SearchThisVideo: Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga | The Completionist

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thank you for watching and welcome back

to another brand new episode of the

completionist super mario RPG legend of

the seven stars is absolutely one my

favorite games of all time it's a game

that taught me how to read more

importantly it's a game I always think

about till this day and we never got a

sequel we're never gonna get a sequel

unfortunately maybe I'm gonna jinx

myself one of these days but what we did

get was Paper Mario and the superstar

saga series so today I've already done

Paper Mario I thought let's take a good

look at Mario Luigi superstar saga let's

begin yes

[Music]

in 2003 Nintendo is probably in a pretty

weird place with regard to where to take

their entry in their next series of RPGs

involving Mario thousand-year door the

sequel to Paper Mario was still at least

a year away and even though the brand

spanking new GBA basically allowed them

to develop brand-new better-looking SNES

games on the go we still had a problem

we never got a proper Super Mario RPG

legend of the seven star sequel and

already enough the whole mario RPG thing

was a super rare occurrence the lack of

a partnership with Squaresoft now Square

Enix and the fact that the European

audience probably wouldn't even know

what the Super Mario RPG series even was

since it never was released there

probably didn't provide much of

incentive for them to work together and

develop some type of direct super mario

RPG sequel instead it seems like they

opted to start fresh with a brand new

more stylized

2d RPG series that borrowed many of the

fun mechanics that made the original so

unique while also cleaning them up

giving them a whole colorful new coat of

paint and boldly applying a custom

Western localization to really capture

and amp up the intended humour thus our

topic at hand today Mario and Luigi

superstar Saga which let me just say the

superstar saga aspect of the game yeah

great title except it sounds like it's a

bunch of games in one but the other ones

make sense so yeah I'll let you have a

Nintendo now these changes all seem to

have worked - this game is widely loved

by people and even today young hipsters

playing for their first time on their

vintage GBA micros would probably

consider it one of the most definitive

games on the console as far as RPGs go

I'm pretty excited to complete this one

since as it's a simpler game meant for a

wide appeal everything including the few

side quests there are are supposed to be

incredibly straightforward admittedly

I've completed bowser's Inside Story for

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the DS and it made me want to go back

and talk about all of the others in the

series but that doesn't necessarily mean

that this will be

complete breeze to give you a little

taste there's 175 of these things called

hidden coffee beans that I'll need to

find all over the world to get some

important items from Professor egad who

apparently they were trying to make a

thing outside Luigi's Mansion for a

while he looks like a weird old Benjamin

Button baby version of Jimmy Neutron

still this might be a game I can finish

in one super-clean playthrough and if

that's the case hell yeah I honestly

don't have anything else to really say

other than that more than anything I

just love playing good games and it's a

rare week here on the completionist

where I know I'm gonna be playing an

awesome game that's also supposed to be

pretty easy to complete so I'm excited

to just sit back relax and for the most

part enjoy yet I still feel unfulfilled

I still dream of a dream in which super

mario RPG 2 is a thing most of the team

who worked on the original did in fact

go on and work on the Mario Luigi series

so if that's what it is then that's what

it is but we can still dream can't we

can't wait

[Music]

like many of the Mario and Luigi games

to come after superstar saga introduces

the bean bean Kingdom as it's unique yet

perfectly Mario II new realm and its

citizens the bean --is-- as its new race

as you probably already figured out

their thing is that they're shaped like

these little cute neon green lima beans

and when the game starts

Princess Peach is receiving a gift from

the Venus goodwill ambassador and her

faithful assistant at the castle in the

Mushroom Kingdom it turns out that these

bean --is-- and voice are actually

magical terrorists called cackle Etta

and fawful who want to steal Princess

Peach's beautiful voice and use it to

control the magical bean star which is

said to grant wishes to its owner with

it they will be able to conquer the bean

bean Kingdom and then eventually just

like any other egotistical villain out

there the world they succeed and kidnap

the princess and as you predict in a

Mario RPG kind of game tow it eventually

goes to Mario and Luigi who apparently

have that time to line dry all their

laundry by hand I mean I guess that

makes sense because there's no washing

machines in the Mushroom Kingdom but

yeah I guess that makes sense on their

way they happen to run into Bowser who

was also planning on kidnapping peach

but when he realizes that and this is

straight-up quoted from the instruction

manual chaos reigns when she opens her

mouth he decides the risk to his castle

will be too great until she gets her

voice back so Bowser agrees to help the

pros get back her voice so then he can

kidnap her again and just continue the

mario cycle this is just I get it point

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is Bowser's on your team again in this

