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.

We're here for "The Tape".

I dunno, he didn't strike me as the type to remember what happened yesterday. Maybe that's the reason why.

He keeps The Tape behind this chair. No, we couldn't have got it earlier.

Fetch errand done.

...Well, now to go back.

As mentioned, the less questions asked, the better. Although I'm sure it's highly worn down.

The "Spin Dash + Jump" movement technique means a lot of First Striking spiky enemies with a Jump. It never gets any better.

And there's D-Down Pound in the shop on the way back.

Going to visit South Toad Town before heading back to Koopa Village. Koopa Koot's next favour requires an inventory item I can pick up now.

If there's one thing both Paper Mario games have that's surprisingly cute, it's the kids that respect train operators enough to make it their life's ambition.

Now that we can go south, we can say hello to Tayce T. She'll have some excellent value as the story progresses.

This NPC will give us a few gameplay clues as she goes along.

She's Tayce T., by far the greatest cook around. Trust me, my mom is a really great cook, but even she admits that she could learn a thing or two from Tayce T. Tayce T. will cook for you if you take ingredients to her. C'mon, let's ask her!

Tayce T. is an incredibly useful NPC. Lots of items in the world can be cooked in order to turn them into other items. This is actually the last thing on our House's chalkboard- there are a total of 50 recipes the game tracks.

At this point, she will Cook one inventory item at a time. Later on in the game, she gets upgraded to combining two items, analogous to Dragon Quest's alchemy system. Except this predated it by five years. Tayce T. quietly one of the coolest NPCs in the game.

Cooking the Koopa Leaf will be necessary for Koopa Koot's next favour.

You do have to sit through this every time you cook, but it's harmless enough.

One recipe down. I'm not really planning on filling out the cookbook, although I will be doing my best to keep an eye on what you can.

By the way, this service is entirely free (except, of course, using your inventory items, but since this is a net improvement, that's not much of a cost).

As the NPC who wants to cook mentioned, you can make a Fried Shroom by cooking a Mushroom. At this point in the game, cook any Mushroom you have. Mushrooms do have use in later recipes, but by that point, it's cheap enough to buy them.

Things we can make but have not yet done so:

• Nutty Cake: Restores 10 FP. Cook a Goomnut.
• Spicy Soup: Heals 4 HP and 4 FP. Cook a Fire Flower.
• Super Soda: Restores 5 FP and cures status ailments. Cook a Honey Syrup.
• Mistake: Heals 1 HP and 1 FP. Cook something that is not an approved recipe. There's actually a few single-item recipes you can't cook until the upgrade for some reason, they'll turn into these beforehand.

There's one more recipe we can make, but we don't have the ingredient. It's later on in Toad Town.

Your sources are... OK, they're not horribly wrong, but they are a bit off the mark. Whirlwinds will never get you lost if you know what they do.

It's a flower. I guess that's pretty obvious... It doesn't seem to move like an ordinary flower, though.

This flower wants to talk to us.

It walks!

Flower Fields is a location we can visit later.

With no regards to whether this is possible. I'm sure we can find someone who can figure out how attainable this is.

Bub-ulb entrusts us with the flowers of his homeland. I'd say we'd need to find a master gardener to check how well these grow, but it seems we've already got one in mind: Minh T.

Maybe I shouldn't put it in the bag and take it with me to the desert, but I am going to keep a hold of it and not turn it in to Minh T. yet. I want to check something.

The game has its ways of keeping you out of the Chapter you're not currently in... but it does let you into Chapter 3 early, mostly because it's at a premium on ways to keep you out. Maybe if this guard actually did his job, but who's the most terrified Toad in Toad Town to keep Mario from doing what he wants?

Into Chapter 3 we go!

...No enemies... let's press on.

The game has noticed we're doing something we shouldn't be, and in desperation, throws something at us to keep us from sneaking into Chapter 3. Plot wise, I'm not sure if there's anything that really breaks if they allowed this, but I can understand the hesitance mechanically. If the game was a bit more loosey with the EXP mechanics, maybe- Sticker Star pulled this trick off because the sticker mechanic allowed that- but it works less well here.

This is Oaklie. He lives in Forever Forest. He guards the entry to Forever Forest to prevent wanderers from getting lost. He helps any townsfolk who get lost inside. That beard... For some reason, I feel like yanking it.

This forest imp is named Oaklie, has no relation to any Mario designs I'm aware of, and his only purpose is to stop you from entering Chapter 3 early. Once you're ready, he'll also tell you how to navigate Forever Forest- the place is a mayoi no mori, although spelt slightly differently (まよいの森 instead of 迷いの森)- but annoyingly, he won't even tell you the whole secret.

