Mario & Luigi: Trouble Cleft

Mario & Luigi: Trouble Cleft
Developer(s)	Fritez Franchise
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Genre(s)	RPG
Release Date(s)	TBA 2015

Mario & Luigi: Trouble Cleft is the fifth installment in the Mario & Luigi series and the second for the Nintendo 3DS. It is an action RPG as the player interacts with the battle even while attacking and dodging enemy attacks.

As all Mario & Luigi games have their own specific theme, the new theme is based around music. Mario and Luigi end up getting trapped in the Soundsphere, a mysterious world where sounds from the real world become living creatures in this world. Peach is also playable in the Real World and goes on a concert tour as she has perfected music and has battles similar to that of Paper Mario's, involving a stage and audiance.

Story 

Proluge: Major Setbacks

Upon mastering the art of music on her keyboard, Peach announces she'll preform at a concert and  invites Mario, Luigi and a huge amount of Toads to have a huge noisy music fest around the Mushroom Kingdom. But both brothers decide to stay outside the castle expecting Bowser to appear to crash the concert. Luigi eventully gets tired after being on gaurd for hours and falls asleep but Mario stays up and peppy thanks to his headphones which are playing rock. Sure enough, Bowser with a noticable tanooki tail appears and a battle commences without Luigi.

After the battle, Bowser flees and flies away using his tanooki ability. Suddenly, Luigi starts moving and gets up, oddly his eyes are closed and even stranger, his mouth has opened to reveal an eye. A mysterious being appers out of nowhere and is using strange magic on Luigi. The strange being intoduces himself as Scilence and makes Luigi chant mysterious ancient words but nothing happens. Scilence is annoyed that the chant did nothing and unhands Luigi and uses Mario's voice and chants the same thing, and yet nothing. But Luigi now truly awakened becomes extremely scared and attempts to run into the castle to get help but Scilence uses magic to block the gate's entrance. A battle commences verses Scilence & Scilenced Mario.

The battle is over and Luigi wins unhanding Mario, but Scilence simply gloats as it did nothing to truly harm him . Knowing that the brothers had seen him, Scilence can't have them tell the story to the whole Mushroom Kingdom so he tells the brothers to 'be scilenced" and is about to destroy them with powerful magic. Suddenly a mysterious music-note like being appers, shattering space itself like glass creating an opening and dragging the brothers into it, closing the void right before they are hit by the magic.

But the whole time, Bowser had hidden behind a tree, the Bowser that Mario battled was just Fake Bowser and Bowser had created it to see how he whould fare against Mario this time and what improvements he whould need to make. But he wasn't expecting the riot that Scilence had created, but insted of cowering away after the incident he decides to stay a while to see what Scilence will do afterwards.

Scilence angers on about how his sister "wasted her powers on two useless beings" to send them to the Soundsphere.But Scilence is slightly comforted beacuse he says to himself any loud or scary sound in the real world that sinks into where they are in the soundsphere could finish them and his sister off, especially during the loud festival and says he shouldn't worry about it then leaves, shedding a tear due to a seceretive sorrow saying he'll be forever stuck with the curse If he doesn't find the voice.

Bowser comes out from the tree he was hiding in and picks up Scilence's tear. It veiws a strange world and Bowser spots Mario and  Luigi inside the view. Based on what he had easedropped, the tear indeed veiws the Soundsphere. Bowser also remembers that Scilence had said any loud sound could finish the brothers off and a genius plan hits him.

Bowser being a suprisingly good composer could write songs that create visious monsters and play the songs close to where Mario & Luigi are in the sound world. But then Bowser realizes theres a flaw to his plan beacuse he cant play music well. Then he glances at the castle window and notices Peach, playing music with skill and being cheered on by the crowd and has a great idea. Bowser retreats into his shell and emerges weating a red tuxedo with a yellow bowtie.

Bowser walks over to his airship which is completely camoflauged. When he walks in his troop asks what improvements he needs to make and they suggest things such as bill blasters, swords and other dangerous weapons. But Bowser tells the Koopa Troop to suit up in tuxcedos beacuse he has a plan that will help him beat the Mario Bros and kidnap Peach. One of his Troop members laughs at his command but gets punched into the skies and the rest of the Koopa Troop don't hesitate. He also orders his newest minion, Steam Punk to build clockwork replicas of the Mario Bros.

Bowser's plan is to gain Peach's trust, flatter and her to convince her to go on a musical world tour to player her music around the world on his airship. But the real reason he's doing this is to compose songs that create dangerous monsters in the sound world and then go to the location in the Mushroom Kingdom that matches up with the same location in the soundsphere the bros are in. Then have Peach play the music to create a monster to defeat the bros in the sSoundsphere and kidnap her afterwards.

Then Peach along with the entire crowd of Toads come out of the castle gates after the concert is over, and first notice Bowser which sends them all into panic. But Bowser moves quickly and grabs a Music Box and opens it to make calming music play that calms down everyone and bowser thinks to himself that somehow the music could effect the Soundsphere as an added bonus. Bowser dazzles Peach and flatters her saying he loved her music but is never welcome and needs to make it up to her and offers her the tour, at first all the Toads completely disagree but when Peach agrees they all join in and so the tour begins. Bowser also left the music box on the ground, still playing calming music.

Battle System

Mario & Luigi: Treble Cleft is an action RPG as the player interacts with the battle even while attacking and dodging enemy attacks. For example, when the player attacks if they press A right before hitting an enemy it does more damage, or when being attacked the player can jump to avoid the attack. These actions are known as Action Commands and each move has a certain way to power it up to do more damage. For example when using a jump attack, pressing A before the player lands on an enemy will cause them to jump again on the enemy to deal more damage.

