PM Chapter 3 Part 2: The Heartless Giant's Torment

Just past the windmill is the literal ghost town of Gusty Gulch.

It's desolate and uninhabited by all but a few ghosts, and the only reason that's unusual is because it's less ghosts than usual.

...Wow, Bow is ready. About the reaction one expects from someone who's main attack is slapping the enemy silly.

He has a place of residence. This question doesn't seem to have much relevance for us catching the guy. Maybe it takes him time to come down here, but it doesn't take us long to walk there.

It's worse when they have names. Even if we've literally never met Herbert before in our lives. Still, though. Hubie will be missed.

Bow doesn't want anyone else to... pass on, and promises the Boos that her secret weapon will succeed.

I fear no one who only calls themselves invincible.

I continue to maintain that you're not giving me anything to go on other than blind faith.

This'll come in handy in the next dungeon. Since I don't have a Control Stick, I'll have to make do with Slow Go.

Fortunately, it's not actually that good, but it will be very funny.

There is a hidden block containing a single coin inside this house. This is the only house you can go inside. There are no proper facilities of any kind in Gusty Gulch.

...I'm not entirely sure what I am being warned about. I think I get it, but if it's what I'm thinking of, this isn't advice we can act on.

It doesn't help we're missing part of the message. I'm sure the ending to that sentence explains things.

Aw, the Boo has ennui.

It means sometimes you need to go to a windmill. It's certainly not the worst advice.

Why wouldn't you keep your valuables there?

There's an event at this point, though.

A nice little rallying spirit, nothing wrong here-

Never mind.

The heroes that are going to save the gulch from Tubba Blubba. We'll take him down just fine! It just won't happen now.

The monster is coming. Everyone disappears because they are Boos and Boos can do that.

This guy does not.

There are some moments in this game that manage to defy all expectations and be funny regardless. This is one of those times. This Boo has, out of his own stupidity, befallen the same fate as countless of his brethren, and they somehow manage to sell the humour.

Down the hatch!

And then a comment on the taste and a casual departure, his craving for ectoplasm satisfied.

Right after turning Stanley's "death" into a punchline, the game tries- and somehow succeeds, somewhat- to play his "death" for drama. We've been hearing about all these Boos that have been eaten by Blubba off-screen, and seeing a helpful Boo meet a quick end kinda helps the rest of them sink in. For a game that isn't wholly prepared to tackle heavy topics, they've done surprisingly well with this one.

All the ghosts are horrified, if you talk to them.

The fact every Boo knows every other Boo, and mourns each one so personally, speaks to a close-knit community that would be hit hardest by something like this.

Anyway, enough mourning the undead, let's try doing something about it.

This is a Hyper Cleft. Hyper Clefts have more defense power than normal Clefts. Max HP: 4, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 3. They sometimes charge their power before attacking. That charged attack will take away 8 HP, so watch out when they start to glow. It'll miss you if you can become transparent. Their defense power will fall to 1 if you use an explosion to flip 'em over. And in case you hadn't noticed, they have spikes up top! It'll hurt if you jump on 'em.

Hyper Clefts (Lv. 15) take what made Clefts so annoying and multiply it eightfold. Not only do you need to figure out how to pierce that Defence (here's a hint, Hammer does 1 damage), but you need to watch out for the possibility they hurt like hell on offense, too. Bomb is decent, but now might be the time to use any other trick you learned on Mt. Rugged. They have a 40% chance of sleep (with -1 turn)- if you have any, Stop Watches are a better use of time.

Their eyes spin around when they're charging.

I... think they can't get flipped over if they're charging? My loss. You can't flip them over with a Jump, like you might expect, but Bomb and Quake Hammer will. They spend some time struggling, at least, but unless there's multiple enemies, odds are you don't let it try.

Free Dizzy Dial!

Works better on the Goombas than the Clefts, but it works. Note that it's even better on Paragoombas, since they fly.

Yes, I appreciate it.

Another free Repel Gel. The difference between Repel Gel and Outta Sight is that Mario can move while transparent- and it also works an extra turn.

Oh hello, mail! These are basically Star Pieces with an extra step, but...

...Kinda wish I saved the Dizzy Dial for this.

As a side note, a comment on the Super Boots: Whenever Mario performs a Jump attack, he does the Ground Pound for his consecutive jump. This changes the timing of his attack, but I think that only applies to Power Bounce: all other Jumps have a single Action Command on the jump that doesn't change. Nevertheless, if you Power Bounce to a rhythm, you will have to change your rhythm.

