This review contains spoilers
it's a fine remake. I wish I felt more strongly, really, but idk. I am satisfied, but I wasn't... wowed. edit to add, before even actually publishing, something did indeed wow me in postgame.
I was largely let down by the new music, but whatever. me not liking it much doesn't mean it's bad. I personally just didn't enjoy most of it all that much. some tracks were pretty good. maybe two or three were really great. a lot of stuff has a grander spin put on it and it just doesn't land all the time. sometimes things were too subdued. sometimes I thought weird instrument choices were made. most baffling of all was the real laugh present in Valen-Valentina. I had to change the soundtrack back to the original for that part of the game because the laugh was so annoying. Why did they do that.
I really wish all of the original sound effects were present. some are, some aren't. it feels off sometimes as a result. I miss the sound effects for clicking through text boxes and wonder why those were removed.
but the game shines in the visual department 100%. looks great. love the enemy and boss models. frog coins having a unique model is nice. they look cute. but something about the Toad models feels off, at least like, their faces. like when they talk. idk, it's just Weird to me. the party's models are okay, though Mario looks a bit off somehow. I know it's accurate to the original, but the squished look is way more apparent on Mario than it is on Peach or Bowser, so he's the only one that looks odd. Valentina's mini model also looks extra weird, her face. idk what they were going for. why'd her mouth look like that. other models here and there look a bit odd, like the chancellor. he looks extra squished.
the UI and menus and font choices, I am not so keen on. doesn't really fit this game. reminds me of the Mario & Luigi series.
the cutscenes are fine... I like them well enough but they also felt kind of weird for some reason. there were a few that used a certain font, and due to it being so infrequent, especially never felt right.
I'm used to how snappy battles are in the original, and even up to the end, never fully adjusted to the general timing in this remake. this game has a lot of qol for battles, I appreciate the new visual meters for special attacks. made me feel inclined to use them more. I used them way more in this remake than I ever would in playthroughs of the original game. the triple moves are... eh. I guess they were a given, an echo of future Mario RPGs brought back to this one. they fit in fine, though I purposely didn't use them all too often.
I knew this remake was going to handle inventory differently... but I wasn't sure how. I both like and dislike how it works. the item limits feel so arbitrary. why only 6 pick me ups? like, why not 10? what's the deal with that? I know there's the "breezy" mode which ups your amounts to 30 for most, if not all items... normal could have just had it be 10 for everything. the limits truly are arbitrary.
I really like and appreciate the fast travel. this makes it tolerable if, say, you get near the very end of the game but you wanna go back and do something, like fight Culex. don't have to go back the hard way, which is actually doubly appreciated because the platforming in this remake feels more off than it did in the original game. ugh, imagine going back through the whole gate area. yeah, no thanks. lol
the autosave happens too frequently for save blocks to be of any real use. it's silly. I'd find myself saving, and then the autosave would trigger if I moved to the next room. like, what's the point?
I love how everything with Smithy was handled. seeing Smithy in this remake's style was literally the thing I was most excited for. they didn't let me down. the cutscene, the way they made the true form battle background even creepier than it was in the original, everything. it was great and I was freaking out. the music was... an 8/10, though. ngl. sorry. the true form battle music didn't need the electric guitar parts. other battle theme was too subdued. but still pretty good, so... eh.
the postgame battles are a great idea on paper, but they chose to make them all gimmicky in some manner or another, and I'm not a fan of that. I changed the difficulty because I was getting my ass kicked, but after accidentally spoiling myself on 3D Culex's existence(by reading the track list of a game rip, smh), I was like "ok, I have to see this NOW" and then, had to put in more time because of this sequential bullshit to get to it. bleargh. for added context, I was level 25 when I chose to take on that content. I was level 21 when I fought and beat Smithy, so I only managed to grind 4 levels before getting sick of the grind. if you can handle the intensive repeated battling of machine made Yaridovich, be my guest. get level 30, it'll help.
here's my thoughts on them in the shortest manner I can manage.
Jinx: tolerable, but not great. I like the idea, but the punishment for failure felt too annoyingly harsh. given that I have such a hard time with timing in this remake... bleh.
Belome: the worst. I did this one on normal. it was so bad. took forever. not fun. not sorry for saying it's not fun because it's not.
Punchinello: pretty bad, really annoying gimmick
Booster: interesting but unfun until you figure out how to make it easier on yourself
Bundt: the easiest, though I wonder if it's harder on normal somehow. more candles being lit per turn would make this actually difficult.
Johnny: Fine. also too easy tho. it felt like his HP was just massively nerfed. if this were a normal battle with item usage and he was beefed up more significantly, this woulda been cooler.
Culex: the effort to get to this was worth it. this is the other thing I wanted to see. fucking. Culex in 3D. and the music is GREAT. on easy, I feel the challenge is reasonable enough. I think it's hard to make... hard boss battles like this without them being an endurance match on some level. as with all the other postgame bosses, this one has a gimmick of sorts, but it's one that's pretty easily combatted. I'm pleased. it's a shame the other battles are... not that great tho.
