Thanks for watching! I'll be streaming most of today if you want to stop by and ask any questions about the new video. You can find me here: www.twitch.tv/andersonjph This video took forever. Nier Automata was meant to be next but after playing Odyssey I decided I had enough to say about it that I should go for that next. The video was meant to be 45 minutes. You saw how that turned out. I realize parts of this may seem a bit excessive but it was important to prove my points. Most of what has been said about this game so far has had little evidence to support it--on the moon side of things. The movement system has had some good discussions already. Here are some more links. This video will likely get copyright claimed by Nintendo but that's okay. Patreon is doing well enough to support videos like this one now. And check out HeavyEyed's channel if you're looking for some more content. He's under 10k subs while I'm writing this. I hope he gets above that. kzfaq.info www.patreon.com/JosephAnderson twitter.com/jph_anderson discord.gg/8gSBsYC

I must point out a severe flaw in your critique. 1:41:15 - The Kooper is not throwing hammers but pans.

Bringing up Chris Pratt in a Mario video. This man was ahead of his time.

I just wanted to come back to this video to state that you successfully turned "It's No Masterpiece" into one of the most overused KZfaq video titles in existence. Congratulations on being the first.

You were so dead on about the Mushroom Kingdom thing, you almost gaslighted me into thinking it was actually the start, since I have not played Odyssey for years

That analogy about Chris Pratt is a bit stranger considering he literally is mario now

Don't you hate it when youtubers extend their videos by the ten minute mark

is it just me that thinks its fucking hilarious that lady goombas will just fall in love with the first goomba to cross her direct eyesight

That target audience segment was such an eye opener for me tbh.. I played odyssey and put it down way before I could finish it. It just didn't have the magic for me. My son, however, has beaten this game multiple times and will routinely return to it for another run through. You helped me understand WHY he was so obsessed.

No game review is complete without mentioning Dark Souls in the first five minutes

"Can I pick the movie tonight?"

I remember feeling accomplished after getting every moon in every area before beating the game... and then I stopped playing when I realized that several more would be scattered about in the places I just spent hours inspecting. I didn't feel excitement at that point - just exhaustion. You really put that into words when you said that it feels like no previous exploration goes unpunished. Very well-thought criticisms.

Ik this video is really old now but I really appreciate the amount of effort that went into it. Not only the intensive research but also the fact that you somehow made a feature film length video essay so engaging

you were so dedicated to the bit about mushroom kingdom that you had me actually questioning if i played the game wrong

Okay but super Mario odyssey takes a lot from spongebob squarepants battle for bikini bottom and I stand by that premise

9:00 - Camera / Movement 16:09 - Lack of depth 20:34 - Uninspired exploration / Design 28:03 - Possessions 34:15 - Target audience 37:19 - Mushroom Kingdom 43:42 - Filler moons 1:24:57 - Bosses 1:32:22 - Post-game 1:55:32 - Conclusion 1:57:38 - Outro

People have probably said it hundreds of times by now but at 1:21:00 Mario looks at the right answer if you stop moving near the pipes, how would anyone figure this out naturally? Probably by failing 10 times in a row beforehand, so it's not impossible to do the first time but also it isn't designed in any way outside of that system that gives you the answer.

You’re just jealous that you never had the world record for Bower’s Big Bean Burrito

Normal people: mario Joe, an intellectual: märio

This video was cathartic in expressing my frustration with the moons. I really enjoyed the Dark Side challenge rooms, and I really want to try the Darker Side. But I'm not collecting the remaining 200 fucking moons I need to do it. After running through 2 worlds already, I'm done with it. The best metaphor I can think of this is if I wanted to go rock climbing, and I wasn't allowed until I spent 3 hours playing hide and go seek with my 6 year old niece.

I spent 50 hours collecting every single moon in the game, and watching this footage, I barely remember any of it. This helped me a lot in pinpointing why odyssey was Just Pretty Good to me instead of the 10/10 it feels like everyone says it is

It would have been hilarious if at the end he said "with all of that being said this game is my favorite game of all time" as deadpanned as possible.

