Mario & Luigi: Brothership - Five Hour Mark Impressions

I'm venturing back into the preview/review territory again as I want to add more content to my blog that isn't just written art or random thoughts that are too long-winded for Bluesky, and what better way than to kick such new content off than with some early game impressions of the newest entry in the Mario and Luigi series, subtitle Brothership!

This is my first legit entry in the Mario and Luigi series. For whatever reason, I never bothered with any Mario RPG outside of THE Super Mario RPG for the SNES. Paper Mario included despite my having played several games inspired by it, but that's neither here nor there right now. 

Mario and Luigi Brothership has the titular characters setting sales in the electrically-themed world of Concordia. The hub world being the Shipshape, a drifting island that is, you guessed it, shaped like a ship. You get to set your course for the ship to take by directing it to follow currents that gradually open up more and more routes as you progress the story. And along these routes, you will drift past more islands and even reefs as part of an on-going side quest.

It's a neat concept and is tied to in-game time, meaning that the Shipshape is always moving along. Now I can't claim to know if there are advancements to come that sort of streamline this later on the game, but at the point I am in, if you aren't actively watching the little map in the top left corner and are waiting to drift pass a certain new island, you could potentially miss your chance at landing there if you don't get back to the cannon on the Shapeship in time, meaning you would then be waiting for the ship to sail back around again. It's a minor frustration that really could only be an issue if you aren't paying attention, but it's a problem just the same. 

Moving on to the battle system: This is really good stuff. The Mario RPG, regardless of the series, has always been based around timing buttons presses to buff attacks or avoid attacks, and Brothership is no exception. The brothers' attacks are animated beautifully and are carried out with a buttery smoothness that betrays the game's 30fps framerate. Combat is fun, snappy and more than just simply hitting Confirm on a menu item and then watching the turn play out. Attack and Defense rounds require your attention at all times, whether it be timing the A or B button just right or figuring out when the best time to jump over an enemy's attack so that you not only avoid taking damage, but dump additional damage on to your for in the process.

Don't have much to say at the moment regarding the overall story as it really hasn't done much yet, but the dialogue is genuinely funny and had had me laughing out loud more than a times already. It alone would keep me playing, but coupling that on top of a really fun battle system? Easy 40+ hours I'm going to clock into this.