This is going to get worse before it gets better.

OK, seriously, do you not flip over to Quake Hammer? Maybe I'm thinking of TTYD- they flip to Quake Hammer in that game.

More BP! Little risky on the HP and FP front, but I know what I need, and I think I can work with these margins.

10% isn't evasion you can count on, but it will probably spare you a heal at some point even if it's not obvious when.

Mario's turn is over and there are multiple enemies with a Charge- time to show off Outta Sight. On a side note, any enemy with a charged attack that can attack in groups will co-ordinate their charged attacks such that they all strike on a single turn, to reward Outta Sight.

Outta Sight costs 2 FP and will also take away Mario's turn if he hasn't used it yet. You have nothing to lose by having Mario do something before you Outta Sight, even if you know you won't actually eliminate the threat you're scared of.

All attacks miss. Also, as a side note, Hyper Goomba attacks are dramatic missiles.

The turn after Outta Sight, Bow may not act again. This is to prevent you from cheesing a fight by spamming Outta Sight until Mario wins. The reason enemies co-ordinate charged attacks is that they don't want you using Outta Sight to dodge one charged attack only to face another one from a different enemy the turn you don't get Bow.

Hyper Clefts hurt more than Hyper Goombas, but with Zap Tap, I kinda appreciate the extra point of damage, considering how hard those are to come by. Mario can't do any damage with his Hammer, at any rate.

Star Piece back behind this rock.

And with those few screens done, we're already at Tubba Blubba's Castle. Of course he has a castle.

Right away, we are introduced to... well, these aren't enemies. These guys are apparently known as Sentinels, although you will find this name only in Paper Mario's "Official Strategy Guide"- this is the only game they're in.

Their job is to catch you in their claws-

And chuck you out of the mansion.

Your party member, whoever it happens to be, will scold you for your stupidity and suggest you turn invisible next time. Well, no, that's not quite true.

Goombario: Mario... If they catch you, they'll carry you out of the castle. Don't you think you can hide from them by using one of our party member's abilities?
Kooper: Can't we do something so these things don't chuck us out of the castle? Doesn't anyone in our party have an ability that'll help us avoid them?
Bombette: Mario, they'll throw us out of the castle if they catch us. Can we use a party member's ability so we don't get caught?
Parakarry: This is not good. We'll be thrown out of the castle when they catch us. Can't we get around these creatures by using the ability of one of our party members?

They hint that someone in the party has something useful. I mean, the answer is so obviously Bow's intangibility that I don't think the game seriously expects you to entertain the possibility that it might be Bombette or Parakarry, but the lengths they go not to confirm the matter are ridiculous. Usually, you get hit by these guys either on purpose or because you thought you could Speedy Spin out of range- by the way, yes, that works.

Mario has a surprisingly thorough set of animations for this. He dusts off his overalls, sighs in annoyance, and hops in place to be ready for another go. A single one of these animations would have sufficed, but they went for all three.

...I also don't know if he ever sighs anywhere else in the game.

Anyway, yeah, just use Outta Sight. You can make it if you know your lines, but one distraction with Outta Sight will get you to the end.

The other kind of guard! This one's asleep!

...Excuse the incongruence of this shot, it took me a while to remember to get a good one of a fight scene.

This is a Clubba. Clubbas are the main guards of Tubba Blubba's Castle. Max HP: 8, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. They often sleep on the job. If you walk very slowly, they won't wake up. They may look big, but if you use the action command perfectly, they're not so tough.

Clubba (Lv. 13) is the only enemy you will encounter in Tubba Blubba's Castle, usually in packs of 2-4. They are not spiked, despite the raised club (enemies with raised pointy weapons will be treated as spiked elsewhere in the series), and they only have one attack, making them easy to learn. As their laziness hints, they also have a 90% chance of sleep with +1 timer, so Lullaby kicks ass. 8 HP is a bit of an awkward number, though- both multi-targeting attacks and single-target attacks aren't likely to do a clean number at this stage of the game. You'd want Mario's Jump to oneshot such a common enemy, but you're 1 Atk short with Power Plus.

