Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good game. But I’m not sure it deserves all the hype it got last year.
It does some very clever stuff in terms of gameplay, with each character having their own unique battle system that synergise with the others.
And yes, the soundtrack is incredible.
In terms of the story, whilst it was interesting, the way the game drip-feeds you knowledge in the first two acts quickly became frustrating. There were multiple cutscenes where characters speak in such a vague, superficially poetic way. In reality it just felt pretentious.
Major story spoilers:
spoiler
The overall metaphor for grief is unique. I liked the concept of the characters being creations in this painting, and how that layer of reality feeds into the one you begin the game in. But it felt like everything was revealed all at once in Act 3. The game gives you very little up to that point, so it’s hard to emphasize with many of the characters. Perhaps replaying the game knowing what you know changes the perspective of it, but for a new player I’m not sure it’s the best way to tell a story.
Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion but I found the game aesthetically quite ugly. Many landscapes had a feeling of copy pasted Unreal assets that looked so same-y at points they became confusing to navigate (especially given the lack of a mini-map). The characters had these blank, uncanny stares half the time and the designs for some of them (Esquie in particular) just didn’t look good to me.
Oh and I’m really not sure why the devs decided to add entirely unnecessary platforming elements!
I found certain enemy attacks to be inconsistent and not well telegraphed, leading to some frustrating encounters were you had to memorise the parry timings rather than learn them from a valid cue.
I think the game deserves good reviews, but I’m not quite sure how it won so many GOTY awards. Perhaps it just wasn’t the game for me.
You could still beat Paper Mario if you were bad though. Grind to get loads of consumables and just tank through the bosses with revives and healing items and being overlevelled. In E33 it felt much more punishing to be bad
Eh, e33 on easy mode is less challenging than TTYD was if you’re bad at dodging/parrying. And even the harder modes can be strategized around forehead blocking because a lot of the defensive picto/lumina are very powerful and your “consumables” (revives, heals, energy boosts) recharge automatically every combat.
Easy mode and defensive build is basically a Let’s Play (and that’s a good thing imo)
Oh yeah sorry when I think Paper Mario I remember the original on N64… TTYD was actually quite difficult, I remember struggling with it.
For some reason I don’t remember E33 having an easy mode. Was it added in a patch or something? That’s pretty cool, wish I’d waited then 😂
There was an easy mode from the start, i think it’s called “Casual” difficulty. An early patch made that easy mode easier - the first version just made enemies do way less damage so that you didn’t need to parry/dodge, the patched version also made the dodge and parry timings much more forgiving.