I always feel a little bad about comparing indie games to their influences, but this game is so aggressively "classic Paper Mario" that it's kind of impossible not to.
That said... it holds up pretty well against classic Paper Mario! There's just a lot to love here - the world is charming, the characters are charming, the art style is charming, it's just a good time all around. That's married with a surprisingly good amount of content (it took about 40 hours for me to clear, doing most sidequests along the way) and a battle system that lets you do some really fun builds once you get far enough in the game.
It's not perfect, though - the "once you get far enough in the game" is doing a ton of heavy lifting in that last sentence. Up until about the halfway point I was feeling pretty battered by the game's strict economy; even a regular battle can take a ton of time and resources, so healing is paramount, but free heals are few and far between, and items are costly enough and money scarce enough that I was always scrambling to stay afloat. Most of the game's interesting build options also don't show up until about halfway through, and then you're limited by how many points you've put into medal capacity. Eventually I found my feet and had a pretty good time with the battles, but I don't blame people who tap out before that.
I do wish the quest and level design was a bit stronger. A lot of sidequests in this game are about running all over the world, and while fast travel options eventually open up that still means a lot of time spent walking through the same few towns and dungeons. And speaking of dungeons, this game is big into environmental puzzles based on positioning and using your overworld abilities, a la Golden Sun... but when everything is paper-styled and there's limited indication of where you're actually facing, it can get real frustrating real quick. There's one puzzle room in the last dungeon that had me gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter, because it was clear the devs had wanted a puzzle that required all three characters' abilities but the result was a frustrating, slow mess where I was fighting the controls and collision detection all the way.
"Wow that's a lot of negatives" you might be saying about now and honestly yeah, but I still think this game is worth it. It's just a solid, fun indie RPG and while it's got its share of headaches, they were never damning for me. Ultimately the joy of this world and the strengths of the gameplay well outweighed the frustration. Strongly recommended.
That said... it holds up pretty well against classic Paper Mario! There's just a lot to love here - the world is charming, the characters are charming, the art style is charming, it's just a good time all around. That's married with a surprisingly good amount of content (it took about 40 hours for me to clear, doing most sidequests along the way) and a battle system that lets you do some really fun builds once you get far enough in the game.
It's not perfect, though - the "once you get far enough in the game" is doing a ton of heavy lifting in that last sentence. Up until about the halfway point I was feeling pretty battered by the game's strict economy; even a regular battle can take a ton of time and resources, so healing is paramount, but free heals are few and far between, and items are costly enough and money scarce enough that I was always scrambling to stay afloat. Most of the game's interesting build options also don't show up until about halfway through, and then you're limited by how many points you've put into medal capacity. Eventually I found my feet and had a pretty good time with the battles, but I don't blame people who tap out before that.
I do wish the quest and level design was a bit stronger. A lot of sidequests in this game are about running all over the world, and while fast travel options eventually open up that still means a lot of time spent walking through the same few towns and dungeons. And speaking of dungeons, this game is big into environmental puzzles based on positioning and using your overworld abilities, a la Golden Sun... but when everything is paper-styled and there's limited indication of where you're actually facing, it can get real frustrating real quick. There's one puzzle room in the last dungeon that had me gritting my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter, because it was clear the devs had wanted a puzzle that required all three characters' abilities but the result was a frustrating, slow mess where I was fighting the controls and collision detection all the way.
"Wow that's a lot of negatives" you might be saying about now and honestly yeah, but I still think this game is worth it. It's just a solid, fun indie RPG and while it's got its share of headaches, they were never damning for me. Ultimately the joy of this world and the strengths of the gameplay well outweighed the frustration. Strongly recommended.