the Paper Mario clone you've been dreaming of

Once upon a time, Paper Mario and The Wolf Among Us fell in love and had a baby called Escape From Ever After. Having inherited all of its parents’ best features, from quirky cardboard cutout characters to magical fairytale vibes, this heroic turn-based RPG is a dream come true for players who like their plate of whimsy served with a side of strategic head-scratchers. Going corporate has never been more fun than in this indie game from Sleepy Castle Studios and Wing-It! Creative.

Taking on the role of valiant human hero Flynt Buckler, I began my Escape From Ever After adventure by entering the lair of my nemesis, Tinder the Dragon — only to discover that the castle had been taken over by something far worse than a fire-breathing reptile: A greedy megacorporation. Gone were the stately halls of old; they’d been filled with cubicles full of hard-working fairies, gnomes, unicorns, geese, and — is that Pinocchio?

Image: Sleepy Castle Studio/Wing-It! Creative/HypeTrain Digital via Polygon

I had little time to be confused, as the receptionist, Red Riding Hood, recognized me as a main character and promptly sent me to the regional branch manager. To my surprise, Mr. Moon offered me a job at Ever After Inc. I thought this was awfully nice of him, seeing as I didn’t bring my resume, but when I politely declined the offer, Mr. Moon said he “didn’t have time for deluded lunatics” and threw me in the dungeon.

Guess who my cellmate was? None other than Tinder the Mighty Dragon, a.k.a. my nemesis. Long story short, Tinder was forced to wear a collar that turns her chibi (and possibly a bit cranky), but she really is a nice gal underneath that draconic exterior, so we decided to team up against Ever After Inc. The strategy was this: Get a job, climb the corporate ladder, and bring the whole place down from the inside. Luckily, our job interview convinced Mr. Moon to forgive any past transgressions.

Flynt Buckler has a job interview in Escape From Ever After.

As I felt Escape From Ever After‘s introduction coming to a close, this was the moment of truth; would this delightful weirdness progress into an engaging story? Well, as my first assignment as an Ever After Inc. employee (intern, to be honest) was to travel into “The Three Little Pigs” storybook and stop the locals from interfering with the pigs’ real estate project, I’d answer that question with a “yes.” I expected the pigs to be the heroes of the story, but as soon as I saw their straw barricade around the construction site (fireproof straw, I’m told) and met the most adorable Big Bad Wolf I’ve ever seen, I knew this storybook would be full of surprises.

One of the Three Little Pigs in Escape From Ever After.

No, I don’t understand why the wolves won’t sacrifice their cute village for high-rise apartments either — you’d think they’d take the one-year 5% rental discount, wouldn’t you?

From this point onward, exploring Escape From Ever After‘s colorful world became more eventful. I was free to explore every cottage in the wolves’ village (the one that was supposed to be bulldozed), and the quest objectives were far less clearly defined. I love that “find the mouse” doesn’t come with additional instructions or a quest marker; it makes it all the more rewarding to finally discover the grumpy mouse stuck on a windmill. I also encountered more environmental puzzles from here on out, many of which were seriously challenging but never so hard that they became frustrating.

You may assume that battles formed a large part of exploration, but that’s not necessarily the case. Like the Paper Mario games, Escape From Ever After mixes turn-based abilities with real-time commands. To successfully dodge an incoming attack, you must press the action button at the right time, just before impact. Your own attacks also require button prompts; for example, if you press Flynt’s buckler just before he catches it, he’ll throw it again — up to five times, depending on the attack type. And if you use The Big Bad Wolf’s musical attacks (he’s our friend now), you must press a button sequence.

Wolfgang uses his ability to solve a puzzle in Escape From Ever After.

Although I love the variety, only about half the action prompts I’ve tried so far are truly entertaining; as they require concentration and skill, I’m rewarded with a strong sense of satisfaction when I get a perfect dodge or double-throw. These, however, are the timed action prompts. The untimed ones, like Tinder’s fire-breathing attack, only ask me to hold down a button for a few seconds — this doesn’t require skill, and therefore feels like something I just have to do, rather than something I like doing.

While we’re on the topic, one of my gripes with turn-based games is being forced to fight the same kind of minor opponent repeatedly. Such simple battles, usually with a predetermined winner (namely me), are only entertaining the first time around; I don’t wish to repeat them. It was a relief, therefore, when I realized I could not only flee from minor battles in Escape From Ever After, but skip them entirely by evading the enemy. In the first story chapter, much of my exploration was done with an angry rainbow-spewing unicorn on my heels. I’ve got to admit that avoiding fights messed up my leveling progress, but the ensuing struggle against the far more interesting boss enemies was worth it.

A player enters combat in Escape From Ever After.

The first battle that felt like a serious challenge was against three incredibly impolite mice in Ever After Corp’s dungeon, at the end of the introduction. For the first time, I had to think about my moves; how to knock the enemy back, burn their shields, make them switch positions, and remembering to avoid using melee attacks against spear-wielders. Flynt excels when range is required, and Timber shines brightest when wooden shields need burning. Clearly, finding the right character and attack type to match the enemy is key to victory in Escape From Ever After.

The Three Blind Mice in Escape From Ever After.

My only problem with this boss fight is that it took too long to get there. Although Escape From Ever After‘s story and aesthetics were strong from the start, it took roughly 45 minutes to encounter the three mice and more than two hours to team up with Wolfgang and find the first batch of environmental puzzles. Granted, I took my time exploring the world, but this start was a tad too slow for my taste.

That said, I would’ve continued playing Escape From Ever After even if the combat and exploration hadn’t grown more intense, because the story is that good. Satirizing late-stage capitalism and putting a new spin on old fairytales are nothing new, of course, but Escape From Ever After does it in such a funny and surprising way that I can’t complain about it. The cranky dragon, the evil piggies, the hippie wolf; almost every fairytale character is quirky and hilarious. Flynt Buckler, the protagonist doomed to play the standard hero type, may be the only exception.

Flynt helps a fairytale character in Escape From Ever After.

As if there’s not enough to do already, Escape From Ever After is packed with side activities, such as decorating your office (working for an evil corporation has its perks), embarking on weird side tasks (I fixed someone’s desktop by turning it off and on), and chatting with literally anyone. All such activities are accompanied by a jazzy musical score that makes me want to throw Flynt’s buckler aside and defeat Ever After Inc. through a dance-off instead.

As long as Escape From Ever After keeps enabling my conflict-avoidant tendencies, I will not leave this fairytale world behind. Who needs employment benefits and a risk-free work environment? I came to Ever After Inc. hoping to find some magic — I found plenty and then some.