Time to start Chapter 2. Of course, we now know the fourth face of the coin is the X-Naut Army, and that seems like a good note to start on. The fact the X-Nauts' goggles are included seems to be alluded to by the fact their Japanese name includes the word for "glasses", although no language adapts this part of the naming scheme, nor does the fact everyone is bespectacled become relevant.
The Boggly Woods ambient theme makes me feel things. It's a very "relaxing" track, but at the same time, it also feels a bit like we are interlopers here, walking through a forest untouched by outside hands. The fact the whole place is a beautiful, monochrome set of hues that is sharply contrasted by Mario and Goombella is contributing heavily.
These are the Boggly Woods. Pretty surreal, huh? Looks like it's out of a picture book. It's pretty... but in an eerie sort of way, y'know?
Goombella seems to be logged in to that wavelength, although I don't think she knows why.
As we set off, we get a mention of the elder, and a fact that I don't think has come up yet- the elder is a woman. We're going to leave that one basically untouched the whole way through, and I am all for it. Although there is one thing about it that bothers me...
Not one screen into the place and we are immediately interrupted by someone up ahead.
Time to become introduced to the Shadow Sirens. They're a semi-recurring thorn in our side, although ultimately, one of the game's most popular elements is going to spoil you immediately into their main arc.
For the most part, Beldam and Vivian will be the only ones talking. I'm not ultimately clear what Marilyn's job is, narratively. She does lots of things and there are a number of positions I can take, depending on what I am using as my main evidence.
Vivian double-checks to make sure murder is OK. Murdering Mario is not an explicit goal of the Shadow Sirens, although they are taking no effort to avoid it.
We're a bit of a walk away- enough of a walk that a Paper Mario 64 character couldn't see us.
We're going to take a brief diversion to go have a look at this. They needed to establish that the Shadow Sirens have this, but they also need you to know that at this second, so they just quickly brought a mention of it.
This exchange is pretty interesting when you consider Vivian's character in depth. For now, take notice of the fact that Vivian is the only Siren who makes any effort with her appearance.
Now that we have established Vivian has found the necklace, let's get back to the plot stuff: The Sirens do not know what Mario looks like, and Beldam would like to refresh her memory with the handy resource provided.
Vivian does not have the sketch.
And she objects to being called for its absence because Beldam claimed it for exactly that purpose.
...Yeah, I don't think we really need to see evidence of which one is telling the truth to slap a big ol' "this is gaslighting" tag on this entire relationship. So, you know, look forward to that. Basically, it'll be the entire rest of their screentime until Chapter 4.
Marilyn turns around, and for the first time in Paper Mario history, actually demonstrates some amount of far-sightedness.
Unfortunately, her efforts to inform Beldam that their quarry has arrived fall upon deaf ears.
The reason I say Marilyn confuses me is that where she falls in regards to Beldam's torments tends to be a bit of a fickle beast. Sometimes, like here, Beldam is dismissive of Marilyn and it would be logical to assume Marilyn is another victim. Other times, Beldam includes Marilyn in the collective "we" when she berates Vivian, and it would be logical to assume Marilyn has power in this dynamic. There is probably something to unpack about being in the middle of those extremes, although Marilyn never makes her opinion on Beldam and Vivian's dynamic known.
Beldam ignores Marilyn's recognition that Mario has arrived to focus on Vivian's error, proving it is not about the problems losing the sketch causes, but the opportunity to punish Vivian.
This is only going to get worse the more I watch, isn't it?
Well, at least it's not gaslighting anymore...
Fortunately for this game's rating, Beldam's definition of "force" does not match the conventional one applied to abusive family situations, and she limits herself to confiscating Vivian's treasure as opposed to actual violence.
I suspect that Beldam may have instigated this argument purely to claim ownership of the necklace at all.
Fortunately, that's where we're going to end the scene. The Shadow Sirens do not attack Mario, and I'm torn between wanting to bash Beldam like a game of Whack-a-Monty-Mole and not wanting to hurt Vivian.
However, the game does allow us to talk to (and Tattle) them!
This is the youngest sister of the three. The oldest one REALLY picks on her, huh? I don't know whose picture they're talking about, but you think she really lost it?
...Now that she says it aloud, Goombella and Koops must've seen (and heard) the whole exchange. This gets interesting with a certain scene later, and I imagine also goes some distance towards explaining something that the game doesn't spend a lot of time on.
