The thing about Cackletta Soul is tha tit is actually possible to raise one of the bros speed high enough that they act beforr Cackletta, you're just unlikely to know this the first time.
Which is sadly the reason why the speed of Cackletta’s soul got nerfed. In the original, you were supposed to survive the 1st attack skillfully While in the remake, they basically reduced the difficulty albeit ever so slightly.
In my opinion, Superstar Saga's main form of replayability is in its super high skill ceiling. Knowing enough to never be at risk of getting a Game Over is one thing, but I wonder how many people can play through this game without taking damage, without using stuff like Great Force, Mush Power, or stat buffs (both permanent and temporary)
It's super fun to make a low-level run, too, going only through the necessary battles. But at any rate, I find it weird to go through a game a second time right after finishing it, since your memories of the game are still very fresh, which takes a lot of that rediscovery effect away. I'd wait at least a few months
I never used stat buffs. I played the whole game just by leveling up normally. I didn’t even know there were things to boost your stats. I mean I was a kid tho. I thought leveling up was the only way you could beat Cackletta, so I grinded hours upon hours into that game
The SSS+ mod by JDaster is a great way to play. Rebalances items, makes combat more difficult and nerfs the OP badges and special items like Mush Power/Great Force.
22:16 The funny thing is, your wish was already granted, aside from the visually obvious State build difference, the Bros do have a very minor differences that wasn't state anywhere in the game. Mario does more damage with Jump attack on enemies; While Luigi does more damage with Hammer attack. And this little quirk was carried to the future game as well. This is something you really wouldn't notice unless you purposely raise both bro's atk equally and then testing on enemies.
Luigi also has a range of damage he can do with his hammer, akin to the hammers in SMRPG. He doesn't always do more damage than mario but he can if he rolls high enough
22:18 they did, actually! Mario's jump tends to naturally hit stronger while Luigi's hammer has much more variance on its damage (but is stronger on average). On defense, Luigi's jump is floattier but he also pulls his hammer up slower and can't hold it up as long as Mario can. If you're not aware of it, it's barely noticeable, but it's actually there and can come into play, especially on defense. That mechanic stayed a bit in partners in time but completely disappeared after that.
For me, as a young gamer, I never felt the need to look up how to use Advanced Bros Attacks. If you notice, the branching point to the Advanced form of an attack has one of the brothers have an.! over their head. Press that brothers button to access the new move. From there you just need to learn the new action command like the first one - after the first time, the exclamation point turns into a regular action command prompt. Just needed my careful eye to look out for and respond to it in time.
@@halfyou Generally, if I recall, you more easily unlock Advance moves when you're doing the higher difficulty level for the Bros Moves, but once the Bros had their little chat, you can do the Advance moves at whichever difficulty you prefer.
I accidentally left my Gameboy color in my trunks pocket before jumping intoy grandparents pool. I didn't realize it was in there until after I got out. It somehow survived, and I was playing it again the next day.
I dropped a couple of Game Boy games in my grandparents' driveway when I was six. Four months later, we found them in that same driveway. The labels were drained of all color besides blue, but they still functioned perfectly fine.
I agree with the final boss second phase, where you start at 1hp. I love it, but the allow another second for the player to understand how to dodge the move. 44:31-4:32 of the video, where the flames appear and pass thru the bros before starting the control of the action commands is a better design.
One of my favorite games ever and I absolutely ADORE it. This was my first gba game and I still return to it every few years. Still the best M&L game imo
I think the intention with the final cackletta fight was to make you feel like a superstar for braving it all... if you happen to get it in one go. Cackletta does comment on how there's no need for old superstars before then, so that led me to conclude that combined with the one 1hp, you were supposed to feel amazing for getting it right.
I don't know how UA-cam's algorithm knew I'd like your long documentaries, but here I am! I've been listening to most of your other documentaries and I like your writing, voice, and unique perspectives. I hope one day your channel gets bigger and better... *subs and likes*
I love this game. I played it when it was new and remember a few difficulty spikes that took a while to overcome. Replayed it on NSO recently and beat most bosses in a max of two turns. Once you know the tricks, it does negate most difficulty but I still have a blast playing it. Something I wanted to point out is switching actions and position is tedious, especially late game but if you hug walls and jump with the front brother you can still do a standard jump with the brother in the back despite having a different action selected. Not perfect but it does help negate switching a lot at least. Hugging the wall may not be required, may be dependent on the front brother jumping now that I think about it but whatever the proper trigger, it does work. I used it a lot by the time I had Hand Actions. Also pressing L and R together resets actions back to Jump. Great video. Super happy to see you covering it. Can't wait to see the other games. Partners in Time is still my favorite, mainly for it's battle system despite one change I don't like as much. All Mario RPG games are some of my favorite games in general. Love your videos.
Lack of replay? Becoming so good at the moves and knowing enemy attacks, at least for me, heightens the replay. I’m not bumbling in the dark, mastery of mechanics like these just feel good. It’s one of my most replayed games ever. Also as a side note, the advance moves do alert you mid battle to their existence. You’ve got to pay close attention to the bros.
Took me 25 years but I finally understand that inflation joke. I can imagine based off the previous games that coins are practically EVERYWHERE in the Mushroom Kingdom so it makes sense how their coin is so weak due to it crazy amount of supply they have.
Good video but to be honest problem like switching the bro's moves in the open world are fixed in the remake and the remake does give you a demo of how to do the Bros attack including the advance bros attack and there are other improvement s. Honestly I would recommend to try out the remake.
I replayed super star saga about 11 times as a kid. The game is just real fun enough to just want to replay. And theres so many hidden things or hidden interactions to try out everytime that you will end up finding something new each time
If there was one game that friggin' MADE MY CHILDHOOD was Superstar Saga on GBA. I remember how many hours I spent in this game, how much I enjoyed it's wacky designs and battle mechanics, how its style even affected my drawing style for HALF A DECADE if not more! And how grateful I was years later at the perfect remake we had.
