if you don’t keep moving.



The individual fireballs aren’t too damaging, but they come out so quickly that if you get hit by the first one you won’t have enough time to recover in order to evade the second and third.



If you’re very quick you can hit Cain right before he attacks, but even then he’ll still get off at least one fireball. The only other opening is right after the last fireball, but you’ve got to be quick there too since he’ll teleport away after a second or two.



After he takes a few hits Cain will stop messing around and break out his most powerful move. The music cuts out, and after a second and a half he’ll summon lightning to hit the floor where Rion is standing. If you get hit by this you’ll be stunned, leaving you open for the triple spread fireballs he throws out a split second later.



The kicker? Like his normal attack, he does this three times in a row. And yes, if you get hit once at any point in the sequence you’re getting hit by everything else from that point on.



Thankfully there are a few tells for this aside from the music cutting out. The places where the lightning is about to fall are clearly lit, and Cain will always say, “It’s over!” right before it hits so you know when to start running.



At low health Cain will start using his third attack, rapidly orbiting Rion and leaving pillars of fire in his wake. This is a pretty damaging attack, and the temptation is to keep running to avoid it as you would with Cain’s other attacks, but the solution is actually the opposite. Since no part of this attack directly targets Rion the best way to evade it is to just stay still.



One final thing to note about this battle is that Nalcon is your best option for attack. Red takes too long to charge and D-Felon is ineffective. Unless you’ve managed to save some Skip from the previous level it should be Nalcon all the way.







Keep at it for long enough and Cain will fall.



: Urgh…I just can’t beat you…





: Cain…

: So…what’ll you do now…? *Cough* Kill Mother…?



: Heh…That’s not something I could even consider doing…



: Mother has always scolded me…saying that children must not think for themselves…





: Goodbye…Rion…

Cain keels over dead.



: Rion…

:…The real Rion is dead, isn’t he? So who am I?



: I don’t believe it! You are Rion! Remember how we used to play together?

: I don’t even know if those memories are real! What if I am a Galerian?



:…Let’s go, Lilia. Let’s go and see Dorothy. I know what to do now. I want to see mother.



With Cain dead, Dorothy’s last line of defence has crumbled. But where is she? We’ve already explored the entire upper floor.



The correct answer is through here. It used to be the save room, but now it plays host to something far more sinister…





: INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!

: Silence!



: Welcome home, Rion…



: I see that you have found Pascalle’s daughter. Good work. The virus program hidden in her mind was the only thing that ever threatened me. But now that we have her…nothing can stop me…



: I command you to kill her. Now.



:…

: Why do you hesitate? Kill her!



: Do you really think your power is so great that you can make me kill Lilia?

:What’s this? How dare you defy me!

: It’s not defiance, just the truth. I can’t!







: Rion, you must not be deceived by your memory.





: It. Is. Not. Your. Own.



: I loaded it into your brain from the real Rion! You are a Galerian!



: I made you! I am your God and creator!

: I…don’t know what to believe…



: Now, be a good boy and listen to your mother!



Rion hesitates. For several long moments he doesn’t say or do anything.



Eventually Dorothy grows impatient and zaps him.

: Argh!





: Even if I’m not the real Rion…even if you did give birth to me…even if you did create me…



: I’m…I’m not your slave! Let’s get this over with!

: What are you going to do?



: Lilia. Ready?

: There’s no need to do this! Stop!

: Ready!



: You are my greatest failure! I never should have created you! I never should have raised you!







: I COMMAND YOU TO DIE!!!



Squirming mechanical tendrils erupt from Dorothy’s head and fly towards Rion and Lilia.



: DEATH SHALL BE YOUR ONLY SALVATION!!!



: Rrrraarrgh!!







Rion overpowers the tendrils and forces Dorothy to back off. Unfortunately it’s not enough and we’re still going to have to fight her in-game.

Music: Galerians - Dorothy



The battlefield is pretty ominous. The room is pitch black 99% of the time, reducing Dorothy herself to a sinister silhouette.



Every now and then there’s a spark and the screen lights up for a few frames, revealing mother dearest in all her grisly glory. Her hair tendrils are also animated, and occasionally thrash around in the background.



Unfortunately that’s about as impressive as things get. As final bosses go Dorothy is pathetic. She’s an immobile piece of scenery whose only purpose is to look scary.



The real enemies here are the three weird eyeball things revolving around her. They are the things you have to kill in order to beat the game.



They aren’t too tough to hit, despite constantly moving. Red is the best power to use here since Dorothy rarely attacks and you have plenty of time to charge it up.



Every time an eyeball is hit it immediately turns and tries to ram you. This can be hard to avoid at first since the fight itself suffers from some fairly noticeable slowdown, but once you learn to compensate it becomes much easier to get out of the way. The above .gif also captured one of Dorothy’s other attacks, a shockwave that does no damage but briefly stuns Rion. This attack is random and also pretty ineffective since you recover so quickly.



Occasionally Dorothy will try to zap Rion with lightning. This is preceded by a huge glowing circle that tells you exactly where the bolt will land, making it very easy to dodge despite how little room Rion has to manoeuvre.



Each eyeball takes four hits to kill. They don’t even have an interesting death animation, they just fall down and disappear.



After you kill the first eyeball Dorothy gains a new attack, a sweeping red laser beam. This attack is very damaging, but easy to avoid since it only targets the very bottom of the screen.



So yeah, that’s Dorothy. Cool design, great looking, but utterly underwhelming for something hyped up as the biggest threat to humanity. All her attacks are easy to avoid so long as you stay in the upper left or right hand corners of the platform.



After killing the last eyeball the screen blacks out and we are thrust right into the ending cutscene. Enjoy.



