1.
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2.
Gyromite (NES)
3.
Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4.
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5.
Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6.
Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7.
Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
8.
Exile (TurboGrafx CD)
9.
Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (TurboGrafx CD)
10.
Xak (PC Engine CD,
Xak I・II)
11.
Xak II (PC Engine CD,
Xak I・II)
12.
Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
13.
Captain Silver (Sega Master System)
14.
Märchen Veil (Famicom Disk System)
15.
Vanguard (Atari 2600)
16.
Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
17.
Front Line (Atari 2600)
18.
Mario Bros. (Atari 2600)
19.
Harmonia (Steam)
20.
Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
21.
Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
22.
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (TurboGrafx CD)
23.
Gorf (Atari 2600)
24.
Neutopia II (TurboGrafx-16)
25.
Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2,
Taito Legends 2)
26.
The Lost Vikings (SNES)
27.
Blue's Journey (Wii Virtual Console)
28.
Wizard Fire (Wii,
Data East Arcade Classics)
29.
Super Mario Run (Android)
30.
Dragon Warrior II (NES)
31. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (GOG.com)Falcom owns.
Gurumin is one of their more unique games. It's a standalone title, with no sequel in the works as far as I can see. Originally released on the PC in Japan in 2004, the game was subsequently ported to the PSP a couple of years later (this is how I originally played it). 2015 saw a translation of the PC original, and the game is now available on Steam and GOG.com. Finally, there's the 3DS eShop version,
Gurumin 3D, which dropped just last fall.
While most of Falcom's masterpieces are known to future a cutesy anime character or two,
Gurumin is full-on kawaii. The protagonist, Parin, is a chipper twelve-year-old girl with a sassy disposition and gravity-defying pigtails. Her mission is to restore peace, prosperity, and stolen furniture to the residents of a "Monster Village." The monsters themselves are also adorable as hell. I mean, the first one introduced is literally just a little blonde girl. The game contains a lot of voice-acting, which is a mixed bag. I
love Parin's voice - it fits her character perfectly - but some of the NPCs and monsters are pure cringe.
Like
Popful Mail,
Gurumin is typically called an "action-RPG" and while it retains much of the aesthetics and gameplay of that genre there's no true leveling or XP system. Progression is similar to "quest-based" RPGs like
Phantasy Star Online and others. There's only one town, serving as a central hub. Dungeons are scattered throughout the overworld, but most begin "locked" until a specific piece of furniture is returned to a monster (yeah I wasn't kidding about the furniture). The dungeons themselves each take about twenty minutes to roll through. This is a l00t game so it's best to explore thoroughly so Parin can find every chest and item and beat down every foe. Money and items are in short supply at the game's beginning, when they're perhaps most needed, though Parin will inevitably be holding a surplus eventually. The dungeons themselves are pretty straightforward and it's clear that the game was designed to be something of an "easier" alternative to the likes of
Zwei!! and
Ys VI.
Gurumin was designed to look "retro" before it was cool. There's something of a late-N64 / early-Dreamcast vibe going on here. The characters are all composed of chunky polygons and the game world has a general sense of "blockiness" to it. The accompanying music is simple, bouncy, and ultimately pretty satisfying. Parin controls well. She can jump, dash, and attack with a drill. Our heroine moves quickly and fluidly and while enemies are numerous they're typically easy (and satisfying) to take out.
Parin's drill is pretty damn versatile.
Too versatile, really. There are standard attacks and the typical hold-down-the-button strong attacks. Then there are special moves that are activated by performing fighting game-esque button combos. To learn these they must first be purchased in town. Unfortunately, they're pretty tricky to execute. The game's built-in manual doesn't help much either, as it's written assuming the player is using a mouse(!). There's also a rhythm meter that can be used to time critical hits, though good luck making sense of it. I found it as useful as the "attack gauge" in
Exile. Lastly, the drill itself has a "level." Not in the sense that it can be "leveled-up" with experience, but there's a max strength level that is depleted when Parin is injured. Said meter can be restored by scoring critical hits, donning a certain hat, or consuming special items. It's all a bit too much, and despite the supposed intricacies of combat the game ends up being very button-mashy.
There's a lot of time spent in town. There's an armory that only sells hats, which is apparently all Parin needs to protect herself. These don't grant a defense stat, but instead protect from specific hazards and/or grant a special ability like HP-draining. However, the main reason to buy the hats is because they're adorable as hell. I'm particularly partial to the monkey hat, which nets Parin more money while exploring.
Gurumin has that same sort of "addictive" "just one more dungeon" vibe I get from the likes of
PSO. It moves along at a decent pace, save for the overly-long opening cutscene, and I found myself playing in lengthy sessions. It's also tailor-made for short sessions, should you choose, as you can save anywhere and it's easy enough to just pick away and knock off one dungeon at a time. Some literature boasts of a 35+ hour play time, but this is wholly inaccurate unless you're going for 100% completion or replaying the game on all difficulty settings. Fifteen hours is where we're at here.
There is one serious flaw with the game though, one large enough to turn many off completely.
Gurumin is in........3D. No, this isn't one my generalized rants about retro gaming 2D supremacy. Rather, the 3D viewpoint of
Gurumin is awful. Or, more accurately, the camera is. The camera follows Parin but only assumes a helpful angle about 50% of the time. Otherwise it needs to be rotated, or popped directly behind Parin. And it needs to be fiddled with
constantly. It's easy to lose sight of enemies and jars, which is especially irritating as these must all be found to achieve a gold medal "S-rank" in any given dungeon. Boss battles can be downright obnoxious at times, as they're super fast and it's so easy to lose sight of them. But the most frustrating aspect of all is trying to get the camera angled correctly during that final stretch of dungeons, which contain tricky precision jumps and godforsaken ice patches. Now, there is thankfully a map available to help with navigation but I can't help but think of how brilliant this game would have turned out had it been created in the
Ys VI engine. I suppose the camera rotation business was done to match the overall old-school aesthetics, but some things are better left in the past.
Overall, I dig it. Aside from the big aforementioned issue,
Gurumin is pure hack and slash adventuring bliss. And it's nice to play a "moe" game that actually feels appropriate for kids as opposed to being crass and exploitative. It isn't one of Falcom's
best games (I mean, it isn't
Ys after all) but I'd still rank this higher than most of the recent
Legend of Heroes entries. I don't think there's a tremendous difference between the various ports, so check it out any way you can.