Chapter 7 is the most RPG chapter in this game designed as a sequel to Super Mario RPG. And it seems like they've played it up for more of a gimmick than a design ethos.
The first thing we see in Shiver City is a proper Town Story, the likes of which are compared only to Chapter 1's Fuzzy invasion and Chapter 5's lost Yoshi Kids. The whole story is based on a misunderstanding- everyone is obsessed with the works of a mystery author, and at the first chance, they leap into acting as if they have become embroiled in one without going through due process. As a result, they come out looking like buffoons. The seriousness of the murder mystery is somewhat undercut by the poor judicial process and the fact that nobody seemed to be adequately prepared for what, exactly, the murderer was doing- since it's a mystery first and a homicide second, everyone, even Mario, is scrambling for a whodunnit and not a whydunnit.
Following this, we get to visit Starborn Valley, guarded by a mysterious monster that terrifies the locals of Shiver City... played entirely for laughs, since it is all bark and no bite. And then begins the exposition with Merle- and, not long after, with Madam Merlar. These long discussions culminate in getting key items to be immediately used- to compound on their jokes, Merle's ordinary Scarf is treated as a mysterious and esoteric artifact, while Merlar's backstory bomb is completely ignored and her place of rest sealed. Clearly, the joke here is at the expense of overlong long and irrelevant exposition crawls- a joke expanded upon by the fact Merle does not become a recurring character, while Merlar is brought back only to make the exact same joke. RPGs with overly verbose exposition is considered one of their faults alongside inactive combat systems, and it seems the Paper Mario devs take objection to both. With that said, TTYD and SPM would adopt some of this exposition- both the fun optional kind, and the dull mandatory kind (the latter moreso in SPM).
Crystal Palace is the final and coolest of the dungeons, with a unique defining gimmick in the mirror, although also characterised by confining hallways that all but force combat with the enemies therein. While confined spaces to avoid enemies are not new, the claustrophobia of this chapter, combined with all the other RPG jokes, makes me feel like this is intended to capture the frustration of random encounters in a game that has field encounters. Alongside this is the appearance of the Duplighosts, monsters that would make you feel cautious around your party members... if your party members had enough character to stand out. I'm not sure if the Duplighosts being such failures is supposed to be an allusion to this lack of character or if they're just meant to be funny and the difficulty of finding your real partner in a legitimate challenge an unintended side-effect. Finally, we have the Crystal King, another allusion to esoteric RPG bosses and a clear friend of Culex's, along some family tree or other. In all, the real joke is not so much "look at how funny RPGs are", but perhaps more aptly "look how funny it is Super Mario is in this RPG". Which is a joke we're going to be seeing a lot of come SPM.
Mechanically, Chapter 7 is as tricky as one might expect- Frost Piranhas to freeze you, Gulpits to do obscene damage with a gimmick you can't block as much as the game thinks you might like to, White Clubbas throw out some serious damage on a whim, and the Crystal Palace is filled with Magikoopas to make every formation that much spicier. The Duplighosts and Swoopulas in the palace are almost breathers in comparison, especially with Zap Tap for the latter. While Monstar is a joke, Jr. Troopa is there to give you a warning about damage races, telling you to make sure you have the damage to match your healing. The Crystal King is not as difficult as Huff N. Puff, but it is telling you what Bowser's going to be throwing at you later, so take notes. Despite the enemy increase in power, the level design isn't that much worse. The mirror puzzles might trip you up, but in practice, they're not that bad in comparison to some of the earlier dungeons. It's just a short fetch quest for Herringway, a slightly longer fetch quest for the Scarf and Bucket, and then a fairly linear trek up Shiver Mountain to a slightly less linear but still easy to trace dungeon. Not that this is too awful a setup- we had the complex web of Chapter 6 beforehand and a final dungeon promising a host of ability switches ahead.
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