Download - Defunct Games

A very welcome addition to the PSP library, Mastiff/
Falcom’s Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure is a
splendid Action/RPG romp that takes a page from
Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series. Combining
real-time action, exploration, dungeon crawling, item
collecting, and plenty of RPG elements, this title is
definitely going to fill a sorely lacking gap and should
help give you another reason not to sell off your PSP.
In Gurumin, players take on the role of an uber-cutesy
young girl named Parin, who has been sent to live
with her grandfather in a sleepy mining town that is
strangely kidless. While her parents are off excavating
an ancient ruin, and with no other children to play
with, Parin takes to exploring the town’s streets and
alleyways. Here she discovers and befriends a group of
friendly monsters that only kids can see, who live in the
village beyond a crack in the wall. She ultimately comes
to their aid when an evil group of sprits, known as the
Phantoms, invade the village and steal them away. With
the aid of a weapon called the “Legendary Drill,” Parin
embarks on a grand quest to destroy the Phantoms and
save her newfound friends.
As an Action/RPG, Gurumin harkens back to the days
of 16-bit games when you couldn’t get by on just fancy
graphics alone. The game’s puzzle solving, tight combat
controls, and dungeon crawling are inventive, fun, and
a joy to play. To top it off, Mastiff appears to be going
all-out in producing a high-quality localization. It really
reminds us of the glory days of Working Designs’s funloving
translations. To this end, they’ve collected a hefty
who’s who of videogame voice acting talent, including
Tara Strong (Final Fantasy X, Ninja Gaiden, Kingdom
Hearts), Dee Bradley Baker (Halo 2, Destroy All Humans!,
FF X-2), and Amber Hood (Everquest II, Oni Musha II,
Baldur’s Gate), with voice direction by Kris Zimmerman
(Dead Rising, Tomb Raider: Legend, Metal Gear Solid 3:
Subsistence).
Surprisingly, Gurumin is not a new game. Developed by
Nihon Falcom (of Ys and Popful Mail fame) as a Japaneseonly
PC title in 2004, it was ported to the PSP by the
developers and released in Japan in June of ‘06. Mastiff
picked up on its whimsical charm and solid gameplay and
took a chance on bringing it Stateside. At the end of the
day, whether or not the game will be a success remains to
be seen. The PSP market has become increasingly soft, and
even though Gurumin fills a niche and is a blast to play, it is
targeted to a very small albeit rabid base of fans.
We’re looking forward to getting our hands on a localized US
version of the game soon. With the release date just around
the corner, Gurumin should give both PSP owners and RPG
fans a reason to rejoice.
PUBLISHER:: PUBLISHER:: MASTIFF MASTIFF • • DEVELOPER: DEVELOPER: FALCOM FALCOM • • RELEASE RELEASE DATE: DATE: 02/12/07 02/12/07 • • GENRE: GENRE: ACTION ACTION RPG RPG • • CATEGORY: CATEGORY: CUTE CUTE • • # # OF OF PLAYERS: PLAYERS: 11
Preview by Roger Danish
An overload of cute!
10_PREVIEW_GURUMIN: A MONSTROUS ADVENTURE HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 2_ISSUE 8_FISSION MAILED HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 2_ISSUE 8_FISSION MAILED
GURUMIN: A MONSTROUS ADVENTURE_PREVIEW_11