This video is sponsored by NordVPN. Click the link in the description to take
control of your internet experience with 68% off a 2-year plan. Stay tuned for more details. Ideas are only the property of their creators
insofar as they exist because of them. Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb, but
the moment his idea was thrust into the world, it ceased to be his. It belongs to no one: all it takes to make
a lightbulb is the acquisition of that knowledge. In much the same way, no one owns a platformer. Super Mario Bros. may have pioneered the genre,
but then I suppose the proof is in the pudding: genre is an acknowledgment that no one can
truly own a work. How many platformers came into being after
Super Mario Bros.? How many FPS after Doom? How many likes after Rogue? I like to think that, in some respects, art
is a collaborative evolution. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first
movie to use a Dutch angle shot, but when you think of a "Dutch angle" does this movie
come to mind? Certainly didn't come to mine, I had to Google
where the damn thing came from. Movies that used the Dutch angle didn't do
it to rip-off… The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; they simply adopted
the technique to tell their own story. No one owns the dutch angle, it exists to
be used, and so the world uses it. Nobody owns Paper Mario. In an economic and legal sense, Nintendo owns
the rights to publish and profit off of the Paper Mario name. However, Nintendo does not own the ideas within
Paper Mario, the tools used to make it a success. And yet, it's hard not to think that. We yearn for a new F-Zero, for a new Castlevania,
for a new Chibi-Robo. We beg for a sequel to Thousand Year Door,
for a Paper Mario 3. While I love Super Paper Mario and Origami
King, I can't deny that those first two games offered an RPG legend I can't get anywhere
else. Simplification of turn-based combat and progression,
without any loss of the depth present in the genre… and it simply evaporated. For whatever reason, Paper Mario saw fit to
abandon those ideas, and it's likely we'll never see a return. But just as the lightbulb is still in use,
and the Dutch angle still put to work: Paper Mario will never truly die. Evidently, those ideas were too good to be
abandoned by the world. Moonsprout Games recognized this. Bug Fables not only inherits Paper Mario's
will, it seeks to carry on its legacy. It isn't a shoddy imitation, nor a nostalgic
reproduction: in spirit, it is a bona fide spiritual sequel to the Thousand Year Door,
and dare I say, the best Paper Mario game to date. --
Chapter 1 - "A Bug's Life" -- Paper Mario is an exploration of the Mario
universe. Previous enemies live peaceful lives in the
countryside, implying that Bowser's minions are simply the evil ones. 64 is fairly welcoming, a cohesive kingdom,
if a little bland. It's fun to see how various Mario races live
their everyday lives, and it fits the general Mario aesthetic to a tee. Desert, Snow, Tropical Island, Castle. Fitting, but nonetheless pretty ordinary. The Toy Box is the most radically different
setting on offer, but it's also the most disconnected. Thousand Year Door embraced that disconnected
feel. The extravagant Glitzville floating in the
sky, the eerie hamlet of Twilight Town, the lonely treetops of the Boggly Woods. None of these locations necessarily paint
a cohesive world, but they make for more interesting locations to explore within a chapter-based
structure. Bug Fables isn't shackled to any pre-existing
property, and so it has much more creative freedom at the conceptual level. At first, Bugaria seems to use its bug theming
almost as a distraction. What would be a grassy plain is dotted with
weeds and super tall grass to establish a better sense of the miniscule scale; it is
still a grassy plain, though, not too dissimilar to the Goomba Village. The Ant Kingdom is Toad Town and the Ant Hill
is Peach's Castle. By the time I reached the "desert" area, I
was getting a bit annoyed. What about this makes any sense at all? Where is the bridge between grass and sand? Surely it was just an on-the-nose homage to
the desert in 64. I groaned a bit and moved on. When I finally reached the Bee Kingdom, in
its beehive hanging from a tree branch, I simply accepted that this world was nonsensical. I went from grass to desert and up into a
tree while I was still in the desert. Truly a shame, but I suppose it isn't necessarily
a bad thing. I'll just soak in the Bee Kingdom and think
about it la- It was… a sandbox… in a backyard. I cannot understate the wave of emotions that
were running through me when I looked through this telescope. As I scanned the sandbox I had just left,
and gazed out at the towering behemoth of what looked to be a human house, my assumptions
were shattered. This isn't a Mario world with bug characters:
this is a bug's world living within a human settlement. Cockroaches are some of the oldest insects
