PM Chapter 7 Part 2: Rising into the Sky

Right, we're starting off with a boss first thing, so our Badge setup... is focused on hitting as hard as possible while also being defensively prepared. This battle is a damage race.

Songs that play twenty seconds before disaster.

Sorry, got held up being accused of murder.

It's the "Day 812 of waiting" meme, except you're actually in the frozen wastelands and not in your own home.

I'm more than ready, egg yolk. You reduced your own HP this time again?

Despite the setting, this is not an ice pun. I don't think.

Jr. Troopa has gone to magic school.

...Apparently literally. Either that, or this is a mail-order class. I could believe both. Where do Magikoopas learn their craft?

It's Jr. Troopa! I'm stunned! Really! This guy just will not quit! Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 1. He's obviously been training. It seems he can use magic now. Sigh... Let's get this over with.

Jr. Troopa (Lv. 65) has abandoned the idea of beating Mario by covering his weaknesses, and learned Mario's other weakness: the damage race. It doesn't matter how much damage Mario is doing to him- so long as he can win first, he gets his goal. As such, his only attack is to shoot 8 Atk magic bolts at you- "his only attack", as if that isn't a hard thing to block and also bypassing his usual weakness to Zap Tap. In prior fights, Jr. Troopa was catching up because he was being a more and more unusual enemy. In this fight, he's catching up with attacking prowess, too.

...Huh, this is our first time witnessing Mario's new Jump animation, huh. Also, there's little pink chunks of paper flying off Jr. Troopa as we attack now. I think that has something to do with Attack FX? I remember seeing it a lot in other runs, but it hasn't been showing up until now.

I've been harassed by a Koopa wizard since I was a baby. No, I don't particularly enjoy magic.

...Mario doesn't use any magic spells in Super Mario RPG, all his magic attacks are Jump and Fire Flower based, no other Mario RPG has Mario use magic, that might actually have a basis in canon.

Five damage even with a double Damage Dodge. Lucky our power is so high, that could get bad fast.

At least you're enjoying it.

I'm here to win this race.

...Told you it was hard to block.

Fortunately, 12 damage plus Watt means we're in no risk of dying.

And that's Jr. Troopa lying here for a while.

Over here, we can see what I can only assume is the most frustrating secret to find. Hammer this tree, and nothing seems to happen.

You have to hammer it multiple times, knocking aside each layer in leaves as you go, before you can knock down this Letter at last. Since it's a letter and not a Star Piece outright, I don't think you can get any guidance on finding this one, although I'm sure there's something somewhere.

And as one final punchline, if you don't let it land on the ground before you grab it, it will crash the game (the game ties it jumping off the tree to an invisible Bumpty actor, and interrupting it makes the game very confused.)

I'm told that, if you get this one early in a rando, you can deliver it to Mayor Penguin's corpse.

Star Panel down here.

...A line of six snowmen in the middle of nowhere, in front of a wall?

Behind this tree is a free Repel Gel to hoard.

Time for our first Shiver enemies...

...That is a lot of guys.

This is a Frost Piranha. Frost Piranhas are frozen Piranha Plants. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. They'll try to freeze you with their icy breath. You'll be at their mercy if they freeze you, so you'd better try to immobilize them right away. Ice attacks won't work- they love ice! Fire attacks, though...

Frost Piranhas (Lv. 22) are an outright ice-elemental enemy, taking +2 damage from anything that can set an enemy ablaze. Their bite does four damage, while their icy breath does 2 and attempts to land the Freeze status, keeping Mario in place for a few turns and making it impossible for him to block. This status appears only on Frost Piranha and the chapter boss. The Frost Piranhas are original to Paper Mario.

This is a Gulpit. Whoa! Gulpits look pretty burly, don't they? Max HP: 12, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. Gulpits attack by picking rocks up in their mouths and then spitting 'em back out. The bigger the rock they spit, the more damage you'll take. Big rocks take 7 HP in damage, and small ones take 5 HP. They can't do much damage without ammo, so you should concentrate on the rocks first.

Gulpits (Lv. 22) are my least favourite enemy in the game, because their gimmick is horrifying. That high damage adds up fast unless you build really defensively, and although Goombario advises attacking the Gulpit rock nest first, this advice really doesn't work in practice. You must actively target it in order to break rocks, and you can only break one rock per action. In 9 formations out of 10, an offensive attack could kill the Gulpits instead, for all the good taking a hard defensive "break the rocks" plan does. These guys are wholly original, and unique to, Paper Mario 64.