Filler Moon is my favorite Sailor Moon character

"Your heart should sink so low that your thong should get heavy." That was the weirdest most out of place thing I've ever heard Joseph Anderson say in a video.

It's by no means a bad game but I was taken back by the absurd amount of moons in the game, especially with how many were just: break this rock, ground pound here, use this capture for 2 seconds, talk to this npc.

Wow, typical of a “KZfaqr“ to always hit that 2:00:00 mark, smh...

The part where you said mushroom Kingdom was early was hilarious I was completely fooled into thinking it was early game

Honestly, even after all this time, I have to say I enjoyed this game a lot. But this video is a good perspective on why many people don’t like it the way I do.

The juxtaposition of such a bright, colorful, happy game with his unbridled rage make this video entertaining from start to finish.

I feel like you didn't focus enough on the moons in the game.

As a massive Odyssey fan, I normally laugh at negative Odyssey reviews. But this was really freaking good. While I may disagree with you I respect everything you said. Every point you made makes sense and although I still love the game, my eyes were opened to Odyssey's flaws and I can see why people were disappointed. This was an amazing video, thanks man

i saw so many challenge rooms in this video that i missed in my playthrough, even though those are by far the most interesting part of the game for me. which makes me realize a major issue with the game: unless you're a completionist, you're never incentivized to find the good stuff because you can easily get by without.

Before watching this video, after finishing Odyssey and doing a lot of the after game content I would talk about how Odyssey is this massive game with so much stuff in it and so much content. But this video made me realize just how much recycled filler moons there were, how small the kingdoms actually were, and how linear some parts of the game are. I still enjoy the game, but my perspective on how “massive” it is and my overall opinion has definitely changed.

But Joseph You can *be a goombas*

Seeing Peach in a different outfit is one of those rewards that aren't moons

What I think everybody needs to take away from this is "if an optional menial task has a chance to reward something, it now becomes required". Doing all these small things for a chance at a moon is now something encouraged thus mandatory if you want to complete the game.

Oh my god I thought the "look at a flying taxi" thing was a parody thought up by ProZD. That's an actual thing. Holy shit.

I think he didnt like the moons

Guys I watched the video *wheres my moon*

I’ve seen some people denouncing the guys at Nintendo, calling them stupid. This is the most polite negative review I’ve ever seen. While I don’t really agree, I really have to respect the argument.

We can all agree that the ost is good, right?

Long story short summary of the video. The game’s biggest accomplishment is the control and movement, but the game doesn’t build around that and just tosses you into a playground where you get rewarded for doing the most basic rudimentary stuff. That would be fine, except every reward is the exact same. No matter what the challenge or goal. No unlockables, no extra modes, you just get the thing and move on. There are no lives, and thus no real punishment or danger, resulting in a game that is repetitive and a chore.

Just finished the video, it was worth a moon.

A great and authentic review. Shows the shortcomings of this game. This game could've been way more.

Honestly, your points about many of the shrines feeling like they were thrown together in a basic level editor makes me think that some kind of Odyssey Maker game would actually be great.

Just spent two hours watching a man say Mario in Canadian while talking at length about 800 moons in Mario. And I enjoyed it, too.

I clicked the like button but didnt get a moon, is this a bug?

I can agree with most of your criticism. I played every 3D Mario and loved 64, 3D world and galaxy 2. But I still had the most amount of fun playing odessey. Most moons aren‘t unique and it‘s too easy most of the time. But for me the movement just fixed it all. Although there are 880 moons, grabbing them in „unintended“ ways with trick jumps was so fun! It really isn‘t a perfect game but for me the experience was great.

I think a big problem with odyssey is the lack of variety and originality in its objectives. The movement system is basically perfect and the worlds are (almost) all very memorable. But the game has like 999 moons and probably 3/4 of that is uninspired filler that exists only to artificially extend the game’s length. If they had kept it down to a more reasonable level, spaced objectives out more, and made more unique challenges for them like 64, sunshine, and galaxy, I would be much happier. Those 3 games get by on having only 120 objectives with galaxy 2 having 240. Each feels like its own distinct challenge to obtain.

