Paper Mario Chapter 2: The Mystery of Dry Dry Ruins

Chapter 2 takes the winning formula established by Chapter 1 and adds some extra difficulty to it, establishing fights that require using your fancy tools, like Clefts and Swoopers, and raising the stakes of everything else. It also introduces Super Blocks and the Super Hammer, showing off the actual offensive upgrades that the level up system isn't accommodating.

Mt. Rugged is a simple introductory area, giving us a partner early before we get to the desert. Interestingly, I think this makes Parakarry the party member who has the least to do with the Chapter he's found in. Kooper comes pretty close, but he makes up for it with his adoration for Kolorado, but most party members we'll get for the remainder of 64 and TTYD will care about the plot of their home Chapter. Parakarry's more important for his role in the mailman sidequest.

Into the desert itself, we have Kolorado himself and he's accomplishing a whopping nothing. In fairness, Kolorado is supposed to be this pathetic- he somehow has enough of a reputation that Kooper looks up to him and he's generally regarded positively, but as far as his role in this narrative is concerned, he's pretty pathetic and almost entirely comic relief. His main job is to be a major character in Chapter 5- this is a recurring trend in the Paper Mario trilogy, and Kolorado is the only one of these characters to appear beforehand. This might be a good opportunity to set up his character... if he had much of a buildup to provide. They didn't exactly give him much time for that anyway.

The mystery of Dry Dry Ruins has a neat setup, with a backstory and everything, but the Town Story is pretty... short. I mean, yes, if you know the steps you need to take, you can literally skip the whole thing the next playthrough, but still. Moustafa as Sheek is a nod to Ocarina of Time, and him looking for a nice guy to share the secret with makes sense, but because he doesn't actually know Dry Dry Ruins is in any peril, there are no stakes to the story. What's Moustafa's approval worth, when, at best, we're being positively compared to Kolorado? Somehow, I feel like there'd be a solution to both of these issues in one package, although if I don't exactly know what that is, I can't expect anyone else to figure it out.

Onto Dry Dry Ruins proper, Tutankoopa taunts us throughout the dungeon as we progress. Well, I say "taunt", but he's somehow even more pathetic than the Koopa Bros. The Koopa Bros. were clearly signposted as comic relief, but they hid keys in inconvenient positions, set traps that actually worked, and had a killer endgame move with the Koopa Stack. Tutankoopa... all he does before the fight is threaten us with curses he clearly has no capacity to back up, and his boss fight lacks the cool tricks of the Koopa Bros., using just raw damage and Chomp as backup. One of his attacks is finite and the other has a chance of backfiring. Paper Mario is a very light-hearted game, and Bowser himself is very pathetic when he's not wishing himself the power to say otherwise, but we've got actually threatening bosses in this game too. Sure, we've shuffled the easiest bosses first in the sorting algorithm of evil, but if we're three-for-three on "bosses making fools of themselves", we're establishing a tone that these more competent villains are compared against. These later bosses can all be said to have the same story of having their wish granted by Bowser in exchange for guarding the Star Spirit and doing evil, which connects the tissue, but tonally, we're also going to see them step up in terms of what they do with their power.

Mechanically, Dry Dry Desert's Super Block represents the first major choice to be made. Early-game, because you just don't have a lot of Badges, your Badge setup is pretty identical from run to run, so the Super Block is a good chance for some individuality. Even now, after giving Goombario a shot alongside Kooper, I'm still not sure what the optimal first partner upgrade is, and perhaps it's better that way. If multiple partners are helping in different situations, that's a good sign you can let player personality fill in. Super Blocks don't really get used in this way going forward, though- a bit of a shame, but they wanted you to have enough for everybody. The Super Hammer also adds some much-needed utility to an option that's fallen by the wayside: Outside Quake Hammer, Mario's Boots are just factually better than Hammer, so by giving the player the Hammer upgrades first, they keep it competitve. We are getting Boot upgrades, though, so this won't last long. They tried.

PM Chapter 2 Part 2: Dry, Dry Wit

Welcome to Dry Dry Outpost! A desert town filled with Mousers and tagelmust-wearing Toads. Mousers are enemies from Yoshi's Island, and they share similar (though not identical) appearances to Bandits. The Toads, meanwhile, are considered "Dryites", although I'm not sure if this means they're a different race or just a demonym- we don't exactly call vanilla Toads "Mushroomians".