on Earth, and so in Bug Fables they're seen as forerunners. Their ancient ruins exist in the form of a
sandcastle, and you can find traces of their ancient existence scattered throughout the
land. It only makes sense they would be the ones
to guard the Everlasting Sapling inside the house: cockroaches are nothing if not persistent
when it comes to invading buildings. That house is known to Bugaria as the Giant's
Lair, or the Dead Lands, a place no bug has ever returned from, for reasons I'm sure are
easy to intuit. But to the bugs? It's simply a dangerous place best avoided. It's fascinating to read up about these mysteries
of the world: what happened to the humans? Was there an apocalyptic event? Was that event the reason certain bugs gained
sentience? Are there any humans left, are we living in
a post apocalypse where humanity was completely wiped out, giving bugs sentience as a result? These are fascinating questions with no clear
answers, only guesses. Lore books are written from the perspective
of the bugs, and can only posit so much. Ultimately, no one can really explain why
there's a huge crystal beneath the Ant Hill, other than to observe that it keeps everyone
safe. No one really wants to think about what would
happen if that crystal were to ever be destroyed. Families have to worry about their children
going crazy and losing their sentience, like some mind virus reverting these bugs back
to their baser instincts. It's as if nature is fighting back against
the emergence of intelligent life in bugs: something about this isn't right at all. Traversing the Dead Lands is the clearest
indication of this, you fight absolutely horrid creatures resembling mismatched bugs. They're like botched science experiments unleashed
by this horrifying set of giant eyeballs watching your every move. It's genuinely terrifying at points, and is
the clearest indication that there are greater forces out there that still serve a threat
to Bugaria. Despite those difficulties, this backyard
is a kingdom, plagued by a myriad of internal challenges: political strife, bandits, and
terrifying monsters. The termites left to create their own technologically
advanced kingdom on the outskirts of Bugaria after a falling out with the Ant Queen. It's a bustling civilization, but being inside
a nest gives it a much more mellow vibe. It's a city coated in darkness, a grimier
analogue to a major city. Some of the quests here are centered around
how its society functions. One of its workers can't get to sleep no matter
how hard he tries. All he can think about is working, so you
have to make him a dessert that can put him to sleep. One worker forgot his lunch, so his partner
has you deliver it to him. You even get to interact with this foreboding
figure in one of the back alleys for some black paint. It's an isolated community, ahead of its time
in technological advancement, but perhaps an unwelcoming social environment. Everything about it comes together to paint
this picture: the architecture, the arena, the quests you take, the people you interact
with, the stuff you can buy, the places you sleep. No matter where you are or what you're doing,
the world builds around you faster than you can even recognize. 64 and Thousand Year Door were designed to
sort of branch off from a main hub in linear paths. You would go off to a new location, do whatever
needed doing, and then head back to the main hub, often automatically. There would almost never be a reason to return
to these areas besides the occasional sidequest. Sidequests which weren't particularly well
handled, especially in Thousand Year Door where you could only accept one at a time. Bug Fables has a ton of sidequests that you
can accept all at once and complete at your leisure. They send you all throughout the world, and
you get new ones after each chapter. As such, the world was designed from the ground
up to be much more backtrack friendly. Sure, all of your paths do still jut out from
the Ant Kingdom, but you always have a faster path to and from it. Tunnels to the castle open up that can take
you all across the world. You can get anywhere at the snap of a finger,
no trouble at all. As such, the areas feel more like connective
tissue than singular pieces of level design. Paper Mario chapters seem designed, first
and foremost, to be memorable vignettes. There wasn't much consideration of how you
would get somewhere, or how the areas would be designed, other than being satisfying levels
in and of themselves. Bug Fables is constantly opening up shortcuts
between areas. This gate to the Golden Settlement connects
to this portion of the desert; this part of the Golden Settlement connects to the Wasp
Kingdom; the Termite kingdom is much easier to access through the Metal Lake, which also
connects to Metal Island, the port, and the Wasp Kingdom. There was never a point where I felt like
navigation was overly cumbersome, exploration was almost always a breeze, and I was always