@@1DAR26aside from Roms I imagine the cartridge is still for sale somewhere around. Maybe even Amazon still got it in stock. As for differences, the game is a remaster through and through. Graphic and design is on same quality as Bowser’s Inside Story with minimun use of 3D models, jump and hammer attacks are also updated to the style of current games, you can also speed up cutscenes and retry if you lose a battle with the option of an easy mode for the fight. There’s also a couple more QoL updates I might not remember, but overall its the exact same game, but improved in every single aspect. Plus being on the DS you can guess the extra screen brings a lot of utility.
I guess a possible hard mode could be more of a precision mode, in where the attack and defense timing is more tight, with maybe even worse effects for missed action commands, but also higher damage bonus for nailing the action commands
Hey Sci, it was really great to relive this game through your review. I didn't have a GBA either, but when I got my DS Phat as a kid I went hard catching up on everything I missed. Fire Emblem, Metroid, Golden Sun, Minish Cap, the Castlevania's and yes, Superstar Saga. I actually forgot about many of the specifics of the game, despite having incredibly fond memories. For example, I forgot the A and B buttons were dedicated to a specific brother. One thing I didn't forget however, was how insanely punishing the final boss was. I'm glad it wasn't just me! Much love from Dtoid
Found your channel a few days ago, have gone through all your Paper Mario videos and now working on these. Just wanted to say youre really good at this man. Really good writing and your voice is like *perfect* for video essays. Plus I appreciate how personal your videos still are and that they still have a good bit of humor in them. Really looking forward to watching the rest of your backlog and future videos!
Great video! Superstar Saga was either my first RPG or my second (after Super Mario RPG) so it's super nostalgic for me. But the difficulty really is unbalanced and nowadays I find the ability swapping to be the biggest nuisance of the game. It's really a hassle. If the GBA just had two more buttons, the game would be much better. (The remake fixes this issue but I'm not the biggest fan of it) The music, sprites, and overall charm are the best in the series IMO. Fawful's one of my favorite characters in any RPG lol. Funny story about my first time with the game. For context I got the game when I barely had any knowledge of the Mario series since I was like 5 when I got it. Anyway, I thought that Rookie was Bowser's little brother lol. I couldn't read that well and never got far in the game at that age, so for years (until I was around 10) I just assumed Bowser had a little brother named Rookie who never appeared again
A hassle? What you don't have the patience to press a button twice? What kind of whining drama queen are you? I'm sorry if that sounded harsh and yes, even mean, but for the love of God, all these nitpicks being treated like actual problems is what's wrong. There's nothing wrong with a game having a system where you can cycle through something. It's a whole lot better than going into the pause menu, picking what you want on each brother, and then leaving the menu to finally execute commands. This is all very insane to me because I never had a problem with this. If you do, then you probably have issues with breathing taking up too much of your precious time.
Wanted to mention, the 3ds games don’t really use 3d models. Only paper jam really uses them a bunch. The other 3 3ds games use sprites. It’s all sprites. They’re just really good looking sprites. I was a little confused by what you meant by that 😭
First Video I've found of yours, great review! I love this series (well, the first 3 and the SSS remake lol), and can't wait to see you review the rest!
Dude! When I heard that you had been making videos on Paper Mario for longer than a year and you still only have 3k subs, my heart dropped lol. Your videos are on the level of a BUNCH of other people like AntDude and Scott the Woz! Please keep making content! This is super enjoyable!
I just came from your TTYD retrospective and thoroughly enjoyed it! I clicked on this in the related without realizing the channel name thinking, "I wanna watch another vid by that guy cuz I really like his energy and narration". Lo and behold, this is your video indeed!! I think you have a great channel, and I wish many more subscribers for you! Keep it up and I believe you will gain more success if you continue the retrospective of these amazing games 💪 Edit: wow, I so don't remember that we could select which boss to fight after On Joke's End
On your point about difficulty, there is a romhack for this game which not only makes enemies do more damage but also tightens timings for dodging/counter attacks. It doesn't *randomize* them, they are still perfectly readable and you can react to them, but the timings are tighter. This is certainly at least a proof of concept for what a hard mode could be. It's how i play the game these days now. Absolutely love this game through and through
The ability management is way better in the 3ds version due to the fact that all the abilities are on the bottom screen and you just need to touch them to select the one you want (also the 3ds version has 2d sprites I don't know where you've heard the 3d part)
The 3D thing was my mistake. I've never played really any of these games, only seen them from a distance, and from a distance the sprites do look like 3D models, at least models that were flattened down into sprites.
I never found the skill and brother swapping tedious. It came down to muscle memory for me and using the "L+R" reset. Same with the final Cackletta fight. While difficult, I didnt fret much because I had some nuts to compensate for the lack of HP at the start of the second phase. Surviving the second phase's first attack was also intuitive for me as I had grown used to dodging and countering. Now, my experience is not indicative of how well the game implemented its difficulty and came down to my muscle memory as a young gamer.
I remember playing Superstar Saga (on the original GBA many years later), and I remember being rather frustrated on the Cackletta phase 2 fight. I remember being able to survive even with one bro dead because I could revive him with a healing item. I wonder if this section was more frustrating because you had the habit of dodging both bros at the same time rather than developing the muscle memory to dodge only one bro at a time. Throughout my playthrough, I almost always used the dodge/retaliate command separately, and so when it came to dodging Cackletta's initial phase two attack (which I think was almost always the arms attack), it wasn't so bad when I had to dodge the arms individually.
This game is so good! I was too dumb to play and understand it as a kid but i played it later on with the wii u virtual console. I also had to get the 3ds remake as well which i honestly prefer!
I recently brought out my old new nintendo 3ds xl and after playing it for a lil but the rubber cover of the joystick broke apart and came off. A real shame that even tho the rubber is just a small part of it, that it was coming apart. Also the paint or whatever the outer layer of the device is, on the spots where i held the device is missing. There’s even scratches that werent originally there that i assume is because of the stuff stored inside the case with the 3ds
This is way better than Gligar13Vids’ review on Superstar Saga (I know it’s over 10 years old, but man! This review did NOT age well and was obviously done by a cyberbully, and yet this review of a very charming if not flawless game is as great as Lowart’s and AntDude’s reviews!)
