#if i could make a game it would either be like Paper Mario 64/ttyd or Sonic Riders (original)

[exerlin]

there is no new "Sonic Riders"-like game, so will learn how to make art, music, and video games to fix that

#bnuny thoughts #i only jest a little #if i could make a game it would either be like Paper Mario 64/ttyd or Sonic Riders (original) #i might be able to focus on coding now that im no longer in danger of being homeless #i haven't been in danger for about a year now but i needed a hot minute to get my brain back together #anyways once i get a vyvanse prescription expect a track that sounds like it's out of a riders game #i can not properly express how much that game's soundtrack pokes my ear holes just right #i can't hear u over the sound of me automating the shit out of the “acid” filter

[evajellion]

2020 vidya ranking: #1 Bug Fables The Everlasting Sapling

You already knew that I was going to tell you that this was the best game I had played last year.

Imo, this should have been indie GOTY back in 2019, but whatever, I guess I should explain why I ranked this one at the top.

Back in 2004, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was released. I had sadly missed out on getting the original game on the Nintendo 64, but I was nonetheless very excited for the sequel. I got the game, still have my copy even years later… aaaand I got confused in Rogueport Sewers because I was a dumb eight year old, but I swear I picked up the game a second time. Got through all of the chapters, and had fallen in love with the game.

I loved the characters, the battle system, the story, the chapter progression, the cooking system, even the hidden lore and the amount of side quest scattered throughout the game. I even cried. It was the first time I had cried over a video game.

I wanted more, but then, Nintendo didn’t do it again. Sure, Super Paper Mario had a fantastic story, and a lot of people treasure that game the way I do TTYD-- I wouldn’t even mind if the series stayed in that direction. After that though?

Well, Sticker Star happened and stripped away all of the things I loved. Two similar games and one spin-off followed after that. Needless to say, me and several other fans of 64, TTYD, and Super weren’t happy about it. Seemed like I would never get another game like the one that was so dear to me ever again.

Cue me finding Arlo’s video about a cute little game called Bug Fables, just around the summer time. It had come out in 2019 and had been in development for some time by an indie studio. I was skeptic, but at this point I wanted anything-- besides, I actually love insects.

And after the first two chapters, which were a bit bland, I found it. I found the game I had been looking for. I was so afraid that this would be another Mighty No. 9 or Yooka-Laylee, but Bug Fables was anything but. Sure, it took inspiration from Paper Mario with its gameplay structure, but saying that this game is “just Paper Mario” doesn’t do it justice, because game can stand tall on its own.

I loved just about everything here in the same way I loved TTYD. Characters (except for two), the battle system, the story, the chapter progression, the cooking system, the hidden lore and the amount of side quest-- and there was even more than that.

“Gee what did Bug Fables have that Paper Mario didn’t?”

More than one super boss

A card game

Three party members in battle at a time

An entire side quest chapter that you can miss

An in-game randomizer

Higher difficulty settings

FREE DLC

Actual quality of life improvements

And finally, a villain who doesn’t just get a mere slap on the wrist as punishment for their actions. It’s one of the things Super did far better than TTYD because Beldam being let off scott free in the ending always pissed me off as a kid. The final boss is less ham-fisted in general too.

You have three characters at all times-- they’re your only party members and the only ones you need because they’re all perfectly balanced: Kabbu, Vi, and Leif. The third of which you won’t even meet until a bit into the first chapter. You don’t have to worry about wasting turns by switching your members out in this game.

The story starts off simple with the team of three collecting artifacts for Queen Elizant II, who seeks the Everlasting Sapling for an unspecified reason. About half way through the game and into the fourth chapter, the tone of the situation begins to shift, as the wicked wasps from the Wasp Kingdom also seek these artifacts for their lord.

This game doesn’t skimp out on being accurate to bug details either, there are little nods to how things work in real life, which is something I always appreciate. There isn’t really a dull moment in the story or a second where you feel stuck, because with the amount of Medals you get, there are plenty of strategies you can play around with.

Bug Fables is also… surprisingly dark, which perhaps isn’t unfitting of a game inspired by Paper Mario, given the direction TTYD and Super would get into. I can’t really spoil anything in regards to that, because much like with Three Houses, I would rather someone experience that themselves.

In terms of the flaws in this game, I can only think of two. One is regarding a terrible Flappy Bird game that’s required for 100%. It just shouldn’t be there, or at least be easier on the eyes.

The other is that this game suffers from having too many characters, when only four of them get actual character arcs: The main trio and the queen. You have some characters that get more fleshed out in side quests such as fellow team members or NPCs, but I feel like other “major players” suffer in the process.

Neolith is a big one. Cute nerdy moth who just exists as exposition for the artifacts and is a part of Kabbu’s backstory, but he never really does anything besides that, which is disappointing because he’s very cute. I would have loved more lore to him and Kabbu’s past, maybe a future DLC quest can solve that!

Your “rival team” also suffers a bit in this department. The team leader, Mothiva, is a snooty diva who never properly gets her comeuppance or realization that she needs to stop making everything about herself. I guess that’s the point, to give that vibe similar to old Pokémon rivals. But we’re supposed to believe she’s an official couple with her partner; Zasp, who just seems to simp for her in a one-sided way. Perhaps this could also be fixed with another DLC quest.

The worst of the bunch is Kina, Maki’s overly protective and possessive sister to the point of it being creepy. Unlike Mothiva, who is your rival, Kina is supposed to be a supporting cast member, yet she has even less likable traits. She stalks her brother and constantly wants to be with him, gets upset at the idea of him needing space, threatens a small caterpillar character-- you could remove her from the story and it changes nothing. There’s not even a backstory reason for her to be the way she is.

Mind you-- these are very minor nitpicks that don’t really bog down the game. Some may say the main villain of the game suffers from this as well since he shows up halfway into the game, I personally think he was handled perfectly, because you can piece together his motivations and backstory through lore.

Speaking of lore, I hope with so much in this game, that we end up getting a sequel. There are so many questions left unanswered, so much more I wanna know about! 

Other than that thought? The trio of Kabbu, Vi, and Leif and their story is just about perfect. I can’t thank Arlo enough for introducing me to it, and I think this game will catch on more in the future since Chuggaconroy said he was playing it on Twitter, and Fatguy just completed his LP of the game.

I think… we’re entering an age where we should start expecting this level of quality from indie developers more often. This game didn’t feel like an indie game, it felt like a grade a RPG. Which is funny, because that’s what Paper Mario used to be.

God speed, Paper Bug devs. Keep up the good work in the future, thank you for bringing back a feeling I thought I’d never experience with a video game again. I know it sounds cheesy and stupid, but that’s.. just how much Paper Mario effected me back then. Even now, it inspires the books I wanna write, and it’s safe to say Bug Fables did the same.

By the way, can I talk about how delicious some of the food items look in this game? This is insect cuisine, and even I would eat these.

For recap on what the other games I had played this year were, just so you know how Bug Fables topped ‘em:

2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

4. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

5. Super Mario All-Stars

6. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and The Blade of Light

7. Final Fantasy VII

8. F-Zero

9. Star Fox

10. Puyo Puyo Champions

#bug fables

[kinglarrykoopadx]

My top 10 all time favorite characters

10. Captain Basilisx (SMBZ)

One of the few redeeming factors of SMBZ, Captain Basilisx is one of Bowser’s more threatening forces. An incredible badass who’s better than Shadow the Hedgefart (fight me) that has Medusa’s gaze and is the only one out of Bowser’s army who canonically kills Mario in the og series (the Reboot does not count, it does not exist to me). And his theme song, like god damn, that remix of Show No Tears from DMC3 is a banger. The only reason he’s this low is cause Basilisx is a one time character. His debut episode, The Great Doomship Offensive, was his final episode because Carl Marx Haynes refused to put him in the reboot, so thanks a lot, Alvinlaskan Bullworm.

