We begin our post-chapter experience by watching O'Chunks get chewed out by his manager for getting his ass whooped.
O'Chunks is so ashamed of letting the Count down that he feels bad enough about it, he hardly needs Nastasia lecturing him on the subject to inspire these feelings.
Bleck is not particularly upset with Chunks for losing, instead observing that Mario clearly cannot be taken lightly.
Fortunately, Bleck has a key advantage over us: He has a book that can tell him exactly what we do. He knows where we have to go and can set up traps ahead of us.
...Wait, if he knows where we have to go, surely he knows where the Pure Hearts are and can take proactive measures, right?
Nastasia was one step ahead, and has already done what Bleck has asked.
Mimi has already left, a fact that continues to obscure her default form. Not only are we walking into a trap, but we don't even know what Mimi looks like, so it will be a surprise when we find her.
...Ideally.
And Bleck departs, confident he won't need to care about this anymore.
I dunno why, I love the fact that the Dark Prognosticus has its own box to denote it leaving the room.
Bleck may have left, but the meeting isn't over yet.
The Koopa Troop from the opening have not been forgotten: There's a bunch of them hanging around "here", and Bleck is still cleaning up after them. By which they mean "brainwashing them into serving Team Bleck". This is the explanation for why the Koopa Troop is a hostile presence against Mario.
Also, I love the bait and switch here.
When Nastasia asks the question, you expect her to send O'Chunks to go deal with "persuading" them to join Bleck's cause. No, Nastasia has it covered, O'Chunks is going to sit down and worry about being fired.
Because what's a character dedicated to office jokes without performance review jokes?
O'Chunks gasps in shock, and wrings his teeth as Nastasia jumps off into wherever she's going next.
"I'll be out of a job and the world will end with me still inside!"
With that comic skit over, we have a bit more melancholy of a segment out here, in the middle of... somewhere. Probably inside the Void itself. This miserable corner of existence is accompanied by a suitably miserable theme.
We are going to be playing as Princess Peach, in a proud Paper Mario tradition.
Her memory of the plot thus far was the ridiculous wedding. Which, considering she was on the altar, is certainly the memorable part.
The problem is the important parts happened afterwards and she has no idea a) which were important, b) what they were even if she did see them, and c) what to do about them.
The best plan, in the lack of any others, is find the characters she recognises, asks them what they saw, and work from there. The act of doing so is likely to contribute new things to take note of, as well.
Fortunately, she has found somebody to bring her up to speed.
Say hello to these two guys, members of the Koopa Troop.
People who contribute to Peach's constant kidnapping. Who have presumably kept watch of her while she's in her cage or cell or danging from the ceiling or whatever.
And Peach's first reaction is to check on their well-being.
This either speaks to the purity of Peach's heart or the fact that Peach and Bowser's dynamic is a lot less dangerous than it sounds. Games where Peach is kidnapped by people who are not Bowser do like to highlight the extra peril Peach is in, although this is also partially because those games happen to tend to be more plot-heavy games.
They're looking for Bowser, but they haven't had any luck yet.
They at least remembered he exists. That's something. I would not have been surprised if they didn't.
Now this is an important problem to take note of: Nastasia has been employing her hypnosis powers to turn the Koopa Troop to Team Bleck, which is why it's been so effective. And it will be effective even on these three if they run into her. So priority one is to get the hell out of her vicinity.
And to that end, this is their plan for getting Peach to safety.
They are making an assumption that there is an "it" to make a break for, but right now, we can't afford to consider the alternative possibility.
So where does that leave the Hammer Bro?
He's gotta knock some sense into his old platoon and get them to safety, too.
That, my friends, was one of the finest captains in the Koopa Troop. And I don't even know his name.
I'll see if I can't ask Bowser to promote him.
And with that, the time to play the game has now arrived.
Peach controls largely identical to Mario, except she moves a little slower, and after jumping, she can deploy her parasol for an extended fall.
Private Koopa will walk in the direction of the door you need to walk through, and once he arrives, he can be talked to for some extra dialogue, although this is not mandatory.
