The fourth game in the
Mario & Luigi series for the 3DS. Its
Japanese name is
Mario & Luigi RPG 4: Dream Adventure and its European name is
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros. As with
New Super Mario Bros. 2, it was announced late in its development and, therefore, closer to its release date (February 2013-Summer 2013).
Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toadsworth, and the many Toads are invited to Pi'illo Island and so they travel to the island for sightseeing. While touring the island, Luigi sleeps on one of the special pillows of the island, opening a portal to the Dream World. This gives an opportunity for the game's
Big Bad, Antasma, to kidnap Peach and take her into the Dream World. It is then explained that there are two sources of power in the Dream World, the Dream Stone and the Dark Stone, the latter being shattered by Antasma in order to turn Pi'illos into stone. It is then up to Mario and Luigi to travel across the island, trek into the Dream World, and to free the frozen Pi'illos and to
Save the Princess.
The game's main gimmick, opposed to
Partners in Time (
Time Travel) and
Bowser's Inside Story (
"Fantastic Voyage" Plot), involves
a journey in Luigi's dreams. For the first time since
Superstar Saga, Mario and Luigi are going on an adventure by themselves (the previous two games paired them up with
the Baby Mario Bros. and
Bowser, respectively). The catch: for about half of the game, Luigi sleeps, allowing Mario to visit his dreams. Luigi can still manifest within his own dreams to assist his brother, and he can even
multiply himself in this case.
Notably, despite the DS' polygonal graphics,
this is the first time the style of the games' artwork gets adapted to 3D graphics. This transition is smooth though, so the
Polygon Ceiling is thankfully an
Averted Trope.
Tropes include:
- Big "WHAT?!": Starlow and Toadsworth got this after finding out that the Peach was a fake.
Toadsworth: Master Mario! How fared you?
Starlow: Did you hide her in a pleasant spot?
Mario explains to them.
Toadsworth: Mm hmm... So Princess Peach was an impostor, was she?
Starlow: Well, excellent news. It was a fake prin -
- The Blacksmith: The Pi'illo equivalent is The Bedsmith. In fact, his name is Bedsmith.
- Bleak Level:
- Dreamy Mount Pajamaja, on the summit. Bleak enough in itself (being the summit of an icy mountain), but even moreso in context. While you're in there, everyone in the real world is unconscious, and the portal back to the real world is sealed. It may be the closest the bad guys have ever gotten to winning, especially if the titular mountain turned Mario into a dreamy pancake.
- Dreamy Neo Bowser Castle. The regular Neo Bowser Castle has an exciting intensity to its ominousness that keeps it from being too eerie, but the Dream World equivalent has nightmarish chains and Bowser faces floating around and two musical tracks, a dirge-like one for the main portion
and a harsh electronic one for Bowser's Dream, that give it a very sinister vibe.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: Damage dealt to the enemies or Bros as a result of gear effects is delivered via sudden lightning strike. Even if you're fighting underground.
- Bonus Boss: Making his debut in the Mario & Luigi series on the 3DS, we have Bowser Jr..
- Boss Banter: Activate: Pi'illodium Robo Speak. With upper hand: mocking. When wings unoperational: depressive.
- Boss Bonanza: Neo Bowser Castle has three fights with Kamek and, later on, a gauntlet with Giant Bowser, Antasma and Dreamy Bowser. Luckily you can save in between, and you get healed before the Final Boss.
- Boss in Mook Clothing:
- Pi'illodactyls in Mt. Pajamaja can become this if you provoke them with a Taunt Ball. They take a long time to defeat and can deal very powerful damage to the Mario Brothers. There's also a tougher variation later on in the game in Somnom Woods.
- The Gold Beanie too, being the toughest non-boss enemy in the dream world. It even has its own chase attack (a sequence with Mario running to the foreground/background), which is usually only given to bosses. It's come quite a way since ''Superstar Saga''.
- Boss Remix: Antasma's Leitmotif is remixed for the final battle with him, as well as the very first battle against him in the beginning of the game.
- Brick Joke:
- Early on in the game, you can find a Toad talking to a staff member in a Zeekeeper costume, the former claiming that the latter is in a costume all the while the latter denying it. Later on, when you have the ability to get to the Pi'illo Castle Staff Room, you can talk to another guy in a Zeekeeper costume. Talk to him, and he'd ask you to help him zip up, only to realize that you're actually a guest and tells you to keep quiet about it.
- At the beginning of the "Massif Brothers' Tour" arc, you find out that the Massif Brothers have long desired to gain enough muscles to break open the gate that's in front of them. When you free both gatekeeper Mega Pi'illos, they open the gate by... smashing them into pieces. Cue the Massif Brothers praising them and calling them "Muscle Lords" (all the while the Mega Pi'illos kept on insisting they're not "Muscle Lords").
- An easy to miss brick joke involves the Shelltop cleaner in Pi'illoper's house. When you first encounter him, he claims he could've sworn the house had a basement at one point. When you finally find Pi'illoper by going to the second floor of his house, he promptly drops down to reveal the entrance to his basement. Talking to the Shelltop again will cause him to comment on both the "secret basement" and the fact that there's people falling from the "second floor", causing him to essentially go "What's wrong with this house!?!".
