Paper Mario Series

[round robin]

It makes you wonder what will it take for them to kill Paper Mario. Mario and Luigi died because people stopped buying the games and the dev went under. Loads of other Nintendo franchises died due to far less.

Not gonna happen. Despite how flawed and soulless the new paper mario games have been they have sold outrageously well and aggregate scores have been highly positive, with Color Splash actually beating out TTYD in ratings.

Normies just somehow can't see how bad these games are, it's all just Mario to them.

 

[Vault Boy]

View attachment 1442709
I'm not sure if this is a potshot at how the games themselves use toads or trying to mock the fans who don't like the copy and paste nature of them in the series, either way it's certainly interesting

It'd be kinda cute if they didn't make generic Toads the majority of NPCs for the third time in a row.

Instead of poking fun at the problem, why not just, you know, fix it by making it more like the first two games?

Honestly, I'm not sure if I can call myself a fan of the series at this point. I loved the first two, detested Super, hated Sticker Star and Color Splash, and find myself disillusioned with how Origami King's shaping up to be. Throughout the series lifespan, I found that it has been lousy far longer than it has been good, and Nintendo & Intelligent Systems have proven to be focused on not giving fans what they want.

Maybe the next one will be in the original style, but we won't see that one for years, so...

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

Not gonna happen. Despite how flawed and soulless the new paper mario games have been they have sold outrageously well and aggregate scores have been highly positive, with Color Splash actually beating out TTYD in ratings.

Normies just somehow can't see how bad these games are, it's all just Mario to them.

I think it's less they can't see, and more they have never played them. They don't have knowledge to better compare why the newer ones feel dull and lifeless. While fans like us live in the past, and clamor about the newer games. I always wondered in ten or so years. Will the people who grew up on SS,CS, and OK, be like how we are now? If paper mario has another radicle shift in gameplay, and story. Will there be a group of people like us but for this second generation of Paper mario.

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Are there different towns at least? Any reference to other games or characters?

In a sense, yeah. If you define 'town' as an area with a bunch of NPCs and the full set of shops with unique equipment, there seems to be one in each chapter so far although they're generally small compared to the giant sprawl of the hub town which seems to have all of the main buildings, the combat practice area (with infinite puzzle mode) and the museum as well as a dozen or so houses and other things.

Another interesting thing I didn't realize until I started playing it rather than watching is that the areas work kind of like Soul Blazer, if anyone's familiar with that game. You enter a town and it's completely empty so you go into the dungeon/combat zone and as you save toads they trickle back into the town and become the shopkeepers and random NPCs. It's a nice change from them just being the numeric statistic they were in Paper Jam. The way the game hides toads is interesting too - they're often disguised as some bit of origami that you need to hammer the crap out of to cause it to unfold into a flat sheet of paper, which has the toad on the other side. Making flowers grow to attract an origami butterfly and then hammering the butterfly so it unfolds into a toad and having the toad scream at you that he can't fly anymore and hop around waving his arms with a pissed expression on his face is miles better than a shitty pop culture pun.

One of the most amusing ones so far is in a patch of half-buried toads who all make dumb puns or do the standard thank-you-mario rambling when you pull them out. The last one is just the tip of a hand just barely sticking out of the ground and when you pull him out, all he says is "They buried me deepest because I'm the one they're afraid of." before leaving.

As for references to other games, it's similar to Mario Odyssey. There's a smattering of random 'I get that reference!!' Mario stuff but nothing Paper Mario specific so far. There is a carbon copy of the Link's Awakening fishing game though, which is hinted to be a recurring thing and has a scoreboard for fish sizes.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

So its a fun game then? Just slow beginning

 

[Vault Boy]

In a sense, yeah. If you define 'town' as an area with a bunch of NPCs and the full set of shops with unique equipment, there seems to be one in each chapter so far although they're generally small compared to the giant sprawl of the hub town which seems to have all of the main buildings, the combat practice area (with infinite puzzle mode) and the museum as well as a dozen or so houses and other things.