Well, so much for that-
Oh. That's a relief. It's just the Captain.
I mean, oh no, the Captain's in danger, but at least we've still got hope for ourselves.
I'm sure the turtle will give it his best shot.
Unfortunately, it's not that kind of brainwashing.
So despite having no frame of reference to the sun- as well as possibly not even existing in a dimension with its own clock- it still runs on 24 hour time.
The Captain goes for a dramatic last stand, hoping he can at least do something with his trusty hammer.
Nastasia decides that "10 o'clock" is now and puts an end to any such delusions.
The red eyes are not promising, in that regard. Hammer Bros. brainwashed by Bleck we fight later use the normal eye colour.
The more Nastasia gathers, the harder it gets for the remainders to get away.
Fortunately, they haven't found us, but that was still disquieting to happen on. The Captain will be missed. We've got us to worry about.
The Private is panicking, and not without reason.
Can't head this direction. To get to our next destination, we have to go down the stairs to the left.
Which puts us out here. Incidentally, in here, the Private apologises for letting his personal feelings interfere with the facade he's putting up. Peach will hardly begrudge him for that, and I find it hard to do the same.
Wheeeeeee!
Oh, that felt a little vague.
Fine, we'll try your door. I guess it is a little hard to navigate this mystery castle.
Excellent work.
...Thanks for getting my hopes up, Private. With that said... there's nothing better?
Surely there's an exit. How do Team Bleck get out?
...So much for getting away. And it looks like the Captain is here to make sure we fall in line.
Strangely, the question of where her hypno powers come from is a relatively open one. Her backstory establishes other traits, but the hypno powers are not among them.
I do not doubt that.
But considering who you call a leader, I think we expected that, too.
Gotta say, I love the fact that SPM leaned hard into "Bad Koopas wear shades" by having a good Koopa get brainwashed into a bad one and spontaneously spawn a set of shades.
...There was an explosion at the wedding? I don't think any of the characters who were present died. Admittedly, Peach, Bowser and Luigi would hardly be killed and no one would miss anyone in the Koopa Troop.
The question from here is... how? Well, OK, I say that, but Peach is a pain to fight in this game, and the less said about TTYD Peach, the better.
Defiant to the end.
Although there aren't exactly a lot of options here...
I love the quiet little whimper without missing a beat.
Just before Nastasia's hypnosis comes into effect, a box is clicked and dragged around Peach.
And she disappears.
Notice how her teleportation box has shrunken away, rather than flipping to disappear. There's a rather cute moment of foreshadowing considering the animation that got used.
"Now I have to sweep for anyone else that got vanished in a mysterious teleportation.
Nastasia shrugs and decides they didn't need Peach on their side, they just needed her out of their hair.
And you know, she's got nothing she can do but wait for the end of the world. What else is she going to do?
Following that intermission, and becoming a regular element of the gameplay, we have these memories. This theme plays throughout, fitting a sort of "looking on back on something historical" (you can even hear an old film reel!). While it is ambiguous through image alone who is speaking, the lack of voice acting means it is also ambiguous while playing.
Our story starts by tending to an injured fella. It may interest, but not surprise, you to know that the injured one is male and the nursing one is female.
This, on the other hand, may prove a tad more surprising. Interesting using "Bleccch!" as a reaction of disgust in a game where we're dealing with a man named "Bleck".
Clearly he isn't from a winged tribe.
The "Tribe of Darkness"... we actually learn surprisingly little overall about them. They keep to themselves, mostly, and today, there is actually no sort of prejudice against them. Or indeed, any recollection that they exist.
Whatever stories this girl has heard, she refuses to let them get in the way of a good deed.
...Although from the sounds of it, perhaps she should've left him alone. Though I doubt she'd live with herself if she had.
(While we can be reasonably certain the character who is having this memory was one of the two, I am less certain on which one. I feel like it's the girl.)
When you clear a chapter, the symbol above the door is filled in.
