amphibious_ReViews

I first tried playing the original Super Mario RPG on my SNES Classic years ago. I was actually really enjoying myself, but I bungled the state-saving functionality and lost hours of progress in one disheartening swipe. After that, I put the game down with only a vague intention of returning. Fast-forward to the June 2023 Nintendo Direct and a full remake of the game was announced for Switch, opening up the door for me to try the game again without feeling too much like I was rehashing all of my lost effort. It seemed a little weird to be buying the game again, but playing it on Switch with this shiny new coat of paint was definitely worth the entry fee. As the progenitor of both the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario series, Super Mario RPG obviously does something very right. This is evident in its solid formula that uniquely combines RPG tropes and Mario's more action-oriented roots. This combined DNA pervades the whole game, but is most clear in two key elements of the experience.

Square Enix really knocked it out of the park with this one. I try not to play 80 hour RPGs too often, just because I have so many games in my backlog that get held up by titles like this, but every once in a while I just have to give in. My original plan was to slowly make my way through the whole Dragon Quest series and reach this one eventually, but I heard too many raving testimonies to not play it while it's still relevant. Gameplay-wise, I pretty much knew exactly what to expect, but the breadth of the story and the depth to the characters surprised me. When it comes to modern RPGs, I typically expect impressive, fleshed out narratives that pick up the slack for their less impressive battle systems. With "pep," a temporary boost to party members' stats that can be sacrificed for powerful group attacks, being the only thing that separated the combat here from the first Final Fantasy , I figured out pretty early that it would be the same here. The story started

I am a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, and that is definitely because of the fantastic first game , but that love is hardly shared for this game. It's unfortunate, too, because it really could have been enjoyable, but there were so many things that held me back from truly appreciating it. The gameplay is simple, with the player invited to swipe down the right of the screen, causing the "heroes" to attack the semi-randomly chosen enemies. Each hero has their own recharge time before they can attack again, making them susceptible to enemy attack (which can defeat multiple heroes within a single hit). That's where my disappointment starts. The entirety of the gameplay is a repetition of swiping and waiting. For the whole game. There is absolutely nothing more to it. What's worse is that the game demands nearly $50 to unlock half of the available content (which is close to the price of a full triple-A title), in addition, there are micro-transactions that

I have played a lot of mobile games in the trademark mobile format, too many micro-transactions, pay to win, ridiculous restrictions (like a pain-in-the-butt energy system)... and I played the crap out of them. For a week. Then realized how bad the game I was playing actually was. Kingdom Hearts Unchained χ  was the first mobile game that I have played using that format, that truly did it right. It has restrictions, but those restrictions are more like areas to grow as you play, rather than money-wasters that hold you back. I feel like I'm truly making progress every time I upgrade one of my medals (the "characters" of the game), or pump up my equipment. For those not familiar with  Kingdom Hearts , it is a series put out by Square Enix , the developing powerhouse behind Final Fantasy , Hitman , Deus Ex,  and much much more. In the simplest sense, the series is an action RPG crossover between Final Fantasy  and Disney , with as convoluted of a story line as they could