After 9 years of the series' absence, the Mario & Luigi series is back on the Switch with its sixth installment: Mario & Luigi: Brothership. It marks a thrilling conclusion to what could be called the revival of the Mario RPGs. Remakes of the beloved Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door showed a renewed interest in the series, and now, with a brand new Mario & Luigi title, it feels as if the Mario RPGs are back.
But this isn't about the Mario RPGs, this is about one game, and one game alone. After spending months playing through it, with a final playtime over 45 hours, I have completed Mario & Luigi Brothership. It has been wonderful to play a new Mario & Luigi, and I have had so many thoughts swirling through my mind since I first started it. So, let's get into it, how did this long awaited installment fare, how does it compare to previous titles, and what do I think of it overall? Head on below for my spoiler free review of the game:
The most interesting thing about Brothership is that it is the start of a new era of Mario & Luigi. The developer behind the first five games, Alphadream, is bankrupt and gone, and now a new company, Acquire, is taking over. While they put great care, a huge amount of effort even, into making this feel like a Mario & Luigi game, by the end, it's hard not to see it as a new kind of Mario & Luigi. This is the beginning of a new era, and so I cannot help but look back on the series' history.
While the Mario & Luigi series never had a dramatic shakeup like the Paper Mario series did during its history, I would argue that the series did see a great change with the release of its 3rd installment: Bowser's Inside Story, such that I'd separate the first five games into two eras: The Early Era, and the Giant Era. Bowser's Inside Story was monumental for the series, being far and away its most successful entry. As a result, the changes it brought to the series would become mainstays in the following entries. These changes, what really defined this second era of Mario & Luigi, were its Giant Battles. These were massive conflicts defined by a grand scale, full of cinematography meant to get the player's blood pumping and generate vast quantities of "hype" as they engaged in grand attacks and defences against giant beasts.
This emphasis on epic and wild moments really separated these games from what came before. You can see a clear progression in the special attacks and boss battles of each game becoming longer and more demanding from the player, such that by Paper Jam boss battles could take many many minutes, featuring loads of epic attacks to both master and dodge.
Another feature of the Giant Era is a general experimentation with exploration and environments. The games of the Early Era featured your general 3D environments that you explore and use abilities to navigate. Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team introduced 2D environments, in which you spend approximately half of the game exploring 2D metroidvania esque levels. Paper Jam removes these, but introduces its own unique form of exploration with dashing. This ability, which lets players run fast and float, led to its areas being far larger than those of previous entries, giving its world a unique feeling as you dash around it.
This general experimentation with environmental navigation, boss battles, and special attacks means I almost called this era the Gimmick Era, with how much each installment attempts to change up the gameplay. I bring all this up because, I didn't realize how much I would miss the Giant Era, how much I loved the three games it encompasses, until playing Brothership. Brothership really is a new era in the Mario & Luigi series. Giant battles are gone, environmental gimmicks and minigames, while still present, are not as frequent and important as they were in the Giant Era. There is no new playable character to change up the gameplay, instead Brothership almost feels like a return to the first game in the series, a reboot of sorts.
This begs the question: what did Brothership add to the series to shape its own identity? What defines this new era of Mario & Luigi? I would say the first distinct factor of Brothership is its Battle Plug system. While there is no additional character to control in battle, battle plugs offer their own twist on the Mario & Luigi battle system. Here's how they work: each battle plug gives the brothers an ability, be it offensive, defensive, or support. These abilities can range from: 1) after landing an attack, a spike ball falls on the enemy for additional damage, to 2) Mario and Luigi are prevented from tripping or being dizzy after being hit by an attack, to 3) an increase in the odds of defeated enemies dropping an item. There are loads of battle plugs to craft and mess with, and what's even cooler is that combining certain plugs will have additional effects. For example, if you combine the battle plug that drops a spike ball on an enemy after an attack with the plug that allows a successful attack to release a shockwave that will damage nearby enemies, then spike balls will fall on all enemies attacked by the shockwave after the attack.
What makes the system so fun and dynamic is that every battle plug has a limited amount of uses. After it uses its ability enough, it goes into a cooling phase in which you must wait a certain number of turns across battles for it to recover and be usable again. You are also limited in the amount of battle plugs you can equip at once, so there's a lot of strategy that goes into which battle plugs you choose to use for a battle, and how that changes as your battle plugs run out and you have to find substitutes. Think of it as similar to the badge system in the first two Paper Marios, except the badge abilities will run out and need to recharge, so you will constantly be changing which badges are equipped.
This had the potential to become tedious and frustrating, since you constantly have to change battle plugs. Indeed, it reminded me of Final Fantasy IX, which has a similar system in which your characters can only equip a certain number of abilities, so as you gain more, you are constantly going into the menu to change what is equipped. Thankfully however, this is not an issue in Brothership. Since your battle plugs can expire, unlike equipment, you can change your equipped battle plugs during Mario and Luigi's turns in battle, and it doesn't take up a turn, so you don't need to worry about them until battling. Additionally, while there's a wide variety of battle plugs, there's not a huge amount, and they're introduced infrequently enough that you should be able to grasp and remember what each does. The result is a quick and easy process of setting your battle plugs at the start of battle, then when one expires, it won't take long for you find one to equip while the expired plug recovers. It's so quick and easy that I never found it tedious.
I loved the battle plug system so much, I might even say Mario & Luigi Brothership has my favorite battle system of the series because of it. It kept battles engaging as you're constantly juggling this battle plug resource, and the fact they can expire means you can't stick to a few, and will be forced to experiment and see the value in every plug. Furthermore, battle plugs don't take that long to recover, such that you never feel like you're wasting your resources or you shouldn't be experimenting with them, like many players complained about with the battle systems of the modern Paper Mario titles: Sticker Star, Color Splash, and Origami King. It features what I love about those battle systems: encouraging players to experiment with different attacks and abilities, but without the downside of losing resources from experimentation, and it's brilliant. I cannot sing its praises enough.
However, battle plugs, while being my favorite part of Brothership, are not what define this new era of Mario & Luigi. The defining factor of Brothership, what will make or break the game for you, is its narrative and dialogue.
Brothership has so much dialogue, and so many sidequests. The Mario & Luigi games have never had a large amount of sidequests, but the amount in Brothership blows them out of the water. There are so so many sidequests to do in this game, it is nuts. The amount of dialogue in this game is also massive when compared to previous entries. Throughout your adventure, you travel to multiple islands in the land of Concordia. I was expecting something like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, in which some of the islands have NPC characters, but most of them are empty and inviting you to explore and uncover their secrets at your own pace. But in Brothership, I think every single island you go on features NPCs that you will have to speak with at some point, and helping these NPCs is crucial to completing each island.
The story and characters of Brothership are so much more present then I was expecting. You will constantly be meeting new characters and helping them out, and all the sidequests see you returning to islands you've already explored to help these residents more and get to know them. Connie, one of the main characters of the game, accompanies you to the large dungeons of the game. You actually don't spend a lot of time being just Mario & Luigi exploring a world on their own. Characters are a constant part of this game.
For its part, Brothership does some really cool things with this new emphasis on the narrative. As you venture to each island, you are connecting them to your main island, which is also a boat. When you connect an island to your boat, NPCs will actually leave their island and can be found on your boat. Some even move from their original island to another one you've connected. The characters of this game actually have character arcs and progression, and it's really cool, especially since this emphasis feels like a lost part of the series. Not since Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, 20 years ago, have I played a Mario RPG that is so committed to creating an interesting world full of interesting characters you meet and interact with. It's genuinely awesome, and if you wanted the Mario RPGs to place greater emphasis on their stories and characters, you might love this.
