PM Prologue Part 2: Using Your Head

We begin our journey across Goomba Road with a helpful sign.

Truly, we have been warned.

Helpfully, the Goomba leaps off the sign and tries to attack us, as proof of concept.

Your first battle with Goombario will have him pipe up with a short tutorial on how you can have either Mario or Goombario move first in a battle. There is no inherent reason one might want to do one or the other.

Goombario only has two options: Actions and Strategies.

He doesn't even get the choice to Run Away. There is going to be another Strategy he can do later, but still.

Actions are the battle abilites we went over earlier. Tattle does not cost any FP to use, thankfully.

When you Tattle, a blue box appears over the enemy as Goombario delivers his spiel.

This is a Goomba. Goombas are what you'd call "small fries." Actually, they're pretty much the smallest fries. ...Hey, wait! I'm one of 'em! Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 1 Defense Power: 0. You can jump on them or whack 'em with the Hammer. These guys are old school. They've been around since you were in Super Mario Bros.!

Showing off Headbonk, it's literally a Goomba-flavoured Jump command. Whoever thought Goombas should attack with a Headbonk instead of their traditional "Marching straight ahead into the enemy's feet!" creed was onto something.

Huh. One of the Goombas on the road (there were multiple!) dropped a Mushroom. From what I can tell, enemies have a set percentage rate to drop an item- for Goombas this is 5%- and that item will then be randomly selected from what drops are options- for Goombas this is just Mushrooms. I usually consider any items dropped purely bonuses, except for one example a little further in.

Aha, a Spiked Goomba. Spiked Goomba has something weird in the Tattle I would like to talk about.

This is a Spiked Goomba. Spiked Goombas are Goombas with spikes on their heads. Max HP: 2, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0 Whatever you do, don't jump on their spikes or you'll get hurt or even paralyzed!

"Paralysed"? What's going on there? Well, the answer is half "mistranslation" and half "the JP was also kinda vague". Mario can jump on a Spiked Goomba as many times as he pleases, but he will always take 1 damage.

"Paralysed" is referring to the partners. A very rare selection of attacks may target the Partner, and because partners don't have their own dedicated HP in this game, they instead spend the next few turns injured and unable to move. Jumping on Spiked Goombas is the first opportunity to observe this behaviour in practice. For smart players, the first enemy that has a Partner-targeting attack is in Chapter 2.

Ooh, a red ? Block! What's the difference?

Red ones contain Badges. This is innately true, as is the reverse: If you find a yellow block, you will never find a Badge in it.

The Close Call Badge (1BP) will give Mario a 33% chance to evade enemy attacks if he has the Danger status. There are multiple Badges that only take effect when Mario is in Danger, and equipping all of them and running around at low HP is a legitimate strategy. Not as effective in this game as it is in TTYD, but legitimate.

This sign also discourages it, not that it has the authority to do so. It's a sign.

It does give us a Mushroom, though.

Proof of concept, Goombario can leap high enough to Headbonk Paragoombas.

Also droppable by enemies: Heart (and Flower) pickups. These will restore 1 HP/FP, and while they're random, they're usually frequent enough that you can trim out a few odd item usages.

Not that it mattered, because the Heart Block was right over here.

...And that would be why.

We are being ambushed!

...The Goomba family was one thing, but you two needed better names. Who was your mother?

Time to be ambushed!

This is Red Goomba. He's the older of the two notorious Goomba Bros. Max HP: 7, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0 The Goomba King ordered him to try to stop you. You can take this guy, no prob. He has just a little more HP than an ordinary Goomba.

This is Blue Goomba. He's the younger of the two notorious Goomba Bros. Max HP: 6, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0 As you heard in his little speech, he's one of the Goomba King's men. He doesn't look that healthy. He's weaker than his brother.

Red Goomba (Lv. 20) and Blue Goomba (Lv. 20) are actually kind of tricky opponents. Not that you are likely to lose this fight, but it does require you to actually put in effort and possibly actual FP/item usage. And woe betide anyone who did not hit the Heart Block on the way in!

(If you focus-fire Blue Goomba first, you do actually win this fight with just normal attacks. No wonder Goombario says they're not that much stronger than an ordinary Goomba.)

Any enemy considered a boss but not important enough to have their own theme uses this mini boss theme.

We start of with Tattle and Power Jump. Power Jump does 3 damage in a single blow, and it will be how we get through this fight without taking a beating.

You got any better?

Start of Turn 3, I've Tattled and Power Jumped both. But now I'm out of Power Jumps unless I eat a Goomnut.

Here's the plan: I drop him down to 3 HP.

And then I damage all enemies on the screen for three HP!

Mario traditionally consumes a Fire Flower (er... somehow) and turns into Fire Mario so he can throw fireballs from his palms.

Paper Mario plants his Fire Flowers back in the ground.

This is the fast strat for dealing with the Goomba Bros. If you beat one Goomba first, the other one has a short dialogue mourning him. Much more clean and efficient this way.

Blue Goomba: Re... Red Goomba, my brother... Noooooo! You meanie, Mario!