These are Gulpits' Rocks. Gulpits gulp them and then spit 'em at people. There are two sizes of rocks. The big rocks do more damage than the small rocks do. ...Big surprise, huh?

Gulpits' Rocks have their own Tattle.

Fortunately, with Ultra Boots, two Power Pluses and All or Nothing, Mario can oneshot Gulpits.

Less fortunately, I got frozen out of that. The pummeling has commenced.

Right, I had the First Strike, you can die.

And we're bringing out Fan Smack here.

That was a brutal round.

Glad we're levelling up soon.

Although I'll probably wind up needing this first.

...I took off some badge to go back to 5 damage per bounce. Probably to make sure I had some defensive options.

Another Letter behind this transparent rock, this one conveniently going to the only purpose for Star Pieces!

Now that we have gotten to the end of the Shiver Snowfield, we finally get to meet the other monster on the path... this guy.

In the original Nintendo 64 version of the game, the sparkles on his design are found entirely on the monster himself (example footage). All emulators, including both the Wii and Wii U VC, are unable to replicate this visual effect, leaving it as this circle of particles around him. I'm told the NSO version does at least include a fix for the "star chunks" bit, although that fix isn't "do whatever the N64 version did". I wonder what makes it so hard to fix.

...You know, Jr. Troopa said the same thing.

This monster... Even I don't know what it is! I don't know why, but it looks really terrifying. ...I get the funny feeling I had a nightmare about it... Max HP: 20, Defense Power: 0. I don't know its attack power, but it must be very powerful, judging by its looks.

Monstar (Lv. 45) is allegedly one of the scariest designs in the game. I really don't see it, even if the emulation bug wasn't an issue. 20 HP means that you're probably only taking one attack from it, and unless it does 20 damage, I don't see it killing me.

Already half gone.

Do your worst.

...It did. This attack is hard to block, but it only does 1 damage. This is Monstar's only attack.

It's even funnier if you pack the Defend Plus Badge.

...Well, why not show a little dignity?

Skolar, you have a turn!

...

It turns out that Monstar is categorically immune to Star Powers, and also Shooting Star items. That's about the extent of his power, though.

You say that.

But this works just fine.

Thanks for the HP restore!

...That explains so much. And at the same time raises further questions. Those will quickly become apparent, at least.

There was a hidden Stop Watch back here. Annoyingly for the people who know it's there, it is inside the loading trigger for the Monstar fight, which means you jump for it and then get hit with a boss fight.

We have arrived in Starborn Valley.

Starborn Valley is the birthplace of the stars. Or, well, it is at least the nursery.

...Sigh.

At least he has a point.

The Star Kids here are unable to ascend to Star Haven. Twink is explicitly the last Star Kid to make the jump, having arrived just before the Star Spirits' absence broke the link.

I think you may need to form a line for that after this.

The Ninjis are serving as the Star Kids' babysitters, and it sounds like they're not used to it being this involved a process.

We can find this Star Kid, but it doesn't actually do anything. It's just frustrating the babysitter.

Oh hey, it's our last roadblock in the letter chain!

As a reminder, Frost T. is the uncle of Mini T.

And the letter was mostly to make him feel better about his day. It seems Mini T. is in the habit- what a good kid.

If you'll remember, way back after Chapter 2, Goompapa was the original recipient of the first letter in this chain. This one, happily, shall be the final one.

I don't believe we ever learn the subject of this letter, but I think the issue Frost T. has is "she's six" (...or however old she is). He doesn't talk down to kids, but whatever it is Goombaria is asking about, he expects Goombaria to be unfamiliar with some of the core concepts, and probably not likely to approach her father herself for help. Why didn't he explain it? Maybe space constraints, maybe he's just not that good at breaking down the concept to Goombaria's level.

It'd be nice to go back for it now, but I'll wait for after the chapter.

Jumping on this stair is a Merle trigger, apparently.

The reason they do it now is both because of the increased activity of Bowser's minions and an increased time spent here. The Star Kids doing this are probably the Star Kids who should be in Star Haven by now.

...You know, as I consider this more, I find it interesting that the Star Kids are immune to Star Spirit Powers. I don't doubt that this immunity persists to other Star interactions, but the fact that the immunity exists might become relevant later on.

Another NPC talking about the hiding Star Kid. He's actually visible in these screenshots.

There are seven Star Spirits right now, but apparently the positions change from time to time. I guess this explains why the current ones aren't that interesting. I assume Eldstar's position is less contested than the others.

...Also, the lack of Star Kids rising in the sky is almost certainly to make sure the Stars can't make new Spirits to combat Mario.

