#shipshape game

[chiropteracupola]

finally... the blonde sailor collection...

(l -> r: ben hawkins, jack aubrey, william laurence, røde ruben, alexander smollett, chadwick goodfellow, & gwilym parry)

[ben, goodfellow, and parry have been lent to me by @benjhawkins, @natdrinkstea, and @sailorpants, and the delightful idea of collecting this lad pile was inspired by @gigamuffin!]

[chiropteracupola]

rat time rat time rat time

[shaykai]

Okay so I need to hurry up and finish replaying ME3, the Dragon Age series, and PMD EoS, because as soon as Baldur’s Gate 3 drops I don’t think I’m going to play anything else ever actually

[atyourperil]

🥛 [MILK] What is your OC's relationship with their biological parents like? What about their relationship with any non-biological parental figures?

FOR SAT

HI WYATT TY FOR THE ASK!!!!!

their relationship with their parents was pretty good throughout their childhood, but they do not really keep in touch once they’ve moved out & their vision starts/paranoia increases, which contributes to their feelings of isolation while on the seals.

wrt non-bio parent figures, they only really have the one - @frosteee-variation’s drafty shipshape (though @courfeyracs-swordcane’s azalea recused could probably be something approaching a parent figure if she put her mind to it). the only seal who came close was probably pidge (they weren’t anywhere near close enough with anyone else on the team, the only people sat even bonds with are zamanda, kumi, millenia, june, eliot & ikari ) but while pidge was probably the closest with (& nicest to) sat, she is a close friend, not anybody’s parent.)

sat started out as very very antagonistic towards drafty, pretty much entirely avoiding them out of fear & anger, which went on for ~3 weeks. drafty & sat do end up having a conversation about how sat got to the Guys & they both realized they’re more similar than they are different (the plot of the satdrafty fic i talk about all the time lmao). drafty feels a lot of protectiveness toward/sympathy (masking a LITTLE pity) for sat. drafty realizes pretty early on that sat is going to kill themself trying to live up to the seals’ memory if nobody stops them, and drafty helps sat memorialize & grieve their teammates in a healthier manner than they would otherwise. i think they also bond a lot over being living warnings that will never actually be heard, and being permanently in the wrong time, and both not really knowing how old they are. i’m really normal about how similar they are despite how fucking different their lives seem. they’re also both haunted & i think that 1) drafty is one of maybe 3 people sat willingly lets see them when they’re actively haunted & 2) they help each other learn how to better cope with being haunted. they both kind of grow & help each other heal by virtue of getting to know the other. i’m super fucking normal about them.

[suppermariobroth]

Mario & Luigi: Brothership contains an early version of Shipshape Island in its files (left column, compared to the final version in the right column).

Outside of the level of detail, the biggest difference is the shape of the Uni-Tree and the position of its roots. In the finished game, the roots are all underground and can be seen emerging slightly from the sides of the island.

However, in the early version, the roots were aboveground and the paths around the island involved passing underneath archways created by the roots.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source

[smallmariofindings]

In the beginning of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, the first island that Mario and Luigi access from Shipshape Island is Rumbla Island. As the player has no access to the ocean map at that point, sailing past Rumbla Island would be undesirable as there would be no way to check where Shipshape Island is relative to it, and thus how long the player would have to wait to see it again.

Due to this, there is a special failsafe for this situation. If the player waits for long enough so that Shipshape Island would have passed Rumbla Island, Rumbla Island will simply reverse course and start drifting alongside Shipshape Island so that it never actually leaves the player's sight. This behavior is not exhibited by any other islands later in the game once the Ocean Map is accessible.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: M&L:B

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

To preface this, I know there are parts of this that make me look bad. I know. I've been a substandard boss and I should've taken care of the situation a long time ago. But I'm in a bind and I really just need to know if I'd compound my assholishness by doing the main thing I'm about to ask.

I manage a manufacturing business that also has a delivery component. We make the product and make sure it gets where it needs to go--which I'm sure you understand isn't as easy as it used to be, with Amazon and Temu and all of those nipping at our nose. The manufacturing sector is working fine, no complaints, absolutely shipshape. It's in deliveries where the problem starts.

We have a newer employee who...let's just say stands out from the rest of the bunch, who are mostly old guard. They're reliable, I've been working with them for years, but they're set in their ways and have been giving the new guy shit, especially over his appearance. It's not even about something he can control, poor kid, but I don't want to get more specific than that. I've been so swamped with getting everything ready for the holiday season that I dropped the ball and let them treat the kid pretty poorly. I know I can't dictate what they do outside of work, so them leaving him out of social events was out of my hands, but I've caught them calling him just awful things when they thought I wasn't around. I should've come down harder but I was afraid our productivity would suffer as a result. (And if I'm honest, I thought a little bullshit would toughen the kid up. Our industry isn't for the faint of heart, after all.)

