The fourth game in the Mario & Luigi series is, like every other game in the series, incredible. Once again developed by AlphaDream with some help from NextLevelGames, it arrived on the 3DS in 2013. Sticking to the standard formula, what it adds is great. The game has the same highs as every other game in the series, but it's lows are something completely different.
Taking place on a neighboring Pi'illo Island, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Starlow find themselves on an island resort that has a deep history with dreams. Stumbling upon these stone-like pillows, Mario and Luigi free them from their current state, one of which happens to be Prince Dreambert, who informs them of the history of the island. An evil Pi'illo named Antasma once sought out to collect the Nightmare and Dream Stones, two objects that allow the holder to bend reality in whatever way they please. This is obviously bad, and now that Antasma has returned and teamed up with Bowser, Mario and Luigi are given the task of taking them both down. The big gimmick is obviously the emphasis on dreams. Luigi quickly finds out that he's a better sleeper than Mario, which allows him to sleep on Pi'illo folk to open up a portal to the Dream World. This radically changes both overworld movements and battles, but more on that later.
Another simple story, once again with a great cast of characters and sharp writing. The setting is truly it's own unique island experience. Pi'illo Island feels like it's own interesting place with its own history, habitants, and customs. The music plays a big part in this as well, giving off a more "dreamy" vibe. This goes hand and hand with the visuals, which are obviously great. Lots of backgrounds can seem like just colors thrown together everywhere, but they're honestly some of the best looking backgrounds I've seen in a video game, it's all pure eye candy.
The characters that make up this island are all great. Dreambert is a pretty standard but fun sidekick. I wish I could say I liked Antasma more, but he was also pretty standard. He had an interesting backstory, but was given as much screen time as Bowser who stole the show in almost every scene he was in. He fell pretty flat when he only felt like a tool for Bowser to use, much like the Dark Star for Fawful in the previous title. The main difference there is that the Dark Star is just an evil, sentient star, and is literally a tool for Fawful to use. Antasma probably could've been a strong main antagonist, but I guess he's fine as a secondary antagonist. Other side characters are also a delight to talk to. Brickle and Britta the construction workers get easily worked up, which causes some funny interactions. Bedsmith constantly remarks how he wants to "nap on you" which I can only assume is the Pi'illo version of sex. Kamek and the Elite Trio from the previous title get much more screen time, and Popple even makes a brief reappearance. The crown jewel in this game for me has to be the Massif Bros., two incredibly buff Hoohooligans that constantly talk about beef. They're two of the funniest characters in the series, and make an otherwise boring and lengthy mountain climb pretty enjoyable.
The base founded by Superstar Saga in terms of gameplay is here, where it's arguably the most well refined. Starting with the overworld movement, you have the standard fare here. Mini Mario, spin jump, underground drill, and the high jump are all here. One new addition with the sideways drill, it's basically a spin jump with less distance but you can break through rocks. These are all very standard, but they get really shaken up in the Dream World. None of your basic actions are available except your jump and hammer. What's new is the ability for Luigi to transform into part of the background and change the environment as a Luiginary Work. You can't do these whenever you want, there's an indicator for when you can, which does limit it's utility to the puzzles specifically designed for them, however, I feel like that's fine. There's almost always a Luiginary Work available when you enter the Dream World, either to save a single Pi'illo, or to go to an entirely new area.
There are two different kinds of Luiginary Works. The first kind has no specific name, it's just a Luiginary Work. Luigi transforms into a part of the background. You can interact with a sleeping Luigi on the bottom screen to get them to work. These are used in some puzzles unique to how the Luiginary Work changes the environment. Some of these include, changing the temperature to freeze water or melt ice, a huge fan to create a giant gust of wind and push you against walls and allow you to climb up them, changing gravity so you can walk on walls and ceilings, completely removing gravity and letting you swim in midair, and so on and so forth. The second kind, and much more common one, is the Luiginoid Formation. This creates a bunch of Luigi's, which you can command to turn into a stack, cone, or ball. Each of these has a few different moves you can utilize, making it more similar to normal overworld functions. These are all pretty great, they help the Dream World stand out from the normal world and give it a greater sense of purpose. These new overworld transformations aren't the only way the Dream World and normal world differ, they also have their own battle mechanics.