Clubbas are original to Paper Mario, although they're not a million miles away from the main series. They appear to be, loosely, based on Spike- the enemy from Super Mario Bros. 3 that spits spiky balls from its mouth and rolls them at you, although the designers took cues from their Yoshi's Island designs and those seen ingame rather than in official art. I suspect the intention was that the designers weren't too fond of the idea of having Spikes behave in their traditional manner in a turn-based RPG, so invented a similar enemy that used a more RPG-friendly strategy of clubbing Mario with their spiked balls instead. Sticker Star disagreed, since they have Spike and he doesn't behave at all strangely as a result of his attack pattern.

Ooh, that's a Badge. You might be able to tell what Badge, but we can't actually get up there.

The spring goes too high.

That Star Piece, though, we can grab. As long as we don't smash the boxes.

Pretty Lucky gets a showcase, and Clubbas get to show off a bit of their personality- if they miss an attack, they'll run back into position humiliated. There's a surprising number of enemies that show off a little personality when they miss, something that only comes into play if you have one of three Badges on (these enemies have no chance of missing Mario without).

Star Piece on a giant table in here. Can't get this one this time.

At the end of the hallway are two routes, both leading to long staircases. Take the one you enter by going north, trust me.

Aww. You almost feel bad about fighting them. Until they wake up.

I brought Sleep Stomp along. I'm not sure what I expected it to do. Or why I thought not using Lullaby would be worthwhile.

You've got a Spin Panel to bust through if you take the north path.

Leading to a key.

If you take the west path, you will find yourself at the bottom of this room. You can fall down here, but you can't quite jump that high. So you have to go the long way around.

Little roomy, kinda spartan, but I could buy it being livable. Not by me, though.

We definitely need to go up to the highest level. For what, we don't know, but it should help.

This is going just fine for him now, but it's a no-win situation. Fortunately, since he's a ghost, he doesn't suffer the traditional lose condition of this situation.

This guy is not joking, by the way. He may not be as Invincible as he claims, but he is immune to all damage until we figure out his secret.

This Boo's hiding in Tubba Blubba's Castle. The castle is terrifying for Boos, so this guy has guts. He must have come to find the secret of Tubba Blubba. That monster must have some weakness hidden here! This Boo is willing to risk his own life! So brave... You know, no other Boo will dare come here because Tubba Blubba eats any Boos he finds.

I like the cut of this ghoul's jib. Unfortunately, we already have a really cool Boo party member, and as cool as this guy is, we're not getting any cooler than Bow.

Just outside that room is the Super Block of Chapter 3. Bow is now even more competent! Instead of additional Atk power, upgrading Bow gives her an additional smack (so she does 5 damage at full charge). Her Super Rank ability is Spook- for 3 FP, she will attempt to scare every enemy on the field away, although you will not earn Star Points.

You might notice that's the exact same effect as the Fright Jar. It's not- there's a lot of abilities in this game that have the goal of removing enemies from the field, and there are actually three resistances enemies can have to being removed from battle. Spook does not use the same table as Fright Jar. Usually, Spook has the more favourable outcome, but it bothers me, especially since Spook does share its tables with another ability we haven't seen.

With our newfound key, our next objective is in the castle foyer. Thus, it is technically in our best interests to be grabbed by this Sentinel.

I should have considered that more thoughtfully. I thought there was some reason otherwise, but no, there is no reason whatsoever not to take the Sentinel.

CHAAAAAARGE!

The Super Block also makes the "untidy" numbers of Quake Hammer suddenly work better- we had no clean ways of dealing 5 damage with a partner before outside Bomb, so Quake Hammer didn't meaningfully change our approach to Clubbas. Since Bow can now finish off a 5 HP Clubba, Quake Hammer is now an appealing option.

Also a First Strike does 3 damage, so Bow cleans up that.

...OK, let's not and say we didn't.

This is when you bring in Lullaby.

Getting the key gets you a staircase up to this upper level.

Time for Slow Go. I have a plan.

There's actually a cracked wall behind this Clubba. It's not very well hidden, but you probably won't find it if you leave this guy be.

If I First Strike him, I blow up the wall in the bargain! Now let's take this infernal badge off.

There are three Spin Jump panels in this room. The key to having fun is to know which one to hit first.

It's this one.

If you hit that one- and specifically this one- you get a shortcut from the ground floor up. It's not a long or particularly challenging walk, but it is appreciated to be able to just jump up from here.

This one's the panel you want if you want the Badge.

