Paper Mario: The Origami King

[darksnowman]

Thought this would be light-hearted and fun to play (and why not!?) for an hour or so earlier today. I am early to midway through the game, heading for the yellow streamer, but I will spoiler this anyway. Those who have played the game will know what I am referring to without checking the vague spoiler below.

Spoiler

So, I picked things up from the ship area where I got the item that allowed me to get Olivia back. And, erm, that happened.

It was a bit of a gut-punch and would need to be permanent or else the impact would be diminished, but come on, it must be undoable at some point!??
(rhetorical question!) 

 

[darksnowman]

On 21/12/2020 at 8:34 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I managed to get a little bit of the purple streamer level done last night and got a quick half hour in before work this morning. It's a fantastic area.

  Purple Streamer (Hide contents)

It's full on Wind Waker! I'm not gonna lie, I fired up the Wind Waker Overworld theme and had that playing in the background as I went about my sailing business. Magical.  

The map, crosses that appear, statues you find and overall feeling of it do give off the WW vibe very well.

I had a good laugh at the giant fan making a quick cameo. I had the same reaction when I seen the giant steak. 

Really looking forward to getting back on it this evening. 

 

Have to admit, I always thought this spoiler was a lie or at least something of a reach but I've picked things back up in the purple streamer area and now just reached the three trials and what can I say, I'm coming around to your way of thinking.  

[darksnowman]

Finished. This is a really good game. Charm galore. It seems like they poured plenty of work into it--from getting the paper and origami aesthetic right (Nintendo excels at this kind of thing, don't they?), to each new area/ chapter being distinct from the last in both looks and how the objectives play out, and of course, the dialogue's brimming with comedy and feeling... and I won't even start on the music. So good. The ending was lovely too. For a second I thought it was going to be "and may none of this have ever happened" yet it resolved in a different way that was touching and heartfelt and surprisingly understated. 

Really good game. But not great.

Like most, I think it needed levelling. Or maybe just no field battles? It's like the game doesn't know what it wants to be. If they're adamant about keeping levelling out of it, perhaps it would have been enough then for just the bosses and mini-bosses to be ring battles. I started out with the best of intentions but normal battles ended up sapping my will to go on. People say the patterns are easy to spot after a while. I just paid the Toads to line it up when I couldn't be bothered. It wasn't very riveting. Boss battles don't get a total pass either as I thought they outstayed their welcome by a turn or so. Might not sound like much, but once you trial and error it to figure out what to do, you're ready for a speedy victory once you understand it. Thing is, even when you've figured it out you still have to set things up by hitting an ON switch or getting to a chest or some kind of prep with the boss to set up the turn in which you'll go for the massive damage dealing attack. When I knew what to do, I just wanted it to be a case of wham, bam, thank you ma'am and move on. Another thing that got to me was the OHKOs in the latter stages--both in boss fights and on the map. Out of nowhere, from full health, I kept seeing the game over screen. Brutal. It didn't seem in keeping with the rest of the game. 

So for everything it does so well, there are aspects like these that hold TOK back from greatness, imo. Hopefully the next one has the x-factor lacking here.

Here's a tune anyway.