The rules of battle in the normal world are pretty similar to past games. You can attack by jumping, using your hammer, or using a Bros. Attack. This time around, instead of sharing Bros. Attacks, Mario and Luigi each have their own set of five unique attacks. This doesn't change much if you never upgrade your speed stats like most players. Mario's attacks are more specialized in area damage while Luigi's are focussed on bigger damage to a single target, you'll be entering every battle with Mario acting first, so if that's a normal battle, you can get it over with easily with an area attack, and if it's a boss, it doesn't matter since Luigi will be attacking right after. There is an extra Bros. Attack you can obtain with a sidequest, but we'll get to that. Nothing much new on offense except the new and fun Bros. Attacks, but there's a lot more to say about defense.
In past games, you would simply stay stationary while the enemy attacked you, jumping or using your hammer to defend yourself. The enemy attack variety is expanded greatly, with new ways you need to defend yourself. In the normal world, you'll mainly only be seeing the chase sequence attacks, where Mario and Luigi run towards the screen from an onslaught of attacks. There are many other ones unique to specific bosses and enemies. Some bosses like Mammoshka and Pi'illodium with attack from the background by shooting projectiles at you, the Wiggler battle has Popple changing how fast you can dodge, Dreamy Bowser will summon an airship to chase Luigi meaning you have to dodge the airship's fireballs as Luigi while simultaneously taking out the Shy Guy's on top as Mario, etc. To put it simply, the defense is much more engaging due to a wider variety of enemy attacks.
The Dream World takes all of this and adds so much more. You only play as one of the bros, Mario, as Luigi is now a dream-powered being who powers up Mario in all of his attacks. His jump has many Luigi's following suit after, and his hammer attack does area damage thanks to Luigi joining in. Bros. Attacks are replaced with Luiginary Attacks, where a group of Luigi's form something to attack, similar to a Luiginoid Formation. Although the variety of the attacks is appreciated, and it's interesting to see the different ways in which all the Luigis can attack together, you'll usually only be using 2-3 attacks the entire game. The Luiginary Ball is great and is one of your best tools for area damage. Other than that, you'll just be using whatever your strongest attack is at the moment. My personal favorite is the Luiginary Wall, where a bunch of Luigi's form a ring with one in the center wielding a hammer. Mario then hits Luigi across the way and has to bounce Luigi back at the enemies until they all form one giant wall and fall on the current enemy.
GIANT BATTLES ARE BACK! Giant Battles are the coolest thing in almost any video game ever and you can't convince me otherwise. In the face of an unstoppable enemy, Luigi will grow in size and confront them head on. Once the battle starts, you rotate your 3DS sideways and pull out your stylus. These battles use 3D models which look great. The music track during these fights is my favorite track in the whole game. The great use of drums immerses you in the game and really makes it feel like a giant battle.
Like the giant battles in Bowser's Inside Story, your arsenal is far more limited than normal battles. You have a jump, a sideways and upwards hammer swing, and two Bros. Attacks: one where Mario heals Luigi by throwing mushrooms in his mouth, and one where both of the bros spin and jump on the enemy. They make great use of what little you have to work with. The upwards and sideways hammer swings hit different parts of the enemy and likewise send them in different directions. You can use this to your advantage if there's a hazard behind or next to the enemy that you can knock them into for more damage. In fact, one of these battles is all about using the upwards hammer swing to knock the opponent back far enough to where they fall into water and then you barrage them with a flurry of hammer swings. The final of these fights, Bowser, puts everything you know to the test and then some. You have to knock him into lava beside him. Then when he blocks that off, you knock him backwards onto a grate. Once he's on the grate, you can jump on his head and cause the grate to break, putting him back in the lava. These battles all use Luigi's moveset really well, and they all build off of each other. I'm hesitant to say that they're better than the ones in Bowser's Inside Story just because I love that game with all my heart, but it's definitely close.
A neat little detail I appreciate with these fights is Luigi's confidence over time. Before the first two battles, Luigi only grows because he's scared and it's a last resort option. However, moving onto the Zeekeeper battle, Luigi willingly grows to save Mario. Before the last Bowser battle, he has the most badass and confident look on his face. It gets a big grin out of me every time.