The other one drops you on the ground, nowhere useful.

D-Down Jump (2 BP) allows you to perform a Jump attack for 2 FP that pierces enemy Defence. Unlike Power Jump, this also gives you a second bounce, making it the best Jump attack to use against enemies with Defence outside Power Bounce.

I meant to use it in two key fights where this matters. Unforutnately, I missed it in my Badge collection, since it's a 2 BP Badge and I kept checking my Jump Badges when I only had 1 BP. This Badge is definitely worth the extra BP (D-Down Pound kinda isn't, though), but this is a time I wish this was TTYD and you could Sort Badges.

They're all asleep!

Now this is a room.

You have to run along this path, using Outta Sight to avoid the spikes, to reach the chest. I think, if you're really good, you can do this puzzle without Bow, but it's more likely to cut it down to one. I can do it in one on a control stick.

I'll be taking that.

Getting pierced by spikes in this room sends you back to start, apparently even going the other way back. Speedy.

That is a grandfather clock.

It's in my way.

This room is a bit of a puzzle.

Pull out the drawer

Parakarry across

And jump on the bookshelf

To find a secret passage. Tubba went to a lot of effort to hide this secret. I don't even recall anything mentioning the grandfather clock moves.

Mega Rush (1 BP) is... better than Slow Go, at least. When Mario is at 1 HP, he gets a +4 to his Atk. This is a favourite Badge for Danger Mario users, even if it's less reliable, but I really don't appreciate having to rely on getting into Peril- and then doing what you can to stay there. You have to finish fights without your enemy attacking, usually, which tends to lead to Power Bounce degeneracy the likes of which are responsible for me not using Power Bounce in the first place.

While I'm not banning the Danger Badges, I am actively avoiding building for it. Mega Rush just won't be worth it, although Power Rush might be.

That's our destination.

But we need to jump down here for a Star Piece.

Thankfully, we have the shortcut.

Behind the door is some Maple Syrup to prepare us.

...Uh oh.

He only smells us, apparently. Once again, people seem incapable of seeing things at a distance. I'd start suspecting this to be the way the world works as opposed to all these characters being near-sighted or otherwise visually impaired, but considering what Tubba's eyes look like, he probably is visually impaired.

If you use Outta Sight, Tubba will lose interest in you. Despite the fact he's smelling us. If you touch Tubba Blubba, you are entered into a fight with him.

Tubba Blubba: Bahh ha ha ha ha! Caught you, thief! It's not nice to sneak around in someone's room! You must be punished!! Now you'll see how terrifying Invincible Tubba Blubba is!

This is Tubba Blubba. He is one of Bowser's toughest followers and he's the master of this cursed castle. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: ?. Hip Attack Power : 6 I don't know his defense power. Everyone says he's invincible because he has never been hurt. I'd say it's a good idea to run from immortal enemies! If you get in deep trouble, Bow can hide you from him.

As has been repeatedly impressed upon us, Tubba Blubba is capital I Invincible and will take 0 damage from everything you try. You can run away from him, or you can use Bow's Outta Sight and he'll wander off in confusion. Either way, you're kicked out of the room and challenged to get past him the stealthy way again.

You just need to enter this door. Tubba Blubba no longer patrols this room after the fact.

This room has 6 Clubbas, encouraging you to Slow Go past them.

...Why?

Unfortunately, it turns out this is not as fun as it looks.

You only get one at a time.

Some of these fights are with a single Clubba.

OK, fine, maybe this room does have some danger to it if you're not paying it respect.

BP ticking on up.

And the Clubbas are starting to not give tangible Star Points. We're just about done, at least.

About that done. With that said, we have a long way to go to beating Tubba Blubba, we just don't have to fight any Clubbas.

Another passage across this top level...

And we made it to Tubba Blubba's bedroom. Whatever's in that chest is our only lead to taking out the big guy himself.

Hey look! A table, a bed, a chest and a drawer. This is the only tasteful room in the place! Everything is so elegantly coordinated.

Goombario seems to like it as a room. A lot of these rooms just seemed to have giant furniture to be cool, but this room looks like a room a giant might actually use.

...And we have company.

Fortunately, Tubba Blubba is also starting to get scared. But the fact remains we still have more to lose than he does.

