Current Events > Attempting to replay Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (Spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Context: I played this game once when it came out. Game box says that was 2009. The file where I beat the game has 21 hours of play time. Safe to say I haven't played a lot of this. I remember very little. People have been talking about Mario RPGs lately though and they're holding this one in high regard. I'm gonna give it another go.
Real context: I'm waiting for TF2's Halloween update.

Mic test says the mic works. The game gives you two files so I'm all clear to start.

Toadsworth is giving me the tutorial equivalent to E. Honda's hundred hand slap right off the bat.
I'm guessing Kamek's about to do the same for Bowser.
Right off the bat I find it distracting that Bowser walks around with his mouth open the entire time.

And Starlow has tutorials too.
Why, all you used to need was a good ol' fashioned "Check out the enclosed instruction book!"

Rolling a 1 on the level up bonus slot thing makes me feel like the playthrough is permanently tainted.

Having special moves divided up into 10 puzzle pieces is kind of stressful too. I don't like the idea of missing one and having to backtrack. Don't know how they're numbered yet. If I missed piece 5, would the next one I picked up be named piece 6 as a sign I need to go back, or would that one be called piece 5 because it's the fifth one I grabbed?
Edit: Oh no. I did have to go back and find one. They don't use the numbers to tell you if you've missed one. Bad omen, maybe.

Bowser inhales a lot of money in this game.
Strange guy.

There's a lot of minigames in here.
I wish they'd give me EXP for the minigames. Bowser's lv16, Mario and Luigi are both lv8. I'm not sure where I'm supposed to go to level Mario and Luigi up.

There's a challenge node which tells me I can train there, but all I saw was a choice between being stomped by an optional boss or seeing how many times I can kick a shell. Again, there's a lot of minigames in here.

This feels like it's in a permanent early-game state.
Fawful has the Dark Star and I'm still getting barraged with tutorials, guidance and minigames.

I beat BIS but I should give Dream Team another try.

I have no idea how far I am. I just beat Wisdurm.
For Mario, everywhere is identical and nowhere is memorable. Combat's good though. I really like the boss theme too.

Collecting 3 star cures sounds like an early game quest, but on the other hand, Dark Star - who we need them to beat - comes off like a late game obstacle.

Bowser's stuff is really fun but he's taking a pretty unconventional route by Mario standards so it's not helping me gauge how much is left. A cave then a beach then a forest then Bowser's Castle then Toad Town. And then some sort of science lab with an X ray machine.

Rai_Jin posted...

I beat BIS but I should give Dream Team another try.

I've never even played Dream Team. I missed 99.9% of the 3DS gen.

I don't remember if I beat this game, but I played and enjoyed it.

Junker is cool.
I like his moveset. He's one of the main things I remembered about this game. Technically the one I remember is Junker X, but still.

The game is telling me to take a tea break.
Maybe this was a strategic play to make Junker more memorable by giving me time to think about what I just played. It worked.

If the tutorials are bothering you, Dream Team is going to be an agonizingly slow experience for you if you try that next. That said, I think it is also a much better game than Bowser's Inside Story.

GeneralKenobi85 posted...

If the tutorials are bothering you, Dream Team is going to be an agonizingly slow experience for you if you try that next. That said, I think it is also a much better game than Bowser's Inside Story.

Oh this isn't a series marathon. I've just been pulling a lot of games off my shelf and seeing what I think of them a decade later lately. I don't even have a 3DS or that game.

This is a weird one because it doesn't feel like it's actually trying to handhold. It keeps steadily adding thing that it makes sense to explain. Wouldn't have hurt to let me hold R to turbo-speed through everything though.
I can't imagine what being a speedrunner of this game's like.

I'm really torn on this one.
I'm chasing Dark Star and even now the game is stopping and explaining dragging an ice platform around with the stylus.
But then I get to fight Dark Star and it's a great fight. Blizzard Midbus was way up there too.

fave mario rpg

how many giant fights did you do?

Rai_Jin posted...

how many giant fights did you do?

I've done four of them.
Bowser's castle, Tower of Yikk, Fawful Express and whatever that giant mech version of Peach's Castle was.

Dark Bowser spawned and I know he's the last guy so this is pretty much the end.
In the meantime I'm just running around as Mario and Luigi seeing what I can find.

Got Mario and Luigi to lv40, the highest rank.
I could get Bowser up to lv40 too, but is there a point? I don't remember him having any optional bosses.
There should be. I'd like a powered up version of Dark Fawful that I could refight..

I finished it for the time only a few months ago. Great game. Loved it. Best final battle theme in any Mario game.

I beat Dark Star X. Class 7 unlocked. The recommended level is 50 though.

I looked into some levelling but most of it seems to be put the badge on, put the EXP item on either Mario or Luigi and run laps of the Airway.
That's really slow and unfun and it's too much to ask just for one more fight that won't even give me EXP afterward.

Might be time to fight Dark Bowser.

Fought Dark Bowser. Wasn't really obvious that you were supposed to breathe fire on the giant version.
Gotta say, pretty lame guy. It's Bowser but with different colors and no memorable dialogue. Some of the attacks were kinda cool and the music was neat.
Unskippable credits.

Done.

I definitely like aspects of this game. Combat's good, playing as Bowser's fun all around and he's got a huge monopoly on personality. I was happy to see Fawful again but he did kind of wear on me by the end..
Playing Mario and Luigi's all right, especially when you have a loadout that lets you go crazy with the super moves. There was definitely this sense of "Oh no come on, already? Can't the Bowser section be longer?" whenever one of M&L's sections came up though.

The main question I use to judge a game though. Do I want to play again? No. Honestly I'm kind of relieved it's over.
-I don't want to be beaten over the head with a tutorial or a long winded explanation every few minutes while that same 1-1 theme plays.
-What's with the minigames? Some are fine but man. Bowser needs help reaching the top shelf I have to play a minigame. One level won't stop quizzing me. Something landed on Bowser, play a minigame to unlock a giant fight that barely evades minigame classification because I get EXP at the end. My super moves are all minigames. The block dog one doesn't even seem to work, sometimes it says I did great and sometimes I just did good enough. And don't even get me started on that fire breath attack you use the mic for. I don't miss the touch/motion control era.
-All of Mario's levels look the same. I just finished the game and all I feel I've retained of the in game world is some of Bowser's teleporter locations and where the pipes in the pipe room go to.
-Starlow is what people think Navi was. The Toads just show up and talk and talk. Dark Bowser's so lame they even make it a point to mention that he's the last enemy multiple times.
-Doesn't seem to be a good way to grind for EXP. The ending even told me it was unimpressed because I didn't spend forever fighting weak enemies to get Bowser up to lv40.
-Some of the enemies (Looking at you, yellow block spawners in Peach's castle) are really boring to fight repeatedly.

Nice to get that off my chest.
Positive note at the end. Junker X was great. Blizzard Midbus was great. Dark Fawful was great. Dark Star X was great.

I liked the game when i played it in 2010? Bowser steals the show in every Mario RPG and honestly they need to continue the series, but let it star him. Mario can have Paper Mario. Bowser can have the & series.