Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Sorry I'm a little late to the party seeing these reviews but I've been just a little busy getting ready for the new school year next week. Fun fun fun!! 😅

Neat little review on Ghost Of Tsushima there @Rudy_Manchego!

I've had a little hesitation regarding the game and the fact you say it's pretty generic baring the striking setting and good combat does unfortunately bring Day's Gone to my mind which I didn't really enjoy. (Looking at the spoiler covered section doesn't fill me with confidence either)

How were the side characters and Jin(I think that's the protagonist's name?) himself? Are they well written or at the very least likable?

I've played only played Legend @RogerRoger out of that particular trilogy (Well I've played the original PS1 Tomb Raider but not the remake/anniversary edition) and I'll be honest I don't remember anything about that game in the slightest as I read the description and looked over the screemshots. Nothing whatsoever. But I do know I have played it. Honest. 😂

I don't even remember that the artifact in the first game that Lara is looking for has something to do with Atlantis!

I seem to have the memory of a goldfish when concerning the Tomb Raider games.

... I do remember the dinosaur though so I'm not completely inept at remembering my time with the Tomb Raider games. Just 99% inept

I should probably go and replay Legend at the very least. Would be something quite different compared to what I've been playing as of late.

Very nice pieces Rog as always!

I know you've been asked this a billion times Rog but how far are you in FFVII now by the way?

You know I'm not the biggest nintendo girl @Ralizah but I found your Paper Mario The Origami King review as delightful to read as your initial impressions piece and I'm glad to hear you, and your nephew (I think that's whom you said you were playing it with before), ended up enjoying it!

Without playing I can't really say how I'd feel about the battles and how it deals with the character progression (Especially so as I'm playing Cold Steel which has a pretty traditional progression system) but I can't deny the uniqueness the battle system seems to have!

The music tracks you out were pretty great to hear and the artstyle and design really does look, as you put it, phenomenal. That Origami Moltres screenshot really caught my eye. It just looks wonderful.

It's a shame to hear that Gurumin hasn't struck a chord with you however. Really does sound like it has a number of little quibbles that would annoy the heck out of me as well let alone yourself.

... I do quite like that second track you posted there however. The other two are horrible but I like that one at least!

I hope you find the second half of it a bit easier going!

What was the problems you had with Trails In The Sky FC again Ral?

@Th3solution Sorry for late response - I really did like it and I think i would give it a solid 8 if I believed in review numbers. I am bringing my own bias to it and I do think that going for the plat made that bias worse as it was there that the open world collectathon really comes to the fore.

@RogerRoger Thanks and I would recommend the game. Just possibly be aware of the open world style thing and possibly play for a bit before deciding on going for the plat. Also loved the Tomb Raider reviews. I actually replayed Tomb Raider Anniversary as I don't think I completed it on PS2. I loved Legend as Angel of Darkness wasn't that great but liked Underworld slightly less. I even played the DS version of Legend and it was quite a solid little portable game!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy There are some good characters in Ghost of Tsushima though I'd say sometimes decisions serve the story and theme. Jin as a protagonist is fairly good - he does have a character arc tied to the rigidity of the Samurai code and doing what is needed to beat an enemy and there are some touching side quests with the lady that helped raise him. Of the side characters, Lady Masako is the most original, presenting an older female clan leader who has been betrayed. Also I quite liked Yuna, another side character. Apart from that, I thought some of the other characters were slightly more predictable and less nuanced but at least most side characters do have a story arc. The villain, while obviously a typical bad guy, does have their own philosophy. Interesting you mention Day's Gone - I have that in the backlog but after Ghost, can't bring myself to start it due to the open world. Thanks for the review and questions!

@Rudy_Manchego I’m into Act 2 finally. I’ve thoroughly explored the first island. So far, so good for me still. At the end of Act 1 there was some great story and gameplay content to keep things fresh. I’ll post more specifics on the dedicated thread, but suffice it to say I’m still high on the game, but I can see the monotony on the horizon depending how long things go in this second island. I do appreciate the varied landscape I’m seeing so far.