- Broken Aesop:
- Played for Laughs, of course. The Zeekeeper refuses to piece the Dream Stone's dust back into its original form because he doesn't want people to use a trinket to get their jobs done for them... Instead, he turns the dust into a massive Dream Coin that he breaks through to shower the island with coins, and then he adds that the money will pay for his illogical services for helping the heroes. Dreambert is crushed by this action.
- The Zeekeeper also says people shouldn't use the Dream Stone for material gain... right before he shouts how much he loves coins and uses up the Dream Stone to shower the island with money.
- Brown Note: The Dreambeats. Anyone who hears them that isn't a Pi'illo, Starlow or Antasma instantly falls into a deep sleep. Mario barely got out of it, Bowser simply covered his ears since he expected it, but Luigi wasn't so lucky, to the point of falling into a sleep so deep that the Dream Portal collapsed, trapping Mario in the Dream World he was hiding in.
- Buffy Speak: Dreambert's comment before the Earthwake battle is this. "Dreamy Luigi! Focus! Don't freak out! Be at one with defeating this giant... town... monster."
- Bullying a Dragon: Popple gets in a fight with a Wiggler and forces Mario and Luigi to help him. Throughout the fight, the Wiggler beats him up with a few of his attacks and Mario and Luigi beat him up when Popple tries to "help." And after you beat the Wiggler, he decides to fight the ones who did all of the work to get them out of the way. Yeah, reeeaaalll smart there, Popple.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Butt Monkey:
- Luigi, as usual.
- Mario has his moments as well. Far fewer, but they're there.
- Surprisingly, Prince Dreambert shares this trope far more often than Mario.
- Call Back: Dream Team is loaded with them.
- Catapult Nightmare: Upon waking from a nightmare where Antasma causes their Zeepelin to crash, Luigi shoots up and starts running in panic across the perfectly intact vehicle, only to fall off so hard that he conks out again. It was an epic nightmare though according to one of the Toads.
- Catching Some Z's: Luigi in the localization's boxart.
- Character Customization: Limited, but whenever you rank up, you get to pick a trait that will stick on your character for that playthrough, with no way of changing it.
- Character Development: It's subtle, but Mario is getting more of it such as his reactions towards his brother, his shock upon being completely ripped off, and that Mario can act, how shall we say, in a less than heroic manner?
Dreambert: Mario, I never knew you could be so... devious.
- Chain of Deals: In Wakeport, you can engage in a Matchmaker Quest that turns into one of these.
- Chekhov's Gun: The first door you find within Dreambert's dreamworld is locked. It plays a important role in the mid-game where it's revealed that behind the door is another section of Dream's Deep or, more specifically, in front of the Zeekeeper statue that details how one would summon him.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Downplayed with Dr. Snoozemore. He's mentioned (but doesn't appear) in the beginning, dropped for a while, and then finally appears tells Mario and Co. about the Ultibed, but still plays a relatively minor role.
- Chest Monster: The default appearance of the Dark Blocks in Dream's Deep is that of a black colored ?-block. When defeated, they turn yellow, making it safe for Mario to hit them normally.
- Climax Boss:
- There's the Elite Trio, fought in Dreamy Driftwood Shore after the reveal that Peach was being impersonated and the real one was kidnapped all along.
- And then right before the end, you fight Antasma after Bowser reveals that he had the Dream Stone in his power and his betrayal of Antasma, thus becoming the true Big Bad.
- Cognizant Limbs:
- Pi'illodium's wings. Taking them out causes Pi'illodium to drop to the ground and reduces its power and defense.
- Dreamy Bowser's arms. You have to destroy the right arm otherwise he will shield damage to his head.
- Common Place Rare: Beans and Wellington Boots (Farmer Boots in the American Localization). Seriously, the only way to get the Pi'illo Island/Mushroom World version of a common real life food item is literally to dig up at random marked spots, kill rare enemies or equip the (equally rare compared to real life) Wellington Boots that let you grind them from normal enemies.
- Continuity Nod: Tons, not just to previous games such as the return of old characters like Beanbean Kingdom residents, but also to past (non-RPG) Mario games.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Gold Beanies are immune to Luiginary Flame. Just Gold Beanies. All bosses? Take normal damage from it. And Gold Beanies themselves take normal damage/effects from everything else but Luiginary Flame. No idea why.
- Conveniently Empty Building:
- The villains demonstrate their newly gained power by blasting apart a number of small neighboring islands with no visible features and no mentions of casualties.
- Similarly, it's very lucky that Dreamy Wakeport's buildings are deserted during the battle against Earthwake. Especially when you consider that the hammer uppercut sends Earthwake flying straight through a line of skyscrapers. Though, as a Dream World location, it's vague as to whether the buildings were ever occupied in the first place.
- Cool Airship: There's several of these as background enemies, manned by Shy Guys. Dreamy Bowser can create them, as well.