9. Rosalina (Mario series)

Is anyone surprised she made it to this list somehow? Rosalina first appeared in the masterpiece of a game, Mario Galaxy. She watches the Comet Observatory and was accompanied by thousands, scratch it, millions of Lumas. They did her dirty in Mario Galaxy 2 by reducing her appearance to a cameo in the base game, and 3D World made her a straight up playable character to wash off the disrespect. She’s pretty much the only Mario princess that I adore. Pauline’s not my type, I despise the hell outta Peach, and Daisy is too sassy for my liking. Why she is at number 9 is that I don’t like her as much as I used to. Don’t get me wrong, I still liked her, I just don’t like her as much. Still a decent Mario character though.

8. King K. Rool (DK series)

Another case of Basilisx, he’s basically if Goofy from Disney tried to be Bowser. He’s many things. A boxer, a king, a scientist, hell even a pirate captain. His goal varies throughout his appearances. In the first DKC game, he wants to hoard all the Kongs’ bananas. In the 2nd and 3rd, he plotted revenge against the Kongs. In 64 is where he’s most serious, cause he wants to BLOW UP DK ISLAND with his Blast-O-Matic. he’s a wacky one, but that’s what we all adore from him. The reason he’s this low is that he’s another case of Basilisx. He’s underused as hell, he and the Kongs haven’t batted eyes in years. And truth to be told, I really wish he’d stick around. The villains we got in the recent DKC games are just generic as hell. Tiki Tong is Knucklotec but before Odyssey happened, and of course the Walrus is the main villain of Tropical Freeze. How anti climactic.

7. Blaze (Sonic series)

While I stated before that my faith on Sonic sinks as deep as the Mariana Trench, she’s one of the better Sonic characters. She’s the anti Sonic where while Sonic is social, caring and all about action, Blaze is an introvert, has no friends, and plans ahead. Kinda like everyone in 2020 when you put it in perspective. She has incredible fire powers and is the guardian of the Sol Emeralds, the Sol Dimension’s Chaos Emeralds, which looked like the Royal Rubies/Savvy Sapphires/Equable Emeralds from Dragon Quest. At first, she was hostile towards everyone except Cream, but in the end of Sonic Rush, she had character development and grew fond of everyone. She’s one of the best Sonic characters, and Sega did her dirty by pulling a Basilisx. Seriously, Generations was her last appearance, not counting spinoffs.

6. Metal Sonic (Sonic series)

In the Sonic series, Metal Sonic was the chad to Sonic’s virgin. He was first introduced in Sonic CD, as Sonic’s faker, who strived to be better than Sonic. And can I just say that Metal Sonic is 99.9% better than regular Sonic, despite Sonic kicking his ass multiple times? Safe to say that the scrap brain has acheived his life’s purpose (hohoho-) . He has speed that outmatches Sonic, can overheat his circuitry to catch up with Sonic when he’s far behind, but the biggest highlight was when he turned to flying metal godzilla. And his theme songs never cease to disappoint. Stardust Speedway is a banger and What I’m Made Of. Dear god, WHAT. I’M. MADE. OF. If you never smiled hearing this, don’t even speak a single word, cause you’re an alien and I’m calling the FBI. The only problem with him is he’s another Blaze/Basilisx. His last official appearance was in Generations, not counting Forces cause he was a hallucination at the time, and Mania was made by Whitehead and not Sega so it doesn’t count. The only reason he’s higher than Blaze is because I prefer him over her.

5. Vivian (TTYD)

In this tumblr, I normally trash talk TTYD, but now, let’s talk a positive from the game. Someone get me the bucket, cause after this section, I’m gonna barf. Anyways, Vivian from TTYD is by far the most developed out of the TTYD roster. We get glimpses of her being abused by Beldam and eventually in Chapter 4, she has a change of heart and joins your party, practically defying her purpose in life. She also has a wide array of useful attacks. Shadow Fist being her neutral special, Veil which is basically Bow’s Outta Sight, Fiery Jinx which inflicts Burn, and Infatuate which confuses enemies with a kiss (might as well call this The Thousand Kisses Door). The reason she’s this low is cause she’s not exactly my favorite female character in paper Mario, she’s rather the 2nd best.

4. Koopalings (Mario series)

Maybe I watched too much Bowser’s Koopalings for this one, but shut up, this is my list.

3. Bowser Jr (Mario series)

Bowser’s spoiled son here takes the 3rd place for multiple reasons. One, look at him. He’s adorable. How could you hate him you soulless pricks. Two, he’s smart as hell. I mean it’s evident since his debut, he literally framed Mario and got away with it. And mind you, framing someone for a felony is not easy. Takes years of planning, lawyers, hiding of evidence, and did I mention lawyers? And it doesn’t stop there. Unlike Bowser who normally uses brute force, Jr here uses all sorts of tech to keep Mario at bay. Megahammer, Mecha Jr, Boomsday Machine, you get the idea. Third, his father son relationship with Bowser is adorable as hell, seriously, HOW DO YOU HATE THIS GUY.

2. Olivia/Bobby (Origami King)

It was hard ranking these two individually but then I decided to put them both in the same tier. First up, my favorite Paper Mario character, Olivia.  She’s basically a precious sunshine baby and if you dare lay a single scratch on her, I WILL BE FORCED TO TRAVEL THE WORLD AND BACK TO FIND YOU AND WHEN I DO, THEY HAVE TO MAKE ANOTHER COFFIN FOR YOUR FUNERAL. Yeah, her hints usually don’t help and I can see why there are people who hate her, but that’s what kids do, and I don’t even wanna see how an Olivia hater parents his kids. I just assume they donate them to an orphanage or something. I was kinda sad to see her go honestly, she was the only one travel companion out of the modern trilogy that I feel actually matters. And now, we have Bobby. He’s basically a Bob Omb who was a passenger of the Princess Peach (the narcissism, I know) until Olly took over and he eventually lost his fuse and memory. He doesn’t do much in battle, but his story arc is his spotlight. Eventually, he got his memories and the fuse he kept as a memory for his fallen bestie, which means it’s time to say goodbye. I know some TTYD fanbitch is gonna question his death because “aLl bOb oMbS sUrvIvE aN explOsiOn” but listen. Bobby isn’t a special case like say, Bombette or Bobbery. He’s just a regular factory made Bob Omb, which means he’s gonna die should he explode. And not gonna lie, that was one of the saddest videogame moments I experienced in my life. I almost cried, true story, and it takes a lot to make me cry. Olivia’s despair doesn’t help either. He was a valiant hero, a chad, and most importantly, he was a FRIEND. The reason they’re not on the top is because there’s one surpassing the two of them, and all who know me know who he freaking is.