Absolutely amazing video. I don't agree with 90% of what you said, but it's very interesting to see your point of view in such a well written manner.

"Also, I'm sorry if that was tedious to go through for anyone who's already played the game already, but I figure if you have, then you're used to tedeum already and shouldn't be bothered by it." The salt is real and I absolutely love it

Returning to this review after some time, I still have some troubles understanding how I feel so differently about it. I really get most of your points, but I had so much fun exploring and finding those hidden coin stacks in spots that I really didn't think any developper would have thought of putting there. I loved to have any excuse to go back and explore again to find the new moons in the kingdoms I already did and explored every corner of. I loved the movement even though I don't like to always throw cappy neither, I can't deny it is so fun and still got enough depth for me to get better still after years. I really see you as THE reviewer that I go to for in-depth game critiques, but on this one, this makes me feel like I got poor tastes in platformers. Or maybe trying to learn those speedrun tricks gave the game the depth it lacks in the first place? I mean, when you talked about trying to skip stuff in your 2nd playthrough, that's what I did, and there is so much jumps and tracks that you, the player, decide to take, and they can really up the challenge. In any case, I would love to see nintendo do another Mario in the 64/Sunshine vein, with the movement of Odyssey, but more complexity in the level design too.

I think this game hit two target demos pretty well 1. Young kids 2. Parents who don't have much time to play or energy to want to grind difficulty. Both of which kinda fit the Switch and Nintendo's vibe. There's plenty of Elden Rings maximizing complexity. Fair analysis.

Oh no I'm gonna listen to Joseph mispronounce Mario for two hours

Considering how Mario Odyssey was one of the early Switch games, I think it was designed in a way to showcase the portable aspect of the console. By that I mean that the game is probably meant to be played in short bursts of time. I play Odyssey in the same way I play Animal Crossing, in a very casual manner. I turn on the game for about 30 minutes just to kill some time, collect some moons and play around with its fun movement mechanics before turning off and heading out to do something else. Not that I think your points are invalid, I actually agree with most of them and I am not trying to make an excuse for poor videogame design, but I think that playing the game on a slow pace can make the moon collecting aspect of the game feel much more tolerable and less of a mindless and tiresome chore. Anyways, great video! I don't usually watch long reviews, but this one made 2 hours feel like nothing

11:25 they wanted long jumps to be easier, but didn't want long-jump-wall-jumps to be easy, so getting rid of it altogether makes sense. Also with cappy wall jumps can get crazy, so they had to reign it in a bit

29:55 My one counterpoint here is that there IS a drawback, in that all of the Mario powerups prevent you from being able to enter the smaller, one-unit spaces that little Mario can. You might be like, oh that's barely relevant, but I'm certain there are at least a couple levels in SMW that require this Also: this should have been a Kirby game. or a Wario game?

I can't understand people in this comment section saying "It's a guy complaining for two hours about a video game, this is just a waste of time". Do these people understand that games take years to develop? And video game design is a broad topic and has the potential to be discussed for hours and hours on end... Specially when you talk about the legacy of 20+ years old franchise like Mario.

I'm rewatching this video after watching a lot of other Joe's critiques and streams, so I understand Joe's style and personality better. The bait and switch at about 42:00 is just great, it's THE Joe thing to do, and I love it

AMAZING video. First time I enjoyed watching something this long in yt.

"I'm sorry if this seemed tedious to anyone who already played the game, but I figured if you have then you're already pretty used to tedium and shouldn't be bothered by it." GOD DAMN

Of course its no masterpiece.. That title goes to: SUPER MARIO BROS 2 BAYBEEE THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE MASTAPIEECEE #objectivefacts

That mushroom kingdom bit got me, I really thought that was a tutorial level, I'm glad I only watched Dunkey play this.

