PM Post-Chapter 3 Part 2: Under the Panels

Now then. Let's get started with going around Toad Town and finding all these Star Panels.

There are a lot of them. It's almost kind of obscene. I wonder how many Star Pieces you were supposed to find on your own.

These two were back in Goomba Village. The first one is the map we landed on after being thrown from Peach's Castle at the start of the game- you can walk back there, although this Star Piece is the only reason why.

Meanwhile, Koopa Koot has a few favours, and since his town isn't being harassed, we can go do them.

This one requires we read the Toad Town News and share with him the goings-on of the world.

I think he is a touch more explicit about it, but he wants to hear both the news on the front of the board and the gossip on the back.

We've already read the current news, but this doesn't count- we must read the noticeboard after accepting the favour. I suspect the game has no way of tracking it otherwise, and outdated news wouldn't count. Since today's news is very... not something I want to share with Koopa Koot, have some news from Chapter 3 that we missed because we didn't backtrack:

Princess Peach's Cooking Contest Postponed Due to Lack of Castle

The annual Cooking Contest sponsored by Princess Peach has been postponed indefinitely. Besides sponsoring the annual affair, Peach also hosted the culinary contest at her castle. The disappearance of the castle itself presents some perplexing problems for the contest planners. To those who are pulling their hair out in frustration, we say: Keep the faith, champion chefs! Mario will save the day!

You read this underground newsboard a lot, don't you? You must have a lot of free time, huh?
Underground news writer

Koopa Village Star Panels.

And one in Dry Dry Outpost.

Talking to Moustafa personally shows he still thinks highly of us, and recognises that we've been improving over the course of the game. Still not entirely comfortable looking him in the eye considering what I've done for Kolorado.

Anyway, more Star Panels. This one's in D4, the exact centre of the desert.

And while we're out here, Kolorado has packed his bags and left the desert at some point. This tree his tent was in the way of has a letter in it, and it's nice and convenient the Star Panels have taken us this direction.

Yes, there's one on Mount Rugged.

We've already got ready access to Goompa, let's just deliver the letter.

Not that Goompa was particularly enthused to receive it. Oh well, it's his problem now.

Goompa may not like the letter, but he does reward us all the same. It's Parakarry's job, after all.

Yes. Yes he did. Although he's kinda outclassed now. Sorry about that, it's not his fault there's a cute noble with a better slap.

Crazee Dayzees are, in fact, recognisable enemies from the Mario series. Well, they're Yoshi's Island enemies, appearing in the original Super Mario World 2, Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's New Island outside of the Paper Mario games. I never think of those flowers and Dayzees as the same thing.

Says someone whose own village was raided by Fuzzies not too long ago.

Trust me, your best hip is still one of the ones on your legs. I don't pretend to know if Koopa Koot's use of "hip" would be as sarcastic in 2000 as it is today, but I'm fairly sure it is.

Koopa Koot asks for a Life Shroom. I never feel comfortable giving one up- they're essential insurance on the road- but there's no getting around this one.

At least they're on sale for 50 coins a pop.

I have a spare. Actually, I don't. I can just make do.

I wonder if "You're a peach" has any connotations because of Princess Peach. I imagine the meaning has not changed- Princess Peach is, in fact, a peach- but it does make the saying take on another layer.

Self-care is important. Don't want to use up all that energy in one go and wind up back where you started.

Fortunately, the Life Shroom is not a one coin quest, and you get an additional prize:

The other Playroom game.

I'm beginning to suspect you think this isn't the reward you make it out to be.

Smash Attack is an easier game without save states, but I'm not actually good enough at it to make decent cash. I also forget to show it off for a bit.

The third favour can trip you up if you didn't prepare it early: Tayce T. won't be cooking until we make progress in Chapter 4, so if you don't already have a Nutty Cake, you have to leave this for later. It only gives a coin anyway, you don't need to do it now.

They're right outside Goompa's house, and Goompa is a friend of Koopa Koot's. I wouldn't be surprised if he does... at least sorta remember it.

Tayce T. is the only means we have to cook things, but must we point that out?

Right away!

...Whoops, I forgot to grab it before I dropped in. Oh well. At least I had one in storage.

Bob-ombs do a lot of bouncing in TTYD, but they're rather more subdued here. They do tend to bounce a bit when Mario jumps on them in the platformers, though- although I think that's more of the later ones.

In the conventional sense, I hope.

This is the first question of the post Chapter 3 Quizmo set, and it is... very much a weird question in the context of Chuck Quizmo. Not only have we not yet been introduced to two-ingredient recipes, we can't cook at all. And we haven't even found Cake Mixes yet. This question is intended to be a Gameplay Clue, but as places to hide such things go, Chuck Quizmo is a very weird place to put it. But yes, consider taking note of this recipe if you're not interested in fighting superbosses.

This is another question that is different in the Japanese version. The first distractor there is "Dogabon"- who we know as Tubba Blubba. As a distractor, he's much better than Junior (since he lives in the Gusty Gulch area and was last seen running into Forever Forest), but looking at how big a word "Jr. Troopa" is, I wonder if it was intentionally changed for space reasons.

...OK, yeah, it's the Peekas that are ghosts-in-sheets, and Boos don't really steal things while they cause mischief.

And guilt. Lots and lots of guilt.

Both Coconuts and Apples are ingredients, Coconuts even being found in trees. Weird how Apples are found in boxes in a haunted mansion, though.

...Rat Cheepa? Diz Onnest is just too pun and not enough name for this game, though. This character still isn't really a shady individual.

 Despite being a cute girl with a cute ponytail in around the right age bracket, she never actually does anything traditionally girly. That may just be because she doesn't do much period, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Bombette was interested in singing and/or dancing.

Time to scope out Toad Town Tunnels.

...More water to the east. Although I'm not entirely sure we want to be swimming in that.

To the west, a room full of enemies to beat.

This is a Dark Koopa. Dark Koopas are Koopa Troopas who live in the Toad Town Tunnels. They're known for causing dizziness. Max HP: 8, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 2. Be extra careful when you see 'em grin, because that means they're getting ready to do their dizzy attack. Their defense power is 0 when they're turned over, so you should use Jump attacks.

Dark Koopas (Lv. 18) are enemies that seem to be original to Paper Mario- I'm not 100% sure they even have the reference to underground Goombas that Gloombas have. They will either Shell Toss you for 3 damage, or do a spinning attack that hits you with 2 turns of Dizzy (but no damage). While Dizzy, you cannot block attacks- and yes, Dizzy does stack.

They give a lot of Star Points, though.

Before I get into what I'm doing, I should point out something important about Dark Koopas you can see from this screenshot. The Dark Koopa on the right is smiling- in motion, he's also running in place and intermittently spinning. A Dark Koopa who is doing this will attempt to land the Dizzy status on you. A Dark Koopa who is in the usual animation (see, the one on the left) will perform Shell Toss. Dark Koopa is possibly the only enemy in Paper Mario who telegraphs their normal attacks, and if you must choose a target, always go for the grinning ones.

If you have them ready, POW Blocks and Quake Hammer completely trivialise them. I think they do get up immediately, like Buzzy Beetles, but they can't do anything if you keep them on their back, grinning or not.

Big payouts. The one with four Dark Koopas triggered the 1.3x bonus for fighting four enemies, giving me an extra Star Point per head.

And some more BP for the pile.

Clearing out these Dark Koopas gets you the shortcut pipe to Boo's Mansion. As mentioned, the Jr. Troopa fight spawns as soon as you get the Super Boots to ensure you cannot use this pipe to skip it.

There's only one room beyond the Dark Koopas this time.

A small puzzle involving pushing this blue block around to find three Hidden Blocks to make a small bridge to reach a treasure:

A Super Block we cannot use. As a result, we must leave it where it is and come back later, when we have a party member we can upgrade. This is the key weakness of the Super Block system, but honestly, this particular Super Block is the only one where this is an issue. And it's not like it's that out of the way...

Anyway, let's go see what Merlon's dream is all about. The tree we have been asked to circle is this suspicious one in Dry Dry Outpost.

All we seem to have accomplished is attract the attention of the Dryites, who are highly concerned.

Over a dream.

