> Paper Mario with bugs?

## Why

- Combat is turn based but interactive, has some per-enemy strategies
- The art style looks basic at first but grows on you
- Light puzzle-solving and platforming mixes things up
- You can dodge random encounters/start with an advantage by attacking first

## Why Not

- Nothing about it grabbed me in the first 2.5 chapters
- Pretty easy? I dodged a lot of encounters and never felt weak

## Impressions

I grabbed this from an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Humble Bundle which has definitely reminded me that 'buy stuff other people think is good' is not always a foolproof approach. This is definitely not on the level of terrible that Henry Stickmin reached in the 10min before I unceremoniously dropped it, but it didn't really do anything to stand out either.

If I had to sum Bug Tales up in a word it'd be 'solid'. The plot is interesting enough and does its job in moving the team through various biomes/enemies. The combat is pretty standard turn-based fare with some cool additions like 'spying' as a combat action to add enemies to your journal, revealing some weaknesses. The party banter is fine, and there are some platforming/puzzle challenges to break things up. There's absolutely nothing in this game I can point at and say bad, hence the positive review. But in a world of endless games, many of which I'll love, spending ~20 hours on a game that's _fine_ seems like a waste. Maybe this is a game you'll love, and I hope it is, but I'm leaving for greener pastures after ~5 hours.

If you liked any of those Paper Mario-esk games, this one is equally as awesome.

10/10 game

10/10 art style
10/10 combat system
10/10 story / narrative
10/10 progession

this is a VERY good game, it does feel kinda unfair sometimes but if you parry well enough and you strategize correctly you´ll always come on top (also i played it in hard mode so that could be a reason of why it felt so hard), i loved the characters and story, they are full of life and they are great part of the reason this game is so good, all main and secondary characters fell like deeply developed characters and makes you love em all, the progression felt right (apart from the fact that level ups feel kinda not good enough at the beguinning but once some time has passed you notice how good they are) the beguinning (ch1 to ch3) feels harder bc of how the attacks you have dont feel powerful enough and late game feels somewhat repetitive with me personally using like 3 different habilities at most, but I find it a good decition to make you feel actually rewarded when you win the tough fights, i did not get all achievements (maybe ill do on the future) but im not a completionist and i feel i have experienced all the fun this game could give me (without the typical tedious side quests that some people like, I do like that those are in the game, even if just a select group of people enjoy doing them) and i hope this game continues selling cuz this game is really, a work of art.

overall i think this is a great game, if you like rpg´s in general this is a MUST TRY (and even if you dont like rpg´s i would still recommend it for the story alone)

i hope this review helped you