But now we're down to the deadline and I think he's our only option. He's the perfect choice, and the kicker is it's BECAUSE he's different from the rest of the guys. But I'd feel like a bit of an ass if I asked him to swoop in and save us after the way everyone's treated him. WIBTA if I asked Rudolph, with his nose so bright, to guide my sleigh tonight? Time-sensitive question, sorry mod, but maybe just this once you can move it up the queue? After all, I did bring you that Pokemon game you wanted more than anything when you were ten!

What are these acronyms?

[flonbowe]

MAJOR BROTHERSHIP SPOILERS, ESPECIALLY RELATED TO ZOKKET!

You have been warned

So they’re like, a toxic relationship right?/hj

OK JOKING ASIDE These two are very interesting to me, and since we've known about Zokket longer, I'll be talking about him first in this thread of reblogs and posts

Zokket

So to get the elephant out of the room, I earnestly don’t believe he is just Cozette brainwashed

Like Aside from small details like the body shape being larger than she is, Zokket's voice sounding very much so different in not just the voice bleps, but in his actual grunts and noises (Especially so before his boss fight), there's things like Zokket's personality, behavior, hell he's even flat out referred to as a separate person a couple times.

Cozette after being freed only ever mentions being under Reclusa's control, and putting on a mask to become Zokket. A mask that breaks once Zokket is beaten.

The way Zokket is defeated, the way the Glohn energy flees off of Cozette's body, coupled with the fact it was specifically a mask Cozette said she donned to become Zokket, tells me outright that Zokket isn't exactly brainwashing, but instead a type of spirit or possession used to carry out Recluse's will. Now All this to say Zokket is his own person, and a very interesting person. Unlike most other Mario characters, he's a very flat character. Intentionally so don't get me wrong, that's the point. He's focused more on numbers than people. He doesn't "misremember" names, he actively doesn't care. His first proper scene is him misnaming the Extension Corps multiple times, with him getting more aggravated the more they try to correct him. He visits Shipshape a couple times through out the game, and most of those visits usually end with him mocking the idea of having connections and overall being very bitter. He's a cold cold man, and even during his boss fight he revels in making the bros hurt each other. There's also some interesting extra details via hidden logs from Cozette while being possessed, and Zokket writing his plans through her body. Quoting from those logs "The egg says its name is Reclusa. Yes, it told me its name, and that makes sense. The egg speaks directly to my brain. The egg has also shared this important truth. Loneliness is sublime . The egg only SEEMS not to move. But it definitely speaks in my brain. I now know my only calling: the resurrection of Reclusa. Loneliness is sublime . All connections will be severed. Reclusa will rule a new era of isolation. Once I have completed my task, I, too, will know the bliss of isolation. Loneliness is sublime . Approximately 284 hours, 56 minutes, and 29 seconds until the resurrection. "Beyond the Glohmatic Ray" "I have distilled the isolate energy from Spite Bulbs. That will be the source for Glohm. I can then focus and amplify it through the Great Lighthouses..." "The So-Called Extension Corps." " I met these buffoons on Slippenglide Island and employed them as generals over my army. They are intensely incompetent but loyal. Do they seek glory, or are simply afraid? They will be superfluous after the rebirth. I will need some means to dispose of them" "Building an Army" "My soldiers, my hands in the wide world, are simply junk repurposed and rebuilt. I gave them language so they might cooperate., but it is absurd to see these junk piles speak. I cannot imagine a place for them in the new world after he is reborn. They will suffer. They may rebel and become ungovernable. No matter--they are ephemeral things." after Recluse was revived, Zokket intended to torture the Zok Troops, his minions, of which HE created. Zokket doesn't just hate bonds, but seems to actively wants to break them. He strayed from his goal of reviving Reclusa by using some of the Glohm to make handheld rays to make people miserable and hate each other, instead of just using the Lighthouses for Reclusa. He threatens the Corps when the revival is almost complete, which would have come to fruition anyway had they succeeded. Zokket seems to fully understand bonds, and despises them. He's not apathetic, he's actively resentful... Except For Reclusa Excluding voice clips, the only time he laughs, is here.

His only use of positive language, and its when he's dying, where he should be at his lowest. Instead, he gets excited, happy, happy to see his Great Inspiration finally return to this world. For a man who hates bonds, he seems to have a great deal of care for his master. A master he was willing to die for, who he was destroyed for. Not even Connie, who he can't forget because of Cozette's lingering consciousness, all Zokket can muster for her is remembering her name, unlike Reclusa. So Who is Zokket? Zokket is a very cruel, bitter person. He's distant and calculating, planning and very exact, very precise ways to revive his master. But he's also sadistic, planning misery for anyone and everyone involved in his plans, for the goal of isolating the world for his master, Reclusa. a master, who he has a deep level of fondness for, the only person he actively shows happiness towards, a person who he spends his alone time with, his purpose, his great inspiration. That's Zokket (At least, my thoughts as to who Zokket is)

[efy727]

ABC kids

That's just my nickname for them. First seeing Buddy, I thought these three could have been good friends. Not replacing Junior, to make it clear. I just think, Buddy deserves more of friends.

