Was Antasma Really a DISAPPOINTING Villain?

[@unit_5b]

antasma getting betrayed was more of a moment for bowser rather than antasma himself. bowser knew that someone like antasma wouldn't be satisfied with being a sidekick, so he double crossed him the moment he stopped being useful, rather than falling for the same trick twice. the moment more shows bowsers own growth throughout the series rather than incompetence for the bat lord.

[@LilCosmosYT]

yep, tho there's no real indication in the game that Antasma was going to betray Bowser in the first place so no one really knows, but personally I think he wasn't going to. Bowser was more of the main villain in this game rather than Antasma

[@mk8-mkwil117]

@LilCosmosYTyeah I always just want with the fact that bowser doesn’t work well with other villains because I remember him saying that right after betrayal moment

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@mk8-mkwil117 yeah he did say that

[@Luxembourgish]

@LilCosmosYT And that was by far the worst part of the game. Bowser as Bowser should not be the main antagonist in Mario & Luigi, yes his body is often the final boss, but not his mind. Bowser is never supposed to be the most evil in RPGs.

[@StevenJones851]

@@Luxembourgish bowser really shouldnt be the main villian in the RPG's

[@samyb4566]

Even if his backstory was not this interesting, I still love the fact that he's a mix between Dracula (because of his design and his dialogues) and Freddy Krueger (while he doesn't kill people directly, he can still torture them in their nightmares. Plus he's also at his full power when he's in the dream world).

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@samyb4566 for Mario standards, his backstory is really cool even if it's just a small and short lore drop in the game, also now that you mention it, he actually does remind me of Freddy Krueger! 😭

[@StevenJones851]

his backstory should of been expanded upon

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@StevenJones851 in the game it doesn't really talk about HIS backstory specifically, it was more like about what happened to the pill'os and stuff (sadly)

[@StevenJones851]

@LilCosmosYT ohhh that's unfortunate really wish he got more story focused instead of Bowser and the Pillo's but maby a Sequel game could do him justice in the future

[@LilCosmosYT]

@StevenJones851 a sequel seems highly unlikely since we never got a sequel to any game but hopefully they might do one

[@GODZILLA2915]

My main problem with Antasma was that head just dropped. Not by Bowser but the plot itself. Say after his final fight, he was still breathing, but then after they beat Bowser, Antasma does the ‘if I go down, you go down with me’ move. Heck, can even include the Luigi parallel with that too. “Bowser, I thought we were friends, now you die!”

[@Luxembourgish]

My problem is that Bowser is to blame for Antama being dropped. Bowser should never be the most evil villain in the RPGs.

[@pinkphilly3464]

I agree with so much of your points in the video. The thing about him not executing his plans at all really hit hard after seeing how a villain like Reclusa affected the would.

[@LilCosmosYT]

yeah very true, reclusa is quite similar to Antasma in terms of what he's supposed to "be" in my opinion, like Antasma is supposed to be the opposite of good dreams, and reclusa is supposed to be the opposite of making connections with people and be social (they share other things in common but you get the point) I think Brothership did a pretty decent job making up it's villain and making him feel very threatening and creepy (for example those flowers that take some of the residents of concordia) unlike Dream Team

[@redi.c.e.6046]

2:48 i mean, i guess this is pretty important, seeing as that sure is a thing the villains of brothership most certainly *don’t* fail at 😅

[@Antasma1]

From being grouchy to being trapped in simulations

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@Antasma1 fr 😭

[@Kirbysnumberonefan-1992]

His battle theme slaps though

[@lw62345]

REAL

[@LilCosmosYT]

HELL YEAH

[@Oldgeezershadow]

At least Antasma didn't decide to invoke Infinite Tsukuyomi because he's the world's hardest introvert.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@Oldgeezershadow I wish he did that tho but instead he traps people in nightmares forever and gains power from that 🗿

[@meloelebi1996]

Antasma seemed way more concerned with never being imprisoned and vulnerable again rather than betraying Bowser. Even his wish to enter and exit the Dream World at will reflects this. Much of his lore and backstory is covertly a key to his weaknesses and faults that allows Bowser to exploit him rather than his strengths. He doesn't have much experience with other evil beings because all he did was attack this specific kingdom by himself and get sealed. He believes in evil for evil's sake because he was simply a bat that absorbed evil nightmares of beings, and so the idea of Bowser betraying him despite being nothing but evil help due to Bowser being screwed over by fellow evil beings never crossed his mind, and his stated reasons for teaming up at the time emphasize this. Honestly if his hatred of the pillo people and dreambert didn't spell his doom, he probably could've just hid in the dream world, bided his time, and stole the stone or something, but all his backstory sets up his weaknesses, not his strengths. I think he's well written as there's a lot of hints, he's just written to be the tragic loser of their partnership as soon as Bowser enters the scene.