Between the fact he doesn't even have his Star Spirit anymore (he has no way of knowing that Bow's ultimatum means he's still guarding it by proxy) and the fact he doesn't even know where Mario is while he's invading (Tutankoopa was pathetic, but at least he knew we were there), Tubba Blubba is starting to realise that his invincibility is all he has.

Tubba Blubba has the realistic fear that Bowser might fire him and replace him with someone who is competent on his own. I don't think this is a particularly likely outcome, but that's because Bowser is so sloppy that Tubba isn't exactly doing that badly for himself by his standards.

And he wanders over to his bed. Mario, in a desperate bid to stay outta sight, starts sniffing the bedpost.

(In all seriousness, you're not required to have Bow out, but the fact she is makes this plan seem even dumber than it already is.)

Fortunately, between our active effort to hide and the short-sightedness of Paper Mario characters, Tubba doesn't think we're in here and is happy to hit the sack.

Well, that was close. Time to find out what Tubba Blubba's mystical treasure is.

Oh great, a talking key. I believe he goes unnamed in JP.

I think we can rule out the possibility of leaving this room silently.

...Would it help if I brought out Kooper? Yes, they don't look very similar at all, but he's a blue Koopa-like thing?

...No, no it wouldn't.

...Well... I wasn't, right up until you mentioned it...

For some reason, you are praised for your honesty if you say yes and scolded for your lies if you say no.

This dialogue is set to no music, which makes this moment have the appopriate amount of tension, as everyone involved slowly starts to realise and brace themselves for what's about to happen next.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy.

The chase sequence we are about to witness is set to a surprisingly good song in its own right, The Castle Crumbles. But yeah, we are spin-dashing away.

Yakkey enters our pockets- he has sentience, but he is not immune to being treated like a key.

Tubba Blubba figures out what the hell is going on once you get this far, and catches up in record time.

And pulls out a desperate gambit to stop us getting away.

Fortunately, all it really does is give us a shortcut out.

All the Sentinels are gone, so we can just Spin Dash away. I'm not 100% sure what happens if you get caught, and I'm fine keeping it that way.

Ha, the Sentinels all got smashed by the falling bridge.

This is a very dramatic moment if you play it straight. I'm about to ruin the immersion: He won't actually go to you if you stand by the door. He will run laps around the rubble of his bridges. Dolt.

Reinforcements have arrived! ...No idea what they have in mind, but the effort was made.

Huh, they haven't figured that out either. Well, I'm sure we can find a use for them somewhere. They're Boos! The immortal warriors of trickery and terror! Hell, if they can slap an enemy half as silly as Bow, they're all right in my book.

Their aim is to help Bow.

Yo.

The Boos leap right into action, shutting the door behind us and throwing all the weight they possess to keeping it shut.

And right behind that door is their worst nightmare. And he's really angry.

Fortunately, we found a solution.

The screen shakes.

And the Boos decide that we have to pursue the wincon at all costs. There is no way to defeat Tubba Blubba without finding out his secret.

Bow tells them to save their own skins. We ran from Tubba Blubba just fine inside his house.

Any time they can buy is good time.

The Boos have this dramatic moment where they tell Bow to run and not look back.

And as you run to leave the map, you'll get this text popup. This feels like such a character moment for Bow, but there's no way to get her opinion on what's going on- the partner dialogue that looks like it's from Bow is actually character-agnostic, for some reason.

Goombario: No! You'll all be eaten when he comes through that door!
Kooper: Are you nuts! That Tubba Blubba will make a meal out of you guys!
Bombette: No, no! That's crazy! If he gets through, he'll eat all of you!
Parakarry: I can't agree to that! You're all in grave peril of being eaten! You must run with the rest of us!

You have to walk all the way down Gusty Gulch, and all the combat encounters are still there. It would've been weird to remove them, but it also kinda interrupts the tension as you complete the chase. They even play the normal random encounter theme, without any sort of special instrumental transitions- or really any acknowledgement you're still in the Tubba Blubba chase. (The Castle Collapses is still playing, and will be playing until we enter the room where a boss battle happens).

Not helping!

The Boos all have new dialogue. This is the major extent of the dialogue you can find.

Also this one. Let's not tell him what happened. We don't technically know what happened.

Also, you can use this Heart Block if you got tagged on the way down. There's a few more enemies in front of us, though.

I'm not sharing this for new information, I'm sharing this because I love the dichotomy of the Boos panicking over Tubba Blubba chasing us (by the way, we're leading Tubba Blubba into a populated area) and this guy telling us the windmill is right nearby. If this world was contiguous, you could probably see the windmill in this screenshot.

