Don’t be mislead by the cutely designed characters, Gurumin is a serious, 35 hour RPG with some very interesting combat mechanics.
The 2004 Japanese PC action RPG was originally developed by Nihon Falcom. Mastiff brought Gurumin to North America, exclusively on PSP in 2007. Now, in 2015 Mastiff is taking the original PC version and bringing it to Steam for the first time and at GDC I was able to sit down and take a look.
At a first glance Gurumin has a childish look to it, but don’t let the colorful art style fool you, the gameplay and breadth of content is serious business. The first thing to catch my eye was the constantly moving musical notes at the top of the screen. This system rewards players for attacking on the downbeat of the music. Not only do critical hits occur during hits on the downbeat, but destroying an enemy with an attack on the downbeat has a chance to drop better items that can only be obtained through this method. This rhythmic component adds a level of complexity that is often find missing from standard action RPGs.
When Mastiff localized Gurumin for an English speaking audience, they made sure to get it right the first time by making sure to enlist some quality voice actors including Tara Strong (My Little Pony and Fairly Odd Parents).
I never played Gurumin when it first hit North America, but I will be sure not to miss it this time. Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure will be out on Steam for everyone on March 30.
- Non-linear game play in over 30 stages set in a variety of environments
- 24 non-player characters, 48 unique enemies, and more than 90 items to collect
- 11 costumes to unlock, and 15 equippable headgear to level up
- Challenging boss battles, puzzles, and traps
- Mini-games galore
- Hidden characters, alternate gameplay modes, and other secrets
- Beautifully updated graphics with full HD support
- Soundtrack available on iTunes
- Over 50 in-game achievements to unlock
