PM Chapter 4 Part 2: March of the Minis

Green Station's roadblock is fairly simple. Well, simple in concept. How exactly one goes about hiding the train tracks is another matter.

That'd be Russ T.'s Dictionary! For, uh... some reason, Russ is the key NPC to solving this station.

I don't think that part will be too hard.

Here, we can see the missing railway, and also four giant blocks.

Hammer all four, and Shy Guys appear. I believe there's a combination that gives you money, but obviously, the key will be to input a combination that will make the train tracks appear. Russ will tell us what it is, but like with Moustafa's purchase code, the correct solution will work if you know it ahead of time.

I don't think there's any forced reason to come this way- we needed the Storeroom Key and the Frying Pan, but we can leave Green Station without the Dictionary. I wonder what happens to the Koopatrol if you put this off until later in event flags. I'm going to assume "nothing exciting."

This part of the Toy Box is a giant conveyor belt maze. You can brute force it pretty easily with Speedy Spin.

Bow's intangibility gets us past the wire fence. Note that we do need to respect the conveyor belts: only the middle one will put us on the favourable side while stationary.

That Shy Guy always spawns this exact formation, down to the colours. Curious.

I think Russ T. just outright knows this language, rather than using linguistic clues.

Probably a good idea to heal.

...Oh, I'm not at the Koopatrol yet. I am at the Slot Machine, though.

Figured I might as well spin it once. There are Coin, Star and Shy Guy icons, and depending on what you have the most of, you will get either money, Mushrooms or Shy Guys to appear- obviously, with more of each if you get a full set of three as opposed to just two.

The jackpot prizes are 10 coins, 10 Mushrooms and 5 Shy Guys, with 1 coin, 1 shroom and 2 guys on 2 panels. It's free to spin, and not worth it at all. Although apparently, if you fight Shy Guys here, that Slot Machine still works in battle.

So long, Spy Guy.

This part of the room is filled with blocks that go up and down. Each block moves at different timing, and you cannot jump on top of that green block from the lower lip of the green block- you must do so from the blue one.

If you sneak in here, you can get a Star Piece.

Right, once we get on top, we can get to our Koopatrol.

Spoilers, you never appear again outside Paper Mario and Pinball Land. Also statues in Super Princess Peach, but off-model ones.

Words cannot adequately express my disappointment (and frustration) when I found out the Pokey doesn't say anything even remotely interesting. You fight two of them.

This is a Koopatrol. They're elite Koopa soldiers. These are the highest-ranked guards of Bowser's Castle. Max HP: 8, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 3. In case you hadn't noticed, they're fitted with spikes. Don't jump on 'em. When their HP drops low, they'll charge up power for one last-ditch attack. The power of this desperate attack is 10. They've also been known to call in reinforcements when they're in trouble. Don't underestimate these nasty Koopas, Mario.

At any rate, Koopatrols (Lv. 25) are pathetic enemies when we fight them for real, but we're missing a few of the tools that make them so. To make it clear, that's a charge-then-attack-next-turn attack Goombario is describing, like a Hyper Goomba. A charging Koopatrol also retreats into its shell, making it impossible to flip.

You can flip over Koopatrols like you would any other Koopa- by jumping on them or using Quake Hammer. They get up instantly like Buzzy Beetles, but this still doesn't help them.

Wow, I could fight these guys for a while.

Not that I want to.

Those reinforcements are worth the same EXP as the rest of them, if you want to let one keep calling for help until you get to 100 Star Points (you can't get more from a single battle).

Back to Toad Town it is.

There's also a Coin Block on this platform. You can only hit it when the platform is high, and you can only get up here with a well-timed Parakarry anyway. Probably the most frustrating one in the game.

...Thank goodness I didn't fight this on the way to the Koopatrols.

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

If you just stay stationary on a conveyor belt on the way back, you get dumped right back to start. Nice and convenient, if you just didn't feel like walking.

Trying the blue-red-green-yellow combination.

No dice. Maybe there isn't a coin prize for this.

We're going.

You can give Russ T. the note before you give him the Dictionary. Don't do this.

Whether or not he can read it, he does at least know the language. I believe this is the only time in the Mario series Shy Guys use a different language. I'm not sure if any opportunities to be frustrating occur elsewhere- most Shy Guys don't need to write things down to be frustrating.

That's one fine Dictionary.

Here you go.

