PM Prologue Part 1: Fighting Fit

Chapters (and the Prologue) are explicitly numerated in this game. Not that I find this entirely helpful for chopping things down, we'll see how many times I get weird cutoffs.

Mario has landed in this clearing. Wherever this is.

The ghosts of the Star Spirits appear to lend a hand. They like to spawn, despawn, and in general act one at a time when in a group, but outside Eldstar (the one with a giant white moustache), the order they do so doesn't seem to have any logic to it. However, going clockwise, they are lined up in the order we will rescue them.

Mamar and Kalmar dive down to inspect Mario.

The Star Spirits, because they're all static-y, have very static-y text to match. This isn't that bad to read (although I have never seen someone with bad vision try to read it in motion), but as screenshots, it's awful.

Kalmar is very pessimistic about our odds. Considering he will be the last Star Spirit we save, he's probably feeling really worried about how long he's going to spend captured.

Eldstar reassures Kalmar, although he addresses it to everybody. I'm not sure who else was that concerned, they all seem pretty content with their lot later.

Mario got a thorough beating by a powered-up Bowser and fell from the sky at perhaps his greatest drop in the series. Mario is no stranger to surviving stuff like this with nothing but dusting off his overalls, but at this early juncture in the series, they took a more realistic approach and had Mario need to get an magical recovery from the Star Spirits, what little power they happen to be able to expend while captured.

The Star Spirits hop, and Mario gets several dozen star effects over him. This does heal him, but only in a technical sense.

It's also the limits of the Star Spirits' power, and now they have to put their faith in time, Mario, and whatever people happen to live nearby.

There's one such passerby now! Although as far as "friendly species" are concerned, the Goomba has... not been one of them. On the other hand, it's not exactly like they've been good footsoldiers on Bowser's side.

You really have to wonder how far away people are "supposed" to be able to see. Maybe the "storybook" setting of the work means we're supposed to be reading the two characters being on-screen together as artistic license and Goombaria is really a sensible distance away.

The RPG formula involves a relative nobody going around to places that don't recognise him. The Mario RPGs have a bit of a novel issue regarding this: Mario is famous. Part of the reason many RPGs other than this one take place in a faraway kingdom, like Rogueport, the Beanbean Kingdom, or Pi'illo Island, is to allow Mario to go unrecognised for a few chapters. Since this game is in the Mushroom Kingdom, we're going to be recognised more than not.

Goombaria tries to get us to wake up- although it's not necessarily because we're Mario.

It's because, Star Spirits or no, we're unconscious.

Goombaria recognises that she is a child, and calls for people who probably can do something helpful: Her father, her grandfather, and her older brother. Her mother was probably a sensible ask, but she's a kid and she's panicking, cut her a little slack.

Mario is carried by somebody to the Goomba's home, and Eldstar shows up for one more scene.

Mario can in fact hear this message, despite the fact he's still asleep and by all accounts still unconscious. This wouldn't really matter- the player can have Mario do the things Eldstar is asking him to do regardless- but Mario does mention it after the fact.

...Bit of a weird angle to come from, but hey, Mario has always put the princess before the kingdom most of the time. It's just that Bowser is not the kind of villain to make this mutually exclusive.

Eldstar tells Mario to come to Shooting Star Summit. This is the place Star Haven connects to the land below, and although the Star Spirits are being held captive in the latter, this is probably the best place to try anyway.

And Eldstar vanishes. How we get to the Summit, that's our problem.

Mario wakes up and looks around in confusion. He's known everywhere in the world, but that doesn't mean he knows everywhere.

A generic Toad comes over to meet us.

And he also mentions we've been out for days. Mario got a magical boost from the cosmos and he's still not a miracle worker. The main series version of Mario would've got up in five seconds with nothing but a 1-Up.

Good, we're not far from Toad Town.

...Does it really rate "village", then?

Mario will occasionally react to dialogue with non-verbal actions, occasionally implied to house off-screen dialogue. He jumps in shock in response to this line.

And, as we'll find out as we press on, they're also good at helping us with other things. These guys are great.

Mario then remembers the meeting he had with Eldstar. The meeting does the relatively important thing of giving Mario a goal for the Prologue, and it'll be what gets the Goomba family to take an active role in getting us moving on: They'd like us to rest a little longer, but if we've got a call from the stars themselves, maybe we should get on that sooner rather than later.

