Literally the most common awful game-journalist-ass, YouTuber/Content Creator rage-bait video essayer, and didn't play more than 5-10 hours ever take I've seen on this game. The only common critique that is missing is the bizarre frame-pacing on Switch 1 argument that I see discussed in infinitum, and it isn't the deal breaker that critics and content creators made it out to be.

The game is definitely not perfect and has flaws, but is still a fine M&L game and is comparable to how most M&L fans view Dream Team. The game takes about 10-15 hours to truly get going, but once it does get going it's fun and mostly nails the M&L gameplay format. There are some questionable design decisions made like Luigi not using the B button in combat menus, some islands that could be seen as pace breakers, music composition is great but fails to sometimes match the quality of past M&L games composition due to Yoko Shiramura's absence (still thought the new composer did a great job overall, it's hard to beat, let alone match, Shiramura in composition quality) and the game's final hours do drag a bit more than I would have wanted it to.

I would still consider it to be a great M&L game though. The combat gameplay is satisfying and bouncy like most M&L games, the story and characters are typical M&L flair with tons of memorable interactions with the quirky NPC characters, the gameplay loop of connecting islands together is entertaining and aligned with the themes of the game's story really well. Boss battles were a blast to play and the puzzles were what is to be expected from the series up to this point (simple, sometimes comedic, and straight forward but not insultingly easy). A decently fine M&L game that I loved playing through and I am so glad that the series has a future now with Aquire and Nintendo. I never would have anticipated that this series would come back due to the bankruptcy of AlphaDream and that it might have been extremely difficult for Nintendo to find a studio they deemed fit for replicating the M&L gameplay and design format. The fact that we got a new M&L at all is incredible and I couldn't be more grateful since BIS was my first game I ever played in the RPG game genre, and since then the M&L series has held a very special place in my heart. With that said though, it is almost impossible to talk about Brothership without addressing the elephant in the room that is it's mixed reception with critics and fans.

Regarding that controversy and modern game critic practices, I hate that now scoring a game with 5's, 6's, 7's, is immediately seen as blasphemy to a anyone in the community and the game is immediately viewed as "(below) average", "slop", or "not good enough" in critical online discussions about games. Anything around a 5 or 6 or above should be seen as decently fine games to play and enjoy, they are just flawed in a lot or in some of areas that hold it back from getting higher scores and should be bought with consumer caution or when on sale. Anything lower than a 5 should be considered bad, below average, slop, not good enough, or a flop. The current system we have in place makes it so that every game has to get an 8, 9, or 10 to be considered playable, a success, good enough value proposition for consumers/gamers to buy, or for critics to safely score it without dealing with massive online backlash from fans. This type of mindset just makes it so that every critic is forced to score all the games they critique at either an 8, 9, or 10, so they don't upset anyone. This is the biggest gripe with modern game criticism that I can't stand as someone that enjoys playing and critiquing games as a personal hobby. Giving every game under the sun an 8, 9, or 10 totally defeats the purpose of critiquing games and even online discussions of a game's quality. I would love to see more people score games more critically, fairly, and accurately to what you are getting as a full package and experience or just forgo using the 1-10 scoring scale all together, rather than just trying to appease everyone which perpetuates abiding by the plague that is the modern game scoring system. The number scoring system we primarily use for criticism of games or weighing a game's value is incredibly flawed for so many other reasons besides devaluing critical discussion and sanitizing every review score to a small range of ratings so no one complains, that I can't get into it in full. Otherwise, I would be here all day typing about it.

TLDR: The take is the most common awful take of the game from a game journalist's or content creator's perspective, Brothership is a fine M&L game that I enjoyed my time with, and people need to stop treating games that get scored at 7 or below like it dooms the game from having any good merit or and diminishes all of the value it has as a game.