We started this chapter being confronted with the reality that Mario has an afterlife and now we are in it. After long enough, we came to accept that... and then got the Luvbi reveal.
7-1, as the game officially considers it (if you check your Chapter log while in the Underwhere but before putting the Pure Heart in the Heart Pillar, you'll notice the game does register the Underwhere as 7-1), is a thorough introduction to the afterlife, with all the bells and whistles of the Greek version of the myth, and also introducing us to the characters of Jaydes and Luvbi. Jaydes is exactly the sort of person I'd hope to see at the top of the afterlife's structure- strict, but fair, running a tight ship, and ready to help when she is needed. Although we find ourselves on the wrong side of her judgemental gaze- showing up with a dead Pure Heart when she knows full well her daughter happens to be one does tend to do that- we can help her clean up her plate, get her help, and then get out of her hair. And then the next part comes along and we turn out to be after Luvbi next.
Luvbi being the Pure Heart changes so much about how the chapter opens, but then it takes a complete backseat. Jaydes sends us to the Overthere, and it turns out that the mechanical need for opposition takes the form of an unrelated crisis involving the release of Bonechill and the Skellobit Army, which can distract us... somewhat. In reality... neither Luvbi nor the Skellobits are given spotlight? 7-2 is taking place under heightened security because the Skellobits are on the loose, but we don't see them until 7-3 and we also don't really treat them as significant enemies in and of themselves there, either? When they talk, they are fairly replaceable minions, and they only really do so when they're threatening Nimbis that are the real interesting part of the conversation- at least as far as the game's concerned, because the Nimbis are hardly much more involved characters either! Rebbi is the only Nimbi who gets a second scene, and what they're like and how they bounce of Luvbi doesn't have much to do with anything.
Luvbi herself only has so much to go on too. She constantly teases Tippi about her crush on somebody- and later Mario and co. with Peach before she gets angry about her- while complaining about her own romantic prospects. Her constant pining for love is likely foreshadowing her role as an actual icon of love, but considering the breadth of loves one can have, Luvbi isn't particularly interested in demonstrating herself as being a diverse lover. She constantly berates everybody, showing little patience for not getting her way. Sure, she's competing with Peach in regards to being a pure little angel, but it's hard to consider this girl as really having love as her core when it's her distaste that shines. Ironically, this might have been smoothed over if we got the Luvbi reveal sooner- perhaps if Luvbi was somehow made aware that the end of this journey would demand her death would cause her foul temper, and our progress through the Underwhere and Overthere would help her come to terms with it. Not that there's much on the path she could use- that's an entirely different story that needs an entirely different Road, Stair, and Overthere to accommodate it- but it would do the job of the childish spat at the end of the chapter far better than something that jolts you out of the world of the afterlife and into the real world of how real parents and children come into conflict.
The afterlife itself, after the initial shock of "Mario died and went to hell" wears off, is... well, kinda an afterlife in name only? The Shaydes disappear after 7-1, leaving the Underwhere Road full of D-Men whose job is to maintain it, and 7-4's Nimbis, who less resemble the departed souls of the living and more resemble a distinct race of cloud people. There is very little about the way 7-4 happened that would have to be told differently if these people weren't God, Satan and angels, but instead Parakoopas, their tribe leader and the Ruined Dragon coming to tear the place down (not that the Ruined Dragon is the go-to for "things that fit in Mario games", but compared to Satan...). Even the things that are based on actual elements of the afterlife, like Cerberus and the three Fates, are played more for laughs than they are evoking the imagery of their original counterparts. It's hard to demand more from a game that ought to have reconsidered doing it at all, but if you're going to get Mario in the afterlife... you might as well go whole hog? This is never going to happen again.
Mechanically... this is a chapter that's full on platforming. The enemies aren't the problem- not that they ever really were- but this place is full of tricky navigation, with two tall levels to fall down and have to do over and then a third area that's a samey maze. If you're good at the game, this needn't be too bad. If you're less good... this is going to suck. When Mario games get harder, they usually demand more skill for similar levels of investment- levels don't get longer, they get harder. And honestly... I'm not sure I'm seeing that from the layouts of Chapter 7. It's more true in Chapter 8, but Chapter 7 isn't too hard to navigate from a skill sense, more of a navigational sense. And navigation is not a skill Mario considers too essential. The only complicated levels in Mario games- the Ghost Houses- are about navigating the tricks and traps, less knowing where you're going. Even by adopting the nature of Mario as a platformer, Super Paper Mario is drifting away from what Mario's platformers are all about.
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