While all of the gameplay elements are fine and dandy, there is one aspect that really drags the rest of the game down due to it's significantly lower quality: the story. Actually, I'm hesitant to say the story itself is bad, because it does what it needs to do. However, what comes with the story is the locations you have to go to, the enemies you have to fight, etc. And this story drags and drags and drags until it's all worn out and offers literally nothing but the final boss. Before it gets bad, it's rather pleasant and nice. It's a Mario game, why wouldn't it be?
Although I touched on the story briefly earlier, I'll talk more specifics here. Mario, Luigi, and a few others are invited to Pi'illo Island. Upon arrival, Mario and Luigi are thrust into the underground caverns of Pi'illo Castle, just looking to explore. They stumble upon a pillow, which when slept upon, turns them into a living being. As it turns out, the pillow they discovered is the long forgotten Prince Dreambert. He explains that long ago, an evil Pi'illo named Antasma sought out ancient artifacts called the Dream Stone and the Nightmare Stone. These two stones grant whoever holds them the power to conjure whatever they wish, even if they only have one.
Now that Prince Dreambert has awoken, Antasma awakens similarly. So, while Mario and Luigi team up with Dreambert, Antasma teams up with Bowser to obtain the stones and finally make the world a living nightmare. From here on out, it's mainly just a constant mcguffin story. "Go to x location to get y," and so on. Usually this revolves around going to a desired location, then entering the Dream World at said location, and spending even more time getting to whatever you were trying to get to. This sounds bad, but the characters and gameplay elements you meet and learn along the way make it very tolerable. The overworld puzzles are, for the most part, basic but interesting. Nothing will make you think too hard but also won't be as simple as looking at it for a second.
Further down the line is when things get bad. Bowser and Antasma have the Dream Stone and make a castle in the air with a barrier around it, and the only way to break through it is by summoning the mighty Zeekeeper, this world's god basically. However, to do that, you first need to go around to various parts of the world and get 5 pieces of a special bed that possesses more dream power than other beds. Alright, cool, that's fine. It doesn't take too long on it's own. After that, you have to find Bedsmith, the only guy who can actually forge the magical bed. This is still fine, nothing too bad so far.
Then the pacing comes to a snail's pace almost instantly. Once you rescue Bedsmith, he has you follow him to the woods where he crafts it. THEN you have to go to a very specific location on the island that has more dream power than other locations. This is accomplished by going through the woods, finding a temple, and solving the temple puzzle. The puzzle goes as such: you need to find pieces to make a path forward, get the pieces. These pieces are scattered across 6 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT paths, each with their own loads of enemies and gimmicks to boot. This is easily the WORST part of the game. I said in my Superstar Saga review that I would just run into every enemy I saw because the game was very generous with level ups. However, in this area (and other endgame areas too) there are WAY too many enemies. These enemies in particular have really long and drawn out attacks. It probably took me 2, maybe even closer to 3 hours just to get through this whole area.
You've finally made it to the end of the temple. Now you get to meet the Zeekper, right? NOPE! Now, you have to climb a very tall and confusing tree to get to the Zeekeeper instead of just being able to meet him outright. This area also has plenty of enemies with long attack patterns. After that, you FINALLY meet the Zeekeeper and engage in a giant battle. Once that's done, he agrees to break down the barrier, but does nothing else to help. It's now up to Mario and Luigi to trudge through the castle, rescue Peach, and retrieve the stones from Bowser and Antasma.
Now we move onto the second worst part of the game: Neo Bowser Castle. This area has more going on than the temple, for better or for worse. Kamek appears near the front and changes the room layout. Going to a room on the right will actually send you somewhere other than the room to the right, etc. The goal here is to find a Kamek block, lower a gate in the main room, and chase after Kamek in the Dream World. The Dream World also decides to introduce a new swimming gimmick. Fun!!! You finally catch Kamek and start a boss battle, only for him to run away. Then guess what? You have to do that entire room swap thing AGAIN. In fact, you do it AGAIN after that. You end up doing it THREE TIMES. THREE. WHOLE. ASS. TIMES. This might be the worst pain I've ever experienced from this series.
