An unsupervised child messes with the sweets economy and goes to war, ah, just like the good old days of recess.
"Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure" released in 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS, with the original "Gurumin" releasing in 2004 in Japan for PC. "Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure" would also be ported & localized on the PlayStation Portable in 2007 and Steam & GOG.com in 2015... Wait a minute, I've already reviewed this game!
Well, not exactly, this is the 3DS port. Like the original "Gurumin," "Gurumin 3D" was developed by Nihon Falcom, who is most well-known for the "Legend of Heroes" and "Ys" Franchises. Since my birthday is tomorrow, I figured, why not post this review now? Don't worry though, I'll cover a different game next year... Maybe.
I call this a revisit since I've already reviewed the Steam release of "Gurumin," but since the 3DS eShop is closing next year, I picked up "Gurumin 3D" while it was on sale. Despite already owning the game, I always wanted to try out the portable version for the exclusive costumes.
This will be a mix between a review and a comparison between the Steam release and 3DS release. However, for those who don't have the time to read my original "Gurumin" review; which is fair, the time we spend becoming galactic overlords is important; here's a quick summary below.
Premise Summary
Parin is your average, custom-named, child who moves into a mining town. There she befriends monsters that only children can see. Unfortunately, Phantoms attack and kidnap her monster friends.
[Credit: justonegamr]
It's up to Parin to use the legendary drill to save her friends and take down the Phantoms. Or, if you're like me, it's up to Amogus to once again use the legendary-
The story is extremely charming with nearly every character being likeable. The comedy is fun, and the world is interesting too. It's not perfect, but it's massively enjoyable.
"Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure" has the player going through levels with combat and platforming challenges. Parin Amogus can pick up money, cause property damage, get new headgear, unleash special attacks, and more.
[Credit: justonegamr]
The gameplay is solid with smooth controls, feel-good combat mechanics, and explosive charm. Platforming is floaty and the ultimate boss being necessary to beat is a massive pain, but these don't ruin the experience. However, will "Gurumin" being on the 3DS hold it back?
Steam vs. 3DS
Visuals
It's no surprise that visually, "Gurumin 3D" is weaker when compared to the Steam release. Pixels are on the edges of models, lighting isn't as clear, colours are changed in a few places, visual filters are gone from cutscenes, and more.
[Credit: justonegamr (Pictures to the right)]
The Opening and Credits are also implemented as video files, which play at a lower resolution than the entire game. They also have a blue tint, now I'm a big blue fan, but the tint is honestly weird. In the Steam release, the Credits are animated the same way as the rest of the cutscenes despite being a video file, being seamless.
However, these are perfectly understandable downgrades given the 3DS' weaker hardware. Compromises must be made.
Judging from the merits of other 3DS games, "Gurumin 3D" still looks wonderful visually. It's just that you'll get a better experience visually with the Steam version.
However, that's not to say the visuals of "Gurumin 3D" have nothing going for them. The text boxes of "Gurumin 3d" look a lot nicer than the text boxes in the Steam version. I believe in black text superiority.
The 3D of the game, while I didn't use it much, looks awesome with the HUD popping out. However, I rarely used 3D mode since... Well, do you know anyone who extensively uses the 3D of the 3DS? If you answered yes that person/those people are aliens.
There are also a few minor changes visually. For example, the title screen is different.
Another example is that healing stations in the Steam version remove Parin's outfit while healing. I know that sounds wrong, but I see it as something akin to a transformation from "Sailor Moon." "Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure" keeps her outfit on. This is a change I'm neutral on since it doesn't hinder my experience either way.
[Credit: justonegamr (First picture) and Amongaus (Second picture, website no longer available)]
Performance
For context for this section, I played "Gurumin 3D" with a Nintendo 3DS XL, not a New Nintendo 3DS. It's possible the below isn't present with a New 3DS, but with that said, for at least a 3DS XL... "Gurumin 3D: A Monstrous Adventure" has performance problems.
