45) Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling (2019)

Development began in 2015 after Panamanian writer and programmer Jose Fernando Garcia and Brazilian programmer Marcio Cleiton Jr. first met in a Pokemon Nuzlocke forum. Originally titled Paper Bugs, the game took heavy inspiration from the first two installments in the Paper Mario franchise, which had long since strayed from its original formula. The game also took inspiration from the Persona, Xenoblade, Golden Sun, and Tales of series. Released in late 2019, Bug Fables is clearly a labor of love, and is a worthy successor and love letter to the series that inspired it.

Our story begins in the land of Bugaria, and we're introduced to Vi, a short tempered bee, and Kabbu, a proud and stoic beetle. The two independently wish to join the Explorer's Association, and are urged to join together to form an explorer team. They are tasked with searching the nearby Snakemouth Den to search for information or items related to the Everlasting Sapling, which is said to grant eternal life. There, they rescue and join forces with Leif, a moth with amnesia and access to ice magic. The three join forces, and thus the stage is set for the rest of the game.

Taking heavy inspiration from the Paper Mario games, the core experience is largely similar, though the game wisely chooses to not have a singularly main character. Instead, all three of our party members get time in the spotlight and, over the course of the game, get new abilities that aid both in battle and in exploration. Unlike the Paper Mario games, all our party members are active in battle and serve different roles. In addition, you can change the marching order, adding a layer of defensive depth, as well as have characters act multiple times in a round, at the cost of another character's turn, though they will do reduced damage. In these small ways, combat is deeply enriched and a large amount of strategy is added which, at least to me, makes the way the leads met in a Nuzlocke forum make complete sense.

Another way this game sets itself apart from its inspiring franchise is in the writing. While the game has a ton of humor and is very tongue in cheek, it also delves much deeper than I had anticipated. Each of our three leads has a character arc and are given their moments to shine. They all have some twist or subversion in their story that, beyond the silliness that is often on display, is actually smartly foreshadowed. While I went in expecting the game to make me laugh, I was caught off guard by just how well written and rich the characters turned out to be. Even recurring side characters get time to shine and have depth that, frankly, other games wish they could achieve.

The biggest downside I can think of is, oddly, the paper aesthetic. While I find the artstyle to be adorable and expressive, the choice to copy the paper aspect of the Paper Mario games comes off as lacking. While it doesn't necessarily hurt the experience in any major way and serves as a fitting homage to the games that inspired it, the game and story never really utilize it in a meaningful way. While the same could generally be said of the original Paper Mario, the same cannot be said of The Thousand Year Door, which plays with the paper aspect in a number of ways. I kept waiting and hoping that Bug Fables, having been made over a decade later, would do the same, but it never did. Outside of paying homage to another series, the paper aesthetic is never justified or explained, which I feel does rob the game of a bit of its identity.

That extremely minor nitpick aside, Bug Fables is an outstanding game. Exploration and combat are rich and rewarding, and the writing is phenomenal throughout. Not every joke lands, but enough do to keep you laughing, and the bigger emotional moments never miss. It serves as not only an excellent homage, but truly stands as a worthy successor, stumbling only a bit in execution. Still, as a love letter to the games of yesteryear and as the first and so far only game by Moonsprout Games, it stands as a marvelous achievement that manages to impress on pretty much every level.