Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is an independent neo-classic RPG available on almost all modern consoles, and it's inspired by some of the best that the genre has to offer. Featuring a unique, animated art style and fun turn-based gameplay, the title pulls from notable series' made by Atlus, Namco and Monolith Soft. It's also meant to be a spiritual successor to one venerable Nintendo franchise in particular.

Featuring challenging puzzles, fun gameplay and great writing, Bug Fables is the impressive sequel to the first two Paper Mario games that fans sadly never got. This charming insectoid RPG pulls from other successful role-playing games of the last few decades to become a unique experience that many fans have yet to discover.

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The Everlasting Sapling

The game is centered around Vi the Bee, Kabbu the Beetle and Leif the Moth, the members of Team Snakemouth. The trio of bugs traverse the land of Bugaria in search of the mythical Everlasting Sapling. This tree supposedly grants immortality to any insect who finds it, but the perilous task is wrought with danger and enemies.

The gameplay is a combination of platforming and turn-based battles, where the invertebrates duke it out with their enemies in a slow, methodical fashion. Winning these matches grants each individual insect and the team as a whole with experience points to make themselves stronger. This fairly run-of-the-mill format has actually become a dying breed among RPGs in recent years, but it's long been done away with by the franchise that Bug Fables is meant to emulate directly.

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The Thousand-Year Bug

Moonsprout Games, the developers of Bug Fables, took influence from several popular RPGs of the past decade or so, including the Tales series, Golden Sun, Xenoblade and Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei spinoff series Persona. Their most obvious point of influence, however, was Nintendo's Paper Mario games. These RPG spinoffs of the Super Mario Bros. franchise were initially platforming turn-based RPGs that utilized a folded paper premise. The first two games, Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, were incredibly well-received for both their gameplay and their hilarious writing.

Since those games' release, however, the Paper Mario franchise has experimented more and more with the formula, resulting in it losing much of its former fandom and acclaim. Most notably done away with was the turn-based gameplay and leveling mechanics, and even when something resembling was added back, it wasn't the same.

Bug Fables, however, has all of the elements that people loved about the first two Paper Mario games, besides the official Mario license, of course. Not only does it have a unique blend of platforming, puzzles and turn-based fights, but the witty humor is also present. The characters and plot are just as funny as memorable as the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube game cast they're evocative of, even if they're only generic bugs and not trademark Mario mushrooms and monsters. It will also be available on Windows, the Switch, the PS4 and the Xbox One through Game Pass, keeping it from being stuck on a Nintendo console like its teachers.

Even though the most recent Paper Mario was a closer step back to the way things should be, it still wasn't quite what fans have been clamoring for. In light of this, Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling will give both Paper Mario fans and gamers, in general, a fantastic experience full of heart, turn-based battles and a jungle full of bugs.

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