rewarded for being an adventurer. Our premise this time around is that we’re
a team of adventurers on a mission for the Ant Queen to find relics scattered across
the world, which when gathered, will grant access to the Everlasting Sapling. This sapling is said to hold untold amounts
of power, though we don’t get the answer as to why the Ant Queen desires it until much
later in the story. That isn’t the point, though: we are a team
of adventurers, and so going out into the world to find secret dungeons and bosses is
reinforced by this premise. It became my mission to see everything this
world had to offer, to help anyone and everyone that needed help, because that was my stated
task. In Paper Mario, exploration really did feel
secondary to the goal of collecting the plot macguffins. Sure, there were badges to find in far off
corners here and there, with the occasional funny sidequest. You could go back to dungeons when you had
a new partner ability, for instance; however, as I’ve already mentioned, it’s often
a tiring process to do something like travel back to Hooktail’s castle just to blow up
a wall. Bug Fables, then, feels built for you to explore
its world. When Leif learns their bubble shield ability,
getting back to the Golden Hills is as simple as using the tunnel under the Ant Hill. It’s the same with the secret dungeon east
of the Golden Settlement, just use the tunnel, move one room over, and fall down to the secret
dungeon. Everything is just within reach to ensure
you don’t have to do a lot of slow walking to access the many secrets on offer. And pretty much every area has a secret dungeon
or boss, sometimes multiple secret dungeons. Looking for that stuff was probably some of
the most fun I had playing Bug Fables. That said, some of the side-quests are a bit…
out there, usually the ones that involve cooking. If you don’t happen to know what this bug
is talking about when he wants a dessert that will make him go to sleep, or what this bug
means when she starts asking you for a bomb, you’re probably not going to easily figure
stuff like that out without searching for it. I actually remember spending a lot of time
in the arcade with the Flappy Bird ripoff and the dungeon crawler, because I saw a bow
that I thought would be a medal that gave me the poison status. I’ll get into why I’d want a medal like
that later, but as soon as I bought the thing, it just sat in my key items and I had no idea
what I was supposed to do with it. Come to find out it’s connected to something
I hadn’t even found yet. In that sense, some of the side content is
a little disjointed, and there were a few points where I had to look up where the game
wanted me to go or what it wanted me to do. It isn’t what I’d call flawlessly executed,
though it’s a problem that’s pretty easy to get over considering it only happened a
couple of times. To brave the perils of Reddit, rife with scum
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wait, where are you going? --
Chapter 2: “Snakemouth’s Silver Tongue” Paper Mario is widely known for its vast array
of partner characters that join you throughout the adventure. Not only do they add moves to be used in combat,
they allow for you to explore the world more thoroughly with their overworld abilities. Bug Fables decided to scrap that system in
favor of a more intimate cast: Vi, Kabbu, and Lief are our trio this time around, and
they’ll be the only playable characters for its entire run. I’m sure fans of Paper Mario will scoff
at this, but I personally think it was a smart decision. See, I do love the partner characters we got
in the Paper Mario games. Admiral Bobbery had a truly heartbreaking
story, Vivian’s abuse at the hands of her sisters made it all the more satisfying to
bring her onto the team, and Koops’ shy disposition made me all the more willing to
help him break out of his shell, so to speak. I swear I love the partners in 64 as well,
I just don’t think they’re the most well characterized when compared to Thousand Year
Door. However, while I do love the partners, there
was always a problem with having so many of them. After you got them, they didn’t really play
an active role in the plot. Whichever partner you had out during a cutscene
would have one line of interchangeable dialogue, but otherwise, they’d kinda just hang by
the wayside. It was harder for them to make up for our
mute protagonist when only one of them had the ability to speak for him at a time, and
in extremely limited quantities. At that point they just became colorful tools,
which worked fine for those games, but I do think there was an opportunity to improve
that format. Clearly that dissonance was acknowledged here. "I really like the partner system in Paper
Mario, but I didn't like how they would only stick around for their chapter. After they would just become overpowered tanks