And no, you can't just walk past him.

This is a Piranha Plant. Piranha Plants pop out of the ground at unexpected moments, so be on your guard. Max HP: 5, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. You've seen 'em in every one of your adventures, so I imagine you know 'em pretty well. Their sharp jaws point upward, so you'll get bitten if you try to jump on 'em. They smile after biting people. That smug smile... it makes me hopping mad!

On the way back, I bumped into these guys- there are enemies in here! Piranha Plants (Lv. 11) first appeared in SMB1 and while they're not a spotless record, as Goombario suggests, they're pretty close to. They mostly appear as obstacles or enemies, although one is now a Super Smash Bros. character, so there's that?

They're kinda scary. I want one thing in particular before I come in here proper, and I'll get that in the Chapter 2 cleanup.

I also can't oneround a Piranha Plant with focus fire. So there's that.

Being that much higher levelled means they give that much more EXP, though.

Right, let's stop pretending we have any business here.

Huh. I don't think Merluvlee keeps any in the house, though.

So I'm told.

Wonder what's inside.

This guy, here, is Chet Rippo. I will not be employing his services.

Someone get the Koopa Bros. here.

That's very nice. (Dang, now we really need the Koopa Bros.)

Harry's Shop inventory. Lot of new items out for purchase here, but some pretty big price tags.

• Stone Cap: Renders Mario invincible for 3 turns, but he can't move. Unused data suggests this was originally the Metal Cap from 64, but that would probably give the connotation he could also crush enemies by existing.
• Dizzy Dial: Also available in Koopa Village at a lower price.
• Thunder Rage: Deals 5 electric damage to all enemies. This is the second-most-powerful AoE inventory item.
• Tasty Tonic: Cures any status ailment Mario is afflicted with. Similar to Refresh, it only works if Mario can drink it.
• Volt Shroom: Applies the Electrify status to Mario for a few turns.
• Super Shroom: While we do have one, we now have the chance to acquire them in bulk.
  

I want one of these. Not to eat- well, not to eat yet.

This house is home to two cohabiting female Toads. They read so much like lesbians that I sat down thinking that the whole game, but they just casually drop they're sisters in one of their lategame texts and I was so disappointed.

These Toads just moved here. They like peace and quiet. They said they're enjoying living here so far. They think it's quite comfortable. Well, you could just listen to them yourself, Mario...

Thank you, Goombario. Although it does bring up the question of where these Tattles are coming from. I guess they weren't written down in Goombario's book.

...Not really a need for it, is there? I suppose it is polite.

...This totally is what passes for the big city here.

I've never actually checked in on these girls before- I don't actually think I've been in this house before. Knowing this game, I think I know what they're building up to.

Him and, presumably, a fleet of other postmen Paratroopas.

The game seems to change its mind, somewhat, about precisely what kind of bad Parakarry is at his job. So far, we've heard he's slow and he's easily distracted. Which, OK, could both be the same thing, but they'll later suggest he's clumsy, so... basically, all we really know for sure is that he's a bad mailman.

I love how insistent everyone is on this screen being the quiet one.

The counterargument to the "lesbian" Toad's cautiousness.

Something I haven't mentioned, because of how widespread it is, but pretty much every interesting place in Toad Town has its own instrumentation added to the melody. The Dojo has punching and training sounds, Russ T. has smart-y sounds, Tayce T. has cooking show sounds, Merlon has weird music sounds, etc. This random, unoccupied house has playful sounds.

Peaceful neighbourhood, hm?

Speaking of ambient noises, the port actually has no music. You get the sounds of the ocean, though.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

These two weird non-Mario characters are out here fishing. One of them will be important.

I really hate eating fish. But fishing does look like fun... Fishing in the harbor must be pretty relaxing. My dad goes fishing, too. I wonder if he knows this guy... But seriously, I hate fish.

OK, somehow I doubt it's the guy without a name. In the Japanese version, he legitimately doesn't have a name- the English version calls him Fishmael, but in multiple other languages, including JP, he is instead "the fishing person".

Fuzzipede doesn't want to be used as bait, for obvious reasons.

He's a Fuzzipede. What a weird little creature! People use Fuzzipedes as fish bait, but they often manage to cut the line. He's pretty robust for such a little guy.

I guess that's why Fishmael doesn't have his line cast. I thought fishing was supposed to be a peaceful activity!

Toad Town has no boats. Although with a pier this big, I can't help but feel like there's some need to sail later...

You can jump around this maze of crates for a Coin Block. Not even a rare inventory item or a Badge.

