Mario & Luigi Brothership: Early Impressions

So yeah, as I said in my last post, I got Mario & Luigi: Brothership as a gift. It kinda felt like a big wrench in my plans for the new year at the time, since I purposefully held off on getting it due to its infamous length and divisive nature. Considering I tend to not beat lengthy RPGs unless it's under very specific circumstances, I wasn't sure if I'd actually have the patience to stick it through, especially if I ended up not liking it. So to make things easier on myself, I'm just going to give my relatively early impressions after playing Brothership for the first 10-or-so hours, as in up to the third sea. I'd say that's a pretty good place to gauge whether or not the game is working for me.

So, what do I think so far? Well, honestly I'm kinda mad. I put off getting this game for a month because of all the negativity surrounding it. I probably would've put off getting it for even longer if I hadn't gotten it as a gift. With the way people talked about Brothership, I was expecting an absolute mess of a game but... no! I'm actually really liking Brothership. It's a fun Mario RPG, really fun even. It certainly has its flaws and I probably wouldn't call it a top-tier entry in the series, but it's a totally solid Mario & Luigi game that does so much right.

The main premise of Brothership is that Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Starlow, and a whole bunch of other Mario characters have been teleported over to this plug-themed world called Concordia which has been fractured into a whole bunch of different islands. So now you have to sail around, find the various islands of Concordia, and reunite them while also stopping whichever evil force is trying to keep them apart. As far as the core plot goes, it's not anything particularly special so far. The villains are fun but don't have too much going on yet, and it's very obvious early on that Brothership is a game about connection, and it lays down these themes pretty thick. The comedy is also admittedly not as snappy or prevalent as it has been in prior Mario & Luigi games. Not to say Brothership didn't make me laugh, because it definitely did, but it's not as uproariously funny as something like Bowser's Inside Story. And yet, that's not really all that bad of a thing because that's not what Brothership's story is primarily trying to achieve. But at its core, Brothership is a slow burn, character-driven narrative. Over the course of the game, you'll slowly meet a large array of different characters, each with their own struggles, subplots, sidequests, and contributions to the narrative. The hub of Shipshape Island starts out pretty barren, but as the game goes on, it slowly gets populated with people from the other islands and really starts to feel like a home base you can get attached to. It may be different from your average Mario RPG story, but I honestly really vibed with this approach, it feels very akin to a Trails or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game in how it slowly eases you into the world to set up future plot points.

But none of this would work is Brothership didn't have a strong cast of characters, but thankfully, it does, boasting both memorable new cast members and plenty of great returning faces. Connie and Snoutlet are great partners, super charming and wholesome, and helpful without being obtrusive. The IDLE crew is a ton of fun, especially once Peach and Starlow join them. Maykit's poetic dialogue was surprisingly charming, and Technikki quickly became a standout for her cool design, smart and friendly personality, and surprisingly real arc. While I haven't gotten to those parts yet myself, I also need to praise how Starlow gets a sidequest hinting at her dynamic with Bowser, and how Bowser Jr's character development is continued from prior games. Even Mario and Luigi feel more emotive than ever before, with their brotherly dynamic shown in full force. But despite the size of its cast, not a single character feels like they're being lost in the shuffle, everyone gets a chance to interact with the other characters and make their voices heard during major story events. So yeah, I'm really enjoying Brothership's story so far. I think there's a place for more deliberately-paced RPG stories like that of Brothership and more frenetically-paced RPG stories like that of Bowser's Inside Story, one approach isn't inherently better than the other.

The main gameplay loop, as expected, has you visit a variety of different islands and work your way to the lighthouse at the end of each of them. While the early game definitely suffers from having a few too many forest-themed islands, I generally found these islands fun to explore since they balance fun platforming and varied puzzle-solving quite well. Being the first properly 3D Mario & Luigi game, the exploration in Brothership definitely reminds me of the more recent Paper Mario games in how each island almost feels like a 3D Mario stage in its own right. I also like how the world has a real metroidvania feel to it, as I'm constantly running into paths I can't access yet and collectibles tantalizingly out of reach that make me want to return in the future with new abilities. My biggest concern with the overworld in Brothership was the fact that you aren't really able to directly control Luigi like you could in the previous games. In Brothership, Luigi follows along you automatically, and while you can make him jump, it's usually more efficient to instruct him to move on his own. In theory, I thought this was the dumbest change Nintendo could've made, but in execution, I do kinda get it? This definitely feels like a response to the shift towards more three-dimensional movement, and 90% of the time, it feels pretty natural. That being said, this is the first game in the series where Mario and Luigi can get actively desynced from each other and that always feels pretty crummy.