[@concertpapyrus8361]

The divorce between Bowser and Antasma really made me cry 😔and relatable 🤑🤑🤑

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@concertpapyrus8361 wait a minute...RELATABLE?? 🗿

[@pzb1017]

I feel like Antasma actually held up as a powerful antagonist compared to Finite in Sonic Forces. Finite had one or two cool scenes where he washes Sonic & I think Shadow too..? But gets stomped for apparently being “Eggman’s best invention.” Antasma has multiple times where he shows up and outsmarts the bros (even if it’s with Bowser). Like teaming up with Bowser, Mount Pajamajama and the history involving Antasma plus his fight is pretty good compared to Finite.

[@LilCosmosYT]

i wouldn't call teaming up with bowser as "outsmarting" the bros but i agree with you

[@UltimateMasterM]

"Finite" 😅😂😭💀... I always like that name, cause that exactly what he is, and show the parallel between what he AND the game prentent him to be vs what he really is as it show in his backstory and as he is reality in the game in general 😂🤣... Also yes, you right, the funny things is that some sonic antagonistes are so bad writing, that even Mario character who are suppose (I say "suppose" cause they really aren't, most rpg Mario villain, most likely paper Mario, are seriously away to dark) to be kid friendly and not too dark or super complexe in they ambition or personality are ironically still more than *INFINITELY* more of that than a lot of others characters like those kind of "fake-cool-edgy-antagoniste" like this fraud of Finite.

[@Ikefirenation]

Antasma IS potential man for the mario series.

[@Prince_Dreambert]

Antasma was done dirty, guy was created for Bowser to betray, didn’t have any time to build his own character, just the inclination he would betray Bowser. At least he has an absolute fire theme for his battle. Maybe one day he’ll get his time in the spotlight, but I sincerely doubt that time will ever come. Nice pfp btw.

[@LilCosmosYT]

this is the second time i encounter another dreambert, that is so cool.

[@justintendo4302]

Bowser should never have been the main antagonist in this game, they should’ve fleshed out Antasma more

[@rendumguy7596]

I actually think Zokket is the worst Mario and Luigi villain, not including the Paper Bowser Duo. He has way more screentime than Antasma, he's present throughout the entire game... But he just does not do anything threatening for the vast majority of it, he's just calmly talking about how his plans are going well while forgetting the names of his minions. There's also the SPOILER plot twist, but it doesn't work because his true identity and his persona don't have any connection to one another, and Zokket doesn't even know who he is, he is simply a single minded vessel who wants to free Reclusa. While a lot of Mario villains are one dimensional, they all at least *want* something. They all have their own will and desires, they aren't just brainwashed mindless minions. Cackletta wants to take over a kingdom, Count Bleck misses his fiancee and believes the world is beyond saving, do wants to destroy it, Fawful wants revenge and glory, the Shroobs want to steal resources and destroy the kingdom, Antasma wants to eat nightmares and get revenge on the Pi'illos. And the worst part about Zokket is that he's so... generic. You could put him in any other video game and he would fit. He doesn't really have a "thing", he's an evil guy who looks evil and acts evil and has evil powers. His personality is that he's serious and evil. It's a shame because I like his design with the wires in his hat and the bow acting as a wirecutter sword, but he is one of the most basic villains the game could have, which is a shame because Reclusa is so much more interesting than him but only appears at the very end. It would at least be cool if Reclusa or Zokket's real personality had some reflections in Zokket's behavior, but they don't. Zokket lacks the zany madness of Reclusa but also the kindness of his real identity, he's just the evil pawn.

[@classicbuster7774]

I can see why you think that but I strongly disagree. I like Zokket for quite a few reasons. 1. I like how stark in contrast Zokket and Reclusa's personalities are while still sharing the same overall goal. Zokket's about being cold and distant, literally severing connections, while Reclusa is more about fun escapism. It's reflected a bit in their designs too with Zokket's wire cutters and Reclusa's TV face, but also share some broad similarities: giant hands relative to their bodies, floating with no visible legs and the spiked cape around another spiked cape torso. 2. I like how he serves as a parallel of Bowser's army, where Bowser risks being stranded without his son or army just to save 2 Goombas, Zokket outright plans to dispose of everyone in his army. It even goes as far as Zokket outright refusing to make even the basic connection of remembering people's names unless they piss him off enough (Bowser), besides his fixation on Connie. 3. While he himself doesn't do a lot, I like that he shows up a good bit and a lot of great villains leave the actual enacting of their plans to their minions, like Cackletta and Princess Shroob to use ML examples. Even Fawful does it, since he basically just sits around in two castles scheming for most of the game (not a bad thing). Zokket's army does a ton of stuff throughout the game, has a lot of bases and I like the different Zok Troopers you run into throughout the game. Also Zokket's direct action of destroying the Uni-Tree has a massive impact on the world. 4. He reminds me of a Kirby villain with the whole "at least decent person being completely corrupted by a greater evil" and having a few attacks reminiscent of previous villains. I also really do not like how Bleck's redemption is handled in SPM so I honestly prefer this and like that Cozette still feels guilty and tries to make up for it instead of "lol im fine now, who cares about all that". 5. He's cool. His design is cool. His boss fight is so cool lol. Especially with the open cape design and the Mario vs Luigi gimmick. Writing this I've noticed that Zokket has basically all the pros of Antasma (on top of everything else) that people defend him with (besides the boss music, I can't defend that): cool design, cool fight, a big action in the past that you're still dealing with in the present