To top it all off, once the Kamek puzzles are done with, you have to go through three entire dream segments, acting as a final gauntlet of sorts. It brings back almost all of the previous Luiginary Works. The worst thing about it is doing it three times. This kind of gauntlet would've gone GREAT with the Kamek segments. There is absolutely no reason why they needed to separate the Kamek dream segments and the gauntlet segments. To top it all off, every single room is filled with enemies that will stop you in your tracks every single time. It's hard to think how earlier games in the series didn't have an enemy problem quite like this.
After all that is done, you get a giant battle with Bowser, a dreamy battle with Antasma, and a normal battle with Dreamy Bowser; three great boss fights that almost make up for how much pain you just went through. This isn't the end of it though, not if you're going for 100%. There are various Pi'illo folk scattered throughout the island that you need to wake up in a similar fashion to how you originally awoke Prince Dreambert. If you retrieve them all, you can take to the elder Pi'illo, Eldream, and he'll give you a secret Bros. Attack. Here's my problem with this: not once does the game hint at something special happening if you were to complete this task. If anything, this seems somewhat mandatory for someone like me. It's obvious that Mario is missing a Bros. Attack from the start because Luigi has more, so this is less of an extra thing and more of a basic, normal thing locked behind collectibles. I had already beaten the final boss when I had gotten this, so I only used it during the battle ring.
Speaking of the battle ring, it's absolutely brutal. You go through stronger versions of several bosses, including all the giant ones, and then a boss rush at the end of it, which includes a secret boss at the end. I probably spent more time in the battle ring than I did doing anything else in game from the temple onwards. These kinds of boss rushes always push players to keep going. It can be incredibly challenging, especially if you're not levelled up enough, but that's what makes it fun. You get to replay giant battles, too, which is cool and epic.
Throughout the whole story, including the parts that drag, you're treated to some of the best dialogue in any video game. This goes for any game in the series, honestly, the writing is top notch. I would never have expected to be laughing hysterically at some things said in a Mario game, but it comes as no surprise in this series. The dialogue not only adds more to each character, but is also straight up entertaining. That's all I can really say about it, it's good and funny.
There are some other collectibles, too. Kylie Koopa asks Mario and Luigi to collect some photo blocks for her. When you find one, you can take it to her, and put it together like a puzzle, revealing a cool piece of art. These are all pretty well hidden, though. The beans are also back; a series staple. They once again enhance your stats based on their name. The game is kind enough to tell you how many are in each area. I don't remember exactly, but I don't think any previous games did this. The "Mad-Skill-A-Thon" is a fun, yet challenging test of how you can handle each Bros. Attack. You perform a Bros. Attack for an indefinite amount of time on training dummies to try and beat the high score. This is definitely a nice little distraction, but I couldn't be bothered to go for the high score on every challenge.
Finally, there's the achievements. These suck, plain and simple. Before you start this game you HAVE to decide if you want to go for 100% or not, because some of these achievements are a pain in the ass. Lots of them involve doing a specific thing to an enemy in a specific area, and if you're levelled up a lot and try to go back to fight these enemies, good luck completing the achievements before you kill all of the enemies in the area. These achievements are not necessarily bad, but they essentially lock you out of full completion if you hadn't completed them when it was most convenient.
The music is amazing. It's a Mario game, big whoop. Both the normal world and dream world have their own distinct instrumentation to give them their own unique vibe and feel. Never Let Up! is a great boss battle theme, and the two normal battle themes are just as good. Antasma Battle is easily a highlight, the violin is crazy and fits the character perfectly. Adventure's End is a bit disappointing as a final boss theme, but still good. My favorite track has to be Size Up Your Enemy that plays during the giant battles. The instrumentation gives you the perfect feel for a fight of that magnitude. There are many tracks I haven't mentioned that are very chill and easy to vibe to. Look up any song from this game that plays in the dream world, I guarantee you that you'll enjoy it. There's not a single bad track here, it's peak Mario OST.
This game is so incredibly frustrating. It's ALMOST perfect, but because of the pacing, especially near the end, it far overstays its welcome and unfortunately is a bad enough problem that's impossible to ignore. Everything else, though, is perfect. The characters are fun, the story is nice, it looks great, sounds great, feels great, and is the most innovative title in the series up to this point. While the adventure is long, it's still absolutely worth your time to go through all of it.
