Galactic Phantasy Prelude Review

Thar be one man that I respect more than Black Beard himself, and he don’t even swim in the ocean as me and me ilk do. His name is written across the stars, along with tha cyborg from Treasure Planet, and it be Mal Reynolds. The serenity be a ship which garners much respect even on the seven seas, and me and me crew’s dream is to replicate as a sea worthy vessel. Alas, some dreams cannot come true and the show was tragically cut in its prime. While the Serenity Film did tie down some loose lifelines, I still wished thar was something good to replace it with. This is why Galactic Phantasy Prelude is me new favorite action-RPG game on the iPad.

The Graphics of Deep Spaaaaaaaaccceeee

While it isn’t Infinity Blade, this game is still one of the best looking around. Featuring some of the best backgrounds and some very pretty animations and collisions, Galactic Phantasy Prelude really makes the most of the processing power that most mobile devices can churn. Getting into detail, the High Definition backgrounds really provide a nice backdrop to the action. At the same time, jumping through different levels changes up the look every once in a while, so you never feel like you’re rehashing stuff.

As for the animations, well there’s a lot of quality poured in to the title. Each ship has its own unique design, and while enemies do become repetitive, the action always mixes it up. Attacks are well detailed, and if weaving through them is your thing, then this should feel like a mobile version of Galaga. Of course, it isn’t as action packed or quick as the titular game, so don’t expect an instant classic. The HUD is functional, and at the same time, isn’t obtrusive to the gameplay which is an important feature in all games.

The Gameplay: Space Pirating

The beauty of this game is that it really does work on the idea of pirating in space. You get to collect money, minerals, and materials that go toward improving your weapons, armor, and creating new ships.  These little add-ons make an awesome distraction from the action, as there are a lot of places you can collect materials from. However, at times, it can get confusing as the HUD is still lacking a few key features that other games openly employ.

Other than that, there’s also the addition of huge ship blueprints, which can take a while to collect. The issue here is that some of these materials are hard to find and blueprints have high costs attached to them. Combat is the key elementin this game, as it is the major part of the mechanics. You do the usual space stuff in this title; you’re faced with a ton of enemies and you have to avoid them. As you improve your ship, your weapons and enemies get stronger.

The Verdict

Galactic Phantasy Prelude is a solid game. It has great graphics and a nice little theme. The gameplay is straightforward enough, however some key elements in the game can become rather complicated even for the more advanced gamers. Nevertheless, it is a game worth the $1 download.