without much more story," -Jose Fernando Gracia Perez of Moonsprout Games Bug Fables aims for character quality more
than it aims for character quantity. All three of our main characters get ample
screen time and play on each other’s personalities. Vi is a money-hungry, hyperactive bee. She always asks for a reward and is not afraid
to speak her mind. Often this aspect of her personality clashes
with Kabbu’s more chivalrous, honor-bound attitude. He likes to help people because he thinks
it’s the right thing to do, and will gladly help someone even if there’s no reward in
sight. Leif is pretty reserved on account of their
amnesia, but they play off of Vi and Kabbu surprisingly well, usually in the form of
sarcastic comments. Where Kabbu is most definitely an optimist,
and Vi a realist: Leif is a witty pessimist. Mixing them together makes for really entertaining
dialogue, which they often participate in using a small text bubble off to the side
of a main conversation. Thousand Year Door did this sometimes, and
it was always a highlight when it happened, but Bug Fables goes all the way with it. When Vi makes an uncharacteristically selfless
comment, Kabbu will speak her name in adoration. Alternatively, when she makes an extremely
selfish comment, Kabbu will reprimand her. It’s really fun to see what these characters
are going to say to each other, but I think the best part is that this friction never
feels forced. Sometimes Vi will go a little too far and
Team Snakemouth will have to stop her selfish side from showing. The sidequest where Vi makes up with her sister
is a direct result of Kabbu and Leif reassuring her that fighting is natural, you just have
to learn how to forgive each other. And so, you travel across the world for red
paint, an act that Vi’s sister appreciates. It helps them reconcile their differences. Vi had to give up her savings for this paint,
something she would most likely never have done before meeting Kabbu and Leif. Similarly, Kabbu begins to understand the
value of protecting the things he has, rather than seeking revenge for the people he’s
lost. In the midst of the fight against the monster
that killed his friends, Kabbu almost loses Leif and Vi in the process. Revenge, he decided, wasn’t worth anything
if he was just going to lose more people. His new purpose, then: to protect the people
he cares about, rather than going on solo crusades in search of vengeance. Leif, in searching for answers about their
past, discovers that they… aren’t Leif. They were a science experiment that bonded
with Leif’s body. And yet, they still have Leif’s memories. They remember their past adventures, the previous
queen: and that haunts them to this day in the form of their teammates' children. Through Kabbu and Vi, though, Leif learns
that although they may be a failure, that didn’t stop them from forming genuine connections
with people. They get satisfaction from being with Team
Snakemouth and helping people, so what do their origins matter? They will carry on Leif’s will all the same. This progression is wonderful to watch unfold,
and it fosters a warm connection between these three. You really get the sense that they would go
to the ends of the earth for each other, an impression that only grows stronger the longer
you play. This is not something Paper Mario was ever
able to do, nor was it really trying to. Mario isn’t meant to challenge you too hard,
it’s meant to craft a fun adventure, and the Paper Mario games were really good at
that. All of their darker moments were subtle and
underplayed. In Bug Fables, there’s genuine political
conflict that arises from a lack of understanding. The current Ant Queen desires the Everlasting
Sapling to resurrect the previous queen, her mother. She wants to do this because she doesn’t
believe herself to be even half the queen that her mother was, and thinks that the solution
is to bring her mother back so she can fix everything wrong with Bugaria. In the meantime, she rules with a powerful
aura, leaving a distance between her and her subjects, and tolerating nothing. It causes her to cast out all the ladybugs
after a single incident of thievery, and also led to the dissolution of relations between
the Ants and the Termites. What she learns through the Wasp King’s
pursuit of the relic, though, is that her own pursuit of the relic isn’t necessarily
noble either. It is the longing for forbidden power itself
that is evil, in this case, and it’s caused her to run from her obstacles as ruler. Her desire for power has led to the degradation
of her kingdom, and by the end of the game she takes responsibility onto herself to rule
her kingdom, and learns to let her mother go. I was absolutely taken aback by this development. Her callous attitude toward her subjects led
me to believe that her cause was less than noble. I had figured she would end up being the villain
we’d have to fight near the end of the game, but I was genuinely surprised to find out
