Gal Gun: Double Peace is a game in which I knew almost nothing about going into playing it. All I knew was a vague description of the game and a handful of screenshots to inform me. That alone was enough to make me know that I wanted to play this game.

Having now played it for quite a bit, it’s safe to say it did meet my expectations, but I felt as if the game didn’t go far enough in certain areas. While the game does have a certain charm to it, the experience I went through is what can only be described as largely forgettable.

It feels strange calling Gal Gun “forgettable” seeing as the game’s premise is anything but. You play as Houdai, your run of the mill high school student, who after getting caught in the crossfire between a demon and an angel, is suddenly cursed (or blessed depending on how you want to look at it) with the uncontrollable ability to attract any girl.

This is especially bad considering if he doesn’t confess to his one true love, by the end of the day he will no longer be able to be loved. Luckily for him, two childhood friends return to town after many years and he’ll have the chance to confess his love to either one of them before it’s too late.

So how does a game with such a bizarre concept end up not being very memorable? To put it bluntly, it mainly boils down to the game’s presentation. The music, for starters, is painfully generic, and you’ll end up hearing the same tune(s) in almost every level. It wears thin pretty quickly.

The graphics are also nothing to brag about. Environments are pretty bland, mixed in with some really low resolution textures to boot, doing very little to make each level stand out. Gal Gun also boasts some really generic character designs, probably the most generic I’ve seen in a very long time. You could make the argument this is part of the game’s charm, however.

It also doesn’t help that the main characters don’t have much personality to speak of, making it kind of difficult to even have a slight amount of investment throughout the game. They aren’t bad characters per se, but we probably won’t be remembering them a whole lot once you finish playing.

The one thing the game excels in is the CGs. While there are far too few of them, the ones that they do have are very well drawn, almost to the point of them sticking out like a sore thumb.

It’s a shame that the game doesn’t do a very good job at making itself standout, because the actual game part of Gal Gun: Double Peace is actually quite fun. For those of you not in the know, Gal Gun is an on-rails shooter with the objective of making the girls climax from euphoria before they get too close and begin dealing damage.

It’s not as simple as simply shooting them, as the game does add some extra mechanics to make the experience more enjoyable. For starters, girls can have one of three weak spots (head, chest, and genitals) that can allow the player to take her out in a single shot. This promotes the player to complete the level as quickly and as accurately as possible, as it will affect the end level ranking they’ll receive.

As the player clears waves of adoring girls, they’ll begin to fill up a heart meter, which allows for the activation of the Doki-Doki mode. Once activated, the player can choose up to three girls to take into Doki-Doki mode with the goal of making them climax by touching a specific part successfully. Depending on how successful the player is, certain stats will increase or decrease and it’ll create a bomb that will clear the screen of girls.

Throughout the game the player will also have mini objectives that they can complete, these come in the form of side missions and character profiles. The side missions involve searching for items that are represented by a shining stars. Once found, they will give you extra cash that can be used to buy items at the shop.

Character profiles don’t provide much in terms of gameplay, but instead give descriptions of the various girls that the player will fend off. While not exactly the most interesting diversion, it does provide more engaging missions as you’ll constantly be on the lookout for these mini objectives.

Gal Gun could have been made more fun, hilariously enough, if it had Playstation Move support. It’s very odd saying a game would have been made better with one of Sony’s most forgotten peripherals, but seeing as the game is an on-rails shooter, it would have lent itself much better to the peripheral than most other games.

The one other thing Gal Gun: Double Peace has going for it is the branching path system. Very early on in the game the player will have the choice of choosing one of five different paths, which in turn determines the girl (or girls) the protagonist will end up with.

The branching path system allows for a lot of replay ability, and since each path takes around two or so hours to fully complete, it makes it a far less daunting task to play through the other paths.

The game also has an affection meter for each girl, with the goal to hopefully max it out by the end of their respective path. Whether or not the player maxes out the affection meter will determine if they get the paths true ending or not. The only two ways to raise the affection meter are by selecting the proper response during the VN scenes, or by successfully completing a special scenario.

The former is where the player’s stats come into play, as it’ll determine which dialogue options will be available to them. This is the only time that the player’s stats ever come into affect. The latter part is the only time the game deviates from it’s on-rails roots. The girl will be in a suggestive position, and the player’s goal is to get them out of it within the time limit that is allotted. I felt as though the game needed more of those scenarios in order to really stand out from other lewd anime games.

Sadly this feature is made more tedious because of the aforementioned generic presentation of Gal Gun. You’ll often repeat levels, regardless of what path you take, thus making it feel more like a chore than anything else. Top that off with largely forgettable characters and the impetus to play through the game more than once, making it less appealing.

It’s a case where a game doesn’t go far enough with its premise, deciding to funnily enough play it very safe with a somewhat vanilla experience. It should have gone more lewd with its story and gameplay, so that even if the characters were boring and uninteresting the game would at least be absurd enough to warrant multiple playthroughs, just to see how far it’d go with it set pieces.

I possibly made Gal Gun: Double Peace sound worse than it actually is, by all accounts it’s actually a decent game. If you can look past the games blandness, you have a pretty decent on rails shooter that can actually be charming at times.

Gal Gun: Double Peace was reviewed on PlayStation 4 using a digital copy provided by Inti Creates. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here.

The Verdict: 6.5

The Good:

Pretty solid on-rails shooter

Branching paths add replayability

Occasionally charming

The Bad: