Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

As someone who never played Paper Mario or other games in this style, I am surprised by how much I enjoyed it. The writing and overall aesthetic of the game feels very high quality given the game was kickstarted back in 2019. The sheer volume of dialogue/text in this game is insane. From main characters to random NPCs littering the map, nearly every character has something funny to say or leads back to an undiscovered side quest. The story itself is pretty standard and its mainly something you can surmise by the look of the game. There were a few surprises specifically in certain character's arcs, but I won't spoil anything. I found the main party to be quite likable and I was pretty surprised at how much you can do in an RPG like this with only 3 party members. My biggest complaints with the game are its platforming sections and combat. Some of the platform and puzzle sections were dreadful. There were many occasions where the 2D paper perspective of the game felt like a hindrance more than anything else. Ex) Jumping from X-axis on a small platform but not having proper Y-axis visibility to actually land on it. The freeze time for certain enemies which were required for platforming also felt weirdly short. While the drawn map that the characters use is cool visually, it didn't functionally work for me. There were a few points in the main story where I simply did not know where to go and had to result to Google. I might just be too modern game-pilled at this point, but I really do wish the map was more detailed. It would have saved me the trouble of trying to find certain quest locations. Since playing Expedition 33, I have come around to enjoying this style of combat in turn-based RPGs. The combat in Bug Fables ranges from fine to fun depending on what you are fighting. The Boss fights were pretty challenging, especially with the hard medal, and I had a lot of fun trying different builds out. But as the game went on, the combat did lose a bit of steam mainly due to the normal enemies. While the game isn't the most grindy RPG I have played, you're pretty much forced to fight the same mobs over an over for lackluster Exp. By the end of the game, i ending up running past a lot of mobs simply because the loss of hp/tp to Exp gain ratio just wasn't worth it. Overall Bug Fables is a good game that I'd give an 8/10.

✔ decent combat system, which focuses on making every move meaningful at the cost of every encounter being a small puzzle that has to be dealt with in a specific way (each character can do something special, which exploits enemy vulnerability) ? turn-based combat heavily relying on QTEs ? simple/childish writing ✘ utter lack of any hook: story-wise or character-wise or combat-wise ✘ starts well with a few meaningful combat encounters, each with different combination of enemies, but then the starting dungeon starts dragging on for no good reason ✘ nothing interesting to find/explore. just consumables ✘ annoying UX decisions (very limited inventory - why can't I easily use a healing item that just dropped and instead have to go through my inventory to use another one and make some room and pick it up then? this happens all the time) 🛈 actively played maybe 3 hours 🛈 never played Paper Mario

I'm amazed how much fun it was to go through the entire game, an experience which was worth all the time I've currently put into the game. The story is a good mix of wholesome, funny, and serious moments which also brings character development, and a little surprise here and there in. I really enjoyed how things developed and turned out, a few things I expected coming true, and some catching me by surprise. The graphics style will surely remind anyone who played Paper Mario to be inspired by it, simple yet charming and working for the whole game and what its based on. If you've played Paper Mario at some point, you know how the battles works in general with some enhancements and options to approach enemies in different ways. I've played on hard mode from the very beginning, the difficulty being noticeable with some bosses being a bit of a pain to deal with. But it was rather challenging over feeling that it was unfair or too harsh. The game offers you a lot to solve battles in different ways and options so there's more than just one solution or play style to beat bosses and challenges. The game has side quests and other things you can do aside of going straight through the story. And the moments I had the feel of "They didn't have to, but did it anyway." popped up four times in total on my end. And I do cherish what these moments and discoveries were. There's a ton of tracks the game has for the areas, battles, and any place you are, a lot being catchy and enjoyable without feeling annoyed. It never felt stale or bothersome to me at all. Negatives? I honestly have a very hard time to think about something what really bothered or annoyed me. I still have the post game to do a few things but I doubt there'll be something to give me negative feelings after so many hours. I'm not really counting that my controller didn't get recognized by the game, solving that issue with joy2key and just play like that. I may be late to the party with playing Bug Fables, but I can't recommend this game enough to anyone who loves RPGs, doesn't mind the simple graphics, and wants to have a good ride and experience with plenty of bugs of good nature. Play it, enjoy it, and I hope for a sequel or something related to the series at some point. ♥

bug

Leif bug fables duuuude

Moonsprout Kut It Up with their cooking on this one!

[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.

I luve u bug fabl 💖

bug

This would be my Goty 2026 if this game wouldn't have released in 2019 :,) 10/10 PEAK