Now that we have 10 Punies, we can reduce the counter on this panel to 0.
It's not until the Puni Orb is placed that the functionality in doing so arises, however.
To be specific at what counts as "in front of the Puni Orb", that is inside the white square highlighted- as close to the centre of it as possible. The backs of these things are usually curved, so Punies can figure out the process of going around.
Depressing this switch spawns a pipe.
As the Elder said, take this thing with you, or you will be in trouble. The Elder can't tell you where you left this.
The pipe takes us to the back of the locked door, with an ordinary X-Naut encounter guarding it.
Once you touch this and change the LED to green, the door is free to pass regardless of which side you're on. You can lock it again, for whatever reason, but fortunately, the X-Nauts cannot.
This Puni Orb pedestal is special, and it's kinda the most annoying place for it.
But it is a tutorial about the fact that Flurrie can blow Punies off cliffs and into whatever lies below.
There is bubble bath underneath this ledge, and when Punies step into it, they turn into bubbles floating up that Flurrie can blow across to the other side. This is because Punies cannot jump to follow us, and while this will prove to be a puzzle element going forth, this particular room is a bit divorced from logic.
And to make things worse, there's always a Puni that doesn't go across the first time.
While we're in this room, though, going down here nets you a Shine Sprite. So don't forget that.
Once you cross the pit yourself with Jumps, make sure you regather all the Punies. If the Orb is still in place when they pop, they will run to the lip of the edge and no further. If they're still in a bubble when the Orb is removed, they'll stay where they are on the opposite wall. In general, if a Puni is not following you or attracted to the Orb, they'll stay where they are.
Ah, hello there. Arachnaphobes, you are in good company this Chapter.
That's a Pider. ICK! They gross me out. Max HP is 5, Attack is 2, and Defense is 0. EWWWWWWWWW! Besides its normal attacks, it might spit three web-wads at you consecutively. You'd better have good timing if you wanna guard against its attacks. It also says here that the Punies can't stand Piders. So I'm not the only one! Just the sight of these things makes Punies flee in terror. I know how they feel!
Piders have 5 HP, and unless you're doing something like I am, you're probably not oneshotting them in a single go. They can either spit one web ball for 2 damage, or three for one. I can usually block these, though, so they're a rather easy encounter for Star Power and such. They are original to TTYD.
On the overworld, Punies are terrified of them, and they will run away in a straight line, including off edges. Piders scaring away your Punies is by far the easiest way to lose them, and since enemies will go away after you kill them until you reload the area itself, the most sensible time to use the Elder's Whistle is after you kill the Piders in the room, if regathering the Punies proves too challenging.
They can sit in three positions- on the ground, they can be Hammered or Shell Tossed, but in the highest position, they are not considered ceiling enemies and can be Jumped on. I feel like I would've made them Flurrie-only at this height, but that might've been a bit too rude.
This weird pot can be blown away to reveal a Plane panel underneath.
One of the annoying parts of this plane panel is that you have to go back up to regather the Punies, so I'm cutting a step and forcing the Punies to go down ahead of me.
Despite being able to enter my Plane form the first time around, Punio is no longer a following NPC and is beholden to Puni mechanics now, so he must be blown down too.
This is, I believe, the only time you Plane Panel into a Plane Panel.
Shine Sprite get. Don't worry, the Pale Piranha won't eat them.
...Although I'm a bit starved for choice for what I'm doing instead.
See, I thought pure Jumping wouldn't be so harshly punished in the Tree itself. I may also have been considering oneshotting the Piders important enough.
In this room, we see our first Jabbi, the other mortal enemy of the Punies, and the other major instance in which a Puni will express individual thought.
The Jabbies are hostile to us, and defeating them will allow us to continue to work against the X-Nauts. In practice, they are basically a single roadblock.
The Punies and the Jabbies have been having some issues...
And then Punio brings up his old friend in the Jabbi tribe, a little guy named Jabble.
It is perfectly reasonable for you to play through the whole game and have this line be a complete non-sequitur. However, it is a gameplay clue, and before we follow those Jabbies, I will be going and finding what he is pointing at.
And the answer is down here. I jumped down, so the Punies can wait for me back where I started.
...As is a Star Piece.
If you head to the far left of this room, you can find a shop behind a poorly held together part of the wall.