And when it has, you can visit any Chapter within it freely- so we can choose to go to the start of 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, or 1-4. If you want to go back to Yold Town, you have to go all the way through 1-2, though. Why would you want to? Well, all the enemies and ? blocks have been refilled, for all your monetary or score-based needs. Not the items and Catch Cards, though, those still work on RPG rules.
I had a question I wanted to answer. I got it on the way down.
Here's what Flipside looks like in 3D. Looks like there's more to the place than we can vist.
It's not that I don't believe in them, it's that I can't do much to avoid my fate.
...Uh... I feel like this is supposed to be a tutorial? Not much of one.
That's Minnie... She loves fortune-telling... She hears her daily fortune... and ALWAYS believes it. Yes, she's easily influenced...
Honestly, I get enough fortune-telling from Merlon and Bleck.
...I, er, have no idea why, but it looks like I just didn't bother with the third floor or right-hand side of the second floor NPCs. Strange, since we still don't know their names (no Tattle yet). Not the greatest of losses, but still.
That's Tinga, the innkeeper... This hard worker never lacks a smile on her face... She inherited her family mansion, remodeled it, and has operated the inn since.
Shoutouts to Tinga having made her inn out of a mansion, though. Mad respect.
That's the fortune-teller, Merluvlee... She shows lost souls the path forward... She's pretty flamboyant, and some assume she's a fake... But she has true vision...
I like that they use the words "lost souls" to describe it.
Merlon invites us inside, but does not actually force us to visit yet.
So let's see what else we can get up to.
And this girl will tell us that downstairs is open!
That's Muffy... She's a Flipside wanderer who knows all of the hot spots... She's pretty direct, and she doesn't seem to know the meaning of moderation... Her motto is "Life should be short and sweet, babe!"
Muffy is actually an interesting NPC. Well, OK, that's not true, but she does have a story. In the European version, her name is instead Lucy, because "Muff" is an inappropriate slang term there. There is actually a part of the game where you can still see her NTSC name, though- presumably, it slipped past the testers both because it's a little obscure to find and it wouldn't turn up on a Ctrl+F for "muff".
I've also heard a rumour that's a location we can visit. Rolls eyes.
That's Fret... He's a young man who wanders around Flipside... His hobby is to write down all the things he wants to do before his game ends... But he never takes action, so none of it ever gets done... He's pretty laid-back...
Wouldn't know what that's like. Nope.
Right, let's take a poke around this new 1F...
Starting with this somewhat confused old man. You OK?
That's Walter... He's around 80 years old... His memory and strength are slipping a bit... But this hearty old fellow still loves to eat...
Ah. Happens to us all in the end. Assuming you're lucky enough to live that long.
The house he's standing in front of is his, and his wife still has enough of a grasp to take care of the pair of them.
That's Gladys... This sweet elderly lady supports her husband, Walter... This happy 78-year-old fills her days by frantically caring for her hubby...
She's just fine with this arrangement. I imagine you have a good idea what you want to be doing with your life by 78.
Oh man, I love this kid. He's probably the funniest of the Flipside NPCs.
He will never tell you anything even the slightest bit useful, no matter how prime he positions his facts as.
That's Otto... He's really scatterbrained... You won't hear much of value from him... Still, he's honest and has common sense, so everyone loves him... Kids especially...
I dunno, I feel like a dude with "common sense" would check how rare his information is before supplying it.
This kid is a superfan of Catch Cards, although he's getting it some way differently from us.
I have a good deck! There is a Card I missed back in 1-2, I have no idea when I get that back.
I'm going to guess it's in one of those houses behind the wall.
That's Pitta... This boy is always on top of the latest and greatest trends... He gets so into fads that he blows his entire allowance on them... He's pretty shrewd about other things, though...
He's a trend-chaser? I don't think he ever moves off Catch Cards all game. Maybe postgame.
We're going to be visiting her a lot.
That's Muffy... She has a sweet tooth and is a huge fan of Saffron... She makes desserts herself, but she can't resist them and gobbles them all up...
