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It still bothers the HELL out of me that they found a way to make *Mario & Luigi* feel monotonous and BORING. You have to actually TRY to make Mario & Luigi Boring. For the first time ever I didn’t feel like battling every enemy. I hated searching around for Toads and Items, and the story was so lame and generic….I couldn’t finish the game. It also doesn’t help they made Paper Mario *SILENT* .Paper Mario is NOT a silent protagonist. He has emotion! He speaks to others! He can act out when he wants to! Making him mute felt so dirty and even more like a third wheel among the main cast….

Super is my for sure best game of all time

The thing about pokemon, collecting items and leveling up, is that it really only pays off if the dungeon is hard enough, so making an actual dungeon game is awesome. Then adding tons of mechanics and content is exactly what is desired, so you can keep playing the same save file and make all of your collecting and leveling pay off.

Mystery dungeon MMO with NO P2W FREE MONEY NINTENDO TAKE NOTE!!!!

Me when game is game:

Nintendo need to redo the whole game and start over

Dont play explorer of time, play Explorers of Sky!

to be honest, for me personally, pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of time/darkness/sky were my most favorite ones. Pokemon super mystery dungeon is a close second though, the others were a bit meh. Gates of infinity had just something that pushed me away from it and i never looked at it again, but explorers of time/darkness/sky and super mystery dungeon were amazing.

Every time I see a video analysis of Sky, something new comes to perspective. I had no idea how Partner, Grovyle, and Wigglytuff all follow that lesson to think for oneself. Even the post game plot leans into it. Awesome!

God having played Brothership, its depiction of Luigi is FAR more in line with Dream Teams depiction of Luigi as someone who goes through an entire arc of being cowardly to being a truly brave person when nobody else could help. Seriously he’s got his good moments that ARE ACTUALLY good and not just laced with “look at that dumbass Luigi, so scared”

17:28 why do you need to attack me and make me feel old like that....

This guy's alright

Now that I think about it, it IS really funny that the voice in DPPt talking about Darkrai says it doesn't do what it does intentionally, but rather as a defense mechanism. Then PMD's Darkrai is mischievously twirling its mustache at your doorstep, declaring its single minded attempt to collect your taxes at all costs.

Great analysis of the themes. I cant praise this game enough.

Great video! I just finished Color Splash and had a great time despite some big issues imo. I never gave it a chance because of its reputation but I'm glad I did. I probably still prefer Origami King but Color Splash did some things better. But again great analysis it was an interesting watch!

I really enjoyed this game on my first (and only) play through because the music, visuals and writing are stunningly good. The battles are whatever but I didn’t find out about the trash toad until near the end of the game so I really hated the thing cards as a mechanic and tbh I still do. One of my favourites tho either way and I’ll probably revisit it yet

I think you've hit the nail on the head about the struggle within this game. Personally, I made the mistake of deciding I would be motivated primarily by the plot of the game. Not to say the plot is terrible - it's pretty formulaic, but serviceable enough - but rather, as the worlds get longer and longer, this means that what plot beats you get are doled out more and more sparingly, the RPG equivalent of blocking the next dungeon off behind more and more fetch quests as the player gets deeper in. The side quests, then, become valuable for their narrative alone, as you can be sure you'll at least progress some manner of story this session. It doesn't help that the story itself grinds to a halt later on. At the start, Ring mentions five legendary powers he's lost that he needs to get back. A perfectly suitable Macguffin hunt, but the problem is that you get them all back in the first half of the game, and none of them are "free people from their hypnosis", so once they dry up, you're left figuratively and literally running in place until the game decides to move the story forward entirely independent of what you personally accomplish. Just you saying how many worlds there are is actively giving me motivation to get back into the game, since the game itself deliberately hides this information from you, making the road ahead of you feel long and unending. One part where the gamey and workout-ey aspects of the game synergize brilliantly is the boss fights. Granted, there are only a handful of different bosses that the game shamelessly recycles, but they feel like a genuine ordeal. I've fought some hard bosses in my time, but Ring Fit is the only game capable of making the boss exert a physical toll on you, the player. When you land an especially powerful attack, it's you, the player, not your character, who ends up physically exhausted and panting like a Dragonball Z protagonist. At the end, after your twenty minute ordeal, it genuinely does feel like you've been taken to the woodshed and come out victorious. There's a reason your player character has no character - if they did, it'd be that guy taking the credit for _your_ hard work. From this experience alone, I'm inclined to say the choice to meld workout and game was worthwhile in spite of all its shortcomings. All this to say, great video. It's quite a pleasant surprise to find a good video essay on, for instance, Paper Jam, then to check the uploader's channel and find a half dozen more essays to watch. You'll be gracing my second screen quite a lot, I assure you.