There are rare freezes, slowdown in cutscenes, the framerate for most characters is distractingly low, and black loading screens appear between each area & even between cutscenes.
I don't mind the freezes, but the slowdown in cutscenes is aggravating, it's hard to enjoy the story in "Gurumin 3D" because of it.
While I don't believe the low framerates for most characters is necessarily performance-related, enemies don't move smoothly at all. The framerate for enemies and other characters just looks awkward next to the smoothly animated Parin Amogus.
However, the Steam version also has its fair share of problems with long freezes and potentially crashing from hitting a pot. Yes, I do speak from personal experience, and yes, I did cry about it.
Although, I prefer the performance of the Steam release because while the crashes/freezing stinks, at least it isn't a consistent problem like slowdown with cutscenes and low framerate enemies throughout the entire game. The Steam version is just smoother overall.
Music & Sound
The music of "Gurumin 3D" is painfully implemented into the game. If you've read my original "Gurumin" review or have listened to the soundtrack, you might be asking, "how is that possible?"
It's because... THE MUSIC DOESN'T LOOP SEAMLESSLY! IN A GAME WITH LONG LEVELS! WITH SECTIONS WHERE IT'S POSSIBLE TO HEAR THE SONG END!
This breaks my heart on so many levels and my immersion even more. The music will just end and start up again, which the Steam version did NOT do.
The music will also stutter during loading screens, and this is not something I can contribute to my 3DS having audio problems. I recently played "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux" and I never ran into any audio problems like this.
The music of "Gurumin" is phenomenal, it's even one of my favourite soundtracks in a video game. It deserves better than this. Music to me is extremely important to immerse me into a world, if the music stops when it isn't supposed to or stutters, it takes me out of the experience.
In the case of "Gurumin 3D," I was taken out of the experience on every single level. That's not all, the sound is a dubious mess too. Some sound effects won't play at all. This isn't good in a game where sound is important for stuff like when enemies die when falling off a ledge.
Sometimes a sound effect will also have the odd occasion of decreasing in pitch, only to go back to normal at once after. Hearing Parin Amogus sound like a grown woman catches a man off guard.
The sound department for "Gurumin 3D" is just sloppy, and this isn't clearer anywhere else than with the Japanese voices code. The code to activate the Japanese voices from the PSP version is still in "Gurumin 3D," with the activation ding and everything.
However, the files for the Japanese voices aren't included in "Gurumin 3D" so you just end up getting no voices at all. I can maybe see removing the Japanese voices, but why leave the code in?
This just seems like a massive oversight. Like... How did the port team not think anyone would notice? Did they even know about the code? B-But "Gurumin" only has one code...
The sad part is that this is the only way to turn off the voices in-game because unlike the Steam version, "Gurumin 3D" has no sound settings option. This also means the music can't be turned off independently either.
Now... I'm all for giving those who turn off the "Gurumin" soundtrack the death penalty, but "Gurumin 3D" is a case where only turning off the music is perfectly justifiable.
Controls
Now, "Gurumin 3D" is an improvement but also a downgrade with its controls based on which control scheme(s) you have access to with "Gurumin" for the Steam version.
In comparison to the keyboard, "Gurumin 3D" is a massive improvement thanks to the shoulder pads controlling the camera and an analog stick for movement. Even if you prefer four directional buttons, "Gurumin 3D" gives the option to use the D-Pad for movement too.
The controls work well too, so no complaints there. The only trouble I ran into was with the camera, due to being zoomed in. Admittedly, it can be a massive pain to control, especially when it's a little too close.
Unfortunately, unlike with a gamepad, you can't change the controls. While jumping as B is perfectly fine, A is to attack, and X is to dodge. That's extremely odd.
I would prefer to have the attack be mapped to Y and dodge as A. That feels more natural to me. While I did get used to the control scheme, it still took some time, and I still vastly prefer customizing the controls. I mean, you can make the Start button the jump button in the Steam release, you can't beat that.
