Mario & Luigi: Brothership (NOT THE BEES)

Is it blasphemy to say that this was my reveal of the Direct? Over Zelda and Metroid? Mario & Luigi returns after years in the wilderness, and technically for the first time on a (part-)home console, looking swish. Big classic Mario & Luigi energy to everything here, including some all-new and appealing enemy designs and what looks like non-Bowser final foes. Can't wait.

As I said on discord, I'd be more into this if there wasn't Super Mario RPG six months ago and Paper Mario even more recently than that. I'll play this, but I'm not going to rush out to pick it up.

I'm partially into this, really depends on what is coming out around it. At the moment looking there's nothing around it, that I would pick up.

Aye, horror game Slitterhead is out a day after this so that'll be a funny contrast to jump between. Also I always found dialogue in these to be funnier than Paper Mario so I hope that continues.

Buska wrote:

As I said on discord, I'd be more into this if there wasn't Super Mario RPG six months ago and Paper Mario even more recently than that. I'll play this, but I'm not going to rush out to pick it up.

This is one reason why I skipped on Paper Mario.

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Oh who do we think is on development for this with the old devs no longer about? Fully in house or next level games would be my guess.

Mmm... I'd still say even now that TTYD is better than Mario & Luigi, even at the height of its powers and even with TTYD re-reviewed. Then again TTYD is more talky. I don't think you can go wrong with either to be fair (for the first three games of each sub-series).

No idea who they've given it to, obviously I mourn AlphaDream but I did feel they were losing their touch in Paper Jam and Dream Team. A new set of hands is a good thing I reckon.

Slitterhead looked awful at SGF

After the diversions the TTYD topic took, I'm excited for this to become the Slitterthread.

It was these details that really sold me on it.

I'll wait and see when it comes out, but I think most would sooner I checkout M&L.

It's looking like the team behind this (M&LB not Slitterhead) might be ILCA, the powerhouse developers who delivered such knock-out hits as Pokémon BDSP, Pokémon Home, and Sand Land (71 on Metacritic).  

This is like finding out that new Zelda game is being done by Arzest.

Is Zelda EoW, Grezzo? Wikipedia says yes and make a lot of sense but haven't seen anything official.

This was an unexpected surprise! Three Mario RPGs in the space of a year feels like a bit of an overload though, and considering I've not even got around to TTYD yet, this will be one I'll likely pick up later down the line.

Might be a wise choice all things considered, especially as the rumoured dev team aren't exactly powerhouses as outlined by Balla.

Ooft! Hope not but that does sound like M&L might be getting the low effort Mario sports game treatment. (apart from Mario strikers, natch)

I'm willing to give ILCA the benefit of the doubt somewhat as they were hamstrung by adapting a DS game (which they did make look beautiful) for Pokémon and getting an adaptation out with a movie and TV show for Sandland. This might be our first look at their actual goods. And did I hear some ex staffers are involved?

Buskalilly wrote:

As I said on discord, I'd be more into this if there wasn't Super Mario RPG six months ago and Paper Mario even more recently than that. I'll play this, but I'm not going to rush out to pick it up.

This.
 
I’d firstly like to find out how long it lasts. That’s because my main experience with Mario & Luigi was Dream Team Bros. on 3DS. I must have played that for about fifteen hours, and I got far too bored far too soon. I stopped for good, there was no way I was hanging around for another thirty hours of that.
 
I’ll wait for reviews of Brothership, but even if it’s a 10/10 stoater I think it can wait until the usual post-Christmas lull – and even then it’ll depend on what else I’m playing. It’s truthfully not a game I was dreaming, hoping and praying for.

Nor me, but that meant it was a pleasant unexpected surprise - now caveated, sadly. They have said that members of the previous M&L teams (i.e. AlphaDream) are back on board. I hope that's a good thing, because Dream Team Bros. was boring. I don't think the length was the problem, but they didn't have enough interesting material to fill that length with. The pacing was glacial.

Given that it killed off AlphaDream effectively (that and being made to work on remasters that, truthfully, nobody was asking for) you'd hope they'd have learned their lessons from that.

