Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · Published February 23, 2023 · Updated March 9, 2023

For our Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Review, In order to save their school after it turns into a massive demonic castle, two “Demon Hunter” sisters slash and shoot their way through this 2D action adventure. Players can swap between control of both characters on the fly, each with an entirely different skillsets.

Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Review Pros:

Decent graphics going for a mix of pixel art and high fidelity.
1.1GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
English and Japanese voice choices.
Metroidvania platformer gameplay.
Opening and ongoing tutorial pop-ups.
32 save slots.
Two difficulties – casual and veteran. This affects knockback, life amount, and enemies’ strength.
You can change the difficulty every time you load your save file.
Two-player local support.
2D side scroller.
You play as both Shinobu and Maya.
Swap between characters at will and if one dies, you respawn at the start of the area and can revive the Fallen character.
The game manual fills in as you see the tutorial pop-ups.
Fast travel points.
The right stick will show the way to your objective, and any loot rooms.
Pixel art gore.
Heavily influenced by Castlevania.
Breakable objects in the world.
Items and health drops from breakables and enemies.
The enemies look and move fantastically.
Excellent soundtrack.
One character is melee and the other is ranged.
A special attack from both characters working together can be charged by killing enemies.
Very accessible.
Birdcage checkpoints.
Sub-weapons use pride to cast.
Hidden rooms and items on the wall.
Solid platforming.
Combat takes a bit of getting used to.
Rescue kidnapped students to earn rewards.
They nail the Gothic horror theme.
The way health works and everything, adds a lot of risk and reward.
You are free to explore and play how you want.

Gal Guardians: Demon Purge Review Cons:

Cannot rebind controls.
If you fall off the screen then you cannot always see the downed character.
The health goes to the one who picks it up, not the one that needs it.
Borrows a lot of enemy types from Castlevania.
Swapping between characters is not instant.
The game doesn’t play as open as the Castlevania games and is a bit more directed.

Grim Guardians Demon Purge.

Official website.

Developer: INTI CREATES

Publisher: Inti Creates

Store Links –

Xbox

8/10
Graphics - 8/10
8/10
Sound - 8/10
8/10
Accessibility - 8/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
8/10
Fun Factor - 8/10

8/10

Summary

When seeing this game in action you will be forgiven for thinking it’s a Castlevania ripoff. The premise is much the same with a big castle you explore with Metroidvania mechanics. What Grim Guardians Demon Purge does is it has you playing as a team of two completely different characters and you can freely swap between them or have a local player take control. As I said each plays the game in a different way as one is melee and the other is ranged, one can crawl one cannot, you can revive each other both in mp and single-player. What I love is the story is very clearly marked on the right stick, it will show loot rooms and of course, each part of the castle is so big that you can just straight up explore. Collect pride to use it for secondary weapons. I found the game to be inspired by Castlevania with a lot of nodes from enemy types to wall meat and secret rooms. I just loved how solid and tight the gameplay was with combat not being all about the mash but more about figuring out which character suits each situation. The platforming is varied and just as good as the Castlevania games. The story is good and to be honest, it kind of breezed over me as I was way more into the actual gameplay. They strip out many layers and keep it straight with two characters that never change how they play, instead you adapt to the many enemies and enemy variations. Overall I found this to be a really good solid Metroidvania game and Castlevania fans should really have a go.