History YMMV / MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Considering the main plot of the game is going through Luigi's dreams, some had hoped to see more references and cameos of past villains as well as take the game down a darker road. Especially with the concept of Dream's Deep, being an especially trippy area representing Luigi's deep subconscious. After a surreal first entry, not much was really done with the idea, as it is only ever explored once again and that time was more for starting the Ultibed quest than anything with Luigi or his history.

** Dark Blocks have an attack that involves hitting the block multiple times in a row with precise timing, Failure to counter it deals a decent chunk of damage and possibly inflicts the [[StandardStatusEffects dizzy status]]. It's a Dream World enemy, so you don't have a second character to bail you out if things get dicey.

** Antasma is criticized by some for being a FlatCharacter, but he really has no less characterization than previous Mario RPG villains. The difference is that those villains either had quirky underlings to pick up the slack for their flat characterization, or were aliens/[[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] that didn't require much characterization. Antasma doesn't have either to fall back on, so he stands out more as a flat character.

** [[spoiler:Dreamy Bowser]] has two of these. First is a hammer attack where he hits one of the brothers (signaled by a coin flip) at a very fast speed. If you counter he will then hit the other one and it does huge damage to both brothers. The second has him summon dreamy versions of enemies to fight the Bros while [[spoiler:Dreamy Bowser goes into the background and heals himself.]]

* MemeticMutation: Dynamax/Gigantamax Luigi [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', which allows almost all Pokémon to grow to gigantic size (sort of) via the new Dynamax feature, several jokes were made about (Giant) Dreamy Luigi secretly being a Dynamaxed/Gigantamax form of Luigi, Giant Luigi ([[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory or Bowser)]] [[HilariousInHindsight being the progenitor of the idea, or the like]]. Jokes about playing Size Up Your Enemy over a Max Raid Battle are also common.[[/labelnote]]

** Antasma. Some fans of this game prefer him over Bowser by a longshot and [[spoiler:would've much preferred him to be the final boss instead of Dreamy Bowser]]. The fact that he has arguably the best battle theme in the whole game helps. Others criticize him for his rather lacking characterization for a Mario RPG BigBad. [[spoiler:And people who find him RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap upon finding out that he's not the BigBad meet opposition from people who preferred him over Bowser (and thought he '''was''' gonna be the BigBad).]]

** The {{Forced Tutorial}}s are one of the game's biggest criticisms, but {{Forced Tutorial}}s have always been a problem in the ''Mario & Luigi'' series. It's only that ''Dream Team'' happened to have even more tutorials than usual. Funnily enough, ''Paper Jam'' ditched {{Forced Tutorial}}s for the most part, instead being replaced with short tests for the new moves.

* TheScrappy:
** The Mole Hunt Proprietor, who runs the Mole Hunt minigame, a minigame that you're ''only'' playing because this idiot wants to make a quick buck off you by withholding access to the next part of the game until you pay him. (Granted, 10 coins is a pittance by the point in the game where it comes up, but still...) It's as if [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon Moneybags]] reincarnated into the Mario universe.
** The Dream Stone Spirit, considering how he acts like a total {{Jerkass}} to you and refuses to tell you where Bowser and Antasma were going with the MacGuffin which, may we remind you, ''he is the spirit of'', going so far as to turn into a giant drill machine to get rid of you for trying to get the information out of him. Essentially, he only exists to needlessly [[{{Padding}} pad the game's length]] and maybe because they needed a filler for another Giant Boss fight, especially since he has [[ForTheEvulz no sensible reason for any of his actions]]. Needless to say, it will be [[CatharsisFactor immensely satisfying]] to beat the snot out of him as Giant Luigi.

* TheScrappy: The Mole Hunt Proprietor, who runs the Mole Hunt minigame, a minigame that you're ''only'' playing because this idiot wants to make a quick buck off you by withholding access to the next part of the game until you pay him. (Granted, 10 coins is a pittance by the point in the game where it comes up, but still...) It's as if [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon Moneybags]] reincarnated into the Mario universe.

** When you start out the game, things are fine and dandy. it throws you a curveball now and again, but for the most part remains your smooth-sailing Mario & Luigi game. Suddenly, Bowser in Dream's Deep. A bit of a warning sign, not ''too'' bad, but unusually hard for being so early on. Then meet Big Massif and his disciples. The game wasn't lying when it said at the beginning that was better to beat every enemy you see, because you will ''need'' the levels and understanding of the gameplay mechanics by the time you reach these guys. Steel yourself, because the game pulls no punches now. And you can't even level-grind if you have problems with the giant battles.

** Pi'llodactyls start out in the background, the first enemies that you need a Taunt Ball to engage. Their stats are ridiculously high compared to other enemies on Mt. Pajamaja, with three times their HP, high defense, and a fireball attack powerful enough to 2HKO and that still requires you to repeatedly jump off of the resulting burn spot even if you dodge it. At least it gets rid of the other enemies.
** Dark Blocks have only two attacks, and one of them is not all that hard to counter. The other, however, requires precise timing to hit the block multiple times in a row, and if you don't hit it enough times before it finishes the attack, you ''will'' take a decent chunk of damage and possibly get [[StandardStatusEffects dizzy]] in the bargain. It's a Dream World enemy, too, so you don't have a second character to bail you out if things get dicey.
** Mechakoopas have some very annoying attacks, but the kicker is that attacking them can cause them to malfunction, which reverses their attack pattern. This can make countering them much harder to counter when they perform their rush attack.

