Gal Guardians: Demon Purge

I will recommend this game, but you have to understand the following going into it:
1. This game plays like classic Castlevania. You will be moving forward on a linear path though the levels to the end of the game. It is not an open world "Metriod-Vania" game.
2. The health system is like classic Castlevania. Once you lose health, you have to find a HP drop to heal.
3. You are using two players, switching between them depending on the foes. One hits hard but has limited range and low HP, the other has a weaker long range attack.
4. When you beat a level you may gain power ups that can open paths that were previously closed or unreachable; however you can go back and replay the previous levels after beating the boss on the current level to collect/explore areas that were inaccessible.
5. When one character loses their health, you automatically change to the other character and start at the beginning of the current map. You can find your companion laying on the floor and revive them back into combat with half health, so they are not lost forever.
So, how is the game play?
Well, it reminds me of the classic NES games in difficulty. It is hard, but manageable. You gain extra lives by collecting drops in game and I was gaining more lives then I was losing. At the time of writing this, I am 1.2 hours into the game and I have already beaten two bosses. The bosses are nice and provide a lengthy fight with patterns that are fairly easy to read and avoid if you are paying attention. Overall, it is nice game, it is just a little different then what I was expecting.
If you are seeking a good Metriod-Vania, go check out Ender Lilies.
If you are seeking a nice stiff kick in the bells while pushing a Castlevaina 1 style game with updated maps and multiple paths to take to the boss while following a predefined run thought the castle, then this is for you.

✔️ The Good
• Classic Retro Vibes: *Gal Guardians: Demon Purge* nails that old-school Castlevania vibe with pixel-perfect platforming, a gothic atmosphere, and tight 2D action.
• Tag-Team Mechanic is Clever: You switch between two sisters—each with unique weapons and abilities—which adds a fun layer of strategy to both combat and puzzle-solving.
• Great Pixel Art: The sprite work is clean and detailed, with colorful effects and expressive character designs that feel both nostalgic and modern.
• Tons of Replayability: Between hidden collectibles, alternate paths, new game modes, and unlockable difficulty levels, there's a lot here to dig into if you're a completionist.
• Solid Boss Battles: Boss fights are varied, challenging, and often require using both sisters to their full potential. They're a major highlight of the experience.
• Co-op Mode is a Blast: Local 2-player co-op makes the game even more enjoyable, especially when coordinating tag-team tactics with a friend.
❌ The Bad
• Dialogue Can Be Cringe: The tone flips between serious demon-slaying and cheesy anime-schoolgirl banter, and it doesn’t always land well. This got so bad that I didnt even finish the last 25% of the game because of its ridiculousness.
• Limited Checkpoints: Save points are spread far apart, which can make some sections feel punishing—especially during longer stages or boss gauntlets.
⚠️The Ugly
• Backtracking Can Drag: Since progression often depends on gaining new abilities, you're forced to revisit earlier levels multiple times, which can get tedious if you're not into that Metroidvania grind.
• No Online Co-op: For a game that shines with two players, the lack of online multiplayer is a big missed opportunity.
• Enemy Variety is Lacking: While bosses stand out, regular enemies repeat often and lack the diversity you’d expect in a game with this much style.
Current Price 💰
Historical Low 📉
⛔️ Worth the price? ✅
$24.99
$12.49
✅ Definitely worth grabbing on sale if you’re into retro action-platformers.
Overall Score:
7.1/10

Despite what the tags say, it's not a metroidvania, it's closer to a classical castlevania / megaman game.

That said, it's a short fun game with local co-op. I specially reccomend playing with a friend this way.