15:45 while I can agree to how tedious this may seem, there are a couple things in play to help make this less tedious that, to my knowledge, the game admittedly never tells you about. First, if you press both l and r at the same time, it will reset your action commands to jump, no matter what bro move input you have prepped on the buttons. This is mentioned more in future titles and something a veteran could figure out quickly, but I imagine a new player would take a long time to accidentally discover this. Second, the following bro can still jump while they have another action command ready. Sort of. As long as you can jump with the leading bro, the button for the following bro will always make them jump if they cannot perform the prepped bro action. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a ledge to create a height difference, which is one of the more frequent moments you would need to switch back to jumping anyways. All that being said, the icons can be a bit of a hassle to switch between at times, and I’m glad they offered a nice solution to this in the remake on the 3ds.
I remember being like 10 years old and actually giving up when I got to Cackletta soul! It wasn't until I was like 12-13 that I finally picked up the game again and finally beat it😂 She's oddly one of my favorite bosses in the series just because of how insane of an impact she made on me! Knowing and mastering all her attacks made it so fun to repeatedly beat her ass over and over as a kid!😂
Says Dream Team was a bad starting point for the series. Cut to me who also started there and has the most play hours on that game out of the whole series... I understand his perspective, but I felt called out. Also interesting fact the 3ds games including the SS and BiS remakes actually are NOT 3D models interestingly, the characters are 2D sprites stylized specifically to look 3D, and to pop out with the 3D on the 3DS (at least at first). The only 3D modelled characters in these games are the final boss of Paper Jam's 2nd phase, Cackletta's Soul in SS+BM, and all of the Paper characters, ironically enough.
Hey, it was just a bad starting point for me, and I am looking forward to giving it another shot! Also, that's good to know, I guess that's what I get for not looking closely enough at them- they definitely look like models that got flattened into sprites.
@@ScionVyse Oh I wasn't arguing that Dream Team wasn't a bad starting point, with all the obnoxious tutorials, especially I agree. I just thought it was funny it seemed like you were accidentally calling me out, I wasn't actually offended or anything. And no worries about the 2d 3d thing, I didn't notice either and only learned when I looked up the spriter's resource page for Paper Jam.
There are so many cool things that Superstar Saga has that really should’ve stuck with the series long-term. Advance commands, the hand powers, switching the positions of the Bros, Bros Attacks being tied to overworld Bros Actions rather than items (consumable or otherwise), Bros Attack difficulty modes that actually affect BP usage, having Bros Attacks cost around the same amount of BP so it’s less about later Bros Attacks being more powerful and more about having access to a wide variety of equally cool and powerful Bros Attacks, having beans that need to be blended into coffees to increase stats rather than just needing to eat them, Bros-specific equipment, and individual areas having a ton of unique enemy types rather than just a small handful. I like the later games and all, but the fact that so many awesome features, mechanics, and ideas were left behind after only one game really sucks.
I played this game through the remake on 3ds recently and they allow you to retry the Cackletta soul fight from the 2nd phase which I am so happy. It took me a couple tries, maybe 4-6? But I did it and I loved the game although the sharp difficulty spike that are the final bosses is a trend
The final boss was way faster than you so it attacked with the head and 2 arms before you got the chance to attack. I am not sure but you may be able to outspeed them
I feel like you missed *alot* in this game. The biggest gripe I have with this video, is the complaint about the Advance Bros moves. It does clue you in to the fact that there's *something* different you can do, using the little speech bubbles with an exclamation mark to insinuate that 'Hey! Look! Listen! Pay attention here and think and you'll realise that you can do something!'
I don't think there's really a problem with the way phase 2 of the final boss is handled. If you have enough speed you can even act before she attacks you.
You can actually move before the final boss if your speed stat is high enough. I think it’s around 120-130 speed to be able to move first. The best thing to do is grind beans or levels until at least one of the brothers has a speed of 120 and then use ultra/max nuts to heal both brothers HP. This fight isn’t very unfair if you know it’s coming. It is kind of a brick wall if it’s your first time playing though.
Tbh, I think Superstar Saga's greatest replayability is in trying to exploit its battle system. You play it once, you try to get a feel for how best to play it, what equipment is good, which Bros Attacks deal the most damage, ect ect Next time, you go all in trying to see how far you can push it to just obliterate the game entirely. Yeah, for an older game like this one, it's pretty well documented what the best strategies are, but that's because they had time to document them. How op Great Force and Mush Force are, how busted Chopper Bros is, hell i net you could even find out what equipment gives the best abilities in battle. For me, I *relish* in trying to see how OP I can get in games, and Mario & Luigi games fulfill that greatly because part of being OP is just getting good at the game.
Agreed, a final boss should be the ultimate test of the game’s mechanics, and there’s no better test than a no-damage run. Even as an RPG, M&L games ask for a certain degree of skill from players. Cackletta is there to check if you’ve actually been picking up what the game has been putting down for the entire adventure. If you die, you’ve failed the vibe check and is thus a skill issue on your part.
I disagree with the 2nd phase of the final battle. I found starting the battle with 1hp exhilarating. It made things really tense, surrounded by flames, the music, Cackletta's final form. So good. Plus because the way the games difficulty works as you said, I never found it a problem to die to it, You can get good enough at the game to basically never take damage. It makes that moment when you finally do take zero hits on the start of the battle feel amazing. That's assuming you don't move first with a high enough speed stat lmao. Also I personally found the 1st phase really easy so getting back to phase 2 was never an issue for me even as a 12 year old when I first played this game. I also very much disagree with your statement on replay ability, but that's a whole other convo. Otherwise this was a good video and I enjoyed it a lot c: I never knew there was a rivalry between M&L and Paper Mario series but I love both of them so I don't really care.
Great video but I'm gonna argue against your replayability claim. You played this game twice back-to-back, so of course you still remember the enemy attack patterns and fake outs. But most people aren't going to replay a game until years later. So some things may be familiar, but you'll have likely forgotten all the attack patterns and timing. Also like a lot of others have mentioned, you can go before the 2nd phase Cackletta. I casually replayed this game a couple months ago and Mario got the first attack.