Yakkey's name is missing from this inventory screen. I believe languages that do not name Yakkey use this name for him instead.

Ground pound into the well.

And then three passageways with Hyper Goombas in them.

Thankfully, they're simple formations, but still.

See, Tubba is still a comic relief villain, but we have to take his threat seriously. Also, this comedy has a purpose.

But that's for later. We've got a secret to discover.

It's... hairy.

Whatever it is, it starts panicking about the fact Mario has found him.

Mario's shaking his head. He's telling the truth- nobody told us anything about the secret. Yakkey told us it existed in this room, but he went into no detail about the details.

And we certainly didn't hear anything about that. Tubba Blubba's a lich?

Mario continues shaking his head, as this guy gets angrier and angrier.

This story seems to be based, loosely, on the story of The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body, a Norwegian folk tale. They play fast and loose with the details- we don't get the help of animals we saved because of our magnanimous nature, Bow (who I assume is supposed to be the princess) is not imprisoned by Blubba, and they kept out the backstory about the six princes. But a few key elements remain- the beast being a giant and the well the heart is trapped underneath being the big ones.

This is Tubba's Heart. You might say it's the "heart" of Tubba's secret. Ha! OK, that wasn't funny. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 0. He has a terrible attack, so hide when he tells you he's about to unleash it. This attack will take away 12 HP! Whoa! Try to beat him before he can do his huge attack again. Trust me, it's dangerous. This is Bow's turn to shine!

Tubba Blubba's Heart (Lv. 1) is a fairly easy boss, all told. Like the Hyper Goombas of Gusty Gulch, he defines himself by charging a powerful attack and unleashing it on the next turn. Just leave plenty of FP for Outta Sight (hint, with Power Plus, Mario's best attack is probably his regular Jump already) and you won't have much to worry about. He does seem to be immune to everything except Shrink.

As a boss, Tubba Blubba and his heart play the boss theme Ghost Gulping. This is quite possibly my favourite of the boss themes- Chapters 4 and 6 come pretty close, but this theme really feels like Paper Mario's playful side at its most threatening.

It's Bow's time to shine, and shine she will.

This is a special conversation, usually on the first turn if Bow's out- and most players are going to be using Bow, whether for Outta Sight or because of the narrative battle between Bow and Blubba. If you don't have Bow out, I think it doesn't play later. I rarely don't use her.

I feel like the Boos sacrificing themselves for Bow got to her a little more than she ever lets on. Yes, she could just be talking about the original insult, but the way she specifies "now I'm really mad" makes it sound like she was already mad- and those sacrifices would be a likely cause for that mood.

On the first turn, the heart usually likes showing off his signature attack. "It's impossible to avoid" doesn't seem to be particularly unique- this is Paper Mario, the only evasion is Close Call and Pretty Lucky. Then again, maybe it does have a unique property for that purpose, most people don't take that chance.

Don't worry. I need a second to prepare my counter-strategy.

If you don't block this attack, the tiny hearts all surround you and squeeze you out of that 12 damage. Without, all the hearts dissipate after going through you.

He seems to like this attack. It prevents Bow from slapping him because she's too busy using Outta Sight, but it makes us completely invulnerable to him.

Tubba Blubba tried a normal tackle this time, and just in time, the spell blocked 3 of the damage. I didn't block any of it, but...

That was also the last use of the spell. I'm not planning on renewing this- sure, it can work out in your favour, but I'm sick of it activating when I least require it.

I decided to keep to Tattling every boss- if I didn't do this, I might as well have not done it to the Koopa Bros- and switched in Goombario to Tattle the Heart. This is not just for bragging rights: I kinda want to know how close I am to winning so I know when to go for the win.

And he's charging.

15 HP... Eurgh.

I switch Bow back in and Outta Sight. I think I could've avoided this, but I decided to play it safe. You can always use Bow, you just have to give up Mario's turn to use a Switch Partner strategy.

His heart squeeze may be undodgeable, but his tackle is not.

At around 5 HP, he'll give up and run away. This is why he's level 1, and I think, if I attempted to attack on the turn Goombario was out, I could've finished him.

And away he goes! After him!

...Outta the way, you lot.

Please just let me keep going.