Really fun co-op game. Finished it on veteran difficulty in one sitting with a friend and enjoyed it.
I think this game really shines in co-op. You can "stand" on your partner, and if your partner moves, so do you, automatically, you are attached to the head. Similarly, if the person being stood on jumps, the person standing can then ALSO jump to get more verticality. There's a button that makes you immediately teleport to your partner as long as you didn't just get hit which makes it possible to bait enemies (and even bosses) into attacking a position and then just teleporting out of the way right before it hits. This also makes it possible to do risky jumps that would otherwise result in death as a way of checking if there's a secret somewhere because you can TP back even mid-air. If your partner dies (provided it wasn't death by falling) you can always revive free of cost, just need to button mash and risk getting hit yourself. The items you can use make for some really interesting synergies.
Umbrella + Grappling hook (with usage of teleport) gives, in essence, infinite mobility without using resources.
The shield/Umbrella as cover + The healing gohei (when standing inside of each other) will make you able to safely heal. If the gohei is upgraded a single charge will suffice to get both players to max health.
It just feels like a good co-op experience where the developers had co-op in mind instead of slapping it on, and I can't say that for many games released in the past few years.
The second half of the game is repeating the same stages against slightly more powerful bosses but with a larger arsenal and a buffed base attack - the former allowing you see everything in the stage because you will now be able to reach places you weren't able to before and open doors and grounds with items you didn't have in the first half at that point and the latter allowing you to get through the stages quicker because you're stronger.
It's got some rage-y moments, mostly in platform heavy stages as falling down results in you instantly dying which is especially prevalent the top-tower section because it has a wind gimmick combined with obstacles that, when touched, will just make you fall to your death with no chance of recovering. Even some bosses will be able to make you fall to your death if you get hit, but, as with all of the boss attacks in this game, once you see them 2 or 3 times, you "get" them. None of them are overtly complicated and the tells for when they come are clear, the only real danger is when you fight them for the first few times and don't know what to expect. For most bosses the go-to strategy is really to just get in there and deal as much damage as quickly as you can before they even get to start using their later attacks. "Carefully" trying to kill a boss will take five times longer and will be three times harder than trying to just rush him down from the get-go.
The story is the most demented nonsensical shit ever. The character that most of this seems to be about is a human guy and he turns into a massive pillar in a castle (that exists as some sort of warped dimension alternative of the school they go to) and then you have to bring him underwear, drugs and a nude magazine and then he tells you where the final boss is and you go fight her with the power of love (and a rocket launcher you got from a school girl) and win. Then everything seems to return to normal and they're at a school but it turns out they're now all in makai instead of the human world. The end. I don't even have anything against it.
There are a few cool CGs throughout the story, but I wish there were more. I also think most characters are pretty cool.
If you've got 6 to 8 hours to spare and have someone who will actually play this with you, definitely give it a shot. I got it on sale 50% off and I'm glad I bought it.

