I haven't had this much fun with a game since I first played Katana Zero nearly two years ago! I've played a lot of games that I enjoyed more and thought were better than this in that time, but none that I just wanted to keep playing for hours and hours on end.
There are so many good ideas here. The combat is great; the simplicity of your options (hammer, jump, star power, or item, plus your parter character) combined with the flexibility given to you with the badges allows you to play in dynamic and experimental ways. It's the same system that makes Hollow Knight and Kingdom Hearts so much fun to play.
The action command is also great. It's interesting to compare this to Mario & Luigi. That game is a 2D game masquerading as a 3D game, and this game is a 3D game masquerading as a 2D one. This distinction makes all the difference between these two because in Mario & Luigi, the non-existent 3D space makes platforming awkward and combat confusing. In Paper Mario, there's so much more clarity with depth perception and timing button presses which makes it a painless experience in comparison. I also think it helps that there's a wider variety of action commands to perform and they are generally easier to execute than the ones in Mario & Luigi.
The greatest innovation of this game is undoubtedly the number values. RPGs are inherently number games, every single part of every system is all internal calculations being done by the game (item drops, damage values, stats, spawn rates, mp/stamina meters, inventory space, experience/leveling, hidden algorithms that the player is unaware of, etc.). In nearly every game in the genre, the numbers can get so high that they're practically incomprehensible. Here, you start with 10 HP and you do 1 damage with each attack, but the system is designed around it so these low numbers make perfect sense. There's no armor or accessories to equip, you only have three stats that you choose which one gets increased each level, and there are barely any modifiers to attack and defense, so it's a lot easier to wrap your head around the math in this game, and it also unintentionally criticizes the arbitrariness of numbers in other RPGs.
What I love most though, is the quirky and unique world here. This is the mushroom kingdom with all of Mario's familiar friends and enemies, but all put into one interconnected world and each given the smallest twist to make them weird and different. Your party members are classic Mario baddies but given the most insignificant characteristics and suddenly they're completely distinct. Goombario is just a goomba but with a blue baseball cap and slightly smoother teeth and all of a sudden is the little son of a goomba family. Watt is literally just a lil sparky with a pacifier, it's so genius. It shows that it is not at all difficult to make interesting new characters with the smallest changes.
Furthering that idea of this weird Mario world is the idea that generic Mario characters all live in little towns together. When I met Goombario I thought to myself that it was kinda fucked up how this little goomba kid idolizes Mario and he decides to follow him and be your first party member; this is the man who has killed hundreds of his species before. But then you encounter goombas in battle and you have Goombario tattle them and you realize that just because he's a goomba doesn't mean that Goombario is an enemy per se, and it also means that Mario has no reason to stomp on him. All of a sudden there's the slightest hint of complexity within the world of Mario and subtle stereotypical undertones are now present here. It's really small and not at all addressed by the game but I find it really cool how subtle that notion is and how it exists here.
My one complaint is that we don't get to see your party members in the story hardly at all. If anything they're relevant for the chapter they're introduced in and then they are just along for the ride and say nothing the rest of the game, and that's a shame. I loved Bow, she's a lovable bitch but also has a sense of justice that makes her not annoying, but after chapter 3 she's silent through everything. Watt and Lakilester (which is a genius name btw) get super shafted, especially Watt. These two just show up right before you fight the boss of the chapter and are given little to no personality or role, and that's really disappointing.
Also chapter 6 fucking sucks. And so does chapter 8 but not as much. It's made up for by most of the chapters having really fun stories and places to explore. Chapters 2 and 7 were my favorites.
There are so many good ideas here. The combat is great; the simplicity of your options (hammer, jump, star power, or item, plus your parter character) combined with the flexibility given to you with the badges allows you to play in dynamic and experimental ways. It's the same system that makes Hollow Knight and Kingdom Hearts so much fun to play.
The action command is also great. It's interesting to compare this to Mario & Luigi. That game is a 2D game masquerading as a 3D game, and this game is a 3D game masquerading as a 2D one. This distinction makes all the difference between these two because in Mario & Luigi, the non-existent 3D space makes platforming awkward and combat confusing. In Paper Mario, there's so much more clarity with depth perception and timing button presses which makes it a painless experience in comparison. I also think it helps that there's a wider variety of action commands to perform and they are generally easier to execute than the ones in Mario & Luigi.
The greatest innovation of this game is undoubtedly the number values. RPGs are inherently number games, every single part of every system is all internal calculations being done by the game (item drops, damage values, stats, spawn rates, mp/stamina meters, inventory space, experience/leveling, hidden algorithms that the player is unaware of, etc.). In nearly every game in the genre, the numbers can get so high that they're practically incomprehensible. Here, you start with 10 HP and you do 1 damage with each attack, but the system is designed around it so these low numbers make perfect sense. There's no armor or accessories to equip, you only have three stats that you choose which one gets increased each level, and there are barely any modifiers to attack and defense, so it's a lot easier to wrap your head around the math in this game, and it also unintentionally criticizes the arbitrariness of numbers in other RPGs.
What I love most though, is the quirky and unique world here. This is the mushroom kingdom with all of Mario's familiar friends and enemies, but all put into one interconnected world and each given the smallest twist to make them weird and different. Your party members are classic Mario baddies but given the most insignificant characteristics and suddenly they're completely distinct. Goombario is just a goomba but with a blue baseball cap and slightly smoother teeth and all of a sudden is the little son of a goomba family. Watt is literally just a lil sparky with a pacifier, it's so genius. It shows that it is not at all difficult to make interesting new characters with the smallest changes.
Furthering that idea of this weird Mario world is the idea that generic Mario characters all live in little towns together. When I met Goombario I thought to myself that it was kinda fucked up how this little goomba kid idolizes Mario and he decides to follow him and be your first party member; this is the man who has killed hundreds of his species before. But then you encounter goombas in battle and you have Goombario tattle them and you realize that just because he's a goomba doesn't mean that Goombario is an enemy per se, and it also means that Mario has no reason to stomp on him. All of a sudden there's the slightest hint of complexity within the world of Mario and subtle stereotypical undertones are now present here. It's really small and not at all addressed by the game but I find it really cool how subtle that notion is and how it exists here.
My one complaint is that we don't get to see your party members in the story hardly at all. If anything they're relevant for the chapter they're introduced in and then they are just along for the ride and say nothing the rest of the game, and that's a shame. I loved Bow, she's a lovable bitch but also has a sense of justice that makes her not annoying, but after chapter 3 she's silent through everything. Watt and Lakilester (which is a genius name btw) get super shafted, especially Watt. These two just show up right before you fight the boss of the chapter and are given little to no personality or role, and that's really disappointing.
Also chapter 6 fucking sucks. And so does chapter 8 but not as much. It's made up for by most of the chapters having really fun stories and places to explore. Chapters 2 and 7 were my favorites.
FrozenRoy
7 months ago