An absolutely sublime experience.

Full disclosure, I have never played a single Paper Mario game until very recently. My experience growing up was replaying Superstar Saga and failing to complete Partners in Time and Inside Story. Paper Mario completely skipped my radar due to its inaccessibility for me at the time. With the release of the remake of The Thousand Year Door, I thought it'd be a good time to check out the original game.

I can say for sure that I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Paper Mario is deceptively simple, with no stat exceeding the triple digits, you'd think it would be to the game's detriment, but it's without a doubt one of its biggest strengths by far. Having the stats laid out to you in such a level makes combat very easily understood, and the same goes for strategizing around some of the tougher foes. The Badge System is also incredibly fun, I'm almost sad that the game only lets you assign only 30 points of them, cause it is by far the most interesting mechanic it has. How you approach fights is largely determined by how you've built Mario, whether it be by making him a dodge master that can almost never be hit, or by making him a tank that can always take what he dishes out.

Difficulty wise the game isn't too ball-bustingly hard. That one cloud asshole, The Master, and Bowser are by far the most difficult opponents one will face over the course of the game, though, overcoming them is by no means a herculean task. The one negative I have to give the game is that going from Point A to Point B could have been a little faster, if only to streamline the busywork you have to do for the various sidequests.

I really like the overall tone of the game. From start to finish, it's grown to be one of my favourite portrayals of Mario's world. While I always preferred the slight edge of M&L, I think this game does a wonderful job at presenting Mario's world as this more idealistic version of it you'd see in a storybook. Every area has unique NPCs that have new dialogue as the game progresses, and there's a few sidequests here and there to make the world feel just a bit more lived in. It's been said many, many times in the past, but it is genuinely mind numbing that Nintendo thought that the NPCs having unique designs is something that needed to go away. Hell, the game does a good job at having the best of both worlds, where there's both rather generic Koopas and Toads and NPCs of those species that sport unique designs. There is really no reason to have parted ways with that in the first place.

Of course, mind you, what I'm describing to you is not exactly Shakespeare. This is a game whose story largely gets by from vibes alone rather than actual achievement in storytelling. It's frankly, pretty by the numbers when it comes to that.

Bowser as the main antagonist is something that's been tried and tested many, many times in the history of this franchise, to the point where it's almost a bit disappointing when it's played straight. Paper Mario very much does that, with the very important distinction that we only fight him exactly thrice in the entirety of the game, and the first time is not even a fair fight! He kicks our ass and leaves us for dead! The game does a good job at building him as this (now) invincible asshole that's a bit too high off his own hype to realize that the guy who's ass he finally kicked is coming to whup his own ass tenfold.

Speaking of kicking ass the final boss theme of the game is incredible. By far the best track in the game and they knew well to save it for the end. Not to say the rest of the OST is bad, but this one very much stands out.

For negatives, well. The partner system of the game is something I will say definitely feels ever so slightly underbaked. Quite a lot of them feel pretty one-note compared to their counterparts over in the Thousand Year Door, and I'd be lying if I said some of them don't feel like they're just here for the sake of filling up a slot (eg: Watt and Lakilester). Not to say they're all awful and horrible, though, Lady Bow and Parakarry are both really good for example.

Not sure if this counts as a flaw, but another thing worth mentioning is that there are a few moments where the game is a little too generous with its full heals. I recall points where whenever Mario got a bit too hurt for his own good, I'd turn him around and just take him to the Recovery Block to heal him up free of charge. It was a very welcome addition in TTYD to add a price to them in order to not completely cheese through areas of the game.

With all that said and done, if you enjoy turn-based RPGs, the Mario series, or both, this is absolutely worth your time. I'm very glad to have finally played this after so many years, I finally understand what I've been missing out. I will be going through the Thousand Year Door as well, and I'm very excited to see how that game iterates on what this game started.

One of the most important videogames to ever come out by a very long shot, but I can't say I was ever really really into it.

The best way I can describe this game is that it's aged. Not necessarily like wine or milk, just that it's aged. Its foundation is incredibly solid, but its footing and momentum leave more to be desired, and almost every other title after it has improved such foundations tenfold.

Its controls and overall "unforgiveness" are ultimately what threw me off. I can very much tell this is a game a lot of people find an incredible amount of enjoyment, but for me no matter how much I try I can never really get that far. And it's not really the type of hard that makes me want to continue trying over and over again. I feel for me that's something newer games can really achieve, rather than their forefathers.

Graphics wise it really shows its age, putting it next to SMB3 is like night and day in terms of looks. Obviously I am not deducting points just because it looks prehistoric in nature, but that is always something that stuck out to me, given both of these games are on the same system. SMB1 Mario requires some imagination to truly picture the man in one's brain, but SMB3 Mario is immediately recognisable with a simple glance.

