Picking Up the Torch | Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling Retrospective - ScionVyse

[@adamkahmann2937]

I really hope they make a Bug Fables 2. A lot of potential in this series

[@Yuti640]

Bug Fables 2: Bir-

[@thedoc3727]

​@@Yuti640I hope you're not referencing what I think you are

[@papermr.magolorguy7957]

@@Yuti640was it that discord meme?

[@stevered9659]

The makers of the game said if they do make a Bug Fables 2 they want to not use Team Snakemouth.

[@adamkahmann2937]

@@stevered9659 I'd be down for that!

[@santaisreal]

also: the reason the game feels more fun and balanced with the hard mode medal is because the game was quite literally designed around it! but later, the devs decided it was a bit too hard and made it optional.

[@m.m.2341]

Oh that's why. I love how it really makes you use all the tools at your disposal to beat the bosses. Early game I constantly bought Spicy Berries and Magic Seeds.

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

After getting a feel for the combat and abilities the hard mode feels just right, like it feels intended. For once I'm actually using my items instead of having items overflowing out of my pockets. I'm actually spending my money on restocking items, and making meals for better healing AND to save space for even more items, instead of just hoarding berries since there's nothing to spend them on, because I'm not using items. As happens alot for me in RPGs, because they tend to be quite easy. I don't wanna be getting crushed by everything I run into either, so playing hard mode in Bug Fables is a nice balance.

[@camronburns1160]

In regards of the Wasp King's (or Hoaxe more like it) inclusion of the game, the information regarding his backstory is actually detailed within his beastiary entry, with the context surrounding it making it bit complicated to explain in the main story without having to actively force it into being- either through having a Wasp (either Vanessa or Ultimax) speak of it, which would contradict information and wouldn't mention the whole "Dead Lands" thing, or by having the King mention it in full detail himself, which would feel completely contrived. It's of a similar case of Leif's Request, which quite literally cannot fit into the plot without it seemingly being irrelevant and a branch from the main path; in the case of the King, compensated with dialogue hints from himself/NPCs and the aforementioned. Besides feeling as if he essentially just exists to give the story more tension, which DOES lend into him being somewhat underwhelming, it's pretty great symbolism how his story acts as an opposite to Team Snakemouth and Elizant's (surprised you didn't mention her while talking about the story, as she has a great ironic plot twist) personal conflicts, being of someone who didn't gain emotional support during his darkest hours, creating the guy we know of now, which actually makes him interesting as an antagonist.

[@Ethan-gw6mi]

God I absolutely adore this game. I have not played Thousand Year Door (yes I know it’s good I have watched plenty of videos on it) but this game was a readily available game similar to it. The characters are such a joy to follow, and the world felt so connected even though it realistically wasn’t that big. Even though there is a good chance that the next game they potentially do will not follow our characters here (I believe they mentioned this somewhere), I am extremely excited to see where this world is taken in a sequel. I am also really excited to see what the game devs continue to make pass this series, as they clearly know what they’re doing!

[@zosonte129]

Kabbu and Leif's backstories and arcs had me crying, I'm so glad they took my favorite turn-based gameplay and told a story with real themes and pathos. This is such a worthy successor to Paper Mario.

[@lasercraft32]

Leif isn't a whole "can of worms" he's more of a bag of mushrooms.

[@Keitoded]

Great video! Just one thing I noticed, I know it seems strange, but Vi's name is actually pronounced as "Vee," and her full name uses a French-like pronounciation like with Jaune's name, aka Violet pronounced as "Vee-oh-let."

[@ScionVyse]

Yeah, that makes sense lol. I'm just hard-wired to hear the English pronunciation.

[@aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa4545]

Wait it is pronounced like that? I said it like that for half my playthrough but started saying it the other way when I learnt her full name. I've been sufficiently bamboozled.