%%* TheWoobie: Luigi as in most games fits this pretty well, especially in the earlier parts of the game. The game also has Prince Dreambert, Wiggler, and Sorrow Fist (the last of these to the point where Luigi feels sorry for him).

** There have been some complaints over how Dreamy Luigi was handled. In a game that was supposed to be celebrating Luigi, many have noted that Dreamy Luigi ends up feeling more like an item than a partner in the Dream World, thanks to serving as a powerup for Mario and being used mostly for special attacks. Many have stated that, ironically, Mario is the one who ends up feeling like the main focal point of most Dream World battles, thanks to being the only one who fights conventionally and who you end up controlling for the most part. On the other hand, many feel like Luigi still gets a good amount of focus, and his special attacks in the Dream Worlds help him stand out and really give him a chance to shine after being the ButtMonkey for so many years.
* [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames Best Boss Ever]]: For regular battles, Wiggler and Popple, [[spoiler:Bowser Jr, and Dreamy Bowser.]] For Dream World battles, the Elite Trio, Kamek and Antasma. For the giant battles... Well, if you don't hate them, it's agreed that they grew the beard with Earthwake, with him and the later ones contested for being the best.

** Beehosses control swarms of bees to do their attacks, and this is all well and good but for one thing. ''Counterattacking the bees will cause them to swoop down on you in an attack that cannot be dodged.'' It's an enemy you have to dodge with zero countering, which is harder than it sounds.
** Most of the Dream World's enemies are Demonic Spiders. Special mention to Lob-omb (and their R variant) with their attack where they throw one big bomb. Sometimes, it's thrown next to you or behind you, and predicting that and dodging the attack is really diffcult because it goes so fast. And it deals a huge lot of damage.

** Mechakoopas. Sure, they have some very annoying attacks, but the kicker is that attacking them can cause them to ''malfunction, which reverses their attack pattern''. Yeah, this is not an enemy you want to first-strike, and when there are normal and malfunctioning Mechakoopas in the group during their rush attack, it can get very confusing to counter them all.

** Antasma is criticized by some for being a FlatCharacter, but he really has no less characterization than most Mario RPG villains (see [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Smithy]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Cackletta]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime the Shroob Princesses]], [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Grodus, the Shadow Queen]], and [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory the Dark Star]]). The difference is that those villains either had quirky underlings to pick up the slack for their flat characterization, or were aliens/[[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] that didn't require much characterization. Antasma doesn't have either to fall back on, so he stands out more as a flat character. It also doesn't help that he's being compared to the more popular RPG villains like [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Faw]][[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory ful]] and [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario Dimentio]], who did have better characterization. Many fans wanted him to be more like those two when those two were actually outliers. [[note]]Those two had better characterization because they were introduced as quirky underlings and either stepped into the BigBad role later (Fawful) or were later revealed to have been [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan the real Big Bad]] all along (Dimentio).[[/note]]

** The Challenge Equipment which becomes stronger the more challenges you complete, and eventually becomes some of the strongest, if not the strongest equipment in the entire game if you do [[ThatOneAchievement all of the challenges in the game.]]
** The Golden Equipment which has stats that are based on your overall coin amount, meaning the more money you save, the stronger it is. This eventually can become so strong that at max power it's only second to the aforementioned Challenge Equipment. This becomes extremely easy when you realize that you don't have to shop for items and weapons as much as you think considering that a lot of good ones will probably be dropped from enemies along the way, allowing you to save up money easily, especially with the Coin Gloves DX equipped.
** 1-Up Gloves. If either Bro gets knocked out, he gets auto revived immediately as long as you have a 1-Up Mushroom handy. This is so powerful that this item can be [[PermanentlyMissableContent permanently missed]] if Mammoshka doesn't drop it at the end of his battle, [[ScrappyMechanic which has a 50 percent chance of happening as opposed to the normal boss rate of dropping their rare item 100 percent of the time]], and possibly making you have to fight him again if you want another chance at getting them.
** Bottomless Gloves. Infinite items (aka your healing items never run out). In the Battle Ring, this completely annihilates much of the difficulty. And when you have a Max Candy on hand, you don't need ''anything'' else with these gloves, as the candy acts as an unlimited full heal on command.

** Try the Guard/Master Badge (Protects a Brother from 6 attacks) combined with the Risk/Silver Badge (Powers up everyone on screen). That should save you some time to attack the enemy with as much force as you can without worrying about getting hurt, like for example ... Luiginary Hammer, Luiginary Wall, Zee Egg, or Star Rocket.

** Bros. Boots recharge your BP whenever you use a Jump attack, based on how much damage you do. Sounds okay at first, but what's really broken about it is that the effect ''stacks'' with Bros./Luiginary attacks that use the boots, and given that those attacks do way more damage than jump attacks do, you'll often recover more BP with the boots than you used to perform the attack in the first place (especially if you have the aforementioned Casual Bros. bonus).