This worldly Toad is talking about the people he encountered in Koopa Village. Or, well, the Troopas.

The radio NPC, the Koopa Bros., we're as familiar with them as we're going to be, but Kent C. Koopa is new. He'll show up later, and he's not actually a mandatory encounter, but I'll show him.

Can't forget this guy, though.

Although that is certainly a thing to be remembered for. Imagine being a world-renowned archaeologist and everyone knows you because you keep abandoning your wife at home.

Fine enough, the way I left them.

...Wait, no, the Koopa Bros. weren't doing great.

This is Club 64, a pub with a fancy sign, decor, and theme to its name, and for all that, it's only good for one sidequest.

Chanterelle is suffering from a bout of depressiveness because waves vaguely, and Simon is working on a new song to help her overcome it.

Simon's stuck on the wording. From what I can tell, the only trigger for him to finish his work is... reloading the map. We can't do much with it until after Chapter 2, though, so I'll leave him to it.

Hey, I stopped him all the other times, I can take him this time... later...

You may just need a break. Time heals all wounds, or at least recontextualises them into something manageable.

...You know, I wonder if the lack of super-ritzy establishments in Toad Town over the years is mostly a "Bowser keeps invading, it's too expensive to build too high". The insurance premiums must be sky-high.

This should be far enough away from the castle they can eke out enough time in the spotlight before Bowser destroys it.

Over here, we have a very peculiar-looking barman. As far as I can tell, this is a Toad, same as everyone else, just with a drastically different design. TTYD has a barman that looks pretty much exactly alike, but he's a Beanish (from Superstar Saga). This guy predates the Beanish, though.

He runs this restaurant. He just opened it. He also plays a mean guitar. I'm sure he'll be popular here. I'd like to come here one day with my whole family. I don't like fish, though.

Funnily enough, the fact he plays guitar comes up later on.

Anyway, back out of the port, time to show off the true power of the Volt Shroom.

The Hot Shroom can be made a variety of ways, but using a Volt Shroom is the best way to do so this early on. And from now until... basically when we get Tayce T.'s upgrade, it will be the best healing item in the game. Cook one or two of these as your emergency rations.

On the way back to Koopa Village, I bumped into these Goombas, who just tipped me over to the next level. I'll be taking that HP this time, I really am nervous about Chapter 2.

"Shy Guy" is a Mario enemy we'll meet later, although if you ignore that, that's one hell of an exclamation.

Well, that's a reward for a sidequest I have my doubts on.

His next favour is about that Tea. He asks for a few cooking results, and most (but not all) require the Koopa Leaves his village is known for.

Little weird that the only person that seems able to cook them lives a town over, but I think the only house on this street that has someone I'd expect to cook is Kolorado's wife. The radio guy doesn't even own furniture!

I'm sure it's still hot.

Gulpits are a Paper Mario original enemy we won't meet until Chapter 7. So, it makes more sense to the people playing on replay.

...Which is ours?

Every few favours, he doesn't give a coin at all, but instead gives something a little more valuable.

The whole reason I'm doing these favours is because I'm going to need these right now. The last favour, of course, gives Star Pieces, so if you want 100%, you have to beat the whole chain.

He also has one more favour for this chapter, but this one's just a coin on being turned in.

Fortunately, Luigi is so desperate for recognition that he won't ask too many questions if we suddenly try to ask him for it.

I am really starting to dislike First Strikes on spiked enemies.

Anyway, with Koopa Koot's favours turned in, I have just enough Star Pieces to afford a Badge in this ballpark. And that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Heart Finder is basically 3 BP for never having to worry about healing with inventory items. Of course, I still play as if I intend to use those inventory items, but for someone less bad about hoarding than me, this could cut quite the edge. Then again, they may just have better ideas about avoiding that damage in the first place.

(OK, full disclosure, I forgot to pick this up until later, but I'm squeezing it in here to make one joke.)

Trust me, give it a few years and the line for your autograph will be bigger than Mario's!

...OK, maybe let's not go that far, Luigi isn't a household name the way Mario is in the real world.

Imagine signing an autograph for your brother. Yeah, he's asking to give it to someone else, but still.

The autograph even looks like it's signed "Luigi".

...I'm about to be even meaner and not turn this in until after Chapter 2. There's no reason other I don't want to walk to Koopa Village and back for one coin.

There's one more thing on this map that I haven't looked into yet.

The Toad Town Tunnels. This sewer system is a fully explorable area, and much like the main Town, it'll expand with new things to do as we find more traversal upgrades- the main town is lacking in things like that, and this is where they cover the slack.

Of course, the music is a remix of SMB's 1-2.

This side of the Tunnels has absolutely nothing we can do. Yet.