[@Antasma1]

I really felt like they were building up to a big backstory for Zokket of what led to him being Zokket but it’s like they didn’t have time to

[@rendumguy7596]

I disagree with a lot of this 1. Zokket completely overshadows Reclusa in terms of screentime. If Reclusa was in the game from say, maybe the third sea? I would agree with you that this is fine. But still, Zokket as a character being "cold and distant" feels really basic for a villain personality, and even if it was the point, it means we get a really basic villain for most of the game. 2. I agree that Bowser makes Zokket better, once Bowser got involved into the story, it felt likes the stakes became higher as he felt like a competent threat. Then the Extension corps had to plan around and manipulate Bowser by kidnapping his son and using the Lighthouses to turn Bowser into Glohm Bowser, by far the best boss in the game 3. My problem is that nothing Zokket does is threatening until maybe really late in the game. The other villains did a lot more with their screentime. 4. I heavily disagree. I think Count Bleck works well because the game never stops criticizing him for what he's doing, and he's treated as a tragic madman until he's defeated. Cozette had no free will in doing Zokket's evil deeds, and Zokket has no memory or restraint based off of Cozette, so they never felt like alter egos to me, he's more like a robot made by Reclusa in order to do his bidding. In fact, he's really similar to KAOS from Donkey Kong Country 3. KAOS is an evil, kind of serious robot who looks like he's the leader of the villains, but he turns out to be Donkey and Diddy brainwashed... But it doesn't really matter because KAOS doesn't act anything like them, and KAOS didn't need to be controlled by them. I also disagree that Zokket is comparable to Kirby villains, maybe older ones, but looking at Taranza, Sectonia, Susie, Haltmann, Hyness, and Elfilis, I find that all of them either have more distinct personality traits, or have a more interesting backstory. Zokket's brainwashing is lame because it's literally just another character who happens to overwrite Cozette's body, it's not written like Cozette's evil side. 5. I agree

[@meloelebi1996]

The only thing I found interesting about him was the giant arms and the question I had halfway through the game about why his design looks like a circus ringleader. Then I saw the real villain and went oh. He's literally here for nothing but to introduce the real "Star of the show" Otherwise he's pretty forgettable.

[@volvoman5262]

​@@classicbuster7774OK but you have to admit that him not having a unique boss music is kinda lame right?

[@phantom9831]

I'm still a bit disappointed by Bowser's betrayal, sure, given his past experiences it's understandable, but Antasma didn't seemed to have any will of betraying him, I could even see him becoming a recurring bowser ally for the series just as Starlow became an ally for the brothers

[@LilCosmosYT]

Yeah it would've been nice to see him as an ally to Bowser in the series

[@mavistheapplepie6331]

The problem is that despite having probably one of the most complex backstories for Mario standards, and has been build up as a serious threat that will burn the world down if you don’t do anything, yeah, his actions have little to no impact on the kingdom appart from a few destroyed islands. We could’ve easily had a plot where Antasma and Bowser forces everyone into an eternal slumber/nightmare with the dream beats so that Antasma could get even more powerful, but no, it was just a little nap for everyone. I wouldn’t even be mad at Bowser betraying him if he had more screentime like you said. Also his death was humiliating.

[@LilCosmosYT]

Fr, the writers did the guy dirty even in his death sentence and when he died i literally forgot about his existence after that. Bowser is the one who got to be the main villain this time which I do like but...eh...why couldn't we get both?

[@mavistheapplepie6331]

@ To be fair, most villains in the M&L series tend to have limited impact on the setting, that is, excluding the Shroobs, but man, Antasma deserved better. The plot of Bowser cucking him would work very well if it wasn’t for the fact we barely see their dynamic, it’s a shame honestly

[@Master-Fawful958]

I personally still think that Antasma’s a much better villain and character than Cackletta. There’s virtually nothing that I actually remember about Cackletta aside from taking over Bowser’s body and how much I hated her. Fawful had a lot more presence and a much stronger personality, he was even implied to have done most, if not all of the dirty work (especially in the Superstar Saga remaster). Hell, the remake actually implies that planed to overthrow her since Fawful kept his robot army a secret from her. Fawful even stated Cackletta couldn’t have possessed Bowser’s body without his help! All that aside, I would’ve personally liked to have seen someone biological connections between Cackletta and Antasma since some people recognized that they both could turn into multiple bats (with somewhat similar faces) but the video is great👍.