I was largely let down by the new music, but whatever. me not liking it much doesn't mean it's bad. I personally just didn't enjoy most of it all that much. some tracks were pretty good. maybe two or three were really great. a lot of stuff has a grander spin put on it and it just doesn't land all the time. sometimes things were too subdued. sometimes I thought weird instrument choices were made. most baffling of all was the real laugh present in Valen-Valentina. I had to change the soundtrack back to the original for that part of the game because the laugh was so annoying. Why did they do that.
I really wish all of the original sound effects were present. some are, some aren't. it feels off sometimes as a result. I miss the sound effects for clicking through text boxes and wonder why those were removed.
but the game shines in the visual department 100%. looks great. love the enemy and boss models. frog coins having a unique model is nice. they look cute. but something about the Toad models feels off, at least like, their faces. like when they talk. idk, it's just Weird to me. the party's models are okay, though Mario looks a bit off somehow. I know it's accurate to the original, but the squished look is way more apparent on Mario than it is on Peach or Bowser, so he's the only one that looks odd. Valentina's mini model also looks extra weird, her face. idk what they were going for. why'd her mouth look like that. other models here and there look a bit odd, like the chancellor. he looks extra squished.
the UI and menus and font choices, I am not so keen on. doesn't really fit this game. reminds me of the Mario & Luigi series.
the cutscenes are fine... I like them well enough but they also felt kind of weird for some reason. there were a few that used a certain font, and due to it being so infrequent, especially never felt right.
I'm used to how snappy battles are in the original, and even up to the end, never fully adjusted to the general timing in this remake. this game has a lot of qol for battles, I appreciate the new visual meters for special attacks. made me feel inclined to use them more. I used them way more in this remake than I ever would in playthroughs of the original game. the triple moves are... eh. I guess they were a given, an echo of future Mario RPGs brought back to this one. they fit in fine, though I purposely didn't use them all too often.
I knew this remake was going to handle inventory differently... but I wasn't sure how. I both like and dislike how it works. the item limits feel so arbitrary. why only 6 pick me ups? like, why not 10? what's the deal with that? I know there's the "breezy" mode which ups your amounts to 30 for most, if not all items... normal could have just had it be 10 for everything. the limits truly are arbitrary.
I really like and appreciate the fast travel. this makes it tolerable if, say, you get near the very end of the game but you wanna go back and do something, like fight Culex. don't have to go back the hard way, which is actually doubly appreciated because the platforming in this remake feels more off than it did in the original game. ugh, imagine going back through the whole gate area. yeah, no thanks. lol
the autosave happens too frequently for save blocks to be of any real use. it's silly. I'd find myself saving, and then the autosave would trigger if I moved to the next room. like, what's the point?
I love how everything with Smithy was handled. seeing Smithy in this remake's style was literally the thing I was most excited for. they didn't let me down. the cutscene, the way they made the true form battle background even creepier than it was in the original, everything. it was great and I was freaking out. the music was... an 8/10, though. ngl. sorry. the true form battle music didn't need the electric guitar parts. other battle theme was too subdued. but still pretty good, so... eh.
the postgame battles are a great idea on paper, but they chose to make them all gimmicky in some manner or another, and I'm not a fan of that. I changed the difficulty because I was getting my ass kicked, but after accidentally spoiling myself on 3D Culex's existence(by reading the track list of a game rip, smh), I was like "ok, I have to see this NOW" and then, had to put in more time because of this sequential bullshit to get to it. bleargh. for added context, I was level 25 when I chose to take on that content. I was level 21 when I fought and beat Smithy, so I only managed to grind 4 levels before getting sick of the grind. if you can handle the intensive repeated battling of machine made Yaridovich, be my guest. get level 30, it'll help.
here's my thoughts on them in the shortest manner I can manage.
Jinx: tolerable, but not great. I like the idea, but the punishment for failure felt too annoyingly harsh. given that I have such a hard time with timing in this remake... bleh.
Belome: the worst. I did this one on normal. it was so bad. took forever. not fun. not sorry for saying it's not fun because it's not.
Punchinello: pretty bad, really annoying gimmick
Booster: interesting but unfun until you figure out how to make it easier on yourself
Bundt: the easiest, though I wonder if it's harder on normal somehow. more candles being lit per turn would make this actually difficult.
Johnny: Fine. also too easy tho. it felt like his HP was just massively nerfed. if this were a normal battle with item usage and he was beefed up more significantly, this woulda been cooler.
Culex: the effort to get to this was worth it. this is the other thing I wanted to see. fucking. Culex in 3D. and the music is GREAT. on easy, I feel the challenge is reasonable enough. I think it's hard to make... hard boss battles like this without them being an endurance match on some level. as with all the other postgame bosses, this one has a gimmick of sorts, but it's one that's pretty easily combatted. I'm pleased. it's a shame the other battles are... not that great tho.