Don't worry, we'll get there.

Well, I can't let them down, then.

...You know, the Eldstar story is pretty cool. Don't worry, I'm told someone's writing a book about it.

...That's... the story being told in the opening crawl, isn't it? Recursive!

I wish. Peach is doing just fine, though.

This Star Kid is the one who talks about Twink being the last riser. There's a Star Kid shown flying into the Star Haven in the opening cutscene, and common consensus is that that's supposed to be Twink.

Twink is sounding like a great kid. No wonder he's being so helpful for Peach. It's making her day, at least.

It does? In my experience, it has been in every state but peaceful for decades.

And now we've been taken in to meet with Merle.

...That's what we're starting with?

Oh, Stars are born here. Well, perhaps not here, but somewhere a ways off that we just don't visit. Or maybe they do just show up out of nowhere in the middle of town.

Throwing this in the plot.

...Which is good, because Peach has no idea. The game is a lot more invested in the idea we need to know where to look than I am, although I suppose it's nice that we don't have to just accident our way into finding it. Plus, I suppose we do need to know where to go to get what we need.

"We realised Peach wasn't looking for the overheard advice, so we had to send a message to a Merlon relative who exists only in this game".

TTYD and SPM retool the way you find out where the shiny things are to avoid repeats of this ridiculous setup.

I'm sure we're going to find ourselves there eventually, Star Spirit or no.

Now it's a pretty ruin.

That no one can admire.

Kolorado would love this place.

So yeah, this is why I think we have to know there's a point to going there. We have to know what to ask.

Merle has one of the two items we need to get to the Crystal Palace, and it is...

...I think the fact he treats it like a legendary item of mystical use is part of the joke, but are you sure no one threw it out and replaced it with a newer scarf on the way?

We need to have a chat with someone in Shiver City. Probably the Mayor.

...So what? Bowser's not allowed to jump ever again? I get what he means, but yeah, we can't exactly tell him to stop being in the sky. Stop being in Peach's Castle, surrender the Star Rod, restore the functionality of the Star Haven, yes, but if he wants to put his castle in the air, we really have no objections.

As we're leaving, Merle offers one last bit of advice.

...I, uh... I think I know what this clue is referring to. If I am correct, this is an even more blatant attempt to force a player-friendly clue into the plot somewhere. Unlike "the seventh Star Spirit is in Crystal Palace", Mario doesn't need to know this information to do something in-universe, this is purely for the player's benefit.

And it's not even that helpful!

The Star Kid that's playing hide-and-seek is over next to Merle, standing "in paper mode" beside the house. He really is hard to spot unless you're at a camera angle where he's at an angle. "Turn to the side" is an ability in later Paper Mario games, but it never occurs to this incarnation.

Eventually. Not too long now.

This Star Kid thinks he's made himself invisible. He wants to go up to the sky. OK, but, it's hard to imagine this little prankster granting anyone's wishes...

Hey, someone needs to give the Bart Simpsons of the world Bonestorm.

Hey, maybe if we make friends with the Star Kids now, they'll grant us tons of wishes later!

Goombario's Tattle for one of the other Star Kids- I believe, the one on the stairs up to the top shelf. Dangit, Goombario.

Annoyingly, entering Starborn Valley brings these guys back.

As demonstration, when you attack Gulpits' Rocks, you can only destroy the one rock, although you are allowed to choose which one.

Star Storm for this massive formation, because like hell I'm doing it piecemeal.

Only 8 Star Points? I guess it is two a head, but...

I don't really know how to use the scarf, so I figure I might as well let this Snowman have one. It'll match his friends.

If you reload the map, Jr. Troopa has been turned to an ice cube. He'll get out eventually, don't worry, but still. This has got to stink for a cold-blooded turtle like a Koopa.

The Mayor's wife has changed somewhat after her experience. Apparently the stress involved in the experience hurt more than it let on. I think I can let her off the hook. A little bit.

...Penguin poetry, as opposed to regular poetry. More snowflake puns. Not entirely sure it's less emotive.

Going to see Merle lets us ask Mayor Penguin for his special item.

The Mayor does possess it, although he doesn't keep track of it reverently.

He can dig it up if prodded, so it's not like he keeps it in the yard sale pile, but it turns out when you pass down ordinary items, they get treated like them.

...Imagine explaining this to your descendants. "This is a legendary bucket. Never throw it out, but we don't know what it's for either. Pass it on to your kids."

He says, with a snowman dressed in a scarf and bucket next to his house.

