Paper Mario: The Origami King

[S.C.G]

Paper Mario: The Origami King unfolds for Nintendo Switch on July 17th, 2020

Up on the main site, I saw the Press Release appear in my inbox, probably the first time that I've heard about the game first that way before even on the forum.

Great news of course, while I've always been a fan of the earlier Paper Mario games, I don't doubt that there are good parts to the more recent titles.

It's just that, this latest entry looks like it could end up being one of the best yet potentially, though I still would have bought any remaster of the other games.

Pre-ordered anyway, as it's now available on the Nintendo Store UK.

[Tim B]

I'll wait until there are any freebies announced (like the usual key ring) before pre-ordering.

[Ronnie]

Same I'll wait for whatever the Nintendo store give away, unless it's much cheaper on other sites.

Really looking forward to this. It'll be nice to have another big adventure game to play. Nintendo often evolve or revolutionise some Nintendo franchises with each entry, like 3D Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc but there are a few that are more like comfort food where they mix things up a bit but are generally pretty iterative like Yoshi, Paper Mario, Luigi's Mansion. The quality is so high in those three cases that it's not a problem though. For me at least 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Ronnie

[Ashley]

4 hours ago, LazyBoy said:

Any word on what studio is making this?

 

4 hours ago, Ike said:

Says Intelligent Systems in the trailer.

Well I guess his username is apt 😋

1 hour ago, Tim B said:

Yeah, it's a coronavirus thing. They said they want their deliveries to be more reliable, or something along those lines.

Yeah I've seen other sites say the same thing. Not sure how legit it is but there you go. 

[MindFreak]

My first reaction was "Woah! Nice!" but then I saw the Japanese battle trailer and was bummed - looks like they had yet another gimmick they wanted to test. :/ Hopefully, this time the battles are fun.

[Ashley]

22 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

My first reaction was "Woah! Nice!" but then I saw the Japanese battle trailer and was bummed - looks like they had yet another gimmick they wanted to test. :/ Hopefully, this time the battles are fun.

Wait until they reveal the Switch Lazy Susan that you must place your Joy-Con on in order to turn those circles. 

[Ashley]

See, sometimes Nintendo games do get a price cut!

[Jonnas]

Artistically, this game looks absolutely gorgeous (did you notice the creases in Origami Peach's speech bubbles? Love these details). Also, Bowser joining the party in a Mario RPG? Let's hope so! Didn't expect to be this stoked for a new Paper Mario!

(P.S.: I guess now we know what intelligent Systems was doing instead of Three Houses)

Edited May 14, 2020 by Jonnas

[Dcubed]

19 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Artistically, this game looks absolutely gorgeous (did you notice the creases in Origami Peach's speech bubbles? Love these details). Also, Bowser joining the party in a Mario RPG? Let's hope so! Didn't expect to be this stoked for a new Paper Mario!

(P.S.: I guess now we know what intelligent Systems was doing instead of Three Houses)

Artistically, it looks nigh on identical to Color Splash.  The origami enemies are about the only thing that really visually distinguishes it from its predecessor.  I'm actually a bit disapointed that it looks so incredibly similar (It makes perfect sense to reuse the previous game's engine and assets; they were absolutely gorgeous to begin with.  But it is a bit of shame that they didn't really try and distinguish it a bit more...).  Honestly, you could take a random screenshot from either game and I probably couldn't tell which was from which game.

Intelligent Systems really should be working on more than PMTOK though... They're Nintendo's second biggest studio outside of EPD and typically work on around 3-4 games at a time; even in the Wii U/3DS era they were pulling this off.  Hell, PMTOK is actually coming out incredibly late for them, basically 4 years after Color Splash (and this is an asset reuse sequel! It was almost certainly finished last year).  I wouldn't be surprised if Intelligent Systems have something else that's ready for release this year... maybe even two games! They're really overdue Switch games at this point, especially since they basically didn't work on Three Houses at all! (it's shocking that it has taken 3 and a half years since the Switch's release for Intelligent Systems to release anything for it!)

