Paper Mario (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

This one had been a long time coming, waiting in my Wii’s memory. Well, now is the day. Anniversary review!

The Mario franchise has had an interesting history with RPGs. The first was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, co-created by Square-Enix, famous for the Final Fantasy series. There were plans for a sequel with the same collaboration, only for much of it to split when the new RPG took a decidedly different direction. Plans up to that point were changed heavily to appeal more to younger players, with a cute art style and tweaks to the game’s system and its overall difficulty, while also containing enough options for more experienced players. After all, they know about timed hits.

Also, only in a Square-Enix game
would you see this sort of enemy.

And what a world! It's gonna be all
different by the next game.

And so, Paper Mario was born, a world of paper and cardboard and crafts that became the world of multiple RPGs. The first two are pretty straightforward (but paper-based mechanics didn’t really make an appearance until the sequel, The Thousand-Year Door). The next ones experimented a lot. I already covered Super Paper Mario on this blog. I’ve yet to play any of the others (Sticker Star, Color Splash and Origami King).

Even then, the peculiar system of Paper Mario helps it feel different from everything else that’s out there in the genre. Instead of controlling an entire party, it’s Mario + one party member. XP is replaced by a system of Star Points. Instead of being able to equip all sorts of armor and weapons, Mario can choose among various Badges he finds in the world, with greater upgrades coming with the plot. All of these will be discussed in greater detail in due time.

How about we cover this game’s story so I can discuss some of its details?

Intro

Bowser. Big, bad brute. Can instantly master
the Star Rod.

The intro before the title screen explains the mythos of this game: Up in a place called Star Haven lives a race of Star people who have the ability to grant wishes, in great part thanks to the Star Rod, an artefact made with ancient magic and used by the seven Star Spirits. Unfortunately for them, one day, Bowser, his second-in-command Kammy Koopa, and their forces break in, steal the Rod, and capture the Spirits into cards.

The game starts as Mario and Luigi receive a letter from Princess Peach inviting them to a party at her castle. They go, and Mario heads directly towards Peach’s quarters. She is, of course overjoyed at seeing her hero! However, the earth shakes suddenly and both feel themselves being risen. To their shock, Bowser’s Castle sprouts out of the ground underneath Peach’s Castle, itself on top of a giant Koopa Clown Car, and all are brought into space.

I heard you like castles so I put a castle
under your castle.

To this day, I still have no idea how or why Bowser's Castle was underneath Peach's Castle, with that Clown Car beneath all that for good measure. You can go "Star Rod, reality warping, whatever" but even there, it feels too crazy to be possible. There's no way that could have possibly been there. So... portal? Magic is the only explanation I can see.

Damage result: 0. Yeah... we're not able to
hurt Bowser when he's powered up.

Bowser shows up to kidnap the Princess and Mario valiantly defends her, but shortly into their fight Bowser reveals the Star Rod. Bowser wishes to become invincible, and through the rod’s power, it happens. Bowser subsequently outmatches Mario and knocks him out, then tosses him out the window.

You know we’re in for a Hell of a ride when an RPG starts with the bad guy winning, especially someone with such a poor win/loss record like Bowser.

Prologue

Looks like there are some advantages to
wearing such an iconic style.

If nobody's blocking the path, I should
get there easily.

Mario is found in a clearing and taken to a nearby inn. During his dream, he gets a message from Eldstar, the Elder of the Star Spirits, asking him to make his way to Shooting Star Summit so that they can better explain the situation to him and how he could stop Bowser. Mario then awakens, and leaves the inn to see that he was rescued by a family of friendly Goombas. As Mario tries to leave the village, Kammy Koopa appears and blocks the only exit with a giant block. Gee, I wonder what we should do… We should just jump over it. Mario isn’t the ex-Jumpman for nothing! Or even better: Crawl around it carefully. That’s doable, right?

Are you sure your main occupation
doesn't actually start with a B, Kammy?

Hammer it will be, because I don't have a
belt on me at the moment.