** Antasma's bat attack in his final battle. It's not so bad, but it's the potential secondary effect that makes it this: Antasma pulls Mario into a DreamWithinADream and begins to chase him down while spitting dark flames, and Mario has to find the correct exit to wake up, the others contain spikes that can combo you AND won't pull you out of the dream.

** In the Battle Ring, the attacks of the X version of [[spoiler:Antasma]] all become That One Attack, because every single one has the chance to [[spoiler:make you [[DreamWithinADream sleep]]]]. It's almost a relief that the boss who follows after is one of the most fun bosses to fight.

** The Mechakoopas' fireball march. In theory it sounds simple: bait them by moving into their path, then move back once they're done shooting. In practice, it's all but undodgeable, as there's no way to move out of their way and back quickly enough without getting hit by another Mechakoopa's fireballs. No, you can't just jump over the fireballs, as they constantly fire if you're in their path. There's a good chance they'll use this attack before you can even move, up to five times in a row. A way to dodge is to wait at one end of the battlefield until you see the exclamation mark indicating that the Mechakoopa saw Mario, then move to the other end of the battlefield and hop over the 1 or 2 fireballs the last Mechakoopa shoots at Mario, before jumping over the Mechakoopa itself.
** Torkscrew can dig towards one of the Mario. Bros., completely submerge, then pop out a second later. You have to jump to avoid the drill, but if you're even a split second too early, the Mario Bro. will get caught on the drill, forcing the other to chase Torkscrew past several rows of bombs as the victim drops coins every few seconds.

** [[spoiler:Dreamy Bowser]] has two of these. First is a [[RuleOfThree hammer attack]] where he hits one of the brothers (signaled by a coin flip) at a very fast speed. If you counter he will then hit the other one and it does huge damage to both brothers. The second has him summon dreamy versions of enemies though these are not the main problem as while they come in numbers rarely seen outside the dreamworld they are easy to beat. The problem is [[spoiler:Dreamy Bowser goes into the background and heals while they are on the field.]]

** [[spoiler:The Zeekeeper.]] Due to how giant boss fights work in the game and since this boss is constantly fleeing from you, said act of fleeing and its attempts to shake you off are technically his turns, meaning you have to wait a ''while'' before getting to do anything of your own accord. To make matters worse, he's the only giant boss in the game that attacks before you get a chance to. It only gets worse when it begins to travel dimensions, instructing you to move with the gyro controls. Due to a fairly common GameBreakingBug, the gyro controls can often fail to register, making this fight impossible to win unless by sheer luck you can dodge its attacks by ''not being targeted''. A lot of players likely haven't noticed this, but in order to actually catch up with [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]], you have to dodge/counter his attacks ''perfectly'' just to get a chance to successfully attack him, and if you get hit even once you actually fall back a few steps and [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]] will just move on to his next move, one after another. What this means is that this battle can potentially take ''forever'' to get done with if you aren't perfect at dodging and/or countering.
** Earthwake. Giant hammer formation attack causes hell if not countered properly. And it comes right out of nowhere after a simple fetch quest too...
** [[spoiler:Giant Bowser, because he's by far the most complex giant boss in the game and introduces a ton of new mechanics you need to learn/attacks you need to dodge or counter. Its gyro phase is arguably even harder due to a common GameBreakingBug. Bonus points for the second gyro phase involving precise timing to get around a sequence of fireballs, because if you don't do this ''perfectly'', you will fail and Bowser will get to keep attacking. ''And this is the only way to attack him at this point in the battle''.]] That part's even ''worse'' in the Battle Ring, as using the Star Driver ''uses up one of your attack turns,'' meaning you only have [[DeathOrGloryAttack the one shot at KOing Bowser]] (''maybe'' two if everything goes well in the rest of the fight.)
** The second and final fight with [[spoiler:Antasma]]. Not only are all of his attacks hard to dodge, but they also have a chance of putting Mario to sleep and send you to his nightmare realm, forcing you to avoid [[spoiler:Antasma's]] fireballs and going into one of five holes to find the exit. The fireballs have the unfortunate effect of knocking Mario forwards when he's hit, which will, more often than not, force you into a "bad" hole. (In the Battle Ring, this attack is even worse, as it chews up a turn if you fall into a "bad" hole, which you most likely will.) Later into the fight, he will pull out Luigi and put him into one of his [[spoiler:Antasmunchies]] and will rotate them to change their formation, and you might JUST accidentally glance at the wrong one and probably waste a turn just to free Luigi.

* ThatOneLevel: Dreamy Somnom Woods is a maze withots of puzzles and confusing rooms, capped off with a frustrating battle against [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]].

* WinBackTheCrowd: This game, along with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', was able to convince fans (albeit not completely) that the ''Mario'' franchise still had some ideas left in it, after a long line of controversial ''Mario'' games (namely ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar''.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: See [[AwesomeMusic/MarioAndLuigi the Awesome Music page for the series]]. If there's one thing everyone can agree on with this game, it has what is considered to be ''the'' best Soundtrack in the entire series so far, with the only real vocal complaints being over whether if ''Bowser's Inside Story'' had a better final boss theme or not. (And even then, people agree that regardless, the final boss theme for this game is still utterly amazing as well.)