I guess that's the middle sister. She seems like the strong, silent type to me. Hmm... I can't get a good read on this girl at all...
Glad I'm not the only one. Part of me wishes I could outright tell the Sirens I'm who they're looking for just so Marilyn can be vindicated. The other part of me is incredibly grateful Marilyn is non-talkative.
This shady woman is certainly selfish and mean! I mean, what a total meanie! You see how cruel she is to her own sister? I wonder what went on between them...
Goombella's final comment is particularly interesting, because I don't think this is hinting at any plot points in the Japanese or English version... but I can only imagine the Italian version had a lot of fun.
A few trees along the trail have stuff in them. I usually just hit them all.
And yes, there are enemies, why wouldn't there be? Most of them come in shades of black and white.
That's a Pale Piranha. You know about these guys. The famous Piranha Plants. This colorless subspecies is adapted to Boggly Woods. Ah, the wonders of nature! Max HP is 4, Attack is 2, and Defense is 0. If you try to jump on them, they'll totally chomp on you.
These tricky little blighters... Pale Piranha, as it is known in the English version, is a scaled down version of Piranha Plant from 64, and is fought much in the same way. Complete with being annoying and having 1 more HP than your most sensible attack (Super Rank Shell Toss). All they can do is bite you, though, no statuses.
I mention their name here in English, and that's because the Japanese version has an unusual name for them... Pakkun Flower. In JP, these things are intended to be the real deal, even if an adaptation to the environment caused it to lose its iconic hue. This makes it annoying to categorise whether or not it supposed to be the classic Piranha Plant, though. Black and white Piranha Plants later came back with the Inky variety in Super Mario 3D Land.
These guys, though, we've seen before.
They were even labelled as living here in the Tattle Log earlier! Clefts are out in the wild now, and if you haven't upgraded Koops, well, your options for dealing damage to them are pretty limited. Earth Tremor should do it, if you have the Star Power, but you can't just Earth Tremor everything. Superguard and whatever powerups you have.
This is about to become too important to pass up.
Also of note here, new audience member: Piranha Plant. Strangely with gold teeth, these guys are fairly OK to have around- they're one of the few kinds of audience members that will never throw anything, positive or negative, although sometimes their gluttony gets the better of them and they might eat one of the people in the next seat over.
For some reason, there's a Honey Syrup here that tends to be free-spawning. I have an inkling it's connected to the wrong tree when it comes to registering whacking them.
Thank goodness I got this from the Chapter 1 revisit.
Now just to ask what happens the next few times.
Yeah, you see what I mean about Power Plus Super Rank Koops? He oneshots these and Clefts with Shell Toss and Power Shell.
Seems like a good fight to showcase the power of Earth Tremor.
...Or not. Not an encouraging sign: We're going to need a lot of these.
This doesn't help me. At all.
Enemies do tend to throw rocks if you mess up an Action Command. Deserved, but it does tend to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Shell Tosses it is.
And some Appeals to recharge my Star Power, because I need it.
Like Hooktail's Castle, the Great Tree is sitting pretty early in the Boggly Woods, in the background.
Both of these species are natural enemies of the Punies, but cohabitation seems to be possible for them.
Punio goes thorugh the Warp Pipe through the cutout on the front, and tells us to visit the Great Tree immediately. Unlike Hooktail's Castle, there's no obvious reason we can't go right in.
Now, though, we can see something that might get in the way.
The base of the Great Tree! It sure is big up close... I mean... Wowser. Seriously. It must have watched over the Boggly Woods for over 1,000 years. That's insane...
This door wasn't here when Punio left, and it clearly doesn't fit in.
More to the point, it is not allowing access to the Tree for us.
Koops: Hey, don't take it so hard... It does look sturdy, though. What do we do now?
We're not going to get in at all if we give up, although we are definitely going to need something.
Punio takes a few textboxes to come up with an alternative plan.
He wanders off, and we're told to go follow him.
That's Punio of the Punies. He sure is a hardworking little fella, huh? Don't you just wanna cheer him on? I always root for the underdog. Or whatever he is.
This is one of the few times through the course of the Chapter we'll have Punio as an NPC to Tattle.
Punio seems to be a favourite of the elder, as we'll hear later, so it makes sense he's been appraised of a few of the tree's secrets.
He just hasn't had reason to use it, and thus doesn't know where to look for it.
Koops: Not to be a worrywart, but how in the heck can we find somebody's secret entrance?
Koops having some interesting phrasing.