Red Goomba: Blue, Blue Goomba!!!!! Gaaah! My little brother! You'll pay for that, Mario!

20 Star Points, with the Goomba Bros being level 20 each. That means .5 Star Points round up per-enemy.

Ooh, I like that victory animation. Goombario just has a happy bounce.

Sounds good to me!

...So why is this on the other side of the Goomba Bros fight? Probably a good idea to heal up and hit this.

Those two signs earlier seem to have been buildup for exactly this joke.

This Mushroom turns into a Goomba and jumps off to attack us.

I do not appreciate false advertising.

...Hm... the Goomba Bros did mention a King...

I guess we found his hidey-hole.

It's a little hard to take these guys seriously when they're literally running crying to the biggest bully on the playground.

We apparently weren't far behind, even though we got held up by healing, saving, and that one billboard.

Kammy says they made a few changes to the world, and this seems to be the most significant: This fortress used to be a bridge.

At this point, there are four large thuds, knocking leaves down from the tree and making Mario and Goombario hop.

Time for us to meet the Goomha King, at last.

His dialogue is all wiggly and stuff. Also, his eyes are normally cross-eyed like that, they switch which eye is on top every go around. Not sure how the first shot has his eyes in a reasonable orientation.

I'm sure you will.

For what it's worth, Bowser seemed to like the cut of this guy's jib, since he's one of the few characters to make it to a non-Paper Mario game. He's a new boss in Super Mario 64 DS! He also appears in Mario Kart DS's Mission Mode, although he seems to have lost his title and become merely Goomboss.

Bold words from cowards.

Goombario is torn between being intimidated by the Goomba King's size and feeling not at all concerned by Mario's odds. At no point does he recognise the fact the Goomba King is claiming sovereignty over him, correctly or otherwise.

This guy is our real boss fight.

We are matched up against the Goomba King (Lv. 49) and his two flunkies, Red and Blue Goomba. Unlike last time, however, the Goomba Bros have been demoted to level 5.

The Goomba King rates his own boss theme, Goomba King's Decree. It is certainly a boss theme.

Goombario points out they don't look so great after having already gone a round with us.

...Yeah, I'd say he's got a point.

This is the Goomba King. He's really big. I mean, look at him! He looks really powerful. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. He's the boss of Red Goomba and Blue Goomba. Who cares if he's strong? You're much stronger. Gee, I wonder what he ate to become so big? I'd like to be a bit bigger, too.

...Is he really strong if he's got the same Atk rating as any other Goomba?

Mario does something remarkably not sensible and Power Jumps the Goomba King. Sure, that's three of his damage gone, but it doesn't solve my primary issue. Also, I'm down 1 HP from the false advertising and with three opponents, that might matter.

Goombario isn't going to Tattle this turn. He has one important attack to make.

This is a Goomnut Tree. Spiky Goomnuts will fall down if you hit this tree. They'll definitely hurt if they hit us, but it may be worth it to use them against the enemy.

The Goomnut Tree is something I hear multiple people overlooking: It's a background detail, and why would you even move your cursor that direction? I wonder how many players the developers expected to notice this.

That's not only another severe blow dealt to the Goomba King, but Red and Blue are taken out in a single blow! Excellent!

The Goomba King can also hit the Goomnut Tree to knock some down on your head, dealing 2 damage. Both sides may do this only a single time: You may notice a lack of Goomnuts overhead now. I wonder if the Goomba King knocks down his Goomnuts if you don't- it may be intended as your clue.

Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to finish him this turn. Well, OK, it would be if I didn't Tattle him.

The Goomba King walks up and slaps us. No wonder he's only doing 1 damage, imagine his Headbonk.

...He even has a crown, you'd think that'd hurt more.

Have a bonk, pal!

The Goomba King is defeated, and we earn... 26 Star Points? But the level up formula says I should've got 24! What's happened here is that, if a fight begins with 3 enemies in it, each enemy gives 10% more Star Points. So an additional 2.4 Star Points, rounded to 2, and... you can see why this mechanic only really applies to this fight.

If there are four enemies in a fight on spawn, every enemy gives 30% more Star Points. It's possible normal enemies might actually be affected by that bonus. It should be noted that any sort of reinforcements (yes, this game has reinforcements) don't count to this bonus.

30 Star Points acquired, and...

Yep, that was our first level up! Levelling up in this game fully heals you, and you also get your choice of one of three stat bonuses.

HP +5. Obviously, this will make sure we stay alive for longer in each fight. The game doesn't necessarily know how much you're going to invest in HP over the course of the game, but it will expect some investment.

FP +5. FP is kind of a fairly weak investment overall: Sure, you've got a few screen-clearing attacks that it's good to get more use out of, but you're only really going to need 10-20 at a time for the whole game. You'll need to find a good time to get those FP levels, but once you do, it's an easy dump stat.

BP +3. This is the one you really want to get done as often as possible: This is how you expand your options in battle and express yourself.

