Also i notice it's the first time they used a 3D model for a M&L final boss.
In fact there is more 3D elements in this game than DT (considering how AD implied they had trouble with 3D elements, it make sense they might want to perfect it)
On a side note, Director/Scenario is Shunsuke Kobayashi rather than Kobuta (directed and wrote the story of previous M&L) who is instead credited as co-director.
So yeah, from my experience playing the game... it's a fun experience, but jesus christ, the difficulty level is just random as hell. It's like half the enemies and bosses are meant to be cakewalks, and the other half are meant to rip you in half just about immediately. The Larry and Ludwig fight is just stupid hard in general, the Wiggler fight ain't much better and others like King Boo and Big Bob-omb can really challenge people. On the other hand, the papercraft battles just fall to pieces (pun maybe intended) within minutes, and the Bowser Jr battle is pretty much a cakewalk, at least in my opinion.
The mini games are still a pain, and seem more common than ever. At least you can skip them altogether if you fail too many times...
The Bros Attacks are okay, though I don't like how three were just copied wholesale from Dream Team with no major changes. And a few of the later ones just seem way too annoying to use. Remember Nintendo, these are ATTACKS, not MINI GAMES. Trio Swirlygig and Tri Meteor should probably have a 'CLEARED!' type message pop up at the end, given how ridiculously involved they seem to be. And that's saying nothing of that Toad dash type Bros Attack...
Toad collecting was decent, though far too common, and it basically ground the game to a halt before every papercraft battle. Which is a shame, given that the papercraft battles were fun, yet ended in a flash compared to the collecting you had to do beforehand.
Oh, and the boss rushes can go to hell. Did we really need the last part of the game to be non stop enemy and Koopaling fights? Or the last papercraft battle to basically be a Boss Medley for the papercraft battles? Or the cannon rush mini game to stop you dead in your tracks with battles every six steps? What is it with Mario RPGs and long stretches of repetitive fights?
Wario fan, Mario game modder and interested in every Mario RPG you can imagine!
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I just finished the game, and i definitely LOVE it!
Lemme explain...
First of all, the concept of having 3 party members is done really well. It adds a lot of variety due to the fact that Paper Mario's commands are different and I like the Trio Attacks. Most of them anyways. Trio Racquet, Trio Kite and Trio Shuriken are my favorites though I didn't like the Whirligig too much. The copy mechanic is fun and good, and pretty powerful but not TOO powerful, I'm not invincible or anything like that.
I also made each of my bro's specialize in a certain thing;
Mario: being a jack of stats thing; high attack, high defense, but not too special and mediocre Stache (luck). Luigi: the Stache guy. first Rank-up bonus was to increase his Stache, and over time I also fed him Stache beans, result is an insanely high Stache stat and lots of lucky hits. Also equipped filler/charge gloves etc. to make lucky hits increase Star points. Later I also gave him the Big Lucky bonus. Basically Luigi's role is to deal hard critical hits and increase Star points in the process. Balloon Blast was really good for that too. Paper Mario: first Rank-up bonus was the increase HP thing, so that he wouldn't fall behind the other 2 bros. on hp over time. also gave him the Jump Man and Hammerhead bonuses to make his attacks stronger, and I made his Stache a bit higher later on (not like Luigi though) and gave him filler/charge gloves and accessories so that his Star points would be increased with lucky hits. later on I maxed out his copies at 8.
For me that setup worked really well, and I made sure to kill almost anything on my path (and often use battle cards to increase EXP intake) to level grind as much as possible. at the end I was level 52 or something with all 3 bro's.
The battle system was Mario & Luigi at its best for me. Simple and straightforward like it should be, but the 3 bro's made it feel a lot more varied, but the (for me) weird and not-too-well executed gimmicks DT had are done away with so it's all good.
The battles and boss fights are really great, most of them I mean. Nothing was too easy or diffcult for me, probably due to my bro's strategies and all that, but the challenge was there and it felt great. The koopaling battles were really fun (except for the last ones in the boss rush which were a bit too hard and it was kind of a hit-or-miss on how to KO them.). I didn't like the Airplane guard thing with the bosses chasing you at all though, it felt too erratic and most of the times the boss would kind of pull unexpected and dirty tricks on me. The boomerang guard thing was really fun though as was the Trampoline guard. The expert challenges were fun and really gave me incentive to play at my best. Dodging attacks the traditional way (with jump or hammers) was fun and not as random as in DT. I had Assist on at all times to see which bro was being targeted and I almost never needed the emergency block thing.
The papercraft battles were a huge step upwards from DT's gimmicky giant battles. I liked all of them, though the final one should have just been Papercraft Bowser and a few enemies like the other ones, not a boss rush thing.
