Once upon a time, there was a man who worked at Nintendo. His job was to play the Mario games produced by people other than Nintendo EAD and ensure that the games fit in with the Mario IP. This man played an innocuous little game called "Super Paper Mario" and gave it the Nintendo Seal of Approval.
What the hell was he thinking?
In all seriousness, Super Paper Mario is a game unlike any other in Mario's vast, vast collection, and in many ways, the line between the classic Paper Mario trilogy and the modern one is drawn here. I don't think fans of Super Paper Mario fully realise just how not-Mario this game is. And let me just say, 2007 was quite the time for this game to come out, in the context of not only the Mario RPGs, but in terms of what Nintendo EAD was up to...
But for now, to really sell exactly what it is we're looking at, we have to talk about how this game was marketed. Rather than being a turn-based combat system like 64 and TTYD, SPM shares a lot more in common with New Super Mario Bros. (at the time, the only new entry into the 2D Mario sphere in years). As a result, a number of commercials, including one I saw very young that I tragically couldn't track down, liked to advertise this game as another entry in the critically acclaimed Mario series, using a major ability introduced early in Chapter 1 as if it was a Miyamoto-esque signature gimmick. Trust me, if you're coming into this game expecting anything even remotely similar to the actual platformers, you are inadequately prepared for the sheer waves vaguely you are about to witness. I suspect this may have ultimately been something the hurt the project on multiple levels.
But let's actually delve in to what exactly we're looking at here.
From the wish-granting heavens and a fabled treasure comes... a book of prophecies. So far so good.
And right away, we can see that unusual tone make its impact. We interrupt your regularly scheduled Mario wahoos to bring you a morality tale on the nature of seeking to know your own destiny.
This isn't even going to be the actual substance of the story, by the way. This is just the backstory of a key item.
It knows the outcome of all the world's history. All of it. What country do you live in? What regime do you live under? This book can tell you how and when it dies. Not if. When. If you're the ruler of that regime, it's probably going to involve your death. Are you looking forward to that? Want to overthrow the old world and establish a new one? Yup, it'll tell you how the new one dies too.
Fortunately, it looks thin enough that if you're not a major factor in human history, your death will be just a footnote. ...Whether that's actually something you take comfort in may differ from person to person.
This seems like a good idea. I mean, whenever it's being owned by somebody reading it, it clearly ends in disaster.
("Prognosticus" is not a real world. It appears to be an extension of the word "prognosis"- which is the doctor's explanation for what they think your disease is going to do to you if left unchecked- with a Latin ending to make it sound like a book. Honestly, the word alone is funny enough to inspire the giggle it wants you to have.)
The mention of the book's "last owner" is interesting, because I think we're supposed to interpret the story as being about someone who owned the book after the sealing previously detailed, but the way this passage is written, it sounds like the book will be sealed after the events of the game and we're seeing the explanation why. I'm going to assume that, either way, the book will get sealed away and for good reason.
Yes, this story is, in fact, a tale of love. Somehow.
Oh great, now we're reading it. No wonder the game caused so much division.
We start completely unconscious. As of right now, we are not supposed to know who is present in the scene. But somebody spent some time unconscious: Never a good sign.
The game is nice and, while it's using dialogue boxes on a black background, done my job differentiating them for me.
Our focus character wakes up, and notices this weird-looking fellow flying over her. In terms of "worst things to wake up seeing", I'd say this rates second.
This would be first.
At some point, Peach and Bowser have found themselves engaged to be married. This came completely out of nowhere. Well, OK, it was only natural that Bowser would consider an evil plan that ends in him tying the knot (and indeed, the platformers would later do this with Odyssey), but we have absolutely no idea what that plan was, or who this ponce officiating the ceremony is.
Bowser is cheered on by the Koopa Troop down at the bottom of the stairs, who seem to be the entirety of the procession. All the speech bubbles say these lines and "All hail!" as it scrolls by.
Good question. Well, OK, yes, I can see it's a wedding.