There is also the addition of the bottom screen letting you quickly switch between headgear, weapon elementals, and go to the menu for items & settings. I find myself mixed on the inclusion though as while it's nice to switch between elemental weapons quickly, it's not so nice with headgear.
With headgear, the touch screen is extremely useful at first. However, with so much headgear obtained later in the game, it'll cycle through all your headgear until you wear the headgear you want. By that point, you're better off going into your item menu to equip the headgear you want.
Added Content/Changes
Compared to the Steam release, multiple things are missing in "Gurumin 3D," some more understanding than others. For example, there are side quests that let you get pictures for your album in "Gurumin 3D." However, in the Steam release, they can be selected as computer wallpapers.
[Credit: Nihon Falcom]
Although this is understandable, the substitute would be 3DS themes and that would be a ton of work for something that, realistically, most players won't unlock.
Something less understandable is removing the metronome, which let the player know when they could get critical hits on enemies. While critical hits still exist in "Gurumin 3D," something akin to the metronome only appears when targeting an enemy.
[Credit: justonegamr (Second picture)]
However, as far as I found, the target only pops up when you're near an enemy in the air, making it hard to consistently get critical hits. The game also never explains that the notes on the target reticle communicate when you get critical hits, I only found out about the notes through forums online.
Critical hits are paramount to dealing the most damage, so knowing when you can do them or not is extremely important. Another element that was removed was the map.
The map let you know where enemies and, with the Cat Ears equipped, pots/treasure chests. While you won't get lost in levels, it was still nice to have, but I admit this one is purely preference.
I'll also admit that the Cat Ears being reworked to count the number of pots/treasure chests in a room is far more useful than in the Steam release where it detects pots/treasure chests on the map. However, it's still unrealistic because cats don't know numbers.
The number counter is also gone too, which was for... I'll be honest, I have no idea. The only thing it realistically changes is the puzzle in Bats' Hideaway which is honestly more annoying and cryptic than the Steam version of the puzzle.
The timer for answering questions has also been removed, which is a welcome addition for "Gurumin 3D." Now I can type out dead memes to the door guardians until their sanity breaks. Amazing.
There are also a few minor changes. One example is that the maximum currency is 99,999, changing how much the Maid Outfit costs. In "Gurumin 3D," the maximum is 65,500 which is how much the Maid Outfit costs. you needed to buy it for 99,999 of the game's currency in the Steam version.
Finally, the option to save in the world map isn't available. I just found this strange since I often save in the world map in the Steam release, I'm not sure why it'd be taken out.
Added Content
Unlike the Steam release, "Gurumin 3D" offers an in-game reward for collecting all the gold medals in a playthrough, that being multiple outfits. For example, you get the Princess Dress on Normal Mode, which isn't in the Steam version. Now the names Peach, Zelda, and Charm have a whole new meaning with this outfit.
There is also a Christmas outfit by setting the system date from Christmas to New Year's Eve. It's so cute.
Additionally- Wait, no, that's it. That's all the added content minus one or two new pictures in the album/changes to pre-existing pictures...
[Credit: Nihon Falcom]
So, this is what emptiness feels like...
Overall (C)
It's weird to rank "Gurumin 3D" because as much as I adore this game for its story, style, music, gameplay, challenge, exploration, and more... This is not a good port.
Music doesn't loop seamlessly, the metronome & map are missing, loading screens are awkward & stutter the music, no customizable controls, everyone is at a lower framerate, and there's a lack of added content to compensate. Despite the fun I had with it, the experience just feels hollow and made me wish I was playing the Steam version.
Thankfully, I don't regret buying "Gurumin 3D" since it's a nice novelty to have with the Nintendo 3DS eShop closing next year and I got it on sale for around $4CDN too. However, that's all it'll be to me now, a novelty and nothing more.
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