* ContinuityLockout: In regards to the story, no. In regards to specific characters, yes. The game reintroduces a number of characters that appeared in previous entries, like [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Starlow, Broque Monsieur, Broggy]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime Kylie Koopa]], and [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Popple]], and seems to expect the player to already know who they are.

** Time freezing badges. Combine the Gold Badge and Miracle Badge, and you can stop time. And store the effect to use in any battle in the game. And use ridiculously overpowered attacks like the Zee Egg and Star Rocket twice before the enemy can even move. And then use the same effect again the second it runs out, for a max of four times in a row - or a whopping five if you time the Badge Meter's charging just right. Oh, and the Birthday equips stack on top of this. End result? You can literally do up to 50,000 damage before the enemy can even move or attack. It means you can take out the final boss before it can move, the penultimate boss before it can move and all four of Kamek's clones/forms before they can move. Oh, and it's possible to get this combo right before the final dungeon and completely steamroll through every boss in sight. And in the Battle Ring, the turn count does not move forward when this badge is in effect.

** The Wellington/Farmer's Boots. What does this pair of boots give you? Why, the ability to occasionally get ''[[StatGrinding Beans]]'' instead of coins. Combine this with Dream World enemies and Luiginary Ball (and maybe the gloves that give you more coins from doing that), and you won't need to care about stats in the nearest future, as well as customizing the Bros. exactly how you want them.

** The Angel Bangle mixed with the Casual Bros. Rank Up effect. The Angel Bangle restores 20 HP and 10 BP a turn. Casual Bros. cuts the price of special attacks in half. None of the special attacks exceed 20 BP, so none of the moves with Casual Bros. will exceed 10 BP. And since you heal 10 BP a turn, this means ''infinite Bros. moves, with absolutely no restrictions outside of the BonusBoss.'' In fact, the Angel Bangle in general is overpowered; even without Casual Bros., only 6 of the 16 special attacks use more than 10 BP, so one can still spam any of the other 10 every turn, or even one of the more expensive ones followed by a cheap one (say, Zee Egg followed by 3D Red Shell, Star Rocket followed by Dropchopper, or Luiginary Wall followed by Luiginary Ball) so that the combined BP cost still adds up to 20 or less. And then you get 20 HP worth of healing in the bargain.
** You can use Bros. Boots as a substitute for the Angel Bangle. They recharge your BP whenever you use a Jump attack, based on how much damage you do. Sounds okay at first, but what's really broken about it is that the effect ''stacks'' with Bros./Luiginary attacks that use the boots, and given that those attacks do way more damage than jump attacks do, you'll often recover more BP with the boots than you used to perform the attack in the first place (especially if you have the aforementioned Casual Bros. bonus). Enjoy never having to use regular attacks again!

** Silver + Miracle Combo. What does this do? It says Resets status to the last turn, but it actually resets the status of both Bros to how it was '''at the start of the battle'''. In addition, it doesn't reset how much you've beaten up the enemy, so they stay brutally mauled, and you end up in a good condition again. This cures status effects and heals damage to the point you were at before, so it can act like a free combo of a Max Candy and a Refreshing Herb. For both characters. It's also very 'cheap', in that the bar for it is filled in just 14 hits (compared to more than 20 for most other powerful badges). And against Bowser Jr? It BRINGS BACK the Bros. Attacks he steals! So you can go Star Rocket, Zee Egg, reset, more Star Rocket and Zee Egg! It can completely destroy the difficulty of the Battle Ring...
** Boost Wear/Energy Wear. Seems useless at first, but filling your badge meter every time you get hit is a pretty damn powerful effect. Especially against the Elite Trio or Antasma, who have attacks that can hit about 10 times per turn. Remember all those useful badge combos? Well, they're even more broken when you can fill the meter every time the enemies hit YOU as well as the other way around!

** The Master Gloves. If you can get an Excellent on a Bros. Attack or Luiginary Attack, your BP is refunded. With this, you can spam the most powerful moves in the game with no cost, if you're good enough. Yes, that means you can spam Luiginary Flame/Hammer, Zee Egg, and Star Rocket to your heart's content. Combine with the already broken Gold + Miracle badge combo, and just see how fast everything '''dies'''.

** The Duplex Crown, your reward for completing all the Expert Challenges. Equipping it on a bro lets him have two consecutive turns in battle. With that and all the other game breakers listed here, you're suddenly overpowered twice over. In fact, you'd probably be a little bit '''too''' hard on the game by then. ''Even in hard mode''. In fact, it becomes almost trivial to beat the Battle Medley in the minimum 9 turns (1 for each battle).

** Hermite Crabs. They're common, basically the only enemy in Wakeport outside of the Dream World, can't be killed with a preemptive strike and have hard to dodge, annoying attacks. You can't go four steps in some directions in Wakeport without bumping into one, and what's worse, their hard to dodge attacks? Have to be dodged ten times in a row for the 'Dodge Ten Wakeport' challenge unless you use Boo Biscuits against a single Virus in a single part of town. Oh, and they then get Hermite Crab R variants, which are also ridiculously common.