[@LilCosmosYT]

it's just that they set him up as a really evil and strong king in the beginning of the game but ended up not doing anything except for stealing the dream stone and wishing for castle. i agree with you tho that cackeltta is quite immemorable and that fawful pretty much did everything for her but they still have that "leader/boss and assisstant" dynamic which i liked it and it made them both good

[@Master-Fawful958]

Fair enough I suppose. I just feel like the whole leader and assistant dynamic was better executed with Fawful and Midbus. I think that my genuine ire for the with Cackletta’s Soul tainted anything that would’ve liked about her (or lack there of). Not to mention the horrifying Bowletta design. If anything, the immense trouble Cackletta’s Soul had put me through made genuinely cathartic to destroy in one cycle when I did the 1 HP challenge. And let me tell you, there were few moments in my life where I felt as triumphant as I did then! And I distinctly remember waking up my own cat that day! Me: “YES! I AM THE CHAMPION!!!” My cat: “Meow? (Dad, are you alright?”

[@LilCosmosYT]

@Master-Fawful958 I agree with you, that dynamic was better executed with midbus and fawful! but man they made midbus quite forgettable, I don't think he got a lot of screentime to be honest, but the thing they executed very well was his dynamic with Bowser as some sort of rivals. also yes the cackletta soul fight made cackletta quite...unlikeable. it's definitely very hard and fun but starting with 1HP is damn crazy (and also in my opinion it felt a little bit anti-climactic) but that still doesn't mean she doesn't have some positives (also you did the 1HP challenge??? gawd dayum 🗿)

[@Master-Fawful958]

I feel like Midbus’s stronger personality made up for his few appearances, plus Blizzard Midbus and Dark Fawful are some of my favorite boss battles in the entire series (although I’m also a sucker for the Elite Trio fight and any battle involving Popple). In fact I enjoyed Popple’s fight in DT so much that I was never bothered by his slightly different characterization (which never felt that different to me). Also all of Bowser’s normal boss battles are personal highlights in general for me, although I’ve always had mixed feelings regarding any of the Kaiju fights since they sorta lacked the mechanical depth that normal battles had. In fact, I usually see mixed reactions to the PaperCraft battles and personally prefer them over typical giant fights, mostly because they don’t have motion controls or finicky mic controls that could make or break certain fights like Fawful Express or Zeekeeper fights if you catch my drift. I’m also a bit pleased that they didn’t PaperCraft Mario for every fight like the trail made me believe (with PaperCrafts Luigi, Peach and Yoshi being my favorites mostly since I like their designs the best). Paper Jam in general is a game that I find very addictive and I’ll proudly defend it, especially after my personally deep disappointment with Origami King, (I hate OK more than most of the other detractors). And even if my thoughts WERE to change for the better, there’d still be a lot of little things that I just can’t quite look past.

[@LilCosmosYT]

oh yes I definitely agree with you! also just like popple in dream team, the spirit of the dream stone turned into one of my favorite characters despite him not having a lot of screentime which was only for a few minutes, he was so funny and I liked him A LOOOT. Also I personally like the giant battles more than the paper crafts (especially from dream team since I feel like dream team made the giant battles so much fun and cool and the motion controls are only present in the zeekeeper fight and Bowser, the fight against them was pretty tough because of the motion controls but I got the hang of them pretty quickly) I just find the paper craft battles a bit...boring. don't get me wrong I definitely think paper jam is very fun (and addictive too) in terms of gameplay but the paper crafts just weren't my thing.

[@meta527iireviews6]

He was a cool villain. He just had a lot of wasted potential that he could have used if not for stupid Bowser.

[@LilCosmosYT]

yeah, the wasted potential is the only thing that pretty much makes him disappointing, I really wish we had a team between the two till the very end at least (like paper Bowser and Bowser in paper jam)

[@Kurumithespiritnightmare]

Yea Exactly bowser ruined it by betraying him in the end the fact is is that antasma was biding his time to get his energy and right when he got it back bowser came in and betrayed him ruining antasmas true potential with the power of the dream stone, that and the fact that antasma not being the final boss hit many people like me hard because antasma was just an overall better interesting villain than bowser Ruining His Potential Right When It Was At Its Peak.