- Credits Medley: The credits theme uses the beginning of the real world's battle theme, as well as the themes of all of the levels besides Neo Bowser Castle before ending on the end of the battle theme.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory: The timing for Excellent Jump attacks has been changed since Bowser's Inside Story.
- Deal with the Devil: Why Bowser and Antasma team up. While Antasma (and many M&L veterans) thought he was the devil in the deal, he finds out all too late that it was Bowser all along.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you are knocked out in a battle, you are given the option to try it again, even on easy mode if you so want to, without having to go back to your last save point, and in Giant battles, you can retry as often as you want but there is no easy mode available. Averted on Hard Mode, where dying sends you back to whenever you last saved.
- Death Mountain: Mount Pajamaja. Also a dormant volcano covered in snow on its upper levels.
- Death Throws: Enemies that you walk into while Mario's standing on some Luiginoids will do this instead of causing you to enter a battle screen.
- Department of Redundancy Department: From the Earthwake battle: "BAD-DAMAGE! DAMAGE-BAD! BAD-STACHES! MUST DEFEAT!"
- The Dev Team Thinks of Everything:
- Almost everything Dreamy Luigi does affects the real Luigi in some way. Every time Dreamy Luigi jumps (not Mario; just him), the real Luigi's eyebrows jump with it. This occurs even in cutscenes.
- Almost every NPC in the entire game, assuming they didn't leave first, had their dialog changed to accommodate them noticing Neo Bowser Castle appearing within the sky and the fact that it destroyed the neighboring smaller islands.
- If you already hit a Camera Block before you start Kylie Koopa's side quest involving said Camera Blocks, she'll comment about this.
- Luiginary Wind can move blocks from the background to the foreground. If the move were to cause one of the background blocks to move into Mario, it would push Mario into the foreground, only for him to literally jump back into the playfield soon after. (This is the only time one can get to see Mario doing this).
- If you destroy every one of a Beehoss' bees (by doing the risky move of stomping them when the Beehoss sends them out to attack due to said bees retaliating with an unavoidable attack when you manage to take out some of their brethren), the Beehoss will flee due to it being robbed of its only method of attacking.
- Halfway during Kamek's second fight, Kamek will summon some Dry Bones to take you on while he heals in the background. You're supposed to take out the Dry Bones first (or else you can't attack him directly), but if you're wise enough to try to use a Taunt Ball on Kamek, the game will allow you to do so... only for Kamek to briefly appear in the foreground to state that his Dry Bones are fully capable of defeating you before he goes back to the background.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The Zeekeeper battle. To wit: The Zeekeeper is heavily implied to be a Physical God. It can shoot powerful energy blasts, lay explosive eggs, rip open dimensional rifts, and other god-like powers. Luigi manages to defeat him with nothing but jumping, his hammer, a bunch of tree stumps and sheer determination. He even manages to keep up with the god-bird... WHILE ON FOOT.
- Difficult but Awesome: Luiginary Wall is tricky to master, but if you do, it can deal more damage than Luiginary Hammer or even the ultimate move, Luiginary Typhoon, can do.
- Jet Board Bash can be absolutely DEVASTATING to a powerful enemy or even a boss, possibly dealing even more damage than a Zee Egg and Star Rocket, but at the cost of less BP than the former. However, it's not THAT difficult to use, and even if you mess up the timing a little bit, it'll still do at least twice as much damage as a successful bros shell, unlike attacks like the Slingsniper, which are all-or-nothing.
- Difficulty Spike:
- 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.
- Speaking of giant battles, the Robo Drilldigger should be an easy win since it's mostly a glorified cutscene, Mount Pajamaja is a lot tougher but only his train attack is fairly hard to counter (thankfully he doesn't do it that often). But then comes the nasty robot/poltergeist known as Earthwake. He will hit you HARD and you will often have to make a Sadistic Choice between wasting an attack turn and healing or attacking and risking getting killed.
- The biggest difficulty spike comes around Mount Pajamaja, where the enemies become stronger, the bosses far more difficult, and when you're finally treated to battles with traditional Mario enemies in Driftwood Shore, you find that they're freakishly overpowered (even the lowly Goomba can kick your ass if you take it lightly).
- Disney Acid Sequence: A text-based example, if you drink from the fountain at Mount Pajamaja.
- Disney Villain Death: You are led to believe that Bowser fell to his death in his dream while furiously searching for food to grow. The cutscene ends for a split second before Giant Bowser emerges.
- Divergent Character Evolution:
- Mario and Luigi once again have unique special attacks, after sharing specials in the last two games. The only special attack used by both is the basic shell attack, which is a red shell for Mario and a green shell for Luigi, but even that works slightly different depending on the character: Mario's is aimed at the initially targeted enemy until it dies while Luigi's hits random targets.
- You can also enforce this for Mario and Luigi through the ranking system, picking bonuses that the other brother does not have such as HP increases and so on.