Not actually the same Muffy. In the Japanese version, they are オネンand ポーラ (Onen and Paula), and when the European version took away their name, they distincted them again by calling them Lucy and Tina.
You would be forgiven for confusing the two, since they happen to have the same sprite.
Ah. Guess we'll need to find something that can explode. And probably soon.
Oh boy, one of these girls.
She can go be happy on her own, I'm just going to go over that way and leave her to it.
That's Cherie... She's a lively, up-and-coming singer... She's talented, but it's the bright quality of her voice that makes listeners happy... Everyone thinks she's young, but even her boyfriend doesn't know her true age...
I dunno, the sprite she's using is generally used on older Flipside women. Then again, it's not like I have a lot of variety to use here.
So what's in this other unmarked house?
A French artist. Or perhaps a fake-French.
...Is this guy even an artist, or just a creator trying to cash in on trends?
That's Sacre, the artist... His art style was once very daring... Now he wants commercial success, though, so he just paints landscapes... But his artistic spirit still burns within...
The answer is... yes?
He's trying to reignite that passion, but he's failing spectacularly.
It's not so much that he's wrong so much as he is... not approaching art with the right mindset. He's either going to keep chasing trends without finding satisfaction, or he's going to settle into a mindset of providing those trends and becoming something that isn't quite the same as an artist. Either way, genuine artists are naturally wary of the latter type of person, and telling him to find his own style is their way of helping him solve his problem in the former. Although if burnout is his problem, that might not be a helpful solution...
That's Sacre's daughter, Ellie... She's a sweet girl who cares for her father... Her dream is to be a pro comic artist... She writes them in secret late at night...
Now, see, there's the passion Sacre is looking for.
The house with the crockery pot is our kitchen for SPM, complete with the same alchemy system we've been seeing throughout the series.
And we've gone back to a Tayce T. archetype this time.
Well, OK, a younger, more friend-making Tayce T. More like a cool aunt than a grandma.
That's Saffron, the master chef... Bring her ingredients and she'll cook them up... She worries about youth food culture and is like a mom to everyone in town...
Let's start with the basics.
Saffron twirls her ladle before going into the kitchen, wandering over to the stove as she goes.
And if she isn't a regular little Annie in the kitchen. Explodes it much less, thankfully.
A heart above her head and another twirl of her ladle means whatever she's cooked has worked out.
Fried Shroom, with no FP to heal, has been upgraded to heal 15 HP. Most cooked items heal higher and higher HP, with very few buffs other than Atk Up to provide. The best thing you can usually get is some exotic ones that give you Score, too.
Like in TTYD, I'm filling up my recipe list. In this game, it feels more like you're supposed to try, and on the plus side, at least it actually keeps up with your HP demands.
Unfortunately, this is not a suggestion to load her up with ingredients that she can cook as necessary. She's only good for one-item cooking for now anyway, it wouldn't be a very useful system if it existed.
It's the Dining Specializer... You can check cooking tips and ingredients here... But in order to increase its cooking data, you need a cooking disk...
Over here we've got the Dining Specialiser, but it's not quite ready yet. We'll have to beat Chapter 2 first, it turns out. It's a hint system for cooking, telling you where to find ingredients and how to cook recipes, rather than just listing both.
This is our recipe list. 96 recipes. 96 of them. It just keeps getting more and more elaborate the further along the trilogy we go.
...There's more to Flipside we can't get to yet? Feels a little overkill, especially since we're also using these maintenance roadblocks rather than building on the abilities we find.
So anyway, let's show Merlon our Pure Heart.
Oh wow, we met Merlon's direct ancestor.
...So, uh, that means (at least) one of the men involved in that whirlwind romance story of hers got the girl in the end. Hey, I mean, we skipped over literally every part of the story that highlighted their personalities, goals, or really anything other than "man". For all we know, there could've been a dark horse suitor.
Imagine having to learn about what successful things an ancestral figure did from the descendant and not the woman herself. We can clearly tell what Merlumina valued in life.