Which level-up bonuses you pick is the game's other method of expressing individuality per run. Do you want more safety, more fuel for your powerful attacks, or more customisation? Some Badges really earn the keep you spent buffing BP. With that said, however, each stat can be buffed only 9 times, for a total of 50 HP, 50 FP and 30 BP- the game has a level cap of 27. Towards the end of the game, the diversity of your level ups will equalise towards 50 HP, 30 BP, and 30-50 FP- you're not guaranteed to hit those last few levels.

I go with BP. A little more of it never goes amiss.

The Goombas run into their fortress like the cowards they are. Goompa could've beat you whippersnappers into shape.

I just love Mario's casual approach towards violence. He's definitely the most heroic of heroes.

Oh hey, the Goomnut Tree keeps on giving: It had a Star Piece.

Goombario's Tattle is of minimal help. There was a bridge here, and we definitely need to find a way to make it. So how do we do it?

Eavesdropping, of course!

Looks like there's some goodies in that bush just on-screen there.

What, did you expect good planning from this comedy routine?

They say this, but they don't get around to it in short order.

Examine the bush here and...

You guys mean this switch, right?

The Goomba King finally gets around to trying this "trick Mario" plan. It's not even a good plan.

Too late, I'm afraid.

The Goomba King's fortress starts falling apart. You can see Mario panicking in the corner: He gives up in a little bit when he realises it's not collapsing on top of him.

I love the way the windows just kinda... fall off here.

The tower unfolds itself, and then the bridge springs out of the fortress and over the gap.

And the Goomba King is catapulted to lands unknown. No, really, you can see him in the first shot here. He's very tiny, though. It's a little easier in motion.

Something's telling me that's the last we'll hear of them.

On the other side, down here, there's a Brick Block Mario can hit to spawn a ? Block. There's a few weirdos like this, but they won't ask you to hit a random pixel.

Besides, it's just a Super Shroom. This is a powerful healing item for this point in the game and it will be my emergency rations, but they are infinitely purchasable later and we can do without.

With that collected, it's time for us to move on.

Under Kammy's watchful eye.

We get a save prompt, which makes me suspect that, even though we haven't got a triumphant "END OF CHAPTER!" prompt, the Prologue is officially over. The game has a very specific formula about Chapter completion, and the Prologue doesn't follow it.

Cut to Kammy giving her report to Bowser. We're going to regularly check in on the activities going on in Peach's Castle after every chapter.

Kammy has bad news: Mario is now doing things. As passe as this report is, they preferred Mario as he originally was: unconscious.

He was thinking he could win. Just like you are.

For the first time, Bowser's Star Rod infusion does not win the fight.

Bowser starts to worry that means he might not be as invincible as he's been bragging. If Goomba King could go down... what's stopping us finding a way past his defences?

He forgets, of course, that he possesses an infinite wish-granting item.

Kammy has two reassuring notices for him: the Goomba King was kinda pathetic.

And Bowser actually possesses the ability to control his power, rather than just hoping the power he's got will be enough.

Bowser is highly suggestible to praise. He's gotten smarter as the series advanced, but I think his ego is his biggest flaw and still sticks around to some degree.

Bowser remembers this problem, a bit too late to do anything about it. The Star Spirits can give us more power than they already have, though, including the power to counter the Star Rod...

Fortunately for them, they planned ahead. This won't stop us, but it will give us a long, seven-chapter story trawling the corners of the land to find all seven of the cards.

Hey, number six is hard. Paper Mario isn't really hard enough to justify Kammy's confidence, although Bowser himself still has some teeth.

Bowser figures the first Star Spirit Mario is going to look for is this one. It is not, in fact, the closest one to Toad Town (that would be the one in Shy Guy's Toy Box), but it is the easiest one to walk to.

Probably not, but they can give it the old college try.

Bowser has a visitor!

They have a neat intro theme here, too.

The Koopa Bros have come to reassure Bowser personally!

...

Any resemblance to another famous group of masked turtles is purely coincidental, I'm sure. Cowabunga.

Bowser has already lost his faith in the Koopa Bros. What happened to "handpicked"?

Judge them by their size, do you? They do actually have bosses bigger than the Goomba King, although yeah, this is not one of them.

Red overheard and takes over from Kammy to boast about their talents.

Their real super power is teamwork. I'm not sure what I like more: the fact that they take a traditionally heroic technique and use it against us, or the fact their ability to work together is actually a key factor in how they're a difficult boss fight. If they fought us as just four Koopas at once, they'd be a pushover.

Kammy requests the Koopa Bros.' signature move.

And they oblige.

We don't see it on-screen, which leads to an interesting question. The Koopa Bros have two techniques they could conceivably be showing off, so which one are they demonstrating? The evidence leans towards one in particular, but, well...

They clean up after themselves surprisingly quickly were they doing that particular one.

...With that said, I have no idea what ultimate attack could be performed in this room that won't break that vase.

Whatever it was, it got Bowser's approval. Which means it must be impressive, if not necessarily functional.

Bowser has gotten this far in the conversation and has suddenly realised "wait, hold on, aren't these guys on guard duty?" To be fair, you probably forgot too.

As did they.

Bowser gives them a well-deserved tongue lashing for that screwup.