- As usual for the series, the bros' stats develop differently by nature, such as Luigi having greater defensive and 'stache stats than Mario at the cost of having lower speed and offensive stats (AKA ATK and Bros. Points). Level-up bonuses and beans can be used to balance this out or to specialize them more as the player wishes.
- Double Take: Upon first encountering Dreamy Luigi in Dreamy Pi'illo Castle, Mario simply nods at his younger brother and keeps walking into the level...only to turn back around and realize that, from his own perspective at least, there's no logical reason for Luigi to be following him in Luigi's own dream.
- Also, when Dreamy Luigi first goes giant, he looks down at his own hand in a rather indifferent fashion... then a couple seconds later, he realizes how big he's gotten and starts to panic.
- Starlow and Toadsworth after finding out that Peach was really Kamek in disguise in Driftwood Shore.
- Do Well, but Not Perfect: The Rookie Gloves allow you to use Bros./Luiginary Attacks without using any BP, as long as you don't get a Excellent score.
- Dream Land: The main setting aside from the real world.
- Dream Walker: Mario journeys through Luigi's dreams, assisted by Dreamy Luigi, Luigi's dream self.
- Dream Weaver: Luigi himself can manipulate the environment to help Mario through outside intervention by Starlow, help Mario directly through the same method, split himself up into many Luigis, turn into a towering giant, and give Mario an attack boost and access to "Luiginary" special attacks while in his dreams.
- Dream Within a Dream:
- Mount Pajamaja has a weird fountain of technicolor "magic water" that puts Mario and Luigi to sleep, giving a text description of their dreams. Its dream world counterpart has one too, thus giving a use of this trope.
- During the final fight with Antasma in the Dream World, if you fail to dodge his bat swarm, Mario can fall asleep and has to dodge another attack before he can wake up. Doesn't help that the dream attack is endless and the only way out his hidden well.
- Drop the Hammer: Mario and Luigi of course. Also, Earthwake and Pi'illodium, who don't so much use a hammer as become a giant hammer and smash into the Mario Bros. in one attack each. And Dreamy Bowser summons one at the end, deciding which Bro. to smash by flipping a coin.
- Dual-World Gameplay: Pi'illo Island and the Dream World. The part of the Dream World the Bros. end up visiting depends on where exactly Luigi falls asleep. Except that there are no dream world versions of the treasure caves.
- Dungeon Town: While the main portion of Wakeport is rather non-dangerous, the outlying sections and the Dream World feature plenty of monsters and puzzles.
- Durable Death Trap: Pi'illodium, who despite being the last... active part of the Pi'illo kingdom for how many hundreds or thousands of years, is still in enough working order to try and blow up the Mario Bros. with missiles and lasers and make comments about their imminent demise. Possibly also Earthwake, which has presumably just been left in Dreamy Wakeport for goodness knows how long and yet is still in perfect condition and able to horribly maul the last couple of adventurers confident/stupid enough to try and get the Nightmare Chunk.
- Eldritch Location: Dream's Deep. While the other Dream World areas are quite bright and cheery versions of their real-world counterparts, Dream's Deep is a deep and dark location full of no special gimmicks. It is literally the Dream World's representation of subconsciousness itself.
- End Game Results Screen: A pretty detailed one shows up after the credits. As a nice bonus, it's set to a soothing music box version of the main theme.
- Evil Overlooker: Antasma on the cover. Though not in gigantic head as per the norm, but as a bat.
- Experience Booster: One rank effect, some gear, one badge effect.
- Exposition Fairy:
- Starlow returns from Bowser's Inside Story as one of the two main fairies, though quite a bit more cynical than last time.
- Prince Dreambert is the other fairy, who is much more direct and eloquent.
- Expressive Mask: Pi'illoper's mask within the dream world animates as if it really is part of his face (in other words, it expresses his emotions). Justified in that it's implied this Pi'illoper is his "dream self". Or rather, what he himself wishes to benote In the real world, he collects a magazine dedicated towards anything related to the Pi'illo folk. In the dream world, he's a writer for said magazine. Averted with the real world's equivalent of him, for which his mask's simply a simple non-expressive mask.
- Face Fault: All of the time. Mario and Luigi even have a unique animation for it. One scene has them do several in a row in reaction to a character making some bad puns.
- Fake Special Attack: When you encounter Bowser's lackeys in his castle, they opt to use their special move: "LETHAL RETREAT!"
- Fission Mailed: Drinking from the fountain at Mt. Pajamaja triggers a cutscene where Mario and Luigi fall into a deep sleep, wakes up, discover a huge mushroom patch and begin munching on them. They grow huge, unable to return to normal. Game Over. Until Dreambert wakes them.
- Flat "What.": Starlow uses one of these in response to another absurd statement from the Massifs in Mount Pajamaja.
Big Massif: BEEF!
Li'l Massif: FOR!
Big Massif: TWO!
Both: BEEF STEW!
Starlow: What.
- Flunky Boss:
- Just about every normal Dream World boss is this or a variant, thanks to how attacks work in the Dream World. Dreamy Bowser also counts, with his ability to summon Dreamy versions of the Koopa Troop.