1. Bowser (Mario series)

I mean, c’mon, who else would it be? He’s basically the supreme chad to Mario’s virgin. He’s one of gaming’s most iconic villains and he deserves that fucking role. He’s incredibly badass, like look at Giga Bowser and Fury Bowser and tell me he’s not the icon of awesome. If he’s not, don’t speak to me. Hell, even Pyrrhon from Kid Icarus Uprising acknowledges his badassery, if you’ve seen Hades’ Misguidance Season 2. He’s also crazy powerful, being able to conquer entire galaxies and punch out castles, TWICE. He even punched an entity of darkness to oblivion once. And did I mention he’s an incredible parent? He’s one of the most complex Mario characters, and that’s why we love him, is it not? For me, this is rather the case of rooting the villain more than the hero. And if I get judged for it, then so be it. I wish one day for a standalone Bowser game (Inside Story does not count) where Bowser beats the shit outta Mario. I salute you, King Koopa, you don’t need a crown to be my ruler, my throne’s already yours.

#mario #sonic the hedgehog #donkey kong #paper mario #olivia paper mario #bobby paper mario #paper mario ttyd #vivian #koopalings #bowser #bowser jr #smbz #king k rool #basilisx #blaze #bowser's koopalings #metal sonic

[catgirlcourtjester]

Going off of the new Paper Mario trailer, I will be making a post about all we know about the battle mechanics! (and other game mechanics in general)

So in the trailer we get a small glimpse into the battle mechanics and it appears that the enemies will be on rings around Mario and he has to spin them around to line up enemies in certain patters to maximise the damage dealt using your moves (for instance, lining enemies up in a row will help your jump as you can jump on all of them in a row).

It also appears you will be timed which makes sense. Now, looking at the arenas it appears that the audience from TTYD has made a comeback and all our battles will be watched, however we have yet to see if they will have any effect on the battle like in TTYD or if they are just there for aesthetics. You may also notice in that second picture that it says shiny boots, which may make some think the sticker/card mechanic is in this game as well however I don't believe that is the full picture. You see, on the Japanese website we get a video of the battle mechanics and although I can't read Japanese it appears that we will have infinite jumps and hammer moves just like the first 2 games.

Again, I can't read it (however if you can then it would be greatly apreciated if you could translate it!) but I see nothing that seems to indicate that there are limited uses of your moves as there is no number near them and that menu looks too small to have a ton of different stickers/cards/whatever to be housed in it. Now, I do think there is something like the stickers/cards in the game but they will be more like consumable items to power your attacks up instead of being your attacks themself. I'm not sure what the other tab in the battle menu says but I think that could be where you go to if you want to use one of these items, which is where that shiny boots pop up came from in the second pic. Personally, this seems like a good blend of the old mechanics with the new and I think it could be very good if done well, so I think the battle system seems to be pretty interesting from what we can see! The Japanese video also showed off how the rings will work and it appears you select the ring you want and either you move it with a limited number of moves (which the first pic implies) or it moves at a pace that is determined by the enemy/ies on the ring.

Another thing to note in this picture is that there seems to be buttons for different things. I'm going to assume the B button is possibly for running or canceling your current action to think more/select something different, there appears to be a prompt for the X button which seems to be the origami creature that will follow Mario on his adventure, and a prompt for the Y button which has a toad on it so that could be what the audience is for. I'm sure those prompts are very obvious if you actually know what the words mean however right now all I can do is guess. The last thing regarding the battle mechanics that I can see is that there's a 1-up mushroom that is sometimes up by the health counter which could possibly be an instant revive meaning we can only have 1 revive on us at a time which would make harder fights a bit more interesting. With the battle mechanics squared away, I also wanted to talk about some interesti g game mechanics that you use in the field. First is what appears to be Marios arms turning into origami which allows him to reach things he couldn't before and could possibly make him stronger as well.

If I had to guess, I'm thinking this powered is given to Mario by that origami partner he has. It seems to be activated by those weird hand circles on the ground and we can see one use of it being to rip that cardboard down, which between the sound it makes and the possible hd rumble integration will likely be very satisfying. The hand in the circle also makes me wonder if different symbols can appear in them which will transform Marios body in different ways, similar to the wooden panels in TTYD. So like, it could have a picture of a foot which will turn Marios legs springy and he can jump all over the place or something. It seems to be an ability that has lots of potential. There also appears to be mechanics based on land travel like riding around in a boat or car.

The boat also seems to have a prompt to return to a Town so it's very possible that this is how you travel to the new areas that have a path to the ribbons which seems very fun! That boat picture also appears to have an island that seems to not be important so it could very well open up for a lot of exploration and finding little secrets, which I am quite excited for! Lastly, it appears that there are also minigames which we can see two of, one being a possible fishing minigame and the other being a minigame where we travel downstream on a boat following the blue ribbon (kinda similar to the one level from kirby 64)

Who knows what more could be in store! That was pretty much all the battle and field mechanics I could find, personally I am very excited to see how the battles work in detail and the extent of the exploration in those traveling areas. I have also written an analysis on the story and will be writing another one on the environments so I recommend you check those out!

#paper mario #paper mario the origami king #mario #nintendo #long post #again sorry for not having the read me #tumblr mobile sucks :/

[bluedino15]

LONG, BIG, POINTLES RAMBLE ON PAPER MARIO THE ORIGAMI KING FROM CLASSIC SERIES FAN (SPOILERS)

Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Hey everyone, this is like the first Tumblr post I've made in like 2 years outside reblogs. Basically I just made this a Tumblr post so that I wouldn't have to make a twitlonger or 300 tweet thread for this incredibly long pointless ramble that's getting posted elsewhere. Don't expect this to be a regular thing from this account. I just have many WORDS to say about this series.

Basically, this is a long rant/discussion on my mostly negative feelings on Paper Mario the Origami King after having just beat it 100% (not 102% because that's dumb) as well as a few positive things this game does because if I don't get my thoughts out somehow, I'm gonna burst. Before that though...

DISCLAIMERS:

First and foremost, none of this is meant to discredit people who genuinely like Origami King. You are not a worse person for enjoying this game and your enjoyment itself is not some mistake or insult. I will admit that part of my frustrations with this game originate from things fans had said to me beforehand. Still, I don't believe any of these people were wrong for their enjoyment of this game itself.

Second: I do not believe that anyone involved in the production of this game is a bad person or actively trying to ruin my childhood or anything like that. These people are trained professionals who clearly were trying to put in effort into this game and who have been involved with good projects before. I DO have to challenge some of the game design choices made, and in particular I will be bringing up the producer Kensuke Tanabe because it is incredibly hard not to in the light of some interviews, but I do not wish harm or failure on any of these people. I just really wish they'd either change design philosophies or work on a different series

Third: this is not a professional dissection of the game/series. I can't claim any of this to be "definitive, objective, correct" takes and I've never seriously studied game design or been involved with the process. Even in the context of this ramble, there are times where I might bring up tidbits from certain interviews without an image or citation, and I can't claim this is organized or precise. I just, really need to ramble out my thoughts on why, regardless of whether it's an "objectively good" game or not, Origami King disappoints me.

Fourth: I completed this game in the 7 days between Christmas and New Years, and during it I was sometimes listening to streams/videos and worrying about some IRL problems. While I can say that certain negative responses to this game might have been heightened by these factors, I don’t believe I played the game in a manner so intended as to miss the core experience

Five:  This is a LOOOOOOOONG post. Honestly, part of me doubts anyone would actually take the time to read all of this, but I suppose it’s just therapeutic to let it all out. If you’re really willing to kill your time reading my thoughts, then read on.