And off they run. Somehow they get home. We'll leave the details to Master Mouser.

Anyway, back to Mario. This is the weird part: Usually the between-Chapter intermissions show us Peach, too, but they run separately this first time.

On the way to Toad Town, we can find this goodie. Sleep is governed by a separate chance for each baddie in a fight (so, it can work on some enemies but not others). I don't really find much use for the status ailments, but with only 10 slots to work with, it's not like I want to spare room for inventory items to inflict statuses.

Over here is a tree with a spring in it.

Dislodge it and you can find a Badge in a chest. Hammer Throw (2BP) allows you to perform a Hammer Throw technique for 2 FP. Hammer Throw deals the damage you would expect Hammer to deal (and may damage spiked enemies as a result), but it can hit any enemy on the screen regardless of position. We're not quite far enough to know for certain why we'd want to use Hammer Throw, but it sounds far better than it really is.

We have finally arrived in Toad Town, capital of the Mushroom Kingdom. Surprisingly, it appears in only five games in a major role (all RPGs, of course, since RPGs are the only real genre that has use for a capital city), and is of course redesigned for each one.

...The fact that Toad Town is so middlingly-common suddenly gets weirder when you think about the depictions of Peach's Castle- like SM64 and Odyssey- that leave no room for the capital. It's cool when Mario's pad is separate from the main hustle and bustle. Peach can't really get away with that.

It's been days since Mario has last been spotted. The Toads must have been driven mad by the peril.

...Well, OK, I've been saying this, but the Toads do a surprisingly bad job of running around in panic and fear. Things seem to run smoothly, but for the absence of Peach's Castle. Maybe they didn't need it attached to the capital...

The Toads know their limits: When they need to do anything to help.

There's a few houses to peek in, and a Star Piece to tantalise us. We won't be getting that one until after Chapter 5.

This house is just worldbuilding NPCs, with a Toad on staff duty at the castle pulling the lucky break cord.

Unfortunately, his family doesn't seem entirely convinced they're lucky to have him around. Well, his wife isn't. His kids seem to like him loads.

He is not panicking on the outside, but this Toad is pulling the "panic and fear" card.

Meanwhile, these two are more interested in each other than they are the disaster unfolding. Now might be a good time to mention that, while there are Toad families and thus Toad love stories, the difference between a Toad and a Toadette is, officially, a little less distinct than the difference between a Mario and a Peach. Paper Mario 64 predates Toadette by three years, though, so it took the stance that Toad genders mattered.

...For better or for worse.

Something's telling me Goombario is not as fond of PDA.

Up here we can meet one of our friends from the party, Russ T.

Russ T. is a very learned Toad, and he can help us with some information relevant to our quest.

Russ T. is not here to be the Hint Man, though. Russ is a bit more... broadly focused, and while his advice is useful, it often pertains to lore, non-obvious mechanics and secrets.

You can talk to him multiple times and get multiple lore nuggets.

So it is told that far away, at the very top of the sky, there exists a Star Haven, where Stars make their home. In Star Haven, there's a treasure called a Star Rod. According to legend, it was made with ancient magic. There are said to be Stars that are particularly strong and good-hearted. They are called Star Spirits. Using the magical Star Rod, these Star Spirits grant the wishes of everyone in this world. That's why, when we make a wish to the night sky and it comes true, it's all thanks to the Star Spirits and their Star Rod.

Of course, his first one is about the Star Rod and Star Haven. Probably not a great first impression- this is where most people turn right around.

Now, if you will, how about a little timely information on how to operate the controls. Move the Control Stick and press [Z] to spin and run. That, my friend, is a Spin Dash. Also, when you talk to somebody, you can press [Z] to go back and read the previous message again. Hmm, let's see. Ah! If you press [C-Up] while out and about, the amount of HP, FP, Star Points, and Coins will be shown. And what else... If you move the Control Stick slightly, Mario walks slowly and quietly. Sometimes it's good to walk slowly rather than always running, don't you know.

His next dialogue introduces three mechanics that are useful to keep in mind, but which are never formally tutorialised.

• The Spin Dash, despite the similar name to the one used by Mr. Needlemouse over on the Mega Drive, functions in the opposite way: You press Z while already running to go faster. Rest assured I'm already doing it, you're just not seeing it.
• The C-Up menu shows you the same information you would see while in battle. In fact, it is the same tab, down to the formatting and everything.
• The ability to walk comes up in Chapter 1, but for optional content. I am playing this on a keyboard, so I can't actually use the analogue controls and thus I don't manage to pull it off. I don't think it's ever important to be able to walk.
  

If you go east from the place where Princess Peach's Castle used to be, you'll find a place called Shooting Star Summit. At the foot of the summit live Merluvlee and her brother, Merlow. The older sister, Merluvlee, can see things you're looking for by fortune-telling. The hobby of the younger brother, Merlow, is collecting Star Pieces. If you take him Star Pieces, he'll swap them for Badges. In point of fact, these two are the granddaughter and grandson of Merlon, who tells fortunes in Toad Town.