Love this video, but I have to respectfully disagree on your take about replayability. The fact that you learn all the enemies’ moves is exactly what makes these games so replayable. Every time I replay this game, I stay underleveled and put all my stat boosts into stache, to make it super challenging. If you do every play through like it’s a casual one, then yeah I could see how replays would be kinda boring. But if you’re not opposed to challenge runs, these are some of the most replayable RPGs out there, imo.
nice video, but many (almost all) of the problems you have with the game were completely fixed in the remake, so itd be nice to hear your thoughts on that should you play it! As a newcomer I played the GBA version, which was great but i struggled with so many things like having no idea what advanced attacks were, lol. and yet the battles were still so easy 😭 i still had a ton of fun, I would recommend the remake to anyone who’s never played this game
22:24 its funny you said that because this is the only game that actually has that, Luigi's hammer attacks do more damage as a while, its the reason knock back bro's is such a good move compared to Mario's chopper bro's, the basic version of the attack is stronger for mario but the advance is stronger for luigi, i may be wring but i believe the remake removes this feature too edit: 27:42 actually, the first time and even maybe a few times after that, that you use the attack after earning its advanced version, you see the same exclamation mark happen, its just easier to see with the slow motion, its also worth noting that when you fail the bro moves, its not just a different animation but a different effect as well, failing thunder bro's in a specific way sets the enemy defense to 0, whereas using it normally only reduces effect by half and the other fails dont apply the effect edit 2: 31:39 funny you say that (just realized i said that twice), because this is actually a side effect of nationality, in most if not all mario rpg games, the japanese version is easier than the american version, this is due to the assumption that americans are better at rpg games while worse at some other games, the japanese version of this game has healing blocks in certain areas and before every boss battle right next to the save block, healing blocks restore both hp and bp, which is ironic all in all, considering nowadays, it's actually the japanese version that is made harder instead
I say YES but the 3DS remake of it is even EASIER to break the game sure you can't USE the Mush AAA badges on the 3DS remake at all but that version still replaced it with a Badge that Each HIT of Chopper Bros does like 300 per hit and the final boss has less then 3000 HP so its very easy on the 3DS remake of this game to 1 turn KILL the last boss AFTER restoring both bros HP FROM 1 HP left TO FULL HP first.
I am so annoyed at the fact that the level system for bros attacks was removed in future games, it was the perfect system for learning bros attacks without tutorials, with perfect insentive to get better, they got it right on their FIRST try, with no annoying interrupting tutorials to ask if you want to learn it and instead silently giving it to you and giving you the tools to figure it out, it was perfect. But they didn’t keep it, instead opting for a more interruptive and less engaging system so little 3 year old timmy would understand it Such a wasted system but at least it gets to shine in this game, which is also the most inaccessible mario and luigi game
I did like superstar saga but a lot of the time the game dragged on a bit at some Parts. The balance could be terrible like with mush badges(trivializes the game way too much). Some things were very confusing throughout. I was a little overleveled but the game was easy most of the way through and i think i only game overed a few times. I don't think i laughed or was amused almost at all throughout the entire game really. Plot has a ton of kind of really bad moments and a few pretty good ones. Paper mario was the actual sequel to mario rpg because i think in japan it was littarly called mario rpg 2. this game has not too much you can do in it as the most interchangable element in this game is equiptment but there is not really that many options for it other than the items like the great force. I tried to replay the game but it really drags on at a lot of points and it is easy so i just got bored.
starting at 1 hp on the final boss was the most lit thing ive ever experienced in the video game. i remember beating it as a 7 year old. ur just bad lmao.
The 3DS remake fixes a lot of the issues you have with the original. Also, many people don’t like it, but I enjoy the bonus side content of Bowsers Minions
The thing about Cackletta Soul is tha tit is actually possible to raise one of the bros speed high enough that they act beforr Cackletta, you're just unlikely to know this the first time.
Which is sadly the reason why the speed of Cackletta’s soul got nerfed.
In the original, you were supposed to survive the 1st attack skillfully
While in the remake, they basically reduced the difficulty albeit ever so slightly.
120 speed.
In my opinion, Superstar Saga's main form of replayability is in its super high skill ceiling. Knowing enough to never be at risk of getting a Game Over is one thing, but I wonder how many people can play through this game without taking damage, without using stuff like Great Force, Mush Power, or stat buffs (both permanent and temporary)
Imo Superstar Saga is better than BIS
IDC what anyone says UwU 💅🏽💅🏽😬
It's super fun to make a low-level run, too, going only through the necessary battles. But at any rate, I find it weird to go through a game a second time right after finishing it, since your memories of the game are still very fresh, which takes a lot of that rediscovery effect away. I'd wait at least a few months
I never used stat buffs. I played the whole game just by leveling up normally. I didn’t even know there were things to boost your stats. I mean I was a kid tho. I thought leveling up was the only way you could beat Cackletta, so I grinded hours upon hours into that game
The SSS+ mod by JDaster is a great way to play. Rebalances items, makes combat more difficult and nerfs the OP badges and special items like Mush Power/Great Force.
@@SMCwasTaken
I'll do you one better: it's better than TTYD!
22:16
The funny thing is, your wish was already granted, aside from the visually obvious State build difference, the Bros do have a very minor differences that wasn't state anywhere in the game.
Mario does more damage with Jump attack on enemies; While Luigi does more damage with Hammer attack.
And this little quirk was carried to the future game as well.
This is something you really wouldn't notice unless you purposely raise both bro's atk equally and then testing on enemies.
THIS IS A THING???
I noticed this right now while playing on the Switch.
Luigi also has a range of damage he can do with his hammer, akin to the hammers in SMRPG. He doesn't always do more damage than mario but he can if he rolls high enough
Also Luigi takes longer to swing his hammer during defensive attacks, and takes longer to jump with unconscious mario on his back
22:18 they did, actually! Mario's jump tends to naturally hit stronger while Luigi's hammer has much more variance on its damage (but is stronger on average). On defense, Luigi's jump is floattier but he also pulls his hammer up slower and can't hold it up as long as Mario can.
If you're not aware of it, it's barely noticeable, but it's actually there and can come into play, especially on defense.
That mechanic stayed a bit in partners in time but completely disappeared after that.