Taking place on a neighboring Pi'illo Island, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Starlow find themselves on an island resort that has a deep history with dreams. Stumbling upon these stone-like pillows, Mario and Luigi free them from their current state, one of which happens to be Prince Dreambert, who informs them of the history of the island. An evil Pi'illo named Antasma once sought out to collect the Nightmare and Dream Stones, two objects that allow the holder to bend reality in whatever way they please. This is obviously bad, and now that Antasma has returned and teamed up with Bowser, Mario and Luigi are given the task of taking them both down. The big gimmick is obviously the emphasis on dreams. Luigi quickly finds out that he's a better sleeper than Mario, which allows him to sleep on Pi'illo folk to open up a portal to the Dream World. This radically changes both overworld movements and battles, but more on that later.
Another simple story, once again with a great cast of characters and sharp writing. The setting is truly it's own unique island experience. Pi'illo Island feels like it's own interesting place with its own history, habitants, and customs. The music plays a big part in this as well, giving off a more "dreamy" vibe. This goes hand and hand with the visuals, which are obviously great. Lots of backgrounds can seem like just colors thrown together everywhere, but they're honestly some of the best looking backgrounds I've seen in a video game, it's all pure eye candy.
The characters that make up this island are all great. Dreambert is a pretty standard but fun sidekick. I wish I could say I liked Antasma more, but he was also pretty standard. He had an interesting backstory, but was given as much screen time as Bowser who stole the show in almost every scene he was in. He fell pretty flat when he only felt like a tool for Bowser to use, much like the Dark Star for Fawful in the previous title. The main difference there is that the Dark Star is just an evil, sentient star, and is literally a tool for Fawful to use. Antasma probably could've been a strong main antagonist, but I guess he's fine as a secondary antagonist. Other side characters are also a delight to talk to. Brickle and Britta the construction workers get easily worked up, which causes some funny interactions. Bedsmith constantly remarks how he wants to "nap on you" which I can only assume is the Pi'illo version of sex. Kamek and the Elite Trio from the previous title get much more screen time, and Popple even makes a brief reappearance. The crown jewel in this game for me has to be the Massif Bros., two incredibly buff Hoohooligans that constantly talk about beef. They're two of the funniest characters in the series, and make an otherwise boring and lengthy mountain climb pretty enjoyable.
The base founded by Superstar Saga in terms of gameplay is here, where it's arguably the most well refined. Starting with the overworld movement, you have the standard fare here. Mini Mario, spin jump, underground drill, and the high jump are all here. One new addition with the sideways drill, it's basically a spin jump with less distance but you can break through rocks. These are all very standard, but they get really shaken up in the Dream World. None of your basic actions are available except your jump and hammer. What's new is the ability for Luigi to transform into part of the background and change the environment as a Luiginary Work. You can't do these whenever you want, there's an indicator for when you can, which does limit it's utility to the puzzles specifically designed for them, however, I feel like that's fine. There's almost always a Luiginary Work available when you enter the Dream World, either to save a single Pi'illo, or to go to an entirely new area.
There are two different kinds of Luiginary Works. The first kind has no specific name, it's just a Luiginary Work. Luigi transforms into a part of the background. You can interact with a sleeping Luigi on the bottom screen to get them to work. These are used in some puzzles unique to how the Luiginary Work changes the environment. Some of these include, changing the temperature to freeze water or melt ice, a huge fan to create a giant gust of wind and push you against walls and allow you to climb up them, changing gravity so you can walk on walls and ceilings, completely removing gravity and letting you swim in midair, and so on and so forth. The second kind, and much more common one, is the Luiginoid Formation. This creates a bunch of Luigi's, which you can command to turn into a stack, cone, or ball. Each of these has a few different moves you can utilize, making it more similar to normal overworld functions. These are all pretty great, they help the Dream World stand out from the normal world and give it a greater sense of purpose. These new overworld transformations aren't the only way the Dream World and normal world differ, they also have their own battle mechanics.