Another character appears with a transition that you can expect to see a lot in this game: A mouse cursor clicks and drags a box, which then spins around to make the character either appear or disappear. Many magic characters will use some variant of this to denote them teleporting or similar.
This lady is the Count's secretary, and speaks like you'd expect of such a woman.
Finally, a name for the new guy. And a bit of a weird speech quirk.
He's a Count, so I assume this wedding is legally binding. With a secretary like his, I assume he's dotted all his is and crossed all his ts. But like hell we're complying with it. Wedding waltz or no.
And yes, Super Paper Mario goes all in on the "your game is over" language. Part of that is this game's tone, and part of that is the overall increase in places to put the phrase. We're going to be making this joke often because we're going to be talking about death often.
Bowser's happy to go along with this. From the sounds of this sentence, however, it sounds like this wasn't Bowser's idea, he's just complying.
Right. What's your plan for this bit, Count?
Peach, fresh off TTYD and the only one for miles with any sense, takes some agency over this ridiculous scenario and demands to know what is going on. Hopefully it will help.
Again... yes, we gathered that. That part is obvious. Why the hell should we agree to- wait, do you not have arms!?
Crossing our fingers we hit the "explains evil plans" type of villain today.
Bowser pipes up to encourage the Count to press on.
And he confirms he really is as clueless as he normally sets himself up to appear. That's not how falling in love works, and you know it.
I... actually, it is just a white palette swap of your normal gown, I can see where you're coming from? Still, though, it doesn't look that bad.
Knowing the character who I'm fairly sure was responsible for designing the dress, though, I can only assume it's a lot worse on the inside. Peach will get her revenge for this yet.
Peach's wedding dress in Odyssey. It's... at least it's not a palette swap of her normal gown! I think I prefer the SPM dress, though.
...Well, I guess it was worth a try?
No dice.
Look, I'm not sure why you thought asking the question again was going to produce a different answer.
As far as I can tell, super-hypnosis does not differ from regular hypnosis. Well, OK, if you define "regular hypnosis" as "real-life stage magic", super-hypnosis is different because it actually works.
Peach gets another blast of "super hypnosis" to try and make sure Peach goes along with this charade.
To emphasise how much of a powerhouse Peach is in this game, no other hypnotised character in the game uses red text. Peach is resisting the hypnosis as hard as she can.
Unfortunately, whatever it is the Count was hoping would happen accepted a coerced answer. Considering the build up around this event, part of me wonders if it would even have worked had Peach consensually and freely offered her vows.
The song plays a strong medley of wedding bells and "something very bad is happening" music.
I assume this is Bowser talking. Everyone else conscious around here knows what's happening.
Luigi is also in the audience. This is semi-adequately explained later, but now that he is too late to do anything, it is time for him to leap into action.
Luigi wakes up groggy and, put in an unfamiliar locale, zeroes in on the two people in this room he does recognise.
Coming out of the pedestal here (I... don't know if normal weddings have one of these) is a black heart.
Not technically an explanation for either of these things, but I think we can safely assume that was Very Bad. Let's see if we can't do something about it before we find out How Bad the hard way.
The secretary nervously remembers "oh yeah, this seems like a good time for celebration". Wasn't a quick instinct.
Luigi will save the day!
...
Ah, who am I kidding, this game was released in the naughties, no he won't.
Count Bleck wasn't expecting this to happen. The two of them have met before, if in passing, and Bleck really has no need to care.
His heart is in the right place.
His mouth? Not so much.
Let's see your cunning plan to solve whatever problem has just happened.
Luigi cannot be stopped. He does not understand why he should!
Luigi leaps into action, jumping on the black heart on the way. There's a bright flash as he does so, and considering later reveals about the nature of this object of evil, I suspect this is intended as foreshadowing.
Give it your best shot, my good man, and accomplish something!
The artifact of doom decides it has other plans.
Bleck warps to this miscellaneous "here" with his copy of the Dark Prognosticus. We'll go into what happened to Peach, Bowser, Luigi and the Koopa Troop later, but they're all OK, folks. For now.
