Frankly lives here, on the east side of town next door to Merlon.
He is about as cognizant of his surroundings as you'd expect a professor of his age and status to be.
As a university professor, Frankly sees more students in a week than the average schoolteacher. It's impressive he thinks he can identify Goombella at all.
...Yeah, I think Goombella was the coolest name of the bunch.
And he actually remembers her! She must've made an impression.
...Wait a sec... OK, so it seems "second-year university student" can be found in the American instruction manual, but "junior" in this context implies she's a third-year student. I'm going to assume either U Goom uses a different education system, or the localisers explicitly chose a word that players who didn't know university structures could just skim over (as opposed to the more accurate "sophomore".)
The European instruction manual does not state what year of study Goombella is on... and also calls it "University of Oregoom". Made it confusing trying to track down what's going on here.
We'll let the rest of the game be the judge of that.
And yep, Goombella left an impression. I can only imagine it's going to settle in even more as we go on.
All right, so how does he do recognising Mario?
Less good.
I'm fairly sure this is a "Frankly is out of touch" joke and not a comment on Mario's fame, or lack thereof, but considering how high profile Mario is in the Mushroom Kingdom, it's interesting that it is possible for Frankly to be so isolated from his environment that he doesn't at least recognise Mario.
Anyway, we're here about the legendary treasure.
Said treasure is the subject of Frankly's thesis, and if anyone in Rogueport knows as many facts as possible, it's him. Frankly might also have dismissed some folk legends with no rigorous fact-checking, but who can blame him? He probably dismissed several dozen more such examples that genuinely have nothing to do with anything.
...I wonder how much respect Frankly is getting for this research from U Goom itself.
Goombella is right about one thing: However the legend of the treasure started, there is obviously someone who found something. Whatever the story is, it exists, even if it's as simple as "someone left their gold bracelet behind when running away from the cataclysm". And it's our job to figure out what the story is.
And hey, if we want to lend an old man a hand with his research, he can lend a hand to us in understanding what the hell we're looking at.
First thing's first: we don't know what the treasure is.
The theories differ from person to person, motive to motive. Interestingly, I think one could argue all of these theories turn out to partially apply. Just depends on what you want to focus on.
Perhaps it's less important to figure out the truth at this exact moment. If it's important, we'll have more clues to work with later.
Next, we need the Crystal Stars to get to the treasure.
The location of the treasure itself isn't particularly unknown. There's a giant, unmissable door underneath Rogueport that anyone willing to look for it can find. What's less known is how to get in there.
Remember when I talked about Flavio's song being relevant later, but brought up now? Here's an example of the opposite. In addition to being brought out of nowhere, I don't know meaning this is intended to convey other than its most literal meaning. It makes a very bad "old wives' wisdom" saying.
From there, the legends are a lot less helpful about opening the Door. The Magical Map is obviously a key component, but what the hell comes next?
At least, in theory, the process is easy.
Most study on the subject of the treasure, the Door, and the Crystal Stars is forestalled by one key issue: Nobody knows where to find the Magical Map. From there, the only way to find the Crystal Star is through careful and conventional searches, and as we'll see as we go along, the Crystal Stars are safeguarded by either people who don't want outsiders to know they possess it, or monsters no researcher would ever be brave enough to confront. It would be a small miracle if the scientific community got their hands on one.
But after years of forestalled research, the map just... turned up.
I can only imagine this is the reaction of real academics when confronted with the answers to long-unsolved mysteries being found in the middle of nowhere. You can hear the cleaned-up versions in stories such as the discovery of the coelacanth.
Once again, Mario just willingly shows the Magical Map. I guess we're too deep in this conversation for Frankly to be a bad actor, but still.
We just made his entire career. I think he can afford a little gushing.
...And then hunting the things down. They eluded the best efforts of hundreds of treasure hunters from all walks of life. They're not going to be "just grab them".
In his excitement, Frankly does not question where the Magical Map came from. He does do so after we go try it out (ie later on in this update), so I'll leave analysing this question for then, but for now, I think we can allow him the opportunity to let this important question slip his mind.
And now we have an additional follower! I don't think Paper Mario had anything like this, but it crops up a few times in TTYD. Frankly will do nothing of note outside what the plot lets him do, and he's only temporary. Unless you use glitches to skip past the flag taking him away from you.
With Frankly in the party, we can get this bridge out of the way and gain access to Rogueport's underground.
I think they're called "sewers", although in function, I'm not entirely sure they are used as such.
Just before we can go in, though, Frankly warns us about enemies-
And tries to trap us in an Action Command tutorial. We only got into one fight before we learned about them anyway!