one who cares how it makes sense it's

just pretty cool but between there in

the final showdown for the bean star a

bunch of other cute charming events take

place and I don't want to risk spoiling

me even a tiny bit of it because as

unrelated as a lot of it is to the

larger story superstar saga always has

a very straightforward narrative and in

a move that was actually kind of rare in

RPGs at the time the large majority of

the time you spend playing the game

actually pushes the main plot forward

instead of distancing you from it with

huge grindy side quests that lasts hours

and hours without anything but

repetitive battle music in the first six

seconds of the overworld theme plus in a

step beyond even the excellent Paper

Mario before it the characters and humor

in this game are absolutely top-notch

nowadays we're used to clever in jokes

and treatable lines and our all new

Nintendo games that come chock-full of

cool pop-culture and means of the day

but when superstar saga came out it was

probably one of the first games like

this that Nintendo ever put out and fun

characters like thoughtful and the sheer

amount of times Luigi gets totally

roasted in this game make the entire

experience worth enjoying however that's

not to say the game doesn't look the

part either developer alpha dream got

the opportunity to make this because of

how much Nintendo loved their first game

Japanese only release tomato adventure

and if you've even seen that game played

a lot of what makes it special is also

right here in superstar saga big rich

sprites with nice fluid animations

looking great on a tiny GBA screen we've

got a bulky Mario themed interface that

makes great use of the screen real

estate as you switch between exploring

the environments chatting with NPCs and

fighting enemies there's also a lot of

variety when it comes to its landscapes

even though the game is relatively short

and each place comes complete with its

own little vibe going that extra little

mile to make this admittedly ridiculous

idea for a world feel satisfyingly

textured and alive almost more like a

Saturday morning cartoon than your

average stuffy old melodramatic JRPG

[Music]

however the game isn't totally perfect

as I sometimes found it hard to tell

when something was hidden underground

and that weird is a 2d or isn't camera

angle sometimes made it harder for me to

judge

exactly where I was jumping but all in

all like most first party GBA games this

one is a treat visually and you

shouldn't let these little NIT pics from

me get in the way of enjoying the

experience plus if you're one of those

people who listens to game music and

full blast in their car like me there's

a pretty good mix of classic melodies

and completely new songs here and as

short as the game is they go a long way

towards helping this little new Mario

RPG series differentiate itself in tone

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from the others I know I just said this

a moment ago but I really love the

cartoony vibe and how the references to

the older games work themselves in while

still keeping the game feeling new it

makes the game feel cheeky rather than

retro and whether you're hearing that

good old underground theme or you're

meeting the viruses from dr. Mario it's

always in a way you'd never expect and

even series mainstays like Bowser Webb

presented in this unique cutesy style

how a lot more depth to offer than they

do in other incarnations in fact I

sometimes find myself taking the

characterizations I saw in the RPGs and

applying them to games where they're

much less fleshed out doesn't imagining

it's the Mario & Luigi Bowser that takes

the cat powerup in Mario 3d World

make it all that much cuter and I know

it's weird to say that the game really

fits its hardware well when it's

basically just an NES controller with

shoulder buttons and a screen but I

truly believe it does and though we're

definitely gonna talk about that more in

the next section I do want to call out

one last thing that fits this theme

perfectly the closest thing to a gimmick

that the Game Boy Advance ever had was

its weird obsession with voice acting

instead of the beeps and Boop's you

remembered from classic versions

whenever a main Nintendo IP got a new

GBA release

they've used really compressed clips of

voice actors from previous games for

example furling to the past they'd use

voices from Ocarina of Time Mario 3

would use clips from Mario 64 it was

kind of a weird time but with superstar

saga they used new recordings of Charles

Martinet that really gave Mario and

Luigi some new character and although

they never really spoke any real words I

feel like this was just one of the first

real Peaks we ever got at their true

personalities together

Luigi comes to life here as the butt of

a million jokes much more than he ever

did in Luigi's Mansion and for that you

got to give them props

it's pretty damn good

[Music]