Another interesting thing I didn't realize until I started playing it rather than watching is that the areas work kind of like Soul Blazer, if anyone's familiar with that game. You enter a town and it's completely empty so you go into the dungeon/combat zone and as you save toads they trickle back into the town and become the shopkeepers and random NPCs. It's a nice change from them just being the numeric statistic they were in Paper Jam. The way the game hides toads is interesting too - they're often disguised as some bit of origami that you need to hammer the crap out of to cause it to unfold into a flat sheet of paper, which has the toad on the other side. Making flowers grow to attract an origami butterfly and then hammering the butterfly so it unfolds into a toad and having the toad scream at you that he can't fly anymore and hop around waving his arms with a pissed expression on his face is miles better than a shitty pop culture pun.

One of the most amusing ones so far is in a patch of half-buried toads who all make dumb puns or do the standard thank-you-mario rambling when you pull them out. The last one is just the tip of a hand just barely sticking out of the ground and when you pull him out, all he says is "They buried me deepest because I'm the one they're afraid of." before leaving.

As for references to other games, it's similar to Mario Odyssey. There's a smattering of random 'I get that reference!!' Mario stuff but nothing Paper Mario specific so far. There is a carbon copy of the Link's Awakening fishing game though, which is hinted to be a recurring thing and has a scoreboard for fish sizes.

Would you say that classic Paper Mario fans like myself might like this game?

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

I'd say it's a good game and if you were a fan of the non-combat bits of the first two it's well in line with those. It's not perfect but it's a massive upswing from sticker star and there seem to be a ways to sequence break or at least go to areas you're not supposed to be at plotwise yet, ala TTYD. The worst part about it is Olivia, who never shuts up and is downright condescending with the level of 'help' she provides. If you could turn her off my enjoyment would go way up.

One small addendum to the last couple impressions posts: Once you get into ch2 there's a crapload of characters from other games including other paper marios and the sheer presence of them instead of the 20 basic mario staple enemies made me smile. Some of them are really obscure pulls too, like the crabs from the original non-super Mario Bros or the chestnut goombas from Mario World.

 

[Nauseated Courgi]

the crabs from the original non-super Mario Bros or the chestnut goombas from Mario World.

Their official names are Galoombas.

 

[Vault Boy]

I'd say it's a good game and if you were a fan of the non-combat bits of the first two it's well in line with those. It's not perfect but it's a massive upswing from sticker star and there seem to be a ways to sequence break or at least go to areas you're not supposed to be at plotwise yet, ala TTYD. The worst part about it is Olivia, who never shuts up and is downright condescending with the level of 'help' she provides. If you could turn her off my enjoyment would go way up.

One small addendum to the last couple impressions posts: Once you get into ch2 there's a crapload of characters from other games including other paper marios and the sheer presence of them instead of the 20 basic mario staple enemies made me smile. Some of them are really obscure pulls too, like the crabs from the original non-super Mario Bros or the chestnut goombas from Mario World.

I see, and how does the combat feel in comparison to the rest of the series?

 

[NerdShamer]

I see, and how does the combat feel in comparison to the rest of the series?

There can be several waves of enemies, apparently. But that doesn't look to be that huge of an problem, considering how fluid combat is. Essentially, it's easier than TTYD and Sticker Star.

As an aside, it technically isn't an open world game if you have to go through an loading screen everytime you leave an room. Plus, the good shit doesn't happen for an while; it's been 30 minutes and this guy I'm watching is wandering around in a forest.

 

[Ponchik]

Not gonna happen. Despite how flawed and soulless the new paper mario games have been they have sold outrageously well and aggregate scores have been highly positive, with Color Splash actually beating out TTYD in ratings.

while this isnt the most credible source on the planet, even if color splash got better reviews from big game journo outlets (who cares?) it sold like absolute dogshit primarily because it was exclusively released on a moribund console that nobody fucking owned. id like to think people avoided it because it was a halfbaked followup to an abysmal game that the vast majority of fans universally despise (including me!), but spm sold like hotcakes because it was on the goddamn wii and sticker star still sold better than the first two games because a. the 3ds was another popular console with a large install base and b. i dont think anyone could have reasonably expected it to be as wretched as it actually was.

tldr: game released on popular console = more copies of videogame sold

working with this logic im assuming that Orgasm King will sell tens of millions of copies solely because people actually bought into the fucking switch and theres been such a big drought of first party ninty games lately that theyll eat up fucking anything given to them. my point is that Kensuke Tanabe needs to be assassinated asap

 

[Marissa Moira]

You would probably at this point have a better chance at Square delivering a light hearted RPG, Trials of Mana succeeded in resurrecting the franchise.