** Of Big Massif's four disciples, [[{{Kevlard}} Beef]] [[HealingFactor Cloud]] is the biggest offender. He has quite a bit of HP for a disciple, only being beaten by [[GlacierWaif Sorrow Fist]], and his DEF is quite high for the point in the game at which he's fought. [[StoneWall However, he is unable to attack]], meaning that you technically cannot lose this fight. He also has a HealingFactor that heals him in real-time rather than in turns, which means that if you're lacking in POW or BP, the fight can potentially drag on for hours if you can't wake him up for at least one turn.

** The [[DemonicSpiders Beehoss]]' bee swarm counterattack. When attacked, it fires a hard-to-dodge swarm of bees. Jump ''on'' the bees instead of jumping ''over'' them? They counter your counter with an ''unavoidable'' counterattack. This mechanic applies to their standard attacks, which are no easier to dodge.

* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper:
** Played with during the giant Wiggler boss fight. Popple (who is on your side at the time) will "help out" by annoying the Wiggler, causing it to get pissed and making its attacks harder to avoid. Once you get rid of it, he immediately turns on you so he can take the treasure for himself, implying he may have been doing it on purpose.
** Players think that there are too many tutorials in the game. The player is still being given tutorials in Somnom Woods, the penultimate level of the game. The game (mostly) stops holding your hand in [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Neo Bowser Castle]].

** Bowser also has this status. Some fans are happy to see him as a powerful and somewhat intelligent, menacing villain once again. Others criticize him for [[spoiler:betraying potential new fan-favorite villain Antasma and hijacking the plot from him]], and believe that such portrayals of Bowser should be confined to the main series games rather than the [=RPGs=]. There's also the fact that Bowser has lost his humorous IneffectualSympatheticVillain portrayal from his other RPG appearances in exchange for straightforward villainy.
** The Elite Trio (Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk, and Sergeant Guy). Some are not happy they returned, but others were. Then there's going into [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames whether]] [[GoddamnedBoss or not]] you enjoyed their boss fight.

** [[spoiler:Antasma is somewhat easier compared to Giant Bowser before and Dreamy Bowser after. This makes sense from a narrative standpoint, considering you fight him right after Bowser hijacks the plot from him.]]
** If you can count them as a boss (based on the music), then the Fly Guy R thieves are this. They're just normal Fly Guy Rs. No new attacks or gimmicks, and no more health or higher stats than usual. And you've beaten up dozens of them already.
** Possibly [[spoiler:Bowser Jr. He's not super easy, but his attacks are also not that difficult to dodge, especially compared to those Bowser X in the last game. He's a fun boss to fight though, so one could say he's the one example of a BonusBoss ever who's actually legitimately entertaining to battle and isn't just ridiculously hard for the sake of being ridiculously hard. And then there's the CatharsisFactor.]]

** [[spoiler:The whole Bowser vs. Antasma debacle, specifically Bowser's role as the BigBad and Antasma's relatively plain personality and status as Bowser's UnwittingPawn. There are Bowser fans who love the game's PlotTwist and were glad to see Mario's classic nemesis become a menacing villain and FinalBoss in a series where he started out as the ButtMonkey. Then there are Antasma fans who were looking forward to Antasma being a memorable, fleshed-out RPG villain just like Fawful and [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario Dimentio]], rather than just a FlatCharacter RedHerring for Bowser. And ''then'' there are fans who [[TakeAThirdOption just enjoy both villains and don't really care either way.]]]]

%%* DracoInLeatherPants: Antasma, as per the norm with any other Mario antagonist.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Antasma is criticized by some for being a FlatCharacter, but he really has no less characterization than most Mario RPG villains (see [[VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG Smithy]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Cackletta]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime the Shroob Princesses]], [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor Grodus, the Shadow Queen]], and [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory the Dark Star]]). The difference is that those villains either had quirky underlings to pick up the slack for their flat characterization, or were aliens/[[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]] that didn't require much characterization. Antasma doesn't have either to fall back on, so he stands out more as a flat character. It also doesn't help that he's being compared to the more popular RPG villains like [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Faw]][[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory ful]] and [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario Dimentio]], who did have better characterization. Many fans wanted him to be more like those two when those two were actually outliers. [[note]]Those two had better characterization because they were introduced as quirky underlings and either stepped into the BigBad role later (Fawful) or were later revealed to have been [[TheManInFrontOfTheMan the real Big Bad]] all along (Dimentio).[[/note]]

* MemeticMutation:
** Dreamy Brickle in a carrot suit and everything he says and does in it.
** Dynamax/Gigantamax Luigi [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', which allows almost all Pokémon to grow to gigantic size (sort of) via the new Dynamax feature, several jokes were made about (Giant) Dreamy Luigi secretly being a Dynamaxed/Gigantamax form of Luigi, Giant Luigi ([[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory or Bowser)]] [[HilariousInHindsight being the progenitor of the idea, or the like]]. Jokes about playing Size Up Your Enemy over a Max Raid Battle are also common.[[/labelnote]]
* MoralEventHorizon: Of all people to cross it, it's Popple, who, after being a mere annoyance in the Wiggler fight, decides to betray Mario and Luigi (his new rookies; ItMakesSenseInContext) since they're weakened. Thankfully, the fight and scene afterwards is a much deserved TraumaCongaLine.

