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[i]Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure[/i] is a third-person action-adventure game with light RPG mechanics. You play as Parin, a young child who meets various monsters that need her help to prevent the destruction of their world.
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
[i]Gurumin[/i] is classified by the developers as an Action-RPG, but I personally think the RPG mechanics are so minimal that it’s hard to call it that. There are technically six special moves you can learn, but they all boil down to the same basic idea. You can spin in a circle to attack nearby enemies, you can jump and spin to attack enemies, or you can dash and spin to attack enemies. Three of the six moves are actually just upgrades to the existing abilities, so they aren’t really new moves in the first place.
There are loot mechanics, but there are only 2 equipment slots. One for your drill, which just gives elemental damage (fire, lightning, or ice), and then one is your outfit, which gives stat bonuses. The drill barely counts because there are only 3 options for that slot and they all have minimal combat effects. The elemental effects are primarily for puzzle solving, rather than giving you an edge in combat. The outfit slot is the closest thing this game has to fleshed out RPG mechanics. I’m not sure of the exact total, but there seemed to be at least 15 different outfits with varying effects. One gives a money boost, one gives immunity to gas damage, one for water damage, etc. You can freely swap outfits, so depending on the level you will equip an outfit that fits the hazards in front of you. There is an upgrade system to make the outfits better, such as turning the outfit that gives half damage resistance to water into full immunity. And this is where the RPG mechanics end. Similar to the way drill elements work, the ability to swap outfits so quickly and easily makes it feel more like a puzzle game. There is almost always an obvious outfit that you should be using for a specific situation. For platforming over water, you equip the water outfit, for fighting gas monsters you equip the gas outfit, etc. To me, a hallmark of RPGs is having some level of build variety in your character. With [i]Gurumin[/i], your choices are really just a test of your intelligence. If you can pick the correct outfit for a situation, there’s really no other decisions for you to make.
Now that I’ve cleared up why I think calling it an RPG is a misnomer, I can get into what I think the game actually is. [i]Gurumin[/i] is a bit like [i]Ocarina of Time[/i], in the sense that you go through the game platforming, solving puzzles and fighting. Obviously the progression system is noticeably better in [i]OoT[/i], but the core idea is similar. In this game, you are dropped into an overworld where you can select different levels to complete in a semi-open world style. Aside from a handful of mini-game levels, you will be tasked with killing every enemy and finding every chest/jar. You can get a gold medal for perfecting a level, which can then be traded for special gear. The game is designed with multiple playthroughs in mind, so the idea is that you are constantly upgrading your outfits with the resources you gain from beating these levels over and over.
Overall, the gameplay in [i]Gurumin[/i] can best be described as “fine”. It’s pretty standard stuff, when it comes to combat, puzzles and platforming. In my opinion, it is truly a game where no element stands out to hook you into the gameplay loop. At a certain point I became bored of getting S ranks on levels and just started beating them normally. Unless you plan on beating the game on all five difficulties, there’s not much incentive to getting an S rank on everything, especially after getting it seven times so you can trade the medals for one of the best outfits in the game.
[h2]Presentation[/h2]
While I found the gameplay somewhat boring, I did find some value in the aesthetic of [i]Gurumin[/i]. Most of the game seems created with a child audience in mind (aside from one major element I will discuss later). The protagonist is a child, all the monsters are pretty child-friendly with cute designs. So as an adult, I wouldn’t say I loved it, but I could see a child really enjoying it.
The voice acting was a huge positive for me. The cast list is full of heavy hitters and their performances really kept me interested. I don’t know if I would call the voice acting good in terms of objective quality, but the variety of vocal styles plus the big, broad personalities made the cutscenes notable bright spots in an unfortunately dull game. I frequently found myself rushing through levels so I could get to some plot and hear an A-list voice actor deliver some poorly written dialogue in a goofy voice.
[h2]Cylinder[/h2]
Finally, I need to address the elephant in the room. Multiple reviews I read prior to playing mentioned a specific character that stood out to people as something that wouldn’t fly in a game made nowadays. Many mentioned it as a refreshing positive for a developer to not care about political correctness and to simply make the game they want to make, consequences be damned. When I read this, I had mixed feelings. I’m not one to complain about political correctness or games being too “woke”, but I always appreciate when developers stick to their guns and try something that might not work. Some of my favorite games are ones that were willing to take risks rather than chasing trends and trying to have mass appeal by playing it safe.
All that being said, [i]Gurumin[/i] did not pull this off. The character in question is Cylinder, a comic relief pedophile. I don’t simply mean a creepy character, Cylinder explicitly wants a romantic relationship with the protagonist. It’s never established exactly how old Parin is, but they seem to roughly be elementary school age, a preteen at the oldest. At one point in the game, the game fades to black with the text “Cylinder forces his ‘sweaty parts’ on you”. In context, you are meant to know that Cylinder isn’t actually sexually assaulting a child, but in a game that is pretty clearly meant for children, I think it’s fair to say this joke is a bit much. Throughout the game, Cylinder propositions Parin to go on a date with him, even after being refused multiple times. Other characters seem to be aware of his pedophilia and simply laugh it off as Cylinder being a bit odd and quirky.
The presence of Cylinder doesn’t ruin the game for me or anything, but he’s definitely a recurring low point in the game where every line of his dialogue is baffling. And I know that “creepy old pervert” is a well-known trope in Japanese media, but it usually revolves around people that are of legal age, or at least closer to legal age than a pre-teen.
[h2]Verdict[/h2]
[i]Gurumin[/i] is decidedly a mixed bag. My favorite parts were the cutscenes and overall plot, but it’s not what you would call a story-centric game. It’s actually much more focused around the gameplay, which I found to be mediocre at best. Because of that, I don’t see myself recommending this game to anyone, unless you have some morbid curiosity about Cylinder. I think if you are someone that enjoys action-adventure games, there are far better options out there, and if you play games for the plot, this game doesn’t have enough cutscenes to really justify playing it purely for the story either. It’s not the worst game I’ve ever played, but if you’ve never played this game, I can confidently say you aren’t missing out on much, aside from Cylinder of course.
[h2]3/10[/h2]