Ignoring that completely.
TTYD uses a unique animation to show the transitions in and out of pipes- the world is pulled into a cone and sent in the direction of the pipe, before coming out the other end. The path this spike takes even follows the direction of the pipe in the world (ie, this pipe, which is a vertical pipe with a horizontal mouth, has the spike come from the top of the screen before turning and opening horizontally). A cute visual touch over the pipes being mere loading transitions elsewhere.
If we go to our immediate west, we can see a bigger room that we can't actually do much in. Also that guy in the foreground. What his purpose is comes up pretty quickly, but it's very weird seeing him standing there.
Star Piece behind this column.
And in the one door we can access, we can meet up with TTYD's Merluvlee.
Merluvlee can no longer detect Badges, because of a retooling in how those work, but Star Pieces and Super Blocks Shine Sprites work as before. She has also been given Merlon's old job of solving the game's next puzzle, although she's even worse at that job than Merlon was. In addition to charging the player, there are multiple chapters where access to Rogueport is impossible, not merely inconvenient.
At the very least, the animation of her shuffling cards to perform the actual divination is cool.
Anyway, we're heading the other direction to find our progress.
And immediately, our first obstacle is hostile Goombas. Unlike in 64, these guys are not evil because they are loyal to Bowser, they're just evil because... uh, don't question it too hard.
I think we can judge them harshly enough that we can feel good about using them as combat tutorials.
Goombella has little patience for this type of flirting. I can only imagine there's plenty of it in a co-ed university, and hey, there's only going to be even more of it in this wretched hive of scum and villainy.
(Purely in-universe, they don't lean on these conflicts too often in the narrative.)
Yeah, she is too good for you lot. She's the Goombella: the Goomba gal with a "the"!
So anyway, let's get into a tutorial fight, and...
...
I was not expecting to have to explain this mechanic this early. Why is he even allowed to be using it?
The only three Goombas with unique strategies. There still exist recolours of Goombas to fight later.
Frankly's going to quickly go over Spiky and Flying enemies, but I'm forced to explain something I was hoping to have to go over sometime in Chapter 1. That Spiky Goomba is holding a Fire Flower, and yes, he can use it. Enemies that are holding items are far more likely to drop them after combat, even if the item was, technically speaking, "used". I believe the way the odds work, you have a 25% chance of receiving an item that is held by an enemy, as opposed to a 25% chance to receive a random drop and a 50% chance to get no items. Not that this fight has any drops.
He also mentions this. Part of the issue of compressing tutorials is that they're all slammed into the player, but thankfully a lot of this is pretty intuitive by design.
Anyway, as previously mentioned, Goombella has HP now, which obviously means she's a target in combat. This means the ability to swap the order your attack in matters, because this will also impact your options defensively! ...To an extent. You'd think the tactical options would imply that enemies will attack the character in front, and enemies that can attack the rear are using a special or AoE attack on. This is not the case. I mean, sure, there's a little bias to your front target, but aside from a few enemies that are stuck attacking the front- stuff like Koopas and Clefts- everything can and will attack the back because they feel like it. I wish there was more tactical weight to your partner order, but there's already the offensive stuff, I guess.
The partner's Do Nothing has also been replaced with Defend. They can also try a Run Away attempt.
Anyway, as much as I'd like to get the Tattles in this fight, I really need to take out the Fire Flower guy, so down the first Goomba goes.
Goombella's Headbonk has a Stylish if you press A before she leaves the ground for her first attack, which while technically the riskier timing, is the one I always had an easier time hitting.
Demonstration: Goombella has faded as the leading party member.
I am not getting hit by that Fire Flower. Sorry.
On the plus side, only one attack from them.
Since Mario can take out the Paragoomba in one turn, Goombella shows off the new Tattle. A target will appear over the enemy, and a reticle will slowly slide over on top of them. It's really easy to hit, but it is possible to fail if you mash. The Stylish is just hitting A after hitting the target and before she starts infodumping. The fact this is an easy Action Command to do has implications later.
That's a Goomba. Umm… Yeah, I'm one of those, in case you hadn't noticed. Ahem... It says here: "Goombas are underlings of underlings." …That is totally rude! Their maximum HP is 2. They have an Attack power of 1 and a Defense of 0.
That's a Spiky Goomba. …A spiky-headed Goomba. What a creative name. That spike is super-pointy, so it's better to hit it with a hammer than jump on it. Maximum HP is 2, Attack is 2, and Defense is 0. The addition of the spike means you'll hurt your feet if you jump on it. Duh!