Merlow is the sole use of Star Pieces, but we'll be meeting him later, I'll go over what Badges he has then. Merluvlee and Merlon, despite both being fortune tellers, are not in competition at all: Merluvlee tells fortunes about optional content, while Merlon is the Hint Man.

There is a message board on the side of Merlon's house that posts news. It would appear that many people enjoy scribbling on the back of the message board. Indeed, various things are always written on it. You may want to take a quick look occasionally. Sometimes you'll read interesting news.

The Toad Town Bulletin Board has two pieces of news on it at any one time: The one on the front of the sign, and the one on the back. The one on the front tells plot-relevant information, delivered in the context of an actual news readout, while the one on the back is gossip and is divorced from the context of the story being currently told.

He has more information to tell, but he won't tell it during the Prologue.

We have to advance the Chapter state to get him to be a little more forthcoming.

Buildings labelled with a Fire Flower are Item Shops.

This one has a name! Each Shop does have an interesting bit of diversity to it as we go along.

Talking to the grocer reveals four options: "To buy" doesn't do anything, and "To sell" is obvious. "To check" an item means to give it to the grocer to hold onto. The item storage can hold 32 items. "To claim" an item is to recover it for later use.

Meanwhile, here are the items that are available for purchase here. This list is fixed and will never change. The new items here are the Honey Syrup (second from right, heals 5 FP when consumed), the POW Block (damages all enemies for 2 damage and can also "flip" enemies that have a flipped state) and the Fright Jar (attempts to Frighten all enemies in a battle, making them run away).

This Toad NPC exposits about the check system.

And mentions a key detail that will help it out: All shops in the world have the same storage inventory.

This Toad has issues.

Either that or he should be in my party, helping me out against Bowser. Can you believe it took until Origami King for Paper Mario to introduce a Toad Partner?

I was going to do it after I finished up in Toad Town, but if you're going to ask me, might as well do it now.

...Is this our first Warp Pipe? I think it is! Warp Pipes are entered the same way they always are: Stand on it and press Down.

...I live outside Toad Town for a reason.

Luigi is sitting on the stairs, whistling to himself. He made it out too.

Right on cue!

Good to see you, too, bro.

Luigi was just fine, too. Escaped the cutscene, to boot.

Luigi notices that Mario has enlisted the aid of a travelling companion.

He doesn't take long to recognise the partner as friendly. I imagine you can get different versions of this dialogue if you come back with later Partners, but on the other hand, Luigi has another gimmick, too.

Luigi complains about not getting invited on the quest. Again.

Luigi claims he's house-sitting. Probably just to make himself feel better, there's no issue with him leaving to help the quest in the Mario & Luigi series. We're a year out from Luigi's Mansion, three from Superstar Saga, and thirteen from the Year of Luigi and Luigi finally outgrowing being the butt of every joke. Luigi does get some time to shine in this trilogy, but almost entirely in Super Paper Mario.

Goombario refuses to Tattle him on principle.

And yes, to make it 100% clear, we're not getting Luigi to either replace Mario or Goombario.

We can rattle the postbox, but it doesn't seem to do anything now. Which makes me suspicious it does something later- I've never tried it before.

Inside the house, this scroll on the wall shows us some interesting information about our Quest. Badges, Star Pieces, and the two ??? objectives directly underneath them are considered part of "100%"ing this game. If gathering all the Tattles was tracked and/or possible, I suspect it would be on this too. Number of Battles and First Strikes seems a bit pointless, but might as well. The last ??? objective is kinda weird. Makes sense, but weird.

The bed functions as one. In any other RPG, this would be a good excuse to have a free healing spot as opposed to all the paid Inns, but since Inns are free, this is just a far too inconvenient Toad House.

Mario gets mail! He hasn't got anything yet, though.

...Is it just me, or are these floorboards improperly installed? Moving on.

Back in Toad Town, just beyond the guy who told us to go home, is the Dojo we heard about. Or it would be, if the Dojo wasn't currently closed.

It opens very soon!

...These lackies could do with a bit more, though. I guess that's why they're the lackies.

Their names are Lee and Chan (Lee is the Duplighost, Chan is the Buzzy Beetle). For some reason, these are the same two martial arts celebrities represented by Pokemon. This would not, however, be the first reference to Bruce Lee in a Mario RPG.

Bowser wished for it.

These three Toad sisters are... actually, I think they're just generic Toads. There were important Toad Sisters in TTYD, but I don't think these three are supposed to be anything more than filler Toads.

Star Piece in this tree.

Toad Town did not escape unscathed, even if it looks like it did from this side.

The last screen and this screen are the only accessible parts of Toad Town. Many other essential services are missing.

This is, for some reason, one of the best lines in the game. I love how he puts himself first in this list.

He's a Toad who often thinks about going south. Maybe his girlfriend's there. Or maybe he just has a lot of friends from that area. He's pretty chatty.

Goombario doesn't seem entirely sure what he wants to find.

This is the billboard we heard about from Russ.