that she simply didn’t know how to be a good ruler. She had good intentions all along, despite
her less than stellar treatment of Team Snakemouth in the beginning. Instead of a twist villain we could see coming
a mile away, we get a poignant character journey cautioning against the acquisition of absolute
power at the expense of everyone else’s happiness. The Wasp King, as you’d imagine, is a darker,
fiercer analogue to Queen Elizant II. He found an Ancient Crown on Metal Island
that allowed him to brainwash his entire kingdom of wasps to do his bidding and search for
the Everlasting Sapling. He was abandoned by his parents in the middle
of the Dead Lands and left to fend for himself for most of his life. Being a Wasp Mimicfly, aka not an actual wasp,
likely led to his eventual ostracization and, subsequently, radicalization. He was abandoned by the world, he had no one:
and so, no wonder he came to seek power above all else. In the final battle, his facade crumbles and
his pathetic, pitiable persona springs forth. He’s a madman in pursuit of power for no
other reason than to continue to rule over the world that wronged him with an iron fist. His absolute refusal to recognize that good
people do exist leads him to his ultimate fate: turning into a tree, to stand at the
end of the Dead Lands for a near eternity. Ultimately, Bug Fables’ messages revolve
around a fairly simple notion: kindness. When Queen Elizant II learns to rule with
a kind hand rather than a powerful one, she wins back the support of her subjects, and
repairs her relationship with the Termite Kingdom. Vi learns to be less impulsive and understand
where other people are coming from. Kabbu learns to put aside his anger and protect
the people he cares about. Leif stops worrying about where they came
from or whether they should be allowed to exist, and instead chooses to live for the
moment and allow themselves happiness. Life should be fun, provided we all can be
kind to one another, and learn to coexist in peaceful harmony. Even Mothiva eventually learns that she can’t
do everything herself, and needs to rely on others for help even if it means they’ll
earn more adoration than she will. There are more important things at stake,
after all. What’s great about this message is that
it’s relatively simple, in the same way that Paper Mario has always been a relatively
simple RPG. Where Final Fantasy delves into more taboo
subject matter, Bug Fables is still a wholesome adventure. It doesn’t try to be anything more than
it is, it retains its more lighthearted tone, while still having the capacity for serious
conversations. I came to love this kingdom and its inhabitants;
I was ready and willing to help everyone, and that desire is rewarded near the end when
everyone comes to help you confront the Wasp King through the Dead Lands. Where he was abandoned by the world, Team
Snakemouth is supported by the world, since they never lost faith in it. That comes to be their strength: a bond that
can brave his flames of wrath, in order to preserve peace and prosperity for all. Is it simple? Sure. Has it been done before? Yeah. Did it make my heart all warm and fuzzy during
the final boss? Absolutely. That final boss, by the way, I survived by
the skin of my damn teeth. Wouldn’t you know it, Kabbu was the only
one left alive at the end, a perfect end for his character, a steadfast declaration that
he will protect his friends at all costs. Still, it is unusually difficult, isn’t
it? --
Chapter 3: “Advanced Bugfare” -- I would by no means describe Paper Mario as
easy. I have died on occasion, and the secret challenges
are certainly difficult on their own terms. However, the general progression doesn't require
much from the player. As long as you've been upgrading your health,
flower points, and BP somewhat equally, bosses are more about figuring out weaknesses and
blocking attacks with the right timing. Really, you'd only ever need to delve into
badge customization through a challenge run, likely a BP only run where your HP and FP
would be very low. In other words, there weren't many points
in the game where the player is tasked with configuring their badges correctly to win,
unless the player is actively seeking out a more challenging level up experience. Bug Fables retains this style of progression,
every level up you have the choice between HP, TP, and MP. MP replaces BP, and TP replaces FP. However, there is one crucial balancing difference. In Paper Mario, you'd have the choice between
5 HP, 5 FP, and 3 BP. In Bug Fables, you have the choice between
3 HP, split across the entire party, effectively meaning each character gets a 1 HP boost;
three TP; and 3 MP. Having lower upgrade numbers means a less
rapid progression rate, especially for HP. While this might sound bad on paper (hah)
it means that you're never really going to have an excess of HP. In Paper Mario, balanced builds ended up with
HP in the 40 range, and that seems a little excessive to me in a game with such low damage