Edited May 14, 2020 by Dcubed

[Glen-i]

15 hours ago, killthenet said:

I've never played any of the Paper Mario games but wasn't the lack of charm & personality one of the biggest complaints about Colour Splash? 

Yeah, it was, but it was an utter bull argument because the world and visuals oozed personality.

Colour Splash is also, by far, the funniest Paper Mario game. And anyone who tells you otherwise never played it.

It gets a real bum rap because people hated Sticker Star.

Sure, given the choice, I do prefer Thousand Year Door, but Colour Splash is a solid second place on my Paper Mario list. And now that I'm certain it's not getting the second chance it deserves on Switch, I'm gonna boot up my WiiU and play it again.

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

I loved Color Splash; not as much as 64 or TTYD but it's still a really fun and funny game to play...

https://www.n-europe.com/reviews/paper-mario-color-splash

[Dog-amoto]

I loved Colour Splash. Thought the environments were brilliant, similar to the variety in TTYD. 

But if Things make a return in this new game, I won’t be pleased. 

[Ronnie]

Colour Splash was fantastic and should be judged on its own merits, not what it isn't compared to TTYD. It was the same with Mario 3D World being judged on how it wasn't Galaxy, rather than what it did in its own right.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Ronnie

[Goron_3]

6 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Colour Splash was fantastic and should be judged on its own merits, not what it isn't compared to TTYD. It was the same with Mario 3D World being judged on how it wasn't Galaxy, rather than what it did in its own right.

3DW was critically acclaimed. I don't recall a single review or in-depth critique where comparison's to Galaxy were used to criticise it. It was never meant to be a big, epic single player game and instead was tailored to Nintendo's family audience. It's a brilliant game and perfect for newcomers.

Very few people I know who played Colour Splash actually enjoyed it. From memory, the combat system, extremely easy difficulty and the generic characters were the main problems. You make it sound like the only complaint ever aimed at CS was that it wasn't TTYD and that's why critics and fans didn't like it as much?

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a proper Mario RPG, but this game doesn't have to be a sequel to TTYD to be a brilliant game.

[MindFreak]

I've read my old review of Colour Splash, and I didn't enjoy the battles - they actually punished you and in the long term, they were boring. You lost cards, HP, and paint but gained basically nothing in return. That's not how battles are supposed to be like and I hope they have changed that in TOK. Boss battles also seemed to be dependent on you getting certain Things to destroy the bosses.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, MindFreak said:

You lost cards, HP, and paint but gained basically nothing in return. 

Except for money, more cards and those paint capacity upgrades?

[MindFreak]

24 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Except for money, more cards and those paint capacity upgrades?

Sorry. Meant when you were further in the game and had full capacity. 

[Fused King]

Paper Mario, anyone?

As someone who counts Paper Mario 64 & Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door among one of the finest games I've ever played, it has been with pain in my heart seeing the Paper Mario series slowly but surely decline into something that is not in line with those games.

Don't get me wrong, I welcome new changes to a franchise as much as the next guy, but I suppose the nostalgia drug taints my view of the development of this series.

If I had to explain exactly what rubs me the wrong way about Paper Mario now, I'd have to say it's the sudden and near complete elimination of creative design specifically made for the franchise. Super Paper Mario for the Wii might not have had the excellent RPG style game play of its predecessors, but at least the developers went nuts in terms of creativity.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star that followed was slapped by Miyamoto's hand of bland, and to this day it's probably the only game I've ever played which I absolutely loathe for this reason. 

Going from this:

to this:

Was a direct assault on my love for the franchise: the crazy world building and characters designs.

Sticker Star was made even worse because it was also stripped of a FUN battle system and funny dialogue, so I can safely say this was my biggest disappointment ever in my gaming history.

