Well, if that isn't an excellent first impression. Hooktail's Castle is filled with, what else, the bones that she is unable to swallow from her many, many, many victims.
And the occasional, still living, Koopa Troopa. Are they her guards or her lunch? I'm going to assume the former, because I would rather not be party to the latter.
That's a Koopa Paratroopa. Well, umm… It's basically a Koopa Troopa with wings. Max HP is 4, Attack is 2, and Defense is 1. I kinda hate that this guy gets to fly. Of course, you can stomp on him and he'll plunge down and be a plain Koopa Troopa. Yeah, do that, and he's ours! Stomp again to flip him, and his arms and legs are useless! Oops! Sorry, that's not true. It looks like he can still wiggle them around a bit…
Goombella is great. Koopa Paratroopa is far more likely to hit your guy in the back, and with the 2 Attack and relatively fast Sky Dive, this guy is going to keep you honest.
As demonstrated. It would be nice if I could get them flipped over. Especially the Mushroom one.
That Multibounce got it.
Finally, some FP. Multibounce and Power Shell are going to be our friends.
Much like in 64, Power Bounce (3 BP) waits early on in the dungeon crawl. They gave it an extra point in BP, but the ease of ways to increase your Atk means it only gets more and more powerful. Like with 64, I'm not using it intentionally, although I will admit I accidentally click Goombella's Multibonk once. This may not have been enough.
Those bars are conspicuously different from their friends.
Proceed this far into the room, and the game automatically switches Koops in so he can have a scene.
It's time to begin the stages of closure.
Although perhaps there were more tactful ways of doing it. The fact they're resting here, among piles of other bones, tells us plenty about who's gone to meet Hooktail.
...A letter to his successors? What could he possibly have to say?
He's gone to a lot of work to leave a message to somebody. He had to have died knowing that this letter was the only thing that could possibly stop someone else sharing his fate. What kind of person doesn't read it?
Oh... Yeah, you're right. You shouldn't read someone else's letter, even your dad's. We'd better leave it.
Apparently, Koops. Who needs to be reminded of the purpose of snail mail.
I wonder what puzzle he got stuck on. I can think of a few points that a Koopa might not have maanged on its own.
Weaknesses, plural. He has multiple notes to share with us.
In JP, this is instead a clue about creatures beginning with "f" and ending with "rog". I cannot comment on why it is split in two to begin with- perhaps he only heard partial clues, but that's a lot of words to put on your letter.
What is this item? It'll turn up, I'm sure.
This is a minor note, but I'm sure we'll be happy to bear it in mind when we finally get to the point where it's relevant.
Fortunately, he died before being eaten. Or he never found himself in Hooktail's gullet at all. Considering later reveals, possible, although that raises further questions about where all these skeletons come from.
And now for the wham reveal: This is not Koops's dad, but rather an unknown Mr. Jones, father of Charles "Kolorado" Jones of Paper Mario 64 fame. Glad somebody's proud of him. We should consider taking this letter to Kolorado after we're done here in Rogueport.
Koops shows suitable bashfulness over incorrectly identifying his father's skeleton. Fair enough. He is also implied to put the letter back, since if you ever need to reread it, you need to talk to the skeleton.
...Mate, there's closure, and then there's just looking for trauma. If we find your dad, we find your dad, but don't try and force it.
With that said, these bones do look interesting...
What a creepy pile of bones. I mean, they're ALL creepy, but this one's SUPER-creepy! I don't really feel like taking a look at it, but if we don't, we'll never get farther...
It talks! And wriggles.
And walks!
Who needs an army of living Koopa Troopa guards when you can make an army of the dead out of leftovers?
This horde of Dull Bones starts pushing you to the entrance of the room, and you have to sit by and take it until this popup happens.
At which point you can hammer and send them all flying. There's a few crowd physics scenes like this scattered across the game.
Red Bones is waiting at the end of the hallway, where he was before, and he shall be a mini boss fight.
That's a Red Bones! A little TOO red, I think. No fashion sense, y'know? Max HP is 5, Attack is 3, and Defense is 1. Unlike your average Dull Bones, even if you pound it to 0 HP and it crumbles… It totally might revive! Like a zombie! My advice is to get rid of all the Dull Bones, then attack the Red Bones. Oh, and one more thing! Once its friends start to fall, it may create some more!
Red Bones will either throw a bone that does 3 damage at you, or throw three bones in rapid succession all doing one damage. It can create more Dull Bones if it runs out of the ones it has, and yes, much like Dry Bones in 64, it will revive with 5 HP if it is left for too long as the only enemy on the field. This is unlikely to happen, considering the way it is fought.
That's a Dull Bones. Sort of a skeleton thing. It was a Koopa Troopa…once. Max HP is 1, Attack is 2, and Defense is 1. These creeps throw bones to attack. Oh, and they build reinforcements, too! Attacks that can strike multiple Dull Bones at once are the most effective.
...This game may be one of, if not the only games to confirm that Dry Bones are undead Koopa Troopas. Mario's tone usually just has them casually hanging out with their living brethren. Dull Bones can be oneshot with a good Hammer or Shell Toss, but is immune to Jump and Headbonk thanks to its 1 Def. This makes them rather frustrating when they show up with Koopa Troopas, but they're easy to take out. I don't really see them build more of themselves much, but apparently they can do it.
Audience watch: Dull Bones will be forced to be your whole audience for this fight, and they'll start showing up more regularly after this. They give no Star Power unless you do an appeal, and they will throw rocks, cans and their bones at you, with no helpful items. A Dull Bones is effectively a waste of a seat.
Let's get rid of one of these, because we're taking a turn of punishment...
Ow. Goombella will eat a Life Shroom, if we had one, but her death is largely inconsequential and actually rather easily cured outside of battle. If Mario hits 0 HP, though, it's Game Over regardless of how healthy the Partners are.
Take that! (Switching to a dead party member in battle is not allowed, so we're stuck with Koops until we do something about her.)
That could've been nice, but it wasn't happening.
There's the building.
Koops finishes it, so Mario can do a Power Smash for his action. I get the full Stylish Command... and yeah, the Dry Bones don't give me a bit. Not like I needed Star Power, but...
Well, that's just embarassing. Sometimes the whole backdrop falls down. Still only one damage, and it makes things look really uncomfortable for the rest of the fight.
Proof of concept: No switching.
At least we got EXP out of Red Bones, despite not technically killing it, just ending a battle with it on 0 HP.
All the Dull Bones run away super fast.
You are allowed a 0 HP partner on the field, of course. Otherwise you might get stuck needing their Field Ability.
And overworld healing always works. Really emphasising this isn't lethal 0 HP.
Now that we've gone through the Red Bones fight, some of the skeletons now get up and fight. Most will stay on the ground, though, and continue to be decoration.
Aha, first one of these to add to the collection! Shine Sprites are almost entirely found in these golden blocks, and all you need to do is hit the block. Jump, Hammer, Shell Toss, whatever. Mostly, it's a case of finding them, but sometimes you need to figure out how to actually hit them once you do.
OK, there's a key. So how are we getting up there?
We'll have to look elsewhere.
This is our introduction to these elevator blocks.
Hitting these small ones moves around the big ones. Not a big one for the purple, though.
Obviously, we're using Shell Hold to ascend on the elevator.
Although, while I'm up here, we'll need to smash that yellow block to get this elevator to do its job.
Now let's see what's up here.
Star Piece in this corner. Imagine if we could jump off this balcony. It wouldn't even be a softlock- we can jump down from above later on back into the last room. I guess maybe they don't want you bringing the key along.
Right, what's up the yellow block?
...That is a jump.
You can make it, with enough of a runup. That's another Star Piece down.
I suspect this is a possible trick. And/or may have seen it in a speedrun. Oh well, legitimate trick.
With the yellow elevator up, we have to do a normal Shell Toss to get this staircase flipped around.
That'll get us in range to Shell Toss for the key.
Don't forget to put the staircase back. Goombella kinda suggests this is a hub room, but there's no point to ever reversing this stair again, and it kinda feels like it should matter more than it does.
Nothing interesting in this room. Yet.
Why do I always have the wrong Partner out? Can't wait for Quick Change...
Ah, hello, there's that little gimmick of Koops. Koops, as a Koopa Troopa, is the only party member to have a Defence point. However, he makes up for it by being susceptible to being flipped over if he gets hit with an aerial attack, like the ones these Para-enemies can do. While flipped, he has 0 Def and takes a turn to right himself, having no opportunity to attack while he's flipped.
And I'm sure this isn't helping.
This is farcical.
Thank goodness for Close Call.
...Looks like you can switch off? Not that it'd help, Goombella's hardly any better.
Sweet Treat it is.
Guarding attacks will block getting Flipped, thankfully. So keep on your toes.
And even at better HP, I'm still dodging.
...Please stop going back there. I don't know what you did, but I don't like it.
...Woo hoo?
Well, that's an obvious Shell Hold puzzle if I've ever seen one.
...Although that does raise the question of how we get back.
Ah. Everything is explained.
Say hello to another one of our loopy friends from who knows where.
Heard it before.
This one seems a little more honest about what's going on.
...Didn't he not have guests? Well, I guess he really needed some way to pass the time while locked up for hundreds of years. No wonder these guys have anger to get out against the world.
Or crimp, as the case may be.
Mario's realised what's going on. The Chest Demon, less so.
How about one of your friends? Got hit with the ability to turn into a paper plane a while back.
Words are cheap.
...Oh, what the heck? You're amusing enough, and we're stuck here.
...Hopefully it's on this side.
...Now this is a room.
...Someone really didn't want the Black Chest Demon freed. Imagine going to all this trouble to keep his key trapped.
A lot of trouble.
You know, the other one's key was just lying around on the ground. Just sayin'.
With that, we are given 50 seconds to navigate the maze of spikes to escape the room.
If you know the path, you can make it in less than 20. It's always fun to race this room, owing to the whole "you have an on-screen timer for this one".
Out with plenty of time to spare.
...And the room is back to normal. You can't trigger the spikes again, but there is a good reason to return here. Later on. You'd think the room would be shut down as soon as you grab the key, though.
Back to the chest.
oh no. who could possibly have seen that coming.
I presume the scheme is "going into the cell in the first place without a plan to get back out."
Hooktail sounds entirely incidental to this process. Maybe she actually took up residence later than the Crystal Star has been kept here? The traps sound like they're doing a lot of the work.
Order now and you'll also receive a side order of tutorials!
Yeah. Blinding white light when the curse is being applied. Super not nice. You'd think the massive seizures in Pokemon would've sent the message sooner than 2006.
I think you mean "serves you well".
...
Dude, I'm already like a piece of paper when I'm not pressing and holding the R button. I say this both to critique your curses and your benevolent spells.
At least make it sound cool.
In all seriousness, this seems to be something that people in this paper universe haven't fully mastered, since we'll be able to use it to pass areas that others are canonically stumped by. Still, though, who puts bars on a jail in a world made of paper?
...Good question. I still haven't wrapped my head around that one.
Another one down. Two more to go.
An interesting thing about Paper Mode is that it's the only curse ability that the partner copies. In the other cursed states, the partner goes into the same secret dimension they occupy while not currently active, but for Paper Mode, they do the flipping themselves. Which raises further questions about whether or not non-Mario characters are capable of this, cursed or otherwise. This is just one of the funnier abilities that they tried to justify not giving since the start.
Now that we can slip through the jail bars, we can also find Attack FX R (0 BP), which has a rather irritating sound effect. I can't quite put my finger on what it reminds me of, though...
Anyway, what we actually needed Paper Mode for was this Castle Key behind the jail cell bars in Mr. Jones's room.
...I think you can just hit this with a Shell Toss.
Imagine climbing up here and finding a locked door with no key.
Although there's no getting that for now. This Badge is really irritating to get, and since I don't really care about Last Stand P, I'm going to save that for after Chapter 4 because it's legitimately the least tedious to pick up then.
Anyway, this room is actually the same room as the one with the reversible stair, and these bridges are being formed over it.
Although there's no bridge for this one. I suspect, if you fall down from here, you land on the ledge with the Star Piece on it. Like hell I'm going down there, though.
This must be the great hall of Hooktail Castle. I'd say it's the center of the castle. This place is so full of traps and dangers... It's kind of hard to get around, huh? If we could just walk to a window and look at the sky, that might clear our heads...
Because this room is the same as the one below, Goombella's Tattle only gives the clue about this puzzle- jump out the window, there's a balcony to cross. Hopefully that means the elevator puzzle down below was intuitive enough. I'd say they nail this problem down, but Sticker Star is rather infamous for... not being that smart. Super Paper Mario gets most of the way, at least.
Star Piece behind this wall.
And we can jump back in on this side.
...The annoying thing about Shell Hold puzzles is that any enemy can just run into Koops and put you in a fight rather than letting you get on with it.
Just making sure you're really dead.
...You know, this puzzle would be a lot easier if Mario could Shell Toss up and down.
There's a Life Shroom on that ledge to the left, and if you Shell Toss at the exact right moment, you can catch it without falling down. Falling down and using Paper Mode is presumably the intended means of acquiring it.
(This is where you fall down.)
Thank you, random Toad!
So what's in this room?
Oh, we're not thieves! We're just... people entering a building in which we are not welcome and stealing everything that's not nailed down.
We're doing it to make Koops feel better?
Ms. Mowz is very lax with keeping her identity under wraps. Then again, "Ms. Mowz" may just be the most generic name for a Mouser ever. She may be going for obscurity by commonality.
Her specialty is Badge hunting. It is likely that the chest behind her once held a Badge of some kind. Despite this, Ms. Mowz is proficient at all forms of treasure hunting.
She's told us hers, what about ours?
Goombella labels her shoes as pink. They're rather clearly red, and so much so it is hard to read otherwise. I'm not sure what Goombella's seeing.
She also takes the time to call dibs on the Crystal Star.
Umm, well, you see... We're here to beat Hooktail and get the... um... Crystal Star. So... don't think we'll let you get the Crystal Star first, no matter how cute you are!
Koops equivalent.
Ms. Mowz was not aware of the Crystal Star, and is intrigued.
And she lampshades the poor opsec in revealing their aims to a master thief.
Ultimately, though, while it would be an impressive heist, Ms. Mowz does a risk assessment and decides she's happy with the treasure she already has, and has no need to continue looking for more. We got lucky this time.
I think it means exactly what she said it means, Goombella.
Ms. Mowz has, of course, inherited this aspect of the cat burglar archetype from Catwoman, although since we're in a Mario game, we're not going to be inspecting it very thoroughly. We don't exactly know enough about the dynamics to make any judgements on any party.
This is also a pun in Japanese- the sound of a mouse's squeak and the sound of kissing use the same onomatopoeia in JP, and Ms. Mowz's JP name チュチュリーナ (Chuchurina) leans on it. None of the other languages seem to have managed to get this into their respective names.
And with that, Ms. Mowz prepares to alight.
Koops: Oh, my! You're so... bold... Is that legal?
Goombella and Koops are far more flustered about the kiss than Mario is, although that may just be because Mario cannot emote as much.
And yes, Ms. Mowz backflips onto the windowsill.
Ms. Mowz decides that, if we're going to be dealing with Hooktail, she ought to share a little secret she's found out: Hooktail is weak to a Badge.
What kind of Badge is it? Why is Hooktail weak to it? Who knows! All we know is, it's somewhere in Hooktail Castle. The fact she brings up "you might already have found it" suggests it may be one of the Badges we have already.
And then she jumps out the window.
More conventionally, but she still jumps out a window. Cats may always land on their feet, but I've never heard of mice having the same benefit, especially on stilettos. I'm sure Ms. Mowz knows what she's doing.
Koops: I wonder what her story is... I bet it's an interesting one... Full of romance...
All in all, I'm not particularly fond of how visceral the party reactions are. That was a fairly interesting character all around, and she had the potential to go in so many interesting directions, and to hear Goombella and Koops talk about her, the only thing she did was kiss Mario.
At any rate, the rest of the treasures. Ms. Mowz beat us to the good stuff, but you can never go wrong with a Shine Sprite.
Or a key.
Random item drop from a Dull Bones. Spite Pouch will apply the Payback status to the user, which will cause anyone who attacks physically (ie would get hit by Electrify) to receive half the damage they dealt. This is a pretty terrible effect, and that statement is foreshadowing. We'll be able to get these deliberately in Chapter 4, but they have no use for cooking.
An interesting thing to note is that, since Tattle is an Action Command, you can perform Tattle on an enemy you've already Tattled to get another card on the Bingo! wheel, if Headbonk would finish the fight.
...I needed it, but the game did not deliver.
We're close to a level, at least.
Anyway, obvious Shell Hold puzzle is-
Wait, hold on, I need to hit the switch once to put it in a useful state. I've played this game enough times to know this by now, why do I keep forgetting?
These rafters are awful on console. To walk along these, you have to hold the stick directly left or right (you can hold it at a diagonal if you're next to a fence).
On keyboard, I can just hold the arrow key and be perfectly fine. Small comfort.
Extra rafter walk for another Star Piece.
Anyway, showcase time:
You will always use Plane Panels to fly in the direction the paper plane is pointing. This helps make them less precise in terms of "just walk on it and press Y", but it does kinda make me wonder if they could've hid a secret if you happened to fly left on this one.
If you fail this flight, you've gotta do the Koops switch puzzle and the rafter walk again. Make sure you get that height!
Hit this switch like a block to drop the elevator and get the key.
If you jump down from here, you'll find the elevator block is next to the Last Stand P Badge down there we saw earlier. Yes, we do have to walk all the way around if we went and grabbed it now. That's the whole reason the elevator block isn't set at Koops's height.
Anyway, all the way up and...
...
Hold on. That was really sloppy. There's a Shine Sprite just before this door to the outside I completely walked past. I didn't even indicate it was there? Must've got in the habit of just picking it up as I went.
Well, here it is. With that, we now have three Shine Sprites, and the downside of the Shine Sprite system compared to 64's Super Block system rears its head. While we can upgrade our Partners out during the Chapters in 64, we must return to Rogueport in order to upgrade our Partners in TTYD. This isn't too bad most of the time, but it comes to bite us at the worst possible time later and that spare Super Block doesn't seem so glaring an issue anymore.
Anyway, back to my work, here we are with some annoying formations to stand as the last line of defence for Hooktail.
Although Superguards held.
...Ish.
...Really should've considered bonking on the guy in back and finishing him with another Superguard.
One of these days...
At least we got a level up on the way up. What do you mean, I should upgrade my HP? Probably. But that's for later.
...Well, that was not what I was expecting. Spare Badge drop. Happy Heart isn't great, but right now, I don't have a lot of room to be picky.
The stage light falls on an enemy it doesn't damage. Annoying.
But hey, Happy Heart's working?
Well, at least we know what it's for now.
...Having two of these might be cooler than I thought.
At the end of the bridge is a tower.
And climbing this tower has something funny happen with the background. It seems they've added an entire second model of Hooktail's Castle on the other side of the tower in order for this to have the sight of Hooktail's Castle whizzing past happen more often than it should. Probably to make the tower seem longer than it is.
Enemy hiding at the very top of the tower.
And I held off on taking on that Paratroopa deliberately so I could Hammer the Spiky Goomba first. Strategy!
...That Star Point total is starting to look weaker than usual. Another level here in Hooktail's Castle isn't out of the question, but it is going to require grinding or two.
Ooh, and I got the Sleepy Sheep, too.
Bag's full, though. I may as well eat a Mushroom, though, those things grow on trees.
What it looks like to use a healing item here in TTYD. Since we can choose which party member receives it, and all.
Although there was a Heart Block here anyway. Oh well.
I am fairly sure Heart Blocks heal everyone in the party, not just the active Partner, but I don't pay that close attention. Inns definitely heal everyone, while Level Ups and Bingo! only heal the active Partner.
My Badge setup for Hooktail. The Badges we found inside the Castle were Power Bounce, HP Plus, Last Stand P and Attack FX R.
Also, Multibounce doesn't help at all. I think I just really didn't have competition.
That is definitely an ominous dragon voice.
And that is definitely an ominous dragon to go with it. Paper Mario has a critical shortage of papercraft monsters to use as its bosses, preferring instead to use 2D boss characters, although TTYD has a few of them scattered around. Despite leaning more heavily on the paper theme, this problem persists in the modern games. Origami King is the best at leaning on it, if only because of the theme of the day is origami and papercrafts.
...Uh...
What is "strange-garbed"? When is "earlier"? I genuinely don't know who this is supposed to be referencing, although I've narrowed it down to Ms. Mowz and Koops's father. Mowz is less likely, since she didn't seem interested in dealing with Hooktail herself.
Although I would find it funny, in the context of Ms. Mowz's later appearances, if she did get into a round with Hooktail and lost decisively.
Hooktail doesn't consider our odds any good because we're small. Perhaps a point outside Ms. Mowz's favour, she would be even smaller than us.
Culinary dragon, this one. Leave your likes to yourself.
Time for the first boss. Hooktail's ominous theme. I have no objections to the track as music, but it is a bit of a step down from 64's music. Although perhaps the Koopa Bros. are not a fair comparison.
Hooktail stomps in to the field after we walk in specifically to get us spooked.
Good question. Now-
Excuse me, what the hell was that for?
That's Hooktail! Max HP is 20, Attack is 5, and Defense is 1. It'll stomp and munch on you, and it has a more dragonish attack: stinky, fiery breath! It's tricky, especially when it's losing, and it'll try to fool you into being merciful. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. It hates things that start with "cr" and end with "icket". Supposedly, there's something related to that somewhere in this castle. Did we find it?
Hooktail, if the Japanese version is any indication, is a relative of Super Mario World's Blargg, and is a pretty difficult fight for a first boss. 5 Atk single-target attacks (because of her massive size, she can only target the leading character, thankfully) and a 4 Atk multi-targeting move that ignores any Defence you'd be lucky enough to have. Goombella is helpless against that point of Defence she has, Koops is doing 1 damage, and Mario's counting on Power Smash.
Oh well, nothing for it. Swing and a hit! 3 damage down, 17 to go.
...It seems we've found her weakness after all! Hooktail's weakness, incidentally, is Attack FX R, which makes your attacks sound close enough to both a dying frog and a cricket's chirping. I don't really hear one over the other, but it's close enough for Hooktail.
I believe that the inciting incident for this involved the unlucky frog/cricket winding up in her food by accident, and it definitely left an impression. I think I prefer the frog version of the story: That seems more likely to have made dying frog noises on the way down.
Power Smash has knocked down the backdrop, and revealed one of the effects of giving Hooktail a trauma flashback: she's lost her point of Defence!
Also her flame attack is doing 2 damage on block instead of 3.
You didn't get hurt by the flame breath! But thank you.
Each additional attack from Mario (Partners don't play Attack FX sounds) will reduce Hooktail's Atk by a further point of damage. I rather like the way that Hooktail's weakness really does turn a daunting boss into an easy one, although perhaps the non-Attack FX R fight might be a bit too high scaled.
...In hindsight, this is basically a Sticker Star boss. What makes Sticker Star's use more glaring is that the non-weakness fights are far, far more punishing to try and beat. And the clues to the weaknesses are a little more cryptic and require preparation to use- I mean, Attack FX R doesn't cost any BP to equip, and it's right there outside the Paper Mode tutorial...
Anyway, back to Hooktail, she is composed of two targets when trying to use a Jump command. I think which one you pick comes down to how you prefer to time the bounce.
Apparently I chose wrong.
See that stomp? Imagine her trying to do that to the back partner.
Got the head timing!
Yes, I did take less damage than last turn! Since I didn't block, it evened out.
And that flame breath is now completely useless.
Koops, I think you should finish this.
When she hits 0 HP, she does as Mr. Jones said she would and tries to weasel out of a well-deserved comeuppance.
And she will attempt to ply you into accepting her surrender.
Funnily enough, it will later be revealed that there is a one-of-a-kind Badge in this room. I doubt she's talking about that one.
Hooktail, getting desperate for something to bribe us with, tries the last thing she can think of.
And says something that was probably less true in 2004, but has only gotten more and more true as time passed. I'm sure there would be a fanbase for Hooktail's feet even if she didn't try to get you to sniff them.
...
I only just realised Hooktail's a girl and she's making this offer. Yeah, she'd definitely have several takers. I probably know a few.
Somewhat annoyingly, if you do accept, she doesn't stomp on you as her surprise attack.
Low blow. Although your offers of repatriation could use a little work.
Delicious! I knew you would! Money makes the world turn! Now, come get your coins...
Of course you want it! Who wouldn't? Now, come here and get your badge...
Heh heh heh... Thought so. No nostril contact, though! Now! Come here and sniff!
Hooktail's sneak attack will do 5 damage, regardless of how many Attack FX R chirps she's heard, and she'll use her quick bite attack. She's preferred the stomp so far for the fight for me, but I'm told she can use it as a normal attack here. (It'll also always hit Mario.)
Hooktail: OHHHH ho ho ho ho ho ho! You were completely duped by my ingenious ruse!
Goombella: Coward!
Koops: How cowardly!
Hooktail: You senseless yokels! Nothing in life is that easy! Your gullibility did you in!
Hooktail: Errr... This isn't looking so good... I guess I'd better...
Regardless of whether you fall for her trick or not, she'll realise that she does need to do something to get out of this little predicament.
Her plan is to lunge into the audience and eat them for a 10 HP heal. This will send the rest of your audience packing, including two Toads who got scooped up in the bite but didn't make it all the way down her gullet.
You may have noticed that patch of eight Toads, suspiciously placed in an audience full of Koopas and Goombas. The game will rig your audience spawns such that there are eight Toads seated in those particular chairs for Hooktail's bite, so they don't have to dynamically choose all the animations they need for each audience member she could potentially grab.
She eats plenty of people, what's the audience in comparison? It does raise uncomfortable questions about whether or not that audience actually exists and where those people come from, but the fact they could throw items (helpful and hurtful) at us all along already raised those questions.
Hooktail will not be the only boss to use the audience, although she is the only boss who doesn't go back onto the stage afterwards.
Koops is ready for round two.
Second first, same as the first. Hooktail also preserves any Attack FX R debuffs she has, which makes things even easier. If you're trying to fight her without, though, this part of the fight might hurt a little bit- no audience means you only get one Sweet Treat, assuming you're not still recharging it. Use it wisely.
Showcasing to an audience of two. Also, those six Toads are still in her mouth, and if you attack her face, she will spit them back out. Both of my attacks are hitting her foot, though.
Hooktail: "I think I might be screwed this time..."
With nothing else to pull out from the depths of her gullet, she has been defeated at last.
And the game has this big zoom-out while she keels over and dies off-screen, because her corpse is just that big (you can see her tail and that's it). We can also see the wall to the left of the stage: That will be the only time that portion of the stage is visible.
Her corpse on the field, for scale.
Yeah, I switched to Goombella. It ultimately didn't matter, I just wanted her to be out as well.
Now all we have to do is find that Crystal Star thing you're looking for, Mario.
Koops isn't too invested in the Crystal Star thing, he got what he came for.
Hooktail's corpse serves one purpose, which is why it's still in the room and not sent to the corpse cleanup room that Mario usually uses.
There's a bulge that goes through her throat, before she spits out a blue shell.
Someone survived inside Hooktail's gullet! This raises further questions about where the Dull Bones came from, since Hooktail didn't seem to consider it odd that she never found the bones of this guy.
Considering he's been hanging out in there for ten years.
Despite being ten years, he still recognises his son. Pretty impressive, considering how much growing someone can do in that time.
Signs for the reverse: Koops "recognising" Mr. Jones's remains as his own father's makes sense, since they're both blue-shelled (or, well, blue-booted). No excuse for Red Bones, though.
So what happened to the old man?
It seems he fell for the trick. Could've happened to anyone. Although that does suggest she was supposed to eat us, too- which explains why she's very concerned when she didn't manage it.
(Note the male pronouns: They tried their best to keep Hooktail's gender ambiguous for a surprise reveal in a later exchange to state she is, in fact, female- or at least she/her- but some languages are better at doing that than others. German and Italian dropped all pretenses, and her names in those languages are puns on traditionally feminine names- Lohgard and Crimilde, respectively.)
Durable shell, and I imagine you had to keep the entrances shut for stomach acid. Although Hooktail does regularly eat Koopas... maybe she chews shells more thoroughly for others than she did for Dad?
Yeah, I can imagine spending ten years of your life in a stomach is something you only want to do once.
"Your game was over" is a comical way of writing around death. I think this is the only instance of this particular euphemism in the RPG duology, although Super Paper Mario would take it and run with it. So look forward to that, I suppose.
At least it's not his fault he never came home. It's not like anyone else got a message out. Poor Kolorado doesn't know what happened to his dad.
Koops's dad realises he perhaps ought to ask this question in turn.
Koops is here to finish what Dad started. And he managed it. With help, but still.
We're only here as treasure hunters, but hey, we did beat the dragon. Where's the treasure hoard?
While he was inside Hooktail's gullet, Koops's dad found the Diamond Star. Hooktail will eat anything, huh?
Koops is hilariously uninformed about what we're hunting for, and does not figure a star-shaped object with crystalline design would, in fact, be a Crystal Star. We may need to work on his observational skills still...
He sees no problems with handing it over. He was attached enough to it to take it with him when he left, but not so much so that he can't give it to someone who'll use it for something other than dust collecting.
...Well, you've only just met us, but I suppose helping your son slay the dragon that killed you is a rock-solid method of proving we're as upstanding as you imagine we are.
And with that, Shiny Rock #1 acquired! Unlike the Star Spirits, the Crystal Stars do not seem to possess any sort of sentience, which is rather nice for not being exposited at by someone we have little attachment to after every chapter. They still have post-chapter scenes, but they instead spend that time with the characters who have actual importance in the world and story established by the Chapter's plot. So, you know, a uniform improvement over 64.
About the only downside is that the new move is thrown in as an off-the-cuff mention in the excitement of a "YOU GOT A PLOT TRINKET!", but that could always be considered a positive in exchange. Earth Tremor allows Mario to do up to 6 damage to all enemies on the screen- although if you fail the Action Command, flying enemies may be able to escape it. The reason why will become more obvious once you see the attack in action. And believe me, you will be seeing the attack in action.
Mario and friends finally got a Crystal Star in the castle after defeating Hooktail. Koops even reunited with his long-lost father, whom he thought was dead. Yet they were unable to learn anything about the whereabouts of the princess. Where could Princess Peach be? Yes... Mario's adventure has only just begun.
Judging our progress by the lack of finding Princess Peach, are we? Yes, we're one Crystal Star up, but we really haven't learned anything about the plot, have we? No Peach, no idea who the people who were hassling Goombella, no idea what the treasure we're even building up to is... We truly have a long way to go.
Next time: We finally answer two of those questions.
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