Despite my personal biases and tastes, if you are at all familiar with Super Mario, fan or not, I think you should at least play this just for the sake of it. It is a very important game, and I think it deserves to be played by more people for the first time, even after so many years after its release.

Started out pretty okay but lost steam pretty quickly near the end. There is almost something interesting with the abusive relationship the two siblings have but I can't really say it goes anywhere. The weird incestuous undertones were also really fucking weird. I can't say it's very interesting mechanically either as it's mostly some very bog standard RPG Maker adventure game puzzles with the rare choices here and there.

I could go on but the gist of my feelings is that I'm just not into it at all, really.

(This review features a few spoilers to the game's story.)

Are you a fan of Danganronpa in any capacity?

Then boy! You're gonna fucking hate this game!

There's a lot I can say about this game, but after going through it twice, this is what I have to say about it.

For starters, this game has really shit characters and edgyisms and one of the worst, most uninteresting plots in the series. Gameplay loop consists of really basic third person shooter mechanics with boring puzzles thrown in to pad out the game. The most iconic aspect of the series (the whodunnit) is not present in here almost at all. There are no trials or mystery solving to be done. The most entertaining character in the series is also reduced to being nothing more but basic enemy fodder.

Other problems the game has include the cutscenes being very mismatched in terms of artstyle, some of them being in-engine cutscenes with characters having basic animations, some of them being pre-rendered CG cutscenes, others being anime cutscenes, and rarely cutscenes that are styled after the executions the mainline games have. It is incredibly distracting to see all of them back to back, and most of them look really poor in quality, especially the pre-rendered CG cutscenes. All of these show up in such a disjointed manner that it just makes the whole thing feel inconsistent with its presentation. The "execution" styled cutscenes especially do not hit as hard in the slightest compared to the main games.

Oh yeah, and to get the obvious out of the way, there's a character in the game who straight up says that he's a pedophile, with absolutely zero reaction from people around him, and one of the characters' backstories is about them being sexually abused from a very young age. Said character is also responsible for a minigame where you have to dodge a machine from groping you repeatedly, with a joke that literally goes "By the way, this is the OPPOSSITE of child porn! So we're in the clear!" To say they handle that subject in a tasteless manner would be a severe understatement.

The other antagonists all have similar backstories in which they were abused by their parents, which is what drives them to do the horrible things they're doing. These characters with the exception of like, one, are all really fucking annoying and uninteresting. One of them I had to straight up mute whenever he spoke because it was unbearable to listen to his voice.

Ultra Despair Girls is a game where the devs threw shit on a wall and saw what stuck, and it ended up as just a mess that (in my opinion) lacked almost anything that I liked about that series.

If I do have to say something good about it. A character that appears in the first game is one of the main characters here, and I found them a lot more enjoyable here compared to when they first showed up. Doesn't mean they're GREAT, obviously. But they have a much better dynamic here with the main character.

The main character is also really inoffensive and endearing at times. Maybe a little bland but that's far from a negative in my opinion.

I've gone through this game twice, like I mentioned, first time on my own, second time with friends. This game and the "Danganronpa 3" anime are by far the lowest point of the franchise.

Avoid this like the plague, there's a dozen other third person shooters out there, and this has nothing that the mainline games can offer.

Hi there, long-time fan of both Undertale and Deltarune, figured I'd write this down now that I'm done playing this.

This review (if you can call it that, it's kind of rambly) contains minor spoilers. It's also pretty damn long, hope you don't mind reading!

As of the time of writing this is probably the best Undertale fangame that I've played so far. It's been a long while a game made me hyperfixate as much as this one did, the last one I can only recall being either releases of Deltarune.

I want to preface this as someone who has spent many years looking at fan projects of this series and consuming them in a similar fashion as Homer Simpson consuming donuts in the depths of hell. I have seen so much mud. So much slop. Pure unfiltered chum. This game despite all its hang-ups stays as far and away from that as it can.

Stupid jokes and analogies aside, this is not a perfect game by any means. There are a few very telling problems. I'll start with them because I overall have mostly have positive things to say about the game. The main reason I'm even writing this review is because I really liked playing this despite all the hiccups.

The first two areas (Ruins and Snowdin) feel very much underbaked. It's not until the third area of the game where everything picks up like a freight train. Snowdin compared to its Undertale counterpart feels like taking a quiet stroll as opposed to having two idiots bother you every now and then.

The major characters associated with both of these areas also barely do anything in them. Dalv in the Ruins is especially egregious as he has almost nothing to do with the actual plot of the game. Also the fact that he looks, weirdly out of place graphically compared to everyone else in the game lmao. It's really jarring when he's placed next to everybody else.

