Why 1999 Survival Horror classic Galerians deserves a Remake

In the midst of the horror game remake revolution, I am momentarily stepping away from my research based writings. Instead, I will pour my cold horror heart out for a game no one seems to have heard of - Galerians. 

What is Galerians, how did it influence the horror genre and why is it the perfect time for a remake?

TW: Drug use, needles, substance abuse.

Galeri-what, now?

“GALERIANS: FORMED 10.01.2519. PURPOSE= GENETIC FUSION AND CLONING TO PRODUCE WORKERS THAT CAN WITHSTAND THE MOST EXTREME CONDITIONS. SYNTHETIC HUMANOIDS CREATED BY DOROTHY. WILL COMPLY WITH DOROTHY DIRECTIVES, AS PROGRAMMED”.

For avid horror lovers, 1999 and 2000 could be argued as genre defining years for gaming. A fresh blood harvest of new IPs such as Silent Hill and sequels to sink our fangs into such as Resident Evil 3 and Parasite Eve 2.

In late 2000, on my routine ‘video game swap’ walk to school, a divisive game was being discussed. My peers (and fellow horror fanatics) described this game as ‘unsettling’, ‘very strange’, and ‘hard to get into’. Having just finished Parasite Eve 2, I elected to swap the horror JRPG for the topic of such disunity, Galerians. 

And thus began a narcotic fuelled descent into ‘what it means to be human’... (All in-game may I add).

Galerians, hailed as the world's first ‘Psychic Survival Adventure Game’, was released in 1999 on PlayStation in Japan and globally thereafter. Galerians was developed by Polygon Magic, who at the time, were one of the largest video game developers in Japan. Polygon would go on to develop on-rail shooter Silent Hill: Arcade, published by Konami in 2007. 

With the tagline, ‘Are you obsolete?’, Galerians spanned three discs of bleak sci-fi noir intrigue, desolation and despair, all tied together with a controversial bow of substance abuse. 

It’s the 26th century and Michelangelo city is controlled by Dorothy - A super computer, with a ‘God Complex’. After repeated exposure to the greed, destruction and corruption of humanity, Dorothy decides to join the fray. The mainframe monarch constructs an army of ‘superhumans’ called Galerians, programmed with the final function to take down humankind. Humanity's only hope is Rion, our fourteen year old protagonist, equipped with anxiety-inducing psychic abilities, auditory hallucinations and amnesia. 

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Galerians’ premise seems very sci-fi and survival horror ‘trope-heavy’ - Yet in the early 2000s, Galerians was more revolutionary than its sentient antagonist. Whilst horror of the late 1990s such as Alone in the Dark, Dino Crisis or Resident Evil 3 bled into action-adventure inspired, combat centric gameplay, Galerians deviated from the prescribed course.

Galerians found its superpowers in straying from the conventions of its peers. You won’t find high-adrenaline, firearm wielding combat in Michelangelo city. Instead, suspense and dread is built through the tension of impending narrative beats and anticipation of unravelling Galerians’ desolate mystery. Fewer enemy confrontations facilitate a deeper sense of exploration and even allow for sorrowful reflection on the city's dreary environments and unsettling inhabitants. The overall experience hits more like a contemplative fever dream than exhilarating survival adventure. 

At the time, this was unsettlingly refreshing.

 

With great power comes great PPECs…

Galerians’ superpowers are most potent in combat and narrative influences. 

As previously mentioned, firearms, lead pipes and your usual Survival Horror inventory staples have no home in Michaelangelo city. Instead, you have PPECs, or Physic Power Enhancing Chemicals, which our young protagonist injects directly (and rather viscerally) into the carotid artery. 

Nice.

 

It sadly doesn’t get any better for unwilling hero Rion, who must now learn to master PPEC balance and usage. There is Nalcon, a green chemical, which if administered allows Rion to send psychic shockwaves through the environment. D-Felon, an anti-gravity attack which allows Rion to slam enemies into the ground and my personal favourite Red. “Red enables a patient to excite an object's molecules, causing it to heat up. If continued long enough, the object will burst into flames.” There is devilish delight in unleashing PPECs on your enemies for the first time. 

When PPECs are administered, Rion’s AP (Addiction Points) rise and if the AP gauge becomes full, Rion will ‘short out’. If not attended to, ‘shorting’ will result in Rion’s head exploding.

Nice.

During ‘shorting’ Rion’s psychic abilities become more potent, exploding the heads of any enemy who is unfortunate enough to find themselves within the electrified ‘shorting’ radius. PPEC usage is a delicate but horrifically exhilarating balance.

