I never touched a single Paper Mario game in my life, with the sole exception of TTYD, but my potato PC and glitchy emulator prevented me from enjoying the experience, and I abandoned it before I completed the first chapter. I did watch the videos of the game, though.
Initially, after discovering this game through TV Tropes (in the Complete Monster cleanup thread), it filled me with curiosity, but not enough to make me want to play it. Eventually, at the summer of the past year, I decided to give the game a go. And I'm so glad that I did!
The gameplay is mostly inspired by Paper Mario, with each of the three main characters having distinct skills that allow them to solve puzzles and fight the enemies. There is also the Medal system (inspired by the badge system of Paper Mario) that allows you to equip medals to alter character stats, give them new abilities, and etc., allowing you to come up with many different playstyles that would suit you best. There are also lots of puzzles in the overworld, some obvious, and some quite subtle, requiring thorough analysis and inspection of the environment to figure out how to solve them.
Even there, the gameplay actually innovates on its predecessor: besides the fact that you play as three characters at once, you can also relay turns between them anytime you want (instead of using a specific skill for that), swap their position, giving a damage boost to whoever is in front, and every character can tattle instead of the specific one. There is also the fact that, through the most of the game, there is no permanent damage / defense upgrade (excluding the rare stat-enhancing berries), so you must carefully strategize and calculate how much damage you do per turn and how quickly you can defeat an enemy.
The writing in this game is great! All characters have their distinct, lovable personalities, there are also some clever jokes and humorous writing, and tons of sidequests where you help people around, but there's still an actual overarching story that will get you invested. The plot itself is fairly simple; you must find the Everlasting Sapling to earn the favor of your queen. For that, you must find all the artifacts that would lead you to it. While it does sound like an Excuse Plot, you later learn that you're not the only one who is after the Sapling; Wasp King, the Wasp Kingdom's tyrannical ruler, also craves it, and he will do anything to get it. And eventually, the base plot outright changes from "find the Sapling" to "stop the Wasp Kingdom". (spoilered just in case)
If there are any flaws to list, I'd say the graphics need some polish and the beginning is quite slow-paced, but I personally don't mind it. I mostly focus on pros than cons.
I'll say that again; you don't even have to be an old-school Paper Mario fan to enjoy the game; it's just a bonus for nostalgic pleasure, so even if you're not one, there's nothing preventing you from enjoying it, so if you want to give it a go, go ahead!
I'm not even a Paper Mario fan, yet I love this game!
I never touched a single Paper Mario game in my life, with the sole exception of TTYD, but my potato PC and glitchy emulator prevented me from enjoying the experience, and I abandoned it before I completed the first chapter. I did watch the videos of the game, though.
Initially, after discovering this game through TV Tropes (in the Complete Monster cleanup thread), it filled me with curiosity, but not enough to make me want to play it. Eventually, at the summer of the past year, I decided to give the game a go. And I'm so glad that I did!
The gameplay is mostly inspired by Paper Mario, with each of the three main characters having distinct skills that allow them to solve puzzles and fight the enemies. There is also the Medal system (inspired by the badge system of Paper Mario) that allows you to equip medals to alter character stats, give them new abilities, and etc., allowing you to come up with many different playstyles that would suit you best. There are also lots of puzzles in the overworld, some obvious, and some quite subtle, requiring thorough analysis and inspection of the environment to figure out how to solve them.
Even there, the gameplay actually innovates on its predecessor: besides the fact that you play as three characters at once, you can also relay turns between them anytime you want (instead of using a specific skill for that), swap their position, giving a damage boost to whoever is in front, and every character can tattle instead of the specific one. There is also the fact that, through the most of the game, there is no permanent damage / defense upgrade (excluding the rare stat-enhancing berries), so you must carefully strategize and calculate how much damage you do per turn and how quickly you can defeat an enemy.
The writing in this game is great! All characters have their distinct, lovable personalities, there are also some clever jokes and humorous writing, and tons of sidequests where you help people around, but there's still an actual overarching story that will get you invested. The plot itself is fairly simple; you must find the Everlasting Sapling to earn the favor of your queen. For that, you must find all the artifacts that would lead you to it. While it does sound like an Excuse Plot, you later learn that you're not the only one who is after the Sapling; Wasp King, the Wasp Kingdom's tyrannical ruler, also craves it, and he will do anything to get it. And eventually, the base plot outright changes from "find the Sapling" to "stop the Wasp Kingdom". (spoilered just in case)
If there are any flaws to list, I'd say the graphics need some polish and the beginning is quite slow-paced, but I personally don't mind it. I mostly focus on pros than cons.
I'll say that again; you don't even have to be an old-school Paper Mario fan to enjoy the game; it's just a bonus for nostalgic pleasure, so even if you're not one, there's nothing preventing you from enjoying it, so if you want to give it a go, go ahead!