The rules of battle in the normal world are pretty similar to past games. You can attack by jumping, using your hammer, or using a Bros. Attack. This time around, instead of sharing Bros. Attacks, Mario and Luigi each have their own set of five unique attacks. This doesn't change much if you never upgrade your speed stats like most players. Mario's attacks are more specialized in area damage while Luigi's are focussed on bigger damage to a single target, you'll be entering every battle with Mario acting first, so if that's a normal battle, you can get it over with easily with an area attack, and if it's a boss, it doesn't matter since Luigi will be attacking right after. There is an extra Bros. Attack you can obtain with a sidequest, but we'll get to that. Nothing much new on offense except the new and fun Bros. Attacks, but there's a lot more to say about defense.
In past games, you would simply stay stationary while the enemy attacked you, jumping or using your hammer to defend yourself. The enemy attack variety is expanded greatly, with new ways you need to defend yourself. In the normal world, you'll mainly only be seeing the chase sequence attacks, where Mario and Luigi run towards the screen from an onslaught of attacks. There are many other ones unique to specific bosses and enemies. Some bosses like Mammoshka and Pi'illodium with attack from the background by shooting projectiles at you, the Wiggler battle has Popple changing how fast you can dodge, Dreamy Bowser will summon an airship to chase Luigi meaning you have to dodge the airship's fireballs as Luigi while simultaneously taking out the Shy Guy's on top as Mario, etc. To put it simply, the defense is much more engaging due to a wider variety of enemy attacks.
The Dream World takes all of this and adds so much more. You only play as one of the bros, Mario, as Luigi is now a dream-powered being who powers up Mario in all of his attacks. His jump has many Luigi's following suit after, and his hammer attack does area damage thanks to Luigi joining in. Bros. Attacks are replaced with Luiginary Attacks, where a group of Luigi's form something to attack, similar to a Luiginoid Formation. Although the variety of the attacks is appreciated, and it's interesting to see the different ways in which all the Luigis can attack together, you'll usually only be using 2-3 attacks the entire game. The Luiginary Ball is great and is one of your best tools for area damage. Other than that, you'll just be using whatever your strongest attack is at the moment. My personal favorite is the Luiginary Wall, where a bunch of Luigi's form a ring with one in the center wielding a hammer. Mario then hits Luigi across the way and has to bounce Luigi back at the enemies until they all form one giant wall and fall on the current enemy.
GIANT BATTLES ARE BACK! Giant Battles are the coolest thing in almost any video game ever and you can't convince me otherwise. In the face of an unstoppable enemy, Luigi will grow in size and confront them head on. Once the battle starts, you rotate your 3DS sideways and pull out your stylus. These battles use 3D models which look great. The music track during these fights is my favorite track in the whole game. The great use of drums immerses you in the game and really makes it feel like a giant battle.
Like the giant battles in Bowser's Inside Story, your arsenal is far more limited than normal battles. You have a jump, a sideways and upwards hammer swing, and two Bros. Attacks: one where Mario heals Luigi by throwing mushrooms in his mouth, and one where both of the bros spin and jump on the enemy. They make great use of what little you have to work with. The upwards and sideways hammer swings hit different parts of the enemy and likewise send them in different directions. You can use this to your advantage if there's a hazard behind or next to the enemy that you can knock them into for more damage. In fact, one of these battles is all about using the upwards hammer swing to knock the opponent back far enough to where they fall into water and then you barrage them with a flurry of hammer swings. The final of these fights, Bowser, puts everything you know to the test and then some. You have to knock him into lava beside him. Then when he blocks that off, you knock him backwards onto a grate. Once he's on the grate, you can jump on his head and cause the grate to break, putting him back in the lava. These battles all use Luigi's moveset really well, and they all build off of each other. I'm hesitant to say that they're better than the ones in Bowser's Inside Story just because I love that game with all my heart, but it's definitely close.
A neat little detail I appreciate with these fights is Luigi's confidence over time. Before the first two battles, Luigi only grows because he's scared and it's a last resort option. However, moving onto the Zeekeeper battle, Luigi willingly grows to save Mario. Before the last Bowser battle, he has the most badass and confident look on his face. It gets a big grin out of me every time.