This shop sells a lot of items we've seen before, although. This is the cheapest place to buy Mushrooms, as well as the only place to buy HP Drains and Mini Mr. Minis (which gives all enemies a -2 Atk debuff for two turns). Not the only place to buy Mysteries, but the more convenient one. Ice Storms do three damage to an enemy with a chance of freezing, and will be more important later for other uses. Basically, they're this game's Snowman Doll.
This uniquely-designed Puni shares a design with something else interesting in the game, although he doesn't express any connection, leaving him purely a hintman.
And not much of one, either.
Heh heh heh! Hey, did you know I made that camouflage by the entrance myself? That's why those guys can't find this place.
This shop is inconspicuous, so it's great for hiding. I'm gonna just camp here... Huh? They're all gone? All those bad guys? Hmmm... All that stuff I did... I guess I've kind of lost face as an informant.
Hey, wanna hear something? When I try to hit on a shop girl, this is what I say: "I'll have a Mushroom, some Honey Syrup, and one of your sweet smiles." It melts 'em. But in this shop... there's only this Pungent guy. I don't think I'll say that to him.
This shop doesn't stand out at all, so business is pretty darn poor. But...I guess Pungent is just doing it as his hobby. Whatever makes you happy...
Hey... Have you noticed how everything in the world is a competition nowadays? Don't people realize that there's no value in ranking everything in life? I mean, come on! Do you rank your friends? Your enemies? That's what I'M talkin' about.
He does have a few lines for an NPC that there's not much reason to talk to again, some of which have some actual heft to them, but he seems to be just that. His name is Pungry, as it happens.
Step back here, and you might notice an NPC.
It's Jabble! Look at the little squishy! Who's a cute Jabbi?
You might notice Punio has teleported into our party. If he has something to say, he'll just do this. He's sort of still a following NPC, after all.
Pungent is a little irritated he's there, although there's only so much that he can do about it.
Koops: Is he a lost child? Aw, man. That's so sad! Hey, maybe we should let him be, huh?
Flurrie: Oh, what a PRECIOUS little thing! He hasn't done anything wrong. Mario, we simply must go easy on the poor dear.
Somewhat annoyingly, the first option is the aggressive one.
This chases Jabble out of the shop.
To Pungent's relief.
Fortunately, he'll be back if you reload the room.
So then, now that we have Jabble not-scared, what's our plan?
Jabble joins the party! What's the benefit of Jabble?
...Honestly, I've got no idea. I feel like he might have something for the Jabbi encounters, but I doubt it. Mostly, he seems to be there to be cute. He doesn't contribute to the Puni puzzles in any way (and even if he did, the numbers involved wouldn't mean he could swing something) and I almost doubt he's affected by the Elder's Whistle. He's just there to be cute.
It's good for morale, but that's entirely a narrative thing. I don't think Jabble changes any dialogue, either.
"And also as a lover of cute things."
Hey, there's water running through the inside of the Great Tree! You don't think... Could this be how the tree carries nutrients from root to limb? Y'know, nature is just about the coolest thing ever.
In the room the Jabbi entered earlier, we can see a rather large space to run around in. Goombella's Tattle is dedicated to gushing about the mechanics of how the Tree works.
And with a siren blaring, the Jabbies exit from their massive paper mache hive.
Punio announces we're up against a 10-Jabbi squadron, matching our army of 12.
And the Punies and Jabbies get into a war of their own. Mario can blow both sides around with Flurrie, and possibly contribute with his hammer, but how fast the Punies can manage to best the Jabbies is down to luck.
Eventually, the Punies will make it, but they have to hunt down every Jabbi first.
Despite destroying the hive being the wincon. Every Puni KOed by the Jabbies will hop up to help, and the Punies will only start destroying the hive once everyone is inside. This whole process is a bit of a thing.
Not helped by the fact the siren is still blazing until you break the thing down.
This area seems to have been laid out for a special reason, don't you think? There must be something super-important hidden here.
Yeah, this is a pretty fancy room, all right.
Then again, it is also the home of the Blue Key, so special prize acquired.
Punio has an encouraging message to match-
And on the way back, we get to see what's going on inside the Blue Cell. Pessimism comes naturally to the Punies, I see.
Petuni: It's a mushroom...
Petuni has been keeping hold of something for the days ahead. A little overlong, sadly.