The virgin Mario vs the Chad Måërio

I think the moon vs. korok thing is the crux of the issue here. Korok seeds were kinda dumb and really repetitive, but the entire point of them was that you were never meant to get all of them. Your final reward is for collecting half of the total korok seeds in the game, which makes sense since BOTW has a massive world map and everyone is going to take a different path through it. Moons are designed like korok seeds but given the weight of the stars in the other games, which makes very little sense. In all of the other 3D Mario games, it's not unreasonable to collect every single star to get the full experience, but collecting every moon is just dull and repetitive. I think you can have a good time with Odyssey if you simply collect enough moons to complete the main quest, and maybe enough to reach the 500 moon ending. But there's really no reason to collect all of them, and that's a serious departure from what we've learned in all of the other Mario games to this point.

Dude... that bait and switch spiel about the Mushroom Kingdom being a beginning level.... friggin blew my mind. I'm one of the 2 people on earth that still haven't played the game yet, so that really took me by surprise!

@2:01-.-One could say… MaRiO NeVeR qUiTe MaDe ThE jUmP tO 3-D!!!!! (Internal Sonic fan crying.)

1:28:30 You can actually jump on him while he is in his spikey phase and end it early... There's a reason the spike on his head disappears while he's jumping around.

"If you played the game you're used to tedium and wont be bothered by it" Damn.

"Its Like having Chris Pratt as your online boyfriend" that's *REALLY* specific Joe, you want to talk about something?

As someone who really likes to complete their levels systematically and hates coming back to a stage to complete them after playing different stages, this game was soooo exhausting. I like it when I can complete a checklist, but not one where you go randomly through it and have to do things in the most inefficient way possible. Also, the gameplays was horrible, it didn't feel as clean as the mario galaxy games which I absolutely adore. I wish I hadn't spend the money on this one honestly, and it took me a long time to admit that.

i think the captain toad moons could've been so much more interesting simply by copying the idea for the levels from 3d world. When you talk to toad maybe you play as him as he recollects how he got to where he is now from the start of the kingdom. the kingdom may have to be built slightly differently but it'd be a nice bit of theming to his moons.

“It’s like having Chris Pratt as your online boyfriend” is my favorite analogy ever

This video summed up as simply as possible Why are two shrines devoted to throwing hammers at cheese

You make a lot of valid points but goddamn you're hard to please

This is perhaps one of the best critical looks at a popular game I've seen to date. Will definitely be watching more of your content going forward!

Just had to push it to the ten minute mark huh smh Edit: Holy shit thank you for so many likes

When you're only going to watch one more video before bed...

16:30 when you notice Joseph Anderson predicted the voice actor for the Super Mario Bros Movie

2:23 When he says he has played mario in 27 years he had 27 starbits lol

As someone who hasn't played the game the bait and switch with the Mushroom Kingdom WAS a masterpiece.

As someone who hasn't played the game, I jaw-dropped when you revealed the Mushroom Kingdom was in fact one of the last kingdoms rather than the earliest.

I agree that it goes for nonstop positive feedback, and that it isn't challenging. Those Dark of the Moon stages are a bit of a challenge though. It's really though just a refinement of Mario 64, whereas Breath of the Wild was something new. In Ocarina, every item was just a key. The boomerang hit switches that opened up doors, hookshot enabled the player to reach previously unreachable ledges and paths forward. BotW made the overworld the game, not just an interim between dungeons. You could climb anything. It was a breath of fresh air, and I had a better time with it than Odyssey. Odyssey really wasn't anything revelatory. It was Mario 64 with amazing controls and some visually fun areas. I will say that I felt very upbeat and great while playing it, but that was mostly due to the controls. That cap throw, air lunge forward, air cap bounce, air lunge forward combo move felt great to perform. I don't know how they do it, but Nintendo really makes it feel good to run and jump. Their physics engine or whatever you'd call it just feels really easy to use