Ramblings below. With Spoilers.

I need more Brothership, that game was AMAZING. I've been into Mario and Luigi since 2014, with BIS as my first game. I love the combat, the story, the characters, like this is my type of game.

The only lacking part was boss density. All Extension Corps members should had gotten individual fights, so the player can get quite the surprise on how they work as a unit, like the Mage Sisters. But that's my main gripe.

Is wild it's made by the developers of Octopath Traveler. I didn't know until after beating the game. I've played both entries; so, knowing them, it causes quite the shock. But the soul of Mario and Luigi it's still there. I hope to see what more could they do with the series.

Anyway, I have a feeling that there could be DLC, despite neither Octopath, nor Mario and Luigi getting those as far as a I remember. There are a few things I perceive as loose ends.

Mainly what Arc tells you before storming Fortress Zokket again, that if we navigate all currents, something good might happen. Of course, I passed through all of my remaining dark blue currents and... nothing. Is just, what is the purpose of that line of dialogue? Am I the only one hung up on that text?

Another thing is Dewy Fightem, still saying that he will continue his monster research after defeating Glohm Pipegunk and disappearing from Shipshape after beating the final boss. It would be cool to get rematches with the final stretch bosses.

Another thing, I would be nice to be able to find Patriarc at some point, even if optional. Dude disappears from the story, and I just kept expecting him to show up. He only does in the credits.

Reviewing them again, maybe not the best "evidence", but I can dream. Besides, they could at least do a post-game with the tree Connie gives Mario at the end.

Well thanks I you got here. Have an extra sketch. I might do something out of it someday.

[pianokantzart]

After that last ask im wondering: what are your criticisms, if any, for the game?

Well... I've already touched upon my critiques for the way Luigi controls. Heck, about everyone has complained about the switchup between the A button and the B button on his action select screen.

Luigi's AI also has a little bit of trouble keeping up with you if you parkour across some areas too quickly (albeit never to a game breaking degree, and 99% of the time he's golden.)

There are some tutorials that are pretty hand-holdy, but they are very easy to skip past if you already get the gist.

Another tiny issue I have is the way you receive side quests. Sometimes you encounter someone who needs help, sometimes you'll find a message in a bottle while fishing, but most of the side quests just kind of... show up in you select screen like the bros have extrasensory perception. I think it would be better if there was a bulletin board on Shipshape you could stop by and read in order to know the available side quests. That tiny detail would do a lot to make the world you're exploring feel a bit more real.

Speaking of the select screen, it is... fine... but very generic. However, I always think back to the original Superstar Saga with the suitcase/passport theme, and how cute and charming that was.

Given how long you're going to spend in Brothership's select menu trying on new gear and forging battle plugs, I think it would've benefitted highly from an aesthetic upgrade. Like a nautical theme or an electricity theme or something...

But yeah, 25 hours in and those are the only complaints I can think of so far. Mostly just tiny quality of life and visual tweaks.

[nightowlssleep]

While I love Dual Destinies I'm not above wanting to rewrite certain elements so

Case rewrite: (I'm giving Athena more cases guys!!!!)

I'd set it up as the following:

Turnabout Countdown: Athena as the attorney, Phoenix as co-council

The Monstrous Turnabout: Apollo as the attorney, Athena as co-council (Trucy tags along to investigations)

Turnabout Reclaimed: Athena as the attorney, Phoenix as co-council (Pearl tags along to investigations)

Turnabout Academy: Athena as the attorney, Apollo as co-council (Phoenix and/or Klavier tags along to investigations)

The Cosmic Turnabout: Apollo as the attorney, Athena as co-council (After Apollo leaves, Athena as the attorney, Phoenix as co-council)

Turnabout for Tomorrow: Phoenix as the attorney (no co-council until the mood matrix segment) (Trucy, then Pearl tags along to investigations)

(In my rewrite Phoenix only gets his badge back right before Turnabout for Tomorrow, therefore while Athena doesn't get a lot more cases, she still gets Reclaimed and The Cosmic Turnabout)

• Firstly, Turnabout Countdown: I personally like that this game has a non linear first case, I think it works with setting up the mystery with Apollo and even Juniper

I think letting Athena take over the case is a very good start to seeing her character BUT THAT'S WHEN PHOENIX HAS TO COME IN AND TAKE ALL THE SPOTLIGHT

God I hate that, I get it, it's Phoenix's grand return but still, LET ATHENA DEFEND

Anyways in my rewrite, Athena has her panic attack, Phoenix comes in as co-council (Doesn't have his badge back yet therefore can't take over the case) and helps Athena through the case, nice mentor moment 👍🏻

• The Monstrous Turnabout: I like that this case happens from Apollo's perspective, I'd like it if it would feel a bit more like AA4 since (to me) it's very reminiscent to Turnabout Corner

Anyways I don't have too many gripes with this case, maybe more Trucy to tag along with investigating cuz I'd like to see her and Athena interacting

As for Athena I like that she has an "observing" case where she can see how a more experienced attorney handles a case