Adoption of ‘non-weaponised’ combat continued into the early 2000s and was seen in survival horror titles such as Clock Tower 3 (2002) and Haunting Ground (2005). Gameplay favoured enemy avoidance through stealth and tactical enemy takedowns over gunplay. A hybrid approach, combining alternative long-range combat and use of firearms was later explored in Second Sight (2004), Dark Sector (2008) and Prototype (2009). Second Sight and Galerians shared similar psychological horror principles, both including psychic abilities and intriguing narrative. Dark Sector and Prototype, although not harnessing psychic powers, utilised shape-shifting as a means of creating alternative means of innovative long ranged combat.

Satoshi Kawakami, Battle Programmer of the recently released, Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (2023), was a programmer in Galerians’ twenty-person strong development team. Both Fatal Frame, and Michigan: Report from Hell (2005), also Kawakami’s previous work, defeat enemies via alternative means, in this case, capturing them on camera.  

Not content with its alternative approach to survival horror combat, Galerians’ administered another dose of intrigue, with its plot and storyline. A formula of ponderous exploration, troubling confrontations with the Galerian elite and jarring story hooks, Rion’s story haunted me long after playing. Given that the writers collaborated with manga illustrator Shou Tajima who worked on titles akin to Galerians in themes such as MPD Psycho, it’s no surprise that Galerians excelled in terms of story-telling, tone and stylisation. Likening it to manga of the time that I was reading, Galerians remind me of Gantz - Dark, disturbing and extremely unsettling, but perpetuating a morbid curiosity in the hopeless situation and those involved.  

The success of Galerians in Japan saw the release of sequel Galerians: Ash in 2002, of which the side-effects included heightened controversy over explicit drug use and ‘homosexual implication’. I, for one, welcomed the sequel, with a new roster of disturbingly enthralling Galerians, even more PPECs and an artbook (I love an artbook!). Galerians: Rion, a CGI animated film was also released later that year, and summarised Galerians lore for those new to the series. Galerians Rion was aired on MTV in 2004, with an OST including Slipknot, Fear Factory and Godhead. With the more recent success of video game related anime such as Castlevania and Devil May Cry, it’s a shame that this is where Rion’s story came to an end.

 

Are you obsolete?

With a similar release window to instalments of popular franchises such as Resident Evil 3 and Parasite Eve 2 and well-known publishers such as Konami for Silent Hill, Galerians was buried in and amongst survival horror classics of the time. 

Galerians was largely met with negative reception given its overt drug references and in some territories, its sequel Galerians: Ash was banned. A representative from Crave Entertainment, the US publisher for Galerians stated, “In the Japanese version you do straight up take drugs, but for the US version we've toned it down – instead now you consume ‘Psychic Power Enhancement Chemicals’”.

The medium of video games continues to mature in story-telling and portrayal of sensitive themes, with titles even being celebrated as Games Beyond Entertainment in the video game BAFTAs, for titles which educate, inform and challenge perspectives. Galerians and its themes of abuse, addiction and depression, could be revisited from the perspective of raising awareness or challenging attitude to substance abuse and dependency. 

Themes aside, the foundations of Galerians gameplay continued to evolve in the years that followed. As previously mentioned, Second Sight, a 2004 sci-fi action-adventure developed by Free Radical Design, focuses on powerful psychic ability based game mechanics, supported by firearms.  

Bioshock (2007)

Synapse

Bioshock employed an evolution of the PPEC through the administration of Plasmids, a chemical which rewrites genetic material to provide the host with special abilities, facilitating character ability development. Similar to PPEC use, Plasmids allowed abilities such as Telekinesis and Incinerate. Synthesis, administration and (the most fun) use of Plasmids made for innovative, memorable and developmentally inspirational gameplay. Bioshock is a masterclass in world-building and the Plasmid lore is part of that DNA, through in-game adverts and indelible design (Murder of Crows in Bioshock Infinite, anyone?). A myriad of Plasmids, kept gameplay engaging and encouraged players to optomise their Plasmid preferences.

Many survival horror titles continue to adopt ‘item-combination’ as a means of providing weapon or character ability upgrades and diversifying the gameplay experience. For example, the Resident Evil staple of combining coloured herbs for medicinal purposes.

Using the gameplay standards of today, the application and synthesis of PPECs has endless possibilities. 

Technologically, the games industry has inevitably evolved since 1999. Michelangelo city could swap its pre-rendered backgrounds and FMV for the gritty-realtime of a city in decline and its troubled inhabitants. With advancements in Virtual Reality, such the recent release of PlayStation VR2 and Meta Quest 2, wielding physic abilities is only a hand-gesture away. Recently announced Synapse, from nDreams, sees the protagonist stylishly brandishing telekinesis-style abilities splattered with gunplay.

Lasting Side-effects

Galerians is an example of how the horror genre has continued to innovate in gameplay, mature in themes depicted and be recognised as an art-form cross-media.  

Please see my writing ‘Beyond Scenes of Explicit Violence and Gore’ for more.

If you enjoyed your exposure to Galerians and choose to play, please administer your PPECs responsibly.