I think this is a case for me of charm and very solid controls being all that is needed. I see and agree with your point of this game not being challenging, and not offering interesting gameplay scenarios. The game for me was more of a mario relaxing and charming adventure, than a platforming masterpiece. I would argue that instead of imposing challenging tests of skill the game incentivizes player expression, starting from playing dress up, but most importantly by not locking the player from geting moons outside of the intended method. And that is probably the most fun I had with this game, exploring the levels and trying to find ways of getting into difficult places using the tools available. It is a platforming sandbox, and in most sandbox games expression gets priority over challenge. It is funny how you compare it to breath of the wild, because I kind of have the opposite look on the games, I find breath of the wild to be more filled with padding, because most of the gameplay is walking or riding a horse, holding the stick up to the next shrine or to a bunch of repeated enemies from a surprisingly small pool of options. At least in mario Odyssey, even with the most simpler objectives of moving from point A to B, I am still engaged in the acrobatics and there are little improvements I can do to my movement to make it faster and more fun. In BOTW you are lucky if there is some terrain to slide with your shield or to glide, which is also not very mechanically engaging with little variation or optimization possible. I agree that this is a master piece of a kids game... but I don't think it is necessary to mention the target audience or to expect reviewers to specify. Each one measures success in their own terms, and critics in particular should strive to measure success beyond what they like and taking developer intention in mind. I can see how the marketing sold you on a different idea to what the game was, but I am not entirely sure if that is something to hold against the game.

This video is just an excuse for Joseph to confess his crush on Chris Pratt.

fuck the dislikes. I love the game but you have some very valid points. dog bless you joe

Wouldn't be a gaming video essay without comparisons to Dark Souls lmao.

You really talked about Chris Pratt and Mario years before the movie. Life is funny

I think a lot of people are disliking the video without even watching it first, I've already read too many comments complaining about "how mushroom kingdom is not the first level".

As someone who feels the need to collect EVERYTHING in a game, having to interact with every object just to check there isn't a moon seems like it would give me an actual nervous fucking breakdown

This video actually made me want to replay Odyssey. Lol.

Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 has still not been topped to this day. Odyssey might have better player movement but Galaxy wins in level design hands down.

At first I was like “why is he spending so much time on the moons?” And then I remembered that’s the whole game o_O

The video went over every type of moon but that wasn't good enough, I want a detail analysis of every 880 moon, the location, and how to get the moon.

I totally agree on the part about how they handled moons & fine tuning some of the controls/movements, however I can't agree with the negative views about the worlds... I feel like we've gone numb in this day and age, when I see the worlds in this mario game, I see experiments on tropes never explored before: Tostarena for mexican desert and latin america ruins, New Donk for big metropolis, Bowser for Japanese architectures, Shiveria for Norvegian/Irish pubs, Forbidden Island for Indonesian/jungle vibes... Sure, you could absolutely say that the "desert" theme has already been done in a mario game, but that's like saying that a city has already been done in gta, that's just a byproduct of the scope of the game, taking inspiration from real places in our world, with a twist. I would definitely agree on the "arena" kingdoms, just because I see a lot of lost potential and missed ideas, I'm sure however that was made because of development crunches. With game mechanics fine tuned and the structure of the base game already there, Odyssey 2 will be the masterpiece you were looking for, no doubt. Nintendo showed technical prowess, a great understanding on map design and variety with this game, not mentioning the attention to detail and the willingness to challenge what they have established with the past 15 years of mario games.

I picked this game right after its launch. I played almost all of it, but after my 500th moon, I just lost interest. I was never able to put into words why it felt so disappointing for me, while it was just a masterpiece for almost everyone else, and this video does just that. Thank you for that incredible analysis. Probably will dig for more of your content (and seeing this is from 2018, I hope you still make it lol).

Introducing a new Joseph Anderson-brand cereal: Mary-O's

just remember the words of a somewhat familiar man. He's not trying to retroactively convince you that you didn't enjoy the time you had with the game. if you loved it, great; if you liked it, great; if you didn't play it, great; if you didn't like it, great; if you hated it great.

Some people like doing mundane tasks (picking up unique moons) to achieve a satisfying goal (500 Moons, 700 Moons etc) and for them collecting a single moon isn't fun but getting every moon in a level until it has nothing to offer is engaging, and satisfying.

take a shot every time he calls Mario "Märio".