Moustafa will be the main person of interest of this Town Story. When we find him, anyway.

The Dryite communicates the same information in song. More power to him.

This Dryite is kinda like a mini-Russ T. for secrets in Dry Dry Desert.

Hey! Guess what! Hey! Somewhere in the desert, there's a stone cactus. If you move 3 south and 2 west from there, you'll find something special hidden. I'm not sure how to find it exactly, though. You should go there, huh? Yeah!

The stone cactus is located in D4, the exact centre of the desert. Three south and two west puts us... G2, so that's the Attack FX C Badge.

Hey! Wanna hear something else? I know lots of other stuff! Useful stuff! Hey! If you get caught in a desert whirlwind, it'll blow you away and you'll get lost. Bandits are out there, too! They appear all of a sudden running really fast, and they steal people's coins! There are many tales. You'd better pay attention to them, too, because the desert is such an unforgiving place.

...OK, not really clues. I'd expect him to mention the Tweesters are reliable.

If you go south just after you leave town, you'll find an oasis. It's amazing... A paradise! I go there sometimes. If you want to take a rest, it's the best place to go.

The oasis is a key landmark to point out, yes, both for the Super Block and the Lemons and Limes. He also mentions the Heart Block, too.

Hey! Know what I heard? There are these three trees growing in a triangle somewhere in the desert. The rumour is that if you jump in the center of the triangle, you'll find something good. Only... I don't know where the three trees are... I mean, the desert is huge! I don't know everything...

More's the pity. These trees are located on tile C5, and the treasure he's talking about is a Badge. There are three Badges in the desert, and I think they hinted at all three pretty decently, all things considered.

There's always someone better, isn't there? This Dryite is the second NPC you can brag to about beating the Dojo.

Well then, why don't you go and fight Bowser's minions in the desert?

PM Chapter 2 Part 1: Clumsy Koopas

That is certainly of a boss design. That thing in front of him is a Chain Chomp, and it's gnashing its teeth here, I just caught an off-frame.

And with that, we have now alighted at the destination.

Shoutouts to the train that stops before a mountain and asks its passengers to go mountaineering and desert-trawling to reach the major populated area. I get that it's not easy to put a rail through a mountain, but doesn't this train pride itself on safety and ease of use?

Despite being forever rich, I'm still picking up coins. For, uh, some reason.

Also an Egg in this bush. The Egg is a cooking ingredient first and foremost, although it does heal as much as an uncooked Mushroom. It cooks into the Fried Egg (10 HP), and has two more recipes later.

Whacka is not an enemy, but it is a cute.

Hm, another one of these. Hopefully we can smash 'em soon.

Somebody's lost something up here.

PM Post-Chapter 1 Part 2: Electrifying Cooking

This shot leaving Toad Town was too good not to use as an opener.

I rarely use this path, so I was hoping to see if the Goomba Bros. came back to say hi. No, doesn't look like it.

Still getting some EXP from the stuff here, though.

Hey, Goompapa fixed the gate! Good for him!

That's about all he has to say, though. These guys depreciated in value pretty quick after their plot role is done. That, or they just didn't really think you'd stick around here in Chapter 1, specifically.

We're here for Goompa.

PM Post-Chapter 1 Part 1: Being Unkind

Time to have another look in on what Peach is up to.

This might seem a bit unreasonable, but honestly, 95% of Marios die in the first world. I wonder if Peach is aware of how many rookie gamers play Mario games.

This very instant! I think. Not that what time this is matters.

That sets Peach's spirits at ease.

Now then... how do you prison break from your own bedroom?

Well, impossible for a normal person to escape through the window. I would not be surprised if Peach's parasol worked. The real problem would be avoiding any Magikoopas that notice her on the way down.

Also, escaping out the window would be good for her, but it wouldn't do very much for anyone else. If she finds anyone, Bowser can just hunt her down (or even wish her back), while staying in the castle potentially allows her to get everyone else out of trouble.

Fortunately, like any good princess, there's a secret path out of her bedroom.

Less good, she doesn't know where it is.

And with that, we can now play as Princess Peach. The Peach intermissions may be an excuse to dump some more Peach and Bowser lore on us, but they're not just text dumps.

