Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

[h1]Overall[/h1] Bug Fables is a faithful replication of a Paper Mario clone. A decent action RPG combat system, world brimming with personality, banger music and colourful characters. It's not perfect, but way beyond captivating enough for anyone who already enjoyed a Paper Mario game. Initially, Bug Fables' Paper Mario art style put me off. It had an uncanny feeling of trying too hard. That feeling was quickly dissuaded by the writing, characters, world, music and combat though. It instantly taps into that Paper Mario feeling. [h1]Story[/h1] The story is paper thin. Hah. There are 7 chapters, most of which are "collect the magic things", then there's an evil villain who has no backstory whatsoever. That level of depth spans the entire story, even to the protagonists, who are essentially a small puddle in comparison to every other character and plot line in the game. It's quite a shame, because the writing is really good, there's just no plot to [i]write about[/i]. The 3 main characters are very expressive and distinct, and so are most side characters. It feels very much like a wholesome group of 3 pals. They banter, they talk about the world around them, they have their quirks, they have [i]likeable personalities[/i]. Each one gets their own dedicated quest to literally dip your pinky finger into their lives beyond their personality. The quests don't last long either, and the characters don't really change or get impacted by them much either. I like how the writing avoids any "exposition" dumps on you. There is no off-kilter explanation of the world for characters who'd clearly already know the information they're being told. There's an absolutely CRAZY amount of flavour text in this game. Every single screen has "hint" text, which is often the characters commenting on their journey, the area they're in, or just a quip. Almost every single NPC character has spoken dialogue AND some "hint" text too, which is always just the characters discussing some random topic about them. Like the scarf a character is wearing, or their race, profession, etc. It creates a very organic feeling of being on an adventure with some friends. I always looked forward to seeing these interactions. It almost left me wanting [i]more[/i] depth that the game seldom provides. Beyond this, the world of Bugaria feels very much like a living world. Each part of the world is distinct, has its own culture, relations to other "nations", all bugs of various kinds flocking around, and all those bugs have entirely unique designs, setting aside a few. It always made finding and exploring new areas a delight. The only bad part is the story, as mentioned. It's quite predictable, has zero depth, and the antagonists never really build themselves up or develop. I just always wanted to see more of the character interactions. Vi is literally me 10/10. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Gameplay is on par with, or slightly worse than, Paper Mario. It's the same action-based combat, simple minigames to +1 your attacks, you can defend to reduce damage you receive, etc. It is fairly enjoyable, but gets a bit repetitive toward the end. I played all the game on hard mode, for context. The game gives you plenty of options and variety in combat. A lot of different badges, Paper Mario style yet again, each with unique effects that meaningfully impact combat. Granted, there's a lot of boring badges too. 50% less chance to get poisoned? Zzz. Badges and special collectibles are thrown around the map, most being lore books and crystal fruit, a special currency to buy badges, which felt like lame rewards since they were so common. Though I often liked the quests and characters enough that this did not bother me. The world is quite compact, but holds many secrets. So it was always fun to explore nevertheless. You can defend at the right time during combat to reduce damage, -1 or -2 damage if you get a "super block", timing it in a very short window. "Super blocks" were really annoying, as to defend successfully you must hit BEFORE the attack hits you vs WHEN it hits you. It means if you go for a super block, you risk taking full damage, which is often not worth it, making it a tough sell to try and learn super block timings, as if you don't [i]at least[/i] block, it's game over. Some moves of enemies are also wildly inconsistent, some have almost zero visual telegraphs, and you just have to learn the timings with the audio cues. Some are just inconsistent. For instance, one enemy fires projectiles and that enemy can fire projectiles at [i]any[/i] party member. They're all varying distances from the enemy, however the projectile takes [i]the same amount of time[/i] to get to each one. This means the projectile speed is dependent on which character the enemy fires at, making the visual cue entirely inconsistent. Some enemies will attack so fast, the camera or visual effects haven't even cleared up from THE PREVIOUS attack. This makes the combat sometimes quite frustrating and messy. Levelling up is kinda odd. You can level up HP, +1 to all party members' HP, TP up, +3 team points for special moves, or +3 badge points. There are a lot of badges for HP and TP in a 1 to 1 ratio of 1 badge point to 1 HP or TP point. This effectively means badge points are objectively better? As you can use BP to increase HP or TP conditionally, whereas levelling HP or TP is just 3 permanent BP put into an HP or TP badge? Beyond the early game when you have few badges, there is no reason NOT to upgrade BP mid to late game. I'd have preferred if they removed all these badges and replaced them with unique ones instead, to make level up choices matter more. It also felt like there was a lack of creativity when it came to executing special attacks. Most are holding buttons or pressing buttons at the right time. I can't recall if Paper Mario did this better, as it's been a hot minute since I played those, so this could be a weakness of both. Bosses were always nice to see and creative. After finding a strategy though, combat became stale. Power up Vi to +4 attack, go ham and you win. Rinse and repeat. The most annoying part was backtracking to chefs to cook up more consumables every boss fight. While I liked most side quests from a story perspective, the backtracking became droning near the end of the game. Post-game quests also just flat out sucked, recycling enemies you already fought. While I state many issues here, the badges and action combat were generally fun! Most issues only cropped up late into the game. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Bug Fables is fun! I have a lot of minor gripes with it, but if there were ever a Bug Fables 2, I would not hesitate to pick it up at release.