- Big Massif fights with smaller versions of himself.
- Finishing Move: Giant Luigi battles end using a special move called Finishing Bros. Dreamy Luigi jumps into the sky to retrieve a star. Mario hops on as Luigi throws it at the boss, allowing Mario to guide it into the enemy for the final hit.
- Foreshadowing: Why is it that, for being the main antagonist, Antasma has little to no direct conflict with the Mario Bros., while Bowser and his minions are constantly stirring up trouble? Furthermore, Bowser's visage is all over Neo Bowser Castle, and even the name of the place; why does Antasma get such little emphasis? Because he isn't the main antagonist.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Big Massif and his Hooraw disciples. Sorrow Fist (melancholic), Beef Cloud (phlegmatic), Heavy Zest (sanguine), Thunder Sass (choleric), and Big Massif (leukine).
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: More than one player has noticed symptoms of drowsiness while listening to the Dreambeats; see for instance this LP video, about 12 minutes in.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Antasma used to be a normal bat living on Pi'illo Island before he started eating nightmares to become a Sorcerous Overlord.
- Also, Bowser went from being the sideshow who was only there to kidnap Peach and add comic relief to the game's Big Bad who very nearly succeeded at his conquest goals.
- Fusion Dance:
- The Power Booster kind; when battling in the dream world, Dreamy Luigi sort of disappears into Mario, leaving a green glow around Mario. The effect is that the brothers get only one turn, but also a huge boost in attack power and turning all attacks into herd hitting attacks.
- Antasma and Bowser pull the same trick during the first Bowser battle; Bowser gets a purple aura, and lots of Antasma clones appear for certain attacks.
- Giant Luigi is created from hundreds of Luiginoids.
- Game-Breaking Bug:
- It's possible to have the game completely fail to register gyroscope input during the Zeekeeper and Giant Bowser battles. This pretty much makes them impossible until the game decides to work correctly, since these battles both have parts which have Luigi moved by the gyro only, as mentioned here. Fortunately, this has been mostly fixed by a later update; it can still happen, but far more rarely.
- If you downloaded it off of the EShop, it is very possible for the save file to randomly become corrupted, forcing you to start all over.
- Genius Loci:
- The boss of the Dream World version of Mount Pajamaja is... Mount Pajamaja. The volcano itself is sapient and wants to kill you.
- Earthwake is a partial example; it's made of the buildings of Dreamy Wakeport, though it's more of a Humongous Mecha controlled by a single computer than a living location.
- "Get Back Here!" Boss: The Zeekeeper fight consists entirely of you attacking it while chasing it down.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: A few times, like when one character notices that Starlow isn't wearing clothes, or much later in the game when Starlow and Prince Dreambert need to distract the three Fly Guys to get the Driftwood Jellyfish Sheets back, and make up a rumour involving a secret birthmark Bowser has somewhere on his body. It's implied that both its location and its shape are somewhat...interesting.
- Giant Flyer: The Pi'illodactyls, as well as the Zeekeeper.
- Smurfing: The Hooskis milk this hoo for all its worth. Oddly, the Massifs, as well as Big Massif's Hooraw disciples seem to be exempt from this.
- Sneeze of Doom: If Starlow gets Luigi to sneeze while dreaming, this happens within the dream. Also, while in the real world, Luigi has an ill-timed sneeze that causes the boss of Mount Pajamaja to wake up. With the same sound effect, no less.
- Snot Bubble: Luigi has one of these in the Japanese boxart.
- Some Dexterity Required: The various Bros. moves and Luiginary moves not only utilise the usual A and B buttons but also tilting left and right, back and forth and the option to have the 3D effect on or off, and if you're not careful, you can easily mess up your timing. This also applies to dodging enemy attacks so you're not just getting attacked from the right or above, but also left, below, back, from the foreground and even the background and they can be pretty difficult to avoid. Now try getting ten dodges and ten Excellent attacks in a row in the Expert Challenges and you've definitely got yourself a challenge. Also, the Giant Battles require the use of the stylus and occasionally tilting as well. Phew.
- Sophisticated as Hell: The Zeekeeper appears to be a terse and easily angered character with some Worthy Opponent tendencies. Then Dreambert shows up, and he drops the act.
- Sound Test: Unlocked for beating the main game once.
- Spin Attack: Bowser has one, and Giant Luigi performs one against Bowser.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: The environments are completely 3D, and some of the characters use 3D models. Most characters seem to still be represented by sprites done to look like 3D models, though, in the same general style.
- The Starscream: Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk and Sergeant Guy, when hearing about the possibility of a promotion for beating the Mario Bros., imagine being promoted over Bowser and what's more about bossing him around. Of course, that obviously would never happen even if they did win.
- Stealth Pun:
- While many aspects of Pi'illo Castle have changed since the disappearance of the population, Dreambert vouches that the Battle Ring was their traditional place for competition. Or in other words, Pi'illo fights.
- When the Massif Bros. are in full-on Large Ham mode, Starlow reckons, "We've made a massive mistake."