This guy is Skeet, the blue Flipside folk who lives on 3F and waxes about the glory of Flipside Tower on his days off.
This continues for several textboxes.
Well, that's a valid reason to panic...
Merlon is happy to drop what he's doing and investigate.
And volunteers Mario's assistance, to his complete and utter befuddlement. We're saving all these peoples' lives, Mario, what's stepping in for one in particular in comparison?
Oh, and by the way, you can Tattle the Light Prognosticus. For whatever reason you might feel like. It's not an interesting one, but I do like this supposedly important book is just lying here on the counter.
Merlon hustles over to 3F. When I jumped off the tower, I was checking to see if this event spawned before talking to Merlon, but this is not the case: You must talk to Merlon before the girl will spawn.
That's Merlon... He's a descendant of the Ancients who led us here... He toils to protect the world from destruction, the Light Prognosticus as his guide... He's the source of knowledge in Flipside. Most people here put their trust in him...
Merlon's Tattle, incidentally. This whole "being a trusted pillar of the community" thing has come into play here, and it turns out the man himself is probably the most useful of the Merlons to people around him. When he's not shut up in his study reading a book about averting doomsday.
3D on 3F. We are no more able to access that side than we are 2F's.
...Wait a second...
...It can't be that easy, can it?
Well, this certainly looks like Peach. Nastasia or Dimentio setting a trap with her is not out of the question.
With that said, the girl herself did not enjoy her time in the Void. Whether this was exposure to the nightmare fuel that is that castle of mystery, horror about seeing the Captain and Private be brainwashed in an instant, or a side effect of her miraculous teleport escape, she is unlikely to be doing anything active without assistance.
We're not finding some magical cure, we just need some warm food cooked by the mother of Flipside.
To Mario's utter shock. "Don't cooks just make cakes?"
Bring Peach back to her feet, then we can start asking questions about what Peach can and can't do. Or what she's seen.
It is possible to already possess the cooked item necessary to revitalise Peach, at which point you can move on to feeding it to her immediately. I have the necessary ingredient on my person. I chose not to so I could show off Saffron's reaction when she learns of a damsel in distress.
Poor Skeet will continue to be a part of this conversation until Peach is all right.
That's Princess Peach... She's the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom... She's unconscious now...
And, of course, Peach's Tattle. For now, at least.
So anyway, let's go and grab some hot food baked with a smile.
All we need is a Spicy Soup, thankfully. Nothing exotic, especially since we don't have two-ingredient cooking to make the process that much less convenient. And hey, there was that free Fire Burst in Bestovius's house you may or may not have never used...
If not, it's 20 coins in Flipside or 7 out in Yold Town.
I'll use the spare.
Despite the custom dialogue for most of this special instance, the cooking is otherwise a regular instance.
Although with that said, this is an original line. Normally she just repeats the ingredient she gave you, with no indication of what the result will be.
...Flameproof spoon? I guess that's why it comes with one...
Thank goodness there's no cooling mechanic on these inventory items.
By the way, you may be concerned that there's some special coding on the way this special interaction works that means we didn't actually get a Spicy Soup for the recipe list. Even if there was, this isn't actually a problem, because SPM has changed one of TTYD's more annoying rules: If you somehow acquire a cooked item without having actually cooked it, it's still added to your recipe list anyway. There's a few items we can find this way, but you still have to do most of the cooking yourself.
Right, for the first time in the Paper Mario trilogy, let's directly do something to help Peach.
...
At no point have we moved her somewhere more comfortable than the ground? Guys, she's unconscious, her bones haven't shattered.
She wakes up, yawns, and actually vocalises a few of the moans one might make as she moves around. It is really weird hearing these models vocalise, considering they're otherwise the same as the silent TTYD ones. Especially since they only do it on the non-dialogue noises.
And downstairs, we've got a cook who's got loads more coming.
Mario calls out "hi!" to get her attention.
Unlike usual for the series, Peach doesn't have a dedicated "Mario!" line, but if she did, it would be here.
...Looks normal to me. Time to bring her up to speed.
Not actually an answer.
