Super Mario RPG (2023)

I definitely understand why this is such a culturally impactful game. The amount of soul and charm in the game are immense, I was smiling or laughing all throughout. The gameplay is a pretty great balance between simple and complicated, it might be a little too simple but I think that's fine. My only complaint is that I feel like the timing on some moves was a little weird, but it was very satisfying to get well timed attacks. The boss fights were all quite fun.

The game looks really pretty and the cutscenes are cool, but I do have slight problems. I think that Mario and Peach and to some extent Bowser just look really weird proportion wise, and because of that in cutscenes they just look off. My other complaint is that for a lot of areas that are like in a cave, only like the middle of the screen has the environemnt, and then the rest of the screen is just a black void. Similar to this, some rooms make it very obtuse where you have to actually go to get to the next screen, it only adds like 5-10 seconds, but the room transition locations are just not very good looking.

Story was nothing crazy but I didn't expect it to be, the characters that make up the story were great though. The one thing I will say is that I think the Smithy was not nearly as cool as a final boss that I thought he should have been, but all of the boss re-matches and the Culex fights make up for that. I think the game is a little short, especially if bought at the $60 starting price, I beat all the bosses and rematches in 12 hours, but I think for the $30 I got this game for, it was worth the price, and I had a really good time. High 8/10 for me.

Hope everyone has a great gaming weekend! I know I am, with Mario RPG, Mario Kart World, and Diablo 4. Very happy I'm using my Switch 2 a lot since release. There may not be many launch games, but I'm glad it's Mario Kart World, where I can play for hours at a time.

May your games be righteous!

If there was way to not go through the desert again I missed it and the journey up to Nimbus Land was annoying. "Platforming" in this game can be challenging to due camera angles (basically the fact that game is presented from an isometric viewpoint) and the lack of depth to the environment. As I have I said my other updates, I play this game for cute worldbuilding so an annoying section every now and then is tolerable.

Wallow is so oblivious. He is also possibly the most humble creature ever borne. Right now the game sits somewhere between 3 or 4 stars. I know that it is designed to be approachable for any level of player, but I still think they could have done more to translate the cuteness of the story into the combat. The process of writing updates each time I play helps me understand my thoughts on it more. I used to not understand why people wouldn't just do a review, but I totally get it now.

Just defeated the bomb boss in the mines.

First thing I beat was the boss with 4 eyes that looks like a dog. Watching it swallow Wallow was funny, but I expected that it would have more effect on the battle. Going down the river rapids after the water shoots you out of the sewers honestly felt like a bad mario party minigame. It short and mildly fun I guess. The frog music puzzle was neat and the reward you get from the frog coin shop is powerful (80 hp to party). Finally added Geno to the party. The best part about that was seeing the Triple Attack cutscene. All of the cutscenes in this game are animated so beautifully without looking entirely unlike the live gameplay. I died three times to the bomb boss. The timing for not getting hit by the bombs was so much earlier than expected. It felt fully necessary to hit these too as I only had one revive and one health item to heal the entire party at once aaaaand 2 unblocked hits is KO. I am jumping past some encounters so maybe I should stop doing that so much. Mine cart was slightly more engaging than the river but like its just ehh.

Currently navigating through the Keru Sewers after defeating the first major boss.

The music that plays in bowser's castle feels off somehow but that might just be related to my TV. The timing for the actions commands was somewhat earlier than expected but pretty easy to nail. To be honest, they felt very necessary to beat the first boss which I died to once. The game describes fast travel as jumping which I think is cute. The whole aesthetic is adorable and I love how this game, the link's awakening reboot, and echoes of wisdom all share a similar style. Mario explaining the situation via transformation into various characters will never not be funny. Battle music is great and hopefully won't become annoying in the future. I hope the game can maintain this level of cuteness and balanced challenge.