A few days ago, Princess Peach's Castle was stolen. She was inside and is presumed kidnapped. The whereabouts of the princess are unknown, and where the castle once stood there is now a gaping hole in the ground. According to witnesses, the castle rose into the sky. As soon as we get new information, we'll post follow-up reports on this board.

There's a lot of news stories on there, multiple per chapter, even. I'm not entirely sure on where the triggers are, so I'll probably miss plenty, but there's not much in the way of information. Usually, the best part of reading the billboard is reading how Toads interpret Mario doing all the work for them. They have a very jaded "oh, look, there goes Mario, we don't need to do anything" tone of voice to them.

Also mentioned by Russ T., the backside of the noticeboard is the frequent target of graffiti, forming another layer of news reporting.

I'd say they get better than this, but it's pretty half-and-half. There's some really good ones, and real stinkers.

Shooting Star Summit is over in the only direction we're able to go.

Toads are capable of trauma, which just makes all the terrorising they suffer through even worse.

Merlon will be an important NPC we can visit often, but to the rest of Toad Town, not so much.

He's good at what he does!

He just won't do it often.

This Toad is remarkable. His job is to tell you that the blue post he is standing next to is a street sign.

He lampshades how bad a job he has and dismisses his tutorial as too obvious.

It is not particularly obvious at all that this pole is an interactable object. Scoff at "obvious tutorials" all you want, sometimes you may just be off the mark...

Down here, we can find Rowf and Rhuff. They are members of a species called "Doogans", and happen to be the only ones of their kind appearing in Paper Mario 64. The species was formally introduced in TTYD, and hasn't appeared anywhere else. The business approach Rowf and Rhuff have compared to the very rough lifestyle of the TTYD Doogans paints a rather seedy interpretation of the species.

Their shop will open after Chapter 1.

Rhuff is Rowf's son. Getting started with the family business young, are we?

Opposite the Doogans is Minh T., a gardener. Her unique design betrays the non-obvious nature of how her particular corner of Toad Town is going to be important.

She wants to plant some unique Seeds in the four currently empty lots.

Turns out Bub-ulbs are just as eager to get these seeds planted as Minh T. is, so they won't argue. You don't even have to talk to Minh T. to get them!

There are four of them hidden throughout the world, and finding them all is mandatory.

This guy, on the other hand, won't be making anything out of his appearance.

These sinister-looking Toads blocking the way to Koopa Bros. Fortress, rather coincidentally, have spots that match the colours of the Koopa Bros.' masks. I'm sure it's a coincidence.

Most Toads have white caps, regardless of spot colour. A few notable exceptions include Toadette and the two major character Toads from Partners in Time- although nearly all such examples have white spots. Toadsworth is the only notable Toad to have a cap that is not white at all.

The Post Office may somehow be the least interesting of the four buildings in the long run.

But we do start with the ability to meet the mailman from the very beginning of the game!

His name is Parakarry. He's a Paratroopa who works for the post office. He's well known for being the slowest mailman around. A slow mailman? That can't be good.

Clearly, Parakarry will come up again later.

Like Mario's mailbox, the partners all get mail, but rather than require you visit all their houses individually (as a matter of fact, some partners do not have established residences), they're all compiled at the post office, read by the recipients, but doomed never to be delivered. I'm starting to suspect Parakarry is not the only bad mailman on staff.

Unlike Mario, it is impossible to have no mail available for the Partners, although the game does have a textbox at the ready if it needs to.

Letters are helpfully divided by partner.

Our letter comes from the Goomba Bros.

Goombario,

You were a lot stronger then you looked. We figured you were just some punk Goomba hanging around with Mario. Anyway, you proved yourself to us that being good is as important as being strong. So... When you come back, do you think maybe we could be... friends? Please say yes! We'll be waiting!

Red & Blue Goomba Bros.

Aw, Goombario's made some friends. I wonder if you can bump into them again- I've never found them.

Here's the "use Z to reread dialogue" option in practice. I get hit a few times, but this is good for saving myself. It doesn't work if the textbox is redrawn for any reason- ie if someone else starts talking, chiefly.

I am 150% sure this is not how the mailman is supposed to work.

The south side of town is blocked off by rubble. It can be argued there's more of it further on, but speedrunners (who else) have found a way to bypass this obstacle.  Aside from the wreckage, it's business as usual down south- although a few NPCs will softlock you if you attempt to speak to them in the INT version. In JP, they have various notices for the playtesters: A surprising number of variants on the phrase "This message should not appear. If you're seeing this, please report it as a bug."

...You're just putting it back in the pile it started in?

This Toad is very diligent and hard-working. He has a great work ethic. I heard he has a bit of a crush on Merluvlee, who lives on Shooting Star Summit.

The game lets you Tattle on everyone and everything in the game, including some characters who have no business getting Tattles. Somehow they manage to find things to say about them. Even if "has a crush on the cute fortune teller" is... a personality to have.

Finally, we head north.

...What a wreckage. This never gets cleaned up in the main story: I mean, we want to put the castle back, and we can only do that when we deal with Bowser.

Another sudden escapee character.

I wonder if they're talking about Russ and Tayce T., along with the other NPCs.