Alas, this is my main issue with Brothership, and I've seen many players share this criticism. For all the promise of being a Mario RPG with a present story, of finally getting a Mario RPG with tons of characters with their own arcs and interesting dialogue, the dialogue just...isn't that great. Especially after replaying Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario 2, both of which have excellent dialogue that bring the characters of their worlds to life, the dialogue of Brothership just doesn't compare. To start, there are a lot of jokes that didn't get a chuckle out of me. There were a lot that did, but quite a few running gags didn't amuse me the way they did in previous Mario RPGs. Furthermore, I said characters have character arcs, and they do...but those character arcs aren't very interesting. It's pretty basic writing: a mother has a son that is kind of rowdy and needs to calm down so they get along; a boy and girl are together, but their parents don't approve of their relationship, so they have to change their minds; two brothers explore together, but one worries about the dangers of exploring while the other wants to do dangerous things, so they need to compromise, etc. It's basic stuff like that, and few if any of them moved me.
Really, the clearest sign of the writing's disappointing quality, I would argue, is the villains. We've come a long way since the villains of the first three games: Cackletta, the Shroob, and Fawful. I would call them some of, if not the best villains in a Mario game. Cackletta is constantly present and taunting and fighting you, the Shroob are arguably the scariest and most intimidating villain in a Mario game, and Fawful has some of the most charming and hilarious writing a villain has ever had.
The villains of Brothership on the other hand, are so boring and lacking in charm or personalities. The three henchmen of the main villain make jokes and try to be funny, but only a couple of them actually got a chuckle out of me. The main villain himself is such a generic bad guy who wants to rule the world, but doesn't really have a personality or come off as that intimidating to have a presence. Overall, I found the villains disappointing.
It pains me to say this because the writing isn't actually bad. Like I said, there were moments when the game got a laugh out of me, and a couple characters had interactions that were interesting. But overall, the writing felt so basic that I just couldn't get invested in the story and its world. It is so disappointing that a Mario RPG, one which finally places so much emphasis on its writing and characters, ended up creating characters that just aren't that charming or interesting. Of all the ones you meet, I can only think of a couple that will stick with me, if that.
...that is, until the last quarter of the game. I've seen mixed feelings on the game's final act and ending, but I found myself suddenly much more invested in the story and its characters during the final 10-15 hours of the game. Characters are introduced that make things more interesting, the story goes in some really cool directions I wasn't expecting, and overall, I thought the game ended incredibly well, in a way that turned me around on its overall story.
What's amusing about this is that, this is also how I felt about the story and characters of Octopath Traveler 2, as I said in my review of that game (which can be found here). I wasn't that invested in the game's narrative until the final act, when it turned me around on its story. It's funny, because the developers of Octopath Traveler 1 and 2, Acquire, are the team behind Mario & Luigi: Brothership. You can really feel their influence here. The emphasis on story and writing is a common trait of Japanese RPGs, so it makes Brothership feel more like a traditional JRPG. But it also feels like they were held back by Nintendo, limited in how far they could go with the writing.
I strongly got this impression from reading the ask the developers interview that Nintendo did for this game (which can be read here). There's a quote in particular that really stood out to me:
Otani:
Also, there was a big difference in the way both companies go about developing games. In previous games in the series, we always created the gameplay first and then came up with a plot that would bring that gameplay to life, so the director led all of the progress. But Acquire's approach to making games was to have the director, Ohashi-san, think about the drifting islands gameplay, while separately from that and in parallel, have an external story writing company come up with the story… However, because it's an RPG, the story and gameplay must work together in unison in order to make any progress.
First off, if this isn't the dilemma all Mario RPGs have faced since the beginning, as I stated in this overview of the series, then what is? The push and pull between making a gameplay focused Mario game and a JRPG, which emphasizes stories and characters, is what makes these games so interesting. You can see how Acquire, a company used to making traditional JRPGs like Octopath Traveler, which prioritize gameplay and story equally, came into conflict with Nintendo's gameplay first approach. I think this is part of why the writing of the game feels so weak, and like it doesn't capture the personality and depth of older Mario RPGs.