Now for the actual post

PROLOGUE (AKA the background on Why I'm feeling THIS strongly about a vidja game, and which maybe you should just skip if you wanna see my thoughts on the game itself)

The classic paper Mario games (64, ttyd. And super) mean a LOT to me. Thousand Year Door is one of the first games I remember playing, while 64 and Super were some of the few games I ever managed to beat as a kid. My reasons for liking these games has changed since I was a kid and I've replayed them all 100% in the last 4 years so I like to believe my appreciation for them goes beyond "nostalgic fan who can't grow up and see the problem" (because there ARE problems with them), but I can't deny that might play a part. Likewise, sticker star remains a monumental disappointment for which my frustration with only grown since release, while I avoided color splash for years until I could get it at a discount in 2019, and while it's definitely a better game than sticker star (as in I could have actual moments of fun), it didn't change the fact that the Paper Mario I had known and enjoyed for years still wasn't coming back.

So when Nintendo in 2020 just suddenly dropped a new paper Mario trailer with that appeared to still make a lot of the same mistakes as the modern games or kept things vague enough to be unclear until a week before release. I was between miffed and scared. When what I heard post release confirmed that one of my main problems with the last game (the battle system) still hadn't been "fixed" and people I knew who shared my opinions on the paper Mario series said it still made a lot of the issues I had with previous games, I could not justify giving Nintendo the money for it at full price no matter how much of a "good game in its own right" it was. 

In fact, I actually bought Bug Fables in an act of pseudo-spite ("Nintendo and Intelligent Systems won't make the game I've been asking them to make? Then I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and buy a game that I hear actually continues the paper Mario formula") after the trailer disappointed me and I had my initial disagreement with other people. And while I will praise that game for its own Merits since it is a GREAT indie game with a lot of content for it's price that I will plug, at the same time I cannot avoid discussing it alongside Paper Mario. That game wears the classic paper Mario inspiration on its sleeve and it's clear that it was made by fans of those games partly FOR fans of those games who spent years 15 plus years waiting to a ttyd gameplay follow up. Bug fables wasn't ever meant to be in direct competition to Origami King; I can't blame Origami King for not being Bug Fables because it's clear it doesn't want to do the Paper Mario things that Bug Fables wants to do, and I can't say that Bug Fables is "the true Paper Mario Thousand Year Door sequel" (even if it DOES feel like a gameplay follow up I had waited years for). But part of the impact Origami King had on me was undoubtedly affected by my experience with Bug Fables (given that Origami King led to me buying it), and whether that dulled or heightened my negative feelings I can't say myself. I just know that if I hadn't experienced Bug Fables, then my feelings on what Origami King represents for the continued existence of classic Paper Mario gameplay would be different. (side note: I know that some people hate when they get compared in this context but again, Bug Fables is clearly using classic Paper Mario as a basis for it's own gameplay, and I don't see that as making it "Just Paper Mario with bugs" so much as "hey, let's use a style of gameplay that's been proven as good to a lot of people and we want to see ourselves, and add our own twists and additions to it." I think that makes it its own game that classic Paper Mario fans are the likeliest to get enjoyment out of/find out about, and given its importance to my feelings on Origami King I had to mention it. I will avoid making comparisons and going "see, bug fables did it better" but it's part of this story)

For a year I heard people say stuff like "oh you just want a carbon copy of ttyd" or "just accept that old Paper Mario is dead" or "wow the game doesn't have experience points so it means no grinding" or "come on man the music is so good and the writing is so funny and these characters are so good, just enjoy the game on its own." I know half of these were never directed at me personally. I know a lot of these views came from people who either hadn't experienced the classic games (understandably given Nintendo's... Behavior when it comes to older games and everyone's limited time to enjoy stuff) or had different taste. I know that there wasn't anyone who was liking origami King as a middle finger to the classic games. I know there WERE some overzealous classic fans who got nastier than they should have and it would have made fans of origami King and or people with no interest in the game either way go "wow you're being ridiculous." And lastly, I know none of that should impact the game itself, especially after years of being an Undertale fan and being on the other end of "I haven't played this game but too many people talk about it in a good light and I know it doesn't fit my taste so I dislike it more" and feeling how unfair that was. I guess it's just, with how near and dear ttyd was to my heart (as well as the other classic games) and how disappointed I had been in the previous games, to see so many people just seem to dismiss those problems, dismiss so many missing aspects that made paper Mario special to me or praise stuff I just couldn't see the appeal of--it got to me more than it should have. And when I saw interviews with Tanabe and snippets that appeared to confirm my fears about the negative direction of the franchise, I got mixed up feelings inside. “Can I hold my beliefs on this game without actually playing it, even if I judge based on everything else I CAN access?” “If some people can get so much enjoyment out of this, can I not argue with them without experiencing the game for myself?” “Can I enjoy this game on its own merits or is the lingering feelings from the classics too much?”  This ramble isn't meant to discredit any of those people who liked the game or their own enjoyment of it. I disagree with them about the overall quality of this game and I probably find more fault in it then they do, but I don't intend to prove "hah you're WRONG." I can't even say it was wrong of any of them to vocally say why they liked this game and thought the hatred was overblown or ttyd got too much love or anything (though I think some people were just a tad too judgmental with the "classic fans refuse to touch it because it's not THEIR game" sentiment as well as the "just suck it up and deal with your your favorite games being gone" thing), but had it not been for those feelings I got from those comments, I would not be emotionally charged enough to be here, writing a 5 hour post on this game.

In short, there was NO WAY I was going to come into Origami King with an open mind, and perhaps I was doomed to dislike the game. At the same time, if part of my reason for playing this game is that Nintendo/Intelligent Systems want to label this as part of the Paper Mario series with no obvious distinction from previous games (classic OR modern) in the title and another part is that one of the most common mantras defenders had was “you aren’t giving the game a chance because you like the classics so much,” then I think it’d be impossible to NOT bring in some bias. So, after getting Origami King half off pre-owned (because I’m not paying Nintendo for it), what were my thoughts? Well....

THE POSITIVES (with a dash of negativity still)

Overworld Layout

“see that streamer? you can follow it”

If there’s one thing Origami King (and to a lesser extent the Modern trilogy as a whole) has that definitely beats out the classic games, it is the room/overworld level design has definitely improved over time. TTYD (and to an extent 64) does have a chunk of just hallways or big hexagon rooms, and while I don’t think those are a BAD thing, I would love to have wide open areas or focused designs from areas like Picnic Road or Shogun studios which feel organically unrestrained by map design, if that makes any sense. Seriously a big wide open rogueport would be super fun to explore. They do give the world some organic feeling and If anything from this game stuck around in a classic style game, it would easily be this. The navigation of, progression through, and locale design are all different matters we’ll get to in a bit, but at least the rooms do feel more organic 

Art

In a way, this is more of a “you did about as good a job as the classic games and you have the advantage of hardware” thing admittedly, but I would still be remiss to not mention the quality of the art. I still do have a preference for the old character designs which didn’t have the slight choppiness white outlines shouting out “I’M PAPER” (curse you paper jam), but for what they’re working with, they ARE very competently put into the world; the lighting, colors, and paper details are well done. It’s hard to make it sound good, but the world does succeed at being very “pretty.”  

