YMMV / Bowser Jr.'s Journey

• Alternative Character Interpretation: This game shows that the Goombas of Bowser's Kingdom were also affected by the Blorbs, which gives the interpretation that Bowser genuinely wanted to join the meeting at Peach's castle about the epidemic instead of trying to kidnap her until his Hair-Trigger Temper kicked in.
• Catharsis Factor: Think the Elite Trio shouldn't have escaped punishment for betraying Bowser (again)? Not only can you fight and beat the trio in a postgame battle, but they're also forced to be Bowser Jr.'s sparring partners for life, much to their agony.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Ludwig and Morton are pretty much the only First Officers used once all the Officers unlock their skills, especially for the late game challenges. Ludwig's Stop and Drop is a much more reliable deny that also works on Malatoned enemies, while being an above average ranged minon himself. Also, his Negotiation skill can take enemies out of the battle entirely and is necessary to recruit Nabbit into Jr's army. Morton has significantly more attack power than any other minion besides Bowser and his special attack can 2-shot most enemies. His Thwomp Stomp is rather situational, but his Shield skill can be a lifesaver, especially when dealing with Malatoned enemies.
• Demonic Spiders: Enemies poisoned with Malatone Formula:X. Not only do they hit hard, soak up a ton of damage, and are flat-out immune to the Deny command, they also charge directly for Bowser Jr. Putting up underleveled or disadvantaged troops against them is essentially a death wish, and when it's been given to Mighty Glacier characters like Morton or Beef, they can cleanly two-shot next to any minion with their Special Skill. Worse, the BFF can give it to minions in the middle of a battle, fully healing them and giving them all stats up.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: If there's any reason to play the game, it's for the surprisingly good story that involves Bowser Jr. undergoing actual Character Development. The gameplay, on the other hand, is rather simple and repetitive and can get boring fast as in Minion Quest.
• Even Better Sequel: Bowser Jr.'s Journey refines the gameplay of Minion Quest, adds more Character Development to Jr. and the Koopalings (who took a backseat to Captain Goomba and Co.) and features a more interesting story with completely original characters.
• Older Than They Think: With Bowser Jr. as the spotlight character, this game shows that the rest of the Koopa Troop, especially the Koopalings (except for Morton), could barely tolerate his personality, and only do so because he's Bowser's heir. However, Paper Jam had a throwaway line from Kamek about Junior eventually getting on his nerves as well.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Once Kamek finally gets through to Junior how selfish he's been, the young prince of the Koopas sadly cries on the beach while eating the charred drumstick Morton gave him at the beginning of the story.
  • What does Morton tell Jr. as he's about to become brainwashed by the Malatone? He tells Jr. to run.
• That One Boss: The big bosses (King Bob-omb, Broque Madame and the Best Fitness Friends' Fusion Dance. To clarify:
  • The King puts the battle on a 90 second time limit, not to mention he's tougher than most enemy captains. His special attack is very likely to wipe out half your squad if it is not denied. The time limit makes the postgame battle against him and Broque Madame much tougher than it needs to be.
  • The Madame is much tougher than the enemies you fought up to that point, and due to her combination of Flight and high health the battle will take ages to go anywhere. It doesn't help that as a Captain she can summon backup and use Captain abilities like Jr. Even worse is fighting her the second time and postgame where she introduces a new gimmick: if too many of your Minions are defeated (as indicated by the counter), its game over. The only saving grace is that she's fought on her own, save for the backup (just in case you thought you could get away with simply spamming ranged minions) but this isn't the case for the battle against her and the aforementioned King Bob-omb.
  • The Best Fitness Friends. Before reaching the final battle, you have to go through the collective BFF three times, and after the first battle they take Malatone:X (see Demonic Spiders above) and gain stronger Captain Commands as well as all of the other benefits Malatoned enemies have. Then they fuse into a massive monstrosity that creates a shadow army of the Koopalings, pulls out brand-new, Purposefully Overpowered Antagonist Abilities such as Fitness Vortex and Cyclone Breath, takes more Malatone:X in the middle of the battle to gain higher stats and healing itself via Mystery Box. The game gives you full health and CP at this point; you're gonna need it.
• Unexpected Character: Almost nobody saw The Cameo of Dry Bowser (though it's just Bowser being undead after, once again, putting something he really shouldn't in his mouth) at the end of the game coming.

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