Gurumin on PSP rocks!

[geise]

I'm very happy that this game made it state side.  Even though it's not the pc original it's nice to play it in english.  The voice acting is pretty good and fits most of the characters, and the framerate is pretty damn impressive for being on the psp.  It's also nice to know that Falcom actually developed it for psp and wasn't done by a different 3rd party company.  The load times are no where near as bad as Ys Napishtim when playing from the UMD, but they are there. (I dump it to iso and play off my memory stick)  I'm definitly glad I picked this up!  It's nice seeing some Falcom games in the states even though they are just psp ports.  I'll take anything Falcom if it's in English.  What does everyone else think of it that have played it on psp?

[Justus]

I only just started on it.  It's impressive how accurate a port it is.  It really feels the same as playing the PC version!  I have to disagree about the voice acting though.  It's not wonderful (or terrible), but kind of a mixed bag.  Parin's voice in particular really lacks dynamics.  I'm not saying it needs to be as wildly expressive as some English voice acting (and most Japanese acting), but there should be a little dynamic to it! 

I suppose that puts it ahead of the curve for most voice acting though.

[Psycho DeuceBag]

The voices seem okay so far... not spectacular, but I've definitely heard far worse.  I have a few issues with the translation, but oh well.  The camera is annoying as hell, though, but I'll get used to it in time, I'm sure.

[geise]

Yeah the reason I said the voice acting was pretty good was because I was basing it off of other games  I've played.  You know games from Working Designs, Grandia 1 (amazing game terrible voice acting), Ys Napishtim ps2, Last Alert, Valis II and III for Turbo Duo, Shining Force III  the list goes on haha.  I guess a reason I don't have a problem with the translation is I couldn't understand the japanese one since I don't read japanese.  Are there that many changes in the script/story or is pretty much the same?

[Justus]

And possibly the only reason Psycho DeuceBag and I are being picky about voice acting is because we've both attempted it before.

It's funny, but one of the reasons I wanted to try acting was to try to attain some tolerance for bad dubs.  I thought that maybe if I understood how difficult it was, I'd be more tolerant.  Oddly, it had the exact opposite effect and I'm now less tolerant than ever.

On another note, I'm getting further in the game and hearing more voices.  I'm still sticking to my original synopsis: it's a mixed bag.  A lot of the acting, per se, is decent.  But something else I hadn't thought of before leaps out at me: the characterization.  For instance, why does one mole brother have a country twang and the other an Italian accent?  I mean sure, OK, Doug is a "country mole" while his brother is a "city mole", but that doesn't explain why a pair of brothers raised in the same family environment would have two completely different accents.  Also, apropos or no, Roger's voice gets on my nerves.  OK fine, they had to make him sound like "Queer as Folk", but did it have to be THAT flamboyant?

All of that sounds like a negative attitude, and really this voice acting is indeed better than what I hear in a lot of games, ESPECIALLY cartoony games like this.

I'm not saying I like Working Designs' voice acting, but I think it's a little unfair to classify it in the same category as Valis or Shining Force III (favorite quote ".....TAAAAA?!?!?!?").  Actually, to be honest, I always rather liked the acting on Lunar 2, particularly closer to the end.

Also, they took the fuzzy nudity out of the healing point sequence....which really warrants a good hearty "LOL" more than anything else.

All in all, I think it's a rather amazing port.  The fact that Falcom themselves handled it really shows.  Some annoying framerate issues aside, it's remarkably accurate.  Even the analog stick seems to respond the way I want it to (this is the first PSP game I've ever played in which I REALLY felt able to use it)

[Philemon]

I know this game namely by name only, so I was wondering how is the gameplay? Is it action adventure-ish or more akin to the Legend of Heroes games? It also sounds like Gurumin's localization seems to be handled a lot better than the Legend of Heroes games on psp were 

[Justus]

Well for one thing, LoH on PSP was programmed by Bandai, and are VERY different from the originals on PC.  PSP Gurumin (as well as PSP LoH6) were both developed in-house by Falcom themselves, and are attempts at just being ports instead of re-inventions like Bandai's LoH.  And yes, Mastiff's localization is way better than Bandai's.  All "issues" aside, the English in Gurumin flows much better, and actually reads like English is supposed to, where Bandai's translation for LoH was horribly awkward sounding, and had many highly visible language errors (both grammatical and otherwise).

Gameplay-wise...honestly, it feels like a cross between Ys and Mario 64.  I'm having a blast with it.  I actually miss platformers.

[Philemon]

Wow sounds pretty interesting, I may have to pick this up as well in the near future  Thanks for the info.

[shades_of_blue]

I've been playing it on my PSP too, it's a very 'cute' title. So far I’ve only played it for 3hours or so and I’m enjoying every minute of it. When I picked it up, I was expecting a game similar to WindWacker, not a platformer. But I’m not complaining, just wasn’t what I had in mind when I originally saw the Japanese Falcom trailers for this game when it debuted on PC. Well, that and I never expected Falcom to release a platformer type game. The only complaint I have is that the camera angle gets messy at times. Too bad there’s no option to have a forced behind the person perspective view. So pick it up and show your friends, who will think your weird. But who cares what they think, the PSPs list of worthy games to own is slim is this is definitely one on that list.