Convenience

Origami King is a VERY user-friendly game, not just for people trying to beat it, but for 100% (except for a few challenges but that’s usually inevitable for 100%). It gives you access to fast travel/warp points as soon you get to both ends, it gives you a number of tools to find hidden blocks, treasures, toads, and hearts (except for that BBQ clam toad) for 100%, and generally tries to give the player an “easy way out” option for puzzles. While said “easy way out” thing might also be part of my least favorite part of the game (The combat which we will get to), Origami King at least is trying to make sure your experience is clean. While the classic games did have their own tools to help you progress and find hidden goodies, I think I would give origami king a slight edge. The only MAJOR thing I think it’s missing is something like the emergency pipe from Super Paper Mario for whenever you ARE stuck away from any warp point (Even if in Super it was more of “the one way to leave a world without beating the fourth level of it,” tool, that doesn’t change how convenient it is and do have to say Bug Fables used it to a great affect), but otherwise at least Origami King won’t waste your time backtracking.

THE KINDA-POSITIVES (as good as 64/TTYD/Super/ and/or At least better than Sticker Star or Color Splash and also actually fun)

Locales

“The origami king gets an origami castle lair” isn’t surprising but it DOES feel pretty unique for a Mario location at least

After Sticker Star forgot what a locale outside of NSMB was, and Color Splash kind of course corrected with the military base and train, Origami King probably does the best of any modern Paper Mario game at making original locales. there's still a healthy dosing of "grass, desert, sea, jungle, sky, lava, castle" that the NSMB era of Mario couldn't get enough of shoving down our throats as well as some relatively standard elemental temples, but at the same time you also get stuff like "a theme park based on feudal Japan in an autumn forest,” “heaven spa service ran by not-angel toads that degrades into jungle but credit where its do for the first half” and the Origami Castle While I still think TTYD and super have origami King beaten in terms of creative world concepts (photonegative forest, techno space bases, Greek Underworld and the void itself), at least Origami King is making an effort to avoid in total indulgence of standard level tropes 

Overworld Navigation

I think this might legit be the one optional vellumental spot in the game

Since that might sound a bit weird, when I say “overworld navigation,” I basically mean “how it feels to move around in the overworld gameplay.” While I think the levels have a more organic flow than classic Paper Mario, Controlling Mario himself is.... mixed. I feel like the combination of partners, boot/hammer upgrades, and (in ttyd) curses in the classic series gave a great sense of your ability to navigate the world constantly evolving as each one let you do just a little bit more on the spot (except for sushie, the airplane, and the boat), to the point where you have about ten different options at a time in each game and could usually use most to get some way of a premptive strike on enemies (koops, bobbery) or avoid them (bow, flurrie), or a way to increase overworld movement (lakilester, yoshi kid). While you could argue that each partner/new abilitiy was essentially a multi-use “key” for different overworld puzzles or areas, I think the game does a good job disguising that by either giving most of them optional uses in toad town/rogueport, the secondary traits listed above, usage in battle, and the fact that you can use most of them at any point so it doesn’t become too obvious that they are “meant” to be just keys. In addition, by tying the partner abilities to their actual characters, it doesn’t just feel like “mario get the ‘bomb wall’” ability so much as “mario got a new friend” when you get Bombette. In origami King, the only things Mario can consistently do when he wants is jump, hammer, confetti throw (which only ever has one purpose), and talk to olivia, with the magic circles (the closest thing to evolving abilities) being glorified “keys” for different areas. While perhaps it could be argued that this allows for puzzles that can focus more on the jump and hammer abilities, I find that in practice the game never tried to do anything interesting with either of them outside one puzzle in the ice vellumental mountain, otherwise the overworld puzzles are incredibly standard. As for the magic circles, the 1,000 fold arms get maybe one puzzle in Origami Castle where their use goes slightly beyond “keep grabbing until the game says you win,” and the vellumental power ups are keys used pretty much exclusively for plot progression, one hit kills on trash mobs, or their.... puzzle inclusion in bosses which I will have a lot to say about. The closest thing to an active feeling of evolution is the professor toad and super marino abilities and even then, both are closer to extra keys found in their respective areas. The game never feels like Mario’s really getting new ways to get around or solve puzzles. I wouldn’t call the lack of moveset evolution INHERENTLY bad in a game--for example super mario RPG has mario stay the same from start to end in terms of overworld abilitiy and he’s fine, and at least the vellumental circles are SOMETHING compared to sticker star and color splash, but I think the partners and equipment upgrades/curses added a lot to what made paper mario’s overworld style unique.

Overworld Progression

While the previous entry refers to mario’s overworld abilities, this refers to how movement to movement from plot feels like in the overworld. It is refreshing to see the game not only return to making each area be part of a wider single world as opposed to levels (Even if a certain showcase called it a new feature to the series when it’s very much not), but also to see how you can move directly from world 1 to 2 to 3  and 4 to 5 to 6 without needing to stop in the Hub world (well kinda anyway for the progression of the yellow streamer). Not only does it make the world feel more interconnected and alive, but it also gives each area its own flow. It’s even neat for when you get to the yellow streamer and need to visit the Princess Peach in the purple Zone early, when otherwise there was very little “interworld hoping” between the other games (except for color splash which I have to give more points to here with how there you pass through the first purple zone level to reach the big blue paint star or how one red star level isn’t accessed until the green paint star arc, though it also loses points for how it’s confusing there).

And because it’s unfair to avoid mentioning it, yes, it avoids the backtracking problem that TTYD had (though there’s still a 64 level of  “walking back and forth through an area multiple times”, just not TTYD levels) 

Olivia and Olly (and story since it’s pretty much focused on these two)

Aw look at the imitations of them after they both perished and Olly almost brought about Toad Genocide... wait what?

While most of the characters are in the “Kinda-negatives” category, I have to give Olivia and Olly this spot for a lot of reasons 

First, Olivia is a good “floating fairy” type partner that the series has been using since super/sticker star. She’s probably got the most growth of any character  and it is kind of charming (if a bit cliche) to see her learn more about the world around her while genuinely doing her best to help and be nice all with the enthusiasm of a child. I have to In addition, I have to give the developers credit for being willing to outright kill her off in a way that is genuinely a little sad. Although I don’t like the vellumental system, it IS cool to have her turn into a giant turtle/dragon/phoenix/bear. I would personally prefer to do without “we’re really emphasizing they’re made of paper” gimmick of modern Paper Mario in general, but in spite of that her design does manage to work really well as something you’d expect to see in Mario while still feeling new.  While she still ranks the fifth lowest (it’s hard to beat the classic goombas or tippi for me, and Huey has great “bro” energy that I just find more appealing in a character even if he’s less developed), Olivia is no less of a good character for it; it’s not a hard goal to beat but Olivia is still MILES ahead of HER.

Awful, disgusting creature known only as Kersti.