The Toad seems a little less certain of the vision's authenticity. If someone who was unconscious told you they were seeing stars, would you reckon they meant actual characters?

The Toad entertains the notion fairly quickly, though. He lives in a world that runs on different rules to our own, and apparently "a weird star came to me in a vision last night" is something that just happens. Mario has seen weirder.

The Toad tells us to do something (it's good to be active!) and moves us along. Now that his role in the story is done, he's actually a purely mechanical NPC: He administers the Toad House of Goomba Village, Paper Mario's equivalent to the Inn. The Toad House has a slogan, which makes me thing this is some sort of state-sponsored kind of thing. No matter what part of the world we're in, no matter what species lives in the place we're in, the Toad House is always run by a Toad.

You can recognise the Toad House by this iconic mushroom symbol, no matter what the building looks like. The staffing may be uniform, but the designs conform to the local architecture.

Just outside the Toad House, we have Goombario, the son of the Goomba family and the most important of the bunch. That'll be more relevant later, though: For now, we'll get more spotlight on Dad and Grandpa.

He speaks highly of Mario, and his name is a Goomba-fied version of his. Considering the rest of the family, I wonder if those facts are related, and Goombario chose his own name.

As mentioned earlier, this is Goombaria, the daughter of the family and the one who found us. We're fairly sure, through context, that Goombaria is the younger kid.

Land sakes, that's a new one on me! This is Goomama, the mother of the Goomba family.

Head over to this far left area, and we can find the clearing where we landed. There's nothing further left.

And all the way over to the right is Goompapa, the father of the Goomba family.

As previously mentioned, the family isn't in a hurry to see us go, but if we mention we have an important job to do, they'll be persuaded to give the matter a higher priority.

Unfortunately, they will have to actually put in some elbow grease: Things can never be that easy.

Fortunately, the gate looks just fine, it shouldn't be a long wait.

Inside the house is Gooma, the least consequential of the Goomba family, who acknowledges the absurdity of the fact that all the Goombas other than the kids are named by their position in the familial hierarchy. What Goomba mother names their kid "Grandmother"?

She's going to stick around doting on her kids, mainly.

The Goomba household is, in general, filled with jars of stuff. And it also has a back door!

Out on the veranda, we'll meet the last and most important of the Goomba family for this update...

Goompa, the grandfather.

(Don't worry, we won't know them long enough that "Gooma" and "Goomama" will prove too confusing.)

Much like the gate, the veranda took a pounding from the earthquake and Goompa is hard at work repairing it. This family has some hard workers for an overall lack of hands.

So what caused this? You need to talk to Goompa to get Goompapa to have fixed the gate. This is mostly important for one reason, but it is a bit annoying to deal with Event Flags. Paper Mario isn't too bad about them, but that may also be because I know the game well enough.

...Slow down, kiddo! You'll have plenty of time to be a Mario character! The series has only gone on over 20 years since this game and shows no signs of stopping.

He'll be just fine.

Goombaria is disappointed that she isn't allowed to help. Not that this was a realistic expectation.

He says "Toad Town, home of Princess Peach's Castle" as if we're not Mario and we don't live there. Well, OK, we don't live there, but we spend a lot of time there.

Indeed it is.

There are good reasons to come back here later, thankfully. It's nice to respect our roots, even if this isn't our humble hometown.

...That's not good.

(Kammy Koopa theme.)

For reasons unknown, Kammy's broom comes with a handbrake, and makes skidding noises when it comes to a sudden halt. It makes no sense and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kammy Koopa represents a very dangerous element of the Koopa Troop: A functioning brain. What part of Bowser's personality told you it was him?

Kammy didn't really think there was any danger of Mario being any further threat to Bowser, but she checked anyway, on the off-chance that he got a miraculous saving throw. And even if it weren't the Star Spirits... it's Mario.

Not only are the Goombas not working for Bowser, but they don't even recognise his second-in-command by sight. Yeah, they're trustworthy.

For some reason, Kammy gets a lot of "jokes" about how she thinks she's far more beautiful than she is. I really hope this wasn't the reason they made the Magikoopa right-hand a woman and not the male Kamek.

For some reason, Kammy is needed elsewhere. Honestly, Kammy probably agrees that her time is better spent making sure Mario never leaves Goomba Village, but Bowser needs somebody to brag to.

