Gal Guardians Servants of the Dark – Review

DAMN, that was a good switch of the roles! Gal Guardians Servants Of The Dark, or Gal Guardians 2 as I like to call it, was released on March 27, 2025, on the Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC. Serving as a sequel to the original Gal Guardians but following a different storyline, you now play as Kirika and Masha, maids at the Maxim Castle, one of the other Demon Lord castles in the Demon World, heading home after a short vacation only to see their castle of residence and workplace up in smoke. What could have possibly happened during the time they were gone? It’s up to you to play through and find out!

The story is great, with the same pacing and humor that the previous offered while keeping it to the characters at hand and expanding the Gal Guardians universe with more of ’em, this time focusing on the characters from the Demon World side, and the multiple characters that inhabit Maxim Castle which you resurrect by finding their souls, each with their own quirks and personalities plus their own additions and helpful features that get unlocked once they are revived by bringing their soul back to their bones left inside the castle.

The revival sidequest brings improvements to the game such as fast travel or transferring sub-weapon augments and enhancing sub-weapons, on top of a leveling system that increased your HP (aside from the sub-weapon augments that could), leaving you with generous amounts of HP to match the sometimes-insane levels of damage enemies could deal against you. Elemental resistances, boosts for Attack/Ammo/HP/Luck are available as well, plus others such as elemental affinities, lowering the reload time, disabling critical hits, or even doubling the consumption cost for sub-weapon use for those that like to play with a bit of a challenge.

The gameplay is similar to the previous title but with improvements, such as an inventory system where you can carry healing items and recover in the heat of battle (something that I have used and abused when learning boss patterns, since I tend to try having a ‘No Damage’ Run when I fight a boss on a Metroidvania, just to prove I did git gud and to stick it to the boss.) whenever absolutely needed.

The subweapons on their own have growths as well, considering you get better and better versions as you get further into the game like swords and bombs getting other, stronger variants which deal more damage and the at-times full spread of augments ready to be used as fodder to enhance the ones you have or an empty one which is ideal to transfer from your older weapon to the new one, or to a different empty sub-weapon just to change your playstyle to suit the situation.

Other game mechanics, such as Masha’s throwable elemental attacks (Fire/Ice), can also affect your surroundings, save a few. For example, the Ice Seed that she can use affects both lava and water, allowing you to smash them and proceed to explore the area they were blocking if the map indicates there’s something there if you are gunning for map completion and reaching the reasonably high and well-deserved level cap of 50.

At the same time, Fire can burn away some plants that are barring your way for early to mid-game or even light up the path in dark areas, but that should be relegated to the sub-weapons as you can only carry five and finding a steady supply of ammo in said areas would be hard, if nigh impossible. You’ll have to work them out and discover mixes of both sub-weapons and Seeds if you want to explore the full map should you aim for the map as mentioned earlier and level completion, especially since there is a map completion sidequest which gives you some items you might need either for collection or later use.

The music frames the overall darker tone of this spinoff series, with even the hub’s/castle’s theme being darker with just a hint of hope, just enough to keep pushing forward. The areas’ respective themes make the feeling of exploring them sink even further, especially if you’re playing with headphones. The music lands in your ears much more directly and gives it to you directly, especially in the later areas leading to the last stretch of the game.

With all of that on the plate, I daresay Grim Guardians Servants Of The Dark is a great game and an amazing sequel to the original, with the feel of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Castlevania II Simon’s Quest, minus the annoying “Where do I go next?” confusion, and combined with humor. With an engaging story that is humorous and dark, it’s a great game to play and explore, both with making a build you are comfortable with and the entire map with its own mechanics and differences. In the immortal words of Joe Bob Briggs, “Four stars! Check it out!”