@RogerRoger Way ahead of you there - I have them in PS Vita! Also nearly bought them all on a pc sale as they were going for a few quid each!

@RogerRoger I can confirm you can play GoT after the credits roll. Even after you have finished all the side content, you will still get Mongols to fight.

It's going quite alright @RogerRoger and thanks for the concern! It's been a long day on my end too so no worries!

Though that would be one hell of a secret with there being a secret goldfish temple

I'll be sure to tag you if I do get round to playing Legend sometime (... I think I still have it?) and... I don't recall Rocket Town from Final Fantasy VII at all... Shows how much I thought of it. 😅

Cheers @Rudy_Manchego for the info about the characters. They do fill me with a little confidence (Only played demos of Sucker Punch games before).

I did do a review of Day's Gone a while back and one of my main problems with it was I thought the cast was quite bland and unlikeable (and not the good kind of unlikeable either) and all over it was rather ho-hum (Despite initially enjoying it), hence my question.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy

Thanks!

RE: Paper Mario - I do imagine that it would come off as more than a bit underwhelming if approached from an RPG perspective, although I sort of feel the same way about TTYD as well. I think older fans of the series dramatically overrate the RPG depth of its older entries (on a mechanical level, at least). TTYD was very rudimentary on a mechanical level.

I'll admit: I wouldn't mind seeing a full JRPG Paper Mario again, but with the larger, more interactive environments and superior music of this latest entry. I'm satisfied with it as an adventure game, though.

RE: Trails FC - While this is apparently a very unpopular opinion in JRPG circles (as a professional contrarian, I'm used to it ), I thought the plot was profoundly poorly paced. It feels like the game spends its entire length just spinning its wheels narratively until the final chapter or so. I felt like the grid-based battle system was kind of clunky, slow, and lacking in complexity, and its orbment/quartz system felt like it was ripped straight from Square's far older Final Fantasy VII. There's a central romantic plotline that indulges in a trope I absolutely despise, and the characters weren't particularly original or memorable, IMO.

RE: real life - I can imagine everyone in the education system has their hands full right now. Hopefully y'all are taking the proper precautions to stay safe!

@Ralizah Sky SC is a better game on every level but I loved the two games as an overall duology. The impact of SC would be dampened without doing the legwork in FC so I couldn’t judge it by itself.

Cheers @Ralizah and we are taking all the precautions we can don't you worry!

RE: Trails Of The Sky - Ahh yes I think I remember you saying that now. I'll be sure to keep those in mind when I write up my thoughts regarding Trails Of Cold Steel. The battle system isn't grid based in Cold Steel. The plot... Is on the slow side unfortunately

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Review
Judge, Beary & Executioner (I'm not sorry for that awful pun!)

Version played: PS4 (Part of Danganronpa 1.2 Reload)
Also available on: PC, PSP (In japan at least), Android, IOS & PS Vita
Completion Time: 20-25 hours?

A really good opening is killer isn't it? The hooks sinking into you and that feeling of you just having to know just what happens next.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc had that in spades for me and then some.

I ended up completing it in just over a week, back in May, with it being one of the more unique experiences I've had so far this year!

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (D:THH from here on in) is a visual novel game. My first in fact and like Divinity Original Sin 2 being my first CRPG earlier in the year (... I... May have left that review a little too long), I couldn't have seemingly found a better starting point of the visual novel genre with D:TTT to sink my teeth into.

I'd only really heard of it thanks to joining Pushsquare with Ralizah, Kidfried & Crimsontadpoles all sporting avatars from the series, that day after day got me more and more intrigued (not to mention hearing their thoughts on other titles in the Danganronpa series). KratosMD & Th3solution also being advocates for the series and thanks to all five of you for that.

I can't really talk about the game and how it works without at least spoiling/sharing the prologue/set up for the game so hopefully I do it justice whilst not giving too much away (You could always watch the prologue yourself if you're interested... It'd be a good 30 minutes though!)

So during your twenty or so hour adventure you'll be playing as and controling affable high school student Makoto Naegi whom enrolls in the ellusive Hope's Peak Academy High School.