I also like that Phoenix is mostly missing from this case (my personal explanation is he's taking the bar during this but he only gets his badge back much later cuz the bar association is still a bit ehhh about letting him pass) (dw Edgeworth helps out with getting it back)

• Turnabout Reclaimed: Oh I love this case

Probably my favourite in the second trilogy (going to an aquarium right before I watched it probably helped with the enjoyment tbh)

Since Phoenix is still missing his badge Athena has to defend (she's also the one who's a big fan of Shipshape aquarium and begged Phoenix to help them so I don't even get why Phoenix gets this case)

I like the idea of such a silly case being Athena's first, I could also see Phoenix using this opportunity to pull Athena's leg a little, so the we can still feel the Beanix in him

Like he agrees that the agency will take the case and Athena assumes that he'll make Apollo represent the orca but instead he turns to her like "Athena you'll take the case, since you're such an eager fan" and that way Athena can experience getting messed with by her boss but also let it be a learning opportunity without it being an overtly traumatic first trial (I don't think he wants a repeat of Apollo's first trial lol)

Anyways student mentor moments, while Apollo and Trucy are practicing magic tricks in the office or something (could be foreshadowing to the fact that Trucy will get her own magic show in the next game)

• Turnabout Academy: No notes for this case's trial segment really, I just wish Klavier would act a bit more like himself, and Juniper acknowledging that her costume was inspired by Lamiroir (It could be a cool call back, like Juniper watched *that* specific performance and really liked Lamiroir's outfit and decided to recreate it or something and Apollo could point it out so we get more of the "I like Lamiroir's aura" thing he says) (Capcom tell him that she's his mother I beg)

I like that this time around Athena jumps to promise defending Juniper, that's good

Also maybe more AA4 call backs?? Maybe a Kristoph mention?? Please??

• The Cosmic Turnabout: Disclaimer: I don't remember much from this case so if anything is wrong, feel free to correct me

I like how mysterious the whole eye patch thing is even though we're in Apollo's perspective, it also makes sense that he'd take the case

To add to the tension I'd mention Phoenix being worried about still not getting his badge back and that's why he can't be there in the gallery (He's arguing his case with the Bar association with Edgeworth probably or something)

I like how hurried Blackquill is during this trial too, he's convincing himself and trying to project that Starbuck is the Phantom because he doesn't have more time and he wants to finish his mission of chasing ghosts seven years past even if it's not the truth, I think that that was done well

I'd like for Athena to notice this, point it out to Apollo, but since Apollo is already on edge about Athena I'd like to think he takes it as "Athena is more worried about a murderer than our case, than about my friend, than about me... Is this a sign?" And that (and the explosion) could be the last push for him to dip from the agency and go on his own investigation (maybe reaching out to Kristoph...? Hmm? Mr "Evidence is everything in court"?)

As for after the explosion, I'd like to think Apollo left the case to Phoenix (cuz he was convinced that Phoenix would get his badge back by that time) but since Nick is still missing his badge Athena decides that she'll take over and defend Starbuck

Anyways all goes the same Athena gets arrested, and with no attorney left in the agency... What now?

• Turnabout for Tomorrow: Phoenix leaves the courtroom alone

Trucy who witnessed the whole thing from the gallery, runs up to him, similarly worried about "what now?"

Phoenix gets a call. From who? We won't know for a bit but we can assume (It's Edgeworth)

Anyways, at last, there's another attorney in the agency who can help... Phoenix got his badge back

Now finally being a full fledged lawyer again, him and Trucy go investigating, we get father daughter moments, unravelling the mystery of the Cykes and Blackquills, everything goes mostly as it happens in canon, after Trucy gets kidnapped Pearl tags along and when Phoenix and her are investigating the space station, Edgeworth shows up with Phoenix's lawyer badge in hand

They're facing eachother in court again

PHOENIX WRIGHT, THE TURNABOUT TERROR, IS BACK IN COURT

Anyways epic return (instead of the random come back in the dlc case???) (Like it's funny that he's defending an orca but still)

Everything else happens like canon, except Athena gets to hug Blackquill after he's freed because they're siblings your honour and she's been working seven years for this to finally happen

Happy end and celebration at Eldoon's Noodles obviously

And that is my AA5 rewrite, thanks for coming to my TED talk

[mao-likes-2-draw]

ace attorney is the best game of all time. how can a case where some hip-hop enthusiast animal keeper chugs fish and becomes a buff ass pirate to diss phoenix wright in court, and also a case where a fucking orca is the defendant pull at my damn heartstrings like this. i need a workplace comedy with the shipshape aquarium staff. marlon rimes im so sorry. case 5-6 is like “what if you found your family at work” and its beautiful. this is my intro to dual destinies im crying its so good i love this game….

rip azure summers we lost a baddie

dr herman crab representing the arospec nation is incredible and i love him and his penguin baby to death

thank you shipshape aquarium oh my GOD 😭😭

[splynter]

Soooo how do you think Dyode would have reacted if Emmit had been taken over by one of Reclusa's flowers, or vice versa?

