One of the best games ever to introduce anyone to the greater world of RPGs. It's still Mario so the plot is baby-mode, but the combat is so engaging and varied and the writing is very good and holds up nearly 20 years later. The world is very well-condensed and it's very easy to navigate the world quickly, no time is wasted loading between the map transitions and you're constantly engaged. Badges and armor definitely can help you overpower the endgame and unfortunately you can't remove them when they're equipped, that's my #1 gripe with the game. You can opt not to equip anything past the mandatory item use if you want more of a challenge, though. The game is balanced better around no equipment than equipment, funnily enough however. Mush Badge OP. Great final boss, but getting there can be a gauntlet that the rest of the game doesn't really prep you for. Still a fire game and I'm glad the difficulty peaks at the end. EZ 5 star game.