He's there as the "Ultimate Lucky Student", winning a place to enter among socitial and cultural elite students such as the Ultimate Programmer, the Ultimate Martial Artist, The Ultimate Affulent Prodigy and the... errr... The Ultimate Fan-Fiction creator? 😕

As soon as Makoto gets to the school's entrance however (It's on the poor kid's first day to boot), He ends up getting unnaturally dizzy all of a sudden and blacks out without warning.

Makoto re-awakens several hours later in a daze, finding himself in a deserted classroom. The windows have been bolted up with thick iron sheets, there's monitors around and security cameras everywhere & on the desk beside him is a mysterious note telling him to go to the front entrance.

Heading through the empty and ominous corridors (Which is your first bit of gameplay in fact of walking about to find it) he eventually meets the 14 other students (and the rest of our colourful cast of characters) whom were supposed to be attending Hope's Peak with him.

After the cast introduces themselves to each other a monitor then flickers to life, telling them to meet in the gynasium, leading the class to meeting the "Headmaster" of Hope's Peak Academy.

Enter Monokuma.

Yep... That's our main antagonist!

After some taunting and toying with our group of helpless heroes this monochromed bear quickly drops a bomshell on our unfortunate protagonists.

They're all locked within Hope's Peak, unable to escape and will be stuck inside it's walls til the day they die... unless they manage to do and get away with one thing.

Murder.

Congratulations! You've just read through a heavily abbreviated version of the prologue and the set up for D:THH.

So how does D:THH actually play you might ask?

Well as I said in the starting sentence it's mainly a visual novel and you'll be watching the story unfold through it's numerous chapters. Of course there's a good amount of input from yourself as you'll soon find out.

Our cast of characters

The game having three parts to each chapter more or less.

I'll be as vague as I possibly can regarding this as well, giving a very general overview on how the game might progress.

Danganronpa is a pyschological thriller & mystery after all and has many twists, turns and spoilers (Or does it? ) so you'll need to go in as blind as you possibly can... But this should give you a rough approximation of what you might typically expect.

Daily Life

These are the free time sections where you'll able to talk to the other students and learn some more about them. You'll also have the chance to explore Hope's Peak in your attempts to uncover the mystery of why you're being kept here.

Of course with the aforementioned set up... You perhaps shouldn't be too surprised to learn that some of the students end up invoking Monokuma's term to leave and your already limited student body diminishes even more.

That's the second part of each chapter.

Deadly Life

Becoming Makoto Holmes, junior detective, you'll have to look over the various crime scenes, talking to the other students and collecting various "Truth Bullets" (Or evidence if you prefer) to use in third and final part of each chapter with each crime generally getting more complex as it goes on.

The Class Trial

This is the main hunk of gameplay and you'll need your wits about you.

• You'll use the collected truth bullets to shoot down contradicting statements as the remaining students talk out and deliberate the murder that took place in the "Nonstop Debates".
• You'll figure out key words to advance the trial in the "Hangman's Gambit" (A somewhat higher stakes game of Hangman basically)
• At some points one of the students will get particularly beligerant and unreasonable, forcing you to take part in a rhythmic "Bullet Time Battle" to shoot down the member of the group who can't sift the facts from the fiction
• And when you've finally cracked the case you'll have to sum up the events that took place in "The Closing Argument" to truly bring the hammer down.

What helps the game is that you can set the logic difficulty AND the difficulty of the "minigames" seperately.

Good at Cluedo but have terrible reflexes? Set the logic difficulty to Mean but the Action difficulty on kind. Fancy going through it for the story and can't be bothered to use your brain or fingers that much? Then set 'em both to kind and breeze your way through the cases pretty much.

Personally I set it in Mean/Mean and only tripped up a few times throughout the game with some of my logic not quite exactly matching what the game had in mind for thst particular scenario.

Though the Bullet Time Battles did get tough at times. Particularly the last few!

And with that there's a lot of stuff that D:THH did well for me.

The cast is nice, distinct and colourful. Yeah the designs can get especially japanese at times...

I don't even know what to say about this haircut!

