Played this game with Supper's Unworked Designs patch. You can download it here.
I've wanted to play this game for some time. It was always one of those Sega CD games, that I would bring up to other people as an example of games that looked cool on the console. I would always think about playing it but I never would get around to it. It always felt like it existed in the future but never in the present for me, which is ironic because the game is like 30 years old lol. It feels weird to finally have played it. But enough about that I gotta talk about the gaaame. Did it meet my expectations?
I love this game, it reminded me a lot of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. They're both side-scrolling action games with a focus on adventure, killing monsters, finding weapons and shops, etc. But Wonder Boy III was more of a Metroidvania. Popful Mail is a lot more linear, you mostly go from set-piece to set-piece beating bosses without ever really returning to previous areas. There are a few times where you are asked to backtrack but they're brief and unchallenging.
I think the game on the whole is on the easier side, though it wasn't so easy that I would have taken WD's difficulty changes lol. There is a noticeable difficulty spike towards the end of the game where the game asks you to do precise platforming. It's kind of weird because the platforming in the final area is way more advanced than any of the stuff you have to do before that. Thankfully you can use one of the two other characters, both of which are a lot easier to platform with than Mail. I think Mail controlled a bit awkwardly in general, but I ended up liking the momentum she carried when jumping. It felt really cool to have to keep my momentum so I could dodge an enemy while I shot projectiles at them. I, unfortunately, didn't really use Tatto and Gaw outside of very specific instances, but that was more of a me thing. I think each of them brings enough to the table to find them preferable to Mail game-play-wise.
The story is what you would expect from a 90s fantasy anime. Evil Overlord wants to take over the world and you have to stop them. I think where this game really shines writing-wise is the characters. I love Mail! I love her so much! She's just such a me-core character. I love how crass she is and how mean she gets with the other characters. And I love that she is motivated entirely by greed. She's just a funny little gal and probably a new comfort character tbh. I think Tatto is a good balance to Mail's high energy, but I wish they had more interactions outside of the animated cutscenes. It kind of sucks that he just disappears from the dialogue once he's added to the party. It's cool that he and Gaw have their own dialogue for cut-scenes if you play as them, but I just prefer Mail so it feels like they kind of disappear from the story mid-game. The characters Mail and Co. meet on their journey are all relatively funny and memorable. Slick has some of the funniest dialogue in the game by far and his English VA really kills it.
In fact, the voice acting is pretty good for a dub from the 90s. Mail and Slick probably have the best performances, but there weren't any voices I hated. Maybe because the story doesn't take itself too seriously, I can accept the goofier voices. Well, the script doesn't take itself too seriously in the English version at least. WD is a pretty infamous localization group and are known for being pretty liberal with their changes to the gameplay and scripts of the games they brought over. I've heard from people who have played both the original translation and the WD version that the original was already comedic in tone, so the way Popful Mail was handled doesn't bother me as much. But I know some others may feel differently and that's understandable. Thankfully, if the voices really annoy you, you can turn them off. I would like to play the game in its original language whenever I buckle down and finally get to learning Japanese (another future goal related to this game lol).
Would like to play the Super Famicom version of this someday since I hear that version has a different story, but for now, I'm glad to say I finally played Popful Mail.
I've wanted to play this game for some time. It was always one of those Sega CD games, that I would bring up to other people as an example of games that looked cool on the console. I would always think about playing it but I never would get around to it. It always felt like it existed in the future but never in the present for me, which is ironic because the game is like 30 years old lol. It feels weird to finally have played it. But enough about that I gotta talk about the gaaame. Did it meet my expectations?
I love this game, it reminded me a lot of Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. They're both side-scrolling action games with a focus on adventure, killing monsters, finding weapons and shops, etc. But Wonder Boy III was more of a Metroidvania. Popful Mail is a lot more linear, you mostly go from set-piece to set-piece beating bosses without ever really returning to previous areas. There are a few times where you are asked to backtrack but they're brief and unchallenging.
I think the game on the whole is on the easier side, though it wasn't so easy that I would have taken WD's difficulty changes lol. There is a noticeable difficulty spike towards the end of the game where the game asks you to do precise platforming. It's kind of weird because the platforming in the final area is way more advanced than any of the stuff you have to do before that. Thankfully you can use one of the two other characters, both of which are a lot easier to platform with than Mail. I think Mail controlled a bit awkwardly in general, but I ended up liking the momentum she carried when jumping. It felt really cool to have to keep my momentum so I could dodge an enemy while I shot projectiles at them. I, unfortunately, didn't really use Tatto and Gaw outside of very specific instances, but that was more of a me thing. I think each of them brings enough to the table to find them preferable to Mail game-play-wise.
The story is what you would expect from a 90s fantasy anime. Evil Overlord wants to take over the world and you have to stop them. I think where this game really shines writing-wise is the characters. I love Mail! I love her so much! She's just such a me-core character. I love how crass she is and how mean she gets with the other characters. And I love that she is motivated entirely by greed. She's just a funny little gal and probably a new comfort character tbh. I think Tatto is a good balance to Mail's high energy, but I wish they had more interactions outside of the animated cutscenes. It kind of sucks that he just disappears from the dialogue once he's added to the party. It's cool that he and Gaw have their own dialogue for cut-scenes if you play as them, but I just prefer Mail so it feels like they kind of disappear from the story mid-game. The characters Mail and Co. meet on their journey are all relatively funny and memorable. Slick has some of the funniest dialogue in the game by far and his English VA really kills it.
In fact, the voice acting is pretty good for a dub from the 90s. Mail and Slick probably have the best performances, but there weren't any voices I hated. Maybe because the story doesn't take itself too seriously, I can accept the goofier voices. Well, the script doesn't take itself too seriously in the English version at least. WD is a pretty infamous localization group and are known for being pretty liberal with their changes to the gameplay and scripts of the games they brought over. I've heard from people who have played both the original translation and the WD version that the original was already comedic in tone, so the way Popful Mail was handled doesn't bother me as much. But I know some others may feel differently and that's understandable. Thankfully, if the voices really annoy you, you can turn them off. I would like to play the game in its original language whenever I buckle down and finally get to learning Japanese (another future goal related to this game lol).
Would like to play the Super Famicom version of this someday since I hear that version has a different story, but for now, I'm glad to say I finally played Popful Mail.