So she limits herself to gloating.

And a single attempt to stop us from leaving:

Blocking the path with a giant Rotating Block. I say "Rotating Block", but that is merely a description of its behaviour in Super Mario World. In Paper Mario, they're "Yellow Blocks" and they're purely obstacles.

Also on this screenshot: Goompapa gets the best shocked expression. Mario and Goombaria aren't doing too bad themselves, but Goompapa is the clear winner.

She gloats about this, but I don't really know what she's talking about. Then again, it's not like we get to compare it to the Mushroom Kingdom outside the context of Bowser possessing the Star Rod.

Laughing about how much havoc she's caused by dropping a single Yellow Block. Bowser's right hand Magikoopa.

Of all the things Kammy Koopa has done, the thing that bothers Goompapa the most is that Kammy dropped the block on top of the gate, smashing it and ruining a long few days of hard work.

...With that said, imagine if Kammy dropped the block behind the gate. It opens outwards, if she managed to land it behind the gate in such a way the gate can't open, we'd actually not really have any solution to it.

Kammy's words seem to be:

It is useless for you to try to save Princess Peach. Ridiculous! Laughable!

...Not really the response I'd expect. I wonder if the developers thought Kammy was saying something that would make this response fit... but they just forgot to actually include anything of the sort? Maybe one or both ends of the conversation fit better in JP.

The RPGs love this reaction. And so do the players. Peach has been kidnapped so often that the reaction is not "oh no!", but "oh, neat". Well, from anyone that isn't a Toad. She's spent 35 years in Bowser's Castle, she's in no danger of anything actually scary happening.

Well, it's Step 1. There's a pretty big ??? between that and saving Peach.

Goompapa doesn't have a solution to the Yellow Block at hand.

And even I'm a tall ask!

That was a lot of pressure on ol' Goompapa. Then again, he probably knows this place better than us.

A Hammer! More importantly, a Hammer with a capital H!

All we have to do is go borrow it! Now if you'll excuse him, Goompapa needs to pick up the parts of the gate that have not been crushed under the yellow block.

Goombaria tries calling for him.

Goombario doing a little foreshadowing, and recognising Kammy by sight.

He gives us a short biography of her. Yes, this is relevant to Goombario as he appears later in the story.

Out on the veranda, we...

Not pictured, because I missed all the shots: Mario stands here for like five seconds, with the veranda flashing on-screen as Mario goes "wait a second..."

Eventually, we run out of Coyote Time and fall to the ground. Again.

Pictured: The veranda.

Now that he's conscious, Mario doesn't land on the ground, but rather floats down like a scrap of paper. This is the thing about the paper aesthetic: It did sorta have an impact on the story, because Mario survived this fall unscathed because of it, but it's not like he needed it and it's more of a visual gag of "it's funny because he's paper" in practice.

Goompa's not far: He fell down too, and no matter when, it's not like he's going places with a bad back.

Sounds like the Yellow Block dislodged the veranda. Dangit, Kammy Koopa!

"Happens to the best of us."

There's a Yellow Block here, too. Lucky we're sure Goompa has the solution!

...Less fortunately, Goompa doesn't have it on him.

Well, it can't have gone far.

Off we go! Goompa acts as a travelling companion, following us around, but not doing anything of note.

Well, OK, that's not entirely untrue. There's a dedicated button for making the person following you around do something, and Goompa actually does have an action if you push this button: He will readjust his position so he is standing directly behind you. It's not impressive, but it is technically an action!

Enter the only map you can reach around here, and Goompa will tell you what we're looking for. That's more of a mallet than a hammer, mate! No wonder we'll be breaking Yellow Blocks!

Goompa gives a more relevant tip: We can rustle bushes for goodies by pressing "A" near them. We could always do this, but we will need to do it in order to find the Hammer.

It's not in this one, but there is a Coin. Coins, of course, can be exchanged for goods and services. Also, it's just fun to collect lots of them!

In the middle of the room, we find one of these. We can only Save the game at Save Blocks, and usually, if you find one outside of a town, odds are there's going to be something scary nearby. Good to remember.

(By the way, yes, that second text box is not kidding: if you Game Over, you're reset to your last save state- you lose all progress, positive or negative. No death warping in this game- avoid it at all costs!)

Hammer's over here in this bush that falls down. The Hammer can now be used on the overworld and in battle.