But still worth 1 HP. And also usable in some recipes. There are four recipes that can turn a Dried Shroom into a restored Mushroom.
She wanted it to be a present for her brother, but she wasn't expecting the X-Nauts to come and interrupt her time-sensitive plan.
The Puni who's been so pessimistic changes his tune in response. Yeah, I'd stop worrying Petuni too.
Anyway, when it comes to this pit, I'm actively not bothering to bring the Punies over. I'll just be back on the other side before I do anything about them anyway.
But I can use this time to pick up a Thunder Rage my inventory was too full for before. Despite the description, this is purely a damage item, like in 64.
Also a Power Punch in a bush on the way up to the cages. This is a use item that can give the Huge status. Useful in a boss fight on your Jumper.
When you enter this room with the Blue Key, Punio will leave your party to rush to Petuni until you open the cell door. This requires him to be in your party, so he gets teleported up too.
And that is everyone rescued at last.
The Punies clear a space so these two can have a heartfelt reunion interspersed into the story.
Sometimes you don't need a whole lot to it.
And Petuni gives Punio the Dried Shroom.
She tried her best.
"You didn't have to eat it, you know. We can always get more later..."
You especially did not have to lie about it.
At this point, I would be asking this question as a matter of "is he going to be physically ill"? We can eat Dried Shrooms just fine, I don't think Punio will be in any danger of that. Although it clearly wasn't pleasant.
Punio's just been that worried about his little sis. He can stomach anything if it's from her.
And now we've got our Punies all together...
Our party has expanded to 100! Well, 101 Punies plus Jabble. Why 101? Probably just to be funny about the Pikmin reference. That leftover Puni is going to be required.
Now I have the inventory to hold this until I can get it to Pungent and store it.
When going down pipes, the Punies won't actually all make it in before the area transition. They will all come out at the other end.
...That is, if you have them all in your party. Where the hell did 20 of them wander off to?
Clearly I had to whistle for that one. Sounded like a better idea than going around and looking for what they could possibly have gotten stuck on. Probably the storeroom.
When it comes to getting 101 of these guys across, it makes more sense one slips through, even if it is annoying.
There we go, we can all proceed.
...
Yeah, this room with the Piders is absolutely terrible. Just kill these two and then cross.
(If you're wondering whether Jabble is summoned by the Whistle, I think I can see him in the second screenshot.)
Oh, if this isn't going to be a thing.
Multibounce would be funny, but I can't seem to get the timing normally, imagine doing it on this weird formation.
Shut up, I killed one of them!
You want that Badge up there, you've gotta use Koops to spawn a Hidden Block to stand on.
It's a Damage Dodge P (2 BP), so your guard commands work just well targeting the partner. It's fun, seeing how much more BP builds start to guzzle when your partner needs the benefits too.
Right, is everyone up this time?
Good!
That is because there are a lot more Jabbies in this bunch.
The 100 Jabbi squadron is the only meaningful roadblock the Jabbies pose. There is no way to deal with this until you save the rest of the Punies, preventing you from exploring this part of the tree until you do so. And even if you do have all the Punies, I find it takes a few tries.
Nothing for it but to huff, puff and blow them away!
64 Punies left, that sounds just about right.
And now we shall proceed.
Right after I used a Syrup here, it looks like one of the audience members pitched in and did the same. On the subject of the Audience, it looks like Punies have joined up at some point here in the Great Tree. Punies like to show up in the audience if you do Stylish moves, and can throw only helpful things like pickups, Syrups, the two Gradual items, and comically, Dried Shrooms. However, some particularly loud noises like stage drops (especially stage drops that hit the audience later) can prove too terrifying for them, and all of them will scatter immediately.
We can put the Puni Orb here, but it's not doing anything.
I wonder if the inside of the tree was always like this... I mean, do you think it was, or do you think someone MADE it this way? Hmmm... It's a mystery...
Good question.
No getting up to that pipe.
Now you're just mocking me.
Power Shell it is.
Now if that isn't a prize for dealing with that! We already had an FP Plus, but a spare one might come in handy at the right time.
Star Piece behind this pipe nozzle.
The structure of this tree is pretty complicated... Looks like we're only gonna move on with the help of the Punies, huh? We're gonna seriously need to use our thinking caps as we go forward...