Nope! To leave, Mario must fetch a hammer from the Goomba family’s grandpa. Unfortunately, he’s far down the cliff, where he fell while repairing the family home’s back patio. The patio fell with him. So we find the hammer, but surprise! As Mario tries to leave back to the village with Goompa, he runs into Jr. Troopa, a little bully of a Koopa still in his baby turtle eggshell. Like that makes him look threatening or something. Get out of my way, you little shit.

After getting rid of Jr. Troopa, Mario comes back to the village, hammer in hand. He also hears that Goombario, one Goomba of the village, has been practicing to be a hero – and decides to tag along on what seems to be a big adventure! Great, I gotta take care of a Goomba kid now… Okay, fair, he’s actually a capable combatant with his Headbonk attack, and his Tattle ability gives information on places visited and enemies encountered, so he can be pretty useful.

Buddies with a Goomba. It'll never not
feel weird for Mario the stomp champion.

An aside on Paper Mario mechanics

Eventually, you get plenty of options to adapt
against any possibility.

In this game, Mario can choose among 8 party members that he gains throughout the story; he can only have one by his side, in the overworld or in battle. In both instances, they’re useful: On top of having attacks during fights (some of which can inflict status effects), they also have uses during exploration, to open paths or to find new stuff. Once you get a new party member, you can guarantee that their ability will be needed very soon to progress.

Another awesome element is that you can look for 16 Super Blocks hidden around that world, and each block gives you the option to upgrade one party member, which can be done twice for each. The first attack known by each of them requires no Flower Points to use (Flower Points, or FP, are Mario’s equivalent to magic points or a mana bar), but attacks gained with upgrades do. Also of note is that only Mario has an HP bar, meaning that if he loses, the entire team loses. However, while uncommon, it is possible for his allies to be attacked, in which case they’ll be KO’d for a few turns, meaning Mario will be alone to defend himself.

Even more options to face any eventuality.

We also learn about Badges, which I discussed earlier, but I’ll give more details here. Badges give Mario some perks either in the world or in battle; some can be new special moves (such as a more powerful stomp) or give a battle advantage (like making enemies miss at random when Mario’s Heart Points, or HP, are down to 5 or lower). Each badge requires Badge Points (BP) to equip, a value that can be increased whenever Mario goes up a level, which allows him to equip better badges over time. Combat moves that are gained through badges require Flower Points.

Paper Mario: A game in which getting 31 EXP
points is considered a lot.

Lastly, EXP here has been replaced by Star Points, or SP. That’s a lot of points to keep track of, huh? Mario levels up at each 100 Star Points collected, and upon leveling up, you can choose to increase either Mario’s HP, FP or BP. Mario’s growth stops at Level 27. Also, as he gets stronger, weaker enemies start giving out less SP, to the point where most enemies stop giving out SP upon defeat once Mario has a level high enough. Note that Mario's attack and defense don't increase as you level up; they increase through items found throughout the adventure.

In short: A number of clever twists on the usual RPG fare, although it does have a lot of similarities with what’s been done before, some of which it attempts to hide under new names.

Prologue (continued)

That's one big Goomba.
I'll need my big stompy boots.

On the road back to Toad Town, Mario and Goombario run into a blue Goomba and a red Goomba who don’t pose much of a threat. They flee upon defeat, going to a miniature castle belonging to the Goomba King. A nice first proper boss battle here. Following this, the party arrives at Toad Town and can see what remains of the field where Peach’s Castle once stood proud. Shooting Star Summit is only a stone’s throw from the town, so Mario climbs the mountain and gets to talk with the Spirits, who only have a little bit of time to explain their situation: As they are powerful enough together to weaken the Star Rod, Bowser made sure to capture and scatter them across the land. Their power must be restored before they can do anything to help. The transmission ends before they can say any more.

"I'm gonna grant wishes! ...someday."

