Pale imitation.
Described by developer Condradical as “Paper Mario + Undertale” on the game’s Kickstarter page, The Outbound Ghost garnered some attention with its aesthetic and gameplay along with its premise: the residents of the town of Outbound all quite suddenly died. Many of them have lingering burdens that keep them from moving onto the afterlife. You initially assume the role of an amnesiac ghost as he explores the town, meeting its spectral residents and uncovering a bit by bit what exactly happened. It sounds grim, sure, but it’s all wrapped up in a cutesy package that never devolves too much into the macabre. The game has finally arrived (though not without drama between Conradical and publisher Digerati) and can be played on a Nintendo platform, as all papery RPGs should.
If you’ve played Paper Mario before, the gameplay loop is quite similar. While exploring the areas around Outbound, touching a malevolent enemy in the overworld will trigger a turn-based battle. In battle you control four of a selection of figments of your own psyche – Solitude, Spite, Comradery, and so on – that manifest themselves as party members. Attacks are reflex-based, with an improperly timed button press resulting in a miss and a perfectly timed one increasing damage.
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