The Heart leaves the windmill, where Tubba Blubba is awaiting him. Hopefully he hasn't been gorging himself in the meantime.

The Heart decides it will be stronger as one with his body.

This is Tubba Blubba, now reunited with his heart. This is finally his true self. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0 ...probably. His Hip Attack causes 6 points worth of damage. Be careful, because I'm not exactly sure what his other attacks can do. ...But... I think he's definitely weaker than before...

Tubba Blubba, reunited (Lv. 70) serves as the true boss fight of Chapter 3- he still has the bopping theme Ghost Gulping, but the real fight was definitely the Heart.

I want Bow to get the last hit, so just taking a turn to switch her out.

This is Blubba's 6 Atk attack. His 4 Atk attack is a fist strike of some description.

Yep. He is definitely a Clubba. His resistance tables seem to be 90% for Shrink and 80% for everything else.

Bow, save your people. (If you don't care about Tattles, you can win this in one turn with an Atk up of some kind- Mario and Bow's normal attacks only do 9.)

There's the Star Points for beating the giant. This fight was not worth 30 Star Points, but the one against the Heart... more so.

Whatever the Heart was thinking reuniting with the Clubba, he has forgotten the reason the two were kept separate: Tubba Blubba is not Invincible with his Heart. This seems to just be the Lich side of him in action- Mario is not the kind of series that will consider why not having a Heart would make one invincible, but it assumes you'll just go along with it.

However it was his Heart got separated from his body (the process of reuniting seemed to be as simple as "the Heart just jumps in the mouth"), he can't do it at will, and he is now depowered until he goes back to Bowser begging for a second attempt.

He does not seem interested in doing that.

And frees all the ghosts that he gobbled up. Both white and brown ghosts appear in this scene- there doesn't seem to be a difference between the two other than the brown ones live in the Gulch itself while the white ones live in Bow's Mansion (brown Boos are unfamiliar to the Mario series). This kinda feels like a soft reference to the story- when the prince beats the giant, the giant releases all the people he captured to avoid further pain.

Yes, Stanley too.

We can assume this wasn't pleasant, but, well, ghosts don't die. I'm not certain how prepared any of the characters involved were about the possibility of this happening if Tubba was beaten. It's a nice, pleasant happy ending, though, and that's Mario's favourite kind.

The Koopa Bros. and Tutankoopa were Koopas who wanted to be scary but weren't. Tubba was scary but didn't really want to be. This places a different tone to all his jokes.

The only question remains, why would he want to guard a Star Spirit and be empowered by Bowser's magic?

Bow takes a moment to celebrate the fact that Tubba Blubba is now no longer a threat, and everyone who was already harmed has been restored to boot.

...

What.

Tubba Blubba didn't linger on this himself, mostly to make this a big reveal, but this entire story has been a revenge story all along. The Boos were the bullies, and when Bowser approached Tubba and asked if he wanted power, he decided enough was enough, now he'd scare the ghosts.

Neither side really seem to learn a lesson out of it. Tubba mostly because he doesn't reappear anywhere else, but Bow doesn't have any similar excuse. I can appreciate the idea of ghosts being scary, but they don't say anything about why Tubba was/is different.

Moving on from that awkward topic, Bow had a lot of fun being our party member.

And tries to pretend she has a good reason to ask Mario if she can join him for more.

She provides a Yes/No prompt this time! She'll join regardless of which one we pick, of course, but most partners provide at least one, and Bow didn't even bother back in the Mansion.

I said Yes, of course. Bow is best girl and I will hear no counterargument. OK, never mind, the next partner is a pretty good one, but the two are very clearly good at different situations.

You don't have to be polite. You won't have to worry about anything anymore as long as I'm with you.
Gweaah heh ha!

Dialogue for saying no. Told you she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Bow promised that she'd release Skolar if we got rid of the problem of Tubba Blubba, and we have done exactly that.

We've beat the Chapter Boss, time to free the Star Spirit.

We're almost halfway there!

After solving the secret of "Invincible" Tubba Blubba, Mario and party set free Star Spirit Skolar. Now, with Tubba Blubba just a bad dream, the Boos are free to haunt to their hearts' content. Even the lonely wind echoing through Gusty Gulch seems to be celebrating the victory... at least for now. With newest party member, Bow, in tow, Mario and friends are ready to take on their next challenge.

Woof, that is one awkward ending sentence.

Next time: Less Toad Town than you think.