That's a Paragoomba. Basically a Goomba with wings. I'm jealous! Maximum HP is 2, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. You can't hammer it while it's flying, but rough it up and it'll totally plummet!
Goombella's sass in battle Tattles, as usual, outclasses Goombario's. She's just so much cooler to listen to overall, plus she's got far fewer "...what the hell?" moments.
10 Star Points for three Goombas. Being "underlevelled" is so much more profitable than Paper Mario. On the other hand, it's faster for them to stop giving Star Points, too, based on your expected levels.
They get to run away. Which also raises the possibility that Mario is not as lethal as he appears.
At least Goombella enjoyed herself.
And quickly adding the mention of First Strikes, since we're about to find enemies out on the field.
If we head all the way east, we can see a weird panel at the top of the staircase, and a warp pipe behind some bars. Nothing doing this direction.
We need to take this moving platform over to the pipe we can go down.
Our first enemy! Not doing a First Strike, though.
I need to get the Tattles for these guys. We have an actual Tattle Log this time around. Here's the command in practice.
The next enemy was a Paragoomba, and it's time to show off a nice buff TTYD added: Mario's Jump and Hammer First Strikes now let you perform Action (and Stylish) Commands. This gets you so much extra power, especially as our Attack stat improves, and can kill more enemies than we could in 64
This guy's hampered by the blocks he's guarding, which is nice.
First Item acquired. A tweak from 64 is that the shortcuts have been mapped to the D-Pad, but pressing Start still works. I... I somehow completely forgot about it the entire run, which made anything I needed to edit that much more tedious.
First Struck because the alternative was the possibility of actually jumping on his head, and look at that he's holding a Sleepy Sheep.
No risk of him using that, but still.
It'd be nice if you gave me one of the drops, by the way. As a show of goodwill.
Fire Flower of our own over in this box instead.
Forward progress is behind these Yellow Blocks. I don't think there's any tutorial on these, but it's intuitive enough.
Over in the next room through the door, we can see a big, angry yellow block and a big switch.
Can't hit either of them with the hammer. We'll be back here later. Up on that higher ledge, we can see a Shine Sprite, although it'll be a while until we find one we can put in our inventory.
Next stop is down the pipe, and there's another angry yellow block here.
Who knew the area under Rogueport extended so far? This place is a total maze! You really feel the grandness of that ancient civilization when you're down here...
Felt this one was a pretty good Goombella Tattle for the area.
The big yellow block is hiding a Star Piece. Yes, you can break this one and reveal the Star Piece comically after the fact. I feel like this is the only open Star Piece that isn't hidden behind permanent terrain.
(You do get more than just Merluvlee's hints to find Star Pieces in-game, although finding those hints is obscure in itself.)
...That was an adorable and yet weird thing. Sure it'll come up later.
That's a Spinia. A totally weird creature made of thin, papery boards. It certainly looks unique. Nobody knows much about these creatures, actually. Max HP is 3, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. Its attacks are super-swift, but it should be pretty easy. Just give it a "Hee-YAAA!"
Spinia is a brand-new enemy to TTYD, exclusive to it, and your guess is as good as mine as to what exactly they are. Their dash attack has a very difficult block, because of the speed, and their 3 HP represents an early enemy that is capable of surviving a round of combat against Mario with Action Commands. To give that extra level of tactical planning early.
Now then, there's something really weird here. There's a Hidden Block in this room that gives a Pretty Lucky Badge, and aside from how hard it would be to find this without a guide, there doesn't seem anything that unusual about it, right?
It is the only Badge you can acquire before the Badge tutorial a little further into this update. The game takes great pains to ensure that you cannot get any Badges before then, including removing them from enemy drop tables (...by the way, yeah, enemies can not only drop Badges, but hold them), but this one Badge managed to escape. Whoops.
Pretty Lucky has been buffed from 3 BP to 2, and otherwise works as it did in 64. Do note that only Mario will avoid attacks while it is equipped.
While I'm in the pause menu, I go and check the Journal, and we have a new tab for our Tattle Log. There's supposed to be a tab for Badges you've found, which makes me wonder if that is part of the reason you're not intended to find Badges before the official receipt.
124 entries total. Spinia is number 47, for some reason. I imagine so you don't compare empty spaces with future events too closely- the existence of the Tattle Log does still create a spoiler, but this isn't so much related to the Log itself.
...Dead end.
Lucky there was a switch back here.
Much better.
Annoyingly, there is no better way to grab this key than to climb up the stairs, drop down and grab it, and climb back up to where it is used. This is symptomatic of a problem TTYD is going to have a lot of issues with, but this will be most relevant in Chapter 4.