But that final act, the final part of this game really sold me on Acquire's ability to create good stories using the Mario setting, and wow, I see potential for them. I really hope they continue working on the series, because I'd love to see them take another crack at it, ideally being able to make a more interesting story and cast of characters.
The writing will be what make or breaks this game, because from discussions I've read online, it is the main thing separating those that didn't enjoy Brothership from those that loved it. But I would be remiss to not mention other parts of this game I enjoyed. When I wasn't forced to talk with NPC characters, the environmental design of the islands of Concordia is really good. I love the way each island has its own aesthetic, and often its own means of traversal. They were fun to explore and backtrack to, such that I explored every island to completion (I also completed nearly every sidequest).
What further enhanced the exploration of this game was the new Luigi Logic system. This is Brothership's unique contribution to exploration. Unlike previous games, in which you could control Mario and Luigi at all times and they were glued together, in Brothership, you only control Mario outside of battle, and when jumping over ledges, Luigi will automatically follow Mario. In exchange for no longer having to control Luigi, you can use Luigi Logic to assign Luigi specific tasks in the overworld, like a Pikmin. This helps exploration feel less tedious, since Luigi can take care of all the tedious stuff without player input, but it also means Mario and Luigi can be separated a great distance, allowing for interesting puzzles in which you control Mario, but can give Luigi specific commands from far away. It is reminiscent of the puzzles of Bowser's Inside Story and Dream Team, in which Bowser or Dream Luigi could make changes to the environment Mario is exploring. I quite liked the Luigi Logic system overall, it further added to the satisfaction of exploring the world of Concordia.
Finally, I should comment on the soundtrack. I must admit, as a long time fan of the series, it's hard not to miss Yoko Shimomura. Her work on the previous Mario & Luigi games is incredible, and I frequently go back and listen to songs from the first five games. The soundtrack of Brothership is good, but I found it to be overall a step down from previous entries. There are some good songs in there to be sure, but I don't see myself listening to much of the soundtrack in the years to come.
I found it interesting that frequent complaints I saw from Mario & Luigi fans regarding this game included a general lack of bosses compared to previous entries, in addition to how long it takes you to get your hammers and bros attacks. But that's what Brothership is, that's what characterizes this new era of Mario & Luigi. There are less bosses then previous games because you spend so much more time interacting with NPCs and exploring islands. It takes a while to get your first upgrades because again, you spend so much time speaking with the characters of Concordia. This is a new Mario & Luigi, focused on dialogue and sidequests over giant battles and gameplay gimmicks.
This might sound like a bad thing, but don't get the impression that I didn't enjoy my time with Brothership. I wouldn't call it one of my favorite Mario & Luigis, but that's less because I disliked it, and more that I love nearly every game in the series. The Mario & Luigi series means a lot to me, I've grown up with it, so seeing the series grow up as well, change and evolve with the times, I can't help but find meaning in that. People change, franchises change, it's the way of the world. That can be scary to consider, because often it means losing something. But that also means there are new ways of doing things, new perspectives on a video game series that come from its continuation. I see real potential with Acquire here, and there were moments of absolute brilliance in this game that left me floored. They have the potential to create an incredible new kind of Mario & Luigi game.
Finally, don't let this review sound like this is a totally new kind of Mario & Luigi. This isn't Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Acquire did a fantastic job at retaining the vibe of the series. Mario and Luigi are more animated then they've ever been, have lots of great wholesome moments together, and the battle system is still as incredible as ever, even moreso thanks to the Battle Plug system. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game, and there's a reason that while I struggled to complete a lot of games in 2024, I always wanted to play this game. Brothership was a fascinating experience, one I know I will keep thinking about for a while, and I'd highly recommend it to any Mario RPG fan desperate for a new entry, especially if you're craving one that places greater emphasis on its narrative. It is so great to have the Mario & Luigi series back, and as a longtime fan, I couldn't be happier. I cannot wait to see where the series goes from here, and am relieved it (probably) won't be another nine year wait for the next entry.
Thank you so much for reading this, and take care of yourselves.
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