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Image: Nintendo Life / Dear Villager

Content warning: The following preview article features an overabundance of bread-based wordplay — those who suffer from chronic pun intolerance should proceed with extreme caution. Nintendo Life takes no responsibility for 'cringuries' or loss of humour.

The appetite for a 'true' return of Paper Mario has long been on the lips of many who grew up with the N64 and the GameCube. Despite the series' attempts to reinvent itself multiple times, fans have come to relish the taste of the original duo [Blimey!... I'll allow it - Ed.], a pair of turn-based RPGs that were the best thing since sliced bread. But in place of a new 'proper' paper game, many indie developers have risen to the challenge to create their own paper-thin homage to the beloved series.

Born of Bread, then, comes at a time when Paper Mario mania might be at its peak. With The Origami King proving pleasant (if a little bland in the battle department), the N64 original available via Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch remaster coming in 2024 (not to mention the progenitor of the Mario RPG series getting its own Switch remake in less than a month), fans are champing at the bit for Paper Mario action. We've had a chance to play the first three hours of Born of Bread on Steam, but if the Switch version is up to snuff — and if the first three hours are anything to go by — we think Born of Bread is going to be in the upper crust of Paper Mario-inspired RPGs.

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Image: Nintendo Life

One thing that's immediately obvious with Born of Bread is that it's not afraid to be silly. The premise alone is goofy enough, but the doughy puns, fun jokes, and lighthearted tone mean this is a loaf where every slice is bursting with charm. Papa Baker's immediate infatuation with his accidental bread-child creation is infectious, if a little bit ludicrous — but it made us laugh, and that's the key ingredient in Born of Bread.

Your main character, Loaf, is a silent protagonist, but his doughy facial expressions make him hard not to love. And he's surrounded by a great cast of characters: Lint, the adorable writer raccoon, is the perfect sweet-natured companion; and Papa Baker's overwhelmingly positive personality and willingness to accept the situation at hand is hilarious. We're also fond of Piper, a newcomer at the Adventurer's Guild and a former thief who is desperately trying to please his superiors.

Even though Born of Bread is very clearly inspired by Paper Mario, it has enough of its own ingredients to rise above the competition. For one, Loaf's skills are tied to the weapons and items he carries in his inventory, and it's not just a case of picking up the item and having constant access to it. There's a dash of Resident Evil 4-style inventory management, where you have to fit each item into a grid before you can use it.

We only picked up three different items during the demo — a sickle, a pickaxe, and a bow — but it forced us to juggle around our gear space so we could get the best combination of items. The pickaxe, for example, takes up three squares in an 'L' shape, while the bow takes up four squares in a 2x2 format. You have the ability to upgrade your bag size as you level up, but it'll be interesting to see just how many weapons you can pick up.

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Image: Nintendo Life

Another unique twist in this loaf takes an idea we love from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and The Origami King — the audience. Battles take place not on a stage á la TTYD, but are in fact streamed by Dub, a companion who also travels the world and saves your progress on his laptop by parking up at routers installed across the area. That means that yes, every battle is essentially a Twitch stream, which means you have an audience to keep happy.

Born of Bread goes beyond simply keeping the audience happy by doing well, however. You'll occasionally get requests mid-battle from those watching your stream — sometimes you'll be asked to use a certain skill or eat a particular item, and if you fulfil those requests, you'll get bonuses. But it's also just funny to see how chat reacts to every move. A failed block will get an "oof" or a dismayed reaction from the audience, and your numbers will dwindle. But you'll also just see normal conversations or phrases in chat. You don't have to have the chat up if you find it annoying, but it adds a new layer of fun and interaction to the game. These two features really help Born of Bread rise above its obvious inspirations.

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Image: Nintendo Life

Combat is otherwise similar to Paper Mario, where you have timed inputs or little quick-time events to complete in order to pull off attacks effectively. You can also block enemy attacks by timing your button presses. Attacks that use different weapons consume Will Points (WP), which you can get back by Defending for a turn while Resolve Points (RP) allow you to use skills to buff your party — but potentially at a cost. For instance, Loaf's Roast skill lets him boost his defense and potentially be able to completely block the next attack, but if you hold down the 'A' button for too long, you'll burn him, turning his crust dark and causing damage.

Even with its robust combat options and unique twists on the Paper Mario formula, by far our favourite thing to do in Born of Bread was simply explore. In the first three hours, we got to see the Forest of Roots, the Lapwing Village, Crystal Mines, and the city of Royal Town. Each area is vibrant and colourful, and the 3D backgrounds really help make the paper characters pop. But what surprised us was just how detailed the environments were — the trees of the forest are intricately knotted together like pipes, and you can see the light breaking through the branches and illuminating the ground.

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Image: Nintendo Life

The environments are also hugely interactive and packed full of secrets. You can break barrels, boxes, vegetables, and more by hitting things with Loaf's ladle, and you'll find Clovers (money) and hidden items by doing this. There are environmental puzzles like using green mushrooms to jump higher or getting flattened by a hydraulic press to turn Loaf from a ball of dough to a wheel of pizza dough (that floats when you jump).

This approach really incentivised us to explore every nook and cranny of every area and talk to every single person we met, too. Even in the mines, there were NPCs wandering around that could either deliver a line of witty dialogue or give us a sidequest, such as racing one of the Adventurer's Guild members back to town or finding a prop toolbox for an aspiring actor who is pretending to be a miner for... reasons.

Ultimately, there is a danger of Born of Bread feeling a bit too much like Paper Mario — its light-hearted humour, the intro in the forest, and the combat all teeter on a paper-thin edge. But there's so much love put into the world, characters, and just enough new ideas kneaded in that Born of Bread could be the perfect slice to stave off our hunger until Thousand-Year Door returns next year.

Born of Bread is due to release on Switch in 2023.