[@comet4778]

I really do like antasma, and take their fight and x fight as the sole best fights in the game. However i wanted so much more from them. They really didn’t do much, and they could of done so much with him. They had a perfect chance at the 3rd act of the game to like, maybe trap mario, luigi, and bowser inside a nightmare he created when bowser was sleeping on him. The final act of the game could take place inside some dark nightmare realm like some twisted version of dreams deep. It could push antasma’a motives and really amp up how truly evil they are. There was so much potential to antasma a truly horrible guy, but instead he was reduced to bowser’s sidekick

[@LilCosmosYT]

Alpha dream had a lot of options for Antasma to be a great antagonist but went and made him quite an insignificant and not much of an important character in terms of the plot and the eyes of the player, I sure do like that we get a little change of pace from villain to villain in the series but...still 🗿 a lot of your ideas would've been really if they were implemented into the game, I really wish they were real

[@antasmaworld]

Thanks for talking about my favourite character 😄

[@LilCosmosYT]

No problem! not gonna lie I still like him and think he's one of the coolest characters besides his role in the plot of dream team!

[@Antasma1]

And here comes an opinion from someone who bases their profiles after him. I may have had a Darth Maul type relationship with the character and relished what little screen time he had. I love his theme, boss fight, and design. The relationship he had with Bowser was unique and a rice change of pace to see Bowser team up with another villain. I feel the latest entry has opposite problems between its 2 main antagonists. One has a lot of screen time but could have done better with it, and the other has very little screen time, but makes up for it in screen presence

[@LilCosmosYT]

Now that's a very valid opinion!

[@Antasma1]

*nice change of pace

[@epicslapbattlesguy7362]

I love antasma and his balls look pretty irresistible. On a real note though I wish it went deeper than just he wants to take over the world. Why? I wish there was more character development. It is sad that he had the possibility to be a really cool villain but is just shrouded in mystery.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@epicslapbattlesguy7362 no one can resist antasma's antasmunchies 🧙. the developers making a cool villain a wasted potential on purpose is still a question I'm trying to answer to this day

[@PercentSpeedruns]

I dont care if he is disappointing or not, his battle theme is still DA BEST THING EVER!!!

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@PercentSpeedruns Anyone who says they don't vibe to his battle theme when they hear it are LIARS 🗿

[@BärenTelevision]

Yes. Here's why : 1.Didn't had enought Screentime 2. Didn't had Minions who looked like him 3. Bowser cucked him 4.After the Castle was created, he only showed up in the Final.

[@LilCosmosYT]

wait what about those Antasma bots in the castle and those mages that look like him from the dream world of the castle?

[@BärenTelevision]

@LilCosmosYT 4 Enemies. The Spiders and the Trashcans. Fawful, The Shroobs and Zokkets/Reclusa had way more. And it never was confirmed that they were under his Controlle.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@BärenTelevision I see your point, you don't really see the affect of his actions or anything reminiscent of him, unlike for example the fawfulized enemies by fawful or the shroobs and shroobified enemies (man I feel like the developers were trying so hard to make him bad)

[@BärenTelevision]

@LilCosmosYT Yes. Thats my Problem. Even Paper Jam did that Right. Even Sticker Star did that right with the Bowser Tapes.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@BärenTelevision I hate to admit it but you're damn right that even sticker star did it right...😭

[@Starius65]

He wasnt bad, he was just the worst. Being last out of a cast of great supervillains isnt the worst thing!

[@imprudentdev1503]

Wasn't his whole thing being 2 steps ahead of Mario and Luigi? He never needed to impede Mario and Luigi's progress because they were repeatedly lead on a fool's errand. + Antasma's lack of actually messing with the residents was because, unlike Glohm being integral to Zokket's plan or Fawful's plan hinging on distressing Peach and Bowser, he had no reason to mess with them, it'd just be a waste of energy. I'd say Zokket was the worse villain out of all of them, exclusing PJ's bowser, since he does nothing until the final arks

[@LilCosmosYT]

well you're right, but like he never actually does something "evil" or "bad", all he says is that he wants to "conquer the world" but we never see any plan from him to actually do that or some sort of action, all he did throughout the whole game was stealing the dream stone, wish for a castle, test the castle's powerful weapon that can destroy things easily but never use it again which is dumb, and then gets humiliated and dies a tragic and foolish death. also as for zokket I kinda agree with you tbh, but I still found him engaging and fun at least since we get to see his cold personality and what he's planning to do (there's even some foreshadowing to his plans in Ten's Lab where you can read what he heard from zokket and get some kind of idea or clue to what he's trying to do, and you can see his plan of spreading glohm and what he's doing to the residents to achieve what he wants) also I found it kinda funny that he doesn't even remember the names of the extension corps and Mario & Luigi, but that just comes to opinions and personal tastes ofc. overall I think he's not that great as the villains we had but still pretty cool and a good one

[@AstralBirthVoid02]

Antasma is cool. That's all I had to say. Have a good day.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@AstralBirthVoid02 yes, yes he is