[@SolidusCurncer]

I always pronounced it like that

[@necromancywitch]

Leif wasn't put into their body due to experiments, but rather was a failure. They were tossed out of the facility and left to die, when they found the (noteably yellow) Leif trapped in the spider web. Love this video, by the way!! I've been replaying bug fables and completed this quest like 2 days ago lmao

[@chimefloon-w-4146]

i cant get over this guy looking like a disney channel dad

[@ArchForge11]

37:08 or if you do the card game quest you get a high discount and can get there with only 90 berries plus whatever to unlock fast travel.

[@Amateur2CombaT]

It's funny because I had the exact same experience as you. I bought the game like 3 years ago , played 2 hours then stopped. And a few days ago I played Paper Mario again and decided to give Bug Fables another try. And boy how am I happy I did. I literrally loved my adventure and now I think I like BF much more than PM. This game actually has strategy and difficulty in combats, so much side stuff , such and interesting story. It's clearly made for ppl like us that grew up with PM and are now adults. Anyway , I wanted to say that I liked your review a lot , thank you very much for sharing our common passion with the world :p

[@santaisreal]

one of my favorite games ever. i hate to see 3 digit view counts on these amazing videos

[@shreksnow1918]

I unfortunately only got to the bee robot boss because this game was on GamePass temporarily. I really should buy the thing so I can experience the rest of it. It would be interesting to see what the devs could do with a sequel, but at the same time the ending seems pretty definitive. I’m sure it could be expanded with dlcs for some of the other parties, and various side stories/prequels. I really hope that this other Paper Mario clone Sea Horse Saga comes out eventually. That game looks interesting. Hopefully we also start to see some Mario and Luigi clone games at some point. It’s great to see these different spiritual successors, but at the same time you can’t truly replace the charm of Paper Mario. There’s just something about it that can’t truly be replicated. Only closely mimicked. Great video.

[@Lilo_-]

You are seriously underrated! Your retrospectives are interesting, well- put together and of high quality. Keep up the good work!

[@MrSpartan993]

…I’m going to have to subscribe after finishing this and your other paper Mario and Mario and Luigi series videos apparently. Good stuff so far!

[@sadsquid]

Don't think you got away with it. Yeah, I noticed the subtle DHMIS Pesky Bee line, and I appreciated it

[@goldcreeper7376]

Your take on poison builds is interesting. When I played BF, the medals and general party structure seemed very centered around Vii and poison, so I went out of my way to focus on everything else. I had a ton of fun experimenting with various ideas and strategies and ended up with a very different party. Kabu was my main damage dealer, with Leif as a control machine and Vii as support and setup. The various fruits and some of the more out there medals provided a ton of support for this and I had a lot of fun. I'll agree that other statuses are far less supported tho, but the key takeway is that there are plenty of other builds to try that don't rely on status effects!

[@Thebes]

I'm not writing a long comment, because I'm currently too lazy, but this is a wonderful video. I remember some things feeling a bit anticlimactic, but I still enjoyed doing everything because I was with the characters I was attached too. I have only played it once, blind on Hard Mode. Hard mode is great, but I think that the defense stats of some enemies gets a little crazy, but that might be because I was new. There was not really any problems per se, but some enemies felt too Kabbu-Sided.

[@r.a.miller9385]

I'm so glad that you are covering this!

[@goodboie5195]

I'm starting to really like your work. I hope you will get more views, this analysis are susprisingly good!

[@cgillis3989]

I just thought of a cool potential update- what if they added post game content where the Giant in the giants lair was a superboss? Dont know what the reward would be, but itd be cool

[@Murderlin7]

Bug fables was a gift to humanity

[@Emolt76]

GIVEN TO US BY ARTHUR SON OF THE BRITAINS

[@MoonieMuses]

When I heard ‘Outskirts’ I 100% expected it to turn into the SMB 1-1 theme. But it didn’t. Happens everytime I hear it lol.