As for Martlet, her issue is moreso just not having as many good character moments as everyone else. I wouldn't call her very strong character-wise either but I will much rather take someone who is fine than someone who is actively annoying and a detriment.

As for the major characters as a whole... While I understand the desire to not just copy the formula Undertale has, I think having dedicated "hangouts" for the major characters similarly to Undertale would help a lot with fleshing them out.

I've had no real issue with the general NPCs other than more of a desire to see them interact with one-another more. Mo for example would be very amusing to see around being a minor annoyance to other people. Of course, seeing more of the general NPCs would be a net positive as well.

The feeling of "disjointed-ness" the game sometimes has in its first half is at its worst when it comes to one of the special enemy encounters in the first half of the third area. Not only does that fight and character come out of literal nowhere, its main gimmick is also very very unwieldly. It is by far the most egregiously clunky and sloppy fight in the entire game. It would be much better if something like that was either in Snowdin or in a much better spot that isn't entirely random, like around the third area.

I originally was going to mention it was a bit sad that the game doesn't have as much of a sense of humour as Undertale, but I've learned to kind of appreciate that due to well, the inherent tragedy of this entire story, and the implications of what is going to be Clover's fate. Plus, spaghetti westerns are often overly dramatic and broody.

The main issue I had that doesn't have to do with the game's writing was the design decisions when it came to some of the bosses. This mainly applies to the final boss of the Pacifist route and most of the bosses of the No Mercy route, it is very easy to get stuck in these fights if you don't have enough items, as the game also doesn't let you go back and restock if you're too far in. I had to more or less restart the final pacifist boss fight as I ran out of items in the final phase.

Rest is just minor gripes, really. Like the lack of a skip button like Deltarune has. I won't mention things like Clover not being able to save on their own or the timeline situation as that doesn't really bother me much at all. I find it a bit silly to just focus on that aspect of the game anyway.

Still reading? I promise I'm gonna talk about the good stuff now lol.

Despite everything I just said this I really do think the game managed to stick the landing at the end of it. This has by far the best art out of any project related to this series, from the backgrounds to all of the different animations. It's almost jarring to see the actual backgrounds used in Undertale and its characters in this game, because every other background and character is very lovingly illustrated. I'd say most of them look better than what can be seen in Deltarune currently, lmao.

It's only honestly kind of dizzying to think just how much damn work went into this entire thing. The final bosses of all three routes are also incredible spectacles, with actual difficulty put to them as well. This isn't to diss any of the final bosses Undertale has, mind you, this is mostly to state that I like these fights because they're not only incredible in visuals, but actually difficult too (the No Mercy Final Boss on a lesser extend, that fight I had to cheat to actually complete, and in general felt a bit odd).

The actual endings of all the routes I think are great too. I will not spoil any of them, but I highly suggest you do all three of them. Hell, make a backup of your save too so you can go back to them, too.

If you're wondering how the music is, while I would not call it better than Toby Fox's own compositions, it is very very high up there. The game similarly with its art iterates on what Undertale previously established, and the music ends up sounding not just really damn good, but also familiar yet different at the same time.

In general, the decision to stick to what Undertale established without delving too much into what Deltarune added in is also a very nice touch, and helps give the game more of the feeling that it's meant to be a prequel to the game. Whether or not I consider it one is something I can't really answer in this review. Maybe once it shimmers.

When it comes to fanworks there can never truly be one "truth". It's almost always something different, shaped different, acting different. This game is no exception.

The ultimate pro I can give this game at the end of the day is that it feels like the most "professional" out of all the fangames that have come out as of recently. If you told me this thing was on Steam I would not bat an eye.

I don't believe there will ever be an Undertale/Deltarune related fan project that will make me have a similar experience as the official games. To me that feels like an impossible standard to achieve.

Undertale Yellow, however, has gotten pretty damn close.

A lot of these fangames die out before they can be properly finished. I never doubted that this would release, but seeing it actually come out is a feeling that's very difficult to describe in words. The moment it released I wasted zero time booting it up. I beat the entire thing in just two sittings.

This is not a perfect game. In an ideal timeline, everything I've mentioned ends up reworked one way or another. Obviously this is not something I'm going to hope on, though. After seven entire years in development, I cannot blame any of these devs for wanting to finally move on.

Hell, seven years, that by itself also feels unbelievable.

I could go on, but this silly excuse of a review is already longer than it needs to be.

Hats off to everyone who helped make this game. I will be thinking about it for years to come for sure.

"Let justice be done."

Takes its sweet time to get going but god it doesn't fucking stop once it starts.

Very good time travel concepts and one of the most terrifying concepts of fate that I've seen.

I could go on, but it's just a really good traditional visual novel.

True ending route is admittedly a bit silly with the way you reach it though.