For now, let's just see what this key is for.
There's a black box in the middle of the room. Y'know, in case you missed it. And, um... Yeah, there's just not much else, really.
Something important.
And it talks back. That's alarming.
Mario, the hero of legend? Pull the other one!
Which probably makes Mario look more insane than usual.
This story gets further elaborated in purely optional dialogue we'll get much later, but it's basically true and full of lies by omission. As much as it is possible for something to be "full of" lies by omission.
...You do know you're right nearby the legendary Thousand Year Door of legend, right? You may be sealed inside a box, which probably limits your perception, but...
Frankly (and Goombella) have more reason to be suspicious of the box than Mario. Frankly reacting to her words reveals that she's been lying about only the hero being able to hear her.
Frankly, now of all times, realises that perhaps our legendary treasure hunt should have some opsec.
Before realising that you can't do opsec if you're debating it aloud in front of the people you're trying to hide information from.
Maybe next time.
...The help of a girl stuck in a box?
You could not have phrased that more suspiciously.
Good question. My vote's for leaving. Unfortunately, we're at a premium on options to progress to anywhere interesting.
So helping a fellow do-gooder in need it is!
Let's see what you got.
...Whoa there, there's no need for-
What do you know? The suspicious thing inside the black box was in fact a demon!
See if I help you the next time, why don't you?
This is required to progress in the game- I think even speedrunners are at her mercy.
The game flashes bright white four times to denote Mario's new curse, which I'm sure is not good for epilepsy.
"This is for Luigi! You left him behind again, you bad brother!"
...That is such a pathetic curse. All I have to do is not press Y.
She sounds like she's having fun with it, let's let her have this one.
...A tutorial? Yeah, at this point, we can stop pretending this is anything other than an upgrade with no downsides whatsoever. The Black Chest Demon won't, though.
And, true to her word, Mario transforms into an origami paper plane. He gets a white rectangle so it's actually as aerodynamic as a real one.
And here's where the curse stops being a curse even if I do use it: We don't turn into a paper airplane and drop to the ground as a pathetic little origami creation, we get airtime. We start off in a state of being thrown.
Even Mario has stopped treating this curse seriously. That's how you know you're not supposed to either.
You will return to normal if you press the B Button, and also if you hit a wall and can no longer fly forwards.
With that purely helpful upgrade bestowed cursed upon us, she scrunches himself back up into a ball of scrap and throws himself away, never appearing in the game again. The backstory of the Black Chest Demons elaborates a little further on this odd characterisation, although it comes a step short of explaining it, but reread her dialogue during the tutorial as if she intends to be a purely helpful NPC. Lines like "you got what you deserved!" still seem to apply.
I have no explanation for that.
With the ability to fly across the sky on a paper airplane unlocked, we can now make forward progress. Fortunately, although Goombella and Frankly were not cursed, they are able to hitch a ride in Mario's folds. Somehow.
I think you do need to wiggle the control stick a little bit to get enough distance to make it to the other side, but this first flight should be a fairly generous one. The main thing to consider with flight time is holding the control stick away from the direction you are flying to hang back, preserving height while still gaining some horizontal distance, and releasing it to continue gathering speed (hold back the entire time and you drop like a rock). Sounds pretty difficult, but I don't think any flight the game requires you to make should be too difficult to make- optimising your flight is mostly for one reason later on and bragging rights otherwise. And even then, walking on the ground might be faster than continued flight.
Entering this door gets us to our destination.
The Thousand-Year Door.
...OK, maybe I overestimated the ability of people to just walk up and find it, but it is common knowledge that whatever the treasure it, it is behind this Door.
This is the site of the famed Thousand-Year Door. The air ripples with power... Behind that door sleeps the treasure that every rogue in Rogueport whispers about... I also read this was where the palace at the center of the ancient town was. Just a little fun fact, there...
That little fun fact is somewhat relevant later, but not in a key way.
Save Block over here, but while there is a door, there doesn't seem to be any way to go up there.
Only one way to find out.
Mysterious glowing begins to happen, and the camera cuts to an overhead to teleport Goombella and Frankly to a more cutscene-friendly position.
This odd pattern will become familiar, but I don't know if it has any inherent meaning other than its recurring presence.
With that, the Magical Map begins to shine...
And be bestowed with new power. This first time, there's a huge dramatic pan-around.
We get to see the Map itself update.
It creates a new location with a cute little felt animation, before placing the symbol of a Crystal Star in front of it.
And with a glass-shattering effect that I'm sure causes an increase in graphical quality (presumably the increase goes into the game's native quality, although it may just be my eyes playing tricks on me), we now have a location for the first Crystal Star!
Mario also learns the first Star Power, or as they're known in this game, Special Move. Back in Paper Mario, we had to wait until we saved our first Star Spirit to acquire one, but this time, they gave us a freebie beforehand. This is because Star Power is more intertwined with the battle mechanics, but it also has the side effect of not hiding an entire mechanic for a whole chapter.
Now then, let's have a look at what just happened.
This "mysterious power" is supposed to be Sweet Treat, but all other Special Moves are tied to getting the Crystal Stars, not to turning them in to the Thousand-Year Door.
Good call.
Frankly is going to be a huge help going forward, I can tell.
So then, what's the deal with special moves?
But I think I'll explain it myself with words. I'd rather not sit through a tutorial.
Sweet Treat is equivalent to Eldstar's Refresh, being an HP/FP healing technique that heals a small but servicable amount for early game, but now with an Action Command. The outcome of this is that the amount of HP and FP you get can range from 0-7, with all three of Mario's HP, Goombella's HP and FP being counted separately. It costs one Star Power, and we have a maximum of 1 to begin with.
If you remember from Paper Mario, Star Power was restored at a ridiculously slow rate, and could be increased with the Focus command on Mario's turn. The devs decided this was a pretty boring system that disincentivised the use of Star Power, so they retooled it. Gathering Star Power is now conditional on getting Action Commands, with Stylish Commands restoring more of it per action. If you need it in a hurry, Mario and Goombella now natively have the "Appeal" strategy to use instead of Focus. Mario is still the only character who can use Star Power, but these tweaks make it so using it doesn't feel like it's going to set you back so far later on. I vastly prefer this system, although this does also mean we're going to see some inflation on the cost of Special Moves. A small price to pay.
There's a few other non-special move-related mechanics tutorialised here, but those I think I will demonstrate by example.
Right, back to the Map itself.
"I thought we'd get a cryptic clue that we'd have to decipher, but nope, it really is that simple!" Whoever made this Map wanted the Stars to be found.
And Frankly is able to tell us where in the world these locations are, because the Map does not come with labels.
Not always in relation to the Crystal Stars directly, although I'm sure any attempts to follow this up were met with confusion and no new leads.
Frankly is also helpful to pointing us in the direction of some way we can get to these new locations. Because Mario's never been here before.
The most efficient.
Now that things have quieted down a bit and we're preparing for some actual forward progress, Frankly finally asks the important question: Where did the Map come from?
Mario explains that Princess Peach gave it to him, but from what Frankly suggests, it is unlikely that he explained the mysterious merchant or the box it came in, nor did he show him the letter that described both. This limits Frankly's ability to actually interrogate these plot points in any detail, and is partially the reason they fall into the background. Frankly is also not interested in following this up, because as far as he's aware, the only way he's going to get new information is to ask Peach, and he never gets the ability to communicate with her until there's no point.
With that said, he does recognise Peach...
By having encountered her earlier, and not because she is a reigning monarch. Bit of a spot check fail, but on a guy who doesn't recognise Mario for not keeping up with the latest trends, that may be on him rather than Peach's fame.
Peach came to visit Frankly, in probably one of the weirdest parts of this story to fit into a timeline.
Frankly is not aware that Peach had the Magical Map, whether she currently had it on her or had already sent it to Mario. We must assume this visit happened after she got it, because she had no interest or knowledge of the treasure beforehand. It also means she had even more stuff to do without going back to Toadsworth. I think the best explanation is that, after receiving the Map, Peach went to Frankly (probably by being directed by an NPC) to verify that what she possessed was worth the paper it was printed on, sent the letter afterwards so she could be sure Mario was coming here with purpose, and then... went AWOL.
Frankly's theory that she went to Petal Meadows ahead of us seems to have been made entirely to give Mario, who's only motivation is "do what gets me to Peach", some reason to press on and not go on some wild goose chase looking for Peach. After Chapter 1, we- that is, both the player and Mario- learn what really happened to her, but this sloppy reasoning seems mostly to cover a plot hole that many people who aren't Mario wouldn't bat an eye at.
Fortunately, Goombella mentions the existence of Crump and his goons, which is enough to get Frankly to realise we have competition for the Crystal Stars.
It is certainly unlikely that Peach and Crump are cooperating willingly.
...OK, even Frankly seems to be going on board the "save Peach" train.
Frankly also returns the map. It's probably safer with us.
...And, uh... hopefully survive asking too many questions here in Rogueport.
There's a glitch you can do to skip past the first Thousand Year Door visit, which allows you to keep Frankly in the party. He does just fine.
He also does just fine with some canon scenes later, but not that strenuous stuff.
Frankly rarely gives useful advice. There are only four puzzles where he offers a solution, three of which talking to him triggers the puzzle to solve. Merluvlee is our hint NPC here in town.
And that's our point of Star Power on the bar.
That's Professor Frankly, head of the archaeology department at U Goom. He's researching the legendary treasure here. I totally respect him. You know the famous Professor Kolorado? He was a student of Frankly's!
Cool lore in Frankly's Tattle. Thankfully, the apple fell far from the tree.
We now have access to the Crystal Stars menu in the Journal, although for now there's nothing in it but reveals on what colours they are.
As we walk out, Frankly has one more helpful thing to bestow.
What is intended to be our first Badge, Power Smash (1 BP). Paper Mario started us off with Power Jump, and I suppose the switch is for no reason in particular.
We know what Badges are this time around.
...These are some interesting statements about Badges. It's helpful advice, but it's weird it's what he's starting with.
And it's largely unrelated to his tutorial. Why do they even have a tutorial on this?
Equipping Power Smash is also our first time having a use for FP, so we get a mention for that, too.
And now Frankly is going to bow out of the plot.
Wow, already at max BP. It took a little longer to manage that in Paper Mario.
And there are Badges to acquire immediately! The shop that was closed earlier, on the roof of the item shop, is a Badge shop, where Badges are sold for Coins.
That's the badge manager at the Lovely Howz of Badges. For a manager, she sure is gone from the store a lot... Where do you think she goes? This shop's small, but it's totally adorable. She really knows how to decorate.
I believe the manager's absenteeism is an informed trait until a little later on, but any time we're out on a chapter, she ought to be gone too. She's here when we're in town, though.
This guy has emphasis on some of his syllables as he talks. I'm sure this would be obnoxious in voice-acting, but I'm not sure how it would sound.
"I'm selling?" Well, that's because Badges being retooled has really made an impact. In Paper Mario, there were 80 Badges total, 69 unique varieties, and you could collect them all. In this game, there are 85 unique varieties of Badge, and most (not all) can be acquired multiple times. Equipping multiple of an identical attacking Badge, like Power Smash, increases the power and FP cost of the move- as a result, direct upgrade Badges like Power Quake and Mega Jump don't exist. The only way to get most Badges in large numbers is from enemy drops, though- a few can be acquired through other means, but the Badge Shop is not one of them.
At any rate, you can sell Badges to the Lovely Howz. You can also repurchase them at double price if you need them later, but I think owning a Badge once is enough for completionist purchases.
There are two options for "I'm buying". Special Deals refer to the Badges on the counter, which are being sold for 70% of the asking price. "Others" allows you to purchase any Badge currently available for sale at full price. Nice upgrade on Rowf, especially since the difference in Badge functionality means you don't need to buy everything if you're just going for Badge completion.
Huh, the Special Deals aren't included in the "Others" menu. Good to note. Anyway, what is available for sale?
- Power Jump (1 BP) (50 coins) works as it does in Paper Mario. The Lovely Howz is the best place to acquire a copy.
- Super Appeal (1 BP) (50 coins): This is basically Deep Focus for Mario- Appealing will give more Star Power. The Lovely Howz is the best place to acquire a copy.
- Last Stand (1 BP) (50 coins): Halves damage to Mario while he's in Danger. Equipping aditional copies reduces damage to 1/(x+1), rounded up- so three are necessary to get to 1/4 damage, not two. There's a free copy in Chapter 3.
- Last Stand P (1 BP) (50 coins): Works identically, but for the Partner. Most passive buff Badges have a P equivalent, recognisable by the little yellow happy face in the corner. Equipping Goombella to be as powerful as Mario can be will be costly in BP, and thankfully, the BP cap has been raised from 30 to 99. If we can afford the hits to HP and FP. Last Stand P can be acquired for free in Chapter 1.
- Simplifier (1 BP) (50 coins): Directly contradicting the above, this will make both Mario and the partner have an easier time landing Action Commands, but the Star Power reward will be less. If you don't use Star Power much, this might be a good way to get the effect of Dodge Master. It can only be acquired through the Lovely Howz.
- Unsimplifier (1 BP) (50 coins): As expected, does the exact opposite, making Star Power easier to acquire at the cost of harder Action Commands. Despite not giving Star Power either way, Guarding (both regular and Super) is also affected. Equipping both cancels the effects. Unsimplifier is also exclusive to the Lovely Howz.
- Piercing Blow (1 BP) (75 coins): Same effect as in Paper Mario, but buffed to 1 BP in cost. This is key to a few fights early, but eventually is going to be outclassed as our damage improves. And we always have solutions to those tricky fights anyway. There is no Piercing Jump in this game. Piercing Blow is best acquired from the Lovely Howz.
- Happy Flower (2 BP) (150 coins): Similar effect as in Paper Mario, but buffed to 2 BP in cost, and the odds are slightly different if you stack them: Equipping multiple makes each Badge roll its own odds of giving FP, rather than all rolling for a bigger heal. Completion-wise, it's best to get this one from Star Pieces.
- FP Drain (1 BP) (100 coins): This will weaken Mario's power by 1, but it will restore 1 FP per attack. Does not apply to Partners, Special Moves, or Item attacks, and also only heals 1 FP for the whole attack, rather than additional points for combo moves. Could stand to be better. Apparently, best available in the Lovely Howz, although I feel I've seen it elsewhere.
Selling Badges. Any Badge you currently have equipped is labelled as such. In general, it's not that great to sell Badges, although some Badges are high in price and low in value...
Now that we have access to Badges, this mystery individual has moved to this side of the fence, and here he shall remain for the rest of the game.
Merlow has been outright retired, and Dazzle has taken his job. Not sure what Merlow did, but I guess it didn't have that much to do with the mystique of the Merlon clan.
As in Paper Mario, it is possible to purchase every Badge in the game if you possess every Star Piece, and you'll get all 100 Star Pieces before Chapter 8.
- Attack FX Y (1 BP): A purely cosmetic Badge, same as Paper Mario. Instead of A-B-C-D-E, though, the Attack FX Badges are named for their colours (R-B-Y-G-P).
- Chill Out (1 BP): Between the BP buff and the lack of Dizzy Attack, this has buffed the power of Chill Out, if you need it.
- Pretty Lucky (2 BP): We already have one, but this could be good for that extra edge at the right point.
- Happy Flower (2 BP)
- Happy Heart (2 BP)
- Happy Heart P (2 BP): Same as Happy Heart and Happy Flower. Anything that applies to FP is usually not distinguished between Mario and Partner, because both use the same pool. Sometimes it is relevant, but not for Happy Flower.
- Item Hog (3 BP): Increases the odds of an item dropping from battle. With one Item Hog on, the odds of an item being dropped from scratch goes from 25% -> 33%, as do the separate odds of getting a held item (the odds of getting no item dropping from 50% to 33%.)
- Heart Finder (3 BP): I suppose I should mention it now, but Heart drops will heal both Mario and the current Partner for 1 HP.
- Flower Finder (3 BP)
- Peekaboo (2 BP): Although the game has a Tattle Log, there are bosses later that cannot be Tattled, so this might be good for them. Might. It's at least been buffed.
- Quick Change (7 BP): Just as powerful as it was in Paper Mario, if not moreso thanks to partner HP. The devs seem to have realised that, and gave it quite possibly the harshest difference between Badges in between games, nerfing it to a rather stifling 7 BP. That's enough to drop it to "don't wear it for everything" levels, although it's still worth it if you can fit it.
- Flower Saver (4 BP): Flower Saver in the original Paper Mario covered both Mario and his Partner, which means that the equivalent effect in this game takes 8 BP. Whether this is a buff or a nerf depends on the beholder, but Mario and his Partner use FP differently: Mario's costs are near universally 2-4 FP, which means a Flower Saver will make him be able to use relatively moderate moves far more regularly.
- Flower Saver P (4 BP): The Partner, meanwhile, has much later FP costs and moves you wish were more spammable. This can really make up the difference, although you're going to want to use it more against mobs, where you can get FP drops more easily.
- Power Plus (6 BP)
- Power Plus P (6 BP): Oh yeah, Power Plus P. With this and other ways to increase your Partner's Atk through buffs and not just Partner Upgrades, they can become just as deadly as Mario was in the endgame of Paper Mario for us. This also has the side effect of making Goombella the most powerful of the partners, because her Headbonk gets double the effect of buffs compared to all but one other party member. That second one has some interesting math, but for the most part, Goombella wins. Although this is going to consume a lot of BP.
The BP notification message is so much less weird now they can just throw it in the text.
Decided not to get anything this time around, though. I want to save for a big one next time.
That's Dazzle, the Star-Piece collector. He'll trade you badges for Star Pieces. Once you collect a few Star Pieces, you should definitely come talk to him. Hey, but why do you think he collects them, anyway? You think he bathes in them?