: RiiiIIiiooOOnNN!! NOOooOO!!



: Lilia! Send me the virus!



: StToOPP!! RiiIioONN!!



: PLEeeEAAaASsEE DOoOONnn’TTt!!





: I WAS WRooOOONnNnGggG!!





: I WilL…I wILL tReAt YOu BETtErR…!





Rion uploads the virus, pushing himself so hard he begins to Short.





Lightning flashes and Dorothy spasms violently as the virus program does its work.



: Goodbye, ‘mother’!!





: IIII PRrrOOoMmMIIIISSsSEeeEE!!!







: RRRRAAARRGGHHH!!!













Dorothy’s face splits open as she finally dies.





A huge explosion rocks the Mushroom Tower as Dorothy’s systems overload, blowing a massive hole in the top.







Unfortunately, the strain of uploading the virus took a terrible toll on Rion’s already overworked brain.

: Rion! We’ve got to get out of here or we’ll die too!

: No…Lilia…you go…



: No!

: Just let me die here…

: Don’t say that!

: Lilia…



: I am the real Rion…aren’t I…?

: Yes! You are the real Rion! There can only be one of you! Please, try to understand this!



: Thank you, Lilia…



: You are Rion! So you must come with me! Rion? Rion!

: I’m…so glad…we met…

: Rion!!!



Despite Lilia’s pleading, Rion’s life slips away and he dies in her arms.



The scenery fades back in, and we see Lilia sitting in the ruins of Dorothy’s chamber.







The camera pulls back, showing that Dorothy is utterly destroyed.







Dorothy’s death has consequences, however. As Mother Computer she was hardwired into the entire city. As the camera pans back we see all the lights in the city slowly go out.









And on that melancholy note, we’re done. The credits roll after the scene ends, so click here if you’re interested in seeing who came up with this flawed yet very interesting game.

What else is there to say? Despite its problems I still like Galerians. The people who made it clearly had plans that were much bigger than both their budget and programming abilities. If they had cleaned up the hotel stage a little and reworked the final level to make it not a boring slog I think it could have been a big hit instead of the obscure cult classic it actually became.

There are a couple other things we need to take a look at before we’re completely finished here, and I’ll outline those below.


Opening Video

I didn’t post the scene that plays before the main menu because it spoils a few details. It’s nothing major - mostly just the Galerians we encounter - but I felt I should hold it back just in case. You can watch it here.


Galerians Plot: Cliff Notes, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Sperging About Dumb Video Game Twists

With the stunning twist that Rion was a Galerian all along I’m sure some viewers are wondering just how this fits in with the overall plot of the game. This is my take on it:

The events of the game are set in motion when Dorothy finds out about Dr. Steiner and Pascalle’s virus program. She doesn’t uncover all the details, but she figures out that both Rion and Lilia are a threat to her. She decides to strike first, attacking the Steiner manor and capturing the original Rion after killing everyone else.

The original Rion is brought to Michelangelo Hospital, where Lem experiments on him to try and figure out how the virus program works. The brutal procedures are too much and Rion dies on the operating table, but not before Lem figures out that the programs have created a psychic link between Rion and Lilia.

Being the paranoid delusional psycho AI that she is, Dorothy decides to leave nothing to chance. She tries to create a Galerian who looks identical to Rion, with her first attempt being Cain. However, Cain is flawed - if you look closely you’ll see that his eyes are green while the original Rion’s were blue, meaning he couldn’t impersonate him perfectly. This is why Dorothy refused to let him go after Lilia and instead created a second clone who was a perfect copy. This clone is shipped to Michelangelo hospital, and this is the point where the game actually begins.

It’s not clear how clued in Lem was to Dorothy’s plans for the Rion clone, but the conversation with Cain implies that Lem was set up to die. Either way, Rion escapes the hospital and sets off on his quest to find Lilia, guided by the copy of the activation program. Dorothy mobilises her Galerians, ordering Birdman to keep tabs on Rion while Rainheart and Rita go off to investigate likely hiding spots. Cain is kept behind as a failsafe and final line of defence in case something goes wrong.

The rest of the plot is fairly straightforward. Clone Rion goes home and begins hoovering up the original Rion’s memories, giving him more of a reason to push on and find Lilia. Birdman gets an itchy trigger finger and springs the trap before Rion figures out how to contact Lilia, getting himself killed in the process. Rion contacts Lilia, who tells him to come to the Babylon Hotel. He goes there and winds up fighting Rainheart and Rita, both of whom seem to know that he is a Galerian. The next level is the Mushroom Tower where everything finally comes out.


New Game Plus

Amazingly, Galerians has a New Game Plus mode.





After the credits roll the game asks you to save. Doing so nets you a special clear file with a pill icon on it.



Loading this file starts us back at the beginning of the game, but…wait, are we Shorting right off the bat?



Welcome to New Game Plus’s gimmick - the Super Short. In a normal playthrough Shorting slows your movement to a crawl and prevents you from interacting with objects. In New Game Plus these restrictions are lifted, and the HP loss is significantly reduced.









As such you can basically run through every level in the game laughing hysterically as heads burst all around you. The only times you’ll need to slow down and pop some Delmetor is when you fight a Galerian. Overall it’s pretty low effort for a New Game Plus mode, but fun in its own way.


The Sequel

This game has a sequel, Galerians: Ash. I haven’t played it yet. Maybe I will at some point. If it’s interesting and/or utterly crazy I might LP it at some point. Yeah, I don’t have much to say about it other than that.

--

And now we really are done. I hope you guys enjoyed this LP of a weird obscure Resident Evil clone with psychic powers. My next LP will definitely be Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. I just need to work up a sizeable buffer before I begin. Until then, adios.