[@Spectral-Spiff]

My build has kabbu using the berzerker medal and everything else is geared to sustain with muliple tp cores and vamirism on kabbu leading to me ending almoes every single battle with max hp and tp

[@Spectral-Spiff]

Just realised i can shove a poison build ontop of it teehee

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

My build made Kabbu the healer, and also the tank who was absolutely invincible to the point he could take all the hits and heal to full health without using items. His strategy was just to taunt, Leif would relay his turn to Kabbu and make Kabbu then "do nothing", which healed some health, recover some TP AND gave him a defense boost, and if an enemy did manage to lower his health enough, continuing that strat would double his defense at low health to the point he's barely taking much damage, if any at all, and passively regenerating health as well. Making him absolutely unkillable for the most part. I think this build also fits his character, who is such a protector of his friends that he will endure anything that's thrown at him.

[@iamLI3]

ooooooh wow so that's why , literally 1 rather large fault i have with bug fables was the lack of character and reason to care about the villian , turns out that missing info for the game was in a dlc prequel artbook this whole time i had no idea o: .....

[@uiinpui]

20:14 Bug Fables is the first game I played in its genre and I was able to understand and utilize most of its mechanics almost instantly (except for turn relay, but I never used it in my first playthrough because I thought the -1 attack was permanent for some reason). On my second playthrough (this time on hard mode), which I did right after my first, I knew pretty much how to utilize every mechanic very well from pure experience. I can say though that after 6 playthroughs I still have never used the charm mechanic lol. I can understand that some people might have struggled with this game more than I did if it was their first. 24:44 Funny thing about what you described there is that there is an item that gives a bug an extra move, if you use a lot of these items on a paralyzed bug they can build up an insane amount of moves when the effect ends. This strategy is (I believe) intended and is also a way to cheese the final boss of the game which is pretty funny in my opinion. 27:52 Personally this was never a problem and when it was it was just me being stupid, but in the same way of pressing the wrong button. This might be because I played the game on a keyboard and not a controller, but I don't know.

[@neonoah3353]

I also has some problem with kabbus and vis skills, mostly dashing inti enemies with kabbu when pressing the attack Button twice by accident, and with vees beemerang and her flight, i was so used to just holding B to use her beemerang that it reLly threw me off when holding B became her flight. Also,tho the game has many ways of how to tackle problems, i did see that some enemies have immunity to status effect, or build immunity/resistance to it after being hit enough times, which sucks if you try using a status effect build.

[@jaydeng.9506]

if you liked bug fables i would recommend born of bread the demo is out (full game releases in 12/15) and it does play similar to the first two paper Mario games.

[@DanialProhozdenia]

Hey you forgot to mention the chompy although she is in gameplay footage

[@thexwhats2989]

Should me a person that's completely new to that game genre should I get it? If I am I would like to get it while it's still on sale for 8$ the sale ends on January 4th

[@somedragonbastard]

I'd say yes! I found it very intuitive and easy to learn as someone who'd never played any other game like it before, with minimal outside help. Although I will recommend changing the button mashing commands to button sequence commands in settings, made things a lot easier for me

[@thexwhats2989]

@@somedragonbastard I got it but I when I connect a controller to steam and go into the game it wont work in the game even when I change the settings and it seems like the game is easier on controller

[@thexwhats2989]

And I accidentally deleted all my progress

[@somedragonbastard]

@@thexwhats2989 well shit idk man i played on switch

[@thexwhats2989]

@@somedragonbastard I got it on pc because it was on sale for 8 dollar

[@Kennosuke88]

I absolutely love the first 2 paper mario games...After that I hated them & couldn't care less about them either... Bug Fables is awesome & such a breath of fresh air! I have all 3 of these games on my steam deck & it makes them even better playing them handheld on a beast of a device!

[@thunderboargames8369]

My VG Studio Transends Nintendo!

[@trustytrest]

I don't mind it taking inspiration from the first two Paper Mario games, but I wish it took some inspiration from SPM's objective improvements as well.