[@Chokey_Gaming]

He doesn’t reach the same standard that Fawful, The Shroobs and even Cackletta set. However, he isn’t a bad villain at all. He’s a decent villain. In fact, it doesn’t take much to make a better villain than Bowser. I’m still salty to this day that Bowser is the villain of Dream Team. That’s literally the only thing I hate about Dream Team. Such a lame decision. I wish Antasma didn’t have to play second fiddle to Bowser, and was the actual main villain. This proves that even the M&L RPGs weren’t immune to the ill effects of the Mario franchise’s “generic period” of the 2010s. *Cough* Paper Jam

[@LilCosmosYT]

exactly! dream team is such a great game and it's my second favorite, it made the giant battles better and really fun and cooler, the bros attacks were really good, the main gimmick, the characters, the areas, and so on, the only bad things about it is the pacing, the tutorials, and just the main villain/plot, that's it

[@Chokey_Gaming]

⁠Bowser’s Inside Story is regarded as the best from the series by most. And I do indeed agree with this. However, I think Dream Team is a very, VERY close second. A lot of people don’t seem to realise just how much that game expanded upon everything in the M&L universe. It might even be, dare I say, the most innovative in the whole series. That game really took everything into a whole new dimension. Truly a perfect successor to BIS. Like you said, the areas are awesome. They’re huge, filled with fun challenges and reward the player for using their brain. Same with the dream worlds. Although, you said the pacing isn’t the best, I actually don’t mind it. I personally love how long DT is. I dig that it takes ages to beat. Even if it may seem excessive to some, I feel like having more to do before the game ends is a huge plus! It never ends too soon, and I think that’s terrific.

[@Chokey_Gaming]

Heck, I would say the plot is also really good. Not quite as good as BIS’s plot, but it isn’t far off. Although, yes, Bowser being the lead villain in this game drags it down a lot, sadly. Otherwise, a beautiful story nonetheless. Oh yeah, the tutorials are terrible. Get rid of the excessive tutorials, and heck, remove Bowser from the game altogether, and I honestly think it may have been a near-perfect game, and yes, I think it could’ve been better than BIS, which says a lot, because BIS is already a borderline masterpiece. But unfortunately, just those little things makes things a little soggy and drags the quality down just a bit. Still an excellent game, though.

[@ranpan6082]

I like Antasma, but he was a pretty underwhelming villain. Bowser, while I love him in this game, he completely overshadowed him. It doesn't help that Antasma beyond his lack of screen time, he has one of the easiest boss fights in the entire game, which for the penultimate fight is very disappointing. I also feel they could've given him more attacks. Another thing about Antasma is he's kinda a lone wolf. He doesn't have forces that are his own. Cackletta had Fawful, the Shroob princesses had their army of Shroobs, Fawful had Midbus and several Fawful-themed minions, even the Dark Star had its own unique minions. Antasma? He only has two and they're in the final area, the Flaming Antasmaton and Antasman. Even though Neo Bowser Castle is a mix of Bowser and Antasma's designs, most of the minions are Bowser's. Antasma's personality? He's really just a generic evil for the sake of being evil. I loved him and Bowser partnering up, and I don't think he was going to betray Bowser, I think Bowser wanted all the power for himself and wasn't content to share it with someone else, besides his son. Upon defeat, he doesn't have any dialogue, he just groans, balloons up, and explodes.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@ranpan6082 personally I disagree with you that he's the easiest boss in the game, he has a lot of attacks that are pretty hard to dodge and they deal quite a lot of damage and I found the fight to be really fun and one of if not the best in the whole game, the only thing that makes it slightly easier is the fact that dreambert heals you a little bit each turn, but asides from that the fight was still pretty tough, but everything else you said I totally agree

[@ranpan6082]

@LilCosmosYT I'll personally disagree with you there because I've seen it firsthand, some players can utterly demolish Antasma in like two turns. Some of the Luiginary Attacks are so broken, they can deplete a huge chunk of his health in a flash. Antasma also doesn't heal, which is a problem. His most dangerous attack is his bat swarm, but if you find the correct vortex right away, you get a Mushroom. Plus, Dreambert heals you too. There's also his move where he'll steal Dreamy Luigi and place him inside an Antasmunchie, if there's like two, or three around, it's pretty easy to tell which one has Luigi and break it.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@ranpan6082 fair, I actually agree with you now. But only one small thing, I've never seen anyone destroy Antasma in 2 turns, like that's gotta be outrageous unless they have super strong gear and they're over leveled up, but aside from that yeah I agree with you. They made the fight a ton easier by healing you most of the time and not antasma healing himself up (he only heals up when he's in that one barrier of his and you gotta destroy those balls to prevent him from healing)

[@ranpan6082]

