I've beaten the final boss, and boy was the final boss incredibly tense. It's the only level where I got a Bronze statue a Rabbid chasing his overalls (I think it's Rabbid Mario since he has overalls, but I don't remember a moustache on that statue). However, I am still not done with the game, for there are MORE challenges! My progress is that I have beaten 2 challenges in the final level, and I'm surprised that the first challenge is tucked away after the second cannon point, which is bizarre since the other levels are more evenly spread.
Since I got a chance to use every character, I'll go over my opinions about them:
(Note: Overwatch = Character automatically attacking enemies when they move; Dump stat = A portion of a skill tree that is low priority that I didn't invest in for other higher priority skills)
Mario: I think Mario's a very good character to have in the party at all times, and that's a good thing since he's a mandatory pick. He's rather versatile so there's not a time when he's useless. In fact, his support abilities are very useful: M-Power is a great power-up tool and Mario's Overwatch is on par with Luigi's since his shots are powerful and gets to go twice. Unfortunately he can't activate both at once, but I guess that would be overpowered. His Dash is pretty good since it's the second-strongest, and combined with his Stomp Jump, is one of the better movement damage-dealers and can cover a lot of ground at the same time. He also has a Mushroom Power-up in his Skill Tree, which is very easily forgone since it's the least useful, but at the same time, Mario's got to build up his other abilities more quickly. The only thing I didn't quite like about Mario is his more limited movement range compared to other characters.
Luigi: When I first checked Luigi's stats, I am baffled at his ridiculously low HP, which is incredibly low compared to every character, even the future characters. When it was pointed out to me that he's supposed to be a sniper, it made more sense to me. When I get to use Luigi, I am impressed by not only his attack range, but also how easily he moves around the field. In fact, he's practically essential in most of the "Reach the Area" and "Escort" levels since he covers a lot of ground and make the escortee move further. His Overwatch ability is also great since it has the shortest cooldown and can shoot thrice, so it has the potential to cause status effects more often than not. I feel that between Rabbid Peach and Luigi, the Sentry is more useful from Luigi. Itchy Feet has a theoretically useful support, but I didn't use it because I am not sure it extends to pipes, which appears more often in later levels, even though I upgraded it to have less cooldown and cover more ground. Whereas Mario's dump stat is the Mushroom, for Luigi it's his Dash since his other abilities are better-suited despite me wishing the Dash is stronger. Essentially Luigi is a great character to have but his drawback requires more careful play.
Peach: Unlike Luigi, what surprised me about Peach is how much HP she has, which is totally unexpected since I don't remember Peach having high HP in Super Mario RPG. Certainly Peach has a great healing move and powerful short-range weaponry (not to mention an ability that can absorb damage from others), but I didn't really have much use for Peach even though the battle where you are required to use her demonstrates why she's useful. When I think about it, her support abilities aren't as useful to me compared to other characters, since her Protection still do damage to her and requires heroes to be at close range, while her Overwatch comes from a short-ranged weapon (incidentally, Overwatch is Peach's dump stat). When I get to use Peach, she proves to be indispensable because of the healing and powerful gun. I think it's due to how Peach's weaponry have status effects that I didn't really care for (Freeze and Burn), especially Freeze. Even then, perhaps I should use Peach a bit more often since healing is one of the best things to have.
Yoshi: Yoshi has not struck me as an overpowered character, but I like that Yoshi has the Ground Pound, which does hefty damage at a range, so like Mario, Yoshi can do movement damage twice, but a bit more effectively and dangerously. I like that Yoshi has a Rumblebang (machine gun weapon) which is a great damage-dealing weapon, and that complements nicely with his Overwatch even though it charges rather long despite being powerful. His other ability is theoretically useful, but I never really used it since Super Chances happen fairly often, though I should use it since it complements nicely with Rabbid Mario's weapons with Stone, the most useful status effect. Yoshi is definitely great to have but I feel I never used him to full effect. By the way, my dump stat for Yoshi is the Super Chance, though not to the same extent as the other ones mentioned.
Rabbid Peach: When Rabbid Peach is one of the only characters to have she is not bad. In fact, she is quite useful since she is the only one with a healing move. Unfortunately, other characters turned out to be more useful despite Rabbid Peach's similar versatility to Mario and having the Sentry (in my opinion the most useful secondary weapon). Her Barrier is also pretty good to have since it takes weapon damage with ease. I feel that if it weren't for Mario being mandatory, then Rabbid Peach would shine since she's a similar jack-of-all-trades, and I rarely have a need for another one when other characters have something useful to contribute that Mario nor the other characters have, except for the healing. For example, Luigi also has a Sentry, but he also has long range and Overwatch, while Rabbid Peach's weapon is similar to Mario's.
Rabbid Luigi: I love using Rabbid Luigi because he has a strong Dash, and a fully-upgraded Rabbid Luigi has the most useful Dash in the game for the Vamp effect, which is a great healing tech for other characters and himself (he is almost never KO'ed). His weapons are the weakest among them all, but later on the high chance of Super Effect makes him indispensable for disabling opponents since Rabbid Luigi is one of the few characters with Stone (Rabbid Mario is the other). If you don't know what Stone does, it completely skips that character's turn so it's one less thing they are able to do. Even better is that Rabbid Luigi's abilities have a 1-turn cooldown once fully upgraded, and both have apparent advantages that are always useful to have. His low power isn't much of an issue when Rabbid Luigi does a lot of great things, and he's one of my go-to characters.
Rabbid Mario: Once I unlocked Rabbid Mario, every World 1 Challenge suddenly allowed me to stand a chance. Yes, Rabbid Mario is that great. The thing that impressed me about Rabbid Mario is how every attack all have ranged damage, even the Dash. Because of this, his Magnet Dance has incredible synergy with all of them. Later in the game there are a lot of enemies which pretty much cemented Rabbid Mario as the go-to character for such an occasion. His Shield isn't as useful as the other Rabbids, but once it can absorb 30% of weapon damage it's nice to have. Certainly Rabbid Mario has all-around low range (even compared to Peach), but his high power makes him one of my most indispensable allies.
Rabbid Yoshi: I feel that Rabbid Yoshi's best quality is how quickly it moves around, which complements his ability to Dash the most times. His Rumblebang is also really good to have since the variable damage is more often than not to my advantage. Moreover, his abilities are very useful and have low cooldown, such as activating Overwatches and sometimes making aiming enemies easier, while his Shield absorbs a lot of damage since Rabbid Yoshi is rarely attacked multiple times. Much like Luigi, Rabbid Luigi and Rabbid Mario, I feel that all of Rabbid Yoshi's moves have noticeable advantages that make him worth using sometimes.
LeftyGreenMario said:
I don't recall people saying Yoshi is powerful. In fact, I hear people say you get it way too late in the game for it to be "stupidly powerful".
Indeed Yoshi is recruited incredibly late in the game so he might be viewed as powerful, but when I used Yoshi, it's on a similar level with other characters. In fact, my go-to are still pretty much Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Luigi, the next being Rabbid Yoshi and Luigi.
Thank you for reading.