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

I don't think SPM has an single objective improvement. It is a 2D platformer with clunky menus and RPG elements which only make the game slow down to a crawl often involving stun locking almost every encounter in game and many bosses can be dealt with in the same manner. By having Pixls and Character skills unique to Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser you spend too much time switching characters. Almost every single enemy in the game is killed by stun locking them by jumping on them. People only talk about the story for SPM for a reason.

[@channelremoved32]

like what?

[@omensoffate]

Objective? Lol

[@jefferyandbob3137]

I liked Bug Fables, but I’m a big villain guy and the Wasp King is a very weak villain. It really just felt like they added him just because they had to have a villain

[@excusezmoi9823]

i wouldn't call him weak per say. I thought his character and backstory were pretty great, they just needed to give him more time in the game for him to be an antagonist.

[@jefferyandbob3137]

@@excusezmoi9823Definitely needed more screentime but I personally wouldn't give him the backstory point since you learn none of it during the main game. So a casual player would know none of it. I also just wasnt a fan of his personality, he's pretty one note and talks like a kid trying to sound cool, regardless if it fits I can't take it seriously. Also only half related, but with his second-in-command it felt like they really wanted a Lord Crump for their story but had to squeeze him in at the very end due to the twist with the Wasp King, which feels kinda forced for that type of more comedic character.

[@excusezmoi9823]

@@jefferyandbob3137 I meant it in the way of they had good ideas with his backstory but didn't utilize it in the main story (part of what I said of needing to give him more time as an antagonist). I just thought that the info given on his backstory for what it was, was pretty neat. I do agree with you, even as someone who likes Hoaxe, that leaving out his backstory ,that both provides context to his actions, explains how he got his power, and even how he found out about the sapling, is annoying. Heck we don't even know his real name till the post game. I do think they were trying to do a Grodus, and Crump dynamic with the general (Fuff?), and Hoaxe. With the goofy right hand who spends most the time antagonizing the protagonists and the more serious badass leader. But unfortunately Fuff is only briefly introduced twice around the end of the game, when he probably should have been a more frequent rival like Zasp and Mothiva. But that goes back to the wasps should have been given more screentime. Heck maybe a cutscene or two where we cut to Fuff and Hoax plotting together in the throne room or something. Sorry for the essay, just wanted to get my thoughts out.

[@Loner098]

The Wasp King's backstory, at the *very* least, explains why he acts the way he does. What else does the Shadow Queen have to offer other than being physically introduced at the very end of TTYD? Also, why is Grodus so evil in the first place as well? In fact, he even had a whole art book comic called Hoaxe: Origins, which slightly expands on his backstory. According to one of the developers, Genow, he wanted the events of the comic to appear within the game via flashbacks, but "didn't feel right."

[@jefferyandbob3137]

@@Loner098 oh make no mistake, I think both Grodus and the Shadow Queen are both mid as hell Also I do not get why they did that to the wasp king, main villain motives are super important (simple or not), that's like a more extreme version of the MCs' backstory being side quests.

[@thehussiteking]

Honestly, this game was too hard for me. I'm not the best gamer, but I'm able to beat Paper Mario and TTYD with very little trouble, minus a few situations. This game though, I was losing a lot and I just had to put it down. It sucks but it is what it is. Hopefully if they make a sequel, they tone it down quite a bit.

[@omensoffate]

Huh?

[@Ethan-gw6mi]

Are you saying this including without the Hard Mode Medal? I seriously didn’t struggle THAT much. Yeah they were some hard fight on hard mode, where you really needed to understand the mechanics to be able to win, but if you did it was just up to being able to time your attacks correctly and just be good enough to at least block attacks, so I am confused as to how you considered it that difficult.

[@somedragonbastard]

Please tell me you were playing with hard mode on.

[@mr.j3rs3y]

@@Ethan-gw6mi Ye hard mode isn’t generally super bad, it just gets very challenging for certain fights (COUGH COUGH FINAL BOSS COUGH) I’m glad we have hard mode though, because I enjoy a challenge in my games.