As for Olly, I think he’s the second/third (depending on if count bleck and dimentio are counted together or not) best MAIN villain in the franchise (even if his competition includes grodus who is incredibly generic, the shadow queen whose just “ancient evil,” Bowser with no lines, and brainwashed bowser with a few lines). While he doesn’t get the constant inter-chapter exposure that 64 Bowser got, he does make up for it by at least having a pretty imposing presence in his two scenes before chapter 6 (messing up peach’s castle in short order whilr planting seeds that makes you and bowser on the same side for the whole game technically, and crushing his own sister) and the fact that he turned peach into his wall and was planning an effective Toad genocide  genuinely gives him a genuine sense of menace without being too generic and it comes from a unique backstory and motivation than most paper mario villains even if it’s mixed in with a bit of generic villain attitudes. And, while it’s minor, he has a unique design that, again, feels like it could be at home in mario aside from the origami thing. Overall, he’s a decent enough villain to watch and makes for a good threat. The only things about him I seriously dislike is his final boss fight (will get to that), and that his his initial reason for his villainy stems from REFUSING TO ACTUALLY LOOK AT WHAT SET HIM OFF HIS PATH, which I’m mixed between thinking it’s tragic and thinking it’s incredibly stupid (if it had been a genuine scribble that he felt so ashamed of he used that lock of hair to cover it, I think it would have been a bit more effective while still INCREDIBLY petty to a horrifying level).

Also that his hatred for toads feels like a borderline case of “we recognize people don’t like this and we admit it, but we’re doing it anyway and making complainers look bad.” Perhaps If I hadn’t been spoiled on it, it would have hit harder, but as is it just feels a bit mocking from the devs. Even if it’s just a coincedence and/or pseudo apology, it doesn’t feel much better given it doesn’t seem likely to actually change in the future.

Maybe Olly would have an easier time accepting toads if they were voiced by KMK

Music

Probably my hottest take on this stupid long rant. For all the hype I heard about this soundtrack for a year and a half, one of the most well liked osts in recent Nintendo history?

it’s okay I guess.

I am willing to partly chalk this up to the distraction thing mentioned above keeping me from hearing any song totally raw, but at the same time, the way people talked about this game’s soundtrack I expected banger after banger, and this soundtrack did NOT deliver on that front even though I wasn’t listening to other stuff most of the time. Now to be clear, it is still a perfectly GOOD soundtrack--the music never felt wrong or ill-fitting, I could see the effort put in, and I guess it’s kind of neat how the battle music changes for areas and scenarios, and maybe if I listened to it again I’d find more stuff I love. As is, though, the only one music that REALLY stood out to me was Shogun studio and Maybe origami Castle and olly and the scissor battle music. It’s more than I can give to sticker star but I had just about as many if not MORE favorites from Color Splash, Super, 64, and TTYD (which I almost never hear people praise the music for). I feel like on some “objective” level origami king probably does have a more technically competent and/or impressive composition, and both ttyd and super have soundtrack styles that put some people off so it’s definitely a matter of taste for which I’m in the minority, but it just feels so weird hearing about what I expected to be some Undertale/Deltarune level soundtrack and just getting “yeah this works well”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atfF77M4msI (It is a REALLY good song at least)

THE KINDA-NEGATIVES (”You Improved from Sticker Star and Color Splash while still managing to make mistakes and somehow that makes me more annoyed”)

The Writing/comedy

“The Shy Guys are in tutus dancing to a real world song in punk form. Laugh”

Maybe it’s unfair to put this in the “kinda-negatives,” but I still don’t QUITE get the love for this writing. Like, it’s color splash levels of “we’re only making FORTY percent of our jokes about being made of Paper instead of EIGHTY PERECENT of them” but it still gets old. I won’t say that I groaned at every other joke (the blooper at the sea border with a massive sign did get me to chuckle), but I feel like there’s a decent chunk of humor writing that, for lack of a better word, isn’t subtle? Like the classic games never shied away from humor and some of it (or at least the official english translations anyway, maybe its different in Japan) have shades of “this is what the kids find funny right?” but I feel like there’s some level of “trying to hard” to be funny? like “oh look the inanimate object is alive and has a personality trait isn’t that quirky” or “the shy guys have a massive quiz show in the middle of the heaven spa that suddenly appears.” There’s always been elements of “wow wacky/quirky” in the games but origami king’s just, doesn’t feel magically better somehow like some people seem to say, and I just don’t see how any of what’s on display is substantially funnier than the previous games beyond trying to cram in MORE jokes per text or scene. At least the game does take a bit more time to stop and take itself seriously than Color Splash did, and it tries to do ONE non-origami sibling character seriously, but I still can’t see it.

But I also am the type of Person to laugh at “Kris get the banana” which is its own brand of “quirky random comedy” so I’m probably not the right person to make this complaint.

World Building (THE LORE)

I love your music and aesthetic, but why do you exist in this world?

This is an aspect of classic Paper Mario that not too many people talk about, but part of why I love those games so much nowadays is the world building. There is a LOT of realtively hidden lore in the games: Goompa and koopa koot used to be an adventuring duo, the black chests in TTYD are all the previous heroes who sealed the shadow queen, Count Bleck’s minions have suggested backstory and entire offscreen war happened. It didn’t explain literally every location and character but it did a lot to leave the world feeling living and breathing place with its own history.  Now Origami King does TRY compared to “Suddenly I remember I was built to trap the black paint because it’s bad” Color Splash/ it tries so hard in some spots like “oh this ancient toad king built the desert kingdom with riches from oil and was a member at the heaven spa, and captain t. ode was a thief who stole his submarine” and it does try to give a background to Olly’s Legion of Stationary and the history of Origami techniques (though it doesn’t say WHY the fold of life or 1000 cranes should have been infamous PRIOR to the mess creating Olly). At the same time it only vaguely explains the Vellumentals at best (Like I think they’re tied to the shangrai-spa somehow but no idea how beyond the tower puzzles involving them). And then there’s Shogun Studios. I love everything else about that area but there is NO explanation for why there’s a feudal Japan theme park. Was it a historic place that used to be an actual kindgom? Some ancient samurai or shogun characters who had a cool history and inspired a park? even just an owner who somehow in-universe came up with all this stuff on his own?  I can see places where the devs are clearly trying to do something special but also places where it just seems like “we’ve got a level and character because we need one as an obstacle/course”

TTYD also lot of subtle nods to places and people from 64 like mentioning zess. T is tayce T.’s sister or how there’s a rat NPC who dug for oil in dry dry desert off screen and met the people Mario met. I don’t necessarily think Mario needs to have some MCU level “everything is connected” thing but it’s a nice thing for fans to see this stuff and go “oh yeah that,” and Origami King just, refuses to do any of that. Like peach’s castle could share its layout with the 64 castle or maybe Parakarry once again delivers a letter to start the game but nope. Even for the modern trilogy, the game seems to want to actively avoid continuity. For example, there’s a female chain chomp named princess who tries to attack Mario in Shogun studios if approached without a bone, and in Color Splash there was a giant female chain chomp affiliated with bones ALSO named princess. As far as I know, there is nothing to imply these two identically named similar behaving characters are somehow related, no line like “I have a friend on a faraway island who has his own chain chomp named princess” or anything at all. I know it does not at all matter but it feels like somehow Nintendo is scared to let there be even the most minor of continuity to explain it. 

Characters

Remember how I had to give a seperate positive page for Olly and Olivia? yeaaaaah about that...

I think before anything else is said, this line from an interview with Tanabe is INCREDIBLY important to understanding what the character design process has become for Paper Mario

Pictured: The greatest Threat to the Mario Brand to have ever existed according to Nintendo Marketing

The most this team has been able to do is maybe put a bit of an outfit on some toads. if you read other interviews, it becomes incredibly clear that the character process has become.... constrained to say the least, and Origami King’s character philosphy is perhaps the point of the game that pisses me off the most besides the combat. The sad thing is, it’s an IMPROVEMENT to sticker star and origami king. For a start, let’s look at what we can do with character designs. First, let’s compare two toads across the games.