Goombella says this, but the puzzle of this room is incredibly stupid from an in-universe perspective. A casual player probably doesn't see what the problem is, other than the fact this room is a dead end and this pedestal has no obvious function- other than the same function as the pedestal we found earlier that also has one of these planks next to it.
Oh well, can't hurt to try.
...I was wrong.
Falling into this trap is required to proceed with the story, for it is the only way to get that pipe to spawn. I don't get the cause and effect behind triggering the trap and getting that bit of the map to fall off, though.
...
...
I wonder if Flurrie can peel it off if you know it's there...
Punio is taken by surprise on that one.
One thing this scene is good at is establishing that Lord Crump is capable of actually thinking plans through. One or two steps at a time, but he's not pure comic relief.
Did you notice how the pretty art on the fake pedestal is all sloppily drawn, out of alignment and doesn't match the patterns on the real pedestals? I don't think I did until this playthrough.
Lord Crump: "If I'm stupid, anyone who falls for one of my evil schemes is even stupider! Buh! Buh! Buh huh huh!"
That's a load off his mind, now that the only loose ends that could stop him are out of the picture.
And he leaves without confiscating the Magical Map and Diamond Star. He's smarter than a comic relief villain. He's still an idiot.
Punio is in complete panic mode.
The named charcters are all NPCs in this huddle, and can be talked to as such until you figure out what to do.
Punio: If you look closely, Punio is actually different from the other Punies. First of all, his dealy-bopper is green... His coat's different too... Did you notice?
Petuni: That's Petuni, Punio's sister. She really trusts her brother. Let's hurry up and get her out of here. Oh, and all of the others, too.
Puniper: That's Puniper of the Punies. He's a little bigger than the others, obviously. So maybe he can help us reach that special area... Hee hee! Just kidding. His only special power is complaining, I think.
Their Tattles for this room. I'm not sure what Goombella is alluding to about Puniper there.
We can get out of the cage just fine. We have Paper Mode. The Punies never learned that, though. Well, Punio did when he was an NPC.
Koops: Boy! This just isn't right. Let's do something before my claustrophobia sets in...
Flurrie: My! Such wonderful drama! I imagine we have to do something now, don't we?
Obvious answer: Whistle, right?
Elder: Eh? What's that you say? Everyone's trapped in some cell somewhere? Egads! Well, if that's the case, my calling them certainly isn't going to get them out. You need to get moving and get them out of there now! C'mon! Lickety-split!
They thought of that.
Going down this pipe takes us to an intricate room with four shapes in an order you might've recognised from Frankly's office.
That's because they are the solution to a puzzle we now have to solve. Frankly was actually on to something that could've helped us! Sadly, the Tree got there first.
Star Piece behind this nozzle.
And hitting this switch will allowed something interesting to happen... somewhere in the tree.
This special-looking room where we found the Blue Key now has switches. This is where I think the foreshadowing of this puzzle in Frankly's lab may have a psychological impact on the player: Those pillars have the same shapes, but in the wrong order. The player may be thinking "hey, maybe I can adjust those" when they first come in here for the Blue Key, and it occurs to them later on, now that they see the solution again, "hey, the room I can input something is that one!". Or maybe it's just special because of the weird Puni statues, the sample wooden planks that match the cage where the Punies are trapped, and the tall pipe you can't go down up in the top left corner of the room.
I have been informed the Japanese version had four Puni shapes as the default pattern, although I couldn't tell you for sure.
Just hit these blocks until the pattern is correct, and...
The pillars disappear, leading to a new room. As it happens, we are now stuck in this room until we find something new: the tops of those pillars were how we got out of the room.
That's a big treasure chest... The Punies must've left it... What could it be, you think? Well... Only one way to find out, am I right?
...A big chest in a dungeon? Yeah, it's time for Paper Mario tradition to be upheld!
We got an equipment upgrade! The text announcing it could have used another reading, though: Shoutouts to getting a Super Boots.
And yes, TTYD gives us the Jump upgrades before the Hammer ones this time. You know, in case it hasn't added enough new mechanics to make Jumping superior.
Getting an equipment upgrade prompts the series' standard Toadette, for her very first appearance outside of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, to make an appearance. As her first appearance, she's actually slightly off-model: Toadette's dress is usually pink, but they considered an orange one for this and her Double Dash!! artwork.