Goompa repeats the tutorial we just got. Dangit, man, our memory's not that bad... yet.

More relevant advice. There are trees around here with stuff in them, and also we need to know what button to press.

BRICK BREAK!

The trees are not guaranteed to be any more interesting than the bushes.

Although this one has a key item in it.

Goombaria lost her Dolly. What's it doing here? Good question, although it's likely it was stolen.

This one can be returned for prizes! Most things are just inventory items, though, and it's finders keepers for them.

This block was a Coin Block: It contained multiple coins, and we've got to hit it rapidly to get them all out. These are fun little distractions, although I highly suspect the number of coins you get is not worth the effort you often put into them. I'm told the goal is 10 coins in the main series (it is possible to exceed this number, but usually you need to be doing something exciting to get that high), and I'm led to assume the number is the same here.

With our business done, it's time to head back.

...You OK, Goompa?

I believe that's our question to you.

He even has his own theme. Nothing good can come of a guy with his own theme.

...Territorial. Uh oh.

Oh dear.

Jr. Troopa is the game's first actual boss. What exactly is he? A Koopa Troopa that's still clinging to his eggshell. He's supposed to be old enough that he has a reputation, although the eggshell thing is not helping his argument any. I don't actually think any other Mario media officially states Koopas hatch from eggs- although since they're reptiles, perhaps it wasn't the biggest of surprises.

Jr. Troopa even has his own battle theme! It's a very simple one, but I like it quite a bit. I like that kinda fast little beat it's got going on.

Goompa gives us a quick little description. We never meet this gang, although it could be argued they're the ones who put Goombaria's Dolly in the tree. I'm not sure what a Troopa still covered in eggshell is doing as the boss of anything, but who knows? Maybe all his gang members are still in the eggs.

Goompa is not at all concerned with our odds.

I think we're meant to take this metaphorically- we do not know any boosting moves yet.

Goompa is not going to do anything to help in battle, either.

It's time to look at our command menu now that we have more options available to us. Newly added is the ability to use a Hammer command, and our Strategies options have become available. We won't be able to use any inventory items until we actually get around to possessing some.

Our Strategies are "Do Nothing"- literally, Mario will pass his turn without acting- or "Run Away"- although, since this is a boss fight, we are barred from that option. There are situations in which Doing Nothing is a valid tactic, although nine times out of ten, if you're in one of those, you made a mistake somewhere along the way.

Performing a Jump gets us the usual 1 damage. You'd think the egg would help him out a little more.

Mario takes the praise for it.

Jr. Troopa also performs a jump attack, also doing one damage.

Here's the Hammer. There is a difference between Jump and Hammer, but because of the way Paper Mario opens, it won't be an obvious one until later.

Glad somebody is.

This fight could not be any more boring. This is a problem with the game's pacing, and I feel I'm doing a lot to mitigate it by skipping over all the boring "I hit him for 1 damage" attacks.

This one does seem to work out for him.

...Well, as much as you can say "has increased his chances" has worked out for him.

He was only on 1HP. Peril strats usually require you actually beat the enemy.

Jr Troopa is one of the few enemies in the game to have an animation for being defeated. Most enemies will collapse like Mario when they're defeated.

For beating Jr. Troopa, we earned 20 Star Points.

Star Points are the Experience Points of this game, and much like Fire Emblem (with which this game shares developers), we always need 100 points to get a new level, with old enemies we have no business fighting giving less EXP the stronger we get.

If you're interested in the specifics, every enemy in the game is assigned a Level, and the amount of Star Points you are owed is calculated by the formula below:

[(Enemy's level) - (Mario's level)]/2

Bosses also use this formula, so they might give slightly different Star Point amounts depending on how much or how little fighting you've been getting in to in between, although it shouldn't be enough to make a massive difference unless you're playing the game particularly strangely. It does, however, mean bosses have obscenely high levels: since enemy levels are only used for the EXP formula, the developers can set them to whatever value they want without changing the difficulty of the fight. For example, Jr. Troopa is level 41, to give us (41-1)/2 for 20 Star Points.

Star Points acquired. Hey, can I beat up your four friends?

After every battle, Mario will also play a short animation. There's a few different ones, which is cute, but you will be seeing all of them a lot eventually.

Sure you were, kiddo.

