From the get-go, this is the sort of game that I looked at and expected it to be largely carried by its aesthetic and charm, which then made it especially surprising when I realised that this is also a very tightly designed game to go along with that. It's a a nice entry point into turn based RPGs in a lot of ways with how immediately inviting it is, combined with a set of mechanics that are both customisable yet clear and simple enough to make most of this feel very transformative in its own right. Wrapping up this package with how gorgeous it all is culminates in something that feels very warm and inviting while having enough meat on its bones to be a great bit of fun even after playing a lot of other JRPGs.

An immediate way that this stands out to me is how small all the numbers are in the game, with health values of even the strongest enemies never exceeding 99, and the amount of damage both you and your opponents do will almost exclusively be in the single digits without specific strategies in mind. The combat system working in such a way is fantastic for making each minor change to a strategy or loadout feel deeply transformative, especially when the encounter design plays into this so nicely. Different enemy types have different ways of outputting a reasonable amount of damage against, and it's a constant in all parts of the game that you'll be frequently shifting around your badge setup and which partner you have out on the field to best deal with them. Regardless of how far into the game you are, you'll be having to adapt to whatever situation you find yourself in, rarely being able to coast for more than a couple of battles, all while having to keep your resources in mind and use them accordingly. Hoarding your items and FP isn't really something you can do without a lot of pain, and I found that the pacing was helped spectacularly by the fact that there was never a point where these core mechanics begun to feel redundant to me.

The partner system is also fun to me in this regard, as even though there are quite a few abilities that are functionally the same, most of them will have their own little niches that separate them just enough to make it rare for there to be one dominant approach with them. Even Bow, who is widely considered to be the best party member by far, still has her own drawbacks that stop her from being a no-brainer pick in every situation, namely the fact that her attack becomes worthless against anything with some amount of defence. None of this is especially difficult to work out, it's a game that has children in mind after all, but there's still enough here to be compelling to engage with. The badges are a cool system as well, especially due to how limited your maximum BP can be, playing into one of my favourite RPG dynamics of managing where your weak points are, rather than being able to negate them entirely. If you decide to go down the route of attempting to make a build that lacks any real weaknesses, you'll just be in a state where you can't really do anything especially spectacular, you need to lean into something and open yourself up somewhere else to actually succeed without great difficulty, and while the game as a whole is easy enough to give you a lot of leeway for misplays and such, having to leave yourself with such flaws is always very fun to me, especially in the case of this game where enemies have such meaningful differences from one another.

Above all else though, what truly gets me about this game is how cozy it is. There's a sense of warmth and whimsy that permeates everything this game has to offer, with its colourful cast of characters and adorable artstyle providing some of my favourite interpretations of a lot of the iconic Mario characters. Combine this with a lot of weird little guys like Chuck Quizmo and Chet Rippo and you've got yourself a world that feels endlessly fascinating to absorb yourself in, the perfect sort of game to curl up under a blanket on the couch and play while sipping at a hot cup of tea. The sound design goes a long way in this as well, as it tends to in Mario titles, giving everything a lot of punch while also sticking to its cartoonish glee. Essential gaming really, I could see this becoming a new comfort game for me down the line.