numbers and a variety of healing items on offer. What I find fascinating about Bug Fables is
that it doesn't change anything about how the game itself works, it just tweaks the
numbers a slight bit. You can still carry an assortment of items
to use in battle, but since your stat numbers are much lower on average, you'll need to
use these items far more frequently. Bosses can do a third or even half of your
health in a single attack if you don't guard correctly, so items are often a necessity. TP consumption for powerful attacks is also
much higher, which makes the lower upgrade potential much more significant. Bosses have quite a bit of health that you'll
need to whittle down as quickly as possible, but how do you pull that off while managing
your limited resources? This is what inevitably pushed me into experimenting
with my Medals. I don't think the game was overbearing with
this push, but there was always a desire for improvement in me. Whenever I lost to a boss, and it happened
pretty often, I'd always be left optimistic. If I just changed around some of my medals
a little bit, I'd be able to survive! This is encouraged with the "prepare and retry"
option, which allows you to change up your build before retrying a boss fight, encouraging
experimentation as a solution to obstacles. Some battles inflict status conditions, some
spawn extra enemies, some can fly, some are weak to Leif's abilities, some can be flipped
over by Kabbu, some can only be hit out of the air with Vi's Beemerang. Which Medals do you pick? Well, Kabbu's character is all about protection,
getting the heat off of his friends so he can take the brunt of the blows. Perhaps giving him all the HP ups would be
a good idea. Maybe even give him some badges to raise his
defense at the cost of some attack power. Kabbu has a move that can force enemies and
bosses to attack only him with single target attacks, effectively turning him into a tank. However, you do not have to play this way. If you're a madman, like me, you can forsake
defenses and turn Kabbu into an absolute powerhouse. I gave him badges that would sacrifice defense
to raise his offense, I gave him all of my HP up medals so he wouldn't die in one hit,
and I had to be conscious of where I placed him in the party lineup so as not to get too
overzealous. See, party formation matters quite a bit:
whoever is in front of the formation will have increased attack power, but are more
likely to be the target of enemies. There's a nice balancing act between giving
Kabbu an extra morsel of either power or defense, since he's already built like a glass cannon. The beauty of this system is that you can
make anyone the glass cannon. Later on, I found it much more practical for
Vi to be the glass cannon, and with the acquisition of new medals, I found a way to augment my
offense even more by equipping Poison Attack medals which increased Vi's attack while poisoned. Pair this with the Weak Stomach Medal, which
causes any food item to immediately poison the user, and the Eternal Venom Medal, which
makes it so that a character will never naturally recover from poison, and Vi was ripping through
bosses like they were butter. The synergies don't end there, either. There's a medal that temporarily raises ally
attack power when the bug with the badge is damaged. It's cool for normal use, and pretty fun to
put on Kabbu and pair with his Taunt ability, but you know what's even more fun? Putting it on your eternally poisoned glass
cannon so that your additional party members get attack power boosts every single turn
due to the poison damage proccing every single turn. There's also a medal that makes enemies less
likely to attack the user that equips it, which I naturally put onto my poisoned bug. Voila, we have a Team Snakemouth with an insanely
strong glass cannon that is rarely targeted by enemies and will power up her allies every
turn. Additionally, Kabbu can make absolutely sure
that no one targets Vi with his taunt ability, and Leif can either freeze enemies to stop
them from attacking, simultaneously decreasing the defense of the enemy who is frozen, or
place a shield around their allies that negates all incoming damage for a single turn. And this is just one synergy you can go for. There are medals that play around the sleep
and numb statuses that you can experiment with as you please. It's not only encouraged by the game, it isn't
an instant win button. While this synergy I created was incredibly
satisfying to put together on my own, it didn't carry me through fights. It gave me a pretty massive leg-up in damage,
but the tradeoff in defenses meant that one of my characters was constantly Knockin' on
Heaven's Door. It is exceedingly hard to come back from a
character death, because you have to spend one bug's turn reviving them, and likely another
bug's turn healing them. Bosses do not let up. Ever. So it's on you to keep up with the flow of