* TheScrappy:
** The Dream Stone Spirit, considering how he acts like a total {{Jerkass}} to you and refuses to tell you where Bowser and Antasma were going with the MacGuffin, going so far as to turn into a giant drill machine to get rid of you for trying to get the information out of him. Needless to say, it will be [[CatharsisFactor immensely satisfying]] to beat the snot out of him as Giant Luigi.
** The Mole Hunt Proprietor, who runs the Mole Hunt minigame, a minigame that you're ''only'' playing because this idiot wants to make a quick buck off you by withholding access to the next part of the game until you pay him. (Granted, 10 coins is a pittance by the point in the game where it comes up, but still...) It's as if [[VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon Moneybags]] reincarnated into the Mario universe.

** Some of the Dream World mechanics are this, considering that Luigi's equipment has no effect on Dreamy Luigi and thus no effect on Mario when they combine in battle. Considering the fact you only control Mario, and only have one turn instead of two like in the real world, this makes most dream battles, and especially dream boss battles ''much'' tougher than they have the right to be, and the lack of a second character to revive the first will guarantee at least a few retried battles. Also, since you control both Bros., Dreamy Luigi can become a liability with the platforming if he gets left behind (and as a result, falls to his doom). Thankfully, Dreamy Luigi's ability to jump into Luiginary Works also acts as a nifty recall button. The fact that Luigi's stats and equipment have no effect on Giant Luigi battles becomes [[JustForPun a huge problem]] in later phases of the game.
** The fact that Mammoshka doesn't always drop his rare item the 1up-Gloves at the end of his battle which has a 50 percent chance of happening as opposed to the normal boss rate of dropping their rare item 100 percent of the time. If you're unlucky and he doesn't give you his item after his defeat, you'll either have to fight him again and hope for the best, or his item becomes [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost forever]].

** The [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant battles]] in general are this for some players. And there is no way to make them any easier; they are not affected by levels, stats, gear, or items, nor can you do them in Easy Mode after dying. The Giant Battle Medley gets special mention for forcing you through all five, with the only opportunity to heal being when Mushrooms appear during [[spoiler:Zeekeeper X's]] egg attack or fall whenever [[spoiler:Giant Bowser X]] drops into lava during the "Repel the Shell" segment. Unlike the Battle Medley, where the aforementioned levels, stats, gear or items will gradually allow you to defeat bosses before they can even move and recover from whenever you are hit, each Giant Boss has the potential to kill you no matter how far you've gone through the game.
** Speaking of the giant battles...the Drill Stomp, aka the "I sure do wish I was ambidextrous" attack. Drawing circles on the touchscreen may ''seem'' simple enough, but you have to draw ''a lot'' of them (there is very little leniency), you have to do it three times in a row, the direction of the circle is randomized for each of the three rounds each time, and depending on whether you are left-handed or right-handed, one direction will almost invariably be much harder to do than the other.

** The "Bomb Derby" Bros. attack. It's easy to get an "OK", but getting an "Excellent" is near impossible, due to the precise timing needed to hit all the bombs, and the fact that you need to focus on shooting them rapidly and hoping for the best, otherwise your EXTREMELY limited time will run out. Want the Duplex Crown? Too bad, you have to get an excellent in the Bomb Derby attack. [[note]]If you time your bomb throws at the same time you hit them, you can hit all of them in the limited time.[[/note]]
* SurpriseDifficulty: This game, is by far the hardest ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' game yet. It has bosses with a ton of health and healing abilities, difficult to dodge attacks and some actually very hard giant bosses and sidequests. And it gets worse on Hard mode. Thought you were in for an easy ride after Bowser's Inside Story? This game can and will destroy you.
** One of the key factors is that, while other games in the series were easier if the player masters [[ActionCommands timed hits]], this game is basically unwinnable if you can't figure them out.

** Also [[spoiler:the FinalBoss Dreamy Bowser's theme]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elb6A7iT6P0 Adventure's End]] sounds a lot like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLJuT8zPmvA Final Destination]] from ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. This probably doubles as a FridgeBrilliance ShoutOut reference to the fact that [[spoiler:Bowser has also been a boss]] in both games.
* ThatOneAchievement: Completing the ''entire'' challenge list to earn the Duplex Crown counts for this, though there are some standout challenges:

** Earthwake's hammer attack for starters, since it's very easy to fail to block, does a ton of damage... and seemingly nobody on Youtube has managed to completely avoid it. Oh, and he swings about 10-15 times in a row on hard mode... [[spoiler:Hint: Swing when you hear a chime.]]
** Pi'illodium's hammer attack isn't much better. He slowly rises offscreen with a counter dropping down. It continues even when you can't see him, so you better know when it hits "0", and even then, be prepared for the speed at which Pi'illodium slams down on his target. Mess up the timing, take massive damage (and possibly dizziness). He also has another one in the form of his self destruct move, which operates ''on a real-time timer in a turn-based game''.

