I've finally got around to beating the second Mario & Luigi game proper, and while it was a very slow start compared to how fast I binged the Superstar Saga remake, I mostly enjoyed my time with it!

One thing I will have to give PiT over most other Mario RPGs is how unique it is story wise (even within the M&L series). Honestly I think it could be argued that this is the darkest Mario game easily, even moreso than Super Paper Mario. The Shroobs unlike most Mario villains feel like an actually serious threat who won't hesitate to eradicate all life in the Mushroom Kingdom, and manage to almost irreversibly turn anyone that stands against them into non-sentient mushrooms, practically killing them. It's made even more creepy by the fact they try to take over and kill Baby Peach's kingdom, along with all the other adorable tykes. I think it's also worth noting that the much tougher difficulty of the game compared to any other game within the M&L series, as well as the game's DS era artstyle really lend themselves well to supporting this grim tone that hangs over the entire game. As much as I know people want a remake of this game, I honestly feel like it holds up well enough by today's standards (albeit, for an older audience). Not to mention, given the trends we saw in the Superstar Saga and Bowser's Inside Story's remakes, they would've likely used the 3DS Era Artstyle and have made the game much more easy, which wouldn't have fit Partners in Time's narrative nearly as well, even if it's more accessible for RPG newcomers.

Sadly, a darker take on a Mario story like this is something I feel we'll likely never see again in the modern day, SPM was the last real outing Nintendo permitted for even the spinoffs in this regard.

That said, while I think the story is definitely more interesting than the norm given the darker tone, along with really interesting concepts like the babies working with their adult selves, time travel, and just the overall narrative in general, I do feel that because Mario can only go so far into dark territory before Nintendo pulls the leash to reign it in, the story itself is limited in what it can explore as a result. Unfortunate, but it's to be expected, and I feel Mario typically is better suited for all ages/children in general, as Nintendo has other IPs better suited to more mature story telling such as Metroid and Zelda. Still, if we happen to get another RPG like this if say, Square's Mario RPG happens to get a sequel following its recent remake, I wouldn't be opposed. I feel like Square Enix's involvement could help push the envelope for a darker Mario RPG to go further in the same way that Super Paper Mario's story did.

The soundtrack ironically I feel is one of Yoko Shimomura's weaker works. While there are definitely some standout tracks such as Thwomp Volcano and the final boss themes, I found that it was a lot more forgettable to me compared to Superstar Saga's songs which I still remember a lot of fondly.

The gameplay is where things get a little more divisive for me. As I said before, I think the tougher gameplay lends itself well to the overall tone the game is going for. The combat has more depth to it that usual and has a much higher skill ceiling to master due to the fact you have 4 Bros. to work with, and juggling Bros. Attacks between them all can be really tough if you want to do the most damage possible. I welcome the challenge, though it definitely tripped me up a lot and I'm not as good at this game as I am other M&Ls as a result, but I'm sure other people really love that aspect of this game and have managed to master it.

That said, my one gripe with the gameplay (which is also the main reason why I like Superstar Saga's remake a decent bit more than this entry), is that a lot of the fights take forever as a result of the harder difficulty. I get that HP and stuff was upped across the board due to the fact you can do more damage with the Babies helping you, and I don't mind boss fights taking awhile to beat as a result of said challenge, but so many of the normal mob enemy fights take so long and made the pacing grind to a halt for me a lot throughout the game. It'd really halt my progress and make me feel like the pacing turned into a lot of stop and go on a moment's notice, and that really annoys me in RPGs. Mario & Luigi (and most Mario RPGs) are usually well known for the solid brisk pace their games have that keeps things rolling in a nice smooth flow that you can pick up and put down at any time for either a short fun session or longer binge ones, but this game really doesn't have that due to its difficulty.

The one saving grace of this gripe I have though, is that this game is much shorter than the series norm as a result, which made the pacing issue not nearly as bad as it could've been. Honestly, given how surprisingly short the game is, I'm pretty convinced part of the reason the difficulty was upped is specifically to pad out the length, much in the same vein as what NES games would do.

That said, it's pretty clear even the developers felt they went too far, hence why the European and Japanese versions of the game rebalanced things and toned down the HP of a lot of enemies to fix the difficulty. I ended up switching to the Euro version myself around the time I got to the desert area, and it made a big difference, really glad I did that. Thankfully my save file was compatible with it too, so I didn't have to restart.

The final boss was still pretty tough and took a good while even despite the fact they shaved off half its health from the original version of the game, so that was definitely a good move on the developers part. I also like that while the final boss reuses moves from Superstar Saga's final boss such as the spinning arms and you needing to destroy all of its limbs in order to make the head vulnerable so you can defeat the boss, the developers learned from the problems with SS's final boss and made it so the head stays vulnerable for a decently long amount of turns before it becomes invincible again. SS's final boss had the problem of having the head be vulnerable for way too short of time for you to damage it much, so that was greatly appreciated.

I also really liked how the post final boss fight has a really unique concept I haven't seen done in another Mario & Luigi game surprisingly. Making it so the Bros. can only counterattack to stop the boss and needing to land a certain number of hits to do so was really interesting, and I wish this would've been done in more Mario RPGs going forward, it's a really unique idea.

And honestly, that feels like the true claim to fame for this game. Partners in Time in many ways feels like one of the most unique and different Mario RPGs, and in mostly good ways! I really respect what AlphaDream did here trying to push the envelope on what could be done in this genre with Mario, and I wish we'd see more creative titles like this from Nintendo in terms of being more risky with Mario's IP. I think that there's a good chance we could see this should Mario RPG get greenlit to have more sequels hopefully, but only time will tell if that hopefully comes to pass. Overall, another great game from the series, and I look forward to revisiting my childhood favorite, Bowser's Inside Story, in the future!

Total Playtime: 17 hours, 56 minutes.