Looking at it, he actually looks more like Olly than Olly’s Creator

This is Prince Mush. A relatively minor character in ttyd who shows up for maybe 30 seconds to be another npcs motivation. Even then, he still has some unique traits like a blond lock of hair, a relatively rare pinkish/purple spot pattern on his cap, a slightly shorter stature than other toads, and a martial arts uniform with unique shoes. It’s not much but he’s given bits to make him stand out beyond his clothes. Now let’s look at Origami King.

I don’t have any funny caption for this, just hate

This is the Origami Craftsman. No actual name, just a title. You know he’s unique though because he has a overalls and he carries origami on his side usually (not in this pic). Given the nature of the game he’s probably important but still not super essential if his design is “toad with different clothes” right? Maybe an origami teaching service? an intro character? oh I dunno maybe THE CRUX OF THE ENTIRE GAME’S PLOT?

This is the same toad who created Olly and in turn wrote up the plans to create Olivia, and he’s a key part in Olivia’s last moments. His one scene is where you get all of olly’s backstory before the final battle, and it’s all but said his tools became the Legion of Stationary bosses. And yet the only thing that makes him stand out from every other toad is his clothing and an accessory--he doesn’t even get a name despite the various nobody toads getting them two decades ago. Maybe there could be some neat symbolism of him resmebling olly or olivia somehow, or maybe he could have more origami integrated into his design but nope. I know there’s the argument of “if he stood out too much olly wouldn’t want to kill every toad” but if anything, it makes Olly have a point: these assholes DO all look the same, because Nintendo is so afraid of letting their marketable designs run wild--god forbid someone doesn’t recognize the face, cap, and shoes of that toad plush in the store, they might lose 20 plush sales! I realize this is somewhat conjecture but I honestly cannot see why else Nintendo has such strict IP control, and that such a central character can’t get more than overalls is sad.

But hey, this game brings back partners right? and hey, everybody loves...

“Bobby? ah yes, you mean my good friend. Bob-omb”

Bob-omb. I know everyone calls him Bobby because it’s what Olivia goes with, but the game is almost AFRAID to actually give him a name. his trophy calls him bob-omb, the menu calls him bob-omb, he calls himself bob-omb. Maybe it could be amnesia and he does find a name, or maybe he accepts the nickname, but nope bob-omb is his real name. Again, even if the point is to make him one of a series of faceless masses, it falls flat (ha) when you consider that the game ALSO wants to give him a character arc, memorable nickname, and sendoff so we’re left with this confusing. I DO like bobby as an additional early face to help olivia bounce off of as she grows, and his solo bit with mario on the princess peach is fun as is the impact he has on Olivia’s growth (even if the blowing up drama is weird in light of bombette and bobbery), but I can’t look at him without partially seeing a cynical inability to make new designs on existing Mario enemies. And his impact on battle is.... well again, we’ll get to that.

Well, we can’t give NAMES or DESIGNS to these partners or npcs, but surely, even if nintendo’s strict, they can give us new enemies for a new threat right? maybe a new origami race or something I dunno?

Show up. Says nothing and act creepy as hell for three rooms mostly unexplained. Leave.

Or a bunch of creepy paper dolls for three rooms. Sure, I guess? 

Honestly the cutout soldiers probably are one of the most memorable parts of the game, but at the same time, the fact that the only new “races” the game is willing to create besides the origami siblings or origami-ed versions of existing enemies are talking trees (which honestly by the standards of modern Paper Mario is a miracle), blank paper dolls, Vellumentals (who are just origami versions the chinese four gods as boss monsters with zero personality) and “literal office supplies” says a lot about the type of world Paper Mario is allowed to have. Species/characters like bulb ulbs, whackas, or the craws blended in so well with Mario while adding a bit of visual variety and unique identity to their locations, and now the best we can get are one off gimmicks that must be “Lol quirky/lol Paper” feels like it further forces the modern identity of Paper Mario into just “HEY, EVERYTHING’S PAPER NOW, NOTICE IT.” The advertising and aesthetic of the series certainly never shied away from the paper identity, but when you take away so much of what made each one game unique like the new characters or the new enemies and make it “more paper,” I just think it diminishes the “new adventure and new lands” appeal that can come with an RPG. Even if the Legion of Stationary members have all their own personality, it feels like the game first and foremost wants me to see “oh wow, office supplies” and not “oh wow, a character.” And I just think that’s dissapointing when the prior games had stuff like an invincible clubba with no heart, a phantom ice king, a giant mech with an audience cannon, and anime lizard nerds before Undertale made them cool(?)

Ah but then I call this a role playing game, when clearly, Origami King does not want to BE a RPG

THE DEPTHS OF HELL THAT IS THE COMBAT SYSTEM (it kinda sucks)

It’s a hard line to straddle, but somehow Origami King’s regular combat achieves a sage like balance between annoyance and simplicity

“Here’s the puzzle game you didn’t order in your RPG Series, Sir”

“I often wonder if we are growing as a people, or in fact regressing”

Outside of Super Paper Mario which pseudo labels itself as a spinoff given the “super” element, Paper Mario’s combat had always been a standard RPG form of combat. Even the monstrosity that was sticker star at least tried to present something of an RPG system, which color splash inherited. Origami King decides to throw the baby out with the bath water and set your ass down with a ring slider puzzle for every battle. Unlike the other games which always gave a plethord of options (items, badges, partners, special attacks), you HAVE to use the puzzle system no matter what, meaning that if you don’t jive with it, there is exactly one other option which, we’ll get to in a bit. It’s almost never HARD per se, but if you AREN’T a fan of puzzles (in a series which NEVER had this beforehand and which clashes with the generally “normal to fast” pace of a mario game), well do the puzzle or cough up coins son. Even a lot of the people who I’ve known to like the game admitted they hated the battle system which, I dunno, might be a problem when in theory it’s meant to be HALF OF THE GAME AND THE SOURCE OF CONFLICT TO OVERCOME. But then again, the puzzle is only half the battle right?

Strategy? What Strategy?

When you actually DO manage to either grapple with the game’s puzzle system or bribe it to win, it switches to almost insultingly easy combat. If you have lined up the enemies correctly, then congratulations, you might as well have already won. One attack will wipe out any row/set of 4, and the game will always give you exactly enough attacks to finish off the enemy before they can attack. The only reason they should survive at this point is if the enemy has high enough HP to survive your basic attack, in which case instead you one shot the enemy with higher level equipment using the exact same moves (and you can’t know if your enemy will survive basic attacks because we outgrew enemy HP bars in 2004 I guess) If the enemy can’t be jumped on? and you have them in a jump row? just use a fire flower or iron boots instead, they’re basically the same thing. And your combat abilities will never seriously change over the course of the game, The way you stomp a goomba in chapter 1 is exactly the same way you’ll stop a sledge bro in chapter 6 (though the game certainly won’t shy away from also dropping in a regular goomba in chapter 6 either), just later you might need to use a legendary boot instead so your numbers are bigger. No Learning a new action command, no juggling of resources if you’re at all willing to do more than run from point a to point b immediately, next to no need to manage HP because the puzzle system doesn’t “want” you to actually defend unlike every other game. This even affects your allies. In the classic games, partners were a huge element of your battle plan system and could potentially be the lynchpin to your entire strategy. Here they exist to do a bit of extra damage that might finish off your opponent if you somehow didn’t manage to kill them with Mario’s attacks. In a theoretical “perfect game,” bobby, kamek, and bowser are all doing jack squat but cheer from the sidlines as mario does all the work.