He's a Toad. He never fails to go out for a walk, even if it's nasty out. He also loves cleaning for some reason. He cleans like crazy!

Clearly I need to inspect Goombario's bedroom.

Shooting Star Summit is out here to the east, as promised.

Once you cross this bridge, Toad Town's ambient theme transitions to Shooting Star Summit's.

There are two paths forward. The lower one takes us to the home of Merluvlee and her brother, while the top is where the Star Spirits are waiting for us.

I think they can wait a little longer.

Merluvlee even has a picnic table out. I wonder if this is where all the dates go.

I don't feel anything. I think the Summit looks better on console, but I've never seen it. Maybe I'm just thinking of a later area.

Meanwhile, in here, we have the lovely Merluvlee. Or, well, I assume. It's hard to get a reading when she's entirely cloak and hair.

This chest is empty, although it looks way too impressive not to do something.

So what does Merluvlee do?

They're strangely insistent on this whole "Merluvlee is cute" angle while the player has absolutely no room to make a judgement for themselves.

Let's read a fortune, then.

Merluvlee will hint at the location of one of the game's three major collectibles.

• Star Pieces: As alluded to earlier, Merluvlee can only hint at the 63 Star Pieces hidden on the oveworld, and not any of the 97 that are held by NPCs. Even if she could, a lot of the NPC Star Pieces require you to bring them a different item, and I doubt she would have told you where to find those.
• Badges: Merluvlee can find any one of the game's 80 Badges. Even if it's one of the ones available for purchase.
• Super Blocks: We haven't found any of those yet (and won't until Chapter 2!), but these are a key collectible item we're going to want to find every one of. Merluvlee can detect all 16 of them.

Merluvlee can only detect collectibles you currently have access to. I believe that, if you cannot find any of them (whether because you've found them all or there are simply none left in your current chapter), she will refund you the cost of her service.

I don't really want to show it off, mosly because I'd rather have the money, for now.

You can talk to her in person, although she'll refuse to read you your fortune. Later in the game, we will need to talk to Merluvlee in person for a sidequest, and this is how they differentiate between talking to her for the quest and talking to her for her services.

She's a gorgeous lady named Merluvlee. I can't believe I'm in the same room with her! She foresees events and uses her magic powers to find what you're looking for. She's very accurate. I think I'm in love... She's incredible! Pinch me, will you, Mario?

Of course the tattletale loves the hint NPC.

Go into her back room, and up a staircase that is unfortunately just too big to walk on foot and must be jumped up each step...

And here's Merlow and his services: All Star Pieces can be swapped for Merlow's Badges.

• Attack FX A (0 BP): Changes the sound effects of Mario's attacks. This is purely cosmetic in this game.
• Pay-Off (2 BP): Half the damage you receive will be added to the coin payout of a battle.
• Chill Out (2 BP): Enemy first strikes will be completely impossible.
• Pretty Lucky (3 BP): Enemies have a 10% chance of completely missing Mario, regardless of Danger status.
• Feeling Fine (3 BP): Mario is completely immune to status effects. This includes at least one positive one, but status effects are bad enough you'll want this eventually. And even then, it's a little weird about that particular interaction.
  
• Happy Heart/Happy Flower (3 BP): Mario has a 50% chance of getting 1 HP/FP at the end of his turn. Avoid.
• Peekaboo (3 BP): All enemies have their HP bars on display regardless of whether you Tattled them with Goombario.
• Zap Tap (4 BP): Mario is automatically and permanently bestowed the "Electrified" status at the beginning of a battle, forcing any enemy that deals contact damage to take 1 HP of damage in return (while not mitigating any damage they'll do you, with some exceptions). Feeling Fine, while allegedly capable of stuffing Electrified, will not stuff this.
• Heart Finder/Flower Finder (3 BP): More Heart/Flower pickups will appear after battle. Useful to keep up your reserves in dungeons.
• HP Drain (3 BP): Decreases Mario's Atk by 1, but heals him for 1 HP per instance of damage dealt- if he uses a multi-hit or multi-target attack, he gets extra HP despite launching "only one attack."
• Money Money (7 BP): Doubles the coin payout of a battle. I believe Pay-Off's coins are doubled, too.
• Flower Saver (6 BP): Reduces the FP cost of all of Mario's attacks. Useful more for longer stretches of encounters, rather than burst damage on bosses. Also, somewhat obviously, since Mario can only use FP with Badges, equipping Flower Saver cuts into your options.
• Power Plus (6 BP): Mario gains +1 Atk. This is a really powerful effect, just outright.
  

The most expensive Badges will prove surprisingly affordable come Chapters 3 and 4, although I will have to play it carefully beforehand. I do not purchase any Badges now, because I intend to buy a middlingly-pricey Badge before the influx of Star Pieces and I predict my margins will genuinely be that tight.

He's Merlow. He's about the same age as I am. I wanna play with him when we finish our adventure. I guess he trades Star Pieces for Badges. Merluvlee, who's downstairs, is his sister. He's so lucky!

...I really don't get the idea that a boy is lucky for having an attractive sister. And... deeply concerned.