While all of the gameplay elements are fine and dandy, there is one aspect that really drags the rest of the game down due to it's significantly lower quality: the story. Actually, I'm hesitant to say the story itself is bad, because it does what it needs to do. However, what comes with the story is the locations you have to go to, the enemies you have to fight, etc. And this story drags and drags and drags until it's all worn out and offers literally nothing but the final boss. Before it gets bad, it's rather pleasant and nice. It's a Mario game, why wouldn't it be?
Although I touched on the story briefly earlier, I'll talk more specifics here. Mario, Luigi, and a few others are invited to Pi'illo Island. Upon arrival, Mario and Luigi are thrust into the underground caverns of Pi'illo Castle, just looking to explore. They stumble upon a pillow, which when slept upon, turns them into a living being. As it turns out, the pillow they discovered is the long forgotten Prince Dreambert. He explains that long ago, an evil Pi'illo named Antasma sought out ancient artifacts called the Dream Stone and the Nightmare Stone. These two stones grant whoever holds them the power to conjure whatever they wish, even if they only have one.
Now that Prince Dreambert has awoken, Antasma awakens similarly. So, while Mario and Luigi team up with Dreambert, Antasma teams up with Bowser to obtain the stones and finally make the world a living nightmare. From here on out, it's mainly just a constant mcguffin story. "Go to x location to get y," and so on. Usually this revolves around going to a desired location, then entering the Dream World at said location, and spending even more time getting to whatever you were trying to get to. This sounds bad, but the characters and gameplay elements you meet and learn along the way make it very tolerable. The overworld puzzles are, for the most part, basic but interesting. Nothing will make you think too hard but also won't be as simple as looking at it for a second.
Further down the line is when things get bad. Bowser and Antasma have the Dream Stone and make a castle in the air with a barrier around it, and the only way to break through it is by summoning the mighty Zeekeeper, this world's god basically. However, to do that, you first need to go around to various parts of the world and get 5 pieces of a special bed that possesses more dream power than other beds. Alright, cool, that's fine. It doesn't take too long on it's own. After that, you have to find Bedsmith, the only guy who can actually forge the magical bed. This is still fine, nothing too bad so far.
Then the pacing comes to a snail's pace almost instantly. Once you rescue Bedsmith, he has you follow him to the woods where he crafts it. THEN you have to go to a very specific location on the island that has more dream power than other locations. This is accomplished by going through the woods, finding a temple, and solving the temple puzzle. The puzzle goes as such: you need to find pieces to make a path forward, get the pieces. These pieces are scattered across 6 ENTIRELY DIFFERENT paths, each with their own loads of enemies and gimmicks to boot. This is easily the WORST part of the game. I said in my Superstar Saga review that I would just run into every enemy I saw because the game was very generous with level ups. However, in this area (and other endgame areas too) there are WAY too many enemies. These enemies in particular have really long and drawn out attacks. It probably took me 2, maybe even closer to 3 hours just to get through this whole area.
You've finally made it to the end of the temple. Now you get to meet the Zeekper, right? NOPE! Now, you have to climb a very tall and confusing tree to get to the Zeekeeper instead of just being able to meet him outright. This area also has plenty of enemies with long attack patterns. After that, you FINALLY meet the Zeekeeper and engage in a giant battle. Once that's done, he agrees to break down the barrier, but does nothing else to help. It's now up to Mario and Luigi to trudge through the castle, rescue Peach, and retrieve the stones from Bowser and Antasma.
Now we move onto the second worst part of the game: Neo Bowser Castle. This area has more going on than the temple, for better or for worse. Kamek appears near the front and changes the room layout. Going to a room on the right will actually send you somewhere other than the room to the right, etc. The goal here is to find a Kamek block, lower a gate in the main room, and chase after Kamek in the Dream World. The Dream World also decides to introduce a new swimming gimmick. Fun!!! You finally catch Kamek and start a boss battle, only for him to run away. Then guess what? You have to do that entire room swap thing AGAIN. In fact, you do it AGAIN after that. You end up doing it THREE TIMES. THREE. WHOLE. ASS. TIMES. This might be the worst pain I've ever experienced from this series.
