Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope
This was originally posted on the 24th of January, 2023 in this Twitter thread.
I believe a large reason as to why I talk about the difficulty so much in this post is due to watching this let's play, in which the person playing complains a lot about the difficulty. Regardless, I do genuinely consider the game to be easy.
"Fair is far beyond the battlefield" -Rabbid Peach
I wasn't initially planning to play this game, but yatta yatta, I ended up playing it anyways.
The main gameplay of this game (the Tactical-RPG parts) was really easy. I only ever struggled in the first world, in which your options are overall very limited.
As you level up your Sparks and upgrade your skill tree, you start to wildly outperform the enemies as you gain access to a plethora of really busted options. Mario's Overwatch upgrades were a particular favorite of mine.
Unlike the first game, there's no ranking system, and fights are done individually rather than back to back, so there's nothing really discouraging you from being super reckless.
This was "definitely" my intention
There are optional challenge missions that you can play, but even as a (pretty much) newcomer to the genre I was able to get through most of them on my first try.
I played the entire game on Hard mode by the way.
This one mission in particular was comically easy.
The hard part of this game is actually the overworld stuff. Or well, it's hard if you try and 100% the game like I did. I had to look up a lot of stuff. (edit: game8.co has an incredible guide on this game)
If you're a fan of classic Nintendo 'put the square peg in the square hole' gameplay, but sometimes the square peg is just a nightmare to find, you'll love the overworld stuff in this game.
I'm really not a fan of that kinda stuff though. It definitely doesn't help that the overworlds are these big mazes where you rarely ever get to just walk straight to the thing you're trying to get to.
Usually you have to take really long, roundabout paths to get to stuff.
The map and radar were extremely not helpful.
Most stuff just isn't shown on the map outside of warp points and most mission locations. With how the overworlds are designed, having a radar that points you straight towards things isn't very helpful. The radar also gives you no indicator of elevation. Also, you can only place map markers on missions, which your radar already tracks anyways.
There's also these generic enemy encounters scattered across worlds. Like most Mario RPG's they just appear as enemies that are walking around, and you can either strike them, or they can strike you to initiate a battle. I don't think they really added much to the experience. I always felt like I was wasting my time whenever I fought them. Sure, you can gain XP and stuff by fighting them, but you can just replay previous missions instead for that kinda stuff. By the way, I don't think it actually matters at all who initiates a fight first. Unlike other Mario RPG's, you always have the first turn.
Oh yeah also, sometimes enemies will just dash into you right as soon as you load back into the overworld.
Honestly, I think the game would've just been better without them.
When it comes to the story, I wish the playable characters got more of a chance to shine. You start off with 6 playable characters at the start of the game, and you have 9 by the end, and they don't really get a whole lot of opportunities to speak.
I think Peach and Bowser each only spoke once throughout the entire game, outside of Peach saying "Peachy" after fights and stuff.
The whole setup from that first game with that girl who created Beep-O or whatever (I don't quite remember the details because I never actually played the first game (edit: I'd only watched this let's play as of this original post)) isn't really brought up much which I thought was kinda weird. The last Memory you collect is a message from that girl, and there's another one that mentions a "Basement Incident", which I think might be referring to the intro of the first game.
I may or may not be wrong about that though. What I feel is so weird about them not acknowledging the first game's premise is how the game treats the world that they're as something that they've just always been in. What I have a problem with specifically is the planet wardens. They all have these backstories which seem to imply that they've been around for a while.
When it comes to the Rabbids, they feel a little out of character to me. They're a lot more civilized than normal. Maybe that's somehow just a side effect of them merging into Mario's universe.
At the end of the day though, maybe I'm just thinking too hard about the plot of a Rabbids game.
Anyways, for my last talking point, glitches!
This game had way more than I was expecting.
Sometimes enemies just don't play thier attack animations.
This weird dissipate effect happens whenever you clear up these gates for the first time.
It's so consistent maybe it's actually intentional, but like come on, it lags game so badly every time.
(edit: I'm pretty sure it's not intentional)
One time I just had barely any movement range for no apparent reason. Luckily in this scenario, that wasn't even an issue.
I don't have a video of it but one time I opened the map and softlocked the game. From what I've experienced, seen and heard, there seems to be some glitch or glitches that causes the game to just not enable certain button presses, sometimes softlocking the game.
This may actually just be an exploit, but I thought it was funny so I put it here anyways.
So uh yeah, the game definitely could've used some more hours in the oven or something.
Overall, I think I had an at least somewhat enjoyable experience with this game.
I would maybe be interested in doing some sort of challenge run with self imposed rules someday. I definitely don't plan on 100%'ing the game again anytime soon.
The Tower Of Doooom
This was originally posted on the 23rd of June, 2023 in this Twitter thread.
 |
| This can only be purchased through the Gold Edition, or Season Pass |
Yup, the second DLC just came out and only now am I talking about the first one.
Almost everything in this mode is random, down to the characters you have, the sparks you get, and the missions you do. All the RNG is meant to add replay value, although I personally just found it to be really repetitive and boring.
The Tower Of Doooom is a little more difficult than the base game since you can't heal in-between missions. It's also more difficult due to how proportionally long compared to the base game it takes for your characters to become busted.
Whether or not the missions are actually hard though is all luck dependent.
There was only 1 mission I encountered that I thought was genuinely really difficult. Even then however I had the option to just choose a different mission. (edit: Just so y'all know, I tuffed it out 😎)
And then there were 2 missions like this:
I imagine this DLC probably could be pretty challenging if you imposed some restrictions onto yourself, such as not using Rabbid Rosalina, or at least not buffing certain things on her skill tree.
