I first played Paper Mario on the N64 almost 20 years ago. I remember liking it a lot, with its unique art style, quirky characters, cool story, and humorous dialogue. It was then followed by best game in the franchise, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is so good and set such a high bar for the series that all future Paper Mario games are measured with it, and, unfortunately, the next three, Super Paper Mario on Wii, Paper Mario: Sticker Star on 3DS and Paper Mario: Color Splash, are considered inferior to it.
People have been clamoring for a new Paper Mario game. A GOOD Paper Mario game. Nintendo recently answered recently with Paper Mario: The Origami King on the Nintendo Switch and fans, including me, are excited. This game will not be out for another month, but a right now, Paper Mario-like game is now available in the Switch, and it's called Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling.
I first saw the trailer for this game late last year and I thought to myself, "This is the Paper Mario game that I have been waiting for!" Obviously, Nintendo has nothing to do with this game, but more obviously, the developers of this game are big fans of the Paper Mario games. Almost all aspect of the game, from the paper-like visuals to gameplay mechanics to musical beats and stylings, are inspired by the Paper Mario games, so much so that I can almost consider this as a Paper Mario game itself. Perhaps it can be considered as a spiritual sequel, sort of, but since Paper Mario is still an ongoing franchise, let's just say that this game is heavily-inspired by the game series.
In this game, you lead a team of, as the title suggests, bugs. You got Kabbu, the strong yet talkative beetle; Vi, the tiny yet feisty bee; and Leif, the zen-like cool yet magic-wielding moth. At the beginning, Kabbu and Vi reluctantly team up to collect artifacts for the Ant Queen so that she can obtain the legendary Everlasting Sapling, which can supposedly grant everlasting life. During the duo's first mission, they chanced upon rescuing Leif from the clasps of a giant spider within the Snakemouth Den, where the first artifact is located. The team was able to obtain the artifact, and the Ant queen, recognizing their effectivity as a team, ordered the team to acquire the rest of the artifacts. The trio, now known as the Team Snakemouth, then goes through an epic adventure across the land of Bugaria, visiting one kingdom after another, meeting interesting NPCs, solving mysteries, and battling a barrage of enemies, to fulfill their task.
The main gem of this game is the gameplay. Not only this game looks and sounds like Paper Mario, it also plays like Paper Mario, and does it amazingly well. So well, in fact, that I think that the game improved on some of the mechanics of its inspiration. One improvement is how the characters in your party play and interact with one another. The party has no real leader, and all three take turns during battles. You can choose who will be at the front of the team, who will usually have the higher powered attacks but will also have a higher chance of getting hit by enemies. You can perform timed button presses when you attack, to make them more effective, and during defense, which makes the enemy attacks hit less or be completely dodged when done right. Another improvement is the relay attack mechanic, which allows one character to relay their turn to another, albeit with a slightly less power. This opens up for more tactics for different scenarios during battle.
Kabbu has the most time of being at the front during my playtime, because of his high attack power against ground enemies, but only those at the front of the opposing team, plus he is pretty much useless against flying ones. For those winged enemies, Vi is the best bet, with her beemerang that hits them and make them drop to the ground, plus she can also hit grounded ones wherever they are positioned, but with less attack power. Leif, on the other hand, takes care of those that drill into the ground, since he can attack with his ice spikes from underneath, making those enemies in hiding back to the surface. That is one of the ice-based spells that he can perform. His special attacks are the best of the bunch, since he can freeze multiple enemies for a turn or so, thus allowing the rest of the party to either heal up or perform higher-powered attacks. Very handy during boss battles. Kabbu, Vi, and Leif all learn special abilities as you progress into the game, most of them introduced when a specific scenario requires for such an ability to come up, such as Kabbu's ability to dig through soft earth or Leif's ability to put up a force field that would protect the entire party against outside hostilities. These special abilities open up new areas, ala metroidvania, and allows you to progress further into the game. The game is mostly linear, but you would be required to back track to previous areas as you progress more into the game.
Winning in battles award the team experience points. Not individually, but for the entire team, and upon reaching a certain number of XP, they level up, or rather, rank up, as it is referred to in-game. And upon ranking up, you guessed it, you can either choose to upgrade XP, TP (Team Points, used for special moves/spells), and MP (Medal Points, which allows you to wear medals, aka badges).
Medals give either individual wearers or the entire party additional buffs and special attacks. One of such medals, when activated, sneakily turn on hard mode from the get go. Medals can be obtained either by progressing through the game (some are located in hidden areas), completing subquests, or bought from NPCs. Unfortunately, the medals are not as varied as the badges in the first two Paper Mario games, but they in the game to make you more prepared or beef up for the battles ahead.
Berries is this game's currency and they can be obtained by slashing grass on the ground, by winning battles, or by completing tasks. Berries pay for items bought from shops, inn stops, and for some upgrades. You can also deposit berries to a bank, which earns interest every 30 minutes of play time. The enemies in this game hit hard and thus you are required to use healing/buff items a lot during battles. Having enough berries allows you to buy such items and you are encouraged to prepare and stock up in case you encounter a heavy-hitting enemy on your way to your next stop.
You have limited inventory slots and thus you are required to optimize the items that you can carry with you at any given time. Fortunately, there are cooks found across the land who can cook some of your healing items or food to make them more effective. They can even combine two of such items to make a new dish, and thus saving inventory space. Again, like in Paper Mario, you can collect these recipes for future reference.
Additional goodies in the game include hidden areas where you can battle past bosses where you can obtain additional XP, berries, and medals; lots of subquests, also for additional XP, berries, and medals; and hidden bosses that may oftentimes catch you by surprise. This game is really has a very good amount of content that could rival a triple A game.
Overall, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is truly one of the best indie games that released recently. All the gameplay mechanics and interconnected systems make this game really good. Kudos to the developers who takes the best part of their inspirations and incorporated them to this game. They may have overdone it, as this game really is pretty much a Paper Mario game except for the name, but they made enough tweaking to some of the mechanics and design to make it stand out on its own. So, whether you're a fan of the Paper Mario series that has that Paper Mario itch that you want to be scratched or just fan of the adventure RPG genre in general, go give this game a go and I pretty sure, you will love it, too.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS- Excellent visuals, gameplay, and sounds – very much inspired by the Paper Mario games from top to bottom
- Very interesting characters, both main ones and NPCs
- Excellent level design, with some areas interconnecting with the others, allowing for easier
- backtracking
- Engaging story
- High variety of enemy types
- Cool boss fights
- Lots of sub quests to complete that flesh out more of the lore in the game
- Hard-hitting secret bosses
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- Looks good and ideal for handheld gaming
CONS- The map requires a few button presses too many to be accessed
- Subquests are a bit hard to follow at times
- Fleeing battles require complex button presses that can be hard to perform and also cost berries and thus are not encouraged to perform
- Attack hits are always the same; there are no critical hits, and if you fail the required button presses, the attack fails
- The medals could have been more varied and useful
- The platforming could be much better
RATING: 4.5/5 Paper marios in bug disguises