This side seems more our speed.

This is a Gloomba. Gloombas are nasty Goombas who live in the Toad Town Tunnels. Max HP: 7, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. They're stronger than ordinary Goombas, but you can take 'em.

Gloombas (Lv. 11) are, technically speaking, Paper Mario original creations. Enemies specially designated as Gloombas appear only in the Paper Mario trilogy, but they are intended to represent the blue Goombas found in Super Mario Bros 1, in underground levels. I'm not 100% certain why Goombas in underground levels are blue and not brown, but I suspect the answer is NES palette limitations. It'll take some doing to knock them down to size.

But they do give lots of EXP for now.

Also, apparently Dizzy Dials.

...There's a Gloomba on that Brick Block. ...He can stay there.

Another Super Shroom in this hidden block.

Cross past that room and you enter this one, with a single pipe bridge guarded by...

Squiddy. He has his own theme, but it only plays in the overworld part and, if you don't linger on his one text box, you won't hear too much further than the opening cue.

His battle theme is the normal mini-boss theme.

This is a Blooper. Bloopers lurk in the dank pools of Toad Town Tunnels. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. They seem pretty unremarkable. Although... You have to wonder how they float in the air like that...

Blooper (Lv. 44) is an ordinary enemy in the Mario platforms, first appearing in the original Super Mario Bros. After the NES games, though, he kinda sat out of the main games until New Super Mario Bros. The RPGs don't seem entirely sure what to do with him- Paper Mario 64 goes with "bit of a recurring mini-boss". There are three Blooper fights scattered throughout the sewers, each one stronger than the last, but no matter which order you find them in, you will always fight the different strengths in the same order.

In the main series, Blooper's only attack is to dart upwards suddenly in a diagonal direction, drifting slowly downwards when not on the offensive. He was an incredibly annoying enemy all the same, though, because underwater levels and Mario's Jump not working. Here, though, this classic attack pattern is adapted in the way Blooper moves around to attack you- he actually zig-zags in the diagonally up/straight down pattern Blooper is locked to.

Quite a few non-platformer games adapted the real life squid's ink-spraying defence mechanism into the Blooper's role: Most famously Mario Kart, where the Blooper item sprays ink on the screen and the affected players lose vision of the track. Paper Mario uses it as an attack, something I can't think many games follow suit on- a lot of games merely mention Bloopers produce ink without necessarily showing the process- and the Mario Kart Blooper wouldn't even be until 2005.

All that said, this attack is annoying to dodge and I never manage. The inky Mario sprite is just a comedy thing, it clears up as soon as his turn rolls around and doesn't apply any sort of Blind status ailment.

Save me, Refresh!

Because clearly I'm not saving myself!

Thank you, Goombario.

I wonder if it's the same Blooper that shows up later.

Shrink Stomp (1 BP) will allow you to perform an normal Jump that has a chance of inflicting the Shrink status on enemies for 2 FP. Shrink will decrease the enemy's Atk power by 2 points. This is one of those techniques that could come in handy, but never seems to wind up doing so. 1 BP is cheap to throw on, but I usually wind up squeezing all the BP I have.

South of the Tunnels is our target destination.

...Hm, a tree at a dead end?

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Welcome to the Toad Town Playroom.

Technically, it's a casino, although the chance-based part is a little less prominent than usual. This predates Europe cracking down on gambling in children's games, but Nintendo was a step ahead and liked to keep Mario away from slot machines. Luigi, however...

...Maybe it's for the best we took that Credit away from Koopa Koot.

Not entirely sure how you get a Member Credit legitimately- we got given ours from a former member.

There are multiple Credits, each offering different games.

Ours opens up Jump Attack. Sadly, there's only two.

Going down the pipe puts us in... this room.

Over here are the rules.

Awkwardly for me, this Toad also goes over them the first time. Oh well. I was going to skip the game's explanation anyway.

Toad will spawn eleven Brick Blocks, each containing a Card. There are four types of Card:

• One coin- awards one coin. Four of them appear.
  
• Five coin- awards five coins. Three of them appear.
• Times 5- multiplies the coins you currently possess by 5. Two of them appear.
• Bowser- ends the game immediately and denies you any coins. Two of them appear.

You will be given the option of playing a 5-block, 7-block or 9-block game, all costing 10 coins. You will then be tasked with hitting that number of blocks. If you succeed without finding Bowser, you will receive the amount of coins you found.

This is the only part of the rules explained differently by the board and Toad. Winning 9-Block instantly gives you a x2 card, because of the difficulty.