The Dryite decides that, if we want to believe it, it's our business.

As mentioned, you can Spin Jump in Merlon's house three times and get the prize without this conversation. I figured I might as well grab it.

...You want to come to Toad Town someday?

Landing those three Spin Jumps gets a Badge to drop from the ceiling.

Yes. Please.

Merlon, on realising he has one of the most powerful Badges in the game lying around gathering dust, reasons yeah, maybe he should hand this over to Mario.

Merlon's suggestion is probably the best he ever makes, and he's the guy who gives you directions in the story. Quick Change (4 BP) makes it so the "Switch Partners" Strategy does not use up a turn. Want to come into a fight with Parakarry, switch to Goombario to get a Tattle, and then switch to Bow before unleashing a Jump attack? You can do that all in one turn now! At the very least, the ability to have Goombario score his Tattles without compromising the ability of other partners to contribute to a fight will make my team variety that much richer. I'm probably never switching this off even if I were to theoretically not benefit from it. At least it's better than Speedy Spin in battle.

More Star Panels outside Merlow's place.

And we're once again holding a large number of Star Pieces. This is the last big payday on Star Pieces: for all future Chapters, we're relying purely on the Star Pieces found out in the chapter, plus whatever Quizmo gives. You're probably getting around 10-15 all up from that, but I think, if you're doing Quizmo and Star Panel stuff, you've got enough Star Pieces for anything you want out of this guy.

Picked up Flower Saver, to help tighten up my FP demands and justify the lesser investment, and Feeling Fine, because we're about to be introduced to some enemies that are going to attempt to Dizzy us beyond Dark Koopas.

Speaking of bosses, I'm going to deal with the third stage of the Dojo, and this is my Badge setup. Dodge Master is a bit of a dud, but it'll make sure my damage lands.

As an interesting note, the Dojo's theme, which is almost entirely different in tone from Toad Town's normal theme, is completely replaced by the Shy Guy's version during this segment of the game. I imagine the Shy Guy version overwrites all these alternate themes, but it's most jarring in the Dojo.

For the third challenge and forward, we are fighting The Master, and he gets his own theme. I rather like it, in a very "superboss" kinda way.

This is The Master. He owns the Dojo- and he's the strongest member. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 0. If he's the best in the Dojo, he must be pretty tough!

The Master (Lv. 1) is a pretty basic fight for his first go around. He just has 50 HP and will punch you for 6 damage every turn, without question. He has no particular weaknesses to status ailments, having a -1 turn on all of them, but the most reliable status is Stop (70%). Shrink has a 60% chance, if you think that will help.

With 7 damage a turn, I win in eight turns. That's 42 damage he's doing to me. Luckily I have a better plan than that.

(Also, proof of concept, I've switched out Goombario for Bow after Tattling.)

Oh yeah, there's another point of damage every turn for hitting me. That helps me out.

And, of course, can't forget to add an extra 5 damage from Bow. That's 13 damage all up, leading to a fight that can be won in four turns.

If I block enough attacks, I don't even need to heal with 20 max HP.

If you can win the DPS race, you've practically won the game.

The Master is impressed, although he acknowledges the inherent absurdity of the idea of "being impressed by Mario" in the Mushroom Kingdom.

We now have another notch in our belt.

There is a further fight available, but I think I'll save Master 2 for after I've got something important later on. I wouldn't be surprised if I could beat it now, though.

That's what I'll be bringing into Chapter 4 proper, though.

...So, by the way, remember what I said about not having a spare Life Shroom? Yeah, uh... let's stay on our toes.

Anyway, back when Toad Town was at peace, this house played a very playful version of the theme.

To get into the Toy Box, we need to use Bow's Outta Sight.

This Shy Guy might show up if you wait long enough without, but he's your ticket into the Toy Box.

If he thinks he's alone, he'll walk up to the back wall-

And show you the door. Despite the fact this door should logically still be there otherwise, it is impossible to open this door without seeing the Shy Guy use it beforehand. Not an onerous ask, but still kinda annoying.

Into the Toy Box we leap! Yes, we shrink, but that seems to just be for the aesthetic.

Next time: Mischief makers.