Now admittedly, I have yet to play Colour Splash, which I hear at least brought the dialogue back to Paper Mario standards, but still misses that creativity of the first 3 games in terms of characters and world building, so while that still saddens me it appears baby steps were made towards what made the franchise so strong to begin with.

The Origami King seems to be following this trend of baby steps towards the original strength of the series, by bringing back bigger worlds and companions again. But alas, they must remain devoid of anything creative and let's keep piling on the GODDAMN TOADS everywhere. If there's anything that just screams bland and boring it's hundreds of toads with some different colours. Fucking toads man, fucking toads.

More than anything it seems we get a sense of what characters are being considered to be the core of Mario and what characters are not. Perhaps this is because Nintendo wants to make the Mario brand as big as Mickey Mouse, and so they want a kind of band of recognizable characters throughout all of his adventures, yet Odyssey had all sorts of new and creative designs, so why in the world can't the Paper Mario games take place in faraway lands anymore with for example a big fat chameleon nerd, a wrestling chicken or a sassy Lady Bow?

I will eventually get around to Colour Splash, and though I am ranting a bit here, the trailer looked fun and I'd love to play it, fully realizing that the height of Mario RPGs in Mario&Luigi: Superstar Saga and Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door might never be reached again. 

 

 

[Ashley]

21 minutes ago, Fused King said:

Paper Mario: Sticker Star that followed was slapped by Miyamoto's hand of bland,

[Nicktendo]

1 hour ago, Fused King said:

Paper Mario, anyone?

As someone who counts Paper Mario 64 & Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door among one of the finest games I've ever played, it has been with pain in my heart seeing the Paper Mario series slowly but surely decline into something that is not in line with those games.

Don't get me wrong, I welcome new changes to a franchise as much as the next guy, but I suppose the nostalgia drug taints my view of the development of this series.

If I had to explain exactly what rubs me the wrong way about Paper Mario now, I'd have to say it's the sudden and near complete elimination of creative design specifically made for the franchise. Super Paper Mario for the Wii might not have had the excellent RPG style game play of its predecessors, but at least the developers went nuts in terms of creativity.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star that followed was slapped by Miyamoto's hand of bland, and to this day it's probably the only game I've ever played which I absolutely loathe for this reason. 

Going from this:

to this:

Was a direct assault on my love for the franchise: the crazy world building and characters designs.

Sticker Star was made even worse because it was also stripped of a FUN battle system and funny dialogue, so I can safely say this was my biggest disappointment ever in my gaming history.

Now admittedly, I have yet to play Colour Splash, which I hear at least brought the dialogue back to Paper Mario standards, but still misses that creativity of the first 3 games in terms of characters and world building, so while that still saddens me it appears baby steps were made towards what made the franchise so strong to begin with.

The Origami King seems to be following this trend of baby steps towards the original strength of the series, by bringing back bigger worlds and companions again. But alas, they must remain devoid of anything creative and let's keep piling on the GODDAMN TOADS everywhere. If there's anything that just screams bland and boring it's hundreds of toads with some different colours. Fucking toads man, fucking toads.

More than anything it seems we get a sense of what characters are being considered to be the core of Mario and what characters are not. Perhaps this is because Nintendo wants to make the Mario brand as big as Mickey Mouse, and so they want a kind of band of recognizable characters throughout all of his adventures, yet Odyssey had all sorts of new and creative designs, so why in the world can't the Paper Mario games take place in faraway lands anymore with for example a big fat chameleon nerd, a wrestling chicken or a sassy Lady Bow?

I will eventually get around to Colour Splash, and though I am ranting a bit here, the trailer looked fun and I'd love to play it, fully realizing that the height of Mario RPGs in Mario&Luigi: Superstar Saga and Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door might never be reached again. 

Sometimes I wish we had a fire reaction instead of just a simple like. 

