Paper Mario: The Origami King

I personally didn't mind Paper Mario: Color Splash, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this game. I do hope that the battle system is actually good, though. I've never gotten a chance to play Paper Mario 64 or Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, so I've only really played the games with battle systems that drew a lot of criticism.
 
I'm not too hyped, tbh. The game looks visually impressive, and the battle arena, while still gimmicky, seems to be a nifty mix of original format and new format (SPM getting snuffed). But I have yet to see the partners do anything, which is what I want to see from Paper Mario again. I don't want it to be another Mario-focused game, as that made Sticker Star kind of boring to me when the only other character to talk to was a fairy crown a la Navi. But lack of partners aside, the game is looking good. 1,000-Fold Arms is hilarious, and I've been waiting for origami to enter the series as a major component for a while now.
 
Honestly I couldn't care less whatever they do with characters or whatever because from where I'm standing everything else looks promising.

And yes, some have already mentioned it before I have but if they really gonna have partners they better make me care about them by making them interact or at least develop. This is why I really think the 64 and TTYD partners are overrated.

Also having a personality =/= having a unique design. You don't need a unique design to be a compelling character. You don't need to dress a Goomba in a weird hat and label them as an "original character" if they don't actually have anything else to offer.

Battle system looks pretty nice. It looks like they'll be more involved this time around. So far from what I've seen, I think I can hypothesize that you get the basic Jump and Hammer but you get better versions of these in the form of consumables, so it's a "best of both worlds" kinda thing if that's true, and on top of that it also has new mechanics to it so that's cool.

Field exploration looks like it will peak tho. The world looks so open (not to mention gorgeous but I already said that in my previous post) and it seems like you'll be rewarded for turning all the stones like in the first game, which I definitely think it's a good thing.

This game has amazing potential. And it comes out pretty soon too.
 
You Watanabe said:
Also having a personality =/= having a unique design. You don't need a unique design to be a compelling character. You don't need to dress a Goomba in a weird hat and label them as an "original character" if they don't actually have anything else to offer.
Click to expand...
Problem is being reconizeable with unique design is objectively known as an advantage for a gaming character. The new bob-omb might have own personality, but wouldn't think NIntendo mean to pay as much effort as they did to Admiral Bobbery. After all, looking back to Odyssey, LM3 and SMM2, Nintendo sure has the ability to create new characters. So I would doubt that PM is a very special case where creating characters is very difficult.

I agree there is some chance it's an intentional move. One possiblity is that they don't want the partners to shadow the main characters, Second, that is an alternatiely easy way to kill their life outside this game since they wouldn't even receive attention from the general gaming community.

Original party is a thing, as for Mario main cast....

AAd55yAAAdQF.jpg
 
Honestly tho I think that with the general theme being that we're teaming up with an army, it makes sense that we get generics as partners. It's a whole army of soldiers, so... yeah.
 
Nastasia said:
Oh no, please don't mean partners are temporary...
Click to expand...
Yeah, the Japnese intro does say "farewell", which makes me think it won't be how the first two PM worked.

Since we are accompanied by armies sometimes, I doubt we can call them anytime, that sounds very cheating. They're obvious exclusive to certain events.
 
Honestly if they aren't going to have partners develop as the story goes, a Pokemon mystery dungeon model would work super great, especially after the whole sticker power thing.

Recruiting enemies you defeated would be awesome. Or if there was like a guild you could hire mercenaries from.
 
I feel like partners will be limited to certain chapters or areas. The only place we've seen multiple partners appear is on the boat ride (which may not have anything to do with the plot and just be a minigame where all partners participate).
However, there is good news relating to partners: GameXplain came through once again, as it found a now deleted Chinese trailer for the game showing the Explorer Toad character in battle with Mario, right up on the stage. Who knows if he can actually fight or if he's there for emotional support, but it certainly lends credence to the idea that partners can fight in battle.
(The GameXplain video I'm referring to)
 
Honestly, I don't really mind that the partners leave after a while. If it allows them to have a good and proper development in the game's story, that's fine. Because although I love TTYD, I can't deny that after you recruit a partner in the chapter they appear, they don't really have development anymore or real interaction, you know, they're just there. From the moment we have partners, I'm very much happy for it.

As for the Bob-omb, while he may look generic, if you pay attention to details, you will notice that it has no fuse on it, like regular Bob-ombs. It may not be a big difference, but it's still at least one.

The only thing I wonder is if they participate in battles, and what they can do.
 
Last edited:
Dimitri A. Blaiddyd said:
Honestly, I don't really mind that the partners leave after a while. If it allows them to have a good and proper development in the game's story, that's fine. Because although I love TTYD, I can't deny that after that you recruit a partner in the chapter they appear, they don't really have development anymore or real interaction, you know, they're just there. From the moment we have partners, I'm very much happy for it.

As for the Bob-omb, while he may look generic, if you pay attention to details, you will notice that it has no fuse on it, like regular Bob-ombs. It may not be a big difference, but it's still at least one.

The only thing I wonder is if they participate in battles, and what they can do.
Click to expand...
From what i seen explorer toad is behind mario obviously, and he also appear in battle along with mario in chinese trailer.
 