As I mentioned in 64, Vanna T. has the same Japanese name that Toadette would eventally adopt, but in addition to a completely different design, Toadette has a vastly different personality and mannerism, which makes it really difficult to consider Vanna as a proto-Toadette of any kind. Her appearance as a partner for Toad in Double Dash!! seems mostly to be so Toad has a partner- Peach has Daisy and the unique item mechanic discouraged putting him with Koopa Troopa.
In this game, she is the NPC responsible for the equipment upgrades having the same bottled tutorial that partners do with their "A Primers". Interesting they used a different system for both.
The Spin Jump is the least complicated of the three. Yes, Super Hammer and Ultra Boots have different mechanics to get into, but "ground pound" doesn't need too much in the way of a tutorial.
She'll let you try as much as you like, though.
Toadette will also have a demonstration of a use of your equipment upgrade to show you.
This is a new mechanic: Spin Jump is now a battle technique, in addition to a permanent +1 Atk to Mario's Jump. It costs 2 FP, and in my experience, the second bounce does an additional 2 damage to what it would have otherwise been entitled. I feel like I usually use too many buffs to know for sure what the first Jump is doing, but it's... existent. Without D-Down Jump, it is probably the best Jump technique for damage outside Power Bounce.
See you when I find the Super Hammer! (...Can you tell me when that will be?)
Down we go!
And we get a platforming puzzle on the way out.
Heading left gets us Charge (1 BP), which allows us to deal +2 damage on the next turn for 1 FP. As with most Charging moves, this isn't enough of a boost to be worth the FP and "not attacking every turn" thing, but I suppose if you stacked a bunch of them... I don't think you can get more and more buffs by Charging on subsequent turns, though, you need to get more Badges for that.
Going right and around gets you the Shine Sprite.
We come out up here. If you fall down again, you have to fall all the way down and come back up the pipe. Despite still having a Puni hole, I'm not 100% certain you can get Punies down there.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that of course this game brings back Star Panels. There's plenty more in earlier levels, but we'll save them for when we're done here. For now, these two are the ones in the Tree itself.
Well, that's how we get here.
With the room reloaded, and the Super Boots in hand, the Punis have begun swarming the Puni Orb again.
Because we need to smash this panel, and the best way to do that is to see it.
Now for quite possibly the worst part of controlling the Punies: Blowing them down this goddamn hole.
The get caught on the cage on the other side the whole way through, and there's no good way to get them unstuck.
Let's just move on and never speak of this again.
Speaking of it again, this incarnation of the puzzle is so much easier. Any Punies that get stuck on the opposite side of the hole can be blown from the other direction, because there is so much room to move around to either side of the hole.
Thank goodness they can't fall off this ledge.
So much power! And I got a Multibounce off, that's excellent...
Hey, wait a second! Since when were there X-Nauts in the Audience! They can give Star Power to Mario, unlike Dull Bones, but they are also exclusively interested in throwing rocks and cans at you. Sometimes, if you do really badly, they'll throw multiples. You only take three damage from a rock flurry no matter how many there are, and you can stop it with one X press.
This area makes me feel like I'm exploring a watery swamp even though we're in a tree... Water! I bet we need Koops! ...Um... Or maybe that doesn't make any sense at all...
I'm sharing this Tattle because this is the dumbest Tattle in the game. The solution to the puzzle of this room is that we use Koops, and Goombella had to have a better way of telling us that information.
Underneath the watery room, we can jump across to the other side, but without the Punies, we can't do much but go back up.
We need to hit the far switch to bring the water down.
...Ah.
This is probably one of the cooler uses of Shell Hold. Usually, it's about moving Mario to a more advantageous position. This time, it's to make sure the switch is there. (Be careful: Stepping off the switch doesn't immediately replace the one you need to hit.)
Shoutouts to the recoloured puzzle from 64's Chapter 2.
And a peek behind the curtain of how the puzzle was made.
Shrink Stomp (1 BP) is available in the Lovely Howz of Badges later, but here's the free copy. We'll find it a smite more useful than Soft Stomp, if a little less reliable.
Making sure everyone's there...
And a Shine Sprite on this lily pad.
This is the final stop. You'll need all 101 Punies to depress this switch.
We've come down pretty far. The air is a bit colder here, don'tcha think? The technology used here is pretty insane, too. I wish I had more time to inspect it.
We're going down!
...Non-sequitir, but whatever.