while superstar Saga may seem short to

JRPG enthusiasts

it doesn't feel short there's a lot

packed into this game that will keep you

playing for hours on end at the end of

the day Mario and Luigi is fun to try

and talk about because on the one hand

there's a lot that classic RPG players

will recognize you walk around on the

map there's basic puzzles to solve

there's enemies to fight the fights are

all turn-based and when you win fights

you get a little bit stronger but now

that I think about it I guess I could be

talking about Mario and Luigi superstar

saga or talking about Final Fantasy 1

who knows the basics are pretty much the

same but on the other hand when you

actually look at how all these mechanics

are implemented into the game and how

the whole thing is kind of this

beautiful evolution of what we started

with in Super Mario RPG that's when this

really starts getting awesome first of

all you're playing as both Mario and

Luigi

I know it's obvious so while it never

Watch video from 12:00 - 15:00

really gets as intense as let's say

Super Mario World or lost levels the

actual world exploration itself does

look and feel a lot like the platforming

you'd see in a regular 2d Mario game

granted you do a lot more finding of

objects and bringing them back to people

who ask for them in this game and you go

to a whole separate battle screen

whenever you jump on an enemy but it's

still more fun than walking around

dungeons in most RPGs and it gets to be

doubly so when you consider the absolute

coolest innovation this game has to

offer the active button pressing system

from Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario

they took that and then split it between

the two brothers between the a and B

buttons you move together everywhere you

go since there's obviously only one

d-pad on the Gameboy Advance and while

you can only jump at first eventually

this also extends to things like

swinging hammers spin jumping over big

gaps and shooting fire and lightning out

of

your hands you can switch through all

these abilities on the fly at any given

moment which makes it fun to explore and

makes early areas worth coming back to

once you have more powers but what's

even more interesting is that all this

also extends into battles a lot of the

abilities you can earn transfer into

special attacks you can use on the

battlefield and while the mechanics are

turn-based the mario as a luigi SB

system applies here as well

pushing the right button at the right

time makes it possible to do more damage

or even avoid taking damage from certain

enemy attacks and you can even team up

for short button pressing minigames as

part of special brothers team-up combos

and while the inputs are always simple

to perform and easy to understand the

game has tons of satisfying depth if

you're willing to put in that extra

effort and the more I think about it the

more this makes a lot of sense on the

one hand Mario games need to be

appealing to a younger crowd of gamers

who need an accessible game for their

portable console that's still fun in

short grind free bursts that's why you

have simplified things like attacks and

bro points instead of spells and MP and

short bite-sized quests instead of well

you know the gold chocobo

[Music]