- Stronger Than They Look:
- Luigi in particular despite a lot of characters thinking that's he definitely less than buff. Dreamy Luigi is definitely strong if he's able to stop himself from being crushed by Giant Giant Bowser, Giant Bowser made even more massive thanks to Kamek. Dreamy Luigi is also able to block an absolutely humongous fireball from Giant Giant Bowser as well. That's some strength. Starlow also says this outright of the brothers.
- Goombas are first encountered around the midgame. What do you expect of Bowser's lowest henchmen that are usually easily squished in many other Mario games (and are usually the first enemies fought in other Mario RPGs)? These Goombas are pretty powerful for when you fight them and they even have a slightly more powerful version later on. There's also the Goombas that fight alongside the Elite Trio ... they can swarm up on you and do an almost unavoidable attack on you.
- Suddenly Voiced: Zig-Zagged with Luigi. While he's as unintelligible as Mario during most of the game (as in the past games in the series), when you visit Dream's Deep for the first time, you briefly read what's going on in his mind. It progresses to where Luigi directly addresses Mario, telling him what would happen next and asking him if he still wants to carry on, before joining him again as Dreamy Luigi. He goes back to being unintelligible afterward, except before every Giant Battle, where you can here what goes on in his mind while he grows.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: In a game where every enemy attack can be countered and backfire on them, what really counts as this trope? Maybe these attacks that have in common to be used by bosses, being easy to counter relatively to their other attacks and backfiring horribly for their user.
- The Elite Trio's Giant Bob-omb puts you in a chase sequence where you just nee to avoid or stomp goombas until the Bob-omb explodes, dealing massive damage to the entire trio (except Private Goomp if you let him escape). It's not rare for the trio to give Mario the victory by blasting themselves with this attack.
- Earthwake has an attack that consists in creating a big ball of bricks it then sends rolling at Giant Luigi. It moves so slowly that jumping on it doesn't require much timing, then you just have to hit Earthwake with it between to swings of its arms, again not that demanding in terms of timing, and you send it directly in the water pond, ready for punishment. Add to this that Earthwake doesn't benefit from its heavy armor when attacking, rendering it useless against this counterattack if it was on and you hadn't broken it yet.
- Taken for Granite:
- In the backstory, when the Dark Stone was shattered, the fragments rained down all over the island, turning all the Pi'illo people into stone pillows. The only way to turn them back is to enter their dream world and break all the fragments there.
- The Massif Bros. can temporarily turn into stone as a sort of defensive mechanism, though it's mainly used as a shock reaction.
- Take Your Time: Neo Bowser Castle won't collapse until you leave the tower before the final boss. Despite the falling bombs.
- Taking You with Me: The Pi'illodium will self-destruct once it runs extremely low on HP. If you don't destroy it in time, it will self-destruct (taunting you before it does) and cause massive damage. If both of the Mario Bros get KO'd, it's a game over (or loss in the Battle Ring). Interestingly, the countdown is in real time, rather than being turn-based. As such, the execution time of attacks becomes critical.
- Talking to Themself: In Dreamy Wakeport, the tour guide is actually Big Massif. So when Big Massif called him on his phone, it was actually him talking to himself.
- Technicolor Fire: One of Dreamy Bowser's attacks is to breathe rainbow-colored flames.
- Tempting Fate: During the Elite Trio battle, Private Goomp actually boasts after you KO one the first time "You like that, buddy?! It's called teamwork! Unless you KO all 3 of us at once, we can't lose!" Thanks for making it ridiculously obvious you idiot! Sergeant Guy even boots Private Goomp hard for spilling the beans.
- Testosterone Poisoning:
- The Massif Bros. are Large Hams and practically never stop talking about bulking up or overcoming challenges.
- The various "Heroes of Buffness" that they worship also qualify, as their monuments on Mount Pajamaja poke fun at their excessive manliness and/or musculature.
- That's No Moon!: The giant bosses for the most part. Those drills and machines in the background of Dreamy Dozing Sands? Form the main structure of the boss Drilldigger. That version of Mount Pajamaja in the Dream World? Is alive, and tries to kill you. That weird building holding the Nightmare Chunk in Dreamy Wakeport? That's Earthwake's head, which flies into the air and summons a Humongous Mecha made of buildings before it attacks. You only ever realise any of this right before the giant battles with said foes begin.
- Theme Naming: To keep this section short, let's just say that many of the places visited and characters met over the course of the game have something related to sleeping in their names. To the point that the few bosses that don't directly have a name based around sleep/dreaming (Pi'illodium and a few others) get such names in the French/German/Spanish/Italian translations.
- There's No Kill Like Overkill: Miracle Badge and Gold Badge combo + max level + high stats + Zee Egg and Star Rocket over and over + Duplex Crown = 99,999 damage on weak enemies. Enough to destroy the first monsters you see twelve thousand times over!
- Third-Person Person: The Bedsmith every now and then. "BEDSMITH! IS! THRILLSMITH!"