OHOHO this is an INTERESTING QUESTION. Okay okay okay so preface, this is a lot of my own thoughts and interpretations based on how they act during the game itself. I rotate them in my brain so much. This is gonna be so long, I'm so sorry

So I think, first of all, that Emmit is much more susceptible to the flowers than Dyode is by default. Dyode already has basically everything he wants: he's rich, successful, he has his own island and wrote his own books, he has a companion in his apprentice, basically he's already set. So putting him in one of the brainwashing flowers doesn't seem like it'd work too well, the only thing I can think of is just... Concordia being fine and him kissing Emmit ig-

EMMIT HOWEVER. Emmit has goals. Emmit really wants to be as good, and even better, than the Groovemaster himself. Emmit wants the spotlight too, so if he had been Gotten it definitely would've been about him being the next Groovemaster (or kissing the groovemaster). It would be much easier to seize him

As for how Dyode would react? Ohhh boy. There's a few scenarios I could think of, I want to be as in tune with their canon personalities as possible yk. Most generic yk would be just him freaking out like all the others, but what I find interesting is how he and Emmit do things in canon in response to the flowers. They keep dancing. Dyode keeps wanting and trying to lift the spirits of those that have survived, and I think he'd still want to do that despite losing his apprentice to one of those flowers

Thing is, how easily could he pull that off without Emmit? When his groove was thrown off by running out of hair wax, he couldn't even find the right words through his emotions. How then, would he feel about losing his whole other half? How hard would it strike him, how strongly would his groove be lost?

I think he would try regardless. I think he would try so desperately to give the people what he believes they want, his dance. But I think there's a chink in his armor now. Cracks that form under the weight that Emmit's absence leaves behind. It's not that he can't dance without Emmit, rather he performs so much under the vibes being right that having Emmit stripped from him completely throws off his everything

I think in the end he'd crumble, just like he did with the hair wax, but this time it's so much worse. So much more personal and intrinsic to him. When it's so natural to have Emmit beside him, it only makes the absence more glaring and hollow

And now the reverse. I think Emmit is more spatially aware than Dyode, at least when it comes to reality. If Dyode somehow managed to get slurped I think Emmit would equally be as devastated, but he'd be more likely to gravitate to Shipshape for help. Similar to Technikki and Arc joining the crew, kinda. He tends to blame himself for not being able to do certain things, but he's so earnest and eager to help. He wants to prove himself so badly

Losing Dyode would fucking rattle him as he just lost his direction, his groovemaster, his dance partner, but there's nothing he can do. Dancing can't fix this. So he goes to the first people he can think of who could fix it

Mario and Luigi. They helped Dyode and Emmit before several times. They helped bring Dyode hair wax, they helped Emmit out of his own dance slump, so surely they could help with this too, right?

Right?

[bowletta]

my thoughts on mario and luigi brothership!

(spoiler-free edition!)

(click here for the Major spoilers version)

I will sort my thoughts into 3 categories: the good, the bad, and misc (not necesarily good or bad just in the middle)

The Good:

+ the animation. I didn't think theyd be able to recreate the charm the sprite animation had, but they nailed it.

+ great job translating the 2d sprites to 3d models. This was one of my biggest concerns when the game was revealed, but as much as I miss the sprites... they did a good job. Love how they added the blue accents from sato's early m&l artwork.

+ the cutscenes look so good. Very charming

+ probably the best boss battles in the series. Every one (except the 3rd lighthouse one >: [ ) was the perfect balance of fun and difficulty without dragging on too long.

+ extremely fun combat (jump attacks, hammers)

+ the characters. I really really enjoyed the characters.. I wish they cut a few of them to give others more screentime, but I was surprised how attached I got to them

+ the extension corps. Early on i thought they were just a rehash of the bffs from bowser jr.s journey... but I feel that they executed it 100 times better. I wont spoil, but they have a good arc : )

The Bad:

- I think the #1 problem plaguing brothership is the pacing. It is atrocious. The first 5 hours are so boring. It really drags its feet to get anything interesting happening. The villains arnt introduced until nearly halfway through the game. Why.

What sucks is I feel like if you can get past the first ocean, it starts to get really good! But looking back at all the leakers quitting a few hours in... I cant blame them.

- adding onto this, bros moves and battle plugs. It takes 5 hours to get your first bro move. You are stuck with standard jump and hammer for the entire first ocean. As much as i like performing those moves, it got old fast. You get bros moves so far apart, and several of them are introduced so late I didnt bother trying to learn them.

I wish the battle plugs were introduced sooner as well, I think it wouldve helped make the early combat more interesting.

- game feels way too long and bloated.

- why do you select luigi's actions with 'A' in battle. Why is there no option to change it. I struggled with this and fumbled my attacks literally until the 4th ocean. Why.

- frame rate issues. Upon booting the game I thought 'oh this is rough'. But then I got used to it. But as you progress, and more people join your ship, it gets bad. By the end, shipshape island is a choppy powerpoint presentation. I could hear my switch's fan struggling from my couch lol.