They have to give you a Star Piece to make this feel worth it. The Storeroom Key and Frying Pan didn't do this.

And this is why you don't give the note first. Russ T. has colourful dialogue if you give him the note second, but he'll just read the note outright the other way around. I thought I'd still get the dialogue this way around.

Let's see here... yes... accents... mmm... silent "d", hmmm...

The language of the Shy Guys is needlessly complicated and completely impenetrable. I believe it. I wonder if linguistic clues would help as much as one might expect.

Almost forgot that.

Now then, an interesting fact about this combination: Not only did we not have to turn it in to Russ T. to learn it, but the Shy Guys that drop the Mystery Note? The formation they come in tells you the combination too. A new player is probably not going to realise this on their own, but I could see someone trying it anyway.

As a neat trivia note, this order is also the order that the Switch Palaces become available in Super Mario World.

The rails come down from the back wall and the blocks disappear for good.

With the path to Red Station open, we can also... go to Blue and Pink Stations? What's the point of the "specify direction" if we can just go to any station anyway?

This is one thing. You can skip this cutscene immediately, but if you choose not to, you will actually pass by every single Station you're planning on passing- that's Red Station we just zipped by.

The Blue Station had a lever of its own, although the only way to get to it is to attempt to approach Blue Station by taking the train right- which can be done as soon as you open Red Station.

There's nothing as complicated as the train driver is making it out to be, just pull it.

Fantastic work, conductors. I wonder if the weirdly-convoluted system is because they've just been working around this the whole time, rather than realising they could've made a full loop.

This is the most pathetic journey ever.

Russ T. will not provide any of his traditional hints until you open Red Station- after getting the Dictionary back and before doing that, he'll just repeat the code to make sure you know how to get past the puzzle.

Throughout the world, I've heard, there are chambers hidden in the ground. If the ground near one of the chambers gets a big shock, a hidden panel pops up and a Star Piece shoots out from the ground below. You ought to keep an eye out for these chambers, Mario. Say, that reminds me... I heard that there's a Badge with the power to warn you when you're near a secret. If you found this Badge, it'd be easier to find the chambers.

A mildly timely (give him some slack, he was robbed) clue about the nature and functionality of Star Panels. Also telling you about I Spy, although I wish he'd mention the detail about it only telling you you're in the right room.

There's a grim guy called Anti-Guy who guards a special treasure chest... According to a book I read a while back, he absolutely loves Lemon Candy. If you take one to Anti-Guy, he might mellow out a bit.

The secret to getting that second Power Plus without fighting Anti Guy! If you combine a Lemon and a Cake Mix with Tayce T., you can get a Lemon Candy. Heals 5 HP and 15 FP if you eat it, but you can feed it to the Anti Guy and he'll surrender the Power Plus without a fight. They certainly don't make it easy for you to know how to get your hands on this.

Some enemies will attack the party member who's with you, Mario. Remember, your friends are in the battle, too! In a battle, you can defend your friend by pushing A Button at the right time, just like you do to defend yourself, Mario. It's a simple technique, but it helps protect your pals.

A relatively basic one. All attacks that hit the partner have, I believe, a slightly separate guard command (hitting Mario's will usually let you hit the partner's, too), and if the partner blocks it, they take no damage, no matter how much they should.

Did you know that when you attack enemies in the field, you'll get in a First Strike during the battle that follows? When you strike, if you Spin Jump or attack with Bombette or Kooper, you'll hurt enemies more than usual. Sure, it's a minor technique, but every little bit helps.

You probably noticed this on your own if you tried, but this is a helpful confirmation of the fact: Bombette's Bomb, Kooper's Shell Toss (and apparently, Mario's Spin Jump) hit the Action Command when used as a First Strike. This does a lot of extra damage, although as Mario gets stronger with Power Plus, Kooper's Shell Toss isn't keeping up even with this bonus. Bombette is always a better option than a Mario strike, but aiming it...

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Great timing, guys. Although I think we've chased out all the Shy Guys short of attacking their leader. The last notice was a "Shy Guys are active" one, they may just want to get rid of it more than they want to make a new one.

Someone wants to get on the winning team. Never feel like you can't, little guy! It'll be just under a decade until Bowser gives the better dental plan.