[LazyBoy]

Great post @Fused King, though I haven't played colour splash, I will say I agree TYD was the masterpiece it is in large part due to its world building. Dripping in character, constantly inventive and for the most part shaped to interact with actual gameplay in a deft and rewarding manor. That opening dungeon with the dragon? Superb. 

Where's my switch port?

[Glen-i]

23 hours ago, MindFreak said:

Sorry. Meant when you were further in the game and had full capacity. 

Uhhh... Pretty sure getting to max paint capacity in Colour Splash would take an insane amount of grinding!

I think you're thinking of HP, which maxes out at 200 by the end.

[Agent Gibbs]

On 5/16/2020 at 12:10 PM, Fused King said:

Paper Mario, anyone?

As someone who counts Paper Mario 64 & Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door among one of the finest games I've ever played, it has been with pain in my heart seeing the Paper Mario series slowly but surely decline into something that is not in line with those games.

Don't get me wrong, I welcome new changes to a franchise as much as the next guy, but I suppose the nostalgia drug taints my view of the development of this series.

If I had to explain exactly what rubs me the wrong way about Paper Mario now, I'd have to say it's the sudden and near complete elimination of creative design specifically made for the franchise. Super Paper Mario for the Wii might not have had the excellent RPG style game play of its predecessors, but at least the developers went nuts in terms of creativity.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star that followed was slapped by Miyamoto's hand of bland, and to this day it's probably the only game I've ever played which I absolutely loathe for this reason. 

Going from this:

to this:

Was a direct assault on my love for the franchise: the crazy world building and characters designs.

Sticker Star was made even worse because it was also stripped of a FUN battle system and funny dialogue, so I can safely say this was my biggest disappointment ever in my gaming history.

Now admittedly, I have yet to play Colour Splash, which I hear at least brought the dialogue back to Paper Mario standards, but still misses that creativity of the first 3 games in terms of characters and world building, so while that still saddens me it appears baby steps were made towards what made the franchise so strong to begin with.

The Origami King seems to be following this trend of baby steps towards the original strength of the series, by bringing back bigger worlds and companions again. But alas, they must remain devoid of anything creative and let's keep piling on the GODDAMN TOADS everywhere. If there's anything that just screams bland and boring it's hundreds of toads with some different colours. Fucking toads man, fucking toads.

More than anything it seems we get a sense of what characters are being considered to be the core of Mario and what characters are not. Perhaps this is because Nintendo wants to make the Mario brand as big as Mickey Mouse, and so they want a kind of band of recognizable characters throughout all of his adventures, yet Odyssey had all sorts of new and creative designs, so why in the world can't the Paper Mario games take place in faraway lands anymore with for example a big fat chameleon nerd, a wrestling chicken or a sassy Lady Bow?

I will eventually get around to Colour Splash, and though I am ranting a bit here, the trailer looked fun and I'd love to play it, fully realizing that the height of Mario RPGs in Mario&Luigi: Superstar Saga and Paper Mario & The Thousand Year Door might never be reached again. 

 

 

I was going to come in here and say i've been burned by Sticker star and well this is almost exactly where i am!

I thought Super Paper Mario was bad, but its positively amazing compared to Sticker Star! I just don't know what happened to the series

I only hope this is moving in the right direction, not overly keen on the spinning plates battle system, gimmicks turn me off in these games after the fetish for forcing them in and damaging the overall game in others.

[Glen-i]

20 hours ago, Agent Gibbs said:

I only hope this is moving in the right direction, not overly keen on the spinning plates battle system, gimmicks turn me off in these games after the fetish for forcing them in and damaging the overall game in others.

Apart from Paper Mario 64, hasn't every entry put in some sort of battle system gimmick?

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Apart from Paper Mario 64, hasn't every entry put in some sort of battle system gimmick?

"Gimmick", AKA novel new mechanics.  I would hope that any new sequel would bring in new, novel and major new ideas!  Otherwise, why even bother making a new game?