Beat Bug Fables
Spoiler: Bug Fables Ending
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Turns out, that Everlasting Sapling's power wasn't so infinite after all. oh and some roaches still live. the final boss battle against Everlasting King was cool and had a puzzle element to it that bosses like Mega Bowser and Shadow Queen didn't.

like, sometimes the king would recover health and use plant attacks to drain health from me and sometimes they wouldn't. It took my second try (which I only had to do because I did a stupid by using an item that I shouldn't have that deals a lot of damage to everyone which killed my own party) to realize: he can only do that health regeneration on the ground. when he is flying his attacks are weaker and he can't use anything to suck health from me or drain health from the ground, so second time around the battle went much smoother because I realized there was a logic to fighting him and thus it was a constant juggle to whack him down then slap him back up into the air before my turn my turn can pass, thus keeping him from recovering. once I trapped him in that kind of loop I was able to beat him while conserving much more of my TP in the process.

and this battle showcases one of the best things about this game: it has so many boss battles and so many different tactical situations for you to use your three characters to win with and it all makes sense if you observe and apply the needed logic, and none of it feels forced or guided since to get this advice you often have to make a habit of checking the foe's info yourself. like, the game really makes you do tactics other than just hit the foe a lot, because unlike in Paper Mario your attack stat is set, you don't get as much health, and random enemies can be dangerous to you, so it really pushed me to think outside the box, to spend tp and I got really good at using frigid coffin, and ability that I probably would not have used as often in paper mario because of how complicated it is but here mastering its use became this vital skill to shut down enemies so I can control the battlefield. and more than once I did some unusual outside the box tactics to defeat a boss, with one of the party being made into a berserker to deal all the damage, one to be the support and one to do some other thing.

all the main characters in the game develop as people to some degree, and there is a substantial postgame to this, whether its facing a boss rush mode, its version of the pit of trials, finding all the lorebooks, playing the termacade, finishing all the sidequests, playing its card games, filling this or that out, lots to do, as well as a little epilogue sort of quest for Kabbu. maybe someday I'll come back to it play that, but for now I'm satisfied with beating the main story.

again, if your a paper mario fan, get it, its real good, and if your not, I'd still recommend this for its charm, its smart combat gameplay and various puzzles, a cheery happy world that while it has its dark spots doesn't overshadow its bright ones, and is filled with characters that feel like real people with lives and goals all around you. you won't be disappointed.