I’ve been a gamer for over 20 years. I have been playing video games since I was four years old. In my time I’ve played hundreds of sidescrollers. From Streets of Rage, to Ninja Gaiden, more recently it was Shinobi and Blasphemous. I love these kinds of games, so it was a real shame that I didn’t enjoy Gurei. Gurei, is a sidescroller action platformer much like Shinobi, or Blasphemous, but the difference between the games I liked and Gurei, is that Gurei is a boss rush and I believe that’s where my problems lie.
Good Gameplay Bogged down by Bad Bosses
it took me roughly 2 or 3 hours to beat all 10 Kami, I did really enjoy some of the side content and I also really like that you gain the Kami’s skill once you beat them. My main issue with Gurei is what makes it unique. You can choose which boss you want to fight first out of the 10 and each boss you beat the next one gets harder. On paper this sounds really cool, but in practice it makes the first boss that you fight feel weak. No matter which boss you choose to fight first they will all be far too easy. I believe a way to fix this would be to give the bosses all of their attacks instead of cutting them down to just one or two.
Great Side Characters and Good Use of Techniques
Aside from the changes I would make to the early bosses like I mentioned above, I loved the side content. There are several characters you can meet throughout the game. Most of them need a specific power before you can help them with their problems. For instance, there is an old man dog spirit and he complains his back aches. You can see that he has a folding fan lodged in his back, but whenever you try to get behind him he will turn to meet your eye. After beating the monkey kami who is clearly based on Sun Wukong, you get a clone that is used to cause a distraction. You can use this to help the old man with his problem. I like the problem solving these side objectives and I wished there was more throughout the game.
Servicable Story and Good Characterization
While I wasn’t a big fan of the boss fights, I was a big fan of the bosses personalities. From the design, to their banter, you can understand what kind of person the Kami is just by looking. My personal favorite is the monkey Kami or the Beetle Kami. I especially enjoyed their dialouge with the other kami and the characters you help in between bosses. The story isn’t anything special from what I could tell. It’s servicable and can be interesting depending on who you are, but I didn’t enjoy it much myself. There is a cloaked figure who offers to keep your spirit alive as you fight the kami. This is a clever way to explain why you have limited lives and implants a trust in the shadowed figure despite him clearly having ulterior motives.
Player Character and Her Struggles
The further you progress in Gurei, the more you learn about the main character. You learn her struggles and her reason for fighting. You can also learn more about her through helping the various spirits throughout the level as well. Out of everything in the game the Player Character was the most interesting to me. I believe that’s by design, you start the game knowing nothing which automatically makes you intrigued in the world and the characters. In that way the game succeeded I was very interested in learning more when I first started playing.
Conclusions
I enjoyed this games combat, I enjoyed the side characters and I enjoyed the Kami and their personalities. As a whole package though I just can’t bring myself to recommend Gurei. The bosses never get hard enough to justify the early bosses being so easy and the game is just too short for the 20 dollar price tag. I do think there are people out there who would love this game and I can’t fault them. It was fun and engaging, the story is ok and the freedom of choosing bosses is a good idea. It just is not a game for me and that sucks because as I mentioned I love sidescrollers and I was really looking forward to this game.