Should I mention the trailers played up allies following and played down the actual battle system? because they did that almost like someone realized this system might be borked. But at least Tanabe found a way to unbork the situation the way HE knew how.

Money: Even Paper Mario isn’t Safe from your corruption

Tingle, ruining Paper Mario since 2012

I know the above is from a Sticker Star interview, but if you’ve played Origami King it is almost scary how much the game trusts you to “throw money at the problem” if you’re having trouble. Don’t wanna equipment from an enemy drop or block? get it with money. Can’t solve a puzzle? throw money at it to drop the difficulty. Can’t get a ring figured out? throw money at the timer to get more time, or at the toads to make them solve it for you. I repeat, you can pay the game to make it solve itself for you. And don’t worry about money problems in this game because the game can not stop showering you with coins if it tried. Now I was going for 100% which meant more exploration and rewards, but it also meant more buying the most expensive accessories (the closest thing to equipment the game has and the only thing that can even semi realistically put a hole in your wallet besides cosmetic trophies especially since you never will need to buy regular items), and I counted maybe two times in the journey I was light on cash, even though i was practically abusing the toad system for every other battle since I could not be assed to complete another ring puzzle the 150th time. The devs almost desperately want to avoid letting you to run out of money and being forced into a corner where you HAVE to use the ring system. I’m convinced someone had to realize how much some people would struggle with the rings, and rather than seriously fix or address it, they threw a massive easy button at players with an illusion of resource management in front of it so that they didn’t have to actually make a competent battle system. I know this is getting to crazy conspiracy theory levels but I truly cannot see why the devs didn’t just make an easy mode as opposed to an “easy option per battle” if the battle system wasn’t fundamentally broken in the first place.

Bosses: They Kinda suck too

Speaking of the devs knowing the battle system sucked, they had to realize there was no natural evolution or combat skill against individual foes because the bosses ignore almost everything about the combat system you use the rest of the game. Instead you just gotta deal with a different battle system for thirteen fights at intermittent times so you can’t actually, you know IMPROVE. I know some people argue these are more fun than the standard battles and while I think they’re at least more freeform, the design philosophy behind them pisses me off for a different reason

The challenge comes almost entirely from needing to wrangle with the game just to do what you want. Special attacks? healing? revealing potentially important spaces from a chest? REGULAR attacks? all fighting for your limited movement option economy with the bosses gimmicks often being to make said movement economy more difficult. And if you can’t understand the bosses because they’re throwing new gimmicks at you, then you need to spend movement resources just to maneuver into the path of a letter and pray that it’s not redundant because the game makes no clear signal whether the contents have updated for a phase or not, or you have to run in blind and hope that your assumptions are right. I know that on some level, that’s the POINT of the puzzle, to reward intuition and being able to see the clearest lines throw to get everything you want in a pass, but the fact that a large chunk of the boss challenge comes from having to essentially CREATE a menu and hope you were in the right position and type of attack, instead of just getting to experiment with regular attack options like almost any other game, tells me that the only way the devs felt they could create a real challenge is to make basic actions a chore because they couldn’t program in a boss. I could go on about how the Earth vellumental--the intro to this stupid system, took me 15 minutes, or how the fire vellumental makes you fight it multiple times unless you pay really close attenton because damage meters with numbers are hard, or how the rubber bands make regular attacks pointless and yet still litter the board with them anyway, but honestly, going by the final boss the developers realized this system didn’t work either.

“Hey Kirby gets away with different gameplay for final bosses anyway right?”

Enter Olly, the final boss. You’d expect maybe a new puzzle that at least builds on the various sort of solutions you found before right, maybe even some incorporation of the standard battle into something original? Instead Olly A. Transforms into the vellumentals except able to be taken down in two hits. B. forgoes a battle system entirely and makes you play Paper Sumo in the overworld system and C. hits you with a sliding minigame from 5 hours ago except this time there’s quick time events and a 40 second timer. Yeah whacking olly in the face with a giant Olivia as he goes “oh shit” is cool, but the fact that the developers legimately couldn’t give Olly a standard final boss fight speaks VOLUMES about the limitations of this system. It’s especially dissapointing too because Black Paint Bowser in Color Splash was a great legitimate who tested your battle strategy and timing up to that point with the standard system you build through the game. To see the final boss of Origami King reduced to 1/3 boss rush 2/3 minigames is just... sad almost, like a proper system was never found.

Well it’s got its problems, but at least the devs might try to build on and fix this system right? if they knew it was bad enough to need coins to fix and different gameplay for a final boss, they might be able to iron out the kinks to get something that evolves over time and-

Oh for Fuck’s Sake.

CONCLUSION

I’m sorry, but, I just can’t enjoy the game like this. For all the fun little things and improvements and conveniences, it goes with a broken battle system that the developers recognize and refuse to truly fix because they’d rather just get “creative.” I don’t care how cute and quirky olivia dancing as a big turtle with pom poms is if I just had to suffer for 15 minutes because someone decided a fun battle system would involve making basic actions a puzzle.

And yet, maybe the worst part is? I know the devs won’t stop this. 

I’m sure they’ll improve other ways- the game will proably look nicer, the music better, the “paper gimmick” new characters probably explored more, but they’re never going to try and revisit this series roots. and why do they need to? The internet will gobble it up anyway cause “wow sad bob omb” and “ha the headless toads are dancing to thriller” and “well hey the battles kinda suck but the music’s so gooood,” means that it doesn’t MATTER if there’s a crappy battle system. and a part of me HATES that I feel this way because normally I DO eat that sort of shit up; Undertale is one of my favorite games of all time and it DOES have a relatively crappy battle system but great qurkiness, original characters, music etc. I don’t want to hate this new direction for the series or hate the fact that so many people love it in spite of its flaws, and I can’t hate it on an objective level because I know it’s not some conspiracy by nintendo to “make people forget what quality is like” or something like that. But on a personal level, to see modern paper mario swoop in, remove most of what I loved about the classic games, then get this new audience that just accepts this imitation and will allow it to outlive the classic games for at least a long long time?

It’s a bitter fucking pill to swallow.

TL;DR

There is good in this game I can see, both for its own merits and for its improvements on the modern trilogy that try to reach the levels of the classics, but there’s so much stuff that either disappoints me or (in the case of the characters and combat) actively pisses me off that I cannot enjoy this game. I wish this were a one time thing so baddly, I wish I could just go “well it’s a vaccum” but it’s not, it’s bad design that so many things suggest won’t be improved that I can’t have any confidence for the future.  I have to watch what was one of my favorite childhood franchises suffer an almost childlike refusal to follow the core appeal of earlier games because of stupid business ideas about brand consistency or bizarre ideas of how to make a “fun” RPG while taking out the RPG elements, and it’s clear that there’s nothing stopping Nintendo from doing it again and again since people will call it good anyway. I honestly think the only thing that doesn’t make me scream about the situation is that at least Bug Fables has given me hope that other people are willing and able to pick up the torch so the feeling of the classic series will live even if the classic series itself is dead forever.

If you actually go to the end of this I am legitimately, honestly impressed and kinda happy you were willing to waste your time on my stupid aimless pathetic ramble that took a day to write. Why don’t you treat yourself to some nice music or a game or something?