Punio does have an idea of what it is we need to do to find the secret entrance from the outside. However, it is just that: an idea. He barely counts as knowing what we need to do.
Fortunately, he has enough of an idea that he has a solution.
Flurrie is probably the weirdest major character in the game from this description alone: She is a "wind spirit", which is something that just... isn't something Mario likes to play with. If TTYD was remade today, I suspect they could retcon Flurrie into a recurring enemy type that has since been introduced, but for now, she's just blatantly not an iconic Mario design.
(Not that Punies, Jabbies or Piders existed in Mario before, but Flurrie isn't a native of Boggly Woods.)
Since everything is made of paper, this is a logical assertion. Weird to think about, but we don't live in a world made of paper.
Much like Chapter 1, we're going to have to into the deepest part of the chapter and back out.
All the way in this back corner here, there's an FP Plus (3 BP) to add to our count. Good to have in our back pocket for a boss fight or so.
On leaving the Great Tree, we pan over to Flurrie's house and get some dialogue from her.
She was the one who put the house here?? That explains why it's in colour.
Flurrie is a former actress, but she is currently on a mental health and wellbeing retreat. The lack of activity in this neck of the woods is relaxing to her, at least.
Flurrie also has a bit of a vain streak. Not an undeserved one, but one nonetheless.
It also helps Flurrie is being assisted by the Punies. She hasn't realised they're currently in peril yet, but she'll be happy to help once it comes to her attention.
I say she's on a mental wellbeing retreat, and that is because she is not retired. Whenever she wants, she can return to the stage, and it seems that time is approaching.
Pictured: the one character to enjoy the stage gimmick.
She's got no time pressure to make it back to the stage, so she's free to take all the time she needs to ensure she is fully prepared for her comeback to not just break her immediately. This also means Flurrie probably has a healthy approach to work/life balance and in general have her life in control.
(Also, shoutouts to only seeing a corner of her head. I'm still not 100% sure which side it happens to be.)
I assume that, in universe, she has turned to the mirror and finally noticed something about her body.
Namely, that she's dropped something.
This cutscene foreshadows what we'll need to do to get Flurrie's help, but since Mario is not seeing this cutscene himself, we can't actually do anything about it- we'll have to walk all the way to Flurrie and find that out.
No time like the present!
That's the Chapter 2 Inn Coupon.
...I don't think Chapter 2 has an Inn. I might save that for when my inventory is a little less full.
That's a Dark Puff. It's basically a tiny, mean thunderhead. Max HP is 3, Attack is 2, and Defense is 0. Sometimes it'll charge itself with electricity. Don't touch it when it does! Yowch! You know what I mean, right? Brzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt! Shocking! After it charges itself, it'll totally zap you with lightning. Beat it as fast as you can.
Dark Puff, unique to TTYD, is the reason to upgrade Goombella out in Boggly Woods. 3 HP is awkward to deal with in the air without it, and while he looks like Koops can hit him now, he can hover up to Flying height at no cost. He has a headbonk attack in addition to his lightning attack. The lightning attack does 2 damage to both characters.
Ow. But beats charging. If he electrifies yourself and you haven't already eaten a Volt Shroom, you're pretty screwed. Especially if he's in the air and Koops won't help.
Super Goombella can oneshot them.Yeah, out here, Super Koops is far superior, but dealing with these frustrating guys can be tempting on its own. Super Goombella has her value in the Tree itself.
Especially in a fight like this.
Yeah, this is probably a good fight to just Power Smash.
(Shoutouts to Luigi in the audience there).
And thanks to the tree in the background making this guy easier to deal with. Not that it matters, but...
He did electrify himself. And it turns out this game doesn't let you keep the damage if they're the ones electrified. Why can't Zap Tap work like this.
Yeah, uh... brace yourselves.
Up on these tree stumps, you can find a P-Down D-Up P (2 BP) in an invisible block along the path. This is hinted at through Wonky, but still, that's a pretty obscure one. Of all the Badges of this family to receive early, though, P-Down D-Up P? Admittedly, it is probably the least attractive one. Mario's set is in Chapters 5 and 6, while the Partner P-Up D-Down is far, far later.
This row of tree stumps cannot be jumped on with conventional means, so you must travel to the end of the room to climb up a secret path onto them to reach this switch.
The switch raises this Plane Panel up to a height where we might actually be able to get to somewhere interesting.
Star Piece beyond the switch. Not a very hidden one this time.