If you're the kinda fella who rates games based on their dollar to hour ratio then you'll love this, since it's about $10 for 20 hours of "content". The only reason it took me 20 hours though is because you have to play through the mode 9 goddamn times to unlock everything.
On the bright side though, I like the weapon skins.
The Last Spark Hunter
This was originally posted on the 25th of June, 2023 in this Twitter thread.
 |
| Nintendo |
This dlc was pretty good I guess. It's pretty much just an extra world. So if you like the base game, you'll probably like this as well.
It's a little odd to me that this is its own mode rather than something that's just tacked onto the main story.
I guess I get why it's like that though. I can see how it would end up being pretty annoying for some people if they had to play through the entire game just so they could access the dlc that they bought.
I thought I was gonna have a pretty tough time 100%'ing it since there aren't any guides out yet, but it turns out I've grown accustomed to the ways this game hides stuff in its overworlds.
Normally don't really care for ambiance at all, in fact oftentimes actively dislike ambiance, but for whatever reason actually ended up enjoying the ambiance in the Melodic Gardens.
I think it's pretty cool that you start out at level 30, which is the max level in the base game, and they increase the max to level 40.
What I think isn't cool however is that completing all the missions only leaves you at level 39. Sure, you don't really need to get to level 40, but the fact that it was that close really just bugged me, so I ended up grinding for an extra hour just get that extra level.
For whatever reason, one of Mecha King Bob-omb's attacks causes the game to stutter really badly. One time though, the game straight up just crashed when he tried to do it.
It's kinda weird how The Last Spark Hunter takes place right before the final world of the main game. I think it could've fit just fine after the events of main game. It's only really weird to me I guess because you become higher leveled in the dlc compared to the base game.
Something else I feel obligated to mention is that they improved the overall game with some update(s?). Most notably, the dissipation effect on darkmess vines no longer tanks the framerate, and you can now examine portals to see what's gonna come out of them.
Rayman In The Phantom Show
This was originally posted on the 1st of September, 2023 in this Twitter thread.
Wowie, Rayman!
They translated Rayman into this game really nicely. He really FEELS like Rayman, if ya know what I mean. My only complaint with his characterization is the same complaint I have with most other characters in the game, I wish they had more voice acting.
Aside from Rayman, the most interesting part of the DLC is the way they restructure and rebalance some mechanics.
Because you only go up to level 10, everything on the skill tree is way cheaper, which I find surprising since the Tower Of Doooom handles the same thing by just giving you more skill points.
Strangely, some stuff was taken off of the skill trees, and tied directly to leveling up, or at least, I think so. As far as I know, the game never mentions this. I just noticed at some point that Rabbid Mario inexplicably had 2 dashes rather than 1.
The Sparks are pretty heavily nerfed. They're all capped at level 3, rather than the usual level 5. Plus, Rayman can't equip Sparks, so you're restricted to only being able to equip 4 Sparks at a time, rather than the usual 6.
With that said though, I wanna mention the new Selfie Spark, because it's absolutely cracked. When at level 3, it allows you to summon a clone of yourself that has 45% max HP, and deals 95% damage. While the clones don't have access to Sparks or Skill Tree upgrades, just being able to have a fourth controllable party member is incredibly useful.
By the way, they also added another Spark, but it's a completely forgettable ice shockwave.
Whoops, I forgot to talk about Rayman's abilities. His main gimmicks consist of turrets (that I forgot the name of) (edit: Plunger Guards), and costumes. Similarly to Bowser's mechakoopas, the turrets seem pretty good on paper, but they do pretty poor damage, even if you stack them.
The costumes are his replacement for Sparks. They give Rayman a lot of extra versatility, although they don't really make him that much stronger when you equip them. The Vortex costume in particular actually makes him weaker in some scenarios. In general, I felt like the Vortex costume just wasn't very good, because its own abilities just don't really synergize well with each other.
Oh yeah also, Rayman can swing on Purple Lums. The Purple Lums effectively just act as juiced up bounce-pads that only Rayman can interact with.
Overall, while he's not very powerful, he's at the very least pretty versatile.
They brought back the ranking system from the first game, which I appreciate. The Kraken boss fight in particular actually got me thinking quite a bit. Eventually, I was actually able to beat it in only 3 turns, which is literally the fastest you can possibly beat that fight.
The Space Opera Network is pretty darn simple compared to the other
overworlds, which I could definitely see people thinking that's a bad thing, but personally liked the fact that is was just a bunch of rectangular rooms as opposed to the usual big ass maze. While honestly think prefer it this way, I can't help but find it really odd just how out of the way all of the optional stuff is. The main hub leads to 5 different rooms, and one of those 5 features exclusively optional content.
Compared to some of the other
overworlds, the Space Opera Network was extremely lackluster in terms of atmosphere. I guess there was kind of a cozy vibe due to how cramped everything is, but that's about all can compliment it on. The cramped nature of it realy sucked for the camera though.
I think this DLC in general is the most well balanced thing in the entire game. Everything stays fairly consistent in terms of difficulty, and the restrictions on characters and Sparks prevents you from just obliterating every fight. Like mentioned before, the trophies also add a nice little extra bit of challenge.
Lastly, I wanna mention that only experienced 2 bugs. One of them was an extremely minor collision issue that fixed itself rather quickly. The other one though is the game crashing every time you open the newsfeed.
Anyways, that's about all have to say. In summary, like Rayman 👍
(Update: Here's a post containing a bunch of in-game environmental photos)
| 2023 Media Page |
Comments
Post a Comment