@LilCosmosYT I've watched a few Let's Plays of the game, and some players are super good at the game, they do make the final bosses look like child's play. I think that move is exclusive to the Antasma X fight as I've never seen Antasma use it, which is unfortunate as him hanging upside in his cocoon, healing himself while the Antasmunchies fight Mario on his behalf, is also very fitting for him as he is a vampire bat and they like to sleep hanging upside down.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@ranpan6082 if someone plays the game a lot of used to play it then they're automatically gonna make bosses look like the easiest thing to beat, when I first played dream team and on my second playthrough, I found him quite hard especially when it comes to trying to dodge all of his attacks and they deal quite a lot of damage like I said. also if I remember correctly I'm pretty sure even his normal form has that cocoon move but it's a bit hard to get him to do it unless the fight goes on for a little while

[@WooperK]

eh... antasma looks so badass so i love him and his battle theme is one of the best themes in M&L

[@LilCosmosYT]

@WooperK AGREED

[@daddydwaved]

@LilCosmosYT Fair enough but there’s a user name Dr. Storm and he thinks his design looks like crap

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@daddydwaved i mean it all comes down to opinions...plus the majority of people think he looks cool so i'm pretty sure not much people like him dislike his design. is he a youtuber?

[@daddydwaved]

@LilCosmosYT Yes,he’s a KZbinr that makes commentaries on other youtubers

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@daddydwaved on other youtubers?? dang- i think i'll check him out edit: just watched the segment where he talks about antasma and i mean...he's kinda right i guess. antasma isn't a scary villain and that's true for both his personality and design, he's design is SUPPOSED to be scary but pretty much every mario villain isn't scary looking cuz mario is supposed to be for all ages anyways. as for wether his design is good or not, it just comes to opinions. i can kinda get why he described his design as "messed up" because of the shape of his head for example, but again it's just opinions

[@ExpertJewel]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN DISAPOINTING?!?!?. Antasma was an absolutely phenomenal Villian and one of the best boss fights in the whole entire series. I would argue he is one par with Fawful with the only Villian that is truly better than him being Bowser himself

[@lw62345]

He doesn't do anything in the game, he's really cool but isn't phenomenal narratively at all. His boss fight is awesome and I personally love it too, but thats like all he gets. It's not an "I hate Antasma" thing, its an "I love Antasma and wish they did more with him in the story" thing. Once you get past how awesome his theme, design, and bossfight is you realise how underutilized he was as a character. He's not dissapointing cause hes bad, hes dissapointing because Alphadream didn't make him show up enough. Fawful on the other hand gets 3 games with different sides of him showing off. Underling with big plans, insane vengeful sewer rat, and Prime Kingdom Conquering. I don't feel it's fair to compair Antasma to Fawful though since Fawful gets more screentime in his debut game where he isn't even the main antagonist 💀

[@ExpertJewel]

@ Fair point. I guess with that logic in mind Fawful is definitely the better Villain. Honestly think it would have helped Antasma a lot if he betrayed Bowser in the end instead of the other way around

[@LilCosmosYT]

Nah c'mon he's not the best of the best, you can't compare him to FAWFUL. also the video is just talking and an opinion, take it as just a discussion, you can like him as a character and I can't force you to like him or dislike him (I don't like him I actually LOVE him! just his role in the plot is what I hate)

[@LilCosmosYT]

​@ExpertJewelagreed, I'm pretty sure the developers just wanted to change things up a little

[@lw62345]

@LilCosmosYT I think everyone has a similar stance on Antasma. I love the guy, hell I was him for Halloween one year. If a Dreamteam remake comes out within my lifetime I hope they expand on Antasma even if it's just a little bit. Like in an extra mode or something.

[@bowserknight]

before having watched the video: no I don't think he was disappointing at all, he was just used in a disappointing way, if that makes sense. If they just didn't focus on Bowser that much, Antasma would have been amazing.

[@LilCosmosYT]

Understood you, and I agree!

[@renergamer731]

Is Antasma bad? Nuh uh, I honestly enjoyed him a lot

[@LilCosmosYT]

SCREEET

[@DiamondDuck363]

To be Honest i think about it in this way of Bowsers Prespective, Bowser in the last 3 M+L Games has been screwed over or posessed by Another Villian 3 times in a Row, Bowser wasnt going to take any chance of a 4th Mess up in his Plans Even if Antasma had no Intention to Betray, Bowser would nrver trust him more than his Minions, So It also Makes the Final Battle so much more satifying, It isnt some fake copy or posessed version its all Bowser, and Bowser absoultly revels in the fact and will not take any chances

[@Wacky_Wally.official.Reborn]

Antasma was a decent villain tbh, I know that he didn’t had any screen time and was just overshadowed by bowser, which I hate, because it would make zero sense to just make bowser the main villian, instead of antasma, if antasma was the final boss and main villian, the story/plot would’ve made more sense.