To top it all off, once the Kamek puzzles are done with, you have to go through three entire dream segments, acting as a final gauntlet of sorts. It brings back almost all of the previous Luiginary Works. The worst thing about it is doing it three times. This kind of gauntlet would've gone GREAT with the Kamek segments. There is absolutely no reason why they needed to separate the Kamek dream segments and the gauntlet segments. To top it all off, every single room is filled with enemies that will stop you in your tracks every single time. It's hard to think how earlier games in the series didn't have an enemy problem quite like this.
After all that is done, you get a giant battle with Bowser, a dreamy battle with Antasma, and a normal battle with Dreamy Bowser; three great boss fights that almost make up for how much pain you just went through. This isn't the end of it though, not if you're going for 100%. There are various Pi'illo folk scattered throughout the island that you need to wake up in a similar fashion to how you originally awoke Prince Dreambert. If you retrieve them all, you can take to the elder Pi'illo, Eldream, and he'll give you a secret Bros. Attack. Here's my problem with this: not once does the game hint at something special happening if you were to complete this task. If anything, this seems somewhat mandatory for someone like me. It's obvious that Mario is missing a Bros. Attack from the start because Luigi has more, so this is less of an extra thing and more of a basic, normal thing locked behind collectibles. I had already beaten the final boss when I had gotten this, so I only used it during the battle ring.
Speaking of the battle ring, it's absolutely brutal. You go through stronger versions of several bosses, including all the giant ones, and then a boss rush at the end of it, which includes a secret boss at the end. I probably spent more time in the battle ring than I did doing anything else in game from the temple onwards. These kinds of boss rushes always push players to keep going. It can be incredibly challenging, especially if you're not levelled up enough, but that's what makes it fun. You get to replay giant battles, too, which is cool and epic.
Throughout the whole story, including the parts that drag, you're treated to some of the best dialogue in any video game. This goes for any game in the series, honestly, the writing is top notch. I would never have expected to be laughing hysterically at some things said in a Mario game, but it comes as no surprise in this series. The dialogue not only adds more to each character, but is also straight up entertaining. That's all I can really say about it, it's good and funny.
There are some other collectibles, too. Kylie Koopa asks Mario and Luigi to collect some photo blocks for her. When you find one, you can take it to her, and put it together like a puzzle, revealing a cool piece of art. These are all pretty well hidden, though. The beans are also back; a series staple. They once again enhance your stats based on their name. The game is kind enough to tell you how many are in each area. I don't remember exactly, but I don't think any previous games did this. The "Mad-Skill-A-Thon" is a fun, yet challenging test of how you can handle each Bros. Attack. You perform a Bros. Attack for an indefinite amount of time on training dummies to try and beat the high score. This is definitely a nice little distraction, but I couldn't be bothered to go for the high score on every challenge.
Finally, there's the achievements. These suck, plain and simple. Before you start this game you HAVE to decide if you want to go for 100% or not, because some of these achievements are a pain in the ass. Lots of them involve doing a specific thing to an enemy in a specific area, and if you're levelled up a lot and try to go back to fight these enemies, good luck completing the achievements before you kill all of the enemies in the area. These achievements are not necessarily bad, but they essentially lock you out of full completion if you hadn't completed them when it was most convenient.
The music is amazing. It's a Mario game, big whoop. Both the normal world and dream world have their own distinct instrumentation to give them their own unique vibe and feel. Never Let Up! is a great boss battle theme, and the two normal battle themes are just as good. Antasma Battle is easily a highlight, the violin is crazy and fits the character perfectly. Adventure's End is a bit disappointing as a final boss theme, but still good. My favorite track has to be Size Up Your Enemy that plays during the giant battles. The instrumentation gives you the perfect feel for a fight of that magnitude. There are many tracks I haven't mentioned that are very chill and easy to vibe to. Look up any song from this game that plays in the dream world, I guarantee you that you'll enjoy it. There's not a single bad track here, it's peak Mario OST.
This game is so incredibly frustrating. It's ALMOST perfect, but because of the pacing, especially near the end, it far overstays its welcome and unfortunately is a bad enough problem that's impossible to ignore. Everything else, though, is perfect. The characters are fun, the story is nice, it looks great, sounds great, feels great, and is the most innovative title in the series up to this point. While the adventure is long, it's still absolutely worth your time to go through all of it.