... But the cast in generally pretty well rounded and I'm sure there's a character or three amongst the group you'll end up liking and be rooting for to make it to the end unscathed.

Some characters are a bit more complex the others (Spending time with them during the daily life sections will help flesh out the characters even more) but generally all of them get a decent amount of character development throughout the main story and most of them are pretty darn likeable.

... Which makes the losses the cast takes as the game progresses all the more effective.

Two chapters stand out especially in making me regretful of not spending more time with those specific characters and feeling the loss of them as I wemt ahead with the game.

One chapter in particular was very well done if a bit heavy going but honestly it just made me appreciate the game all the more for going there and (for me) pulling it off rather successfully.

The english VA cast does pretty well in bringing the cast to life. There's no heavy hitting names like Troy Baker or anything of course but you'll have heard at least one or two of them before if you have an ear for that sorta thing.

They don't voice every line in the game unfortunately, but a good portion of it is voiced and the trials in particular are 100% voice acted which helps immensely in bringing those to life.

There is of course the option to choose the japanese voices if you so prefer. I may give it a look at some point down the line but that's not particularly for me (... A bit ironic considering my partner is half Japanese but hey ho 😅)

The music is rather on point with some great tracks for the trials in particular that are fast paced and make them rather tense (The quick cutting camera as it jumps around from character to character also helps setting the scene), but some of the standard tracks are pretty decent too!

The tone in general of the game I think is done rather well too.

Monokuma has some darkly humourous lines and the somewhat over the top antics he has eases up what would otherwise be a fairly bleak scenario with just enough humour (But not too much) to not make it too unbearable (I'm, again, not sorry for the pun!).

The vibrant character designs and in general the visual style really pops, the music that encompasses a variety of styles, the winding narrative, the claustrophobic setting, really blend together into a rather neat little package with atmosphere that's just hard to top.

Though there are a few quibbles I have with D:THH and some you could possibly share.

I personally never found the game that all hard. As I already said I put it on the hardest difficulty settings and I only tripped up a few times.

There are skills you can get (From hanging out with the other students in the daily life sections (Though you have a limited number of action points so you can't just equip everything you get)) that make certain parts of the trials even easier.

Plus if you do end up messing it up it lets you restart right away with only your pride damaged and a lower ranking at the end of the trial with less Monokuma coins awarded to you.

(There's a bunch of extras like the soundtrack, promotional artwork, movies and all the still images in the game that you can buy using Monokuma coins)

I did also guess quite a few things correctly regarding the story and plot (One guess in particular wasn't that far off from the truth regarding a particularly big spoiler) though for me it never really impacted my enjoyment with the game as I really enjoyed the journey it took me on.

One chapter was a bit ho-hum as well though your millage may of course vary on that front.

It's, obviously, pretty japanese too. If you're not the biggest fan of Japanese media with the anime artstyle it has or some of the typical japanese tropes that are used in regards to some of the characters & plot you're gonna have a bit of a hard time with the title I think.

Plus it is a visual novel for the majority so... Even if it's more unique then most of them it's not exactly the most gripping game on the gameplay front either.

As you've seen from the screenshots throughout the review it's not exactly a graphical powerhouse in any regards, using 2D artwork like a majority of visual novels. Keep in mind it was made for the PSP of course before eventually being ported over to the Vita, mobiles, PC and PS4.

But other then that though there's not much I personally can fault it for.

I really enjoyed it and baring a character or two that got on my pip, a character perhaps not used to their full potential in my opinion and a few twists and turns not being too surprising I really enjoyed my time with it.

I've got the second game ready to enjoy thanks to it being bundled with the first in the 1.2 reload pack (Which I think I might enjoy alongside Cuphead once I'm done with Cold Steel II).

I've also got spinoff Ultra Despair Girls ready to be downloaded and hopefully I may even have my paws round on the third and final game in the series soon enough which hopefully showcases just how much I enjoyed the game and the desire I have to play more of the series!

Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc gets a *low 8 out of 10 for my score.

Being more objective and professional I'd lower it to a 7 (A high one at that) but unless you're not keen on the genre & style I couldn't see it scoring any lower really as it's a particularly solidly made and unique title.

