Developer: iNPLAS, Opus Studio, Mastiff
Publisher: Mastiff
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Tested on: Nintendo 3DS
Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure – Review
Gurumin is actually already a game that is 12 years old already and originally for Windows and 2 years later it was brought towards Sony’s PSP. Now this game has been taken towards the 3DS-platform thanks to Mastiff. And despite the fact that this title is already so old, it isn’t a bad choice at all. Over a decade later this game still proves its worth.
Story
As a young girl you come to live with your grandfather in a miners town, but there are no children. So after a small introduction in the town you save a monster from a dog but apparently only you can see the monster and that is were the story starts. The monsters introduce you to their life and village but sadly one day the phantoms raid the monsters’ village, captured most of them and stole their properties. Now it is up to you to go search for the captured monsters and their properties within their world.
The further you progress in Gurumin 3D by freeing monsters, retrieve the possessions that were stolen and defeating strong enemies, you will find out more about the monsters their world and what happened and why the phantoms raided their village. So the story line is nicely incorporated within the whole game and the dialogue sessions with monsters and people are to the point, spiced with some fun aspects as well.
Graphics
The game combines 3D backgrounds with 2D main-characters in bright colors. The backgrounds fit properly for RPG games as it brings along the atmosphere of being in dungeons, forests, caves, mountains and more, quite nicely. On first sight the bright colorful main characters may look a bit childish but it fits nicely into the environment and takes away a bit the dark/depressive atmosphere of being in dungeons and such. Also the battle-effects are nicely displayed.
There are also multiple cut scenes as you enter new areas or complete some areas for the first time with spot-on dialogues and these also follow the 3D background with 2D main-characters which are entertaining to watch.
The only minor aspect is the camera point of view from time to time as it doesn’t follow your character properly so that you have to turn the camera manually to have a proper overview of the area to see where the obstacles or monsters are.
Sound
The music within Gurumin is doing a good job of placing you in the same atmosphere as the environment without being creepy or such. It are actually some catchy tunes from time to time and so it fits properly with the story and the graphics of the game.
Also the conversations in the cut scenes are decently done with good voice selection for each character which makes it comfortable to listen to, so that you don’t want to skip the conversation.
Gameplay
In Gurumin you’ll have to venture through areas in the world of Monsters to free up friendly monsters who are kidnapped by the phantoms or find their property and challenge bosses. Once you have cleared an area and defeated a boss or collected a property from a monster and returned it to its owner, other areas will become available. The ones you cleared are free to replay to improve your score there, or to gain extra cash to spend in the shops.
This title is a RPG focused mainly on real-time combat. The most important items are your drill and your headgear. The drill is your weapon and the headgear is for defense. The drill has power levels and can be upgraded with elemental item (fire, lightning, …) and you can learn combo attacks the more the story evolves around you. You can increase the power level of your drill by just smashing all the loose environment in the areas. So if you feel frustrated, go ahead! By the way, smashing the environment and defeating monsters will give you coins and junk which you can spend in the human village. Each character over there has a function that helps you forward with your adventure. Concerning the headgear. Each type has it specific type of protection: goggles for water damage, a gas mask against poison and so on. Besides that you can also buy some cosmetic items to dress your character.
The difficulty of Gurumin 3D can be chosen from start as “beginner” or “normal”. Once you complete it, you can also select hard and crazy mode. The concept of fighting is just straightforward: hit and avoid. After a short tutorial area you are quickly used to it and also newly learned combos later on are easy to remember. Besides the combat there are also hidden areas, traps to avoid and riddles to solve which brings also a nice variety in playing the game.
Although a con in this title is the saving function. It has no automatic saving option, so if you need to leave or switch of your 3DS you shouldn’t forget to save it manually. It has a small automatic saving option but only after you defeated an end boss of a zone (and a zone has mostly 3 areas).
Conclusion
Gurumin 3D (Guru means spin and that happens a lot in the game) is a nice entertaining title for young and old. It has multiple difficulties to keep you challenged. The music and dialogues are properly done and so the Gurumin brings you what the subtitle says: it takes you on “A Monstrous Adventure”
Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure - Review,
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