The combat, on the other hand, is left almost completely untouched. It's just as great as always. The action commands are snappy, enemy attacks and animations are well-telegraphed and clear, and every time I enter into a battle, it feels like the series hasn't even left in the first place. One notable change is that standard attacks are more complex, often playing out like one of the Bros Attacks in Superstar Saga. This had me worried at first since the more complex attacks in Partners In Time are a big reason why I find it to be one of the weaker entries, but the timing is generous enough that they didn't feel super overwhelming here. My actual gripe is the fact that you can't select Luigi's actions with the B button, it really just throws me off. The bros attacks work pretty much the same as well, and they're just as fun as ever. Definitely in the vein of the more interactive and flashy ones from the 3DS games (which is a good thing in my eyes), and the camerawork does a great job at making these attacks feel exciting without losing clarity. And that's what I think this combat system primarily excels at. Each fight feels like this cinematic fluidly-animated spectacle but it never gets in the way of the actual mechanics and button timing. The one big new system is the addition of these Battle Plugs that are these buffs that you can equip at the cost of using up their limited charges. It definitely has the potential for a decent amount of strategy since you're encouraged to constantly be switching up your Plugs and changing up your tactics, but I feel I'm still a bit too early on in the game to really be taking advantage of this.

Speaking of which, the biggest criticism a lot of people seem to have with Brothership is the pacing and I can definitely see why, especially compared to other Mario & Luigi games which are known for their blistering pace. I think the biggest culprit is how slowly certain abilities and characters are doled out to the player. It takes way too long the player to get access to the full battle system, and it definitely takes too long for mainstay characters like Peach or Bowser to show up. The load times also aren't great, entering battles takes a bit too long and I really hope Nintendo's future console is able to improve on this. These are issues that I definitely won't defend. However, I think the majority of the pacing accusations are a bit overblown. You don't spend very long in any particular location, cutscenes can almost all be sped up or skipped entirely which is a rarity for Nintendo, and the tutorials which are often the worst thing about a Mario & Luigi game have now be relegated to brisk pop-ups that can be quickly dismissed. Even backtracking to previous islands isn't that bad and sailing around isn't that tedious since the game quickly gives you a whole bunch of fast travel options to speed up the process. I just really don't think Brothership's pacing is that much worse than your average RPG, and even compared to other Mario RPGs, it mostly falls roughly in line with games like TTYD, Origami King, and Dream Team for me, all of which I still really like in spite of their pacing issues.

Putting aside the aforementioned loading times, though, I do think Brothership is a very pretty game. The cel-shaded look is a joy to look at, the environments are incredibly vibrant, and the characters are very expressive. This applies the most to Mario and Luigi themselves, and I'd argue that this is the most lively the two brothers have ever looked. There's a real Gamecube vibe to how much everything squashes and stretches and it really makes for a great translation of the original M&L artstyle. It's not the most polished game out there, Brothership definitely has its fair share of jankier animations, but the sheer charm of the visuals vastly overpowers any seams. On the topic of sound design, I also love the cute character voices, and the soundtrack is not that bad. Obviously, I was very skeptical since Shimomura is my favorite composer and replacing her is such a tough task, but while it's definitely not on her level, Hideki Sakamoto did a fine job. The area themes in particular I found to be really pleasing and comfy to listen to, and the battle themes while unusual-sounding at first do really grow on you.

Overall, I'd say Mario & Luigi: Brothership is a good time so far. Considering this is essentially a new start for the Mario & Luigi series with a new developer, this is a more than solid first attempt that I would love to see expanded upon. It certainly has its fair share of rough edges like the slow rollout of abilities, iffy optimization, weaker soundtrack, and the Luigi controls, but those are all nitpicks in the grand scheme of things. At its core, Brothership nails most of the fundamentals of what I like from a JRPG. The world design and exploration is solid, the combat is fantastic, the story is fantastic, and the presentation is charming. Even if it's not on the level of a Thousand Year Door or a Bowser's Inside Story, it's at the very least around the level of something like Dream Team and that's more than good enough for me.

Tentative Score: 4.5/5 Stars

Update: So I did end up beating Brothership making it the longest RPG I have ever beaten. It was good, and most of my early impressions did hold true. The story definitely kept getting better over time with the ending in particular being incredibly emotionally effective, and I think I feel comfortable calling it one of the best Mario RPG stories right alongside Super Paper Mario. My biggest gripe aside from the obvious pacing issues is that the combat got a tad frustrating in the second half with how lengthy certain enemy attacks were, but that's really it. Overall, I absolutely adored Brothership and I think it's a game that will really stick with me for years to come.

If I had gotten Brothership before making my end of the year list, I'd probably have placed it right above Princess Peach Showtime. And as far as my current ranking of the Mario RPGs go, maybe I'll save that for when I finish Brothership...