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Post by Incog Neato on Feb 17, 2007 10:50:51 GMT -5
Ow, the controls hurt. Got a PSP purely for this so it's proving to be even nastier than it would if I'd had time to get used to them beforehand, but the system's controls are horrible. Wooo! Another reason for me not to replay the game again! XD I'm seriously just going to get the game to own it and, of course, to give my moneys to Mastiff (and, regrettably, SCEA) to show Falcom there is LOVE for their games.
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Post by Varion on Feb 18, 2007 13:27:15 GMT -5
Well saves you spending the money on a whole new system It's nice to be able to play it in English at least, especially as my laptop's refresh rate is horribly screwed up and gives me headaches after like 10 minutes on any game, Falcom or otherwise. Ugh. Still, shame the PC limited edition's out of print... want it Up to Eggplant now, and still really loving it. Would recommend it to anyone, and as soon as I'm done I know I'll be going back in for another difficulty mode.
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Post by Varion on Feb 18, 2007 16:58:27 GMT -5
I've never once heard you say that Buuut I'll believe you. Just bought one.
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Post by FM-77AV on Feb 19, 2007 10:48:46 GMT -5
NOW I'm finally getting into the game again. THERE's the Gurumin magic! Loving it!
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Post by Varion on Feb 19, 2007 16:25:00 GMT -5
Hm, questions.
- Is 65535 the maximum money you can have? Cus that's a really random amount... it won't increase now I have that much. - How the heck are you supposed to get the 30 gold outfits? There aren't that many levels... unless Eggplant's not the end, anyway.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Feb 19, 2007 16:29:15 GMT -5
65535 isn't random.. it's the maximum value for an unsigned 16-bit integer.
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Post by FM-77AV on Feb 19, 2007 16:31:36 GMT -5
It's not random. 65535 = 2 bytes. 2^16.
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Post by Varion on Feb 19, 2007 16:40:26 GMT -5
I see. Not exactly something everyone's expected to know, but whatever.
So, any answers for 2?
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Feb 19, 2007 16:44:04 GMT -5
Off the top of my head.. 20 golds for the levels themselves, 5 for the boss levels, 4 for the mini-games and 1 for Black Bean.
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Post by Mejilan on Feb 19, 2007 17:31:44 GMT -5
Shelved the game. Total disappointment. It's just completely ironic how awful the PSP is for 3D gaming. Sure, it can display fantastic 3D visuals compared to Nintendo's system, but damn it, the controls just BLOW. Couple that terrible analog nub/d-pad combo with Gurumin's loose and sloppy controls and horrific 3D camera, and you find yourself with a completely broken game. At least I did. Such a bitter disappointment. I'll wait for Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner to come in, and plop that onto my mem stick in place.
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Post by Varion on Feb 20, 2007 15:37:45 GMT -5
Just finished it. Spoilers all the way: Man that ending leaves you feeling completely empty... after all that she has to leave? Didn't see a memorably sad ending coming out of this game, but I was surprised. Didn't see the Puku twist coming either. I quite liked the way they split the final battle up though, but the final boss track wasn't epic enough. Soar through the Sadness was though. Love that one now. Overall, I loved it and can't recommend it highly enough. Falcom prove once again that they know exactly how to make a great, fun game, because that's what Gurumin was from beginning to end. Cheers to all who went on about it, because I was this close to not acknowledging its existence at all. And wyrdy, that wing grip you mentioned is MUCH more comfortable. Shame I have to have the PSP slightly out of it for my headphones to fit, but it's still semi-tight and makes a world of difference. I'm still sticking with the D-Pad into my hard play though, you haven't got me sold on the analog nub except for special attacks yet xD
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Feb 26, 2007 13:27:10 GMT -5
Well, I'm into my second game of Gurumin on the PSP already (and finally getting some S+++ scores) and thought I'd drop some thoughts.
I suppose I should mostly talk about the localization, since the game is practically identical to the PC version. I think the English version was handled BRILLIANTLY, so good. I love the voice acting.. I mean, anything is better than the obnoxious, ear-raping "anime" voice-screaming, but they did get some great talent. Amber Hood in particular deserves mad props, I love how she adds different inflections when voicing the new costumes.. she did a great sleepy voice for the pajamas, added just the right amount of prissiness for the princess dress (I still laugh every time I hear "BOW DOWN BEFORE ME!") and most hilariously managed to get a 12 year old pretending to be sexy for the maid dress.
It's kind of a bummer that the game had to hit these shores on the PSP. I don't quite think the audience for this game exists amongst the PSP mainstay and I also don't think the game is "big" enough to draw people to the system (well, except for me). I'm happy with the game but I think it's basically just shy of the Xbox as being the wrong system to get the game to the audience that would enjoy the game.
I hope Mastiff can use their localization to get the PC game out there in some form, maybe not as a retail product (okay, that'd be much worse than even on the Xbox in this market) but maybe in digital distribution or something like Game Tap.
Anyway, back to the game proper.. I think the wonky camera in Gurumin is really heightened in the PSP version due to the squished down screen real estate and the load times, while not bad, really hurt during some of the asinine fetch quests you have to go through to open up some of the levels (tracking down the mole brothers, for instance). But otherwise the game made an pretty awesome transition to the system.