To tell you the truth, I'm crazy about Miss Bow. She's so arrogant... so very headstrong... I love it! I can't believe I'm writing this... If Miss Bow sees this, what'll I do? Just thinking about her gives me chills... ♥
A scary Boo from Boo's Mansion

This was the graffiti on the last notice. Not actually relevant to anything other than being another weird line at Bow's expense, although there's a reason I bring it up anyway- in the ending sequence, there's a line where a Boo mentions a wedding ceremony, and I always thought it was Lady Bow's own (no, I had no idea who the spouse was either). It's not, but it certainly wouldn't be too surprising if it were. Although something's telling me Bow is not interested in such matters.

There are so many recipes you can't make without this. I think you can make... 13/50 recipes without the Cookbook.

Well, what else am I going to do with it?

All right, let's see what we've got...

• All Mushrooms (Mushroom, Super Shroom, Ultra Shroom, although some substitutions can be made) combine with all Syrups (Honey, Maple and Jammin') for a total of 9 recipes of various permutations. Yes, we haven't found any Jammin' Jelly outside the Lil' Oinks, but since this is a set, might as well mention it now.
• The Super Shroom or Volt Shroom can be combined with a Goomnut, Koopa Leaf or Strange Leaf (Volt Shroom+Strange Leaf doesn't work) for a Life Shroom. Cheaper than the normal way!
• A Life Shroom and Dried Shroom for a Shroom Steak (30 HP and 10 FP). Unfortunately, you must sacrifice a Life Shroom or Ultra Shroom for one of these.
  
• The Bland Meal, for 10 HP/FP, can be most easily made with a Goomnut and Koopa Leaf. Other recipes are available, but you only need to cook it once.
• As mentioned, the Yummy Meal (20 HP/FP) can be made with a Dried Fruit and Dried Pasta. This is, unfortunately, the only humane way to cook one until Chapter 7- you can also cook a Whacka's Bump, but that's a downgrade anyway.
  
• Koopa Leaf and Dried Pasta gets you Koopasta (7 HP/FP)
  
• Egg and Fire Flower gets you an Egg Missile (do 6 damage to a single enemy).
  
• Egg and Strange Leaf gets you a Boiled Egg (8 HP/FP).
• Strange Leaf gets you a Dizzy Dial. Yes, you need the Cookbook for this. 
• Dried Fruit and Strange Leaf gets you Fire Flower. Yes, really.
• Dried Fruit and Volt Shroom gets you Thunder Rage.
• In turn, Dried Fruit and Mushroom gets you Volt Shroom.
  
• Cake Mixes have a lot of stuff...
• Mushroom or Super Shroom for Shroom Cake (10 HP/FP)
  
• Honey Syrup for Honey Candy (restores 20 FP).
  
• Fire Flower for a Fire Pop (restores 20 FP, but does 1 damage to Mario).
  
• Volt Shroom for an Electro Pop (attempts to restore 15 FP* and will electrify you).
  
• Goomnut for a Big Cookie (20 FP).
• Koopa Leaf for a Kooky Cookie (restores 15 HP and gives Mario either the invisible, electrified or sleeping status).
• Lemon for Lemon Candy (5 HP, 15 FP).
• Lime for Lime Candy (20 FP).
  
• Apple for an Apple Pie (5 HP, 15 FP).
• Strange Leaf for Strange Cake (will make Mario electrified, invisible or sleepy).
• Ultra Shroom or Life Shroom for Sweet Shroom (30 HP, 20 FP).
  

The best recipe currently available combines Whacka's Bump and Strange Leaf for a Deluxe Feast (40 HP/FP). This requires getting a Whacka's Bump, though. There is a humane way of acquiring it, but you need to wait until Chapter 7.

That's around ~30 of the recipes, all unlocking in one big lump there. And unless you're willing to burn Life Shrooms or Dried Fruits, most of them aren't exactly that much of an improvement over the Hot Shrooms we had already- although those are some decent options for FP builds. This alchemy idea was a brilliant one, but it seems to have been more aimed at completionists than practical purposes. Consider you only get 10 inventory spaces, and the game likes giving you items in the world too.

*The Electro Pop, to be specific, sets your FP to [current HP]+15, in what I assume is the world's weirdest typo. I'm not entirely sure how healing items are coded such that this is even an issue.

Let's stick with the Red Station.

...Also, I don't think I fully noticed that Life Shrooms had decent recipes in this game, so I never cook any. I'm filthy rich, but still. I have the spare Supers.

As much as I want to laugh at you for that, it's probably better you left this to me.

Last Star Panel in front of a Station.

This one has a Heart Block!

