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Author Topic: Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time released in USA  (Read 24203 times)

« Reply #45 on: June 26, 2015, 01:33:50 PM »
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« Reply #46 on: June 26, 2015, 03:28:01 PM »
WHERE DO YOU FIND THOSE
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CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #48 on: July 14, 2015, 06:28:00 PM »
No numbers allowed humanoids and humanoid with upside down hornss these month think they're so icebox with their tortoises and their hammers on their new square calculators but they'll TREASURE BURIED HERE match the Earth's This Side Up meme Samus Having Her Brain Sucked Out By A Metroid right backwards closed captions on the bell crowndom's vocalization shopping bag.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #49 on: July 15, 2015, 11:17:16 AM »
So I just replayed Partners in Time the other day for the first time in like ten years, and I actually liked it a lot more than I remembered. It's pretty short (I beat it in under 15 hours, battling pretty much every enemy I saw), really linear (pretty sure there's no sidequests at all, unless you include buying things from Fawful with beans), and just kinda feels like they were supposed to do more with it (why even bother having a key items menu?), but the battles are really fun (it helps that I'm a lot better at using Bros Items now) and the tutorials really weren't bad at all. The story is pretty good, though I do agree that having villains who can't talk at all did hurt it. I still definitely see why we all considered it the weakest Mario RPG before Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star came out, but for what it is, it's pretty fun.

Now to finally get around to playing Bowser's Inside Story.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #50 on: July 15, 2015, 03:46:37 PM »
Yeah, PiT wasn't bad (heck, I played through it at least twice), but the areas were indeed criminally linear, and even having standard attacks exist was weird in light of the combination of high-HP bosses and near-innumerable bro attack items. Gotta love that soundtrack, though!
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

WarpRattler

  • Paid by the word
« Reply #51 on: July 16, 2015, 08:27:37 AM »
I have yet to hear a compelling case for non-linearity in games that aren't specifically about exploration. It's much easier to balance a linear game, both in terms of gameplay design and in terms of narrative pace. As a developer, you don't have the same opportunities to pad out a game's length when you're shoving the player forward at all times instead of giving them the opportunity to meander, and you can focus your limited resources on improving the content that needs to be there (fixing bugs, improving mechanics that might not actually be that fun, tightening up the graphics on level three, and so on) instead of spreading yourself thin. Additionally, most of the examples of "non-linear" games that come up for JRPGs in particular tend to be "linear games with a couple of side paths with hidden treasure chests," like Final Fantasy X, which tells me a lot of people don't actually understand the concept they're defending.

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #52 on: July 16, 2015, 11:24:35 AM »
I don't have a problem with "linearity" if the game itself isn't also repetitive, if that makes sense. PiT followed the same structure repeatedly for most areas: one area divided into three to four subsections, then a miniboss, then another sub-area with the same structure, then a boss. And yeah, I know that can be said about most Zelda games and other Mario RPGs, but the areas in PiT almost seemed like they were deliberately designed to easily appear in small chunks on the top screen of the DS. Even with pieces of the Cobalt Star constantly getting scattered and stolen, I feel like SS and BIS still had a more varied, madcap story/overworld/dungeon structure that benefits the tone and style of the series better. Can't speak for Dream Team, though, unfortunately.
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

« Reply #53 on: July 16, 2015, 12:13:17 PM »
One of my main problems with PiT is its reliance on slaptstick gags (which don't communicate well through sprites), even by M&L standards. I remember cringing a lot more than while playing the other instalments.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #54 on: July 16, 2015, 01:09:54 PM »
I think it is needlessly macabre, to the point it just doesn't feel right.
« Last Edit: July 16, 2015, 01:11:33 PM by BP »
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #55 on: July 16, 2015, 03:44:36 PM »
I don't know about macabre, but Holli Jolli village and that credits music was definitely shades of Tim Burton.
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #56 on: July 16, 2015, 03:57:27 PM »
The Vim Factory stuff with the Toads attached to trees and having the life sucked out of them was pretty dark.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #57 on: July 16, 2015, 04:22:26 PM »
It's the way that the Shroobs were such a force, like a viral infection. They had no empathy--not even among EACH OTHER--and almost nothing resembling a comedic side. I didn't notice it so much when I was 12 but they're scary as hell.

Sure Cackletta was cunning, and her plans actually functioned, and she turned everyone in a college into monsters... but she could be tricked, more than once the heroes of the story just steal back what they wanted and run away from her laughing. That's a tone that works for Mario. You don't get that with the Shroobs. Did you notice that at no point in the narrative do the characters sit down and discuss or think about what the plan is to deal with them? They focus on saving Peach, as if her absence is the only problem, and that works when you're up against Bowser who mostly just takes Peach and leaves everyone alone after that, but here? They're destroying towns and killing people and transforming peaceful creatures into destructive abominations. The player knows scaring them off or beating up the boss won't cut it and they have to be thoroughly exterminated. And if the horrible writing (definitely shades of M. Night Shyamalan) didn't drop an absurd deus ex machina on them, there would not have been a way to do that.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

The Chef

  • Super
« Reply #58 on: July 16, 2015, 04:38:15 PM »
Now that you mention it, even the Shadow Queen, a demonic entity, has a certain sense of congeniality about her. She's pretty gleeful about her whole 'plunge the world into darkness' shtick, and seems to have a sense of familial comradery with Beldam and Marlyn, who were devoted to her enough to resort to a pretty elaborate and ultimately humanely flawed plan to resurrect her.

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #59 on: July 17, 2015, 08:50:14 AM »
Good points there, actually... and that final boss music had a pretty dire tone -- it was good, but it made the one in BiS even more exciting.
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

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