Topic: Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Woof. Just finished.

50 hours. Every side quest. Every plug. Level 50.

Where to even begin…

It was a great game for me… until about hour 40. It was about that point when the backtracking and sometimes-typical RPG “oh gosh, now you need to retrace your steps and complete this new thingamajig” really hit me hard. I was honestly just gonna stop, and I thought maybe I tired myself out by doing every quest with no real completion bonuses to show for them…

But I pushed through.

I don’t know if I’ve ever played a game, RPG or otherwise, where my feelings changed soooo much on it in the last 5-10 hours of gameplay.

So yea, for me , ultimately it overstayed its welcome and falls behind the original game. The lack of variety in gameplay really starts to eat at you when you get 30ish hours in. It’s just not a tight game at the end of the day.

@rallydefault jeez, you went the completionist route? How was it?

@rallydefault This sounds like me, though not completed yet, but I am doing every side quest along the way out of compulsion really. There are too many and they come along too quicky, only for more to come along. Just had two of the islands unlink in the story and it demands you go back and do the levels again! The padding!

I agree. It started where I was a little unsure, but then got really into it and appreciating it, but then it does feel like too much. Far far too much. So, I am a bit mixed. I just want to beat it and move on. It doesn't hold up for too long play sessions, I find I prefer it in small bursts, but then the talking and stop start nature means that you barely make progress with that!

The game is definitely meant for short burst play sessions. The island structure effectively made sure of that, given they’re meant to be level-based instead of what you’d normally expect from the series as a whole. This being said however- I’m already ready to move on past this game. I have the light-house in the fourth sea to do, and then I can move on to the fifth and final sea. Been doing all the sidequests as I go along, mainly for the completion aspect and hopes that I get good gear and beans. The gear isn’t good outside the stuff you can get from refighting the lighthouse bosses

@N00BiSH
Let's just say I would not recommend it, at least.

At the worst, it's kind of soul-crushing.

For comparison, I played through Octopath Traveler II a few months ago and did pretty much everything in that game, but that was waaaaaay more enjoyable.

The battle system in this one, though fun at first due to the action button presses, starts to show how shallow it is. Even when battle plugs are introduced after what, the 1st or 2nd lighthouse or whatever, they don't do much more to prop up what quickly becomes an incredibly repetitive system and overall game.

There's just not a lot of meat to hide a very frail skeleton of a gameplay system, basically. Even for a Mario and Luigi game, there aren't a ton of minigames or different movement abilities to provide a breath of fresh air.

AND the bros. moves just get a bit more ridiculous and needlessly complicated to pull off as you learn the final ones. The last one is pretty dumb for the return, in my opinion.

I just beat glom bowser and have not seen any terrible back tracking yet dream team and ttyd seen way worse on that front

@FawfulsFury
lol dude you’re not even close yet.

@FawfulsFury It really wasn't that bad in Dream Team; it helped that you were visiting areas with new abilities, which opened up new spots that were inaccessible before.

@N00BiSH Yeah the retreading wasn’t all that bad in Dream Team because you actually got access to new parts of the area along with new abilities to get into said areas. I haven’t gotten to the fifth sea just yet in Brothership, but from the bit I’ve played and retread in the fourth, it was aggravating. Mainly because you were revisiting parts of islands you already went to, with absolutely nothing new going on.

@VoidofLight
And that is only scratching the surface of the MAJOR retread you have to do later. Like… you’re gonna think it’s seriously the end of the game, and then bam - it hits you with like 5-10 hours of retread, depending if you wanna keep doing the side quests along the way, how much you wanna keep fighting, etc.

@rallydefault I think I got to that point. At Fortress Zokket right now, and I’m prepared for the worst experience of my life after this

Just got the Auto Luigi plug. That Bowser fight and the fight with testing the strength between brothers was actually pretty neat.

@VoidofLight
Yea, the "testing" fight is cool.

Did you get the water can , then? That's the start of the big retread.

So is this game really worth it I'm considering buying it but with all the backtracking and slow pacing wonderung if its worth while?

@Potato-man I would say yes but I haven’t reached the fabled back tracking yet

@rallydefault Haven’t gotten that yet, no. On Jellyfish island

@Potato-man
If you're not a fan of backtracking and a slower pace, I'm telling you in all honesty: It's probably not worth it for full price, and at worst you may find yourself in the last 10ish hours not even wanting to beat it.

I have never. Ever. Played a game where my opinion of it changed this drastically for the negative in the last quarter of the game like this. I was fairly enjoying it up until that point, and I also thought the people complaining about it were just typical internet complainers.

And then I got to it. And honestly, if I hadn't already invested 40 hours into getting everything, I probably would have put the game down and walked away, maybe to never return lol

It's not just the backtracking stuff, too. It's like... the game suddenly decides to fundamentally change how things feel, even down to how the battles play out. And it's super frustrating.

Just reached jellyfish Island. But omg, that Great Conductor fight/trial was annoying. I mean, requiring an excellent on EVERY single Bros Attack that you throw at him? That's way too strict imo.

@MarkL1987 It was pretty easy to get an excellent on a good amount of the bros attacks for me.

@VoidofLight Probably a skill issue for me, then