And on top of the Plane Panel, when in the raised position, is a Shine Sprite to Shell Toss to.
Now we can fly.
On the ledge, we can find a visible block that gives us Quake Hammer.
2 BP. 3 FP. This Badge has been nerfed hard since 64. Even worse, this Badge is excellent at knocking over your backdrops and stagelights, and to add insult to injury, Chapter 2 is not quite so custom-designed to be particularly susceptible to Quake Hammer- the only enemy here that's really made better for using Quake is Cleft, especially since Power Shell has the same FP cost and more or less the same effect on everything else. It's still a pretty solid Badge, for all those times I'm not using Jumpman.
Dizzy Dials were pretty disappointing in 64, but with the Dizzy nerf, it's just not even worth carrying around.
Star Piece in a tree.
Flurrie's place in the background, and a Heart Block in place. There is never a boss fight in this room.
Star Piece just beyond the pipe to Flurrie's.
What a totally nice house! Super coordination between the red walls and furniture. I'm so jealous it's not even funny. I have like, NO sense of interior decoration.
I'll take your word for it. Feels a little heavy to me.
...I wonder if the Flurrie cameo earlier was to make sure players knew Flurrie was still home, and didn't interpret this line as a clue to leave the house and look elsewhere to spawn her. That is only going to end in tears.
The further you go in, the more Punio tries to catch Flurrie's attention.
Only once we get to the door does Flurrie announce her presence and her intention to not see guests.
Now that we know she's here, though, we can ask her what she's doing and when she'll be free to help us.
As mentioned, Flurrie is happy to provide assistance to Punio and the Punies with no questions asked. Even if it seems she's not going to be of any assistance right now.
...Really emphasising the negative there. Not that he is wrong to do so- and considering Flurrie looks like "no" is on the table, probably a good call. We're also not 100% certain she can even do it, which makes it even less tempting.
Flurrie would do it even if it just meant the Punies could get the coffee machine to start working again.
Unfortunately, Flurrie is a little bit stuck around now.
Flurrie didn't notice dropping it when it happened, somehow. How do you drop a necklace? Is it possible Vivian stole it from her neck as she went? I could imagine her doing it stealthily, but I can't imagine how she did so practically.
Now that she's noticed it, she insists on not leaving until she gets it back. I wonder how she intended on getting it back without attracting the attention of a helpful passerby. Not that the Punies are going to visit her, what with the hostile alien takeover and all.
...Not something I expected, but I guess she never shows up without her pith helmet and necktie.
Goombella also remembers the conversation with the Shadow Sirens, where careful attention was drawn to the necklace. It was still mostly a tool for showcasing Beldam's abuse there, but it turns out that necklace had an origin and now that part of the story is our problem.
Koops: Gee whiz, that must be some nice necklace, huh? ...Hang on... You know what? It's weird... I'm sure I just heard someone talking about a necklace...
This line feels like it's written for Koops, who is more naturally soft-spoken than Goombella. Also a really blatant excuse to not name the partner directly.
Thanks, Flurrie!
OK, sometimes these puns can get awful, but this one doesn't feel so bad. Super Mario, at your service!
If you say no, Punio chastises you, tells you to go grab it anyway, and doesn't even give you the opportunity to deny again.
Flurrie's reaction doesn't even change depending on your answer. That may just be how meek it is in the affirmative, but still.
On leaving Flurrie's house, we are thrown back to the Shadow Sirens, where we can see Beldam has finally stopped making Vivian squirm and pulled out the damn sketch. Considering Beldam is the villain who gave Peach the map in the first place, she would be far too competent if she didn't stop to bully Vivian.
Beldam making sure the conversation doesn't linger long on the fact that this whole mess was her fault, avoiding blame and denying Vivian vindication.
...That's not a half-bad sketch. It looks a lot more like 64 Mario than TTYD, though. But still... where were the X-Nauts spying on us who drew this? The paranoia intensifies...
...Feels kinda weird Beldam brings this one up. I don't really take her as being interested in appearances, and I don't really know how to make this one come back around to insult Vivian (which is most things she says that don't seem to have anything to do with anything).
Beldam finally realising they're all idiots.
Well, she's an idiot. Marilyn saw this coming the whole time, and Beldam decided not to care.
And Beldam decides to blame Vivian, for no other reason than she can. There does come a point where you wonder if this is a little overkill.
Especially since Vivian continues to act as if making reasonable arguments will make a difference.