- weakest soundtrack in the series. Its not even close. Theres like 5 tracks I like, but that doesnt make up for the other 40+ being so unremarkable, esp when its one of the franchise's highlights.

- timing when counterattacking enemies is wildly inconsistent. With some, the timing feels too generous (the flying flower enemies) and other times it feels frame perfect (lakitu)

Misc:

> Theres so many instances where I cant tell if its supposed to be a homage to older games or just copy pasted from them. Theres a character introduced very late who is very similar to another late game m&l character. The extension corps and the bffs. Etc.

> the timeline is kind of confusing... Like how long ago did concordia break up? How long did it take connie to grow the tree on shipshape? Like did this take place months ago or decades ago??

>them reusing peach and bowser voice clips from 15 years ago (bis) was very funny

final thoughts:

id give brothership like... a 7.5-8/10. Is it the new best mario rpg? Absolutely not lol. It has some serious issues but... I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I think it couldve used a few more years in the oven, but overall, it was cute. Definently a contender for the new generation's super paper mario.

1. superstar saga

2. bowser's inside story

3. brothership

4. partners in time/dream team

5. paper jam

[rainbogen]

I love how they decided to introduce Luigi Logic. By having Luigi use his slender build to squeeze through the bars. Which in cartoon logic is such a galaxy brain move.

Protect this man at all costs.

I did not ask for this game to be so relatable!!

True. After having already beaten the game it's weird seeing Shipshape Island so empty.

In theory, the splitting paths are a fun mechanic providing this game with plenty of replay value.

In practice, the choices run the gambit from both options are viable to decisions paralysis inducing nightmares to "Why is this even an option?"

[spoilers in the links, obviously]

[bikwin5]

brothership review

Earlier this year I made a post about pooling money to rent a billboard to tell Nintendo to bring back the Mario & Luigi series, in jest of certain fandom activities. What I didn't know at the time is that my prayers were being answered in a brand new title made by Acquire, known for titles like Way of the Samurai and Octopath Traveler, that I haven't played. But I did play this one because I'll suck up most things that have Mario on them like the foolish Nintendrone I am. The end result of this 44-hour experience left me with a lot of thoughts to type on posts.

This post is spoiler-free up to a certain point

^^^ THESE ARE THE "BROS" INCASE YOU FORGOT WHAT THEY LOOKED LIKE

I will preface this by saying I am in fact a Mario RPGhead and have played all the past M&L titles. I didn't play the two remakes but I have completed everything up to and including Paper Jam. I even replayed the two DS games earlier this year just for fun, which is what led me to making that billboard post.

Brothership is a RPG staring Mario & Luigi the famous brothers that you know and love so much. What's different this time is that usually these games' sequels introduce new concepts by throwing another playable character in the mix (Babies, Bowser, many Luigis, Paper Mario). Brothership takes a different approach by keeping only Mario & Luigi playable and shifting the change to the setting instead. This has its good and bad parts.

Without trying to be the type of review that's just a whole summary I will briefly explain what happens: Mario and Luigi get isekai'd to another world, they split apart but then Mario finds Luigi on a big boat-like structure known as Shipshape Island, and with the help of spark plug people they sail around the oceans to unite the broken world of Concordia, finding islands and connecting them to Shipshape. This remains pretty straightforward for most of the game. The beginning cutscene was also strangely similar to a scene from The Super Mario Bros. Movie but thankfully there are no further parallels apart from this coincidence.

The gameplay structure has Mario and Luigi sail the ocean by choosing a current on the map, finding islands on the telescope, and then going to the island and connecting it. Islands can then be revisited easily, and residents from that island appear on Shipshape. Islands often need to be revisited for story or sidequest reasons. There is some more to it, but I think this general gameplay loop is actually pretty fun. Making the world a series of islands felt like a good idea that keeps things fresh for the M&L series. Areas in the past games weren't exactly densely interconnected so I feel like this is a good way to structure the world. Partners in Time in particular might as well have been a series of islands. The environments feel very fresh for the series as well, as I felt as though the past couple of games felt particularly derivative with reusing the same few biomes to explore. Brothership will have you bouncing on flowers, climbing skyscrapers and sometimes going to jail.

Overworld exploration in Brothership has me feeling a bit mixed. In past games you controlled Mario & Luigi, and maybe some other people. In this one you mainly control Mario while Luigi sort of has control but is mainly driven by AI. He is now unethical and must be decommissioned. If you are a big M&Lhead like me you WILL have a difficult time adjusting to this. Trying to make Luigi jump yourself will result him in getting stuck on things. To give Luigi a more unique role there is a "Luigi Logic" mechanic, which consists of watching him do funny things in cutscenes, or putting him in situations apart from Mario. The puzzles that involve this are pretty decent, making good use of the bros' moves as well as their environment, but I can't help but wish I still had proper control of both bros. Does having an AI-controlled partner make this game similar to the famous Dreamcast title Floigan Bros? No, because you can't put Luigi in a VMU and trade him with others' Luigis, but I wish you could.

