Game Dispatch: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
So, I was irresponsible the other week and picked this up because I love this series, and I am really enjoying this entry so far!
It's a very strange series because the basic mechanics have remained unchanged since the first game, but they're always used in slightly different ways. The basic idea of an RPG with action mechanics like this, both for attacking and dodging enemy attacks, is nothing short of brilliant. Why more JRPGs don't do this is beyond me.
Anyway, the biggest problem with these games is always the endless tutorials, and this one is probably the worst yet in that regard. The first couple hours are absolutely inundated in people wanting to explain very basic RPG or platforming concepts in exhaustive detail. But apparently they were concerned about people just not getting it, and the Blue Ocean strategy, and so on. It's annoying, but you can just opt out of most of the tutorials if you're careful, so it's not that big of a deal.
What really makes the M&L games stand out, beyond the battle mechanics which I'll get to later, is the writing. And that is a little rough in the beginning as well. It lacks a strong talking protagonist, which M&L3 had in Bowser, and the first few areas don't really have any particularly funny characters. Broque Monsieur, a Heavily French block person, is there at the very beginning, and he is still delightful, but after that there's a bit of a drought. But then you meet the Massifs and Prince Dreambert comes into his own, and it's all good. It's been getting consistent chuckles out of me for a while not.
Consistent Chuckles is a great band name.
Anyway, the battle mechanics are also pretty great in this one. Of course, at the start everything is ridiculously easy. Enemies have obvious, slow attacks that you can dodge and counter with ease. But then things get tough, and in an interesting way, not in a bullshit way. That was the main problem I had with the M&L2: enemies didn't get different patterns, they just did the same things, but faster, so it was harder to dodge. And they had a ton of health. But this game has been great with enemies that have interesting ways of attacking, especially in the dream world. In the other games, it was always just the A and B buttons (or X and Y) for dodging enemy attacks. But now you actually have to use the analog stick and aim or move around to dodge attacks. It's very engaging.
The biggest thing that kind of put me off this game at first was the art style. It's very different from previous entries in this series, which had a sort of cartoony style where everything had a thing black outline. It looked great, especially with the large boss sprites those games had. This game has a sort of pre-rendered 3D sprite style to better mesh with the polygonal backgrounds and the 3D screen. At first, I didn't like it, it looks kind of generic and too similar to Mario's baseline style. But it's really grown on me, it has a style all it's own that is different from regular Mario games. And it looks great in 3D, so there's that.
I've always been fascinated by the way these games are balanced. They don't really work like normal RPGs where the damage you do to enemies has to be balanced against what they can do to you and whatnot. Instead, the game is assuming that you're dodging every single attack, and the price of repeated failure is SWIFT DEATH. The game is balanced around you not being bad at dodging. It's a bit too unforgiving at times, especially during boss battles where you don't really have much of a chance to get used to the attacks. But it really works, I think. It changes the dynamic from the usual mind-numbing war of attrition that pops up in most JRPGs. You CAN outheal enemies, but if you do you're not killing them and you're running through healing items WAY too fast. Instead, you're incentivized to learn to dodge, and then you can easily dispatch enemies in a couple turns instead of slogging it out for 10 minutes or more. The skill isn't the tactical choosing of commands, but the actual skill of pressing buttons at the right time.
The fatal flaw of most M&L games is the final boss, which will inevitably either be too hard or have way too much health or both. But until then, I am enjoying this game immensely. I still think that M&L3 is better, but it's hard to top being able to actually play as Bowser. I hope the next game stars Bowser's Top Minions, who show up again. In fact, this game is weirdly reverent to the "canon" of the past M&L games. There are bean people from Superstar Saga and tons of characters from Bowser's Inside Story. I haven't seen any shroobs yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if one eventually showed up.
Nintendo's RPGs are always a delight, and this is no exception. They're as rare as comets too, so go pick it up!