Don't worry, we'll be able to do something about it soon. Not permanently, but still a little bit.
Probably a big fat lie.
If Vivian's so incompetent, why do you keep piling everything on her? Sounds like you just want excuses to torment her some more.
Marilyn is wishing she could do something productive rather than continue to watch Vivian fail under Beldam's pressure.
For some reason, Flurrie's House is considered separate from Boggly Woods to the point that entering it regenerates all the enemies. This is extremely frustrating.
Fortunately, you can use this to skip the enemies in this room.
Not all the Pale Piranhas, though.
And this is going to get annoying where Cleft is involved.
Now that the Shadow Sirens are aware we are Mario, they will fight us at the first opportunity. They are exactly where we found them, and the most recent Heart/Save Block was at Flurrie's house. It's not as bad as it sounds, but you really need to have something ready for.
Hello, you heartless monster.
You wish you could claim that.
Koops: Uh-huh! Uh-huh! I remember! THEY'RE the ones with... Hey! Wait a second... What do you mean, you've been waiting for Mario?!? That sounds... suspicious!
Although their hostile intentions (or at the very least, the deservedness of a thorough thrashing) were obvious, the fact that they were actively hunting for Mario was less obvious... mostly because they were a bunch of idiots. So let's go have a look at who these hostiles are.
Beldam doesn't introduce herself, although she does confirm that she is here because she knows we have the Magical Map and seek Crystal Stars.
Goombella and Koops, for some reason, think this is because they've met Peach. To be fair, this is true: Beldam gave Peach the Map, after all. The idea that these guys might be related to the X-Nauts, however, eludes them.
This train of thought is brushed aside to ask the real question of who they even are in the first place.
Koops: Whoa, whoa, scary lady! How do you know about the map and the crystals? Have you talked to Princess Peach or something? Hey, now that I think about it, who are you, anyway?
I dunno, I always found names to be the easiest thing to get out of a villain. Motives and goals always gets far more frustrating.
Beldam starts a chain line, and in continuing this chain, Marilyn says the only two words she will ever say. At least let her line reflect her thoughts.
Vivian announces their name incorrectly. This is intentional, and it is the major representation of Vivian's most fascinating character point. As such, it is important to mention that this is also a mistranslation- or rather, an intentional translation deviation.
Beldam is absolutely offended that Vivian uses the name "Shadow Beauties", insistently corrects her, and denies Vivian's right to be included in her version of the name, with highlighted-in-red text for this particular insult. This leads into what these were in Japanese.
Instead of "The Three Shadow Beauties", JP Vivian introduced the trio as "The Three Shadow Sisters", and Beldam insisted Vivian not be counted because she is, in fact, a man.
As a result, Vivian is often considered to be trans in JP and censored to cis in ENG, but the story is a bit more complicated than that. There are very few scenes that I am aware of that explicitly draw attention to Vivian's gender identity, and the second major one does a lot of legwork in defining what the game considers her "correct" gender. In English and German, of course, she is unquestionably female. In Japanese, French and Spanish, she is a male who uses female pronouns. In Italian, she is a trans woman, and Beldam's abuses are more concretely established as being because she is jealous of Vivian being the prettiest of the trio while not even being AFAB. The middle category of character feels very much like a transphobically written character archetype- in the "haha, you were attracted to a male" sort of way- and while I'm glad the Italian version exists to have a version of Vivian that uses her trans identity in a meaningful way, I find it particularly frustrating when people conflate "ENG turned her cis" with "the JP is superior for having a trans character". More trans characters are good, but I prefer ENG Vivian to JP.
For all significant intents and purposes, Vivian is considered to be a female character, and I will be using she/her for her.
Anyway, back to Vivian getting berated, I can imagine how this flows a little better if Beldam keeps using "my girls" instead of "my siblings".
...This sounds a lot worse if you forget they're sisters, and even comes off pretty bad as it is.
Beldam takes the time to clearly count Vivian separately to Marilyn before the fight begins.
And now, we finally get the opportunity to beat the crap out of Beldam! Shame about Marilyn and Vivian, though.
The Shadow Sirens rate their own boss theme. It's... it's in the top half of the TTYD boss themes, I suppose.
Beldam, fortunately, will be contributing to this fight as much as her sisters, although I love the alternate universe where Marilyn and Vivian are the only targets and Beldam acts like she's contributing for no good reason. And by "love", I mean it in the same way I love a well-written funeral.
