This game fucking rocked! I'm very much not a Turn Based RPG guy but man does Mario always find a way to make it fun. It's got me wanting to replay/fully finish all the other Mario RPGs I've played like the first 2 Paper Mario's and the Mario & Luigi games I've missed. Speaking of those games, I don't think this one quite hits that level of the peaks of those franchises, but man it's close enough that I don't think it matters.
I haven't ever played the original but just from what I've seen they've capture the charm and style pretty perfectly. These are some of my favorite models of all the Mario characters ever. They're so cute and charming and well animated. It was a joy seeing new cutscenes or new attacks/animations during conversations or battles. The worlds are also pretty gorgeous, but by far the biggest stand outs to me were the huge variety of enemies and they're incredibly charming and cool designs! I was constantly getting a laugh out of designs, names, and especially the thoughts of each new enemy I'd encounter! I think the amount of character put into each enemy as small as random encounters or as big as bosses is super charming. That's coupled with some really funny writing and very fun and clever visual bits. I got a laugh out of everytime someone questions if I was really THE Mario and I'd just press the jump button for them to instantly trust me. The OST is also absolutely fucking phenonmenal. I think something a lot of people will come to realize, me included is so many insanely great songs come from this game. They're used so often in other games, youtube videos, etc it was kinda insane how many songs I encountered where I went "omg that was from this game??? sick!" LOL.
The gameplay is great here, it's the classic Mario RPG style of action commands to keep it interesting. I do think something like Mario & Luigi has a bit more depth to the action commands but I was still surprised at the amount of variety there was even just in character attacks changing when you equip new weapons. It did make it a bit hard to adjust sometimes but it was also genuinely just pretty cool to see new attack animations and whatnot. The spells didn't have too much variety it was mostly timing an A press, spinning the stick, or mashing A. Geno had a few meter ones that were fun but it was kind of just the same one for like 4 of his moves. They were still consistently fun to pull off and nail perfectly though. I will say, I wish there were a few more spells or at the very least there were a few more character buff spells or something especially for Peach. Not a huge deal, and I didn't mind the biggest focus on standard attacks (at least, for my team of Mario/Geno/Bowser that i ran for most of the game) but still wished for a bit more with the spells. The non combat aspect of gameplay was pretty cool too, lots of fun overworld mini games and platforming to do. I don't think any of them were like absurdly fun but I'm a sucker for random gameplay changes and those were fun distractions. My only negative with the overworld, and I don't entirely know how to convey this or express it but some, I'd even argue, a lot of areas felt very quick and not as grand as I would expected/liked. I don't know if that makes any sense but a lot of times it felt like I just finished an area super quick and there could have been more cool moments or set pieces. To be clear I don't think it's the biggest deal in the world, the entire game was still a joy to play and I think wanting more is overall a good thing instead of something overstaying its welcome but just something I noticed especially compared to stuff like Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi. The postgame was also a lot of fun, some things were insanely satisfying like getting 100 super jumps with mario, and especially the Boss refights. To my understanding those are new to the remake and they were all pretty fun and had new interesting gimmicks! The only postgame thing I kinda hated doing was getting the Star Egg playing that look away game and winning 100 times was pretty boring and unfun. The reward was pretty worth it though so I can't be all that mad.
Really glad I finally played this game! I don't know if I'll ever play the original but this seemed like a really great way to experience an amazing game. It's got me wanting to go on a Mario RPG kick, it reminded me of how insanely charming and fun these earlier Mario RPGs really are. Great time!!!
I haven't ever played the original but just from what I've seen they've capture the charm and style pretty perfectly. These are some of my favorite models of all the Mario characters ever. They're so cute and charming and well animated. It was a joy seeing new cutscenes or new attacks/animations during conversations or battles. The worlds are also pretty gorgeous, but by far the biggest stand outs to me were the huge variety of enemies and they're incredibly charming and cool designs! I was constantly getting a laugh out of designs, names, and especially the thoughts of each new enemy I'd encounter! I think the amount of character put into each enemy as small as random encounters or as big as bosses is super charming. That's coupled with some really funny writing and very fun and clever visual bits. I got a laugh out of everytime someone questions if I was really THE Mario and I'd just press the jump button for them to instantly trust me. The OST is also absolutely fucking phenonmenal. I think something a lot of people will come to realize, me included is so many insanely great songs come from this game. They're used so often in other games, youtube videos, etc it was kinda insane how many songs I encountered where I went "omg that was from this game??? sick!" LOL.
The gameplay is great here, it's the classic Mario RPG style of action commands to keep it interesting. I do think something like Mario & Luigi has a bit more depth to the action commands but I was still surprised at the amount of variety there was even just in character attacks changing when you equip new weapons. It did make it a bit hard to adjust sometimes but it was also genuinely just pretty cool to see new attack animations and whatnot. The spells didn't have too much variety it was mostly timing an A press, spinning the stick, or mashing A. Geno had a few meter ones that were fun but it was kind of just the same one for like 4 of his moves. They were still consistently fun to pull off and nail perfectly though. I will say, I wish there were a few more spells or at the very least there were a few more character buff spells or something especially for Peach. Not a huge deal, and I didn't mind the biggest focus on standard attacks (at least, for my team of Mario/Geno/Bowser that i ran for most of the game) but still wished for a bit more with the spells. The non combat aspect of gameplay was pretty cool too, lots of fun overworld mini games and platforming to do. I don't think any of them were like absurdly fun but I'm a sucker for random gameplay changes and those were fun distractions. My only negative with the overworld, and I don't entirely know how to convey this or express it but some, I'd even argue, a lot of areas felt very quick and not as grand as I would expected/liked. I don't know if that makes any sense but a lot of times it felt like I just finished an area super quick and there could have been more cool moments or set pieces. To be clear I don't think it's the biggest deal in the world, the entire game was still a joy to play and I think wanting more is overall a good thing instead of something overstaying its welcome but just something I noticed especially compared to stuff like Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi. The postgame was also a lot of fun, some things were insanely satisfying like getting 100 super jumps with mario, and especially the Boss refights. To my understanding those are new to the remake and they were all pretty fun and had new interesting gimmicks! The only postgame thing I kinda hated doing was getting the Star Egg playing that look away game and winning 100 times was pretty boring and unfun. The reward was pretty worth it though so I can't be all that mad.
Really glad I finally played this game! I don't know if I'll ever play the original but this seemed like a really great way to experience an amazing game. It's got me wanting to go on a Mario RPG kick, it reminded me of how insanely charming and fun these earlier Mario RPGs really are. Great time!!!