I'm not actually sure how much the Shiver City penguins know about Starborn Valley. I don't really think they try to keep this secret, nor do I really think they need to. It's just something you'd think would happen but doesn't seem to be a factor.

Also, you got mail!

...Yoshi Village? Wow, mail gets all over this kingdom.

Aside from commenting on the remoteness of the letter, he doesn't seem too interested in its contents. More's the pity, I wonder what a Yoshi could be asking about.

With this bucket on this snowman's head, this line is now fully matching.

That seems to be exactly what they are for.

With the snowmen all dressed up, they are happy with what we have done for them.

And they jump out of the way in order to open the door to the Crystal Palace, in a very dramatic animation for snowmen.

They're really happy about this. We don't see the extent of it yet, but if you want to see it in action, rest in Shiver City's Toad House now.

To start on the way through, we have to Tornado Jump down here to smash some ice to hit a button to raise a bridge.

This is such a weird and unnecessary puzzle, and to make matters more confusing, you can hit the button again to lower the bridge after Mario. Not that there is any point to doing so, there's nowhere you can go without raising it back up again. I wouldn't mind the puzzle if it wasn't for this weird ending. There's a joke here and I don't get it.

This is about when it occurs to me to start using Fire Shell. Annoyingly, Gulpits are not ice-element, which doesn't help me with the actually scary thing in this encounter.

Proof of concept, Power Shell only does 4 damage. You're so used to Shell Toss and Power Shell doing the same damage that the fact Ultra Rank breaks this slips right by.

Now that's what Fire Shell was for.

...Where am I getting this Defence? Maybe I'm just getting out of the block animation... I really wish I knew my Badge setup.

Regular Brick Block at the end.

Concealing a Hidden Block with an Ultra Shroom. This is a cute execution, at least.

In the next room, we can see a switch we need to hit with Koops, but there's something down here.

...Albeit, "something" is perhaps a generous term. The Pebble will do one damage to a single enemy, although it does at least pierce defence- it's not that pathetic. They can apparently also be dropped by Spy Guys and Gulpits, but their appearance here is because their best use is here.

This Pebble will respawn if you reload the room, in case you want more than the one.

Right, Shell Toss time.

...Huh. Funny off frame.

...It's, uh... still there.

Oh great, I have two Koopers now.

Can you tell which is the fake? It's relatively subtle this time around, but they've already thrown out a clue in this exchange.

The Koopers are throwing a massive argument over which one is the real Kooper, as you do.

I think the reason this scene, and a few others like it in the chapter, fail to work because they ultimately didn't strongly characterise Kooper- and even if they had, his spotlight was all the way back in Chapter 1. Maybe if he got stuff in Chapter 5 alongside Kolorado, but no, we genuinely do not know Kooper well.

The game has... kinda realised that fact, and the fake Kooper has to lose the subtlety and throw out a few more obvious clues.

...All subtlety.

That makes one of us.

Kooper?: Don't listen to this idiot! Look at him! He's a liar! Go on, hit him! Hit HIM! This guy thinks he can pull the wool over your eyes, Mario! Don't let him get away with it! Hit him as hard as you can!

Kooper: I'm not worried... You and I go way back, Mario. I know you know who I am.

If you talk to them as NPCs at this point. They really wanted this exchange to work better than it does.

I don't actually know, off hand, what the difference is between guessing correctly and guessing incorrectly on this first try.

That fact you called me Moron instead of Mario.

Credit where credit is due, you actually made me inspect your dialogue closely.

Your insults could use some work, Slick.

This is a Duplighost. Duplighosts disguise themselves as members of our party. Max HP: 15, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. They love to attack in disguise. It seems like they're generally stronger fighters when they're not disguised, though.

Duplighosts (Lv. 23) will serve as more regular enemies the further we proceed, but their habit of mimicking your partner carries into battle. Lee did this too, although now that we have some more choices, the pick of which partner we want to see will start to matter. Never bring Watt to a Duplighost fight, if a Duplighost turns into her, they'll do contact electric damage.

Duplighosts appear only in Paper Mario 64, with one exception.

You can't really oneshot them, 15 HP is just too high to take out in one attack without FP.

Transforming into a partner takes up their turn, but each Duplighost may choose to attack or transform independently of the others.

It's a Duplighost disguised as me. Max HP: 15. It'll do Headbonk and Tattle. That looks nothing like me. Does it? No! Seriously, though, does it? Mario? Hello? Look, I've been working out like crazy trying to get in shape for adventuring. There's just no way I'm that pudgy!