Yay?
Now how did you get in here? Turns out I was wrong about your ability to get through the Tree.
He's really close to the Crystal Star.
But he's not doing anything without running for cover.
This must be the lowest chamber. Saying it's solemn here is an understatement. Under these statues' glares... I feel like the Punies' ancestors are watching us...
Let us show the Puni Orb, symbol of a Puni leader, to the ancestors.
With an earthquake and a white flash, the Emerald Star appears!
Wincon is within our grasp! And no boss fight, either!
Never mind. This theme of Lord Crumps plays here and when he traps you in the cage, and both times are the only times in the story he deserves the slightest hint of credit the song lets him possess.
Koops: What? Did he just... Hey! What's going on here?
Flurrie: Oh, dear! That wretched beast again! Dearie me!
...I'm willing to give you a bit of credit. But I really think the answer is "you got lucky".
Lord Crump is unaware of our Paper Mode powers, and never gets informed. The X-Nauts just generally don't try to trap Mario at all again, despite the fact Mario is absolutely vulnerable to non-cage traps.
This seems to be an idea Crump has entirely by spite to Mario, and while it did require he set it up, it doesn't necessarily mean he was going to do it anyway.
He's going to blow up the Great Tree.
With us inside.
Unfortunately, he lights the fuse from the inside, so he needs a timer so he can make his own escape.
The tense music they use for the escape sequence. It's also overlaid with the ticking of the time bomb, of course.
And he needs to make a warp pipe so he can make his own escape. I don't think the elevator we used to get down here goes back up- we would have been in so much trouble if he didn't give us an out.
Koops: D-Did he just say... Eek! H-Hurry! We have to get the heck out of here!
Flurrie: I must say, I craved exciting times, but I never expected this! Let's go, quickly now!
Since the game never takes the Puni Orb away, I like leaving it in this pedestal and giving chase alone. I felt that might be a bit too cruel to the Punies this time, so they can come. They're only slowing me down, though.
Crump set up an X-Naut ambush as soon as we leave his pipe.
And he forced us to fight it.
Eh, that wasn't so bad, was it-
I swear, this is not the only time this happens. I'd joke the devs made sure the level curve made sure you got a level here, but Paper Mario doesn't allow that reliably.
Let's just take our extra BP and keep running. We needed the heal, at least.
Star Piece in this bush. This is the first time we've been in this room.
It's attached to the underside of the zig-zagging room that leads to the Jabbies. From there, it's a short climb back to-
the bubble room.
This is why I don't like bringing the Punies with me to safety. It's the right thing to do, but goddammit, I'm on a clock.
Go Puni Elder!
"If I'm going down, you're coming down with me, whippersnapper! I might not have long to live, but that just means I've got nothin' to lose!"
The Puni Elder does what she does best. Talk your ear off.
Lord Crump has actually been shrinking as the Elder lectures.
Unfortunately for the Elder, though...
She can't back up her brave stand with action.
Koops: Um... 'Scuse us!
Flurrie: Ahem! You'll do no such thing!
Fortunately, she held up Crump for long enough for us to catch up. Koops is precious.
Unfortunately for the pathos, I do want Goombella out for the boss fight. She'll do plenty fine, since she has personal beef with Crump anyway.
Koops: We aren't going to let you leave, you... you big bully! You hand over that Crystal Star and... get out of this tree! Yeah, get out!
Flurrie: Honestly, did you REALLY think we'd let a wretch like you escape? I do believe you'll be handing over that Crystal Star and promptly exiting this tree!
Maybe I should've brought Koops just for that absolutely pathetic attempt at being badass. I think Goombella wins this sass-off by a nose.
Crump realises he's not leaving before the bomb goes off, and shuts it down.
"What ticking?"
(To explain that joke, I'll have to go into more speedrunning history than strictly necessary for this scene. Suffice it to say it involves sequence breaking the escape sequence.)
Lord Crump activates what I hope he is sure is his other remote.
...Also, maybe someone should've disarmed the time bomb? Just in case?
Crump summons... a gachapon capsule.
OK, I can see where you're going with this...
Power of papercraft! Even if his feet look a lot like tissue boxes, and his legs loose tissue leaf.
Boss theme for Chapter 2. Very X-Nauty, pretty charming, gets old fast. Fades-into-the-background old, at least.