But we have a lot of explaining to do to bring her up to speed. Hell, I barely understand half of it.
(Yes, we are not going to be addressing Thoreau as if he exists.)
Merlon would like her to come home and explain... her story. I'm sure we both get around to it.
I believe nothing in her story is something we, the player, haven't seen, but we now have a more complete picture in in-universe characters: Especially Merlon and Tippi, who know enough things to draw conclusions about how these events tie into other lore.
Mario responds that he doesn't know that, either. We're the first two of the big four Mario cast to reunite.
They'll turn up. Bowser has a permanent "get out of death free" card, and the Toad kid from TTYD promised this would be a game Luigi fans would love.
Mario ponders... presumably that, while Tippi asks a more pertinent question.
We haven't formally stated this yet, but we did more or less understand it. We need to find a Heart Pillar and put this one inside it. We can't use the one we used last time, though, we need to find a new one.
Merlon is just guessing. But meeting Merlee would be nice.
Not quite as nice as Bestovius, who was mechanically useful, but hey, Merlee was the charm-giver in 64 and TTYD. Maybe she's got something like that.
...
Do you guys just not talk to each other? These are the only thing that can prevent doomsday, not family secrets leading to an ancient treasure.
Well, I can only assume that means her magical powers will be necessary to do something.
Sounds easy enough. Assuming that this Pure Heart actually takes us to where she lives.
Merlon jumps and realises that Peach has just quietly inserted herself into the travelling party without anyone noticing.
That's not quite so usual.
Merlon tells her to sit down and take it easy after being brought to such a desperate state that she needed outside help to recover. Valid. I'm going to pretend that the second part of the sentence does not mean what I think it means.
Peach has gotten more than a little sick of waiting around and watching Mario put himself through hell and high water because of her, and likes the idea of lending a hand for once.
Mario shakes his head here. Again, I am choosing to read this the favourable way: That Mario is denying that creating the Void is her fault- she literally got kidnapped and hypnotised into doing it. Even if her trying to reassert agency to the last was a necessary ingredient of the Chaos Heart's creation, the fact remains all guilt for engineering this situation rests solely on Bleck, Nastasia, and possibly the guy who wrote the damned Prognosticus in the first place.
Despite my efforts to think well of the writers and characters, it does sound incredibly like Peach is having to violently insist her way onto a team that is trying its damnedest to keep her out of it.
Peach has, for the second and final time across the entire Mario RPG lineup (at least of the games that exist to date), joined Mario's party as a playable character! Despite this monumentous occasion, the party join jingle doesn't sound as impressive as one might expect. I suppose TTYD didn't exactly have a special chime for its partners.
(I'm just saying, guys, the only other time Peach was a playable character was in the Square game. When the Final Fantasy guys are doing more girl power than you...)
When we play as Peach, we do so instead of Mario. Only one character will appear on the field at a time, although in any cutscene that has "all" the party members, they will all appear with no regards for which one you're playing as (with clever and not-so-clever camera tricks to hide them out of frame when they're putting them in or taking them out of the room).
Not only has Peach joined the party as a controllable character, but in any cutscene that requires only one hero but has dialogue, Peach will actually speak for herself. These dialogue interjections are still relatively interchangeable, but still, we're not stuck with Captain Silent Mario over here (any time Peach would talk, Tippi will speak in Mario's place if Mario is the active character).
...Not feeling at all encouraged by either of your attitudes. Clearly Peach needs to whip out the parasol more often.
But regardless, first of many items acquired as Peach.
...Merlon. Merlon. This is such a ridiculous statement that barely makes sense in the context of the world as constructed.
Because by "very near his house", he means "literally right outside." If you existed in the world, opened the door, and looked around, you would be able to spot the lock this key opens without leaving the house. There's only so far you can extend the "this is actually a mystical artifact passed down through generations" before it sounds more like you don't actually care that much about the secrets it holds.
A second read now that events are happening will help him spot the parts that jump out as being particularly relevant.
We've got some ass to kick.