Did anybody play Paper Jam? I heard that was really boring too - taking absolutely none of the fun stuff from the M&L and PM series and somehow making a perfectly competent but entirely dull game. I hope Brothership has a bit more pizzazz!

I finished Paper Jam, more out of a place of misplaced loyalty to the series(es) than anything else. I thought it was better than Dream Team Bros. and worse than all the other Mario & Luigi games. It did the whole 'we can't use non-established Mario characters' bit which didn't help. One thing I really liked about the Brothership trailer was seeing all the new unique enemies.

BUMP

Treesmurf wrote:

Started on Mario & Luigi: Brothership and first impressions are good, I wasn't keen when I first seen it but I'm really liking the arstyle of it, the actual character designs of the Concordians leave a lot to be desired but at least the Bros look good. The actual structure of it is wildly different from anything else in the series, you direct your ship via a chart and you can pick different islands to visit when in close proximity and whilst I've not had anything yet there's suggestions that choices you make can affect the story (although I suspect it'll be fairly inconsequential).

I'm a little bit behind you Smurf, but I agree on the art style. I think it looks lovely, but in a sort of handheldy way that fits with the rest of the series and maybe doesn't work best on a big telly?

One thing I am concerned about is the pacing. Already the glacial pacing I criticised only three posts ago (and four months, strewth) seems to be back with a vengeance. It's not the characters so much, although I'm not impressed by them. It's a thousand little unnecessary animations in between dialogue bubbles. It's the bit where there's a massive button, and instead of letting you press the massive button they have a small cut-scene of Mario looking at the massive button and making a noise towards the massive button. They just add up to the point where they're... maybe not annoying me, but making me worried for the rest of the game at least.

And pressing A to select Luigi's moves from the menu, then B as the primary action command, is daft. Daft and at odds with the rest of the series. I feel like those who wanted some time to have a look at this might have been wise.

Yeah that button thing threw me off, I'm glad you've said that though because I let the game gaslight me in to thinking it was always that way. The pacing has improved a little as I've progressed but there's definitely still too many moments of explaining things that don't need explaining. I'm staring to vibe a bit more with going between the different islands though.

How far in are you now? I found the pacing on the flowery island killed my interest in the game, at least temporarily. Especially when you get back and immediately they say, 'oh by the way Connie's gone back there'. I never want to see a Seedle ever again.

I've played about 20 hours at this point and I feel like I must have passed the halfway point, whilst I like the different islands offering up something new they can be real hit and miss and side quests encouraging you to back to them have pretty much lost me after I had to return to a particularly rough maze type island (although said island provided one of the best moments so far).

Spoiler :

It's a shame the pacing is a struggle because the gameplay is great thanks to the addition of a battle mechanic that gets added a few hours in. I'm still feeling compelled to play it every day so it's doing enough right to keep my attention despite competition from a couple of other Switch games.

Just popping in to say I'm having a good time with Brothership still, I may have missed a bit of content by deciding to ignore a lot of the side quests but I think that's for the best, must be nearing the end now and it's definitely improved a lot over those early hours. I do hate when a game is a slow starter but this feels like it's gonna stick the landing.

That's good to read.  I haven't read much in the way of complimentary talk about this game, feels like - it's all been moaning about the pacing.  The moans do seem to cluster at the very beginning and very end of the adventure.  I think you're making a good decision regarding the side-quests, I've picked my first one to ditch which for someone who lists towards completionism is a big stretch.  It's one of those where I have to pick up another enemy drop from an early area.  Nope.

I don't know whether I'll see this through, it's finely balanced right now but getting two more JRPGs over the festive period might swing things. Does the writing ever get any better?  I never want to see IDLE ever again, truly some of the worst NPCs in Mario games.

There's a few chuckles to be had there but there's far too many long winded conversations that aren't necessary to say it improves much. IDLE disappear for a bit and are replaced by a truly dull pair so I wouldn't say it improves, it does lean in to a few running jokes a bit more though which are appreciated. As much as I've got on with it I can't recommend forcing yourself to carry on when you're near halfway and have got other RPGs to play.