In some ways, The Origami King was the most compelling and beautiful adventure I've had on the Switch. Only Breath of the Wild rivals the adventure story, but that game is much more impressionistic than the well-crafted, but on-rails plot of TOK. RPG diehards will roll their eyes at my praise for the plot, given that it's made to still be processed by younger players, without layered, episodic moments of characterization. The characters are written to be understood immediately from their dialogue, with subplots that suddenly come and go for the sake of an emotional beat. But, honestly, for someone who only has so many hours to sink into a game, it was fun and freeing to not have to worry about whether or not I'd fought enough mooks in a certain part of the map in order to level up my relationships or trigger a sidequest cutscene.

At least one thing the reviews tend to harp on is true. The beginning of the game is comparatively slow and hand-holdy. It isn't until we get to Overlook Tower where we see hints that each level is going to be more complex than we're initially set up to think. The slider puzzle gameplay is essentially a way to set things up so you can one-shot your enemies. It's fun to master, but ultimately it's fine if you don't get great lineups or if you use Toads to cheer. Enemies are to be treated like Mario enemies. If you can stomp on 'em for the coins, great. If you miss hitting them, it's rarely worth going back to destroy them. (Unless you want the Battle King trophy).

Intelligent Systems is obviously very aware of the criticisms against Sticker Star and Color Splash, some of which are outside their control. They have responded with Origami King, which leans into latter-Paper Mario tropes. Franchise fans needs to understand that this isn't a traditional RPG series anymore, and to have gotten two solid, base-RPGs featuring these versions of the characters is enough of a gift already. PM is an adventure series with RPG elements and in that regard, TOK is an absolute towering example.