One element I like about this game is that it also follows Princess Peach’s side of the story. In fact, we cut to her as she’s visited by her captors, whom she refuses to address with anything but spite. Upon wishing for help, she’s visited by a kid star named Twink, whose wish-granting abilities are still too limited to do anything in that field. Therefore, she instead asks Twink to deliver a present, the Lucky Star, to Mario, along with a message that she’s fine. The star child goes and does that.

The Lucky Star is a pendant that allows Mario and his allies to perform action commands, meaning that with good timing they can inflict more damage with an attack. Similar mechanics were seen in Super Mario RPG. Since we only get action commands now, it makes the prologue surprisingly slow and bland, with little intensity to the battles since you cannot turn the tides of turn-based combat through skill. All you could do so far was play your turn and let things play out. There was no way to inflict more damage through a single attack, or save an HP of health, with a well-timed button press. Action commands are a very welcome addition.

Chapter 1: Storming the Koopa Bros.’ Fortress

Mario needs to head west, but four bizarre, dark Toads are blocking the way. The plumber seeks help with Merlon, the local wizard (who also can help guide our hero, and the player, if they don’t know where to go next), and the wizard dispels the disguises and reveals the Koopa Bros. These Teenage Fighter Ninja Koopas used to be cool, but they became arrogant and nasty after joining Bowser’s forces. Mario gives chase, but eventually runs into a chasm with no visible bridge. Well… there’s a switch to make one appear, but it’s on the other side.

Mario the hero, recovering Koopa shells
one at a time.

Those Fuzzies aren't gonna last long.

Mario thus makes a detour to Koopa Village, which he finds invaded by Fuzzies, who stole the shells of the village’s Koopa population. This includes the blue shell of Kooper, a (frankly adorable) Koopa with a nice bandana around his neck. Mario deals with the Fuzzies and returns everyone’s shells, and in thanks Kooper decides to join Mario on the adventure. When he’s the “equipped” ally, Kooper in his shell form can be whacked by Mario's hammer to strike targets, even ones on the other side of pits. Also your first ally to have a move that hits multiple opponents (in this case, ground enemies).

Sure enough, Kooper’s ability lets Mario hit the switch and summon the bridge to the Koopa Bros.’ fortress. Koopa Village was home to two Bob-Ombs that fled from the fortress when the Bros. became nasty after their promotion, and this excursion gives credence to the bombs’ claims. The four idiots even imprisoned a couple of Bob-Ombs! It’s among them that Mario meets Bombette, a pink Bob-Omb who can explode on command, and she joins the team after they free her from the fortress prison, using her ability to blast a wall open.

...You're a bomb. All you do is asplode.
You didn't think to asplode??!?

These Koopas ought to go back to eating pizza.

Yet again, the new team member’s ability allows them to break through (heh) and make their way around, reaching areas that were inaccessible previously. Mario and Co. eventually confront the Koopa Bros., whose first idea is to hide in a fake Bowser to scare the heroes. That one gets destroyed, so they resort to fighting the plumber head-on instead. Which, of course, leads to them losing. This battle, by the way, is a lot of fun, and it encourages the player to use everything they’ve collected so far to take out the four overconfident Koopas. This allows the team to free Eldstar, the first Star Spirit, who now lends his power to them.

Metal Gear Princess?

From this point on, Mario can access one more option during battle: Star Powers. Gained from the Star Spirits rescued, those consume Star Points, represented by a gauge on the battle HUD that fills a bit on each turn, and which Mario can fill more using an ability called Focus. Eldstar’s ability is Refresh, which replenishes Mario’s HP and FP by 5.

The scene with Peach that follows this is the first time she’s properly playable in this game. In an attempt to escape, Peach looks for a secret passageway. She finds one and escapes with Twink, and finds herself in a room where Bowser keeps his diary. Upon reading it, she learns that the second Star Spirit is hidden in Dry Dry Desert. That’s when Bowser shows up, and promptly gets her confined to her room again. Peach then tells Twink to relay the message to Mario…

Alright, I think I can stop this here. This will be continued in Part 2.