Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling Review
I hate bugs. If I see a bug when I’m outside, I want it far away from me and if I see one inside my apartment, I kill it. I know it’s basically impossible for bugs to hurt me, but they freak me out and I hate them nonetheless. The only exceptions are ladybugs and pill bugs. Basically if a bug looks like a big round doofus, I’m ok with it, otherwise they’re getting the boot. However, at the end of the year very few new video games are released, so I decided to pull a Paul Atreides, conquer my fear, and review Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling. This turned out to be a great decision because Bug Fables is a gem of a game.
In Bug Fables, players control a team of bug explorers, and by that I mean bugs who are explorers, not people who explore bugs. The game begins with Vi, a hot-headed bumblebee, joining forces with Kabbu, a rhinoceros beetle, to become official explorers. Soon after, they meet the mysterious moth Leif on their first mission and incorporate them into the party. The three then set off on a journey to find ancient artifacts for the reclusive ant queen who needs the artifacts to uncover the location of The Everlasting Sapling, a plan rumored to grant eternal life.
If you have played Paper Mario, you know nearly everything you need to know about playing Bug Fables. It’s genuinely surprising to me how many gameplay elements were lifted from Paper Mario for this game. I’m pretty sure Nintendo can’t sue over similar gameplay mechanics, but Bug Fables is really pushing their luck. For those who haven’t played the Paper Mario games, I’ll explain both those games by explaining Bug Fables: While exploring, the party will see enemies roaming around the world. Upon touching these enemies, combat begins. Combat is turn-based, typically beginning with the player’s turn. During the player’s turn, each of the three party members can take an action or donate their action to another member of the party. For their action, characters can attack, perform special skills, or use items. When attacking or using damaging skills, the player is required to perform specific inputs for the move to have full effect, but even if the player misses everything, the move will still do something though not much. This is my favorite part of the gameplay, not just because it livens up an otherwise dull combat system, but because each of the characters have a specific theme to the required inputs. For example, Kabbu’s moves aren’t very powerful, but players only have to hold the “down” button and release it after a few seconds, which makes sense because his moves mostly include stabbing people with his horn. On the other hand, Leif’s moves require both quick and accurate reactions, with players not being told which buttons they will need to press until the last second and then must press them quickly. This feels wonderfully flavorful because Leif wields ancient and dangerous magic that can be devastating when performed correctly, or fizzle pitifully if done wrong. Once combat is done, if the player has earned enough “exploration points” by defeating enemies, the team will rank up at which time players can select one of three upgrades: either increase the maximum hit points of each team member, expand the energy pool used to fuel special skills, or increase their pool of “medal points.” Medal points are used to equip the members of the party with medals, special items that provide a passive bonus such as increased health, damage boosts, or even granting new skills. These medals are a fun way to create new dynamics within the party, helping players fit the game to their own personal playstyle.
Though nearly the entirety of the combat mechanics are lifted from Paper Mario, I don’t mind it that much because the game’s heart is in its writing. From the very beginning, Bug Fables does a fantastic job of clearly establishing each character, their moods and their motives. My personal favorite is the writing of Vi. Even though she’s an obnoxious, blunt, greedy twerp, her dialogue helps her feel like a full person instead of just a jumble of quirks by showing her deeper motivations in ways big and small. There’s an especially good moment in chapter three where Vi lets her walls down a bit more and you see a side of her that’s almost always left out of characters of the same archetype. Another example of the great writing is the way the three party members interact with the ant queen. The ant queen, in my opinion, is almost certainly evil. I haven’t finished the game but the ant queen seems like the classic cruel, conniving child of the archetypal kind monarch. In the party, Vi seems to get a hint of this from the ant queen but ignores it because the ant queen keeps paying the group well for their missions. Kabbu, honor-bound stoic that he is, doesn’t question the queen’s motives because he feels that it is not his place as a loyal servant of the throne. Only Leif, outsider in so many ways, seems to be aware of the sinister side of the monarchy but doesn’t bring it up, unsure if this is just how the people of Bugaria act.
The last thing I want to talk about in Bug Fables is the impressive amount of side content for the player to do. As a lot of people might expect for an RPG, there are side quests players can complete for additional rewards as they move through the story. These include genre staples such as a side quest where a person has lost their hat and needs the heroes of the realm to find it for some reason, but there are also more fun and interesting ones such as helping an old man set up a special camp for explorers or collecting awful books for a literary snob to hate-read. These quests help the land of Bugaria feel like a living place that doesn’t exist just to be saved by the three heroes. Beyond the side quests, players can also test their culinary knowledge by combining the game’s many healing items together in the hopes of finding recipes for more potent items with the game’s many chefs and can play hedge fund manager with a banking system that increases player’s balance based on play time.
People might ignore Bug Fables for not doing anything new, but that would be a mistake because this game is charming, delightful, and a joy to play. I can’t find much on developer Moonsprout Games, so I figure this is the first game they’ve made and it’s a fantastic first try. If you’ve got $20 to spare, I highly recommend picking this game up.
Buy this game at full price
It’s worth every penny they’re asking