While Brothership does a decent job at making Luigi's AI not get stuck everywhere, this approach lacks a sort of elegance that the past titles had. In the older games the control scheme was simple: A is for Mario, B for Luigi, and the other buttons are either for other characters or menu-related actions. Brothership takes a completely illogical approach to controls. A is Mario, B is Luigi but L is also for Luigi. X and Y are for hammers in the overworld but not in battle. Luigi uses A in battle menus but B to attack. L for for Luigi but R is for sidequest lists. The right stick selects Bros moves in the overworld -- This one might be a welcome change, as having to swap actions is a frequent criticism of the games, but I never really minded it before. It's sort of a mess and it will take you a while to get the controls right, especially if you have existing muscle memory. At the very least Brothership stews in its own juices long enough that you won't be trying to press L to cancel by the end.

The fighting aspect of Brothership is where a lot of the praise goes, and I have my own compliments and grievances with it. Fighting with only Mario and Luigi keeps things simple enough again, and I don't mind it. You have jump, hammer, bros attacks, and items at your disposal. A new mechanic introduced some hours in is BATTLE PLUGS which are equivalent to badges or cards or whatever the previous games had. These are actually very fun to use when you get into them and I found myself using them way more than I expected, as it feels like they really want you to be using them, especially late game. Equipped battle plugs have a special effect that gets used a number of times, then after they take turns to recharge. This makes their use decently strategic as you have to consider not only what plugs to use but when. Overall a nice addition and I hope the next game has something like this going forward.

If there's anything to complain about the turn-based combat it's the "fluff," something that is not unique to fighting or even this game as a whole but rather most games that have come out in the past 10 years. Brothership LOVES flashy animations, even for regular attacks, which makes the pace of battles go by much slower than they need to. Combine this with enemies that often appear in large groups later in the game as well as loading times and you get a turn-based battle system where nothing is terribly wrong with it, but you can't help but wish things were done with faster. Late-game enemies also spend a lot longer attacking, with attacks that don't necessarily feel more difficult to avoid but they get multitudes of attempts. If there's one bit of excessive animation in battles I do like it's the Luigi Logic segments for bosses, which are more sparse than previous titles. These involve a small cutscene and some timed button presses to deal extra damage to a boss and make it vulnerable, usually with very amusing results. One last thing regarding animations is that Bros attacks could still stand to be shorter, especially ones like Clockout Blow, but I do respect the elaborate finishing animations they put on them, even the older returning ones.

In terms of difficulty... This game has hands, surprisingly enough, and not just the ones that the bros put their gloves on. It takes a while for the game to get difficult but I found myself game overing multiple times in the last couple stretches of the adventure. The first game over was on a tiny island with a surprisingly difficult fight with enemies like 5 levels above me. Brothership is less willing to hold back like other Mario RPGs, it will sometimes throw out OHKO attacks, huge groups of enemies, or remove one of the bros from play. I found myself digging into my stash of mushrooms and nuts fairly often. Despite this there are some forgiving elements, as the game keeps a lot of the battle functions introduced in the 3DS titles -- Fleeing from battles is free, you can retry any battle and the bros no longer avoid attacks slower when one is downed. I was not a big fan of these assistive mechanics but I think complaining about them is reserved for another time. I was pleasantly surprised by the difficulty overall.

The graphical style of Brothership is probably the one aspect of the game that most have no qualms with, including myself. We knew that the Bros look great in 3D as seen in segments from the 3DS titles but we always wondered what a full game would look like until now. M&L Brothership takes the best aspects of the series' style and translates it to current-gen hardware beautifully. Whether it be the character animations or environments, there is always something lovely to look at, if at the expense of frame rate in the overworld sometimes. I especially enjoy the liberal use of squash and stretch so if Mario gets in a battle encounter mid-jump he looks all long and funny.

The music, on the other hand, pissed me off at first. I get it, Yoko Shimomura was probably busy with Mario + Rabbids 2 and now KH4 but I still miss her. Being a composer who has to fill in for her of all people must be a very harrowing experience. I knew she wasn't involved because of the trailer music but throughout the early hours of the game I was like AHHHHH!!! THIS MUSIC IS TOO HAPPY AND BOMBASTIC!!! ITS MADE MES MAD!!!! But then I got over it at some point. The battle theme and Shipshape Island are two of the best songs and also the ones you've been hearing the most, so they got that right. Twistee Island's song in particular made me mad at first because it seemed too happy for a jungle island but it became one of my favourite tracks by the end of the game. If I do have a complaint about the music it would be there could stand to be more battle tracks, one particular point in the story would have been a great time to trigger a more serious general battle theme.