the fight. It's completely up to you how much attack
or defense you want. If you want to play it safe above all else,
you can. You won't dish out much damage in a single
turn, but if you focus on a defensive build, and learn the boss' attack tells, you can
get through anything with minimal healing. This only works as well as it does because
the core interactive tenets of Paper Mario are still present. You can guard to reduce damage, but you can
also superguard with near pixel perfect button timing to reduce damage exponentially, and
pulling off a series of superguards has saved my ass on more than one occasion. It'll never not feel immensely satisfying
to pull these off. These strategies are so much easier to implement
now that all three party members and all of their abilities are available in a single
turn, rather than having the player swap between different characters. There's even a swap mechanic which can give
a turn to one of your allies, though each extra turn decreases your teammates' attack
power. Sometimes, though, you'll need to knock down
several enemies and follow up with a Kabbu charge for massive damage. Sometimes you'll need to freeze multiple enemies
to keep them from attacking. It's up to you whether you want to baton pass
your turn at the cost of lower, or sometimes even no damage at all. Not only is it much simpler than Paper Mario,
it oddly enough offers more depth than Paper Mario. It doesn't need to abandon lower damage numbers
to achieve this, either. The highest amount of damage I could manage
in one attack was around 17 to 20, and the highest health I saw in a boss fight never
got close to exceeding 200 maximum, even on hard mode. Yeah, there's also a medal called hard mode,
which gives the player the freedom to switch into a mode where enemies have more health,
attack power, defense, and new special moves. This isn't just a difficulty toggle, though:
you get more EXP while this badge is on, and for beating bosses with it on, you'll get
special badges from the bug who gave it to you. It feels like a natural evolution of the formula
established by Paper Mario, and it's able to tackle a slightly more difficult adventure
because it isn't Mario. --
Epilogue: "Letting it Die" -- See, nothing about this video is meant to
imply that Paper Mario is bad. I adore those first two Paper Mario games,
they were awesome for what they were. After all, they were Mario games, they were
built to be fun and accessible for all audiences. I don't blame them for being a little on the
easy side, a little on the nonsensical side, a little on the simple side. For what they were, they did their job well. Bug Fables, though, was built for fans of
Paper Mario. For people who had already played those games. It exists as the logical next step from those
experiences. More complicated and difficult battles, a
little more character-focused, with slightly heavier subject matter, while not entirely
abandoning its simpler roots: and a world bustling at the seams with information to
find. Bug Fables is everything Paper Mario could
never be, and it's got me thinking a lot about franchises. As I said at the beginning, and will reiterate
forevermore: ideas will never die. Video games inspire so many people, for so
many reasons. The beauty of art is that we all connect with
a work in our own way, from our own perspective. Where one person may have liked Metroid for
its lonely atmosphere, another may have liked it for its difficulty and world design. People connect with the things that they like,
they seek out more of the things they like, and I don't think there's anything inherently
wrong with this. However, it does mean that we tend to crave
more of the same, more of what we like; and if we're not careful, we tend to become complacent
in simply having the thing that we like again, without examining why we liked that thing
in the first place, or expressing any interest in seeing those ideas grow. "Some people say that we're filling a gap,
but we just made something we want to play," said Perez. "We feel the same way about the Paper Mario
series, but I try to respect the whole series, even if the final entries weren't what I wanted
them to be." Jose Fernando Gracia Perez Bug Fables was born from more than a desire
to replicate Paper Mario itself, like many other attempts to revive a classic over the
years. Often it seems like retro revival projects
aim to package the same ideas that connected with fans, but part of the reason this ends
up ringing hollow is because… well, that stuff has been done already. Unless you're willing to put in the legwork
and understand why those ideas connected with people, you'll never truly be able to create
something that can connect with them again. Bug Fables is a game that understands Paper
Mario, and seeks to build on top of those ideas. It uses that familiar foundation to pursue
an entirely original premise. It managed to play on what everyone loved