It's a Duplighost disguised as Kooper. Max HP: 15. This imposter almost looks better than the original! Ha! Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as the character it's imitating. It's probably not very difficult for this Duplighost to disguise itself as Kooper. After all, our pal is pretty unusual looking. It'll attack us with its shell, just like the regular Kooper. You'll have the best luck beating it if you flip it.

It's a Duplighost disguised as Bombette. Max HP: 15. Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as Bombette's. You should be careful even though she looks cute.

It's a Duplighost disguised as Parakarry. Max HP: 15. He looks even more intelligent as an enemy. Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as Parakarry's. Don't underestimate him, Mario. He looks pretty serious.

It's a Duplighost disguised as Bow. Max HP: 15. Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as Bow's. Look, you've seen her in action. Do you really want to know what a Smack attack feels like?

It's a Duplighost disguised as Watt. Max HP: 15. Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as the character it's imitating. You know how Watt is shocking? Same goes for this Duplighost.

It's a Duplighost disguised as Sushie. Max HP: 15. Its face looks even grouchier than the real thing! Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as Sushie's. I'm glad we have Sushie on our side. She's intimidating! I wonder if this imposter is meddlesome as well...

It's a Duplighost disguised as Lakilester. Max HP: 15 It's hard to take him seriously. Its disguise is pretty much perfect. Its attack power is exactly the same as Lakilester's. It's tough to dodge his Spiny Flip, so pay attention.

Wow, Goombario is a bit of a jerk to Kooper, Parakarry and Sushie. I'd demand an apology for those!

As a reminder, a Duplighost copy of your partner will only copy the moves which do not consume FP- Headbonk, Shell Toss, Body Slam, Sky Dive, Smack, Electro Dash, Belly Flop and Spiny Flip. They will mimic your ally's rank, and will always hit the action command to do the maximum damage. This means most Duplighosts actually are stronger when transformed, assuming they transform into an Ultra Rank partner.

This is Lee disguised as Lakilester. His Max HP is 20. If I remember our battle with the real Lakilester correctly, this one seems to be weaker. Lee has disguised himself as Lakilester perfectly, so his attack power is the same as Lakilester's usual power. Dodging that Spiny Flip is tough, so pay attention.

If you wait until getting Spike to fight Lee so you can get that version of the Lee Tattle, Goombario acknowledges that the boss fight with Spike is more dangerous because of his higher HP. If you get Spike to Ultra Rank, though, a Duplighost's Spiny Flip is stronger.

They throw in three ??? for the name. Anyway, Kooper and Bombette are the best targets for the Duplighosts, and it's nice they've encouraged you to fight these ones with Kooper.

Kooper (and Parakarry) have 1 point of Defence, but flip Kooper over and he's down to 0 and he cannot attack. I think Duplighosts can revert if they take a big hit, but I'm not sure if this works on a flip. I don't think I've ever seen a Duplighost decide to shed their disguise willingly, not that I've ever really let them live that long.

Watt is necessary to finish off the five HP on this one.

They right themselves immediately, like Buzzy Beetles, but you still have ample opportunity to use that free turn for more stun-locking. Or abusing the stun time.

That's them run off. Strangely, Kooper doesn't react to the aftermath, regardless of which one you hit with a hammer.

This is a White Clubba. They live in cold climates. Who knows why they moved here... Max HP: 12, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0 They sometimes attack consecutively. They're pretty powerful. It's tough to swing such big clubs! Ice attacks won't work on them, so break out fire if you have it.

White Clubba (Lv. 12), is a variant of Clubba seen only here in Paper Mario 64. They can attack you for 5 damage in one blow, or do a combo attack of 2+2+2 that's annoying to block (and, since it's a club attack, Zap Tap doesn't cancel it, or even damage them). White Clubbas are, in fact, ice elemental, so like Frost Piranhas, fire attacks do +2 damage.

The combo attack is literally just whack, whack, whack.

Up here, right behind where we fought that White Clubba, is the last Super Block in the game.

With Spike at Ultra Rank, every partner has now hit Ultra Rank. Of course it would be possible, but I'm amazed it can be done before we get into the Chapter 7 dungeon.

Here, we can see a Shooting Star in a pedestal that we... could have taken, had we an empty spot in an inventory.

Also present are a Snowman Doll (...why would you want that, surrounded by enemies resistant to it) and a Thunder Rage. If you were to take any of these items, a wall would appear directly in front of you, and you cannot enter the Crystal Palace until you place an item- any item- back onto the pedestal. The Pebble seems designed to be used as such. I think I'll let these ones sit until the return trip.

Next time: Crystal Palace. Yes, somehow, I needed three parts here.