@RogerRoger Oof, now that joke was unbearable.

I'll tempt you with a goldfish Temple in Tomb Raider til the end of time @RogerRoger!!!

And phew I'm glad to hear you enjoyed reading it! Was a little worried it wasn't quite up to snuff personally

I never mentioned it in the review but considering what goes on in the game there are of course a few images shown through it that can make you a little uneasy Rog but they're never too detailed and blood is stylised in the game to be bright neon pink (I'm not sure if that's to get past the japanese ratings, a creative choice or a mixture of the two).

As I mentioned one chapter is a bit heavy going in particular as well with senstive subjective matter and you could potentially find one or two revelations about the characters a little off putting as well.

And fantastic pun there rog! 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Does Cold Steel 1 run on a calendar system? At least in Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Persona 4/5, I found the structure made even short gameplay segments feel satisfying, which made up for their own sometimes slow pacing.

Anyway, if anything of consequence happens before hour 50, then it's automatically better than Trails in the Sky FC.

Also, great Danganronpa review! Glad you took to it! Unless you're going for the platinum trophy in Danganronpa V3, I don't know that I'd call any of the games difficult, but what I can say is that the sometimes predictable trial writing in the first game improves dramatically in DR2 and especially V3, leading to more satisfying mysteries. But, yeah, they're all pretty mild as far as the difficulty goes. Which doesn't particularly bother me: while I like a challenge in a lot of my games, hard adventure games usually end up being pretty aggravating. Especially the older ones with really inscrutable environmental puzzles.

The games definitely aren't technical powerhouses, but I really took the visual style of them. As with Persona 5, Okami, The Wind Waker, and so on, I've found the games that stand out to me as being most memorable are ones that embrace a unique visual identity.

I will say, though: between Teddie in Persona 4, Monokuma in the Danganronpa series, and Zero Jr. in Virtue's Last Reward, I'm kind of over animal characters making animal puns constantly.

On the "sensitive material" front, I really, really disliked everything about how Chihiro's real sex was revealed and discussed within the game. With that said, a lot of Japanese media is bad about stuff like that, so it's hardly the end of the world, but it does also add to my dislike of the original game relative to its (imo) superior sequels.

@RogerRoger These games have the most intense discussions you'll ever see in a video game, since you're always pretty much one logical slip-up away from certain death in a class trial and people are often panicked and talking over one-another. That might help to contextualize why discussions are set to pounding electronic music.

Not a fan of Troy Baker, I take it?

@nessisonett I hope it's a Steins;Gate situation with Sky SC. The first half of that show was slow as sin, but once it got going halfway through, it never really slowed down until the end. If FC's development informs a thrilling second game, I'll probably feel a little kinder toward it.

@Ralizah I loved how Steins;Gate totally pulled the rug in its second half. It played up on your preconceptions about these sorts of shows and whacked you over the head with them. I wouldn’t say Trails in the Sky SC is a literary masterpiece but I really enjoyed how it had a totally different structure for the first game and built on relationships from the first game. It’s very Japanese and of course quite tropey so I’ll never quite understand Kratos’ overwhelming love compared to some more forward-thinking and innovative games but it’s one of the best games I played on Vita.

@nessisonett Oh really? I thought Kratos had only played the Cold Steel games.

How are you finding Zero no Kiseki, btw? Any more unfortunate mishaps?

@Ralizah Yeah Kratos loves Cold Steel but I’ve seen enough of those games as well to know that in objective terms of plot and tropiness, it’s pretty similar to Sky and Zero. Zero’s been alright, I miss the turbo button so much and the quartz system feels like a step back but I quite like the setting and it’s a good translation all things considered. I found out what was going on though, if I put the Vita into sleep mode for more than roughly 10 seconds then the light flickers which is an indicator that it’s going into deep sleep. Deep sleep is what is causing my saves to vanish/not let me save until I reset the game. Just one of those things I guess!

@nessisonett I think what puts me off Cold Steel is the character designs. The designs in Sky are nice (maybe aside from Joshua and his emo scarf), but the people in the Cold Steel games look like the most generic anime people ever.

