When you first load the game up, you get a well done montage of some of the games FMV, which introduces the main characters and gives you an idea of what they feel of the game is going to be. And when the opening FMV features the main character clutching his head, grunting, and screaming, and then standing calmly at the end of a blood-filled hallway, you know you're going to be in for an interesting ride.

Once you start the game, you're shown a short FMV of the main character, Rion, on a sort of operating table, bein injected with drugs. A few moments later, you're up and walking around, but trapped in the room.You quickly find that Rion has psychic powers and can open the locked door with ease. From there, you quickly learn that not only does Rion have psychic powers, with the drugs that he was given, he can make people, well, explode. Of course, the fact that Rion's being experimented on by some organization doesn't sit well with him, and thus the game starts...

One of the first things that you notice is the graphics. The game plays very similarly to Resident Evil, and the playing field is done in the same way - pre-rendered backgrounds. Luckily, though, they are _nice_ pre-rendered backgrounds, and fairly moody to boot. As for the character graphics and animation, Rion is done nicely, with a decent amount of detail - about average for a Playstation character. As for his animation, when the game started I was annoyed at his slow, almost lumbering pace. However, as the game progressed and more of the story unfolded through the many cutscenes, I found that his movements fit the game perfectly. Just trust me on this one. As for the other characters and enemies, they're all done nicely, retaining the feel that they have in the illustrations, yet still being very 3-D at the same time. Finally, graphics-wise, we have the FMV cutscenes. Most of these are very nicely done, although occasionally you'll see a very plastic and fake looking person (or part of a person - the hands, in particular, are pretty bad...). Part of this is because of the anime-like feel that the cutscenes retain from the illustrations. It's good in a way, as most of the time the chracters look fairly cool, and unique, but occasionally you'll find an awkward scene or two. This is made up for by the sheer number of cutscenes. There are 50 or 60 throughout the games 3 discs, putting it up there with Final Fantasy VII in numbers. They definitely add to the game, as well, and their frequency is very nice - as opposed to FFVII's 70 or so hours, you've got the same number of cutscenes crammed into a 10 hour or so game.

Next, sounds. Very moody, very nicely done. The footsteps echo beautifully in the quiet of the corridors, the screams of pain from Rion are very believable, and the music can really pump when it needs to. This might actually be a soundtrack to pick up. Not perfect, but very good.

Gameplay. Occasionally, this is the one area that Galerians is lacking. While it's alright most of the time, in the heat of a battle you can find yourself almost screaming at Rion to do what you want. Combine with this the charge time of the attacks, and it's downright frustrating. Of course, I will admit that part of it is my inexperience with this type of game - I have trouble controlling the characters in both of the Resident Evil games, as well…

Now for the systems. Galerians works on a very odd, but cool gameplay system. You have your basic Hit Points, but you also have AP - Addiction Points. Yes, you're a drug addict, and need your fix every now and then (remember, though - it's not your fault - it's whoever's been experimenting on you). When your AP gauge fills up, everything starts going blurry and shaking, and you clutch your head, being only able to move at a snails pace. On the plus side, whenever you come near an enemy, their head explodes. This ends up being a decent tactic on some of the more enemy-cluttered battles. The downside, other than the slowness of your walk, is the fact that you begin to lose HP fairly fast. But, popping a pill or two will fix all of that. As for attacks, you have drugs floating around in your system that help you output your psychic powers in the form of attacks. You charge your attack using R1, and when the gauge is full, you unleash said attack by pressing the square button. Doing this depletes the amount of the drug that's in your system. Of course, throughout the game you find more vials of drugs, and an injector gun that's become somewhat of a symbol for the game. The attacks are decently cool, as well - you have to love being able to set someone on fire just by thinking it…

Another nice touch is Rion's psychic ablilties. When you encounter a locked door, or some other kind of puzzle, you press the triangle button to use your ability on that object. You'll then see (in most case) a still image of, say, where the key that you need to open the door is. Of course, this is pretty helpful, but it's very easy to mix up locations and doors, and seeing as all of the still images are at odd angles, finding the item is still somewhat of a challenge. This psychic ability is useful for more than just unlocking doors, as well - you can also use it to see cutscenes that show what's happened in the past, unveiling more of the story.

On to the story, or what I can understand of it. Being a Japanese game, the entire story is in Japanese, and thus is pretty much over my head. Luckily, since there are so many cutscenes, you do get a pretty good idea of what's going on. And it's all pretty cool so far. I don't want to give anything away, but I'm digging what I've seen.

There are a few added bonuses that really help make this game what it is. First off, there's a movie player that will let you watch any of the cutscenes that you've already seen. Very nice, and a feature that I wish that more games had. The second bonus is the extra stuff that you get with the game - Galerians includes a memory card case, a small art book, memory card stickers, and a very nice slipcover to put it all in. And you combine this with the excellent box art and instruction manual cover, and you have a really nice looking package.

In the end, Galerians has very few faults. I bought it on somewhat of a whim, and I'm very glad that I did. It's just twisted enough to make it stand out from the pack