Ok, I finished it. This was definitely one of the better entries in the series. Bowser's Inside Story remains my favorite due to Fawful and playable Bowser, but this one may be second. It's been a long time since I played Superstar Saga.
Two notes on the main criticisms I have seen:
1. The story. The story is bare-bones in this game, that's true. Which means the story doesn't constantly interrupt the game, so that's a plus.
2. The Toad Hunt challenges. There really aren't that many of them and most are kind of fun. I got annoyed by them once or twice, but they aren't this horrible scourge they keep being made out to be.
On the more important front, the combat is probably best in the series. They made one controversial change: the target reticule. Many enemy attacks declare in no uncertain terms which bro they are aiming at. At first I was annoyed. After all, a big part of these games is learning enemy tells so you know who to dodge/counter with. However, they made up for it by giving enemies multiple attacks beyond one each for jump and hammer dodge. It's not just a question of which Bro is the target, but which attack is coming. So the combat didn't lose any depth after all. The battle card system is much more balanced than the badges in Dream Team. I didn't touch the amiibo stuff because reviews said it made the combat too easy and that's not one of my interests. Some of the bosses were really, really tough and I was left wondering how in the hell I was supposed to dodge that. The Bros/Trio attacks remain as fun as ever. Mario & Luigi is my favorite flavor of turn-based RPG combat, so I was really happy to see it stay strong. That's what this series is built on, after all.
Edited by SteveT, 14 February 2016 - 09:28 PM.
