What?! It isn't amazing?!
But... but...
But it has Popple in it!
I remember finally picking this game after so long of wanting it, it took three years, but I finally managed to buy it, and man, what a blast. It was packed full of creativity, it was funny, it was entertaining and it was unique; what a great game... Looking back on it and after several attempts of relpaying it, I can't shake the feeling that I only felt that way 'cause this was my first experience with the series, and as time has passed, its flaws have become more and more apparent.
The combat is by far the best in the series, or at the very least on par with Bowser's Inside Story. It's feels like a natural extension of its older brothers: more snappy, more options, faster and with more interesting enemies; the Dream battles are a treat to play, giving a whole set of options even tho technically you only use one of the brothers, and the bosses in both the real and dream world make you use all of your options, make you think how to defeat them and their attack patterns and one of the most inspired in all the series. It's honestly amazing and... and sadly that's were my compliments with the game mostly end.
The fast pacing that went into the combat clearly didin't to the rest of the game. It's slow, very, very slow, the game's tutorial is infamously long and impossible to skip, but I wouldn't have as much as aproblem with it if it weren't because it just.
Keeps.
Going.
The plot and pace are constantly broken by these little tutorials to every minor thing; there's no moment of ''eureka!'' or a fast tutorial like in past games, everything has to be explained to its last details and it just feels dragged. I'll give it to them, they did implement a lot of mechanichs and little minigames, but it's the way they are implemented that creates conflict with the rest of the experience.
Pi'illo Island had SOOO much potential to be incredibly interesting, and while yeah, the isle itself it has some pretty novel ideas and some interesting areas, it's whith the dream world where they drop the ball. Is not as bad as what Partners in Time does, or rather doesn't do with its time travel mechanic, but it's still disappointing. Dreams are such a wild concept, and the way they could be used is almost limitless; instead, we get remixes of the afromentioned areas, where a character has a whacky costume or some minions that don't do much and only extend the lenght of the game with things to do. The beggining of the game has this incredible moment where it explores Luigi's pshyche, and the story of Dreambert and his people and the war against Antasme is pretty novel, but in the end , the game never explores the condition of a character in the slightiest ever again, and it uses the context of the story to give the player some context for the collectables.
The Giant Boss battles are... meh. More spectacular than the the ones in the previous game for sure, but they all feel VERY slow, and the only one I can call exciting is the last one, which admitedly is pretty good; and the puzzles feel much less inspired, even tho there are some amazing ideas here and there.
Dream Team has clearñy a ton of good ideas but doesn't have the courage to fully explore them, it chooses to prioritize quantity before quality, and it doesn't reach its fool potential because of it. It does a lot of mistakes for the sake of giving a striking experience, but it lacks the substance of its predeccesor.
It may be still VERY fun, but being fun or at least interesting is the bare minimun a game should be.
But... but...
But it has Popple in it!
I remember finally picking this game after so long of wanting it, it took three years, but I finally managed to buy it, and man, what a blast. It was packed full of creativity, it was funny, it was entertaining and it was unique; what a great game... Looking back on it and after several attempts of relpaying it, I can't shake the feeling that I only felt that way 'cause this was my first experience with the series, and as time has passed, its flaws have become more and more apparent.
The combat is by far the best in the series, or at the very least on par with Bowser's Inside Story. It's feels like a natural extension of its older brothers: more snappy, more options, faster and with more interesting enemies; the Dream battles are a treat to play, giving a whole set of options even tho technically you only use one of the brothers, and the bosses in both the real and dream world make you use all of your options, make you think how to defeat them and their attack patterns and one of the most inspired in all the series. It's honestly amazing and... and sadly that's were my compliments with the game mostly end.
The fast pacing that went into the combat clearly didin't to the rest of the game. It's slow, very, very slow, the game's tutorial is infamously long and impossible to skip, but I wouldn't have as much as aproblem with it if it weren't because it just.
Keeps.
Going.
The plot and pace are constantly broken by these little tutorials to every minor thing; there's no moment of ''eureka!'' or a fast tutorial like in past games, everything has to be explained to its last details and it just feels dragged. I'll give it to them, they did implement a lot of mechanichs and little minigames, but it's the way they are implemented that creates conflict with the rest of the experience.
Pi'illo Island had SOOO much potential to be incredibly interesting, and while yeah, the isle itself it has some pretty novel ideas and some interesting areas, it's whith the dream world where they drop the ball. Is not as bad as what Partners in Time does, or rather doesn't do with its time travel mechanic, but it's still disappointing. Dreams are such a wild concept, and the way they could be used is almost limitless; instead, we get remixes of the afromentioned areas, where a character has a whacky costume or some minions that don't do much and only extend the lenght of the game with things to do. The beggining of the game has this incredible moment where it explores Luigi's pshyche, and the story of Dreambert and his people and the war against Antasme is pretty novel, but in the end , the game never explores the condition of a character in the slightiest ever again, and it uses the context of the story to give the player some context for the collectables.
The Giant Boss battles are... meh. More spectacular than the the ones in the previous game for sure, but they all feel VERY slow, and the only one I can call exciting is the last one, which admitedly is pretty good; and the puzzles feel much less inspired, even tho there are some amazing ideas here and there.
Dream Team has clearñy a ton of good ideas but doesn't have the courage to fully explore them, it chooses to prioritize quantity before quality, and it doesn't reach its fool potential because of it. It does a lot of mistakes for the sake of giving a striking experience, but it lacks the substance of its predeccesor.
It may be still VERY fun, but being fun or at least interesting is the bare minimun a game should be.