Does anybody know if they removed the Item Dictionary? I'm guessing yes since it's not there after I beat the game.. but it's an odd (but not major) omission.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Feb 28, 2007 10:48:06 GMT -5
Well, there's some other things I noticed are different in the PSP version. Money seems to disappear a lot quicker than in the PC version (argh), you can't access the menu on the map (annoying as hell), the graphics seem to rely heavily on dithering (yuck) and the ending credits are a compressed video file instead of using the in-game engine (based on my screenshot of Popon's introduction on the PC.. I could be wrong).
Does anybody know the significance of fighting Black Bean by asking him for a present or to defeat Tokaron? They just seem like two new menu options for refighting him with no differences.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Feb 28, 2007 13:17:44 GMT -5
Here are some more differences: max bling is 65535 as opposed to 99999, so of course, the maid dress is now 65500 and blocks activate switches when they're half over them instead of fully over them.
Yes, I am dork when it comes to this game. ):
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Mar 2, 2007 22:24:55 GMT -5
Happy Mode does not have the new character names and dialog from the Japanese Pleasure Mode! I'm sad now, this is something I was REALLY looking forward to.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Mar 3, 2007 9:54:53 GMT -5
From what I gathered playing the PC version.. the new text was just goofy, really goofy. The Prince was now called The CEO and some names were just swapped like Disk was called Poko and Poko was called Motoro. Sadly, my kanji reading is so horrifying, that I wasn't able to pick much up on it. It almost makes me want to snoop around the files again to see if I can rip a script out of it.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Mar 5, 2007 9:48:09 GMT -5
*dances*
I'll give the PSP one thing.. its portability has allowed me to complete my original Gurumin goal that I never finished on the PC: to unlock Popon (on my own). Of course, this was made a little more painful due to the PSP version having extras for getting 30 gold medals on each level.. but I've done it; Easy, Normal, Hard and Happy.. all with 30 golds.
I beat Hard on Friday night, after my friends cancelled going to wrestling due to school backup. I told myself that I had until next Saturday to conquer Happy mode, as I wanted to have Popon to show off to my friend who I've been hyping Gurumin to for about a year (he gave it a GLOWING review at http://www.gamerdad.com). Well, Saturday I woke up very early.. made some coffee and decided to play a little while the girlfriend was still sleeping. Then I had a wedding to go to and after that I went to the asian market with some friends. I finally got back home with a friend of mine who just got her DS (that makes 18 DSes vs. 2 PSPs in my group of friends) and I grab another hour or so while I was helping her learn Jump Ultimate Stars. Then everyone else ended up and my place and I put the PSP down for some beer and NES showdowns with two of my friends (Spy vs. Spy, Pro Wrestling, Balloon Fight and Mario Bros. matches that night) while everyone else played Wii. Fun times. Sunday morning was another pot of coffee and an hour of Gurumin before another friend came by for lunch, Ikea and a little work on my car. Then the girlfriend wanted to get more ear piercings so I was drug to the mall (which I hate on the weekends). Well, that meant another hour of Gurumin as I waited.. and she rewarded me with a cool Tinkerbell cell phone charm that I immediately attached to the PSP. Then she went home.. it was six and I had amassed about four hours of Gurumin over my short bursts thus far. I got an invite to hang at a coffee shop for the night and I said, "Word, I might as well make this a goal." So I went, grabbed a beer (yes, at a coffee shop, it's still odd to me too) and went to task.. being interrupted once only to attend to a four player match of Bomberman on the DS (which I won). It was good.. I only had to repeat a level once to get all the gold medals, I only had to fight Black Bean twice.. and only because the first time I accidentally hit start twice when I went to use a shortcake leaving me open to take a lethal hit, and I managed to get the luck of the draw on my first match of stupid soccer.
I'll probably take a little Gurumin break.. but not for long because I need my groove at its best to tackle Crazy mode. I'll probably play a short run on Normal or Hard as Popon (sadly, she's not a damn bit different than Parin except for looks), both to see any dialog differences and to make sure I've got a max level night cap for Crazy mode (it seems like a wise choice considering the emphasis on critical hits).
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Mar 6, 2007 9:36:21 GMT -5
Hmm.. we still play it, even with familiarity of the levels. There's just plenty of opportunities to be a dick in that game to keep it fresh. There was a remake on the Xbox that was pretty awesome, it was the same game with 3D levels and FOUR players at the same time. There were some new traps and items too. It was a quite a good remake but I don't think it's well known. I seem to recall there being new modes too but we stuck with the classic game for the most part.
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Leroy
Zinoyd
I ♥ Gurumin!
Posts: 310
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Post by Leroy on Mar 6, 2007 9:41:30 GMT -5
Oh.. Boss Rush on Happy is giving me some mad anger. I've tried it close to ten times now.. I can usually make it to Tokaron with minimal hits and I usually get savaged there leaving me game over or starting Black Bean with minimum resources. The biggest problem I'm having is that your drill level goes down SO FAST in this mode and once at level 1 or 2 you do so little damage that it starts to get disenchanting once you're out of oils.
On yy last try I got Black Bean down to about 1/15th of his HP and just couldn't keep up with the sheer number of crap he throws at you at that point.
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Vert
Zinoyd
The Plucky Comic Relief
Posts: 294
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Post by Vert on Mar 24, 2007 10:37:26 GMT -5
Well, I can't testify to the game myself. But I know a fair number of people who have played it and, despite their normal dislike of cute games and RPGs in general, found it to be a blast. Certainly sounds like we have a winner!
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