Normalize putting Cackletta's theme over big rants i swear it's so good
Rivalry you say? People really factionalize mario and luigi vs paper mario? I love both franchises. Mario Rpgs are Mario rpgs. ALL GOOD.
@breadandcircuses8127When only half of them are good, that’s kinda hard to argue. The first ones are pretty peak tho
“Sorry for the ad, let’s get on with the video”
UA-cam then instantly gives me an ad
For me, as a young gamer, I never felt the need to look up how to use Advanced Bros Attacks. If you notice, the branching point to the Advanced form of an attack has one of the brothers have an.! over their head. Press that brothers button to access the new move. From there you just need to learn the new action command like the first one - after the first time, the exclamation point turns into a regular action command prompt. Just needed my careful eye to look out for and respond to it in time.
what!!!! does this happen even on level 3? literally never noticed and I played this game for the first time within the past year 💀
@@halfyou Generally, if I recall, you more easily unlock Advance moves when you're doing the higher difficulty level for the Bros Moves, but once the Bros had their little chat, you can do the Advance moves at whichever difficulty you prefer.
I accidentally left my Gameboy color in my trunks pocket before jumping intoy grandparents pool. I didn't realize it was in there until after I got out. It somehow survived, and I was playing it again the next day.
I dropped a couple of Game Boy games in my grandparents' driveway when I was six. Four months later, we found them in that same driveway. The labels were drained of all color besides blue, but they still functioned perfectly fine.
I mean if a Gameboy can survive a BOMB and still work water then is nothing to it
@SMPandanic a bomb? I've never heard about a Gameboy surviving a bomb before. When did this happen?
@@Hack_Man_VII specifically the Gulf War.. Nintendo even used to display that gameboy at the New York store
@SMPandanic that's actually pretty badass!
40:26 let's look at this the other way: Mario and Luigi are unbeatably THE richest Mushroom Kingdom citizens.
If they bring all those coins there they are gonna nuke the economy for good
I agree with the final boss second phase, where you start at 1hp. I love it, but the allow another second for the player to understand how to dodge the move. 44:31-4:32 of the video, where the flames appear and pass thru the bros before starting the control of the action commands is a better design.
One of my favorite games ever and I absolutely ADORE it. This was my first gba game and I still return to it every few years. Still the best M&L game imo
I think the intention with the final cackletta fight was to make you feel like a superstar for braving it all... if you happen to get it in one go. Cackletta does comment on how there's no need for old superstars before then, so that led me to conclude that combined with the one 1hp, you were supposed to feel amazing for getting it right.
I don't know how UA-cam's algorithm knew I'd like your long documentaries, but here I am!
I've been listening to most of your other documentaries and I like your writing, voice, and unique perspectives. I hope one day your channel gets bigger and better...
*subs and likes*
Glad to see you covering this game and series!
I love this game. I played it when it was new and remember a few difficulty spikes that took a while to overcome. Replayed it on NSO recently and beat most bosses in a max of two turns. Once you know the tricks, it does negate most difficulty but I still have a blast playing it.
Something I wanted to point out is switching actions and position is tedious, especially late game but if you hug walls and jump with the front brother you can still do a standard jump with the brother in the back despite having a different action selected. Not perfect but it does help negate switching a lot at least. Hugging the wall may not be required, may be dependent on the front brother jumping now that I think about it but whatever the proper trigger, it does work. I used it a lot by the time I had Hand Actions. Also pressing L and R together resets actions back to Jump.
Great video. Super happy to see you covering it. Can't wait to see the other games. Partners in Time is still my favorite, mainly for it's battle system despite one change I don't like as much. All Mario RPG games are some of my favorite games in general. Love your videos.
This deserves way more views than it has, your reviews are great and I love the way you word them.
Lack of replay? Becoming so good at the moves and knowing enemy attacks, at least for me, heightens the replay. I’m not bumbling in the dark, mastery of mechanics like these just feel good. It’s one of my most replayed games ever. Also as a side note, the advance moves do alert you mid battle to their existence. You’ve got to pay close attention to the bros.
Took me 25 years but I finally understand that inflation joke. I can imagine based off the previous games that coins are practically EVERYWHERE in the Mushroom Kingdom so it makes sense how their coin is so weak due to it crazy amount of supply they have.
Good video but to be honest problem like switching the bro's moves in the open world are fixed in the remake and the remake does give you a demo of how to do the Bros attack including the advance bros attack and there are other improvement s. Honestly I would recommend to try out the remake.
2:04 once lost my gba sp when I left it in my bed sheet and was washed in the washing machine
Just found your channel and your underrated as hell dude, keep up the vids, soon you’ll become alot more popular
I replayed super star saga about 11 times as a kid. The game is just real fun enough to just want to replay.
And theres so many hidden things or hidden interactions to try out everytime that you will end up finding something new each time
I can’t wait for you to get to bowser’s inside story! My second favorite Mario RPG aside from TTYD, and the soundtrack is amazing!
If there was one game that friggin' MADE MY CHILDHOOD was Superstar Saga on GBA. I remember how many hours I spent in this game, how much I enjoyed it's wacky designs and battle mechanics, how its style even affected my drawing style for HALF A DECADE if not more! And how grateful I was years later at the perfect remake we had.
If you don't mind me asking, what's the difference between the original and the remake? Also, is there still a way to get ahold of the remake?
@@1DAR26aside from Roms I imagine the cartridge is still for sale somewhere around. Maybe even Amazon still got it in stock.
As for differences, the game is a remaster through and through. Graphic and design is on same quality as Bowser’s Inside Story with minimun use of 3D models, jump and hammer attacks are also updated to the style of current games, you can also speed up cutscenes and retry if you lose a battle with the option of an easy mode for the fight. There’s also a couple more QoL updates I might not remember, but overall its the exact same game, but improved in every single aspect.
Plus being on the DS you can guess the extra screen brings a lot of utility.