Paper Mario Chapter 1: Storming the Koopa Bros. Fortress

Chapter 1 is the first real exposure to Paper Mario's signature gameplay loop- doing Action Commands to take on Koopa Troopas and dealing with tricky enemies like Bob-ombs, culminating in a dramatic showdown with an awesome crew. So how's the setup?

First off, we have Koopa Village, and... you know, they do a surprisingly good job of burying the lede here. First of all, the Fuzzies aren't actually combat encounters- probably for the best, Fuzzies aren't actually that fun to fight with their esoteric block command. Second, although there's a lot of mini-puzzles (most of them aren't even puzzles), there's no reward for helping the Koopa Troopas get their shells back. And then third, the Town Story culminates in a shell game- an annoyingly difficult one if the Fuzzy gets too tricksy. There is a boss at the end, but it's more of a demonstration of Kooper in action than a boss. Also- did you notice the Fuzzies didn't have anything to do with anything? The fact Merlon had to send us this way might've been a clue the setup wasn't as cool as they thought.

After picking up Kooper, it's a straight shot to the Koopa Bros. Fortress- Paper Mario isn't really a long or involved game, and it's often one Town Story, some more gameplay, and then leading right to the big dungeon. Koopa Bros. Fortress is a Zelda dungeon that got lost on the way to Ocarina of Time, or perhaps one of the handheld games. The place has some neat setpieces with the Koopa Bros and a cool idea regarding the Bob-ombs being used for maintenance, but because we're more focused on gameplay at this juncture, there's just no execution on it. The Koopa Bros. sell themselves entirely on their spectacle as the Teenage Masked Ninjakoopas, and they do it well, but they're hardly winning any villain-of-the-year awards. Honestly, I'd have taken them appearing as reforming NPCs in Koopa Village after the fact.

Mechanically, Chapter 1 does a good amount to soothe the issues of the Prologue. It puts you in lots of fights where your new Action Commands have utility, it gives you new partners to play with to expand your options with your second turn, and it introduces the puzzle elements that make the partner system stand out so well. Combat hasn't really taken its final shape yet- we're going to need a few more and varied Badges before we can really say that, plus we haven't yet seen all of the game's mechanics in action. Nevertheless, if you played the Prologue and didn't have fun, I think the extra stuff Chapter 1 adds will make a convincing enough argument. Now why they put themselves in that position in the first place...

PM Chapter 1 Part 2: Teenage Masked Ninja Koopas

That is a big castle. I'm informed the Koopa Bros. are squatters.

Here's Koopa Bros. Fortress. This used to be ruined, but I guess the Koopa Bros. rebuilt it. It looks pretty huge, huh? And solid, too. This fortress was originally built around the same time the Bob-ombs took up residence on Pleasant Path.

On the plus side, it sounds like we've caught them on the back foot.

The Koopa Bros. Fortress theme isn't the Fortress theme from SMB3, although it does call on the riffs from time to time.

This is a Bob-omb. Bob-ombs are pretty temperamental, and they get steaming mad when you attack 'em. Max HP: 3, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. You'd better not jump on 'em when they're angry or they'll blow up in your face. In fact, stay away entirely. Attack 'em from a distance with items like Hammers. Or you could send in other things, like shells. If they attack when angry, they'll charge in and explode. So you'd better take care of them before they blow!

Bob-omb (Lv. 6) first appeared in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic, the licensed game that eventually became Super Mario Bros. 2 in the west, and of all the enemies from that game that made it into the main series, Bob-omb was by far the fastest and most prolific. These days, Bob-omb is as recognisable as Goomba and Koopa Troopa, if not more than some other SMB1 classics we'll meet later. In this game, their 3 HP is a bit pointless- hit them once and they get angry, and then they'll explode either when you hit them or they hit you, instantly removing them from the fight. You want Bob-omb to explode on your attacks, but that can be difficult to set up if they're not the closest enemy in the formation.

Fortunately, if you don't anger them, they won't damage you if you Guard.

Don't worry, a single Jump won't get the Bob-Omb to explode under your feet. It will explode on the next attack, even though its HP is going to 0.

Also, an angry Bob-omb has heightened resistance, if not outright immunity, to status ailments a peaceful one does not. If you've angered a Bob-omb, it's too late to play the trickster.

Mario's Hammer and Kooper's Shell Toss will blow up a Bob-omb without damaging the attacker.

That first enemy also had a key on their person. Yoink.