How funny I joked about the feet being tissue boxes.
I'll get around to it when you let me Tattle you.
Goombella seems to take him at his word.
The fact that it's Crump? Crump is not winning any prizes for anything.
Koops: Yikes! That thing IS strong! ...But I can't shake the feeling that there's something just not right about him... Be alert, OK? We can't let ourselves get careless...
Flurrie: Mercy me! That metal colossus is incredible! ...And yet... There's something rather odd about it... Let's just keep our eyes peeled! Don't be careless!
...I seriously don't know what they're hinting at. Maybe his plot-attack? It's a pretty easy one to beat. Just don't use Earth Tremor turn 1.
That's Magnus Von Grapple. It's a giant robot built by the X-Nauts. Lord Crump drives it. Max HP is 30, Attack is 2, and Defense is 1. Its most effective attack is one that takes advantage of its size: a smothering stomp. It can also shoot out its fists, which do these super-gnarly rocket punches. Its fists have Max HP of 2, an Attack of 4, and Defense of 0. Its fists are super-powerful, so it's best to knock them down fast. The thing about this robot is I can't tell if it looks cool, or really, REALLY stupid…
Magnus von Grapple, boss of Chapter 2, is an excuse to make papercraft bosses that TTYD took full advantage of. He can stomp either character in formation for 2 damage, do a 2 damage earthquake to both that pierces defence, and summon his rocket fists to attack you- pretty passe for a boss. He's got a 90% chance of Soft, if you really don't like that point of Defence for some reason.
The audience is always filled such that the left half is Punies and the right half is X-Nauts. I don't think they enforce consistency if the audience has to change its nature partway through, but this is a guaranteed position.
Always losing a turn to this, but always worth it.
Right, Spin Jump.
...Ideally, you actually land the attack.
Time to see that attack power he's been bragging about.
It is really hard to block this attack- he'll move his foot over each target deliberately, before finally stomping on somebody. Not necessarily the person his foot was already over, which is where the difficulty comes in.
Let's hope this works out.
...Only one extra damage? I guess I am doing obscene amounts, but still. I want my FP back.
Crump prepares his ultimate attack:
Summoning his X-Fists. I think they do 4 damage without blowing themselves up, so, you know, have a plan for them.
Like this free Thunder Rage we got.
I blame this mostly on the unusual point on which to jump on Magnus for the command. And also Mario's unusual size, too.
At least we get to see him on the ropes.
And his comical earthquake attack. He kinda looks like he's potty dancing.
Since Mario had an extra turn of Giant, I decided to switch in Flurrie for the cutscene afterwards.
I was assuming I could land a Jump command.
Oh well, he didn't hurt me.
May as well. With the exception of the 6th Crystal Star on the 7th boss, each Crystal Star power actually works pretty well as a counter to something the next chapter boss does.
Here, though, it was mostly for show.
Not "could be". Is.
This cutscene is so weird on console. The rumble kicks in during the "shining" part, but stops during the actual explody bit.
Crump is thrown from the wreckage, the Emerald Star flung from his pocket.
Crump lives to be thwarted again.
The X-Nauts follow his cue. Exploring the Great Tree later lets you refight Piders and Pale Piranhas, but the X-Naut encounters have all been removed.
And like the Shy Guys in 64, there's the one guy who needs to learn how to tie his shoelaces. I think this is the only time he trips.
That's them taken care of. Mario, you can stop glaring after them.
And, as promised, the Punies don't want to have the Emerald Star in their tree anymore, and figure there is no greater prize to issue.
Clock Out, for 2 SP, will attempt to apply the Stop status to all enemies. The Action Command means, if you're not careful, that Stop might be applied to you or the Audience instead, which is the downside compared to Time Out from 64. But we can deal with that. Besides, those rowdy hecklers might deserve it from time to time.
And so, after pummeling Lord Crump, Mario obtained the second Crystal Star... With the X-Nauts gone, peace once again prevailed throughout the Great Tree. The Boggly Woods echoed with the Puni songs of joy. But... this may not be the last our hero hears from the vile X-Nauts. They will surely continue to stand in Mario's way and try to put a stop to his efforts...
They won't be a permanent fixture of the story. That may be to its detriment, honestly, but it at least it means every Chapter isn't "fight off the X-Nauts!"
Next time: Bowser goes retro.
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