Gurumin A Monstrous Adventure

As I mentioned in my summary review, you're making a mistake if you pass this game by just because the main character is a little girl and everything is cute. The fun factor is high enough that it should overcome any cuteness-aversions you might have, and if by some chance you have kids, this is a game you can share with them (though it might be a bit embarrassing to have your offspring unlock hard mode before you do). If it helps, you can pretend Parin is really a muscle-bound swordsman who got turned into a goggle-wearing, drill-wielding cutie-pie by some dastardly magic. Just try it.

I will admit, I was myself almost put off my the adorable main character and lovable monsters (and I'm a girl). Even the bad guys are cute! Everything's got a chibi-anime look, the trees in the spooky forest have happy smiles, and I won't even mention what happens to the dragon. But hey, sometimes a reviewer has to suffer for the readers, and so I waded in.

I waded in, and immediately started to have fun. Hey, no suffering for my art after all! Though the cuteness never abates--even the very well done music has a bouncy, cheerful feel--the the fun factor doesn't abate, either.

You start out in a human town and quickly acquire your first item--the goggles that Parin wears on the front cover. Now, I have a bit of a weakness for goggles. I own some, and sometimes I even wear them (luckily my friends and family are not easily embarrassed). Most of the items you'll get are different varieties of headwear, including said goggles, a "vampire kit" (includes a fancy hat and sunglasses), a nightcap (amusingly, one of the potentially most powerful items), a big red hair bow, and may others.

The town plus the monster village you find soon afterwards are the main areas for character interaction. Via the monster village, you can access the world map that lets you travel to different levels, but only after you've unlocked them. At first, you only have a couple of places you can go, but each time you complete an area, you get an item that belongs to one of the friendly monsters. Returning these items opens up more levels.

Naturally, the easier levels become available first, followed by more difficult ones, so the learning curve is never too steep (except for one nearly impossible, but luckily optional, area near the end--I never did beat the phantom in that one). Your overall objective is to reclaim that monsters' items from the evil phantoms so they can rebuild their village. You also have to defeat the phantom bosses, of course.

Along the way, you collect two types of currency. The first is money, which can be used to by more gear, upgrades for your magic drill, and food. You can also find food in chests. Like many RPGs, food is a health item. You eat to restore your health levels (and use drill oil to restore your drill's power--though using the drill to break stuff also works). The cute factor comes into play here, too, though, as the foods that restore Parin's health are cookies (restore a small amount), chocolate (restore a large amount), and shortcake (restore full health). Now I have a good excuse to eat chocolate. At least in-game.

The other kind of currency you get is "junk." It's essentially phantom trash, and you get it when you knock the armor off phantoms during battle, or you find it in trashcans in phantom territory. Collecting junk lets you buy upgrades for your headgear, and you'll need a lot of it, because those upgrades just keep getting more expensive. It almost makes it worth it to replay levels just to get more junk.

Completing levels also gets you medals--bronze, silver, or gold--which can be traded for more money or headgear.

You'll get familiar with the levels if you keep replaying them until you've mastered them all, but you'll also discover that later levels are often just the earlier levels in reverse, with more enemies or more difficult traps. This was my only real complaint about the game. Surely the levels aren't so complicated that they couldn't have made each one different. Still, it's only a small complaint, and I was having so much fun that I didn't really care much other than to think, "haven't I already done this?"

The levels are designed to be quite linear, though there are a few that have a bit more of a maze-like feel to them. The good thing about this kind of design is that you're never at a loss for where to go next. It's another aspect of the game that makes it newbie-friendly, whether that's complete video game beginner, or just someone who games but hasn't tackled RPGs yet.

And as RPGs, go, Gurumin is pretty simple. In fact, it might really be called an action-adventure game. The RPG elements are slight, but it can still serve as an introduction to the genre. Some players might afterwards want to try something a little more action-adventure oriented, and others might want to get more heavily into a more complicated RPG. Of course, you might get so enchanted by Gurumin that you don't even think about where to go after you're done. You might even jump back into this game, because finishing it unlocks a new level of difficulty, a new sub-quest, and more possible items. I know I'm not done with it yet.

When it comes down to it, Gurumin is just fun. And that's all I really have to say.