Paper Mario Chapter 3: The "Invincible" Tubba Blubba

Chapter 3 is when Mario gets two awesome tools to tackle the game- Super Boots, for Star Panels and extra Jump power, and Lady Bow, for Smack and Outta Sight. It is also when the game starts to get that Paper Mario story that makes these games so beloved.

Forever Forest and Boo's Mansion are a very tricky opening segment, more puzzle than combat. The Forever Forest can be nigh-trivialised with Zap Tap, and Boo's Mansion has no combat. Bow testing our puzzle-solving skill is a pretty good plan considering we have to "solve the mystery" of Tubba Blubba's secret, and it's also the part of Mario's reputation he doesn't talk about much, if at all. In practice, puzzle-solving wasn't a big part of Tubba Blubba's Castle, and solving the secret was much more about stealth- something Mario needed Bow's help with.

Gusty Gulch is a ghost town, an antepiece to Tubba Blubba's threat. Tubba Blubba is a character vastly recontextualised by his twist reveal. The story as the chapter is played focuses on the fact that he is Invincible and we must find out his secret, which is a very important thing to consider, but by backloading the interesting factor, there's no time to actually reflect on the matter at all. Tubba Blubba never gets to talk about how it feels to inspire so much fear in his former tormentors, nor do Bow or the Boos appreciate the irony of fearing someone they used to enjoy scaring. It is simply another thing Bow does that adds a layer of mischief to her character.

Bow, for her part, is the most developed party member so far. She not only gets her opening trick in forcing Mario to tackle Tubba Blubba for good rather than saving the Star Spirit and running, but she also gets to grapple- shortly- with the morality of scaring him so often that he was brought to this extreme. As a character, Bow gets a level of involvement in the plot that most RPGs would call "normal"- in fact, since Bow is going to drop out of the spotlight for the rest of the game, the usual RPG standard would consider her somewhat underdeveloped. Unfortunately, she is the most fleshed out party member in this game. TTYD does slightly better, but most party members in this game are here to help and not much else.

Mechanically, Bow represents the game feeling more comfortable with pitting you against actually dangerous encounters. Hyper enemies won't be very common- enemies can vary their Atk power, but they won't broadcast it like Hypers can- but the Clubbas represent a pattern for the rest of the game. Oneshotting enemies in a single normal attack is not normal unless you lean hard into a Badge setup that makes it normal. You must consider how the combination of herd-hitting attacks and attacking key targets will set up an enemy phase with few enemy attacks. This, and managing your HP and FP such that you can do the attacks you want when you need them is the backbone of Paper Mario's main gameplay loop, and now that we have plenty of options in Badges and a party member that can bail us out of damage if we really need it, the game is prepared to bite back.