- This Is a Drill: The giant drill machine in the desert (And its Humongous Mecha counterpart in the Dream World). Also Torkscrew, the area boss, has a gigantic horn drill on its head.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Luigi seems to be treated with more respect in this game from nearly every character remembering his name, except Bowser of course (and even he remembers it at the very end after having his tail handed to him by Luigi in the final giant battle and the definitely final battle.) He's generally the one to come up with ideas on how to solve things such as the solution to opening the Pi'illos door panels and significantly, he gets equal credit alongside Mario for helping save Pi'illo Island and, by extent, the world. Even Starlow is (a little) less teasing to him this time round.
- Tiered by Name:
- Like its counterpart in Bowser's Inside Story, All of the bosses in the Battle Ring besides Bowser Jr. are rehashes of older bosses, who also have the same names as the original bosses but with "X" at the end of their names.
- All Underground Monkeys in this game have the same name as the originals but with "R" at the end of their names.
- Time-Limit Boss:
- Every boss in the Battle Ring, with the hard mode fights having shorter time limits and the hard mode giant boss fights having 'do perfect or die' time limits.
- Pi'illodium looks like one when it activates the self destruct timer in its own battle (oddly, this is a 30 second count down in real time, despite the turn based battle format). However, its quite possible to survive the self-destruct and win anyway, especially with a Boo Biscuit which turns the Bros into Intangible Men. It's also entirely possible for the player to defeat Pi'illodium before it even activates the self-destruct.
- Time Stands Still: What happens when the Gold and Miracle badges are used in combination with one another.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Bowser apparently finally, finally learned some cunning before the game, and was using Antasma all along. Good to see you back, Koopa King.
- Just as well? Remember Private Goomp, Corporal Paraplonk and Sergeant Guy? The three ragtag rookie minions from Bowser's Inside Story, who Bowser allowed back under the stipulation that they pull their weight? Guess what they go by these days? The Elite Trio. You even have a boss battle against them, wherein Goomp commands the entire Goomba army, Paraplonk airlifts Giant Bob-Ombs and becomes a whirling shell of death, and Guy has a Banzai Bill Cannon and a magic scepter—the kind the Magikoopas use. Nice job, guys.
- Kamek has become more dangerous than ever, having gained the ability to summon hordes of Dry Bones as well as incredibly specialized clones of himself. Especially when you consider that when he was fought in the distant past he was an Inept Mage in an apron. In fact, he and the Elite Trio took such a level in badass that Bowser still praises them at the end despite losing to the Mario Bros.
- It's not just the villains, either. Mario and Luigi's abilities, both in an out of battle, are much more dynamic, resulting in situations like Mario swinging around a huge ball of Luiginoids to smash through rock, or using them to create a tornado, or flinging themselves through the air at high speeds to smash through rocks. And they beat a Reality Warper Bowser at the end of the game without powering up.
- Giant Luigi is made of this trope, particularly the battle with Giant Bowser.
- Bowser's Koopa Troop have finally gotten their act together, after the last three games. Every single Koopa Troop enemy is a nonbrainwashed mid-to-endgame enemy, when in other Mario RPGs (Except the first Paper Mario or Sticker Star) including the other three games in the M&L series, they are some of the earliest enemies encountered, and in some games, the most powerful of them are brainwashed into service of someone else.
- The Beehoss enemy from the previous game returns with brand-new Spikes of Villainy and now releases a swarm of bees instead of a single one. If the Bros. jump on any of the bees while dodging, the rest will counter with an unavoidable attack.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Popple is much crueler in this game than in Superstar Saga, especially when he turns on the bros after they beat the Wiggler.
- To an extent, Starlow is much more critical and snarky towards Luigi than she was in the previous game, though she also softens up more.
- Totally Radical: Skillit, the Shelltop host for the Mad Skillathon.
Skillit: "Are you goin' to pull out some mad skills, boyeeeeeeeee?"
- Training Boss: Antasma, believe it or not. Smoldergeists also serve this role.
- Transforming Mecha: Both Earthwake and Robo Drilldigger. The former is a mecha made of buildings that can transform into a flying swarm of them and a gigantic hammer, the latter a robot made of drill pieces that can become a tank or a flying vehicle in order to use different attacks.
- Underground Monkey: Tougher versions of early enemies appear with "R" added to their names, with the expected Palette Swap. The more iconic foes like Goombas and Spinies don't even get that, retaining the exact same appearance but with increased stats.
- Unexpected Character: Bowser Jr. is an interesting case. He usually wouldn't be unexpected, but he doesn't show up at all until he's revealed to be the Bonus Boss, showing up with no foreshadowing whatsoever.
- Uniformity Exception:
- The games reveal that Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame both look very different (and, in the case of the latter, a lot bigger) than the average Brock (a species of block-looking beings introduced proper within these gamesnote Broque Monsieur and Broque Madame had appeared beforehand in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, but not the rest of their species). In addition, Brickle and Britta, two other noteworthy Brocks introduced in this game, also have appearances unique to them, with the former having a blue propeller hat, blue shoes and a triangular moustache (that seems to replace his mouth) while the latter resembling a miner (due to her being the boss of the Dozing Sands mining team).