** Speaking of Big Massif, there's also his disciples. All four of them have a special gimmick in their fights that turn each of them into a BeefGate (especially [[DamageSpongeBoss Beef]] [[HealingFactor Cloud]]) and require you to have a working knowledge of all your battle skills up to that point. If you don't, then they could be even more frustrating than Big Massif himself.
*** The hardest of the disciples is Thunder Sass. He has the lowest count of HP for all four disciples, but this is well made up for by the brutal gimmick added to the fight: you can only counter-attack him. Yes, the Jump and Hammer Attacks are banned in this battle, as well as your Luiginary Attacks. Oh, and badge effects are banned too. This means that healing is the only thing you can do when you get your turn. So if you can't counter-attack, this battle is physically IMPOSSIBLE to win. Combine this with hard-hitting difficult-to-dodge attacks, and you've got a recipe for one of the more difficult bosses of the game.
** Pi'illodium, which continues the trend of a late boss being a frustratingly difficult killer robot (kind of like Junker from the last game, who is another ThatOneBoss). Now the boss itself is not THAT difficult to defeat, and breaking both of its wings will let you deal more damage to it, but the attacks it uses are just painful. For example, the hammer attack, which not only goes offscreen for a few moments before striking, making it tough to tell when he will strike, but the timing of the strike itself is so cheap, it would be a miracle to properly counter this attack (what is it with this game and obscenely tough to counter hammer attacks?). But that's not even the worst part; the worst part is that the hammer attack has a chance to cause dizziness, which means that Pi'illodium will most probably aim for the dizzy brother with another tremendous attack afterwards. And that means you have to waste a turn to revive your dead brother, only to have your other brother probably become dizzy as well. And the less said about its missile chase attack, the better... oh, and there's also its last-resort self-destruct timer. The timer runs in real-time, meaning it doesn't stop, no matter what you do. Meaning? With ''superb'' execution, you have roughly enough time to perform two Bros. Attacks. Better know what you're doing at that part...

* ThatOneLevel: Dreamy Somnom Woods can easily be this. The maze? Check. Lots of puzzles and confusing rooms? Check. ThatOneBoss? Well, [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]] is fought at the end (with easily broken motion controls!) and Pi'illodium is fought at the beginning (with its hammer attack and self destruct timer), so you end up having one annoying boss before you enter and one annoying one fought to leave. Oh, and you'd better not mess up [[spoiler:the Zeekeeper]] fight on Hard mode, unless you want to see a lengthy cutscene about ten times.
* ThatOneSidequest: The Mad Skillathon Challenges. Battle Broque Madame. The Battle Ring in general. The Giant Battle Ring even compared to the last three. And then the Hard Mode Battle Ring which is pretty much the meanest, most difficult part of the entire game due to extremely stingy turn limits and long, difficult battles with hard to dodge attacks.

** [[spoiler:Some people are already giving this game flak for having Bowser be the final boss, although the move is being received much more positively than in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', due to Bowser breaking out of his DumbMuscle BigBadWannabe niche usually seen in the Mario [=RPGs=] while still keeping his personality.]]
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Some of the reaction to Antasma is this. [[spoiler:Bowser usurping him as the BigBad]] combined with his [[GenericDoomsdayVillain lack of characterization]] left many fans feeling his potential was underdeveloped.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** Critics had hoped for the Dream World sequences to be much more surreal than they ended up being.
** A game about Mario going through a Dream World, and not one reference to [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2 Subcon]]? ''For shame''!
** Considering the main plot of the game is going through Luigi's dreams, some had hoped to see more references and cameos of past villains as well as take the game down a darker road. Especially with the concept of Dream's Deep, being an especially trippy area representing Luigi's deep subconscious. After a surreal first entry, not much was really done with the idea, as it is only ever explored once again and that time was more for starting the Ultibed quest than anything with Luigi or his history.

* WinBackTheCrowd: This game, along with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', was able to convince fans (albeit not completely) that the ''Mario'' franchise still had some ideas left in it, after a [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2 long]] [[VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar line]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosU of]] [[VideoGame/NewSuperLuigiU controversial]] ''Mario'' games. In particular, fans agree that the announcement and release of ''Dream Team'' were timed very well, as it came only a few months after ''Sticker Star'', the previous highly polarizing ''Mario'' RPG.
* TheWoobie: Luigi as in most games fits this pretty well, especially in the earlier parts of the game. The game also has Prince Dreambert, Wiggler, and Sorrow Fist (the last of these to the point where Luigi feels sorry for him).
* WoobieSpecies: The Pi'illos in general count for this, since they were trapped in the dream world after they stopped Antasma for the first time.

* BadassDecay: Bowser X, the BonusBoss for the last game had a lot of HP along with many nearly unavoidable and hard hitting attacks. Here, since Bowser is an early-game boss, this version of Bowser X is easily curbstomped with a Luiginary Attack, assuming you fight him later on in the game.
** Justified in that you're fighting powered-up memories of the real Bowser as he was at that time. [[spoiler:The real Bowser ends up averting this by hijacking the endgame.]]