The plot was lovely. It's basically what main series games should be; the basic Mario plot; Bowser takes Peach, Mario bros. save her and beat Bowser, except it's more expanded upon and all that. The NPC's were good and characterization was great. Starlow was better than DT and less rude. The paper Toads were funny (I loved their dialogue a lot!) and it was great to finally see Toadette have a decent role in a M&L game.
The music was great too, it's Yoko Shimomura at her best. The Kingdom Hearts feel is definitely there!
The only possible improvement I would have done myself is to make the final boss not be the 2 Bowsers/Shiny Robowser thing. I would have kept in the first phase against the 2 bowsers, but instead of them transforming together, some dark eldritch "thing" would come out of the book (possibly Paper Dimentio, Paper Antasma or something) and be the final boss.
All in all, the game's really great and it definitely proved my low expectations wrong.
I think this, SSS or BiS is my favorite of the 3 games. DT probably my least (at least at the moment. It's not bad at all, but just... idk. Too gimmicky) and PiT in-between there.
Fun facts 'bout me: -I'm bisexual. -I am a huge Mario fan. Also Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Sky. -I am making fangames and original projects: check out Super Mario RPG: The Prism Stone in the Fan Creations forum! -I have Asperger's Syndrome. -I am shy but I am friendly and don't dislike others for no reason.
What do you think of Trio Meteor? Didn't hear it mentioned, and I'm interested, since it's the most awkward Trio Attack of the five.
I definitely agree with the comment about the papercraft Bowser battle. That boss rush is honestly just annoying to have to play through, and the fact you have to do it again in the battle ring every time around doesn't help either.
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Post by Fawfulthegreat64 on Dec 28, 2015 17:42:52 GMT -5
Beat the game about a week or so ago. While fun, I think it's my least favorite M&L game because the story is so predictable and almost all the NPCs are generic Toads. It also is the hardest in the series IMO. I hate to admit it but I had to use easy mode on many of the bosses.
Beat the game about a week or so ago. While fun, I think it's my least favorite M&L game because the story is so predictable and almost all the NPCs are generic Toads. It also is the hardest in the series IMO. I hate to admit it but I had to use easy mode on many of the bosses.
Yeah, I think I saw you mention this on GameFAQs.
I had to use Easy Mode a few times myself, and I skipped a mini game I just thought was utterly obnoxious (the cannonball hammering one in Neo Bowser Castle). Definitely seems like they upped the challenge level a lot.
Wario fan, Mario game modder and interested in every Mario RPG you can imagine!
I also run Wario Forums, which is a place to discuss the Wario Land and WarioWare franchises.
What do you think of Trio Meteor? Didn't hear it mentioned, and I'm interested, since it's the most awkward Trio Attack of the five.
I definitely agree with the comment about the papercraft Bowser battle. That boss rush is honestly just annoying to have to play through, and the fact you have to do it again in the battle ring every time around doesn't help either.
I didn't get Trio Meteor. Is it optional?
I didn't think the "boss rush" in the papercraft Bowser fight was annoying, it just takes a long time ^^
Fun facts 'bout me: -I'm bisexual. -I am a huge Mario fan. Also Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Sky. -I am making fangames and original projects: check out Super Mario RPG: The Prism Stone in the Fan Creations forum! -I have Asperger's Syndrome. -I am shy but I am friendly and don't dislike others for no reason.
Well it is kinda confirmed that the game is more of a Mario and Luigi feat paper mario tham actual fanservicy crossover. I mean both the japanese title as well a recent interview with alphadream confirms this
I am moee intrerested in whether oe mot this is a filler project
Wellington Boots return as an item. But guess what? You have to get them... at random, by breaking the barrels Broozers throw in certain attacks. How the hell is anyone supposed to figure this out?
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Good! Hopefully some of our answers will be heard soon? Even Japan is getting in on all the fun. (I saw a Japanese post on the Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam for an interview for Japanese fans.) So get ready guys?
Been a fan of the Paper Mario series ever since I started playing Super Paper Mario for the Wii... No joke! XD I saw a few ads and commercials about the Paper Mario series. But I didn't start playing them for the story until I played the third game in the series. Ever since then? Many games of 2016 have come and challenge what we consider as story driven games now. UnderTale and recently FNAF's World. I hope that someday I can create my own game based upon the Paper Mario series and pay tribute.
You can actually have multiple characters knocked out of battle entirely by a Broozer's attack. Indeed, I had one situation where I ended with just poor old Paper Mario there on his own having to dodge a mini army of monsters cause of it.
A papercraft boss will never, ever attack you if it's off screen. Which means that an easy way to charge up your charge meter is to go near a far away wall, and angle yourself just right so that the boss never comes into view. It'll then never be able to actually do anything, even if it's literally behind you on the map screen.
Doesn't work on Papercraft Bowser... cause they made his battle arena a circle instead of a square. So he's always in view, somehow.
Wario fan, Mario game modder and interested in every Mario RPG you can imagine!
I also run Wario Forums, which is a place to discuss the Wario Land and WarioWare franchises.