- The Mole Hunt Proprietor is the only Shelltop with a moustache in the entire game.
- Pi'illoper can be distinguished from other Beanish folk by the mere fact that he usually wears a Pi'illo mask (due to him being a Pi'illo fanatic).
- Unique Enemy: There is only one Monolift R in the entire game, strangely. It's in the eastern part of Mt. Pajamaja, in the area with the warp pipe.
- Unwitting Pawn: Antasma ultimately turns out to be one of Bowser.
- Up to Eleven: Hoooooly shnikies, does this game throw scale out the window towards the end. Remember Giant Bowser? Remember how he can grow giant by himself, now? Remember how Kamek used to be in charge of that? Guess what? HE STILL CAN. In the final phase of the final Giant Battle, this results in an actually terrifying final obstacle: a GIANT GIANT BOWSER.
- Vacuum Mouth: Bowser kept this ability from the previous game. He uses it to merge with the Dream Stone for the final boss battle.
- Vampire Vords: Antasma sports this type of accent.
- Various Video Game Views: 3/4 View for the overworld, Side View for the dream worlds.
- Vehicular Turnabout: If you use a jump attack on Bowser Jr's Koopa Clown Car while he's not in it, the bros hijack it, and can then chase him, throwing random junk at him to do damage.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Neo Bowser Castle.
- Villainous Crossdresser: Anybody who remembers New Super Mario Bros. Wii sees this coming.
- Villain Team-Up: Antasma escaping sets off the plot, but him teaming up with Bowser is what drives it forward, Antasma doing his best to become The Man Behind the Man and failing.
- Wake-Up Call Boss:
- Hope you're used to dodging in the Dream World by now, and are decent at Luiginary Ball, as Bowser will be a nightmare if you're not, and it's still not easy if you do either, thanks to its multi-hit attacks and ability to attack multiple times per round, while Mario only gets one turn (and Luigi's boost do not compensate for Mario's paper defense and the boss's offensive and defensive stats). Have some Super Shrooms handy for this battle.
- Later in the Dream World, there's Big Massif and his disciples. Make sure you're decently-levelled and well-acquainted with all of your current skills, or you won't be getting past them easily.
- For Giant Luigi battles, Mount Pajamaja. The previous giant boss Drilldigger was pretty easy, and you even had a point in the fight where Dreambert tells Luigi to heal back to full health, then lets him use Rhythm Mushroom non-stop until he does. The battle with Mount Pajamaja? Has a strategy needed to weaken the boss for attack, a much wider range of moves, some attacks that knock Mario away, preventing the use of Bros attacks, and some nice strategy needed to stop him healing. Think of it as a nice warning about the next few such bosses, who will certainly not go kind on anyone...
- Walking Spoiler:
- The Zeekeeper and Bowser Jr.
- For the final boss battle, Bowser inhales the fragments of the shattered Dream Stone to become Dreamy Bowser, a giant, technicolor-glowing Reality Warper version of himself with the Dream Stone on his forehead and chest.
- Warm-Up Boss: Smoldergeist for normal battling, which also doubles as a Wolf Pack Boss. Antasma's Dreamy Mario in the Dream World.
- Wham Line: In Neo Bowser Castle, after Antasma declares that he has Bowser on his side to back him up, Bowser throws him to the ground and reveals that he was just using Antasma all along.
Bowser: Hmph! I don't work well with others!
Antasma: SCREEEK! Vut do you mean by this?!
Bowser: I mean you're an idiot! You thought you were using me? ME?! Buddy, I was playing you like a bat fiddle!
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Just where did Broggy go after the very beginning of the game?
- What did the destruction of the Dream Stone at the end do to the Dream Stone's Spirit? And where is the Dark Stone Spirit, if it has one?
- Who Dares?: Bowser exclaims "How DARE you?!" upon being hit by a Hammer Chop during the Giant battle with Luigi.
- Wolfpack Boss: The Smoldergeists, as well as The Elite Trio that combine this with Flunky Boss, as well as Kamek's third battle.
- The Worf Effect: Antasma finds himself on the receiving end of one near the end of the game. From Bowser.
- World Tree: In Dreamy Somnom Woods.
- You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again: Averted, if Mario or Luigi get knocked down by an enemy attack or first strike, they'll be perfectly vulnerable to enemy attacks.
- Your Costume Needs Work: You can talk to a staff member in the Pi'illo Castle staff room who wants to meet Mario and Luigi in person. When Luigi tries to convince her of his and his brother's identities, however, she dismisses it on the grounds that "the real Mario and Luigi looks much cooler".
- You Shouldn't Know This Already:
- Towards the end of the Wakeport Chain of Deals, a Toad will tell you to look through a pale patch of grass near the pair of fountains. Normally, you're supposed to dig through this after finishing the trading portion. However, if you dig through it earlier than that, you will find nothing.
- Plotwise, the Fly Guy R's who stole the Driftwood Jellyfish Sheets won't appear at the Pi'illo Blimport without winning the Mole Hunt minigame the second time.