I guess a possible hard mode could be more of a precision mode, in where the attack and defense timing is more tight, with maybe even worse effects for missed action commands, but also higher damage bonus for nailing the action commands
your content is really good i was shocked when i saw your views ive watched all of your reviews and ready for the rest i love this series
Luigi rocks the peach dress, no wonder they got fooled
these videos gonna go crazy in my ear while working 5 hours on the grill, appreciate your dedication
Hey Sci, it was really great to relive this game through your review. I didn't have a GBA either, but when I got my DS Phat as a kid I went hard catching up on everything I missed. Fire Emblem, Metroid, Golden Sun, Minish Cap, the Castlevania's and yes, Superstar Saga. I actually forgot about many of the specifics of the game, despite having incredibly fond memories. For example, I forgot the A and B buttons were dedicated to a specific brother. One thing I didn't forget however, was how insanely punishing the final boss was. I'm glad it wasn't just me!
Much love from Dtoid
Found your channel a few days ago, have gone through all your Paper Mario videos and now working on these. Just wanted to say youre really good at this man. Really good writing and your voice is like *perfect* for video essays. Plus I appreciate how personal your videos still are and that they still have a good bit of humor in them. Really looking forward to watching the rest of your backlog and future videos!
Great video! Superstar Saga was either my first RPG or my second (after Super Mario RPG) so it's super nostalgic for me. But the difficulty really is unbalanced and nowadays I find the ability swapping to be the biggest nuisance of the game. It's really a hassle. If the GBA just had two more buttons, the game would be much better. (The remake fixes this issue but I'm not the biggest fan of it) The music, sprites, and overall charm are the best in the series IMO. Fawful's one of my favorite characters in any RPG lol.
Funny story about my first time with the game. For context I got the game when I barely had any knowledge of the Mario series since I was like 5 when I got it. Anyway, I thought that Rookie was Bowser's little brother lol. I couldn't read that well and never got far in the game at that age, so for years (until I was around 10) I just assumed Bowser had a little brother named Rookie who never appeared again
A hassle? What you don't have the patience to press a button twice? What kind of whining drama queen are you? I'm sorry if that sounded harsh and yes, even mean, but for the love of God, all these nitpicks being treated like actual problems is what's wrong. There's nothing wrong with a game having a system where you can cycle through something. It's a whole lot better than going into the pause menu, picking what you want on each brother, and then leaving the menu to finally execute commands. This is all very insane to me because I never had a problem with this. If you do, then you probably have issues with breathing taking up too much of your precious time.
Wanted to mention, the 3ds games don’t really use 3d models. Only paper jam really uses them a bunch. The other 3 3ds games use sprites. It’s all sprites. They’re just really good looking sprites. I was a little confused by what you meant by that 😭
First Video I've found of yours, great review! I love this series (well, the first 3 and the SSS remake lol), and can't wait to see you review the rest!
Dude! When I heard that you had been making videos on Paper Mario for longer than a year and you still only have 3k subs, my heart dropped lol. Your videos are on the level of a BUNCH of other people like AntDude and Scott the Woz! Please keep making content! This is super enjoyable!
I just came from your TTYD retrospective and thoroughly enjoyed it! I clicked on this in the related without realizing the channel name thinking, "I wanna watch another vid by that guy cuz I really like his energy and narration". Lo and behold, this is your video indeed!! I think you have a great channel, and I wish many more subscribers for you! Keep it up and I believe you will gain more success if you continue the retrospective of these amazing games 💪
Edit: wow, I so don't remember that we could select which boss to fight after On Joke's End
On your point about difficulty, there is a romhack for this game which not only makes enemies do more damage but also tightens timings for dodging/counter attacks. It doesn't *randomize* them, they are still perfectly readable and you can react to them, but the timings are tighter. This is certainly at least a proof of concept for what a hard mode could be. It's how i play the game these days now. Absolutely love this game through and through
28:45 In the remake this enemy was renamed to the Beanerang Bro to differentiate it to the Boomerang Bros from the Mushroom Kingdom.
If you had enough speed stats you could ignore cackletta soul's attacks at the start. You want to go in underleveled that's on you.
Don’t you need your speed to be at 120 to attack Cakletta first?
And in the remake, don’t you need your speed at 80?
@@Magma_dude16remake always gives you the first turn
Bro lvl 40 you call it underleveled?😂😂
The ability management is way better in the 3ds version due to the fact that all the abilities are on the bottom screen and you just need to touch them to select the one you want (also the 3ds version has 2d sprites I don't know where you've heard the 3d part)
The 3D thing was my mistake. I've never played really any of these games, only seen them from a distance, and from a distance the sprites do look like 3D models, at least models that were flattened down into sprites.
@@ScionVyseI guess the sprites were just so good they look 3d
probably aesthetic preference. I like the OG as well.
Kinda like how Pokemon platinum is older than Black/White but looks better.
I never found the skill and brother swapping tedious. It came down to muscle memory for me and using the "L+R" reset.
Same with the final Cackletta fight. While difficult, I didnt fret much because I had some nuts to compensate for the lack of HP at the start of the second phase. Surviving the second phase's first attack was also intuitive for me as I had grown used to dodging and countering.
Now, my experience is not indicative of how well the game implemented its difficulty and came down to my muscle memory as a young gamer.
I remember playing Superstar Saga (on the original GBA many years later), and I remember being rather frustrated on the Cackletta phase 2 fight. I remember being able to survive even with one bro dead because I could revive him with a healing item.
I wonder if this section was more frustrating because you had the habit of dodging both bros at the same time rather than developing the muscle memory to dodge only one bro at a time.
Throughout my playthrough, I almost always used the dodge/retaliate command separately, and so when it came to dodging Cackletta's initial phase two attack (which I think was almost always the arms attack), it wasn't so bad when I had to dodge the arms individually.
This game is so good! I was too dumb to play and understand it as a kid but i played it later on with the wii u virtual console. I also had to get the 3ds remake as well which i honestly prefer!
I just tried superstar saga and I was laughing the whole beginning
I recently brought out my old new nintendo 3ds xl and after playing it for a lil but the rubber cover of the joystick broke apart and came off. A real shame that even tho the rubber is just a small part of it, that it was coming apart. Also the paint or whatever the outer layer of the device is, on the spots where i held the device is missing. There’s even scratches that werent originally there that i assume is because of the stuff stored inside the case with the 3ds
This is way better than Gligar13Vids’ review on Superstar Saga (I know it’s over 10 years old, but man! This review did NOT age well and was obviously done by a cyberbully, and yet this review of a very charming if not flawless game is as great as Lowart’s and AntDude’s reviews!)