about Paper Mario, and craft something entirely new from that familiarity. This is what struck me so deeply about Bug
Fables, it's why I've been hooked the moment I started my adventure. It makes me feel like a kid again, experiencing
those Paper Mario games for the first time. It was only able to awaken those long forgotten
feelings because I could sense the passion stitched into every fiber of its being. It wasn't a mere imitation, it was a statement
of intent. It was a Paper Mario sequel more than any
other title that holds the Paper Mario name. I don't doubt that the rougher look of Bug
Fables turned people away, it certainly put me off at first. Indie projects just don't have the time, money,
or experience required to give these experiences the polish they deserve. It's why some of the overworld platforming
kinda sucks. Vi's beemerang is infuriating sometimes, it
isn't nearly as tried and true as Koops' shell toss. And yet, Vi's beemerang can be tossed in all
directions. They take the idea of Koops' shell toss and
elaborate on those puzzles, making them harder to solve. They push each idea to their limits, and that
might result in some jank here and there. You can see those rough edges every once in
a while, the team's passion brushing up with various constraints. Nevertheless, we shouldn't rely on rights
holders to preserve and expand upon beloved ideas, even if they often have the resources
to round out those rough edges. If there's no profit motive, no sufficient
demand: ideas can and will be abandoned in favor of more successful ones. I don't think Paper Mario is beloved because
it's Paper Mario. Putting Paper Mario 3 on the title doesn't
necessarily denote a true advancement of ideas. It's just a name. What, then, is the missing link between the
critically acclaimed retro revivals and the flash in the pans? Shovel Knight isn't influenced by any one
game, it's a love letter to NES platformers, with all the hallmarks and conveniences of
modern game design. A Hat in Time isn't influenced by any one
game, it's a love letter to the collectathons that all but died out. They both have obvious foundational influences:
Shovel Knight seems primarily inspired by Mega Man, and A Hat in Time by 3D Mario. But they have so many ideas unique to them,
that they transcend their inspirations and become something new. Bug Fables, dare I say, transcends Paper Mario. It is most obviously influenced by it on a
conceptual level, but it has so much to call its own, that it ceases to ground itself by
that title. Who says we can't get a game like that from
fans of Star Fox? Fans who were so influenced by those ideas,
so touched by those systems, that they adopt them into something of their own creation? Who says that can't happen with Chibi-Robo? Klonoa? F-Zero? It's a complete waste of time to yell at a
faceless corporation to carry the torch, at the end of the day they don't really care
one way or the other as long as they make their money. Whether they do it through a smaller IP or
a larger one, they will make their money, and the passion projects tend to be more of
the exception than the norm. Art is collaborative, we have been given the
ideas, and so we must adopt them into our toolkit, and turn those ideas into something
we can eventually call our own. That is how we preserve our favorite games.
KingK, a video essayist/reviewer, has been doing some really great analysis on various RPGs, Kingdom Hearts, Mario, Sonic, and others. And now he's added Bug Fables to the list. He makes some really interesting points about BF and its ideas beyond the Paper Mario formula.
I need to play Bug Fables.
What's the point of making a video to invite new people to the game if you talk about the last chapter in the beginning of the video...
I remember watching a video from this guy and heavily disliking it, and I guess I wasn't the only one because it's no longer in the channel. Watching this video reminded me why I dislike him. He just spoils everything. Half of the video and there's nothing about the gameplay.
For someone who loves the world and characters so much, he doesn't care about people discovering them for themselves.
Saw bits, will revisit to watch past hearing Giants Lair. I cant get enough of bugs
So I was on the Paper Mario subreddit earlier, specifically this meme:
https://www.reddit.com/r/papermario/comments/j05sx3/take_this_with_a_grain_of_salt_pls_i_dont_mind/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
And it depicts a fan, angry that the new games aren't like the old ones, and then there's the Scandinavian chad telling him to play a different game.
Logically I post a link to r/bugfables because this game fits the bill to a T. Solving the problem in the meme. But now I go back to find it was downvoted into the ground and one guy whining about how "90%" of r/paperMario posts involve links to bug fables.
Am I alone in thinking that's ridiculously toxic behavior?