** [[spoiler:Giant Bowser, because he's by far the most complex giant boss in the game and introduces a ton of new mechanics you need to learn/attacks you need to dodge or counter. Its gyro phase is arguably even harder due to a common GameBreakingBug. Bonus points for the second gyro phase involving precise timing to get around a sequence of fireballs, because if you don't do this ''perfectly'', you will fail and Bowser will get to keep attacking. ''And this is the only way to attack him at this point in the battle''.]]
** The second and final fight with [[spoiler:Antasma]]. Not only are all of his attacks hard to dodge, but they also have a chance of putting Mario to sleep and send you to his nightmare realm, forcing you to avoid [[spoiler:Antasma's]] fireballs and going into one of five holes to find the exit. Later into the fight, he will pull out Luigi and put him into one of his [[spoiler:Antasmunchies]] and will rotate them to change their formation, and you might JUST accidentally glance at the wrong one and probably waste a turn just to free Luigi.
** Big Massif in the Dream World. If you are to kill any of his Mooks, depending on how many you killed, Big Massif gets a Power Bonus; since all of your Dream World attacks are [[HerdHittingAttack Herd Hitting Attacks]], this is almost guaranteed to happen. Worse yet, he summons more and more of them every turn. You can't just relegate yourself to weak attacks to avoid killing them either, as Big Massif has a chasing attack that grows in strength for every Mook he has with him, which is ''further'' boosted when he's pissed off. You ''have'' to keep the Mook count to a minimum and - more importantly - get good at dodging Big Massif's attacks, or he'll mop the floor with you.

** Pi'illodium, which continues the trend of a late boss being a frustratingly difficult killer robot (kind of like Junker from the last game, who is another ThatOneBoss). Now the boss itself is not THAT difficult to defeat, and breaking both of its wings will let you deal more damage to it, but the attacks it uses are just painful. For example, the hammer attack, which not only goes offscreen for a few moments before striking, making it tough to tell when he will strike, but the timing of the strike itself is so cheap, it would be a miracle to properly counter this attack (what is it with this game and obscenely tough to counter hammer attacks?). But that's not even the worst part; the worst part is that the hammer attack has a chance to cause dizziness, which means that Pi'illodium will most probably aim for the dizzy brother with another tremendous attack afterwards. And that means you have to waste a turn to revive your dead brother, only to have your other brother probably become dizzy as well. And the less said about its missile chase attack, the better... oh, and there's also its last-resort self-destruct timer. The timer runs in real-time, meaning it doesn't stop, no matter what you do. Better know what you're doing at that part.

** Dynamax/Gigantamax Luigi [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', which allows almost all Pokémon to grow to gigantic size (sort of) via the new Dynamax feature, several jokes were made about (Giant) Dreamy Luigi secretly being a Dynamaxed/Gigantamax form of Luigi, Giant Luigi ([[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory or Bowser)]] [[HilariousInHindsight being the progenitor of the idea, or the like]]. Jokes about playing Size Up Your Enemy over a Max Raid Battle are also common.[/labelnote]]

** Dynamax/Gigantamax Luigi [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', which allows almost all Pokémon to grow to gigantic size (sort of) via the new Dynamax feature, several jokes were made about (Giant) Dreamy Luigi secretly being a Dynamaxed/Gigantamax form of Luigi, Giant Luigi ([[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory or Bowser)]] [[HilariousInHindsight being the progenitor of the idea, or the like]].[[/labelnote]]

** Dynamax/Gigantamax Luigi [[labelnote:Explanation]]After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'', which allows almost all Pokémon to grow to gigantic size (sort of) via the new Dynamax feature, several jokes were made about (Giant) Dreamy Luigi secretly being a Dynamaxed/Gigantamax form of Luigi, Giant Luigi ([[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory or Bowser) [[HilariousInHindsight being the progenitor of the idea, or the like]].[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticMutation: Dreamy Brickle in a carrot suit and everything he says and does in it.

* The Quick Healer rank-up effect. It doubles the effect of all healing items, much like the Delicious Gloves from [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory the previous game.]] However, what makes it broken is that, like the Delicious Gloves, it affects the other Bro if the Bro with the effect uses a healing item on them; therefore, you only need one Bro with the effect. With this effect, Ultra Nuts, which usually only heal a meagre fifty Heart Points, act as a party-wide Ultra Mushrooms, Mario can fill up his massive health in the Dream World in one turn, and Max Candies restore ''absolutely ludicrous'' amounts of Heart Points. and Bros. Points.

** Bottomless Gloves. Infinite items (aka your healing items never run out). In the Battle Ring, this completely annihilates much of the difficulty.
** The Wellington/Farmer's Boots. What does this pair of boots give you? Why, the ability to occasionally get [[StatGrinding Beans]] instead of coins. Combine this with Dream World enemies and Luiginary Ball (and maybe the gloves that give you more coins from doing that), and you won't need to care about stats in the nearest future, as well as customizing the Bros. exactly how you want them.