Recent reviews by ObsidianKnife

If you like Nintendo 64 and The Thousand Year Door Era of Paper Mario, then this is the indie successor for you. It's got all of the writing, combat and paper aesthetic charm you love while still understanding it's an rpg with stat progression and battles that actually matter. Rather than rolling with a lone mute protagonist and a cast of partners, the adventure consists of a trio each with their own personalities and movesets. While the lack of a large group may initially sound disheartening (I initially felt the same way) the developers decision to have a cast of three was a wise one. There is plenty of room for character growth, story engagement and involvement. In the original classic paper mario titles, very commonly a partner would only have screentime and story relevance during their joining chapter apart from randomly pulling them out on the field to interact with their field skills. The trio you do have are all extremely enjoyable and I love how there's call backs to the past partners with similar field abilities and similar action commands in battle. It might sound like a mash up nightmare initially just reading this but yes you can combine Parakarry, Kooper, power bounce, all in one tool kit. On the subject of combat, it is worth noting that the game is a lot more balanced than the classic Paper Mario games. You won't instantly have sky high health pools and health within itself will often be a little lower than you might like as a Paper Mario veteran but I got used to it myself quickly enough. That comes with the added benefit of healing items scaling better for lower health totals rather than most being useless later into the game.

Without delving into spoiler territory, the story in Bug Fables is really really good. It can get dark at points, something I feel the classics didn't remotely come close to reaching. Mario being mute really hurt when it came to story telling and Bug Fables really shows you what you can do when a writing staff isn't shackled down by such a limitation. While people might just see it as "bug paper mario", I think Bug Fables has evolved beyond just that measuring stick. I did not expect such a well told story coming in because of all of the limitations I expected from the original games. If you're still reading this and you already tried Origami king out of blind hope and you still miss 64 and TTYD Paper Mario, I urge you. Give Bug Fables a go. From one classic Paper Mario Veteran to another, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I ever tell you about the time my buddy Keith snuck into a wedding? He thought he was being smart getting all dressed up and like...but it seems the preacher wasn't there and they thought he was the preacher and, well, he married them the best he could. I think that counts for them being married but, I don't know, maybe not.

This game is interesting. Think of this as a hybrid choose your own adventure, Visual Novel, Life Simulator-esque type game. The UI feels a bit unwhieldy as you'll be swapping back and forth between the classes, mood, and skill menus to find out what you'll need to train everyday.

Secondly the game doesn't spell out to which moods impact what stats feels like a mixed bag. You won't really know what to do at first without a little experimentation. This isn't necessarily bad but you might need to look up a guide or check the game's wikipage. The events within the game are not random, however there are a large variety of plot branches and ways to go about this game. Whichever you may take, your goal remains of keeping the Princess alive to make her Ceremony and becoming the Queen.

Throughout playing this game, you'll find out there's a suprisingly high amount of ways to find yourself dying (hell there's even achivements for it) so there's a bit of trial and error in understanding what skills you'll need at specific event skill checks that determine the difference between living and a game over.

Overall I really liked this game. I've always been a fan of choose your own adventures and I've liked Visual Novels. However that won't be the same for everyone as it's a fairly niche game. I picked it up for 5 dollars while it was 50% off and would recommend picking it up for that price or if it goes on sale for below 10 bucks.