Monstrously Entertaining
Don't let the cutesy looks fool you; Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure is solid adventure fun.
Published: February 21, 2007
People love to poo-poo the PSP, claiming there are no good games available for it, but what they likely mean is that there are few absolutely stellar ones. Gurumin definitely falls into the "good" category. It's a pure, solid adventure game in the vein of the old-school Zeldas, but it's not anything that will move PSPs on its own. That's not a bad thing; though developer Nihon Falcom hasn't created something that will push the PSP to its limits, they did craft a more than competent action game in the guise of a cutesy little girl-powered romp, but it's pulled off with such flair and confidence that it ends up being one of the better portable experience the PSP has seen.
The Zelda comparison isn't one I make lightly, and being a stupid huge fan of the 2D games, it's meant entirely as a complement to what Gurumin does -- which is essentially take a lot of the core elements of A Link to the Past and moves them into 3D with minimal fuss (especially surprising considering 3D platform games are notoriously dodgy on the single analog nubbed PSP). You'll slowly work up your set of moves, find and upgrade items, explore dungeons and slowly unlock more of the world. Hell, when your drill, the main weapon in the game is all powered up, you can even fire off a little laser attack like the Master Sword.
But while Gurumin may share common elements, it's not a biter. Though they aren't terribly well-known in the States, Falcom has been making traditional Action RPG/Adventure games for years now, and a lot of what they poured into the [pspgame=36]Ys[/pspgame] games comes out here, albeit with a more stripped-down presentation. This means you get all the tried-and-true fundamentals of both combat and platforming, but it's all tucked into the trappings of a cute little hop 'n bop adventure.
Nowhere is this better represented than in Parin, the game's drill-wielding main character. Dropped into a sleepy mountainside mining town by her adventurous 'rents, the little girl is spunky and precocious enough to strike out on her own in search of entertainment. She finds it, quickly, after the town canine is caught barking away at a little creature. As it turns out, that creature is a monster visible only to the younger folks in the village -- of which there is but one. Befriending Parin after she shoos away the mutt, Pino the monster girl pulls her new human friend through a hole in the wall and she's whisked off to the Monster Kingdom -- only to have her new friends' village destroyed by Phantoms.
All is not lost, however (just, uh, most is lost -- including the residents of the city and all the buildings), as Parin does her best Arthur impression and wrenches a mysterious drill apparently used by humans to fight off a dragon ages ago from what should be solid stone. The drill is Parin's ticket to a little Phantom beat-down, and as the adventure goes along, can be augmented with elemental attacks and, for a little coin, bolstered by some slick new moves.
What's interesting about the drill, however, is that it exists in three different powered states. By drilling through stuff and hacking away at enemies the Drill Power meter will fill in three sections. When it's topped off, damage is tripled, but too many hits from enemies will knock it down a little, and the drill can actually lose a level. Luckily, there are pits scattered all around the world (which is, admittedly, really quite destructible) that offer an insta-level-up. Holding down the attack button also powers up a special attack that can bust through armor or just rip into enemies with a few pokes or a full corkscrew attack if powered all the way up.
The Zelda comparison isn't one I make lightly, and being a stupid huge fan of the 2D games, it's meant entirely as a complement to what Gurumin does -- which is essentially take a lot of the core elements of A Link to the Past and moves them into 3D with minimal fuss (especially surprising considering 3D platform games are notoriously dodgy on the single analog nubbed PSP). You'll slowly work up your set of moves, find and upgrade items, explore dungeons and slowly unlock more of the world. Hell, when your drill, the main weapon in the game is all powered up, you can even fire off a little laser attack like the Master Sword.
But while Gurumin may share common elements, it's not a biter. Though they aren't terribly well-known in the States, Falcom has been making traditional Action RPG/Adventure games for years now, and a lot of what they poured into the [pspgame=36]Ys[/pspgame] games comes out here, albeit with a more stripped-down presentation. This means you get all the tried-and-true fundamentals of both combat and platforming, but it's all tucked into the trappings of a cute little hop 'n bop adventure.
Nowhere is this better represented than in Parin, the game's drill-wielding main character. Dropped into a sleepy mountainside mining town by her adventurous 'rents, the little girl is spunky and precocious enough to strike out on her own in search of entertainment. She finds it, quickly, after the town canine is caught barking away at a little creature. As it turns out, that creature is a monster visible only to the younger folks in the village -- of which there is but one. Befriending Parin after she shoos away the mutt, Pino the monster girl pulls her new human friend through a hole in the wall and she's whisked off to the Monster Kingdom -- only to have her new friends' village destroyed by Phantoms.
All is not lost, however (just, uh, most is lost -- including the residents of the city and all the buildings), as Parin does her best Arthur impression and wrenches a mysterious drill apparently used by humans to fight off a dragon ages ago from what should be solid stone. The drill is Parin's ticket to a little Phantom beat-down, and as the adventure goes along, can be augmented with elemental attacks and, for a little coin, bolstered by some slick new moves.
What's interesting about the drill, however, is that it exists in three different powered states. By drilling through stuff and hacking away at enemies the Drill Power meter will fill in three sections. When it's topped off, damage is tripled, but too many hits from enemies will knock it down a little, and the drill can actually lose a level. Luckily, there are pits scattered all around the world (which is, admittedly, really quite destructible) that offer an insta-level-up. Holding down the attack button also powers up a special attack that can bust through armor or just rip into enemies with a few pokes or a full corkscrew attack if powered all the way up.