To my understanding, you have a 3/11 chance of winning 5-Block, 6/55 chance of 7-Block, and 1/55 chance of winning 9-Block. This isn't "get the best result" (there are better results than others), just not drawing Bowser. The game is purely luck-based and thus, this is probably gambling.

Fortunately, however, I have a system.

...I swear. If you notice my score in the corner, you'll see the x5 appear first. This means it's not contributing to my score at all. x5 only multiplies the coins you currently possess, rather than applying retroactively, which is how 9-Block games can have any score variance at all.

Bummer, eh?

There we go. The Cards in the blocks are determined at the beginning of the game, when they are generated, and thus it is perfectly possible to savescum them if you're playing on a platform that allows savestates- like, say, the Wii U VC.

Is it legitimate? Probably not. But whatever.

I don't think I ever have to worry about money again. (The money cap is 999.)

He says this, but he also doesn't do the thing necessary to enforce this.

To leave Jump Attack, you have to say you don't want to play before starting a game. I feel like, if you beat a 9-Block game, it should kick you out- you're not getting to keep any more money, after all.

That's the last of Rowf's stuff bought.

If you try to rest at full health, the Toad House does object. I wonder why I thought I was hurt, and why I'm not. Oh well, it's been shown.

Meanwhile, over opposite the Playroom, we have the Li'l Oink farm, also known as the game's money-sink. I'll skim over the details, but suffice it to say that this is both valuable and difficult to justify.

They are cute, though. For N64 pigs.

You can pay 10 coins to spawn a Li'l Oink egg like a gachapon capsule.

And "gachapon capsule" is apt, because the colour of Li'l Oink is randomly determined on hatch.

There are 10 different kinds of Li'l Oinks, and each can give you an item. What item depends on the colour.

• White: Super Shroom
• Black: Dried Shroom
• Flower print: Maple Syrup
• Pink: Fire Flower
• Tiger print: Thunder Rage
• ? print: Repel Gel
• Mushroom print: Life Shroom
• Star print: Shooting Star
• Silver: Jammin' Jelly
• Gold: Ultra Shroom in INT, Jelly Ultra in JP.

This is the only renewable source of Repel Gels and Ultra Shrooms (notice how it didn't give Ultras in JP?), as well as being the most reliable source of Jammin' Jellies. These are powerful battle items we'll get more into later, but I'm going to try not to use these much.

So how do you get items from Oinks? If you have 10 Oinks in your farm and attempt to hatch an eleventh, the first one you got runs away and drops it. You then have to enter the pen and collect it, scaring away all Oinks still present. This means that every item you acquire costs 110 coins at minimum, often more than that.

Since you need Ultras and Jellies to get all the recipes, you may find yourself coming back here. As far as I can tell, you shouldn't need to, but if you use up or otherwise lose too many of the freebies, you might be forced to.

Often more items than I need, which gets in the way of looting.

Don't encourage me.

I assume Peach is OK with vacations?

Hey, you're Toads. Best to go someplace trouble is not happening.

...On second thought, don't go to the desert. I'm going there, trouble is sure to follow.

Dry Dry Outpost should be fine, though.

This Toad is, quite happily, correct. Dry Dry Desert has lots to do, but if you just want to do follow the beaten path, it goes in a straight line.

I assume this is the railroad rider who scrawled on the billboard? That's a lot of words for "the train's not moving."

That ought to fix things right up.

...You are a terrible sign. I suppose it doesn't help that everything is north of here.

This train is in business.

...Yeah, uh... I think I'm set.

He's the station master of Dry Dry Railroad in Toad Town. The motto of Dry Dry Railroad is "We are generous, polite and safe!" Yeah, that's catchy!

I hope you're being sarcastic on that one, Goombario. Although funnily enough, Dry Dry Railroad's PR game has another funny one on the billboard:

If you plan to visit Mt. Rugged or Dry Dry Desert, climb aboard the luxurious, convenient Dry Dry Railroad!
...paid for by Dry Dry Railroad

Time for us to get going.

Mechanically, this train has no cost, and departs at Mario's convenience. I imagine that's not how it actually works, but kinda funny they didn't give it a cost. TTYD required you to take public transport, but actually has ticket systems for both.

And away we go!

As an interesting little diversion, Paper Mario is not the first game with "Dry Dry Desert". That would be Mario Kart 64. The English version of Mario Kart 64's Dry Dry Desert became "Kalimari Desert", but remnants of the similarities remain. The theme that plays during the train ride is a remix of Kalimari Desert's theme, while K64 outright resembles the engine that circles the track. Another one of those cute little area references the translators missed- although I suppose it was the Mario Kart 64 translators that caused the issue.

Next time: Chapter 2!