The only use we have for them is to give to him, good question. Does he get his Badges from Merlow?
Anyway, this is the direction to Petal Meadows, and this Spiked Goomba down here is a pretty annoying guy if you're in trouble of missing the glide.
It usually turns out to be two Spiked Goombas, and if you don't have Mario First Strike with a Hammer, you will probably have to take a hit from the other one.
Be proactive, and it's no problem.
Anyway, quickly showing off a factor of Star Power that isn't clear in text, but will be of critical importance for the rest of the game: This is a stage, so we play to an audience. Our audience will be filled with a number of people according to our skill (do more Action Commands and people are drawn to the stage, fail them and people leave), and the types of Mario designs present are randomly chosen at the start of each new fight (although some fights will force certain choices for thematic reasons). These are the people who give us Star Power, and annoyingly, some audience members give more Star Power than others. Toad is one such example, and fortunately, he'll be pretty common.
No problems gliding for me.
This tentacle is not present until you show the Map to the Door and get the pointer to Petal Meadows, even if you backtrack here as soon as you get the Plane ability.
Looks like some seawater's found its way in here, huh? Yeah, that's a health hazard. I bet some weird sea things live in there, too... so try not to fall in the water, OK? Oh! There's a pipe here that connects to Petal Meadows.
The sewer having sea water is a health hazard? Maybe for the marine life, but I'm not sure the people above care about what's in the sewers so long as all their garbage is being put into it and it doesn't come back out into their faces.
Hmmm... It seems to be almost inviting us to do something, doesn't it? But what? You could jump on it, but you'd totally ruin your shoes, so I'd just hammer it!
It's amazing Mario's shoes are in such good condition, the way he treats them.
Blooper being used as a boss in the sewers is a holdover from Paper Mario, although there's only the one boss fight with them here. This is also "the boss" of the Prologue.
Blooper does not earn a unique theme, instead using the mini boss track.
If you talk to the Blooper tentacle, he will taunt you into hitting it, calling you a "gutless punk" if you say you won't. How rude.
We can take you.
They actually mention this as a tactical strategy. I wish it was more reliable than it is when you need it.
That's a Blooper…and a really super-humongous one, too! EWWWW! It's all slimy!!! I just totally can't STAND slimy, nasty, icky things. G-R-O-S-S, gross! Max HP is 12, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. It attacks with tentacles and ink. Once you damage both its tentacles, it'll fall down… And then it's attack time! By the way, the tentacles each have 3 HP. Now relax and house on that slimy, nasty Blooper!
The tentacles attack you, although I'm not sure if the Blooper itself can attack unless it's on its own. All attacks do 1 damage each, though.
"Say, if the bosses count for the Tattle Log, what happens if you miss them?" Game's got you covered, they're available later, but you won't get Goombella's sass unless you do it in person. Besides, the HP bar is valuable.
Huh. 3 HP targets.
Yeah, this seems like the time to fire. Goombella doesn't need to Tattle each individual piece of a boss with multiple parts, like Blooper. Annoyingly, there's one exception.
I don't think this design of the Fire Flower has been used since Paper Mario itself, but it's far more kind to this particular animation than the standard design. I'm also not entirely sure the standard design would be fully codified until 2006, with the New series.
Destroy the tentacles, and the Blooper is knocked to the ground, losing his turn.
Time for a Power Smash. Power Smash's Stylish Command is slightly more extensive than the normal Hammer- you can press A a total of four times for increasingly extravagant backflips.
Ow! Now comes quite possibly my least favourite part about TTYD as a whole: The stage is shoddily made, in-universe, and after large attacks like Hammers or even just completely randomly, things will drop from the ceiling and do damage to somebody. This damage ignores Defence (although you can Guard it), and as you get higher level, the game adds more ways the game can mess you up. This happens completely randomly, and rather than adding new strategy, this is merely frustrating, especially when stage elements also add status afflictions like Dizzy, Confused, Electrified and Dodgy. It can at least happen to both sides, although haha if you think the bad statuses land on enemies.
Anyway, for Blooper's turn, he gets to his tentacles, although he does not do an attack at the same time.
Making him easy pickings. The only damage I took was from a falling bucket.
With that, he shoots into the air, disappearing from the story and becoming somebody else's problem.
This also spawns the platforms necessary to reach Petal Meadows.
The only person you need to worry about when platforming is Mario. If Goombella falls into the water, she'll be launched out by Nibbles too, but she won't take actual damage from it.
Anyway, onwards we go to Chapter 1.
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