[@mixtheyeast]

I feel bad for antasma,they kinda wasted his cool design and interesting backstory

[@LilCosmosYT]

yeee he would've been a really cool villain

[@Timkorea0810]

Protracted Pacifist Punished Defeat Tallbuster. Sloth kills ambition before it blooms. Antasma gets defeated before he uses his powers to become a menace to society. C'mon, don't be lazy and actually do something antasma

[@jessegartung294]

Reculsa was a better villain than Antasma. Reculsa destroyed countless worlds and uses other people for his own gain

[@LilCosmosYT]

That Clown is on Dimentio level of crazy

[@rikustorm13]

I loved him but yeah prolly?

[@jefferyandbob3137]

another thing is Antasma basically has almost no enemies or bosses under his control besides a few random critters and the Mario clone. He's like the king of nightmares so... where are all the cool nightmare creatures? There's no 50/50 balance with Bowser, it's 95% Bowser's army. Like if you took Bowser out of the story (or at least them teaming up) and had Antasma act as the sole main villain with the stuff we see in Dream Team, he would have basically nothing without Bowser's army. Also doesn't help that the villain faction in Dream Team in general is just really inactive. The main villains barely show up, the goofy rival group shows up even less (unlike the very active Extension Corps) and there isn't a secondary antagonistic faction or villain unaffiliated rivals to fill that gap (like Popple, Baby Bowser or Bowser in Brothership). Also he would be cooler if he didn't spend so much of the game as the stupid little bat form and the almost chibi version of his nightmare form. Maybe if they made it so he started as the smaller humanoid form instead of bat and then upgraded to his larger form on the mountain (its not like we haven't seen it before anyways).

[@rendumguy7596]

Even as a kid I noticed this, he has a robot and a wizard enemy in the final castle, but then there's basically no other Nightmare enemies. Compare that to the shroobs, or Fawful, which basically infest the game with over a third of them being designed in their image.

[@jefferyandbob3137]

@@rendumguy7596 Yeah and both Fawful and the Shroobs (as well as the Brothership villains) have more than one boss character on their side. Cackletta kinda has that lacking too but SS doesn't try to portray her as some massive army threat (she's more like a small-time opportunist for Fawful to become more than) and even she has Fawful. Antasma meanwhile is supposed to be the bat king of nightmares, but he's just the king of those 2 mooks you mentioned and maybe like a weird trashcan thing and that's it. No henchmen whatsoever, it's all just Bowser's group.

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@jefferyandbob3137 that is so true, one of the main problems of dream team is the pacing and how long you have to wait for any major or main event to happen in the story, which is another thing that hurt his screentime made him uninteresting (I talked about this problem in the video but I cut it out of the video while editing)

[@LilCosmosYT]

@@jefferyandbob3137 they call him a king in the game but he rules over no one and has no minions...that's kinda bs in my opinion since that with that in mind he doesn't even seem like a "king"

[@fin2008-t5y]

Who are you?

[@LilCosmosYT]

a person 🧙

[@ketchupheinze7475]

Antasma carried the whole game on his shoulders, duh. Wbat abt you are talking?💀💀

[@LilCosmosYT]

Nuh uh

[@ExGanonMain]

Reclusa and Zokket are the worst villains in the series. Their goal was to make everyone anti social which is literally nothing when compared to destroying an entire civilization

[@LilCosmosYT]

I agree that their goal of making people "anti social" and the game going for the "power of friendship" type of thing was quite silly and not really...cool compared to the other games, but that doesn't make them the absolute WORST y'know, they still had a lot to offer to the table to make up for a fun adventure and a good story progression (and in my opinion, aside from the pacing of the game, the events and how the story progresses is along the best I've ever seen in Mario game)

[@JoseViktor4099]

Reclusa did not only wanted to destroy Concordia, but he already did that to many worlds before it."Making everyone antisocial" is not only but a method to drain their energy. Reclusa is, in fact, one of the most terrible Mario villains, being a mixture between the Shroobs and Count Bleck. "(...) Now everyone is having fun in the little dreams I've prepared for them. And with everyone off in their own little worlds, MY world will be nice and quiet! Solitude is sublime! This is how I've broken everyone's connections… in so many worlds!(...) All that awaits them is a slow demise! I'm so thrilled for this world to end! Everyone will be cluelessly alone! The world will be over before anyone knows what happened!"

[@RotisserieDivorcePapers]

The glohm was only one small step in Reclusa's plan

[@ExGanonMain]

@ Oh yeah also Glohm is an obvious lazy copy of Gloom from Tears of the Kingdom. Not the first time Nintendo did that

[@RotisserieDivorcePapers]

@@ExGanonMain Not at all. They have similar names and look similar but function completely differently