I played this game coop with a friend of mine, and this was both his and mine only Gal Guardians game we've played (and neither of us have an interest in playing any of the actual mainline games).
This game is not a proper metroidvania like I suspected. Its actually more of a level by level Castlevania game, where each level starts you off at a spot, and you're goal is to get to the end and fight a boss. Defeating said boss unlocks a new sub-weapon that be used offensively and/or for traversal. The path you take to get to the level boss typically branches, with some paths only being available with access to certain sub-weapons. Hence, I HIGHLY recommend you don't bother trying to explore alternate paths and collect things until you unlock the hub area (which happens a little over half-way through the game).
Anyway, you either play as Shinobu (who I will refer to as Gun Gal) or Maya (who I will refer to as Melee Gal). As you can probably tell from their nicknames, Gun Gal mainly uses ranged weapons while Melee Gal mainly uses melee weapons. And let me tell you, this game REALLY favors Gun Gal over Melee Gal. Not only does Gun Gal get the more useful arsenal of sub-weapons, she also is able to deal with the enemies and bosses easier than Melee Gal. Hence, the game has a serious balance problem between the 2 characters.
But hey, at least both characters have the same problem of being more slippery and having jumps that are slightly delayed enough to cause problems. Seriously, your characters always seem to end up being positioned slightly too far from where you were wanting them to be, which usually resulted in them getting contact damage or falling of a ledge (by the way, their are bottomless pits). Also, it feels like your jump is off by a couple milliseconds, which may not sound like a lot, but trust me, you'll feel it when you try to do some of the platforming.
Now, being as this is inspired by Castlevania games, you'd expect this game to be challenging. Which it is (up until a point, and I'll circle back to this later), but enough of that challenge feels artificial. Aside from the aforementioned control issues, this game has that "classic" thing of your characters only being able to attack directly in front of them. Meaning your characters don't have compass directional attacks like say Simon Belmont did in Super Castlevania IV released back in 1991. Now, I will mention that halfway through the game, both Gun Gal and Melee Gal get a boon from heaven (seriously) that enhances their basic attacks. Gun Gal basically gets 2 enhancements (did I mention this game really favors Gun Gal), with one of those enhancements being the ability to shoot up. That prompted mixed feelings: on the one hand, that did alleviate many annoyances with combat, but on the other hand, it also made me angrily think "why did that have to be tied behind an upgrade? Why not just make that a thing from the get go?"
While on the subject of upgrades, once you unlock the hub area, you get the ability to upgrade the sub-weapons you've been collecting from bosses. And I want to mention that one of the sub-weapons for Gun Gal is a grappling hook (again, game really favors Gun Gal), which at first can only be fired in front of or above Gun Gal. The upgrade however allows you to fire the grappling hook at a 45 degree angle up, which, much like the upgrade that allowed Gun Gal to shoot up, made me think "why wasn't that available from the start? Why was that tied behind an upgrade?"
Anyway, another gripe I have against this game is that this game essentially has 8 levels. Once you play through the first 7 levels, you get sent back to the 1st level and are tasked with replaying those 7 levels again and defeating the exact same bosses again. Yes, you can take alternate paths in each level to get to the level boss, but those alternate paths are just a small part of each level, so you're still just being force to play the exact same levels again. They don't even change up the boss fights, which seems poorly planned since by this point, your characters will have all of their sub-weapons and have received combat enhancements which makes these bosses much easer to deal with. This really just screamed of "We could have just made new levels, but we couldn't be asked so you're just going to have to replay those old levels again."
If you're wondering why I haven't commented on the story, that's because it comes across as one of those stories that's only for fans of the franchise. My friend and I didn't know who any of these characters were and I can't say either of us were really invested in their stories. Just know that lolita demon girl is doing bad things and high school girl demon hunters must stop her.
This game also has 3 endings: normal, true, and joke. My friend and I got the normal and true endings, and I just looked up what the joke ending was. Out of all 3, the normal one I'd was the only decent one, which may have been because I'm not a Gal Guardians fan. So if you're like me, just get the normal ending and then, if you're curious, just look up the other 2 endings on Youtube.
My ultimate thoughts on this game are that it definitely could have been better, but what I got was still a decent enough coop gaming experience.

A sidescrolling action platformer. Take control of the Kamizono sisters as they fight to return their school from the demon realm. Playing solo you can freely switch between the two, who differ in their health, weapons and sub-weapons. Both of them are generally effective at whatever the game throws at you but one of them may have an edge against certain enemies and obstacles, and the game leaves how to deal with most things up to you. Getting through each zone and the trials they present is fun and overcoming the boss that caps them off is an exciting challenge. You don't get a map, which is fine for most of the zones but the last one can be confusing and going back later to find missed items in each can be tricky. Be prepared for deaths whenever bottomless pits are involved too.
The plot is mostly there to provide the context and motivation for the game's antics, it's the sort of thing you just go along with for the sake of the game, still enjoyable though. This seems to be part of the Gal Gun franchise and you might get more out of it if you're into it, but it didn't feel like a requirement. It also looks and sounds great.
Overall I can strongly recommend it if you're looking for an action platformer with a gothic theme and cute girls.

It's like Curse of the Moon, only with Gal Gun characters and much better graphics. Absolutely a must-have for fans of Gal Gun and metroidvania games.