Origami King is grand, fun to explore through an open-worldesque structure with events, minigames and collectables. When it comes down to the world design; towns, dungeons and overworld areas it is the cream of the crop accompanied by a sharp narration mostly hilarious and some other times even surprisingly dark, as a true staple to the series Origami King holds no slack in breaking conventions.

Similar to every Paper Mario game released past the series two earliest installments, Origami King again strays from the roots of the original battle system and completely revamps its own, there is no exp or level up.
The incentive for battles is however to get more confetti by defeating enemies for sprinkling out hollowed areas to either advance in dungeons, fill out the completion list or to earn coins for a few expensive collectable trophies again mainly for completion as well as for the small handful of weapon upgrades and accessories to give you some extra time and hp boosts in battle.

The default battles now involves spending 1 turn lining up formations of enemies through a circle grid and using the second round to clear them out with basic attacks being jump, hammer or items with the biggest emphasis being the puzzle aspects while the set of attack options are very limited without any other abilities outside the neutral attacks. The system is simple but also occasionally tricky to solve without using any of the very easily usable assist tools you get throughout, it exists but on the long stretch it doesn't really evolve past what you see from the first battles.

The boss battles each plays out with their own rules and individual designs that sets them apart, they have several phases with increasingly intensifying stakes and are great climactic highlights for the respective story portions.

Trophies,Toads and Invisible Blocks are hidden all over in addition to some rare heart containers or maybe a fire flower or mushroom item. And mostly the completionist tour while not particularily beneficial in much else outside of the completion rate can be pretty enjoyable, except for a few very annoying minigame challenges to fully clear for the extra trophies.

All in all, Origami King is for the most part a good time, it's not the faithful return old veterans would want, the battle system in particular will forever be a divisive factor, though the rest of the game carries the same creativity and wits that has run through most of the franchise.

I've grown up with the original, Thousand Year Door (which was my favorite game for a while), and Super. And like this sect of people, I was really put off by this game's reveal initially.
But man, I cannot sit here and pretend like this is not the best Paper Mario game by far. Pacing is on point, world design is flawless, the writing is arguably some of the strongest in these games. The battle system might not be to everyone's tastes, but I was really into it once they started increasing in difficulty, and the enemies generally put really unique spins on it. The best advice I got was to go into this like it were an action adventure game, and that really helped me appreciate this game for what it was. With the TTYD Remake coming out, I still beg for people to give this game a chance. It's one of the best first party titles on the Switch, and I would love to see where the series goes from here.

You know? I was enjoying my time with this game when I started playing it. I never played Sticker Star or Color Splash or any of the first few games outside of Super Paper Mario.

So yeah, I had pretty much no background on Paper Mario, so I was willing to give it a chance...And I did! I knew the game was getting somewhat good reviews, and I really didn't mind the combat system that much at first.

However...The more I played this game, the more I wished I was playing a traditional RPG. I don't like RPGs that much, but having to do this constant wheel puzzle bullshit, over and over again, even with the bosses...I just got pretty sick of it.

It's not like I hated the game or anything, but yeah, this is one of the few Switch games I actually regret buying, because by the end of it I was just eager to end the game and not having to deal with that anymore.

Other than the battle system, I would also say that this game still suffers from the same mediocrity the recent Paper Mario games suffer from in terms of characters and worldbuilding...It's just not interesting. When one of your bosses are a pair of scissors or a box of color pencils...You can't expect me to take this shit seriously.

It's fine. If you haven't played it, you are better off just waiting for the Thousand Year Door remake.

✔
I don't want to just echo what everyone says and say "I think that if this was more like TTYD/Super blah blah blah," nothing would get done. However, I also want to talk about this game while fully backing up what I know. I 100% completed this, and I mean it. I didn't just beat the game. I experienced absolutely EVERYTHING this game had to offer, including some things that the average casual player will never see. I have explored every crease and fold of this paper world, so I think I know how to discuss it.

The main game experience is actually pretty good. There are undeniable flaws, but that stuff's for suckers. I liked the puzzle combat stuff and appreciated that the puzzles had to actually be good first and foremost. They ramped up pretty well, including some of the boss puzzles (the bosses were neat. Only one bland Mario boss in the lot, so we're stacked pretty well).

I do not think the 100% experience is worth it unless you are 100% sure you are okay doing it. Go through it and complete as much of the game as you feel comfortable, but don't do it out of obligation. I did it because I wanted to. In the end, isn't that why we play video games? To do what we want to do? Anyway, I liked this a lot. Very good game even if it doesn't hold a candle to the first three. Best modern Paper Mario by a long shot.

Oh yeah, I wrote this a month ago and just forgot to post it. Sorry.

This game has a lot of unique ideas, and really nice and alive feeling areas that are bogged down by the horrible battles and tedious sequences that couldve been shortened.

I believe the creators really tried to make an interesting game with the restrictions Nintendo has put on the reason Paper Mario games and I respect it. A lot of funny moments and writing make it a more enjoyable experience but it does feel like too much. The toads are always trying to make some sorta quip or one liner. Its better than flavor text, but some real writing wouldve made the toads jokes hit harder.

Also Goated for adding the lil' eurobeat song

God, I want to love this more than I do, but there are two main things that hold it back for me: the combat and the narrative design.

For starters, I don't think the combat is actually bad per se - in fact, I actually found it quite fun for a while. The problem is that, outside of the boss fights, very little is done to expand the system outside of what you experience within the first hour of play, and the game is nearly 30 hours long. I could feel myself actively avoiding combat at a certain point to save myself time and tedium, and that's never a good sign.

When it comes to the narrative design, I feel the need to be more specific: the issue is not in the telling of the narrative, but rather some of the decisions made in the course of that telling. Several of the levels reach points of natural conclusion only to have the game suddenly insist you go on some circuitous side-quest or complete a small dungeon within the current dungeon, and frankly these unnecessary expansions of the story do little beyond making the game feel bloated and repetitive.

To be clear, I actually loved the writing of the game and exploring the world of Paper Mario - there's a specific combination of whimsy and melancholy that feels exclusive to this series, and Origami King is a worthy successor on that front. I just wish the game itself were a bit tighter, a bit more focused than what we ended up getting.