He runs off, runs back to insist he'll be back, and runs off again. He is serious- we'll be seeing him and his musical cues again. Although this game is no stranger to boss themes that only play once.

Mario: "I'll be ready for him!"

This ? Block can now be hit! It was just a coin. How disappointing.

The tree was better: Our first inventory item! The Mushroom heals us for 5 HP, and may be used both in and out of battle.

It's mostly attacking enemies for raw damage and healing HP. There's some that inflict status effects on enemies and others that buff Mario, though. Mario may hold ten inventory items at once, and this is non-negotiable. If you attempt to pick up an eleventh, you will be forced to choose one to drop. Drop the item you just found and it's gone for good- no coming back later with an emptied inventory.

Don't use the Mushroom, though: There's a Heart Block here.

Heart Blocks will heal up all our HP and FP at no cost. There is (almost) never a downside to hitting these.

Over here we find a Stone Block, that does not get smashed by our hammer. Mario will kind of vibrate after hitting it, and if you guessed we will eventually be able to smash it, you'd be right. Although that only raises the question of why we'd want to smash this one.

Jumping up this spring, we can find a Fire Flower. When used in battle, all enemies will be damaged for 3 points. It does increased damage against ice-element enemies and heals fire-element enemies, but we'll be encountering neither in the foreseeable future.

The Fire Flower in this game is using its unusual design from Super Mario World rather than it's more recognisable design. This is not the only game at the time that does so, so at the time, the Fire Flower was probably more recognisable like this than it would be in its modern form (which is more accurate to the original SMB1).

On the next screen, we get to our first normal battles, and we also get to see Goompa having no hesitation about treating Goombas that sided with Bowser as hostiles. Well, if he's not worried, we shouldn't be either.

He also briefly tutorialises the First Strike: If we manage to jump on or hammer an enemy on the field, then we get to keep that attack into the battle.

And that's our first Goomba there.

Jump first strike!

The Goomba (Lv. 5) is the gruntiest of the grunts in the Koopa Troop, only able to walk back and forward, and even then only if there was a wall to bump into- they will gladly plunge into the abyss on their own. They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 1 and are in nearly everything since. In addition to missing Super Mario Land, they're also not in Super Mario World, being replaced by the Galoomba.

In this game, they're slightly more threatening than normal: They attack with a Headbonk, jumping on your head. Still does one damage.

They also only have 2 HP, so you know, first strike it and it's a goner. (Mario always goes first.)

2 Star Points for a Goomba?

Next up, a Hammer first strike on a...

Spiked Goombas (Lv. 6) are original to the Paper Mario series, appearing because the game needs to introduce you to one of the two major differences between Jump and Hammer early. If you jump on an enemy defined as "Spiky", you will take 1 damage and the enemy will take none. There's also a few other things enemies can be that are functionally identical, like "fiery".

In the board "Bowser's Enchanting Inferno" in Mario Party 7, the Goombas at the Orb Huts have Bowser-themed hats that make them slightly resembled Spiked Goombas. ...Nah, they don't really count.

Spiky, fiery, or anything in between, you hit them with your Hammer. These also have 2 HP, but watch out: They also have 2 Atk! You don't want these to be alive on an enemy turn.

And our third enemy on Goomba Path...

Paragoombas (Lv. 6)! They first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3, and while they're not quite as prolific as their non-winged brethren, they're pretty close to.

As you might expect, enemies that are in the air cannot be hit by a Hammer attack- you can't even target them! The Spiked Goomba and Paragoomba represent a pair of common enemy types to diversify combat: Spiked and Flying.

(Also, did you notice the fact the opening Paragoomba battle has two of them? If you damage a Paragoomba, they lose their wings and become normal Goombas, just like in the main games- although I think they keep their EXP payouts. If you First Strike the first Paragoomba, like I did, Goompa can't tutorialise, so there's a second one to make sure you have an example.)

Goompa also has a tutorial not related to the Spiked/Flying dynamic, but he doesn't go into much detail about it. You might not think "you can choose which enemy you want to attack" is very complicated, and it isn't, but there is one wrinkle here: You may freely Jump on any enemy you wish, but you may only Hammer the nearest enemy in the lineup. Among other reasons, this does make Jump the superior option where both are available.

With that said, it is not in my interest to attack the Paragoomba. If I kill this guy first, I only take 2 damage. If I spread the damage equally, I take 3.

