Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey
This was originally posted on the 28th of September, 2023, in this Twitter thread.
Bowser's Inside Story
I've never played the original Bowser's Inside Story so I can't really say how good of a remake this is, but what I can say though is that I thought this game was pretty fun. While this game didn't blow my mind or anything, I do see why it's considered such a cult classic.
Bowser himself is probably the best part about this game. The writing for him is pretty top notch. It's probably my favorite depiction of Bowser.
Gameplay wise, I really enjoyed how much faster fights as Bowser were compared to fights as the Mario Bros. It's nice not always having basic enemy encounters take forever. I will say though, I don't think the giant Bowser fights were very fun. Sure the game wasn't super strategy heavy in the first place, but the giant fights in particular felt especially simple. They also felt particularly slow compared to other boss fights.
Mario and Luigi were also fun to play as, but I don't much to say about them.
My favorite character besides Bowser was Fawful. He has a really nice mix of being both intelligent and zany.
Probably my main problem with the game was the pacing near the end, since there's a particularly long Mario and Luigi segment in which you backtrack through multiple areas that Bowser's already explored. I actually got stuck near the end of this segment and had to look up a guide because there's this doorway that I just didn't notice. To my credit (kinda), it's one of the few doors in the entire game that's completely unmarked on your map until after you go through it.
I think the difficulty also fumbles near the end, mainly due to just how strong some of the late game abilities are. I'll admit though, there was some cathartic joy in defeating some of the late game bosses in singular turns.
There is a challenge mode that has you fight suped up versions of the bosses, but the turn limits kinda just turn them into stat checks so I didn't bother doing all of them.
Overall, I'd say I had a pretty easy time with the game considering literally none of my characters ever died.
Lastly, I figure I should mention the soundtrack. I really like it. My favorite song is probably "Beachside Dream (Inside Bowser)". From what I've listened to though, I think I like the original game's soundtrack just a little more than the remake.
Bowser Jr's Journey
Bowser Jr's Journey was alright. Similarly to how I feel about the Minion Quest mode from the previous remake, I think it works well as an appetizer to the main game.
To really challenge myself, I decided to play through the entire mode without grinding at all, and damn, I had a pretty difficult time. To be honest, I genuinely can't tell whether or not that was an intended way to play. Sure, I literally proved to myself that ot was possible, but I was pretty much always 1 level below my opponents.
I'm not a huge fan of how much luck is involved, although you could minimize luck if you simply grinded, or perhaps just had better strategies than I did. I was not very good at coming up with strategies.
Overall though, it was fun to beat something that was just barely within my skill level.
One genuine complaint I have with the gameplay though is that it starts off really boring. Since you don't directly control your party, most of the decision making when actually in fights comes from how you use your commander skills, but at the start of the game you don't have access to very many of them.
I did come to really appreciate the pre-battle decision making though. I never realized back when I played Minion Quest just how important formations are.
As for the plot, it definitely has some good moments, and I'd say I enjoyed it overall, but it does really just feel like a tacked on subplot. I would've preferred less intertwining with the main plot.
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