The only Paper Mario games I've played were 64 and Sticker Star. One completely left my mind entirely after a few days of reaching the end, the other was an enjoyable if maybe overly simplistic RPG. I liked 64 a lot for what it is and have replayed more then once, yet it never quite gave me the same satisfaction as with other RPGs. It was fun, but didn't give me anything more then that. Bug Fables gave me more of what I was looking for.
Right off the bat, favorite part was easily the playable trio. Not only do they actually have story arcs, character development, and actual dialouge (I get why Mario in Paper Mario was mute but man Bug Fables not having any silent protagonists was so refreshing) but everyone has so much optional party conversations. Nearly every NPC or room in the game can allow the trio to converse with each other, and the amount of character this adds is fantastic. Dragon Quest does this too, but from I remember it was only one off remarks directed to the player, never back and forth conversations. There's a lot to learn about the protagonists which only endeared me to them more. If they weren't as half as charming as they were then I'd probably would have put the game down.
Not to say everything else was bad, not at all. I really like a lot of the alterations to the battle system compared to Paper Mario. Being able to exchange turns at the cost of damage gives a welcome amount of options to consider. Sometimes you may want to go all out with one character, or maybe you want to set up buffs and debuffs so the attack penalty might not be an issue. Helps that every one of the trio has a healthy amount of abilities they slowly unlock that allows for creative party setups. Though I will say, the setup I found worked maybe too good. Won't say what it is and it isn't foolproof (nor that hard to come up yourself) but with enough MP reserves it trivialized a lot of boss patterns and gimmicks. However, I do like the high difficulty of this game. I stuck mostly to hard mode and I really enjoyed being forced to give it my all, even in some random encounters. Not the hardest RPG out there, but it made me think which is more then enough for me.
This ain't some hard-core RPG though, it's cute, colorful, light hearted, yet mature enough to not talk down to you. A kid could enjoy this a lot (assuming they've at least played one other RPG, maybe a tad too hard for a first ever RPG but can't say for certain) as much as any adult can. I think the pacing of the last portions of the game kind of went way too quickly. It didn't fall at the finish line, moreso "Let's wrap this up now" kind of feeling. It took me 30 hours to get to that point, after doing a ton of optional side content, but I felt that last chapter could've had more to offer.
Still this was a lovely game and am glad to have played it after so long.
Right off the bat, favorite part was easily the playable trio. Not only do they actually have story arcs, character development, and actual dialouge (I get why Mario in Paper Mario was mute but man Bug Fables not having any silent protagonists was so refreshing) but everyone has so much optional party conversations. Nearly every NPC or room in the game can allow the trio to converse with each other, and the amount of character this adds is fantastic. Dragon Quest does this too, but from I remember it was only one off remarks directed to the player, never back and forth conversations. There's a lot to learn about the protagonists which only endeared me to them more. If they weren't as half as charming as they were then I'd probably would have put the game down.
Not to say everything else was bad, not at all. I really like a lot of the alterations to the battle system compared to Paper Mario. Being able to exchange turns at the cost of damage gives a welcome amount of options to consider. Sometimes you may want to go all out with one character, or maybe you want to set up buffs and debuffs so the attack penalty might not be an issue. Helps that every one of the trio has a healthy amount of abilities they slowly unlock that allows for creative party setups. Though I will say, the setup I found worked maybe too good. Won't say what it is and it isn't foolproof (nor that hard to come up yourself) but with enough MP reserves it trivialized a lot of boss patterns and gimmicks. However, I do like the high difficulty of this game. I stuck mostly to hard mode and I really enjoyed being forced to give it my all, even in some random encounters. Not the hardest RPG out there, but it made me think which is more then enough for me.
This ain't some hard-core RPG though, it's cute, colorful, light hearted, yet mature enough to not talk down to you. A kid could enjoy this a lot (assuming they've at least played one other RPG, maybe a tad too hard for a first ever RPG but can't say for certain) as much as any adult can. I think the pacing of the last portions of the game kind of went way too quickly. It didn't fall at the finish line, moreso "Let's wrap this up now" kind of feeling. It took me 30 hours to get to that point, after doing a ton of optional side content, but I felt that last chapter could've had more to offer.
Still this was a lovely game and am glad to have played it after so long.