Unfortunately, this does mean I take some damage.

Not that much, but you know, it always adds up.

There was another Goomba up this ledge, but something weird happened when I tried jumping up and I managed to make contact with its pinkie toe or something. No matter.

Looping back around secures us our first Star Piece.

The game is going to play coy about what they're for, but I'll be a little less vague: They are an alternative currency, Paper Mario's equivalent to Mini Medals. There are 160 Star Pieces in the game, and you can spend them at a shop for useful items (which I will be coy on, but we'll find it pretty soon anyway). It is worth noting that all of the items available in this shop are one-time purchases, and it is possible to acquire all of them if you have all 160 Star Pieces.

Goompa is home safely at last!

This gate was, in fact, locked, but it has been unlocked for the rest of the game. We need to be able to backtrack for that Stone Block, after all. And also the Star Piece and Dolly.

Goombario looked outside and didn't fall out because of a lack of veranda. This kid has a brain in that noggin.

Grampa's just fine, kids.

And as a reward for bringing him back (or even just a gift out of the goodness of his heart), Goompa has something for us. He left it in the house, give him a second.

While we're waiting, Goombario notices that we've found Goombaria's lost Dolly, and invites us to return it immediately. If you did not find the Dolly immediately, or if you say No here, you will be allowed to return it later by talking to Goombaria as an NPC, but while we've got some downtime in the story, the game figures "before you forget, let's get this out of the way". Kinda neat.

Did you think I was going to say no?

I'd say take better care of it, but I don't think Jr. Troopa will be getting up to any more mayhem in the near future for you guys...

The only purpose of the Dolly is to be exchanged for a Star Piece. This has a very interesting knock-on effect, because for some reason, these Star Pieces can't actually be detected by the "find missing Star Pieces" NPC. It's not the only one like this, but if you missed the Dolly, well... you've got no real reason to return to Jr. Troopa's Playground, it's a dead end in the sticks.

Goombaria also kisses Mario, for reasons that I really don't think I want to know. Welcome to 2000, apparently.

On non-Dolly related topics, Goombario starts talking about how he's been practicing at being a hero like Mario.

Goombaria means this exclusively as praise. Goombario does have a brain in that head, even if he's going to be spending a lot of time using his head as a weapon.

And Goombario doesn't even notice that Goombaria's comment could've been disparaging.

Goompa found what he was looking for. Yeah, we weren't finding it on our own.

"Rapping"? I... think I get the slang? Probably before my time, I was only a toddler when this game was new.

Goompa gives us our first Badge, Power Jump. There are 80 Badges in Paper Mario (counting duplicates separately), and they represent the first method of making each playthrough unique we'll encounter.

You can equip Badges to your liking, and you must have them equipped to use them in battle. Some Badges are passive, others are active. Power Jump is an Active Badge.

Goompa tries to pressure us into the Badge tutorial, despite Badges being just "pick them out of a menu". I think he does tutorialise one of the most important points of Badges, but I can explain that, honest.

Foreshadowing.

All Active Badges require Flower Points in order to use the effect. If you've ever played any other RPG, this is literally just the game's MP system. Interestingly, I don't think Mario is able to use FP at all if you don't wear any Badges.

Goompa reminds the player that Heart Blocks heal FP, too. I suppose it would've made sense if they didn't, but this isn't one of those RPGs, we're allowed to use our FP.

...When did we tell Gooma?

Goombario sees no problem with us beating Bowser, as usual. Since when has Mario needed help for that?

Goompa gifts us with the Hammer for permanent use. It was technically not our Hammer before, but we're going to need it.

Goompa implies he could've been of help when he was younger. Although this is a peaceful Goomba family, it seems Goombario isn't the only one who's gotten into fights at some point.

Goombario (and I missed it, but Goombaria too) expresses an interest in joining.

And Goompa figures "...You know, not a bad idea."

Goompa was a temporary party member, doing nothing of value in the party.

But Goombario isn't so restricted!

Partner join theme. As a side note, the theme is different in JP. The popular story is that the JP song was too close to a song from West Side Story, but I don't believe that's ever been officially confirmed to be the cause. It's a pretty reasonable guess, though.