We're going left first from Red Station. As usual.

And this Pyro Guy also gave us our last BP level up. All levels from now on are going to require we actually boost our endurance stats. I'm going to be biased to HP, of course, although I'd like a little more FP in the near future.

Time for some platforming. Platforming? In a Mario game? I almost forgot that was part of the game.

This is the second-most frustrating Coin Block in the game. You can only hit it a few times before you have to jump to the next platform over.

Oh, this could be a fight and a half.

...And of course I don't have Feeling Fine.

At least the Partner can deal with it.

Only three Star Points for that? Well, I am oneshotting them...

Another Deep Focus Badge! That'll help if you're spamming Star Powers.

Another Super Block. It has been a while since we got a new Partner.

...For some reason, I get the sudden impression there's a boss fight incoming.

...Well, hello there. This is very much not in line with the tone of Shy Guy's Toy Box, and about the only thing this enemy has in common with the Shy Guys is that they are both common footsoldiers in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (and maybe their fondness for wearing identity-concealing cloaks). His major purpose seems to be introducing our next partner, although why her gimmick is what it is doesn't answer any questions.

All right, we get it.

Yes, we are now in battle, despite the darkness. Dark battlefields are a gimmick that appears more often than just this guy, but the solution for them differs.

For a guy who hates light, you sure do seem to like that lantern of yours.

Attacking the Lantern will make the battlefield more bright. It doesn't care about damage, only about number of hits. Two hits are necessary to make the lantern shine brightly enough to illuminate the holder. Importantly, multi-hit attacks like Mario's Jump and Bow's Smack will do this in one action. (I'm not sure what, if anything, is the benefit to illuminating the lantern any more than two hits.)

This is a Big Lantern Ghost. He avoids attacks by hiding in the dark. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0. Your friends, like (ahem) me, will also be damaged when he does the flash attack. The flash attack's power is 2. Hit the Lantern many times to make it brighter, then you'll be able to attack him. As soon as you can see, hit him right in the head!

The Big Lantern Ghost (Lv. 42) isn't much of a boss, although the fact he hides behind his Lantern will make fighting him a big deal. Also, that light flash to daze the partner is hard to dodge. He's got a 60% chance of Shrink with no turn penalty, but the incapacitating statuses are a little harder to land.

Although Lantern Ghosts in the Yoshi's Island games are small enough to be glorified ammunition for Yoshi, a Big Lantern Ghost would later appear in Yoshi's New Island- not even as a boss, but a (singular) normal enemy that can be used for a unique mechanic to that game. Its Japanese name differs slightly from the Paper Mario one, but we're talking the difference between "Big Lantern Ghost" and "Mega Lantern Ghost".

The Lantern Ghost can put out his Lantern, dealing with it is not a one-and-done thing. Important note, this counts as an action for him. He cannot put out his lantern and attack you in the same turn.

And if you light him back up in one action, you've gained ground on him! He gives up his whole turn to put out the Lantern, we only lose half of one.

Worth a shot. Dizzy has a 50% chance and -1 turn, and of all the incapacitation statuses, it's probably the one that is most likely to stick. Stop has a 60% chance, but it also has a -2 penalty.

This sucks if he puts out his lantern afterwards.

Best to get that damage in now.

Of course he does.

Assuming I'm right and there's no tangible difference between a two-hit lantern and a fully illuminated one, this is as good a time as any to have Bow smack the ghost rather than the lantern.

Excellent, got a block!

And that's the end of that weird jaunt.

He drops the lantern and runs off. This seems to have got the lantern to stop emitting so much light.

Say... This is the lantern that belongs to the Big Lantern Ghost. There's something inside. Do you think it'd come out if we broke it?

The lantern speaks! Hope I wasn't being too rough on you during the battle.

...Whoops. I think I misclicked- I wound up pressing C-Down when I meant to do something else. Still, this demonstrates that you can blow it up with Bombette.

The answer is no, you can hit it with your hammer instead. Although I'm not altogether certain this would be less painful.

She recognises us!

This Lil' Sparky is a baby- although the fact she speaks in full sentences might obfuscate that somewhat. Nevertheless, that blue thing in her mouth is a pacifier, and in JP, she uses very infantile phrases and juvenile forms of address.

Well, that was neither long, complicated nor morally questioned.

I love Watt. She may not be too complicated, but dammit, she's charming.