The story of this game is OK I guess. I can't be expecting too much from the narrative of a Mario RPG but it's nice there was a story at all. Having it take place in a different world definitely gave the writers their chance to do whatever they liked, and they sure gave it a lot, as there is quite a bit of dialogue in the game, probably too much. Without spoiling too much I would say I liked most of the story other than some particularly strange end game developments (scroll all the way to the bottom to learn more)

Even though I am a defender of The Origami King and similar related games damn was it refreshing to have a Mario RPG with characters in it again. The early hours in particular introduce you to a LOT of new characters, maybe even too many, but it slows down later and takes time to develop them further. Are Brothership's original characters particularly deep and engaging? Not really but it's a Mario game after all. For what it's worth I do like most of the new characters on a surface level, and what they did with some returning characters was neat too. Princess Peach looks super cute in this particular game's style. Technikki if you are reading this please DM me.

Ultmately the biggest problem of Brothership, and the one that people bring up most, is its length and pacing. "Pacing" is difficult to describe in gaming terms, a 40 hour game can feel like the perfect length or far too long, but Brothership lands somewhere in the middle of that. It feels like a substantial adventure but it also felt like a good number of hours could have been cut out, whether it be redundant sidequests or needless revisiting of past islands. The early hours in particular feel like they hand out new mechanics to you way too slow. I thought this game would be tedious in the same sense as Dream Team with its tutorials but funny enough tutorials take a backseat in favor of... more stuff I guess. I think like 25% of this game's content could have been cut out and it would have felt so much better. Keep in mind my 44-hour playtime included a lot of side stuff but not all of it. Brothership is the gift that keeps on giving, on multiple occasions you think you're going to beat the game in your current session but it just won't stop.

OVERALL... This is not the pinnacle Mario & Luigi game. Brothership is good and worth playing but not the best. I admittedly looked at the IGN review that everyone was complaining about and while I don't agree with everything in it, most of the flaws mentioned are prevalent in the game, although it may have bothered me less than others. You can take my opinion with a grain of salt because I really like Mario. I don't like to think of number scores too much but at the time of this writing it sits at a 78 on Metacritic and yeah, this is a 78 kind of game. Maybe 76. It's good enough to get that green number but it doesn't quite feel as exceptional as the high bar some past Mario RPGs have set. I do think this is a game worth playing overall if you love BROS

THIS IS THE END OF THE NORMAL REVIEW. THESE ARE THE ANTI-SPOILER BROS. DO NOT SCROLL PAST THE BROS IF YOU DO NOT WANT BROTHERSHIP ENDGAME SPOILERS

WHY THE FUCK DOES THE EGG HATCH INTO A CLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last hours of Brothership are probably the period I felt most polarized by the game. Not only was it extending itself by another 6 hours or so but they also had the nerve to be like, here's a weird fucking guy who likes being reclusive and nothing else, also Zokket was not a real person but Cozette was being brainwashed so it doesn't really matter. Zokket could have been a real guy who died and Cozette could have spawned immediately after and the story would not have been affected.

My first thought after the world changed was like oh neat, they are doing some Dungeon Meshi shit, I like that. But then realizing I had to go around past islands collecting stuff arbitrarily felt like an endeavor. I guess the point is to recap all the characters and their captial b Bonds they had throughout the story but it feels like we saw enough of them already. This whole section I felt like "shiddd i guess i gotta get it over with" but at least it was neat that they put the effort into making every single island be affected by the Glohm with different dialogue.

I still think Reclusa is a fucking weird villain because like, what about him is even remotely reclusive. I get he has like the severed cords on his head to represent that but for a guy who hates talking to people he won't shut up and even goes out of his way to talk to you multiple points during the few hours he's even relevant. His army in the far-too-long-final-dungeon the Soli-tree isn't reflective of this reclusiveness at all, save for the Seedlusa enemies that don't attack unless you leave them by themselves, I thought that was actually really neat.

If I have something positive to say about the last hours of Brothership it's that it really reinforces the Brotherness of Mario & Luigi. Brotherly love? Fraternity? IDK but for a game called Brothership it did feel like this game didn't have enough Brotherness as past titles. The last hours really did reinforce that Mario & Luigi are awesome bros and they support each other and that's cool. If I had to rank the games by Brotherness I would put this under Superstar Saga and Dream Team but above the rest. Speaking of Bros I also really liked the Mushroom Kingdom segment right before the final battle, that was neat as hell and something I would not have expected from a Mario game.

The final battle was actually a little easier than I expected as I had more trouble with Zokket and Glohm Bowser, but it was pretty good. It definitely did some neat stuff that you wouldn't be able to do in a 2D game. I really liked the ending when the Bros crushed Reclusa's skull violently with hammers.

Why am I dedicating multiple paragraphs to this endgame section alone? I guess because these last hours gave me some of the strongest reactions out of the whole game, positive and negative, except for the cutscene when Bowser first attacks Zokket's fortress, that was badass. Also no one wants to talk about this part of the game yet because of spoilers so I had to dump my thoughts here while they're fresh. Most of the people I know who have played this still haven't finished it yet because they're slow as fuck and would rather play dog shit like Persona 5 Royal. Sorry for cussing a lot at the end. You should play Brothership or don't if you want to.