This game is so good And you're amazing
15:45 while I can agree to how tedious this may seem, there are a couple things in play to help make this less tedious that, to my knowledge, the game admittedly never tells you about. First, if you press both l and r at the same time, it will reset your action commands to jump, no matter what bro move input you have prepped on the buttons. This is mentioned more in future titles and something a veteran could figure out quickly, but I imagine a new player would take a long time to accidentally discover this. Second, the following bro can still jump while they have another action command ready. Sort of. As long as you can jump with the leading bro, the button for the following bro will always make them jump if they cannot perform the prepped bro action. One of the easiest ways to do this is by using a ledge to create a height difference, which is one of the more frequent moments you would need to switch back to jumping anyways. All that being said, the icons can be a bit of a hassle to switch between at times, and I’m glad they offered a nice solution to this in the remake on the 3ds.
Just finished this the other day. Felt good returning to it as an adult and finally beating it. I got stuck and gave up as a kid lol
I remember being like 10 years old and actually giving up when I got to Cackletta soul! It wasn't until I was like 12-13 that I finally picked up the game again and finally beat it😂 She's oddly one of my favorite bosses in the series just because of how insane of an impact she made on me! Knowing and mastering all her attacks made it so fun to repeatedly beat her ass over and over as a kid!😂
27:27 - With the right timing you can negate damage entirely in Mario RPG.
(At least for moves that let you guard them.)
When I first played this game, I happened to have clothing on Luigi that lets him get a first turn, so the final boss didn't kill me on the first turn
If i were to add an hard mode i would not only increase the enemies stat but also give them brand attacks while making the default ones faster
Says Dream Team was a bad starting point for the series.
Cut to me who also started there and has the most play hours on that game out of the whole series...
I understand his perspective, but I felt called out.
Also interesting fact the 3ds games including the SS and BiS remakes actually are NOT 3D models interestingly, the characters are 2D sprites stylized specifically to look 3D, and to pop out with the 3D on the 3DS (at least at first). The only 3D modelled characters in these games are the final boss of Paper Jam's 2nd phase, Cackletta's Soul in SS+BM, and all of the Paper characters, ironically enough.
Hey, it was just a bad starting point for me, and I am looking forward to giving it another shot!
Also, that's good to know, I guess that's what I get for not looking closely enough at them- they definitely look like models that got flattened into sprites.
@@ScionVyse Oh I wasn't arguing that Dream Team wasn't a bad starting point, with all the obnoxious tutorials, especially I agree. I just thought it was funny it seemed like you were accidentally calling me out, I wasn't actually offended or anything. And no worries about the 2d 3d thing, I didn't notice either and only learned when I looked up the spriter's resource page for Paper Jam.
There are so many cool things that Superstar Saga has that really should’ve stuck with the series long-term. Advance commands, the hand powers, switching the positions of the Bros, Bros Attacks being tied to overworld Bros Actions rather than items (consumable or otherwise), Bros Attack difficulty modes that actually affect BP usage, having Bros Attacks cost around the same amount of BP so it’s less about later Bros Attacks being more powerful and more about having access to a wide variety of equally cool and powerful Bros Attacks, having beans that need to be blended into coffees to increase stats rather than just needing to eat them, Bros-specific equipment, and individual areas having a ton of unique enemy types rather than just a small handful.
I like the later games and all, but the fact that so many awesome features, mechanics, and ideas were left behind after only one game really sucks.
13:00
Let's A Go
Okey Dokey
35:52 unfortunately alpha dream went into bankruptcy so I don't know if we will get Mario e luigi games ever again
Well boy, do I have some news for you...
I played this game through the remake on 3ds recently and they allow you to retry the Cackletta soul fight from the 2nd phase which I am so happy. It took me a couple tries, maybe 4-6? But I did it and I loved the game although the sharp difficulty spike that are the final bosses is a trend
The final boss was way faster than you so it attacked with the head and 2 arms before you got the chance to attack. I am not sure but you may be able to outspeed them
I feel like you missed *alot* in this game. The biggest gripe I have with this video, is the complaint about the Advance Bros moves. It does clue you in to the fact that there's *something* different you can do, using the little speech bubbles with an exclamation mark to insinuate that 'Hey! Look! Listen! Pay attention here and think and you'll realise that you can do something!'
I don't think there's really a problem with the way phase 2 of the final boss is handled. If you have enough speed you can even act before she attacks you.
watching him choose to play the original instead of the remake then complain about problems the remake fixed is amusing
Tbh, it is a video about the original version. So listing the flaws is something to expect. Even if the remake exists.
@@ThijsFilms fair enough
Also I recommend reviewing bowsers inside story that games my childhood💪
Im happy that the devs fixed the Bowletta fight in the remake
mini game that frustate me is jump rope at the beginning, :D
You can actually move before the final boss if your speed stat is high enough. I think it’s around 120-130 speed to be able to move first. The best thing to do is grind beans or levels until at least one of the brothers has a speed of 120 and then use ultra/max nuts to heal both brothers HP. This fight isn’t very unfair if you know it’s coming. It is kind of a brick wall if it’s your first time playing though.
Oh my god I'm just getting the Little Fungitown joke 😭
Tbh, I think Superstar Saga's greatest replayability is in trying to exploit its battle system.
You play it once, you try to get a feel for how best to play it, what equipment is good, which Bros Attacks deal the most damage, ect ect
Next time, you go all in trying to see how far you can push it to just obliterate the game entirely. Yeah, for an older game like this one, it's pretty well documented what the best strategies are, but that's because they had time to document them. How op Great Force and Mush Force are, how busted Chopper Bros is, hell i net you could even find out what equipment gives the best abilities in battle.