Id like to add that while it isnt a focus of the story (msot likely to aviod players getting bored and putting the gsme down) there is a fairly deep school system in Scarlet and Violet with lessons that teach you about pokemon as well as a subject. The lore is in history class, math teaches you about multiplication using type effectiveness and the crit rate it even has test to go over what the class teaches

7:00 "or play a game of basketball with a friends Typhlosion"... That one didnt age quite so well 💀

What hurts the most about XC3's ending is that it came off the heels of XC2...and you're essentially filling the role of *Malos.* The whole theme behind 2 was the fact that, yes, things are shit. There is a permanent cold war between two of the stronger nations and they're devouring the smaller nations for their resources to perpetuate their stalemate. The religious capital is extorting the other states for their own ends. The Titans are, literally, dying and soon there will be nowhere left for people to live. And high above there is an uncaring God who could help fix all of this, but has become so disillusioned that he has given up. Malos' solution? Genocide the world and let it start over. Mankind did all of this. Man's greed, Man's hubris, Man's wrath did this. And as long as Man exists, there can be, will be, no future as Mankind continues to destroy one another and the world itself. Malos' nihilism is contrasted with Rex's optimism that, so long as there are good people left in the world, mankind can find a way to solve their problems. There is no problem too big to solve - even the looming end of the world. And how does it resolve? The world *does* end, or at least, the version of it they knew. The Titans die, blades become uncoupled from drivers, and the remaining land of Alrest combines together to form Agnus. And Rex's optimism is rewarded: everyone works together and rebuilds a new kingdom from the ashes of the old Alrest. So 3's ending, this inversion where the solution is to "kill them all and let the world reset itself to solve its own problems" is...rough. like you said: the connections you make, the people you help, the villains you slay all mean nothing in the end. Noah's crew could have cut a bloody line across the surface of Aionios, sparing nobody, and the ending would have been identical in its consequences. And when you can say that about a plot that's supposed to be about hope for the future...maybe the plot has been lost somewhere down the line. 3's ending is in direct contrast to not only everything that happened over the course of the game, but the series as a whole.

I am so interested to hear your thoughts on Brothership when you get to it It seems like it has actually fixed all the issues you've noted in Paper Jam. Notably, it's probably one of the most sincere M&L I've played. I actually think it could've used a little snark myself but it was refreshing playing this game that's earnest as fuck.

Phenomenal well thought-out video. Paper Jam is a great example of how a game can be a forgettable game despite still being functional. All the roadblocks being interchangeable really put it into perspective to me. Also, in retrospect I realized how awful the post-ironic humor is thanks to you pointing it out. I found it funny as a kid but it only reinforces the fact the game is going through the motions. The old games had funny meta gags but they generally took their stories seriously (the “you’re ruining the story!” moment in the Paper Mario 64 intro and the “ending your game” comments in Super Paper Mario off the top of my head are the only times they tried to play off relatively serious moments for a meta gag). Meta jokes are like salt. A little bit can liven up a dish but too much and you poison the whole meal, like a lot of forms of humor really - but meta humor is especially prone to diminishing returns.