I can confirm that the characters in Cold Steel are pretty tropey @Ralizah & @nessisonett.

I've found them pretty likeable but they aren't exactly the most original and I'd say some of them get more focus then others in the grand scheme of things with the fairly large cast to keep track of.

It's not a 1-1 you play through every day system like Persona 3, 4 & 5 but the game does take place over the course of 7 months @Ralizah.

I think I said before that there's typically a free day on campus to view the social events and side questing, your combat exam/training om a seperate day and then your field study for 2-3 days. Each chapter taking place over the course of the month or so.

Just pushing it I think in that particular time limit of 50 hours (Especially because I did spend a bit of time faffing about and the likes) but you should get some notable developments or two by then? From the sound of the Trails series Falcom seems to quite like a bit of a slow burn for the stories.

Oh I'm pleased to hear you think it's good too. I was umming and ahhing all over it, shifting things about, re-writing sections and all that 😥

And that's very good to hear regarding the writing of the trials getting a little more unpredictable. I'm really looking forward to trying the second soon and it'll hopefully be a good counter to the possible fury Cuphead will induce 😅

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Hahaha I’m playing Cuphead too so I think I’ll play Danganronpa 2 when you start it too for bonus points 😂

Paper Mario: the Origami King (Switch)

Gameplay:

• It continues the turn from JRPG to Action Adventure the past couple games started, and it's really starting to feel comfortable in it's new role.
• Gone is the level based progression of the past couple games, replaced with a more proper overworld to explore, and dungeons best described as traditional Zelda lite. You'll still be exploring it in a pretty linear fashion, but each area is large and full of secrets to find.
• The most prominent secret to find are the hidden Toads (they are hidden in creative & imaginitive ways, and while some will return to Toad Town or some other Kiosk out in the world to open up a shop, most will join your in battle audience, which you can pay to help out during battles), who often have a humorous zinger they utter before running off. You also unlock Toad Points for every one you find, which you can spend in the Museum in Toad Town to unlock concept art (which is a feature I always love seeing in games).
• Other things to find are Treasure Chests & "?" Blocks (which house coins or collectable trophies which can be viewed in the Museum), Not-Bottomless Holes (these are filled in with confetti, which you get when defeating enemies or by hammering objects in the environment, and you get coins for doing so. Sometimes a new path is opened up when you fill one in as well). Lastly you have HP Up hearts, and much like Heart Containers in Zelda, they increase your maximum HP when collected (they come in +5, +10, & +20 varieties, increasing your base 50 HP up to a maximum of 200, and for every 20 HP increase your attack power increases as well, which allows you to defeat some weaker enemies in the overworld without having to enter a battle). If you miss any, you can talk to the "Love Toad" in Toad Town (he has to be rescued first, though) who will give you hints as to where missing HP Up hearts are.
• Regular battles come in 2 flavors. The most common are turn based battles with Mario at the center of a ringed arena, and you have a small window of time to manipulate the rings and line (or group) up the scattered enemies. It's more of a puzzle game in that respect, where if you solve it you get a power boost and often get to defeat all enemies without them getting a turn, and if you fail you're going to take some damage before trying again (you can spend coins in battle to increase the amount of time you have to solve the puzzle, or you can have the Toads in the audience help you out by throwing you items and/or partially solving the puzzle. The more you spend the better their help is, and I assume the help is better the more Toads you have rescued). The other type of battle is against big paper mache enemies (called paper macho here), which occurs in real time in the overworld. The name of the game here is to get out of the way when they charge you, then whack them with your hammer (they have a weak point on their back that makes it easier to take them out if you hit that first). These are rarely just out there though, and are often scripted encounters.
• Boss battles as well come in those two flavors as well. The puzzle bosses change things up by having the boss at the center of the arena, and you have to manipulate the rings in order to set up a path for Mario to follow to safely get to the boss to attack. Each boss usually has a unique gimmick of it's own on top of this, resulting in the most engaging & unique encounters of the game. The Paper Macho bosses happen in real time and are often really impressive in terms of scale (these are a nice change of pace, and I enjoyed them as well)
  