For me, I *relish* in trying to see how OP I can get in games, and Mario & Luigi games fulfill that greatly because part of being OP is just getting good at the game.
not sure if you know this but on the 3ds remake on phase 2's final boss she has more health but you do get the first turn instead of her
i disagree about the 2nd part of the final boss being bad game design, its the final boss its suppose to be hard
Agreed, a final boss should be the ultimate test of the game’s mechanics, and there’s no better test than a no-damage run.
Even as an RPG, M&L games ask for a certain degree of skill from players. Cackletta is there to check if you’ve actually been picking up what the game has been putting down for the entire adventure.
If you die, you’ve failed the vibe check and is thus a skill issue on your part.
Great review
I disagree with the 2nd phase of the final battle. I found starting the battle with 1hp exhilarating. It made things really tense, surrounded by flames, the music, Cackletta's final form. So good. Plus because the way the games difficulty works as you said, I never found it a problem to die to it, You can get good enough at the game to basically never take damage. It makes that moment when you finally do take zero hits on the start of the battle feel amazing. That's assuming you don't move first with a high enough speed stat lmao. Also I personally found the 1st phase really easy so getting back to phase 2 was never an issue for me even as a 12 year old when I first played this game. I also very much disagree with your statement on replay ability, but that's a whole other convo. Otherwise this was a good video and I enjoyed it a lot c: I never knew there was a rivalry between M&L and Paper Mario series but I love both of them so I don't really care.
Great video but I'm gonna argue against your replayability claim. You played this game twice back-to-back, so of course you still remember the enemy attack patterns and fake outs. But most people aren't going to replay a game until years later. So some things may be familiar, but you'll have likely forgotten all the attack patterns and timing.
Also like a lot of others have mentioned, you can go before the 2nd phase Cackletta. I casually replayed this game a couple months ago and Mario got the first attack.
Lore of The -Other- Mario RPG Series | Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Retrospective - ScionVyse momentum 100
Love this video, but I have to respectfully disagree on your take about replayability. The fact that you learn all the enemies’ moves is exactly what makes these games so replayable. Every time I replay this game, I stay underleveled and put all my stat boosts into stache, to make it super challenging. If you do every play through like it’s a casual one, then yeah I could see how replays would be kinda boring. But if you’re not opposed to challenge runs, these are some of the most replayable RPGs out there, imo.
nice video, but many (almost all) of the problems you have with the game were completely fixed in the remake, so itd be nice to hear your thoughts on that should you play it!
As a newcomer I played the GBA version, which was great but i struggled with so many things like having no idea what advanced attacks were, lol. and yet the battles were still so easy 😭 i still had a ton of fun, I would recommend the remake to anyone who’s never played this game
4:10 The 3DS games don't use 3D models lol
They are just really really good sprites
I never beat this game as a kid, sucks to be in 3rd grade when this was out 😅
22:24 its funny you said that because this is the only game that actually has that, Luigi's hammer attacks do more damage as a while, its the reason knock back bro's is such a good move compared to Mario's chopper bro's, the basic version of the attack is stronger for mario but the advance is stronger for luigi, i may be wring but i believe the remake removes this feature too
edit: 27:42 actually, the first time and even maybe a few times after that, that you use the attack after earning its advanced version, you see the same exclamation mark happen, its just easier to see with the slow motion, its also worth noting that when you fail the bro moves, its not just a different animation but a different effect as well, failing thunder bro's in a specific way sets the enemy defense to 0, whereas using it normally only reduces effect by half and the other fails dont apply the effect
edit 2: 31:39 funny you say that (just realized i said that twice), because this is actually a side effect of nationality, in most if not all mario rpg games, the japanese version is easier than the american version, this is due to the assumption that americans are better at rpg games while worse at some other games, the japanese version of this game has healing blocks in certain areas and before every boss battle right next to the save block, healing blocks restore both hp and bp, which is ironic all in all, considering nowadays, it's actually the japanese version that is made harder instead
Actually the 3ds remake is using entirely 2d images that just look 3d
I say YES but the 3DS remake of it is even EASIER to break the game sure you can't USE the Mush AAA badges on the 3DS remake at all but that version still replaced it with a Badge that Each HIT of Chopper Bros does like 300 per hit and the final boss has less then 3000 HP so its very easy on the 3DS remake of this game to 1 turn KILL the last boss AFTER restoring both bros HP FROM 1 HP left TO FULL HP first.
I only played superstar but I got for 10 dollars at the Walmart video bin discount place for old games
I am so annoyed at the fact that the level system for bros attacks was removed in future games, it was the perfect system for learning bros attacks without tutorials, with perfect insentive to get better, they got it right on their FIRST try, with no annoying interrupting tutorials to ask if you want to learn it and instead silently giving it to you and giving you the tools to figure it out, it was perfect. But they didn’t keep it, instead opting for a more interruptive and less engaging system so little 3 year old timmy would understand it
Such a wasted system but at least it gets to shine in this game, which is also the most inaccessible mario and luigi game
8:24 Too bad that was taken out of the remake…
Vineshroom spotted boys!
Pssh i beat this game as an 8 year old without boosting any stat besides hp and buying no equipment
how tf u look bout 30 pushing 50
I did like superstar saga but a lot of the time the game dragged on a bit at some Parts. The balance could be terrible like with mush badges(trivializes the game way too much). Some things were very confusing throughout. I was a little overleveled but the game was easy most of the way through and i think i only game overed a few times. I don't think i laughed or was amused almost at all throughout the entire game really. Plot has a ton of kind of really bad moments and a few pretty good ones. Paper mario was the actual sequel to mario rpg because i think in japan it was littarly called mario rpg 2. this game has not too much you can do in it as the most interchangable element in this game is equiptment but there is not really that many options for it other than the items like the great force. I tried to replay the game but it really drags on at a lot of points and it is easy so i just got bored.
starting at 1 hp on the final boss was the most lit thing ive ever experienced in the video game. i remember beating it as a 7 year old. ur just bad lmao.
Superstar Saga is better than BIS idc what anyone says UwU 💅🏽💅🏽
first
The 3DS remake fixes a lot of the issues you have with the original. Also, many people don’t like it, but I enjoy the bonus side content of Bowsers Minions
It breaks my heart when people say dream team is using only 3D models instead of really good pixel art 🥲