Very good video. I loved this game and you espoused upon themes that were on the edges of my mind but I couldn't bring to words while playing through it. Your comments about what makes a game "mature" resonated with me the most. I honestly didn't know what I was getting in to with this game when I picked it up, I was expecting a lighthearted game mainly from my impressions of the artstyle alone. The first confrontation with Jiquan into the torture scene almost made me stop playing because of how dismayed I got, and the boss fight afterwards in the prison was even worse. In spite of this, I kept playing because I was so invested, and I'm glad I did. I felt that the imagery was serving the story in a meaningful way that I appreciated as much as I feared.

I remember devs talking in the interview "players can miss every other messages in the game, but they need to understand the relationship between yi and heng", and I think that is really a fantastic choice

I will give Paper Jam this: It's a really funny game to speedrun purely for the fact that this nearly 25 hour long experience can be downed in less than an hour and it's not even that difficult to do

For the roshambo temples, it’s not completely random. They’ll play a card based on their appearance (e.g, a koopa playing rock because they have a hard shell). At least that’s how it was for me so maybe I just got extremely lucky. I’m pretty sure the roshambo wizards are random though.

Its stinky garbage time! It’s stinky garbage time! oh no Bowser jr is kill 😪

This is my favorite game of all time

One of the themes throughout the game that resonates with me personally is Yi coming to terms with the wrongs he's committed. This entire project was his idea, and he has to go through each area to see these atrocities firsthand, juxtaposed by the welcoming nature of his home in the Pavillion. I believe the moments in which he finally figures it all out and forgives himself are near the final hour of the game, when he decides to save the race he originally insisted on harvesting. I believe that's the reason his theme plays in the last phase of the final boss, personally, because he had finally understood, and forgiven himself. It's absolutely brilliant. One day I hope to forgive myself for the wrongs I've committed too.

I hadn't tried this game yet. Despite metroidvanias being a favorite genre of mine, something about the setting or presentation seemed off-putting to me in the trailers. But your analysis of the game's story and themes has made me much more interested in giving it a shot.

I just recently spent a lot of time thinking about this and ended up writing an entire, very meta fanfiction that essentially modifies xc3’s ending to fit Xc1’s themes better, by essentially having it so A. the reason Aionios is destroyed is to unshackle the flow of time from predetermined fate B.Ouroboros were outright duped by the queens, not considering the fact that very different versions of themselves already existed in the divided worlds. C. In particular, when M died, origin had to put her soul somewhere to avoid a crash, and initialized an instance of Mio as she existed before Aionios (12 year old gormotti-blade hybrid with blade abilities) who assisted her mom’s plan and whose existence was kept secret from Ouroboros specifically to avoid them catching on.

Here again after the Mario and luigi brothership discourse.

Starlow still makes some slight jabs at Luigi in Brothership, calling him “Mario’s Brother” and “the other guy” at times, but you can at least tell there it’s done in good graces. It feels more like an in-joke between them that Luigi takes no offense towards. You can really tell that Starlow has grown to respect him way more, especially after the events of Dream Team, where he was basically the main character. The events of ALL these games, really, showed his growth to being respected as an equal to Mario. Hell, by the end of Dream Team, Bowser even calls him by his name instead of the “Green-Stache” nickname he always gives him. To go from that, to just having everybody but the Marios look down on and chastise him for every mistake that he makes, is such an unbelievable disservice. Even when Starlow was making fun of him as early as BIS, you could tell she wasn’t overly malicious in her intent. Like, when she asks if he defeated the Shroobs through his crying, THAT is funny because not only is it just a hilariously out of pocket thing to say, but it’s also technically TRUE since the cure for getting Shroob’d WAS baby tears! And Mario standing up for Luigi by saying he fought even harder than him, to which Starlow apologizes, makes the interaction that much more natural. In Paper Jam, the story just constantly stops dead in its tracks to throw Luigi under the bus with no set up or payoff in his own favor. It’s just spiteful 24/7, characters just constantly relishing Mario in praise and noting Luigi’s presence with a blank stare. It’s not just out of character for Starlow, but the Peaches as well. Like, it’s so disrespectful for them to be ragging on him when he has helped saved the day on numerous occasions. If it wasn’t for him, Bowser and Antasma probably woulda won in Dream Team! It’s even more strange for Paper Peach to agree with that! Paper Luigi is like, one of the bravest versions of the character. He always wants to get in on the action, going on various misadventures throughout TTYD and TOK, but just doesn’t get as much credit, as Mario’s always the one saving the world. SPM gave him a much larger role, making him one of the heroes of the prophecy, and even having him become a brainwashed antagonist who was used as a VESSEL for the CHAOS HEART. In both of their universes, either of the princesses should have never even entertained the idea of thinking Luigi was a buffoonish tag-along. But who am I kidding? They probably forgot those games even happened. I mean at least he got kissed by both Peaches at the same time while the other Marios just got one so… that was cool I guess.

