Inti Creates might have fallen off in recent years but Grim Guardians: Demon Purge proves they still have heart and still got some of the old fast ball. Since this is game is a Castlevania themed spinoff of Galgun that shares an acronym with GalGun Double Peace, I will call this one Galgunvania for clarity and GalGun Double Peace gets to keep the GGDP acronym.
Galgunvania stars the two heroines from GG:DP, Shinobu and Maya. Two demon hunting sisters who actually get to hunt demons this time (Somehow this is less absurd than GGDP was) as their school has become a giant Castlevania level. One of the linear ones, not the Metroidvania flavor, though each level tends to have a few routes through. You tag between both sisters, Maya with melee attacks and Shinobu with a machine gun which is a wonderful power trip to fire in the traditionally restrictive Castlevania platforming. The game is otherwise modeled after Inti Creates's previous CV-alikes in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, so much that it feels a bit like BS:COTM3 but without BS:COTM2's brutal white knuckle difficulty. What follows is typical platforming backed by beautiful pixel art and animations. As you proceed through the levels of the castle, you fill out a weapon wheel of additional subweapons and upgrades and despite them using ammo like traditional CV subweapons, the level design definitely favors you using all your tools as BS:COTM2 did. Purist weapon only or single sister stylish players are going to have a bad time, but not as bad as BS:COTM2. Just like with BS:COTM2, you have to clear the game multiple times and, let me put this in bold here, you should NOT even TRY for side paths on your first run as almost all of them require your full suite of subweapons and you will be back through on lap 2 with tougher bosses and more powers anyway.
The story is pure Galgun fan service and you will not understand a lick of it unless you have played GGDP and GG2, and even GG1 gets referenced too. Almost every student and teacher from the GG games shows up here, not just the heroines but all the side characters. Galgun has always shown an enormous amount of love for all the random students who attack you, each with names, character traits, and unique personalities. Inti Creates has lovingly taken care of this entire moe schoolgirl collection for years and Galgunvania continues that trend. Sprites, CG, voice acting, dialogue, much more effort than was necessary was put into this game and the result is a real treat for Galgun fans. The only thing I would complain about is the complete lack of memorable or interesting music, but otherwise this is quite a package. The juxtaposition of the adorable Galgun heroines and the cartoonish blood sprays coming out of the slain demons works quite well, and in any other developer's hands it would look ridiculous or tawdry but Inti's art manages to stick the two styles together wonderfully. That said, if you fancy yourself a serious Castlevania player who is too cool to collect panties of school girls, you should turn around and skip out of here. This is Galgun territory, normies keep out.
The game really opens up on the second lap, giving you the ability to upgrade subweapons and allowing the sisters to shoot upward and do charge attacks with their basic weapons. You will eventually get platforms and a grappling hook and all sorts of additional movement and combat options. All the boss rematches have a couple new attacks though they do not get anything game changing like the Gunvolt EX bosses did, plus with new opened routes exclusive to the second lap to make it not a total waste of time. Given the relaxed difficulty, the bosses are on average fairly solid, largely lacking the signature Inti Creates terrible attack tells. By the end of the second lap at the true end the game will stop pulling punches but it never reaches the brutality of BS:COTM2, thankfully. While you can simply play the game linearly, lap twice, get the true final boss and finish, but completionists will have to run these levels multiple times to rescue all the students, find all the secrets, and unlock the true ending. Mercifully, from a replay standpoint, the most "gamer" focused content is all on the straight shot play from start to finish, so if you wished to replay this game or run it for speed, you do not need to concern yourself with the collect-a-thon secret hunts. Unfortunately, and somewhat insultingly, once you have received the true ending, 40 more secrets appear in every level for a completely optional and pointless grind to run through every angstrom of the game again to collect panties for no benefit other than a cheevo. You are not given any guide, hint, or counter at all for this insulting padding, but since you can get every ending without doing it, only your cheevo hunger will lead you to torment yourself. Speaking of tormenting yourself, the game offers an EN dub but only for the mid-game dialogue, none of the voiced story. This is well and good but... let me just remind you that Galgun was a franchise about shooting girls with your pheremone eyes to drive them to ecstasy to defend yourself, and while the heroines are clearly battling demons with real weapons and not ecstasy shots, you need to think REALLY carefully if you want to risk letting EN voice actors anywhere near a game that could even potentially have that content. Choose VERY carefully.
Of special mention is the boss rush, unlocked after clearing the game: It is surprisingly well featured. You can select any of the three main game difficulties, normal or hard boss patterns, infinite subweapon ammo, and a challenge mode that limits your health and subweapons but allows you to unlock them as you proceed through the rush and collect upgrades from the main game between fights. More effort than the typical throwaway modes.
In the end, Galgunvania is not going to be the best Castlevania fangame you have played, and probably not even Inti Creates's finest, but the game itself is definitely solid and worth your time, both on its own and doubly so as a reward for being a long time fan of Galgun. And it definitely is going to be one of the prettiest you've seen in quite some time. I actually appreciate that Inti Creates toned down the obnoxious difficulty of some of their previous attempts, giving this a much more breezy, fun feeling than BS:COTM2's suffering. If you have any love for Castlevania type games or Inti Creates platformers, Galgunvania is definitely worth your time.