To the top path!

The shooting star effects have grown more powerful now.

Star Piece if you go north rather than climbing the mountain as intended.

Hop up, and Eldstar is waiting.

You can even Tattle him!

He's an old Star Spirit. His name is Eldstar. He reminds me of my grandpa. He's a revered person who lives in Star Haven, why up beyond the sky. Uh... a revered star, I mean. I wonder why he's here. He should be in Star Haven. And why does he look so... dim? I can see right through him.

...Huh, we know Bowser stole the Star Rod, but we really haven't gone over the equally devastating "capturing the Star Spirits" outside the opening cutscene. If you didn't watch that, I wonder if you'd know the flickering effect is not intended behaviour.

All of them, apparently.

The wishes of "good people". The game is far less interested in the morality here than I am, although we are going to touch on this a little.

Oh boy, it's exposition time!

We knew this, but Mario didn't.

Legitimately, as far as we can tell, no limitations.

This is when the conversation starts to lose focus, though. "For as long as we can remember" is not a ringing endorsement when we're talking about the Stars. You're telling me they can't even remember a time before Bowser was born? He's an entitled dork, not a timeless malevolent evil!

The Stars reserve the right to make value judgements of your wishes, and choose not to grant them if they disagree with them. SMRPG's wish system felt a little more neutral- Geno saw no more problem with Bowser's wishes than those of Mario, Peach and Mallow. Since Bowser was an ally in that game, I imagine that's just because of the different demands the two games place on Bowser.

Bowser is very definitely in the wrong and it is very hard to argue otherwise, but considering his motive, I can't exactly say I can strongly disagree with Bowser here?

Bowser's two chief wishes were to beat Mario and get Peach's approval. (Sidenote, while Paper Mario was the first game to really lean in on the "Bowser has a crush on Peach" angle of the dynamic, I do think he is equally desperate for platonic appreciation. If only as a step towards romantic.) He's done the former, and while he does not yet have the latter, he is in no hurry to explicitly wish for it, nor would doing so really cause much more havoc than he's already made.

And yet Skolar seems to treat him as some sort of ultimate evil that can and will eventually wish for doom and destruction to rain upon the world because it amuses him. Later games would strongly characterise Bowser as desiring to rule the Mushroom Kingdom, treating any villain whose end goals were destruction as contemptible and worth siding with Mario against. At this point in the series, SMRPG was the only game to play this card. While perhaps the Bowser described in SMB1's manual might stoop this low, I feel like Paper Mario's Bowser never would.

Muskular follows up this vague danger by pointing out how preventing situations like this is the Star Spirits' job...

And begging Mario to do it for them.

OK, I get they're incapable of doing it themselves right now, but still.

"We cannot beat Bowser, he is too strong." This is probably the only time in the franchise that is a true statement. Savour it now.

He seems to have made one wish and called it a day.

Klevar tells us the important bit: to do something to counter Bowser's use of the Star Rod, we need the combined power of the Seven Star Spirits. Finally, they're doing something to help!

Poor Kalmar is once again saddled with the role of being the Star to express the pessimistic thoughts. The fact he's literally just a star with a moustache doesn't really help him win any points: at least the other stars have a little personality going for them on design alone! (...Mamar is debatable.)

The Star Spirits are not actually here. They're scattered to the corners of the Mushroom Kingdom, and this is merely an advanced form of... telepathy?

They've been "caught". "Kidnapped" is reserved for Peach's sole use.

I suppose I can't let you down with that on the line.

...

We'll always lend a hand.

Peach has handled worse. I mean, she's in her own bedroom this time!

Another save prompt! This is the formal end of the Prologue, as compared to beating the Chapter Boss that was Goomba King. It was a bit of a slog, but we've made it. Still not out of the exposition, though, so we have a bit of an informal conclusion to go. I think most of my points will be relevant, though.

The prologue's main job has been to teach us the game's structure (go find the Star Spirits), and most of the game's most prominent mechanics (Jump, Hammer, Badges, Level Ups) have been explained. There's one major thing missing, however, and that's the defining aspect of a Mario RPG: Action Commands. Mario games are defined by their love of rewarding players good at the game for fast play, and the Mario RPGs have adopted that by making each attack a timed microgame that, if you do it right, gives you an attack bonus (or the enemy an attack penalty). Paper Mario has made the baffling decision to not allow the player to participate until after the Prologue. There's no variability in how you handle the opening battles. The battles are slow and the outcomes painfully predictable. The game isn't selling itself. Someone read the memo that RPGs have tedious openings and took that as instructions, not caution.

As a story, Paper Mario's opening is chiefly interesting for the introduction of the friendly enemy races. The Goomba family has some cute dialogue, but they're not the greatest at selling a story on their own, and don't even seem interested. They're tutorials as much as they are characters. It's groundbreaking because it's novel to see this idea in a Mario game. ...Frankly, it would be nice if devs put more thought into the fact the opening of an RPG is the most important part to make an impression. Then again, a lot of RPG openings are boring because the devs try too hard to ensure they've left an impression.

Next time: Thank my lucky stars!