Yeeeeesss! Nine Sols content!!! And the one that is about it's story and themes!!! Such a shame that a lot of players have found the dialogue to be distracting and consider it "a flaw". To me this game is one of the best out there, and, quite ironically, I've played it during the time of being extremely anxious about my mortality.

Goddammit I’m gonna play the game eventually just gimme a bit. I’ll get back here eventually.

My parents got me this game on my 11th birthday. I was confused and didn’t quite get it, but I decided I’d try anyways. I was hooked. I absolutely loved the game. It introduced me to two amazing game series and I will never forget that.

You can’t say it has bad music tho

This video is immaculately put, you explain all of these themes in a way that I really haven't been able to articulate. Although I'm very much focused on the gameplay aspects of the game, the story and just the way the characters are written kept me playing past some of the (very few) BS sections of the game (I'm looking at you, hallway arena). This video has just helped me appreciate it even more, I can't stop saying how fantastic your work is here.

How did he make sticker star look good

Can we all just collectively pretend this game doesn’t exist and brothership is the actual sequel to dream team.

There's this really awesome game demo out called The Big Catch Tackle Box, and it's basically an open world 3D platformer. It does a good job demonstrating how to make this kind of game really fun and entertaining. It's a neat little proof of concept and I'm really curious what the full game will look like.

If you think about it, Super Mario Sunshine is essentially open world Mario because you can actually see where each level is located on the island. So imagine if you could walk to it or ride Yoshi to it. It suffers from the same issue as Mario 64, where it kicks you out after every single level. But at least when Sunshine does it, it's using it to tell a unique story. Imagine Mario Sunshine, but with fun platforming challenges in between each level, making traversal actually fun.

Forced myself to sit through Paper Jam in preparation for Brothership since it was the only M&L title I never completed. It’s rare that a game feels this utterly disrespectful of my time. The game is stuffed full of mini games to the point that it feels like it just passing for time. Why were there like four required mini games in the final dungeon? The fact that within the span of like 30 minutes, the game forces you to face multiple waves of weak fodder enemies twice is utterly ridiculous.

just like the true ending, this video made me cry. no shit. anyways, all in all amazing video, I'm glad you enjoyed my favorite game of all time! :3

I love this game so much, incredibly ambitious for the studio, and unabashedly candid about storytelling and cultural influence

You're a wonderful speaker. Just started watching this after the 9 sols video... subscribed!!

I just got the true ending 2 days ago, and the little cutscene of Yi giving Shuanshuan his mystic nymph made me cry. The rest of the true ending did honestly. My personal game of the year unless silksong or a bloodborne sequel release.

nine sols has become one of my favourite games just because of the story alone i absolutely love the gameplay as well (even with certain flaws it has) but the story is just perfect i genuinly cried at the ending sequence and listening to the credits song still gives me the shivers i find it really sad how the devs were harassed so much over this game just for expressing taiwanese culture and i think the game is way too underrated but i do hope the devs can make more masterpieces like this in the future

While I still consider Paper Jam to be a better game overall than the last 3 Paper Marios, it's undoubtedly the worst Mario & Luigi game. I had fun with it enough to finish it, but it was the junkfood of JRPG's. The New Super Mario Bros of M&L. The disposable filler game to tide me over (years after the fact) until Brothership.