Watt is the only partner in Paper Mario not based on one of Mario's iconic enemies. Five of the partners (including both of the ones we haven't yet seen) are based on enemies from Mario 1 with impressive records, while Bombette and Bow are based on enemies who debuted on the Famicom and joined them- not many people would be expected to remember Bob-omb and Boo were later additions compared to Goomba and Koopa.

Watt is based on the "Lil Sparky" enemies from Super Mario World. These are balls of "fire" (Paper Mario has chosen to interpret it as electricity) that hug the edges of platforms, circling them to make tough platforming challenges tougher. They are smaller variants of Hothead, and the two appear in the same levels: Wendy's Castle and Bowser's Castle. They appeared in an e-reader level of the GBA version of Mario 3, Super Princess Peach, Superstar Saga, and the Hothead is also an item in Smash Bros starting from Brawl. That... is a comprehensive list of this enemy's appearances. If you don't recognise what Watt is based on, don't worry- she is a deep cut.

Watt is also not used as Lil Sparkies are traditionally used: She lights up dark rooms. Yes, we haven't seen any up until now- there's only three dark rooms in the game, one of which is just a "do you have Watt" check on the other side of Red Station. Many of the partner Field Abilities got suspiciously similar replacements in TTYD and/or SPM- Watt did not.

She can also be used to reveal hidden blocks, which is probably the more common use. This did make a return, but through alternative means. Shy Guy's Toy Box has been littered with Hidden Blocks, only some of which I've been grabbing. Might as well show Watt finding the rest.

Watt is one of the more awesome partners in battle, especially in bosses. My common refrain (and mild complaint) is that the best partner for any boss is usually Bow or Watt, depending on whether they have Defence. Electro Dash can attack any enemy on screen for 3 electric damage, ignoring Defence (and making side-contact). Power Shock will attempt to inflict a single enemy with the Shock status for 2 FP- another full paralysis to go along with Sleep, Stop and Dizzy, this one is the one Anti Guy is most susceptible to.

This room suddenly becomes a dark room, to tutorialise her ability.

The room is empty, and you can easily Spin Dash out. But here we go.

...Funny you mention that.

At any rate, once you leave this room still holding Watt (which you're encouraged to do), you'll walk out and find a hidden block revealed. As much as I dismiss Watt's field capacity, this is an excellent silent tutorial to make sure you note the use of Watt you're likely to use more often.

You can't Spin Dash with Watt out, so don't go walking around with her out everywhere, but...

It's just a Snowman Doll.

Oh yeah, remember the Super Block just outside the room? I don't think anyone has ever actually seen a Watt without an upgrade outside randomisers.

Important note, but this screen usually has something interesting to take note of. In the NTSC version of Paper Mario, the translator who wrote these lines missed the memo that Watt is female, and referred to her as "He" here. Because of her using the baby-ish speech patterns, there's only one instance where Watt can be gendered by the JP writers- and that was on the website, not in-game. Paper Mario 64 is fairly consistent at using she/her, considering this- the Super Block text is the only error they made. The PAL version caught this mistake, and that's what I'm using.

At any rate, we already have her at Super Rank. Electro Dash now deals 4 damage, and she gets the first buffing attack in the game in Turbo Charge. For 3 FP, she'll charge Mario with a +1 Atk buff for up to four turns, depending on how well you hit the Action Command.

Volt Shroom at the start of this room.

And a Super Shroom at Red Station.

Meanwhile, going back to Blue Station, those Hidden Blocks I saved for later?

Maple Syrup!

And a Fright Jar and Mystery. These weren't worth it. The Maple was good, though.

...Whoops. That can sometimes happen, and it's awful when it happens to a good item.

Anyway, got into a fight, let's look at Watt a little bit.

Here's Power Shock in action. The amount you mash determines the likelihood of success, although I'm not sure what the connection is between how full you got the bar and the enemy's natural resistances- although enemies that are resistant to Shock will have bars that don't fill up as fast.

By the way, Shock usually lands for 3 turns, same as any status, Groove Guy just has a +1 turn modifier.

Meanwhile, back in Red Station.

The Shy Guys are hiding behind a massive castle... made out of hollow wooden building blocks.

I feel bad about this.

At this point, we've got them running away and screaming. They even vocally make... well, it's a noise that sounds like screaming.

Can't forget the comedy Shy Guy that trips. He doesn't start crossing the screen until all the other Shy Guys have left, too.

