Bug Fables Review: Paper Mario 3?
The indie scene sure has an infestation problem, huh?
First we were treated to the haunting halls of Hollow Knight, a wonderful little Metroidvania with an all-bug cast, and now we’re treated to another insectoid epic with Bug Fables. This game, of course, is the long-awaited spiritual successor to the classic Paper Mario games, which told thrilling stories in the Mario universe with colorful casts and tight RPG mechanics. I’m not going to go too deep into the sad fate of the Paper Mario series because that’s not really relevant here, but just know that the new games are basically part of a completely different series. Naturally, Bug Fables is a love letter to the first two games, which are strictly RPGs with wonderful stories to tell.
When I first saw this game in an indie showcase, I wasn’t expecting it to be good, frankly. The original Paper Marios were just too high-quality for a mere indie title to even come close to matching them, right? The truth is, Bug Fables does a great job of continuing the legacy left by the old games, and an excellent job by indie standards. However, I sadly did find some issues with the experience. Some are small, some are big, but overall, I simply don’t think I can call this game the ultimate true successor to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door that many might denote it as.
One thing that pops out from the start is the art direction, which this game nails. Whereas the new Paper Mario games have long since gone way overboard on the paper aesthetic, Bug Fables returns to the reserved style of the original PM game. The characters are not literally made out of paper (that would be ridiculous and miss the point entirely, right?). Rather, they’re depicted as if they are characters in a children’s storybook, with animation that is simple but never lazy. Even after beating the game, I still found the art style delightful just as I always have.
Even outside the art, it was surprising to find out just how much of this game is just Paper Mario. The overworld is depicted the same way. The text boxes are similar. The combat is 100% exactly the same even down to most of the action commands. When you level up you get to choose between a boost in HP, FP TP, and BP MP. Praising most of the mechanics in this game — medals, quests, controls, characters — just makes me feel like I’m gushing about Paper Mario all over again. At first you might assume that this is a bad thing, but I’d have to disagree — this kind of game just hasn’t been made in so long that the tropes are still engaging, the trappings are still fresh. We only ever got two games before, after all, so it never really had a chance to stale the way so many other games do. If Bug Fables had aimed to just be a carbon copy of classic Paper Mario, I’d have been reasonably satisfied.
However, to call it that would be a disservice to the new elements it brings to the table. It doesn’t quite advance the ye olde formula, but it does tinker a bit with the setup just enough to earn its own identity. Instead of a gang of partners you pick up throughout the game, your entire team is formed from the start. Vi, Kabbu, and Leif are your only players this time around, and all three of them play a critical role in battle. Whereas in TTYD you could completely ignore the party members you didn’t like, this game requires you to take full advantage of your arthropod entourage. Vi is the only bug who can hit flying enemies. Kabbu has the strength to pierce the defenses of bulkier foes. And Leif, precious Leif, can not only target enemies burrowing underground, but can even freeze most of them using his Frigid Coffin attack, which I probably used over a hundred times.
The difficulty is crazy compared to the originals, especially if you turn on the Hard Mode medal. Do not assume going in that you can just trounce every boss as long as you’re not underleveled; you need to make full use of items and medals if you want any chance at felling some of these beasts. I even had to turn Hard Mode off a few times, including during the final boss, because winning otherwise was borderline impossible. There are other medals you can equip alongside Hard Mode to elevate the difficulty even further, but I wouldn’t recommend them. Even the base difficulty is a step up from the old games.
I’d love to dub Bug Fables a masterpiece and call it a day, but as I mentioned before, there were a few roadblocks on its road to greatness. I didn’t like the medals in this game — for those not in the know, medals in Bug Fables are the equivalent to badges in Paper Mario, which were equipable items that helped you out in battle. The problem with medals is that they just aren’t that useful. Most of them will grant you subtle advantages in battle, but often they require a trade-off made redundant by the fact that you’re already spending Medal Points to use them. I don’t think the attack-boosting medals needed to require an equal drop in defense, or vice versa. I feel this decision was made because the game developers were too afraid to let us become too powerful, as this kind of game doesn’t function like a normal RPG where your attacks get stronger upon every level up. Each increase to your base attack is a big deal and should be treated like one, but I think this fear of breaking the game instead created a sense of impotence, like you can never truly get stronger, but rather you can maintain the illusion of strength as long as you avoid getting hit.
The story is another slightly disappointing area for me. While I enjoyed a lot of the individual personalities making up the world of Bugaria, the plot they found themselves involved in was just a little generic. There were no true twists or turns, no unusual premises that led to exciting payoffs. It was just a basic little story about a legendary relic and the political conflicts resulting from its supposed power. To be completely fair and continue to hold this game to the standards set by Paper Mario, the very first game on the Nintendo 64 also had a story that was nothing too special — much like in that game, the charm of Bug Fables comes from exploring its world and meeting the eccentric characters who call it home. Perhaps Moonsprout Games will continue to mirror the trajectory of the Paper Mario series by making a fantastic follow-up with an excellent and exciting plot in foreign lands, then an extradimensional 2D sidescroller with some of the RPG elements of the originals, and then ruin everything forever. The future of this fresh brand is in their hands!
Even though I had some qualms with it, I simply found it impossible to dislike Bug Fables. When a small indie studio attempts to recreate the magic of one of your favorite games ever, and then the end result is only “mostly good”, that indie studio deserves all the credit in the world. Nintendo has been having a very dull year for game releases, and the announcement of Paper Mario: The Origami King was like a mosquito bite on an already very sore wasp sting. If Nintendo wants to triple-down in the horrendous direction they’ve taken their once-amazing Mario subseries, that’s just fine. But to anyone thinking about buying that game just because it has some recognizable faces on its box art, I beseech you to buy Bug Fables instead. It might not be perfect, but it’s a special adventure that makes an effort at every turn to entertain and charm you.
There, I went the whole review without a “this game is full of bugs” joke. I should win an award for that.