I'm sorry, you two.
That's Beldam. She's the oldest sister, the leader of the Shadow Sirens. Max HP is 9, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. But her blizzard attack has an Attack of 2. She can make her partners big and make us tiny, and attacks with weird magic. The worst thing about her is that sinister snicker. She sounds so totally evil! I mean, she's just the sort of person you want to avoid like the plague, y'know?
That's Marilyn. She's a Shadow Siren, Beldam's younger sister. Max HP is 12, Attack is 2, and Defense is 0. She charges up her attacks occasionally. Says here she's the toughest of the sisters, so it might be best to defeat her first, huh? Other than that, she doesn't have any particularly outstanding characteristics.
That's Vivian. She's the youngest of the three Shadow Sirens. Max HP is 10, Attack is 1, and Defense is 0. She doesn't seem all that noteworthy. Uh… She is kinda cute, I guess… She might even be cuter than I am… I guess… …Uh… What am I thinking?
Beldam, Marilyn and Vivian are no slouches in combat, although they subscribe more closely to "strength in numbers" than individual power. They all have a Shade Fist attack that deals 1 or 2 damage, and a magic spell that hits both party members for the same damage (although Beldam's Icy Curse does more). The magic spells pierce defences, although they don't have many additional tricks- Marilyn has her +2 Atk Charge and Beldam allegedly has the ability to apply the Shrink and Huge statuses to the beneficial side- I'll believe it when I see it.
If I want the Tattles, I'm going to have to stretch this fight to three turns.
On the note of the Tattles, Goombella's Tattle on Vivian is the offending instance of Vivian's gender identity being treated as it is. In languages where Vivian's gender identity is in question, she will draw attention to it. In non-Italian languages, she uses "she, no wait he", while Italian has her instead say "a woman and proud of it". While Goombella's sass has been used for evil once or twice, I feel Goombella is not supposed to be taken as lying or mistaken here.
Anyway, there's one thing you really want to have ready before this fight. And good luck doing so if you bumped into Clefts.
There we go, an actual full bar.
You get five of these bars, with more and more star icons, and for each one you fill, you get an extra point of damage. My average performance fails the last bar, I tend to plan assuming so.
In addition to the higher damage, the Earth Tremor also reaches higher and higher on the screen. I imagine this is done discretely in game, with enemies at each height susceptible to different powers of Earth Tremor, although any enemy who has taken damage will take the full power of the attack. Earth Tremor involves bouncing repeatedly, and earlier bounces may not necessarily reach the flying enemies, but only the last tremor counts, apparently.
The Shadow Sirens are all grounded enemies, of course. We also see one of the funnier things about the Sirens: That tail of theirs is almost always attached to the ground, and even in Earth Tremor, that is true.
Since Beldam is now under half health, she has something to say to us.
This is also accompanied by the enemies switching from Shade First to their spells. Fiery Jinx is actually pretty terrible- it doesn't even hit us with Burn.
Marilyn and Beldam also threw out Thunder Hex and Icy Curse. The lightning element has no inherent element, and Icy Curse doesn't seem to inflict Freeze either. Thankfully.
Here's Icy Curse doing "2" damage. Or, well, 1 after Block.
Mario spent his turn attacking Marilyn.
...I guess I was hoping for this to pay off?
Beldam's quote for Marilyn being at half health. Despite her insistence Marilyn attack now, Vivian always goes first in the attacking sequence.
Marilyn's attack also missed Mario.
Beldam embarasses herself and fails to land damage with her Shade Fist.
Last Tattle acquired. We can go all out now.
There goes Marilyn.
Beldam berating Vivian for being low on health.
...How do you miss Fiery Jinx, anyway?
Beldam tries to make up for Vivian's failure, and fails again.
Goombella takes out Vivian-I suppose she is kinda jealous of her being cute as heck.
Don't worry, Vivian.
She'll get what she deserves.
All three Shadow Sirens are considered to be the same level, and give the same Star Points.
I know they missed Fiery Jinx and Thunder Hex on Mario, but who was the one who did absolutely no damage in two turns? Aren't you supposed to give out status changes?
The three run off, with Vivian stopping to notice she drops the necklace on the way.
...Huh, Mario stays in this "angry" pose until you make an input. Guess he's not the only one bothered by Beldam's antics.
The eldest sister and leader of the Shadow Sirens, she uses magic to attack. Her personality stinks.