but on the other hand hardcore gamers

love Mario too and they're always

looking for something to master so for

them in a game this short

I think perfecting these timed mechanics

and learning all the enemy's specific

patterns pretty much qualifies here

other than this all there really is is

jumping around and collecting items on a

map and a few basic arcade style

minigames which you can often go back

and get an extra item or something from

but like many RPG minigames they're more

annoying than they are a welcome break

from the grind and since there's almost

no grinding necessary in this game

anyway the payoff from this almost feels

worth wait a second is that is that Gino

is that really Gino right there doing

absolutely nothing in the crappy lore

Watch video from 15:00 - 18:00

Kade minigame and he just teaches you

how to tilt the thing that's really all

they're using Gino for

breathe breathe it's not the first time

it's not the first time he's in Smash

I'm okay with that you can play as him

and smash that's fine

here's my QR code for those of you guys

out there who want to play as my Gino

that's cool we're good we're good

we're good at the core of it the game is

really fun and much more story forward

than most RPGs especially for a portable

which is cool it's great at making basic

mechanics feel fresh and the two button

AV mechanic is very clever both inside

and outside the bow screens but while I

feel like it was totally successful in

battles and kind of immediately set the

standard of the series going forward in

that sense on the world map because of

all the powers you get you need to

constantly be switching from them to use

them in the main world it can be a

little confusing and tedious at times to

be switching not only which characters

in the front but also which jump to use

while then also remembering to switch

back to a neutral jump for both

characters when you need them I mean

look don't get me wrong the mechanic is

promising and it often works great but

overall it kind of comes off just a

little bit clunky but then they were

like four games after it and it just

gets better and better each time

so for 2003 and a Mario RPG that it

wasn't - Mario RPG

I'd say altogether

that's pretty dang good honestly the

only thing that was truly even close to

a problem were the last couple of bosses

because they were way harder than

anything else in the game and it

required me to grind for a little bit

but compared to the amount I would grind

out let's say in a game like foul

fantasy 15 this was a cakewalk and after

an hour or so I was able to beat the

game no problem yeah plus the ending

actually makes sense Ted what what did I

tell you about starting flame wars in

the comments I just think he causes an

uproar and uprose good for business good

for business

how'd you even get in my office why are

you in this episode I live here no you

don't this is your a plot device you are

a plot device for me to murder every now

and then that's it that's it that's all

you are to me Ted no that don't have

that fake crying crap

[Music]

aside from just playing through the main

story and doing a couple of side extra

minigames and fetch quests to get stuff

like rare items and extra mushrooms

which I was able to do completely in

about 45 extra minutes of playtime the

only two things worthy of talking about

in regards to completionists are

specifically professor

egads coffee bean search which i talked

about briefly earlier and a short quest

for har hauls pants I guess he's

supposed to be based off of Andy Warhol

which explains his love for sporting on

shirts but want to be the version of the

game that gets you a bean star fragment

as part of the main story you can go

back and do it again and again and again

to get all the different shirt designs

and when you do you'll get hard Hall's

pants there's 28 different combos and I

Watch video from 18:00 - 21:00

know it sounds rightly like it might be

a little tedious but in the end the

whole thing took me like 15 minutes so I

really don't have that much to worry

about

even the beans of which you needed to

collect 175 of all different varieties

to please professor egad and get some

items including his creepy Gameboy

horror SB it was all pretty simple once

I unlocked the surfing game island to

grind for the beans and even if I'm over

guessing it probably only took me at

most two hours total out of the 15 took

me to beat the game and yeah maybe I

didn't have exactly huge amounts of fun

actually earning the items but the items

themselves are awesome and are actually

impactful on the gameplay by giving you

things like a floating jump with an

excites Pring or the ability to get rare

items every time with the Gameboy horror

it's as if the awesome game designers at

alpha dream read a list of features that

every classic RPG has and then

redesigned it from the ground up to have

as much polish and fun as possible and

yeah maybe it's because I am the

completionist but more than anything

shattering the idea that a good RPG has

to be super long was the best of a game

that was excellent at every turn in my

completionist playthrough of Mario Luigi

superstar saga there were twenty eight

bosses defeated 70 collectable whoo

beans 35 whoo beans 35 hee beans 35

chuckle beans 7 blends 4 egad to taste

for seven special prizes

zero deaths a total playtime of 15 hours

four minutes and 35 seconds and dozens

and dozens of great moments with fawful

the offal falafel this game was just a

peaceful relaxing time like a lazy river

at a water park you know except without

the P o people p at water parks Ted just

quick quick sidebar from the episode

you've got to the end you know just I'm

glad you're here it's just so we can

have this this little mini interview for

a second why do you keep showing the

up in these videos for no reason

like what what is inspiring you just a

freaking appeared of no reason in my

videos Ted I thought you could use a

celebrity feature on the episode yes so

you out get out of my office

a celebrity feature what do you do Ted

I'm a big member in the podcast and I

stream on Twitch I'm pretty big and and

end of the video Mario and Luigi

superstar saga is a wonderful game that

I cannot recommend enough to anyone who

is trying to play a game on the go if

you have a Game Boy Advance SP or a Game

Boy Advance or you have a Wii U you can

download the game digitally you have to

play this game at some point it is a

must play it's not very big but it's big

enough to keep you going for quite a

while in regards to completing the game

it's not that difficult and yeah you

don't really get anything for it but

RPGs are the kind of game that aren't

about necessarily going to the end to

get the 100% thing so much as the

Watch video from 21:00 - 24:00

journey itself and the cast and

characters in this game

just kind of bring everything together

to kind of make you enjoy the experience

from start to finish so but that of my

guys I give this game my completionist

rating of complete it

completers that's all coming over today

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pirates internet dinner at dinner 9 10

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I liked the fifth movie it was pretty

good the fourth was still bad the fifth

was on as good as the first three but

it's a step in the right direction see

you guys next week if you're still here

thank you I'll see you guys next week

bye