If you want the Shooting Star, you hit a Hidden Block for a coin (Hidden Blocks with coins are always used as platforms- or in Kaizo hacks, surprise ceilings) and then Shell Toss to knock it down.

Now that's a fight to end things off with. This is the last encounter in the Toy Box.

Proof of concept, Watt is contact-based. She might not seem it, and Pyro Guys are at the bottom of a very short list of enemies where this matters, but she is.

Sleepy Sheep in this one. For... some reason.

Right, let's set up for a boss fight. Power Smash, huh? D-Down Jump might be the way to go- I feel like a lot of fights against things with Defence are going to come down to this, and whenever I ask what I could've de-quipped, it's always Speedy Spin.

As promised, this room exists only so you cannot progress to beat the boss until you find and recruit Watt.

You need her to scare these Shy Guys into opening a path. No, Bombette won't do the trick.

I think one of the things that goes understated in this moment here is that this is the first time a Shy Guy has actually talked to us- well, outside the one-off that was staffing Shroom Grocery. Between that and the "language of the Shy Guys", I wonder if Shy Guys are intended to be incapable of communicating outside the few character exceptions. Mario likes to have unintelligible-to-the-audience languages that other characters can understand just fine.

This opening dialogue also has its own unique music track.

This here is General Guy, of no relation to the later-appearing Sergeant Guy from Mario & Luigi- although judging by their respective competences, I definitely believe this one outranks him.

Also, he does this dramatic pointing animation for every line, but stops by the time the textbox finishes drawing. I do get a shot of the point.

Trespassing. Us. From the Guy who's directing bedlam in Toad Town through thievery, pranks and general mayhem.

Too late. I already returned everything you stole. And I'll be taking all your inventory items, too.

We march on the fields of war!

He may not have more than his one gimmick, but General Guy is one of the most beloved of the chapter bosses.

His battle theme, Keeping Pace, plays throughout the entirety of the following battle, not just the matchups where he is the opponent. This is another pretty charming one, mixing a military march with the playful jaunt that is the Shy Guy's anthem.

This is the Shy Squad. It'll attack us with all its members at once. Max HP: 15, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. The number of times we're attacked will equal the number of Shy Guys in the Squad. Its attack power is huge when there are many Guys, but it drops for each one that falls. Let's use an attack that does tons of damage so we can decrease their numbers and increase our chances!

Leading the platoon is the Shy Squad, a horde of weaker Shy Guys with deadly power in numbers. Defend Plus will make you brush this off easy, while I think Zap Tap only lets you take out one.

I didn't get far into it, since I took a turn to Tattle.

Oh well. I can recover from that.

I didn't know this, but if there aren't enough Shy Guys in the squad, they will retreat.

Shy Squad: We're gonna lose!! Oh no! we've gotta run!!! runs off-screen
General Guy: Wait! Stand your ground, men! Now's no time for cowards! I will not abide deserters!
Shy Guy runs past Mario.
General Guy: You men make me sick! We must protect the Toy Box! Am I the only one with guts?

Says the guy with more grunts to throw at us.

With the Shy Squad gone, General Guy realises he may actually have to contribute.

CHARRRRRRGE!

He goes too far and hits the guy.

And then berates us for cruelty to his men. Then again, that is a toy tank he's in.

Just because he's brought in the tank doesn't mean he's actually going to be fighting yet.

This is Stilt Guy. Yes, as the name suggests, Stilt Guys are Shy Guys on Stilts. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me... Max HP: 7, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. If you attack 'em by shaking the ground, they'll fall off their stilts and become normal Shy Guys.

Stilt Guys are regular enemies in the Yoshi's Island games- so regular, in fact, that the fact their Paper Mario versions are only in the boss rush is somewhat unusual. They get knocked off their stilts with Quake Hammer, apparently, although considering they have the standard 7 HP, I'm not sure you really need to worry about that. Quake Hammer isn't useful against any other phase.

We can oneshot the Stilt Guys anyway.

Wow, they sting. General Guy really knows how to tip the odds his way.

And yes, his third wave is his most impressive of the bunch!

Stacking Shy Guys. In addition to their gameplay punch, the fact this stack survives being attacked is impressive on its own merits. Have you considered putting on a performance with that skill?

For some reason, one of the stackers in the second set was inside the tank. I'd rather not figure out what he was doing in there.