We leave Merlon's house as Peach, and are now formally playing as her.
And they just dump Peach's tutorial on us. This leads to a part of the whole "playable Peach" thing that I actually kinda hate, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the idea and everything to do with the implementation. Unlike with Pixls, Peach doesn't get rooms built to showcase the new abilities she has and how they can change the way you approach the game. Considering her joining circumstances, this is probably the developers designing the game like an RPG and not a platformer again, but it leads to one of the most disastrous micro-implementations in the whole game.
Before we get to that, just finishing off the tutorials, and doesn't explain how to get there. It's the same button you push to get to your items, and is in fact the option you default to in there.
So anyway, showing off her parasol float again, and her defensive crouch for the first time. That parasol cover is so cool, I feel like I should be using it more than I do, but I do find plenty of chances to use it across the game.
Anyway, now that I'm done talking about that, time to focus on that micro-implementation. You just got a brand new character! The obvious thing to do, in any genre, is to engineer situations in which your new character will be useful, doing things you couldn't do before and showing off how great they are and why you should totally consider changing your playstyle to include using them and-
Yeah. The very first thing we need to do is switch back to Mario.
Despite Peach not using the A Button for any of her unique abilities, flipping into 3D is exclusive to Mario. I understand they had to give the guy something, and the guy is pretty famous for his special ability being "is adequate at everything" (if everyone could flip into 3D, you would never play as Mario again), but considering how essential flipping into 3D is to the game as a whole, this means that practically, you're going to be spending a lot of time as Mario and playing as Peach only when her gliding ability is necessary, or you want to exploit her invincible crouch. The player is going to encounter this flaw eventually, but it absolutely sucks that they do so literally immediately. If we left the house as Mario, we'd probably forget we grabbed Peach by the time we need her glide.
As mentioned, the key is literally right outside Merlon's house. You can still see the edge of it on the screen in this view. The only thing that justifies this is the implication that Merlon is confined to the world of 2D.
Nothing doing on this side.
And I don't understand this side. This is a bit of an interesting part of town, and we actually can do something about it here. I come back for it later, once I stumble on the answer in a guide.
Yes, there are hostiles out in Flipside's Outskirts.
Also a lot of... stuff.
Can't do anything with these, although clearly we need to make them go up and down.
Take that, Squiggy!
OK, the micro-implementation was annoying. This is just adding insult to injury. Yes, they're making a big deal about how flipping is always useful (especially as a relatively unintuitive mechanic), but it just further emphasises how little value Peach has right now.
Can't go down here, either. Although Mario could totally clip those blocks if he shoved his head close enough.
This is the result of me flipping into 3D and putting myself in front of the pipe. The rules of reality bend when 2D/3D is involved.
It says a lot about our new party member that they have a sign to tell you to use her when she's finally helpful.
I'll be doing my best to use Peach, because waves vaguely, but know every second of the way I am fighting the game on this.
You may have noticed the second Pure Heart was slightly different in colour to the first. Now that we see other parts of the visuals, we notice that the distinction was very intentional, and the colours of the measuring circles and door matches the Heart. These early three Hearts looking relatively similar almost feels intentional, but the theme will become obvious by the fourth.
Going back to Flipside Tower on foot? Nuts to that, the Return Pipe still works in here!
On using it, you spin in circles before vanishing in a rainbow circle.
You are then spat out of a red pipe on this exact position, and the pipe completely disappears before you're allowed to move. Still, this is so much more convenient than any other methods of getting around from anywhere in the world.
...But before we enter Chapter 2, one thing I want to get over with first.
We can also cook the Ghost Shroom for a recipe.
...Er, sorta.
There are six "mistake" recipes, five of which you must specifically aim for and the sixth is the standard catch-all recipe for anything that isn't an approved combination. Dangerous Delight is one of them, cooked with the sorts of mushrooms you shouldn't be eating.
Saffron sees no problem adding these to her repertoire.
Anyway, now we go into Chapter 2.
Next time: Level design that can almost be argued to be giving Peach a showcase.
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