  
  Examples of both puzzle & real time boss encounters.
• Your base hammer & boot attacks are unlimited, though you can obtain more powerful versions as well. These have a limited number of uses, though once you obtain one once you can buy more from the Toad Town shop. These get better as you go on, with the hammers & boots you find in one area generally being better than the ones you found in the previous areas. Some have unique effects though, such as Ice or Fire variants that can have an elemental advantage, or reward more coins during battle.
• There are also items you can use in battle (or sometimes outside as well). The most common are are mushrooms which restore health, but other Mario staples such as Fire & Ice Flowers, POW Blocks, & Tanuki Tails show up as well & do as you'd expect. I honestly only ever used Mushrooms.
• In some regions you will have a partner who will join you in your adventure (and battle). They all only have one attack, and it'll either hit or miss. They tend to get more useful the further you get though. The first one refuses to join you in dungeons, and their attack is a single target move that seems to have a 50/50 chance of hitting. The later ones tend to follow you into dungeons, and have multi target attacks that seem to get more reliable.
• You can buy accessories that help you out in battle or elsewhere. Battle accessories can increase the maximum time you have to solve puzzles, increase your HP during turn based battles, or decrease the damage you take. Other accessories have useful effects outside of battle (such as increasing the range at which you can collect confetti or giving you discounts at shops), or are just fun (such as changing your confetti to Sakura petals or enabling retro jump & coin sounds).
• There is the occasional minigame to take part in as well, whether it be fishing, shooting gallery, or even a game show segment. I found these to be hit or miss, with some I enjoyed (like the shooting gallery), while others I hated (well, just the game show segment).

Audio/Visual:

• It's a really sharp looking game, with an amazing sense of aesthetic. Everything looks to be made out of some sort of paper craft, and every region is a joy to explore due to some creative theming, whether it be a theme park based on feudal Japan, an open sea segment that's a clear homage to Zelda (particularly the seafaring games), or even paper craft renditions of famous Mario locales such as Bowser's Castle.
  
  
  Some great vistas await.
• I think it was a brilliant move to make the enemies origami versions of all the classics, as this frees up the wide gamut of Bowser's minions to appear as friendly NPCs. While there are still lots of Toads, you'll find yourself visiting a Monty Mole village, a shrine popular with Koopa Troopas, and more (other Mario staples such as Luigi & Birdo show up ocassionally as well). It really seems like they're getting pretty good at working with the "core Mario characters only" rule, and I hope they can continue this trend in the future as long as the rule persists (if anything, Odyssey should open up their options considerably).
• It has good music selection as well. I'm not one to pay much attention to music in games, but it definitely had some beats I was bopping along to.

Story/Writing:

• While Toad Town is preparing for an Origami festival, the Origami King, Olly shows up to capture Peach's castle and begin his plan to transform the entire world into Origami. After Mario escapes with the help of Bowser & Olivia (Olly's sister), he goes on an adventure to stop the dastardly king. It's not a terribly deep narrative, but it's surprisingly touching in places, and can even get unnerving at others. It's not as involved as the older JRPG entries (or Super Paper Mario), but it's definitely a couple steps above your typical Mario platformer (or Sticker Star, for that matter), which is appreciated.
• The humor can be pretty good in spots, and at times it seems like they're giving a sly middle finger to the restrictions in place (such as when Olivia tries to find a name for Bob-Omb, and eventually repeatedly calls him "Bobby", even though he officially doesn't have a personalized name).

Overall

• I really enjoyed my time with this. While I can see why some would say the battling becomes tedious, I think the puzzle aspects make them engaging in their own right (especially the bosses), and I think it's becoming much more comfortable in it's new Action-Adventure role, despite a few stumbles here & there. I'd place it just under the top tier of Switch exclusives (below Odyssey, BotW, & XC2, same place Luigi's Mansion 3, Link's Awakening remake, & DKC: Tropical Freeze, above Kirby Star Allies, & Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3).
  
  You're back on top, Paper Mario.