This is a Shy Stack. Whoa, this pile has an incredible sense of balance! Look at that stack! Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. Its attack power equals the number of Guys in the stack. It will be 4 if there are four Shy Guys stacked up. If you have the Spin Hammer ability, you can knock 'em off one by one. Obviously, their attack power decreases when there are fewer of 'em in the stack.

So, guess who learned about that use of Spin Smash from reading this Tattle for the first time? Shy Stacks are new to Paper Mario, although Yoshi's Island DS would later implement them into Yoshi's mechanics (it turns out Yoshi's Woolly World really likes the ways Shy Stacks can work). Not only do they hit hard- especially if you don't have Spin Smash- but they won't die in one round with the Badges we have. I imagine Kooper also works to knock out a Guy- Spin Smash also works on Pokeys, and Kooper dislodges segments of them too- but if he doesn't, that is one cruel Badge setup. It's not like Spin Smash is any good outside of this matchup.

If you can't beat them in one turn, might as well set them up so you can win on the next.

This is going to get ugly.

There goes one.

...That's where we're healing? Might as well.

I think I just didn't understand what happens when I beat one phase and moved to another. I had the spare healing to be safe.

I love the pause. He's realising he's out of infantry to throw at us.

And now he's gotta deploy his strongest soldier: himself.

This is General Guy in his tank. The tank seems to be dangerous even though it's a toy. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 2. Not only does the General give commands from the tank, but he also throws bombs and uses electric attacks. The power of his electric attack is 5, and your party member takes 2 damage points, so defend yourself carefully. He'll lose the electric attack if we break the light bulb. Normal fighting styles seem ineffective because the tank is well fortified.

General Guy (Lv. 73) may not be that much tougher than his reinforcements- the Stilt Guys did two attacks at 4 Might in one turn, after all. But 2 Defence is still pretty tough for this stage of the game, and that partner-hitting attack will hurt if you can't block it. D-Down Jump is a huge help here, especially paired with a Power Plus. On the minus side, General Guy is immune to all statuses.

The light bulb is a separate target. It has 8 HP and 1 Def, and if you destroy it, General Guy is no longer capable of using the lightning attack.

...I'm sure that'll be a big detriment to his game plan.

Right, no more of that nonsense.

Watt performs a Turbo Charge, giving Mario +1 Atk. Considering the margins we're looking at against this defensive foe, this is a large percentage increase, since it's additive. Turbo Charge also cements Jump as our preferred approach where possible- Jump does 2 extra damage with Turbo Charge, while Hammer and Power Jump only do 1.

General Guy's non-lightning attack is throwing a normal cartoon bomb- not a Bob-omb. The Mario games have a ton of regular bombs lying around, despite having their own spin that they can use instead. Bob-ombs even have a form where they lose their feet and wind-up key, keeping their eyes as they prepare to blow up!

Anyway, for the first time (surprisingly), Watt performs Electro Dash. This is an all-or-nothing Action command- if you over- or under-charge, you only do one damage. I usually get it, but sometimes it comes up.

General Guy really doesn't like being hit by Watt's signature move. While I'm sure it's possible to claim Electro Dash is torture, I'm fairly sure it's fair play, Guy.

Just because the Jump is better doesn't mean the Hammer is bad- although this is Power Smash. I think, if my math is right on how much power Jump has, Power Smash is better than the normal Jump. Less than D-Down Jump, of course.

He's getting lucky. Good thing I healed.

Got him cornered in the end.

The tank falls apart...

Before exploding, sending him clear up. And back down.

I love the glowing frame. I think that's from Turbo Charge.

General Guy runs around screaming, like all the Shy Guys were doing before, before they all file out of the room. The one Shy Guy in the back, of course, trips on the way out. Maybe we can hire him as our partner.

I love Watt's baby dialogue. Just cute enough to be endearing, but not sickly so.

And, of course, Watt deserves all the headpats. Just... maybe with rubber gloves.

And our Star Spirit emerges from within the platform.

We're allowed to move around to touch it, although as usual... why wouldn't you go right to it?

To save the fourth Star Spirit, Muskular, Mario and team disbanded the gang of Shy Guy toughs. Slowly, it seems as if the life force is returning to the once bleak night sky... But the stars won't truly shine until the Star Rod is wrested from Bowser's evil grasp. Three Star Spirits still await rescue. Where in the world are they being held?

This is a pretty good question, all things considered. We're running low on exits from Toad Town. I'm sure one of them will be at sea, but the other two's entrances are far less clear.

Next time: Business as usual.