This battle system slightly changes in gameplay depending on who the player is playing as. Throughout the game, the story will change roles from Mario and Luigi who are trapped in the Soundsphere to Peach who takes a tour around the Mushroom Kingdom and where the tour travels is controlled by Bowser after gaining Peach's trust beacuse he knows the Bros are lost in the soundsphere and learns that having Peach play certain songs can trigger horrible monsters (the game's bosses) to defeat the Mario Bros.

Eventully both the Bros meet up with Peach in the location in the Soundsphere that corrosponds with another location in the Mushroom Kingdom and help guide Peach by making objects in the real world make sounds to get Peach's attention while she also makes sounds that turn into enemies in the Soundsphere. The battles in this type of gameplay are known as Team Battles where Mario and Luigi perform actions in the bottom screen to enhance Peach's musical attacks so the attacks on her enemies do more damage mhile attacking the enemy on thier screen.

Both campaigns of teams also gain EXP (Experiance Points) when they defeat enemies in thier battles. When enough EXP is gained, the player levels up which increses thier stats and allows them to pick one stat they want to boost a bit more than the others. The tougher the enemy defeated, the more EXP obtained, althoughe enemies start to give up less EXP as the player levels up.

Bros. Battles

To trigger TBros. Battles, the player will as usual need to run into an enemy. However , the players can't see enemies but can hear thier sounds as they sneak up and as it gets louder In these battles, the player plays as the duo Mario & Luigi each having thier own HP (Health Points) and BP (Bros Points). During the entire battle with the exception being when they attack, they can jump at anytime. Pressing A will make Mario jump and B will allow Luigi to jump. When it's one of the Bros. turns, a circle of 5 blocks that represent battle actions circles them and the player can rotate the blocks to have one block directly over their head and when the player wants to select the action they simply make the bro jump and hit it.

The battle actions include
Jump and Hammer which are two formes of atatcks with varying effects
-Bros Attacks which are attacks that cost BP and have both Bros. use teamwork to preform a move that can be extremely powerful if preformed correctly
-Items which allows the player to use an item, each item has varying effects to benefit the player, however there is a twist to using items, each Bro has a special ? Block Backpack that requires the item of choice to be prepped for one turn and on the next turn the other Bro can hit the Block to use the item. If another bro isn't present, when an enemy attacks the player can turn around at the right moment to have the enemy attack the block which makes the item come out, but the player must rapidly press B or A depending on which Bro or else the enemy will steal thier item. 
-Run which allows the player to run from a battle taking no EXP and dropping 1/4 of thier coins

The newest feature to this battle system however, is the Beat. In each battle a four note beat will constantly play that will not only make the idle animations dance to it but also effect the action command. For example if the player uses the Jump attack and when they land on an enemy, they can tap the attack button to the beat to countinually jump on an enemy. Bros attacks also use this mechanic in a huge way, almost all rely on the beat to be repeated correctly in order to do huge damage.

Some enemies will even be effected by the beat, for example a Beat Goomba, similar to a beat block can appear and dissappper when a full round of beats has played. Some enemies will even effect the beat such as casting spells on it when the player attacks to make it play faster, adding extra notes or even reversing it when the player attacks.

Peach's Battles

To trigger Peach's battles, the player must simply run into an enemy, but if Peach jumps on a n enemy and plucks it before battle she can throw it first thing in battle. Her battles are very similar to the battles in the Paper Mario series, taking place in a stage and having an audience. This audience consists of Toads and is more important than the one in the Paper Mario seires. Peach has a special keyboeard that can play from five different categories of music to summon creatures and NPC's to attack the enemies

-Pop which is capable of making cheery characters apper which will preform cartoonish attacks
-Metal which will summon characters and objects made of pure metal to heavily damage enemies.
-Country which summons the power of nature as well as animals
-SoulCalm songs to summon characters that may heal Peach.
-Retro which has a selection of songs that summon familiar characters.

There is no limit to how much Peach can play one song, no limitaions such as SP. However, instead there is a picky audiance. In order to use any song, Peach must have a big enough audience, stronger attacks will always require a larger amount of audiance at a time. Each Toad in the audiance will have a different colored cap, which is important because each color represents a ganera that Kind of Toad color likes. For example a Red toad likes Pop music and when it's played,a ll red Toads in the audiance applaud and make it so more Toads a varied colors join the audiance. However, each toad color also has a ganera they dispise, making all Toads of that color leave.

When the audiance is full, Peach can play special songs known as Symphonies, where she calls up all Toads in the audiance of a desired color and have them form into an instument to do huge damage on an enemies, and the more of that color there is the more damage the attack will do.

Actions

Battle Actions

Character	Description	Actions	Description
Mario		Jump	The brother jumps on a desired enemy. If the player presses the brother's attacking button after they land on the enemy to the beat then they will repedeately jump on that enemy to the beat.
		Hammer	The brother runs over to an enemy and smashes them with thier hammer. If the player presses the brother's attacking button to the beat before they hit an enemy then they will gradully pull the hammer backwards before hitting the enemy.
Luigi		Bros Attack	These attacks allow Mario and Luigi to use a special item that reqiures thier teamwork and puts the beat to use. The effect varies on what Bros Attack is used.
		Item	Allows the player to use an item, each item has varying effects to benefit the player, however there is a twist to using items, each Bro has a special ? Block Backpack that requires the item of choice to be prepped for one turn and on the next turn the other Bro can hit the Block to use the item. If another bro isn't present, when an enemy attacks the player can turn around at the right moment to have the enemy attack the block which makes the item come out, but the player must rapidly press B or A depending on which Bro or else the enemy will steal thier item.
		Escape	Allows the player to escape the battle gaining no EXP or rewards from the battle. But in order to escape the bros must run to the beat or the Escape will Fail.
Peach		Pluck
		Appeal
		Song
		Item
		Escape