Beldam's short entry you can get from the Tattle Log after the fact. I love that last sentence for its simplicity.
Moving on, because the game has done so...
Fortunately, the enemies actually stay gone on the way back, because we haven't left the Boggly Woods area.
...Of course I had to deal with one of these on the way back, though.
Very well, very well...
...
...
I guess I should've expected that.
Looks like there's nothing for it.
Got a perfect Earth Tremor, too.
Volt Shroom back here, incidentally. This could've been good on the Dark Puffs, but the only way it works the way you expect it to is if you use it on your ally and your ally immediately goes in for the kill. It's not that worth it, although what else the Volt Shroom is for is anyone's guess when they're not Hot Shrooms any more...
There you go.
Shoutouts to Paper Mario vision. You three saw the Shadow Sirens at a greater distance than that, you can't say you're not looking at her from here. At least look in the opposite direction.
Flurrie is... very dramatic.
Flurrie gets her own theme, for this very strange scene.
This is a design that was approved to exist in a Mario game.
With that said, Ty-foo, first seen in 2013's Super Mario 3D World (as a derivative of New Super Mario Bros. Wii's Foo) looks like and functions similarly to Flurrie. If Ty-foo existed on the same console generation as Flurrie, I would argue that Flurrie was intended to be a member of this species. As is, she's explicitly not any sort of Mario design.
On seeing Mario's "hunky" form, she becomes instantly enamoured.
To Mario's confusion and almost immediate horror.
For reasonable cause.
Mario is shaking his head vigorously, making "no-no-no" noises more intensely than he does in any other scene in the game. I almost feel like the vioce clip he has here is unique to this scene.
I think Flurrie has landed herself on the bottom of many people's lists of "characters they would like to see more of", and while there may be some misogynistic reasons for that, the fact is that Flurrie is not making a good case for herself. This is arguably sexual assault.
And possibly regular assault, if the fact Mario plays his Game Over throw is any indication.
She says, with Punio right there. I assume he can still hear things, but he looks out of it.
Mario gets to his feet and denies her again.
Flurrie, I don't think that's something I want you to be saying.
This sort of quest speaks to the dramatic bone in Flurrie's body- assuming she has a bone, at least.
Hey, if she wants to do a consitutional, there are worse ideas than joining a cute guy on a treasure hunt.
Does she have any other reasons for joining us other than "why not?". Nope. But hey, it worked for her.
Flurrie will be our third party member, which is why the fact we don't even know what she is is so strange. It certainly makes a good example of a Partner to tell us "OK, we gave you a Goomba and a Koopa, don't expect to predict the rest of them so easily". Flurrie is the only such partner in the roster, though- all the rest of the partners are something you'll recognise, although one of them is a TTYD-original enemy.
Flurrie's field ability is Gale Force, chiefly used to peel loose sheets of paper off the wall and reveal what's behind it. Most of the time, these are in-universe walls, but sometimes we blow things away that do not count as such.
She can stun enemies, not that I ever use this (I probably should do it more), and she can also do other things you would expect a strong gust of wind to do, mostly context-sensitive stuff.
And then there is this animation. There's a small hint of gold, under Mario's nose, that suggests Mario is intended to be holding Flurrie's hand, but Flurrie's nearest arm is clearly visible behind and the shape of the cloudy mass Mario is holding does not line up with Flurrie using her far arm for this. Also, I feel like Flurrie exhaling would demand she not hold any arms in front of her.
Her attacks in battle are Body Slam and Gale Force. Body Slam is sort of like Parakarry's Sky Dive with Spike's Spiny Flip targeting, dealing 2 damage at base, and since her "stage presence" is so grand, this also knocks parts of the stage loose (you'd think an actress would be good at avoiding that). Gale Force is a "attempts to remove all enemies from battle without getting Star Points" attack at 4 FP- it has some key uses outside this, but since its chief use is counter to my playstyle, I will be avoiding using it.
Flurrie has her uses- she'll be the only guaranteed technique in our arsenal able to hit things that are on the ceiling for a while, and Gale Force is a hard-counter to an annoying enemy type we'll see here in Chapter 2. However, for some strange reason, nothing in Chapter 2 latches onto the ceiling, which means Flurrie will not be a factor in my combat strategies. And that almost feels like a shame, because she should be a good choice for dealing with enemies in her debut chapter.
Yes. "Flurrie likes us". That is a true statement. Let's get going and make a start on helping the Punies.
Next time: We gauge the scope of the problem.
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