Whenever a Partner joins, we get a brief interlude explaining their field and battle abilities, accompanied by some beautiful artwork showing off the former. Goombario's field ability is Tattle, and whenever you press C-Down with him in the party, he will give you a short description of the map you're currently on or, if you're close enough to an NPC, a description of the NPC. There's a lot of detail to be squeezed out of him, but oh boy, there's a lot of it.

Goombario's battle abilities are Headbonk and Tattle. Headbonk is literally just the Jump command, with all the features thereof (which is better than it sounds), while Tattle allows you to get a short description of the enemy, along with its stats and attacks. More relevantly, any enemy you Tattle will have their current HP permanently visible for the rest of the game. Paper Mario 64 does not track whether you've got every Tattle, like the sequel does (moreover, it's actually impossible to get every Tattle), but it's good practice.

Overall, there's a lack of real concern about Goombario coming with us on our adventure. I'll take the game at it's word that he's old enough for this.

Goompa has decided that that's enough plot for one day, and goes to take a nap. I think he'll only be relevant for one, maybe two sidequests for the rest of the game.

Goombario is ready to go!

Good suggestion. You should take it.

Now then, if you want to Tattle an NPC, you need to stand close enough to them that the "..." above their head has appeared. Just like if you wanted to Talk to them.

Huh, Goombario has a bit of resentment. Noted.

Apparently, there is data for Goombaria as a party member, but it's even less useful than Goompa's. We only really need one Goomba.

Goomama has no real objections to this. She's kind of who I'd expect to object, but no, nothing of the sort.

Well, OK, she's going to smother him a little bit, but she's not going to object.

...OK... she's going to smother him a lot.

Well, if it's any reassurance, it is impossible for him to get hurt. For long.

She's my mom, Goomama. She sometimes gets on my nerves when she worries too much about me, but I still love her lots. Don't tell her what I just said! Seriously, Mario! Promise me!

If you Tattle her, it turns out Goombario respects his mum deep down.

Gooma has some nice life advice.

...I'll do my best.

It's actually "Refresh your Body and Soul", Goomba Village is the only outlier. It's weird, no idea who wasn't talking to who.

Like Heart Blocks, the Toad House is free to use and heals HP and FP. They also do something else different to Heart Blocks, but we won't see that for a while yet.

Mario has a cute animation where he slides underneath the sheets like a piece of paper.

With a rest in heart, we travel onwards!

That's another thing we can do!

He's my dad, Goompapa. He's willing to do anything for us. We can always count on him. He doesn't look like it, though. But did you see him fixing stuff after that earthquake? That's when I knew he was cool.

He's just as proud of his dad, too.

And now he's got to work on fixing that gate. It shouldn't take too long.

You sound like a fortune cookie.

...

I was so excited about getting Goombario that I forgot about the Badge I got in the same conversation. That was a genuinely helpful reminder!

I agree, thanks for the reminder! And to think I would've disparaged this reminder otherwise!

To equip Badges, we go into our Badge menu and select which Badges we want to be wearing. All Badges cost BP to equip, and this is the important point: BP isn't permanent. You're allowed to take off a Badge and be fully refunded of all the BP you spent to equip it. With that said, however, having more BP will allow us to equip more Badges at once. Once we... have more Badges.

While we're in here, let's check out the rest of our Pause Menu, turn a negative into a positive! On this screen, we can see various stats we kinda knew, especially from the C-Up HUD. The most relevant things you'll see on this screen are your Level, your Star Piece count, and your current Boots.

Oh yeah, "Boots", "Hammer" and "Star Energy" out in the corner reflecting mechanics we're not going to see officially introduced for a few Chapters.

We can check our items in this tab. We can't actually use Inventory Items from this screen (making it useless for any practical purpose, it doesn't even make it obvious how close we are to the ten item limit!), but we can keep track of our Key Items and that'll be helpful. Take a picture, that "None" Key Items won't be there for long.

Party allows us to check on our Partners. Mostly, it's a permanent way of showing off the artwork.

Similar story, but with the Star Spirits. Again, we haven't seen this mechanic in practice.

And lastly, there's the map. We can see every location we've visited, but it's not like I've checked this out often.

And as our last note for this update, hitting this tree gets you a Goomnut, an inventory item restoring 3 FP. This tree is the only source of Goomnuts in the game, but it will always give one out every time the screen is refreshed. We'll have another use for Goomnuts later, but for now, 3FP isn't nothing.

Next time: We head in Toad Town's direction.