As one of the most classic IPs in the game industry, Mario's reputation is well known to women and children. Due to its high popularity, the series naturally spawned a lot of works, but even if it later developed 3D gameplay, it was still based on action games. So Mario also had to "pursue" various professions, including plumber, racing driver, tennis player, basketball player, and so on.
But in the work to be said this time, Mario is no longer any of the above professions, but the protagonist of the RPG. At this point, I think only a few fanatical fans of the series can say the name of this game - Mario and Louis RPG. As the name suggests, this game adds RPG elements, that is, the classic leveling of monster spawning, buying equipment, over the main line of the plot and other gameplay. This time, let's talk about this work.
First of all, Mario's game will have an opening prelude plot at the beginning, of course, this is not unexpected, but in fact, mario's every plot is similar, anyway, it is to save The Peach Princess battle. This time, the background is that the hypocritical goodwill ambassador from a neighboring country stole the song of Princess Peach in order to awaken the legendary Star Bean, who is said to be able to fulfill any wish. Mario and Luigi's mission this time is to retrieve Princess Peach's singing voice and stop the villain from abusing Star Bean to achieve his wild hopes.
Next, talk about the game's screen, in this game are the operation of Mario and Luigi two, press A is Mario action, press B is Luigi action, one before and after can be reversed at any time, so there are many places in the game that require two people to work together to solve the puzzle. For example, Luigi can use the high jump when he is in the rear, Mario can briefly rotate and move in the air when he is in the rear, and later he can get the hammer, and knocking on Mario will make Mario smaller, so as to pass some small holes. Knock on Luigi's body to escape to the underground, get props buried in the ground, or go through some iron doors, etc.
Therefore, the same props will have different effects for different people, and must be used according to the map situation. The smaller Mario can go through various holes to get certain props or turn on switches, and the little Mario is also very cute, but I have always found the picture of the hammer hitting his brother is also very subtle.
The enemy encounter method used in the game is clear thunder system, and its way of doing it is also like other RPGs, which has a system of preemptive attacks, which can be triggered as long as one foot is stepped on the enemy. But if the person in the rear is touched, it will be subdued first, and each enemy will move differently, some may move stupidly for you to step on, but some may unexpectedly rush or take off quickly.
Then there's the combat part, which is what amazes me the most, and I have to say that the design is quite interesting, not the traditional turn-based RPG, but the features of Mario that are known as action games have also been added, and the integration is perfect. The initial general attacks are mainly jumps, and pressing the attack button at the moment of stepping on the enemy's head can increase the damage, and in the middle and late stages, you can also get additional attack skills such as hammers and palms.
Attack options are also more diverse, and enemies attack differently, and the same enemy may have at least two or more attack methods, and each battle must be re-adapted. The most special thing is that when the enemy attacks Mario and Luigi, you can use jumping to dodge damage or raise a hammer to counterattack, and with the opponent's attack rhythm, you can successfully flash or even knock back to cause damage, and if you are successful, you can also win the whole process without injury.
In addition to the need for two-person cooperation in the map just mentioned, there are also so-called two-person combo skills in combat. Mario and Luigi have different combos, and must seize the opportunity to enter the correct command to succeed after launching, and the two will learn more skills as the plot progresses, and there will be experience points assigned after each battle. When upgrading, you can also choose the ability you want to strengthen, and you can let the two develop into the style you want.
The plot part is actually decent, after all, Mario's world view is like this, it seems that it is difficult to have any big breakthrough. But one of my favorites is that after the last star beans are broken into four pieces, I have to go to the bridge section to retrieve them, and each time I find the star beans, I have my own plot play. For example, to take down bosses, play mini-games, etc., and even if you want to go around the island to find something for Yaoxi to eat to get the star bean shards, some can take 5 minutes to get, but some may take half an hour or even more than an hour.
I think this variety of gameplay is interesting, the props are taken by different people, there will be different requirements to get back, the plot is reasonable. Instead of casually inserting a plot that can only be obtained by winning four bosses, it is simply a level designed to drag out the hours.
Overall, "Mario and Louis RPG" is really a very good god work, the gameplay is quite creative, and it is obviously an RPG, but it has the characteristics of the Mario Bros. IP to the fullest. The first is that the map usually requires a lot of cooperation between the two brothers, and the second is the addition of Mario in the traditional turn-based system, which is famous for its action games.
It is a pity that the producer Alpha Dream also went out of business a few years ago, and as a player, I only hope that this IP can continue to last. But the good news is that later Nintendo also helped Mario and Luigi register a new trademark for the RPG, hoping that there will be new works in the future that can be produced on Swtich.