It'd be like Cappy from Odyssey, there is a clear reason why you're not allowed to transform into T-Rex when fighting against Bowser.

I think recuriting bosses is possible only if they wouldn't be too OP, but just be as strong as regular partners with some special abilities.

That reminds me, if temporary partner system is a thing, that should be able for us to recruit more characters, either the main cast or past Paper partners. That's just an alternative waste of chance.

Dimitri A. Blaiddyd said:
As for the Bob-omb, while he may look generic, if you pay attention to details, you will notice that it has no fuse on it, like regular Bob-ombs. It may not be a big difference, but it's still at least one.
Click to expand...
I've noted that, it's hard to convince us that Nintendo do work hard on the character and will highly advertise him in comparison to how they worked with other recent games. Pretty much as you say, they won't be given any proper development.
 
Moldomré said:
but it certainly lends credence to the idea that partners can fight in battle.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure those partners will participate as a major gameplay element, including battles, not just overworld shenanigans. Promotions do point toward that.

Killer Moth said:
[images]
Click to expand...
Those aren't central mechanics to an RPG unlike Chocobo Mystery Dungeon.
 
A Mario RPG with recruitment sounds like it's ripe for a completely new sub-series at this point.

As for the trailer, the opening radiates Big Thousand-Year Door Energy while the origami theme, Mario's big foldy arms and parts of the battle system radiate Big Color Splash Energy. I'm kinda torn on the whole thing.
 
In all seriousness, I haven't been excited for a Paper Mario game in a long time. It looks like a Paper Mario game that will return to the roots of the original and Thousand Year Door.
 
You Watanabe said:
Also having a personality =/= having a unique design. You don't need a unique design to be a compelling character. You don't need to dress a Goomba in a weird hat and label them as an "original character" if they don't actually have anything else to offer.
Click to expand...
I think you need a character to have a recognizable and distinct design even if they do have a compelling personalty. A Bob-omb can have as much character depth as you want, but it's going to have trouble standing out as a distinct character if it looks the same and has the same name as every other Bob-omb. Such a character would have a well-written personality but would fall flat in terms of character design. Besides, the Color Splash style of having tons of visually uniform Toads with unique personalities isn't realistic since real people look different from each other in addition to having different personalities, and you gotta emulate characteristics of real people in order to have compelling fictional characters.

Edit: fixed a typo. Don't know how I put "problem" instead of "Bob-omb".
 
Last edited:
Eh, good writing carries characters far more than character design. It's similar to good writing carrying movies and tv shows more than animation does.

Not trying to downplay the importance of telling a story through appearance but out of the two, good writing is more preferable.
 
Ray Trace said:
Eh, good writing carries characters far more than character design. It's similar to good writing carrying movies and tv shows more than animation does.

Not trying to downplay the importance of telling a story through appearance but out of the two, good writing is more preferable.
Click to expand...

That's quite true. Just think of FE: Three Houses for example with how popular the Gatekeeper is. He's just an NPC without that much context to the game's story, and he isn't even unique in design, which shows that good story, and personnality can easily outplay a character design.

If a game has a bad story, no matter character design, the story will still be bad. If Sticker Star in its current state would have multiple different character design, I would still think it is a bad Paper Mario game.
 
Ray Trace said:
Eh, good writing carries characters far more than character design. It's similar to good writing carrying movies and tv shows more than animation does.

Not trying to downplay the importance of telling a story through appearance but out of the two, good writing is more preferable.
Click to expand...
Well sure, but my point is more that it's best to have both, as opposed to just good writing.
 
Yeah but if you wanna have one and not the other it's definitely the writing.

Yet it still baffles me how people prioritize designs, which is merely a visual novelty at best and only does nothing but make you stand out visually. I'm not saying unique designs should be deleted, I'm just saying people shouldn't make such a fuss over them. If you actually appreciate character development or writing then you learn to transcend the design.
 
Toss me in with the "cautious yet optimistic" crowd on this one. The trailer demonstrates some concepts that might, at the very least, indicate a step back in the right direction. I won't hold my breath for any other unique characters outside of King Olly and Olivia, but if the generic enemy-turned-partners have even a semblance of charm and personality as well as well-written dialogue, then that can work. I also strongly disliked the battle system from Sticker Star, so if anything I am relieved that they appear to be moving away from that.

Otherwise, the theme is cool, the visuals are great, and the settings look interesting. I can't wait for more information to come out about this game.
 
You Watanabe said:
Yeah but if you wanna have one and not the other it's definitely the writing.

Yet it still baffles me how people prioritize designs, which is merely a visual novelty at best and only does nothing but make you stand out visually. I'm not saying unique designs should be deleted, I'm just saying people shouldn't make such a fuss over them. If you actually appreciate character development or writing then you learn to transcend the design.
Click to expand...
True, but if you go back to that TTYD vs. CS Toad comparison image that's been floating around, it's pretty clear which option is better assuming the writing quality is equal. Not something to riot in the streets about or hate on the new games for, but it's an area that could be improved upon. Giving the Toads some distinguishing features from each other and names would cement them as characters more than having to call them "Toad whose wife left him" and such.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back