This is only my second Mario RPG, but I can already tell I'll love this whole series, since they are so damn comfy.
Two things already stand out to me: they compensate the simplified battle mechanics with an overworld that is far more involved and interactive than the average of the genre. I really liked using all the overworld abilities to traverse through the dungeons (the final one in particular was a joy), even if I do share the common criticism of sometimes cumbersome controls.
And the other thing is, it's absolutely impossible to have an engaging/"serious" plot in the Mario universe, and I'm so glad they don't even try (Sega, take notes). Instead, they crank the charm up to eleven and double down on the humor, and I end up playing the game with a goofy smile nearly the whole time.
I mostly don't enjoy the occasional mandatory minigame though. It's not the minigame themselves that bother me, it's the fact that some of them have a time limit. That barrel minigame was fairly miserable to me, why a time limit?
The bosses were a highlight to me however, they managed to make every fight feel unique, and that actually is also true for the standard enemies - since they have a huge pool of characters to use from this franchise, the sheer variety of common enemies is staggering, and I thought using stuff like the Dr. Mario viruses and making them all die instantly if you match their colors was incredibly clever.
Then we have the final boss, what the fuck happened there. His HP is gigantic and he's crazy punishing. The weak point isn't exposed through most of the fight, so you spend 80% of the battle killing his "non-vital" body parts over and over, all while they attack with some tricky as fuck attacks. You died? Go back to the 1st phase of the fight, asshole.
Hell, when the 2nd phase begins, the Bros. have 1 (ONE) HP left, and you're up against a boss you don't know, with attacks you've never seen, making it effectively a beginner's trap. The spinning arms thing was the bane of my existence for example.
Bizarre difficulty spike and the occasional padding aside, I really enjoyed this one, and am really looking forward to the other Mario RPGs. I think I have like five games to look forward to, hooray!
Two things already stand out to me: they compensate the simplified battle mechanics with an overworld that is far more involved and interactive than the average of the genre. I really liked using all the overworld abilities to traverse through the dungeons (the final one in particular was a joy), even if I do share the common criticism of sometimes cumbersome controls.
And the other thing is, it's absolutely impossible to have an engaging/"serious" plot in the Mario universe, and I'm so glad they don't even try (Sega, take notes). Instead, they crank the charm up to eleven and double down on the humor, and I end up playing the game with a goofy smile nearly the whole time.
I mostly don't enjoy the occasional mandatory minigame though. It's not the minigame themselves that bother me, it's the fact that some of them have a time limit. That barrel minigame was fairly miserable to me, why a time limit?
The bosses were a highlight to me however, they managed to make every fight feel unique, and that actually is also true for the standard enemies - since they have a huge pool of characters to use from this franchise, the sheer variety of common enemies is staggering, and I thought using stuff like the Dr. Mario viruses and making them all die instantly if you match their colors was incredibly clever.
Then we have the final boss, what the fuck happened there. His HP is gigantic and he's crazy punishing. The weak point isn't exposed through most of the fight, so you spend 80% of the battle killing his "non-vital" body parts over and over, all while they attack with some tricky as fuck attacks. You died? Go back to the 1st phase of the fight, asshole.
Hell, when the 2nd phase begins, the Bros. have 1 (ONE) HP left, and you're up against a boss you don't know, with attacks you've never seen, making it effectively a beginner's trap. The spinning arms thing was the bane of my existence for example.
Bizarre difficulty spike and the occasional padding aside, I really enjoyed this one, and am really looking forward to the other Mario RPGs. I think I have like five games to look forward to, hooray!
Reviewed on Apr 29, 2023