Finally! This one has easily been the longest-tenured game in my "now playing, unbeaten" list. After Superstar Saga last summer and Bowser's Inside Story last winter, I thought the Mario & Luigi games were pretty fun and had high hopes for the middle one- Partners in Time. I had heard mixed reviews- Sheridan recommended it wholeheartedly, but Stan seemed to think Partners in Time was a chore to get through. I'd say I'm on the fence. The gameplay is improved from the first installment, sure, and there was no noticeable decline in quality. But for some reason, the game just never left much of an impression on me. I would pick it up and enjoy it for a few hours, only to put it down and forget it for weeks at a time. Perhaps the novelty of the original is gone, and the thrill of playing as Bowser is absent as well, causing the dullness. Maybe it's the wasted potential of the plot- I know time travel is often a sign that things are going south in different forms of media (Lost) but I'm usually a sucker for those types of stories. Combine the ability to time travel, controlling older and younger versions of Mario and Luigi with the smart puzzles the series is known for, and Alphadream was sure to have a winner here, right? Well, time actually doesn't factor into the puzzles at all. Or even the plot! Aside from the fact that apparently our plumbing heroes time travel to get to the different levels, it's rarely brought up. What a waste! I guess another thing that bugged me was the odd difficulty of grinding. It seems like in most rpgs, one of the basic ideas is that the more time you spend in pre-boss battles, the easier the rest of the game gets. But that was not the case here! Small battles required item usage, just like boss battles, and rarely payed out enough to make it worth it. Whatever. The final boss was also quite the pain in the ass, forcing me to scour through old levels for items and money to buy more items to stand a chance. Superstar Saga's boss was difficult, sure, but beaten the night I got to him, and I believe Bowser's Inside Story's only took a few attempts, but the Queen Shroob was definitely the worst of the bunch. Hey, look at that, at the start of this post I wasn't sure why I didn't like this game, and now I have a whole lot of reasons. But it still was fun at times. Mostly when I wasn't fighting one of the many overpowered bosses. If you're interested in the series, go for Bowser's Inside Story over this one, it's definitely the best of the trilogy.
To clarify, I never thought the game itself was a chore to get through. I simply found the final part of the game, especially Queen Shroob, to be absurdly tedious (much like you). An additional complaint I had was that I found much of the dialogue to be more superfluous than funny. I've certainly got a sense of humor but this game was long enough without having to listen to every NPC babble on and on about something. As far as gameplay goes, you're absolutely right; the battles were a bitch, boss fight or otherwise, and everything really came down to how many items you had (and how well you could use them in those timing meta-games) rather than how leveled up you were. You've told me that Bowser's Inside Story is better than this game, and I definitely believe you, but Partners in Time has just left too sour a taste in my mouth to return to the handheld Mario RPG series anytime soon. If you're digging the Mario RPGs though, I suggest Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GameCube) and Super Mario RPG (SNES, VC).
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