what a great game that i am not really a fan of at all, and it pains me to say this because the core of this game is really great, and it starts off so strong too. but i think my main sour point with this game derives from the bosses.

a disclaimer. i played the NORTH AMERICAN version of this game, since i am a filthy american, and this is the version of the game where the developers presumably did several lines of coke and thought it would be a fucking great idea to make every single boss in the latter half of the game an HP sponge snoozefest that act as utter brick walls to both the pacing and my overall enjoyment of the game. i am not joking when i say that this game has some of my least favorite bosses in any RPG i've ever played, and i hate that i have to say this because i was actually praising how good the bosses were in the first half. i think the turning point for me was the shrooboid brat in gritzy desert, which i didn't mind all that much but thought its HP was a bit too high for my liking, then it all went downhill from there. it snowballs until the final boss where it has so much HP it's borderline comical. to only compound this problem is some of the bros attacks in this game, specifically the flower abilities, genuinely hurt my hands. i don't think i'll ever replay this game due to the fear that i'll actually develop carpal tunnel syndrome. i hear that the japanese and european versions rebalance the bosses significantly, so if there's an english option in the european version, i would practically beg you to play that version instead.

this is a little off topic but it still pertains to this game: it genuinely makes me upset that bowser's inside story got the remake treatment instead of this game. BIS is already an almost perfect game as it is and this game would actually benefit from a remake. hell, i'll even take a european ROM of the game on the virtual console. i understand why alphadream chose to remake BIS instead, (money, at least that's what they hoped. if you wanna shave a couple years of your lifespan go look up the BIS remake's sales numbers) but man is it still disappointing.

TL;DR if you wanna play this game, play the japanese or european version if you're not a fucking masochist