The Steam page description starts with the word ‘unforgiving’. That choice of wording is light compared to what this game throws at you. And I’m sure you sickos out there who loved being tortured by games and taking on impossible odds are going to love every minute of this insanity.
Gurei from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio is simple in its construction as it is in its intention. It wants to rage-bait players hard with its seemingly impossible difficulty and lack of adjustments to said difficulty. It wants players to earn every inch of progression, but in the end it’s worth a go.
The construction of Gurei is simple – it’s a button-mashing, sword-swiping, pattern-oriented style of gameplay driven by its boss rush personality. There is no sentence more accurate than the one I just typed. Honestly, its simplicity is what makes the boss-rushing gameplay so welcoming.
The game simply sets the main character up to help take down bosses that have been possessed and lost their way. It’s side-scrolling, precise button-mashing action that gradually, if not proudly, gets more difficult as players take down each baddie. Literally, the game just lets players do their thing and do it in any order they see fit. The bosses are scattered across the somewhat girthy level, sometimes hiding in caves, and the player can go after any boss they choose at any time. For example, when played the first time, the player can go after a frog that controls spiders. It’s one of the easiest bosses to take down. Should they choose to go after the peacock boss, they can go that route first. Regardless of preference, the player can simply choose to fight in any order they see fit. BUT! There is a catch.
While player agency is thick in boss choice, the bosses are guaranteed to become gradually more difficult as the player progresses. This means that if you save the frog boss until last, then you’re in for a rough time in comparison to taking them down first. The bosses get more complicated and more dangerous as they find themselves at the end of the order, which means players will be forced to strategize how they’re going to approach fights. For me, my co-player on this review was Will Silberman, who recommended starting with the monkey boss first. I didn’t understand why that was important until I was four bosses in and then fought the monkey boss. It was brutal, as the boss had scaled health and was far more powerful, with devastating moves, than if I had put him first on the list.
Regardless of the boss order, the fact that the game gives players that much freedom is outstanding, and the way it gradually makes the journey more difficult is impressive as hell. It makes the player think about order of operations rather than just mashing buttons. It means it’s more than just a normal boss rush game. It’s deeper than that, and its player agency makes it far more complex than the simplest of gameplay constructs. Even during my most miserable moments of the game, I still had a lot of respect for its complicated simplicity.
To help that complicated simplicity (fancy use of two words), the game’s controls are easy to understand and also gradually grow with the difficulty. When the player begins the game, it’s just jump, bounce off walls/ledges, and attack. As each boss is taken down, the player gains an ability from that specific boss that adds more depth to the controls. For example, when taking down the catfish in the game (I know, right?), the player will gain the use of a temporary shield in battle. That shield comes in mighty handy when going up against the beetle boss swordsman. Blocking those quick attacks with the shield helps to deflect what would be tough blows in battle. Over time, the shield will crack and break during a fight, and it doesn’t return until the fight is over, but it’s an added element of motivation to power through incredibly challenging fights in the game.
To add more balance to gaining abilities in the game to make fights a bit more manageable, the game throws in a caveat. That caveat is that the player gets three chances to progress. If they don’t progress in those three chances, then the game is over, and they have to start all the way over again. Yes, this is where the word ‘unforgiving’ comes into play. There is no saving and returning to a specific point in the game. There is no turning down the game’s difficulty, and making life easier would only shorten the gameplay. There is none of that involved in the gameplay. It’s either win or lose, with no real in between.
Okay, there is a small in between.
The game will give any one of the three loss marks back to the player if they defeat a boss. This means that if the player is down to their last chance and they take down a boss, they get one more chance added to the overall count. If a second boss is defeated after that additional chance, they regain another chance. Success breeds chances, but chances get tougher to keep as the player progresses through the 10 bosses the game throws at them. It’s a good balance, making earning the defeat of a boss doubly worth the trouble.
Now, the only blemish I see on this game is the lack of adjusting its difficulty. What can I say? I’m old. My gaming ain’t as good as it used to be, and being nimble enough to adjust to each boss is a true uphill battle. Don’t worry, young folks, you’re going to get to that age one day when you have to tone down the difficulty to enjoy the gameplay. Anyway, back to the point, while I understand the difficulty of this boss rush game is meant to drive the gameplay, I would have enjoyed the option to scale it back a bit just to see all the bosses and complete the game (spoiler alert – I suck at this game, but enjoyed the process). It’s tough when you’re old and trying to up your own ante to react more quickly and effectively to changing difficulty and boss patterns. It just is. All this said, I know this was built for younger gamers with faster skills than mine who are up for such a difficulty challenge. In that respect, I think they’re going to love it.
Overall, Gurei is a simple game in concept and execution, but its variable player agency and gradual difficulty make it pleasantly complicated. It is a balanced game with a good challenge to offer players who enjoy this type of torture. It’s also one of the prettiest that I have seen in this genre (very black/white, comic-book-esque). Anyway, it’s worth a go, and I strongly recommend it.
Conclusion
Gurei, from developer Lobo Sagaz Studio, is an incredibly challenging and unforgiving boss-rush game that takes pride in its gameplay simplicity while also offering complex strategy and a hefty amount of difficulty. It will properly rage-bait players, but in the nicest of ways.