Even fucking Gust looks like it's putting more effort into their RPGs than Nintendo.

 

[Just wandering]

Orgasm King

 

[Too Many Catgirls]

Ohhhh I feel it in my bones.

8.8/10 and it will earn it.

 

[Just wandering]

just 4 days ,wow time flow fast

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

I see, and how does the combat feel in comparison to the rest of the series?

Kind of garbagey but not as braindead as Sticker Star. A big part of it is that you can generally clear a fight on round 1 if you've got the right items to hit weaknesses (iron boots for spinies, etc) or you're willing to use consumables, so more often than not you don't get to see unique enemy attacks. The counterpoint is that you only get maybe a dozen fights per major area.

The boss fights are more fun though and you get more than one per chapter. In those, mario's on the outside. the boss is in the center and most of the ring segments have icons on them. You shift them around and then insert mario onto an arrow which starts him moving in that direction obeying the commands on the tiles. It's still a puzzle but it's more enjoyable since setting the board up right can send him though attack multipliers and healing and such before he ends up on some form of attack tile, and the bosses all react differently based on his position relative to them, distance and attack type. All but the very first have some unique way of messing up the board before movement starts too.

The one other type of combat is stupid as hell and rare: you fight giant paper mache versions of normal enemies on the map by hammering them on weakpoints. This is boring, lasts 30 seconds at most and happens like maybe once per chapter.

 

[Vault Boy]

Kind of garbagey but not as braindead as Sticker Star. A big part of it is that you can generally clear a fight on round 1 if you've got the right items to hit weaknesses (iron boots for spinies, etc) or you're willing to use consumables, so more often than not you don't get to see unique enemy attacks. The counterpoint is that you only get maybe a dozen fights per major area.

The boss fights are more fun though and you get more than one per chapter. In those, mario's on the outside. the boss is in the center and most of the ring segments have icons on them. You shift them around and then insert mario onto an arrow which starts him moving in that direction obeying the commands on the tiles. It's still a puzzle but it's more enjoyable since setting the board up right can send him though attack multipliers and healing and such before he ends up on some form of attack tile, and the bosses all react differently based on his position relative to them, distance and attack type. All but the very first have some unique way of messing up the board before movement starts too.

The one other type of combat is stupid as hell and rare: you fight giant paper mache versions of normal enemies on the map by hammering them on weakpoints. This is boring, lasts 30 seconds at most and happens like maybe once per chapter.

Would you say that the reward for random battles is better than SS/CS, or is it more viable to avoid them again?

 

[NerdShamer]

So, what's the going rate for those specialized attacks and healing items?

Because this game hands out money like Halloween candy and there ain't a store in sight.

@Vault Boy it pays well

 

[ducktales4gameboy]

Random battle rewards are just money which ramps up based on waves (number of enemies on the map pulled into the fight) and if you managed to do the puzzles and avoid taking damage. You get between 250 and 600 on average, >1K if it's a 3-wave fight.

As far as I can tell if you find one special attack in a box/chest it becomes permanently buyable from one of the shops. As of start of chapter 3 the most expensive one I have available is like 1500? iirc, but accessories range from 2000 to 6000 and there's an early game event where you need to buy a plot item from an auction for 10K. There are also single-use items like tanuki tails and fire flowers and pow blocks that are really situational and I'm not sure if they're renewable since aside from the fire flowers they don't show up in the regular shop. They might be in one of the other towns though, I haven't really backtracked at all and there seems to be a bunch of optional stuff in every area.

Healing items are super cheap aside from 1ups, which are just the zelda fairy of the game and cost 3000, iirc. Enemies can and will hit you for over half your mhp per turn if you mess up your timed block, so most of the time healing's a thing you do outside battles since using your turn to mushroom yourself will result in taking more damage than killing enemies and tanking.

I've never had to grind so far but I've ran out of items a few times, mostly to areas with tons of enemies weak to one special type that I wind up using every fight.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

They got the TAS of TTYD any% below 2 hours now. That pretty crazy.