Over in this scene, we've switched to Champion of Destruction, which has a different opening, a similar melody, and will become the leitmotif of the Count.
Count Bleck is frustrated with the setback, but in a fairly generic villain way. He'll do something more substantial about this next time, he promises.
That is, if he still cares.
Now that Count Bleck has... worked to fulfill one of the prophecies in the Dark Prognosticus, he may proceed to the next. This is a worrying villain to have, if he's not bothered at all by what he reads in that book...
...
Of course the Dark Prognosticus foretells doomsday.
And of course Count Bleck will be happy to facilitate that.
If you're wondering why this doesn't happen in Super Mario Odyssey, other than the obvious answer of "Miyamoto 'politely' insisted", that is a good question. Mario crashes that wedding during the exchanging of the rings, which to my understanding, comes after the vows. I'm going to chalk this one up to neither game's wedding actually caring much about the order of events in a real ceremony.
...Either that, or there's only one of these to worry about, and dealing with it here in SPM means Odyssey Bowser is free to attempt a wedding again.
By the way, that was the cutscene that plays before the title screen. TTYD had essential information in its equivalent, but it was a) the chronologically first thing that happened in the story, b) summarised in Peach's letter to Mario and c) most of the details that made it important only mattered if you were taking a deep level analysis of the story. None of these are true for SPM, although one could make a convincing argument that c) is.
New game, new text entry field. Like TTYD, we'll actually use this for things, but the name on our file is not one of them.
Welcome to Mario's House, in fabulous 2D! Despite this, you can still see the seam that 64 and TTYD used to represent the diorama.
We will not be visited by Parakarry in person, but we can see him in spirit. Those two portraits that have been placed on the cabinet behind Luigi depict a group shot of all the 64 and TTYD partners (which each game having their own picture). This will not be their only appearance in the game, but it might as well be.
Luigi does the Very Naughty Thing of pointing out it's peaceful when it's still morning coffee.
Yep. Luigi's trying to get things to end in disaster. My young brother, this peace is what all true plumbers strive for.
That makes one of us.
Mario, in trying to figure out how to tell his brother to get onto a less morbid topic of coffee conversation, performs two animations. One thing about SPM in general is that it's more animated than TTYD was, with Mario being more happy to express himself.
That seems as good a way to get Luigi excited about a better idea as any.
Besides, we always visit her while she's captured. Peaceful conversations are plenty rare.
And off we go. Hopefully Luigi hasn't jinxed us into-
Of course he did. I don't want to judge him too harshly, but... judges him harshly.
Ladies and gentlemen, the only Toad in the game. Well, OK, the only Toad with a speaking role, but close enough. Sticker Star really was a paradigm shift.
...Luigi, please. I try my hardest to give you more credit than the game does, please try not to make my job harder than it needs to be.
Of course, Toad is not, in fact, panicking because there is a novel situation happening, he is panicking because he's a Toad and Toads are an evolutionary dead end that panic if you so much as breathe in the same room as Princess Peach.
Mario, once again, finds the best frames to blink frame on.
Luigi, speaking for all the actual children in the audience. Despite having Mario's happy face on the branding, I'm not 100% sure "children" are a target audience of this game.
Luigi blames the obvious target, although notably based on zero evidence.
I mean, yes, it's Bowser, it's always Bowser, but still.
Mario takes a few seconds to come to the same conclusion. I say I'm fairly sure this game is not aimed at kids, but on the other hand, some of the dialogue choices they make are very juvenile.
"By which I mean progress through a ten hour, lovingly handcrafted adventure through eight distinct worlds that are Grass, Desert, Ice, Water, Forest, Mountain, Sky and Lava themed to face off against him in a climactic duel. If we find a Warp Whistle, we might make it home before our coffee gets too cold."
And off they plod.
There's actually a beat panel after he says "Mario...", to really hammer home the fact he's not addressing Luigi by name. Back in TTYD, we were promised a plot that would give Luigi spotlight, and this is a nice proper thematic clue that the fact nobody seems to know or care what the deal is with Mario Jr. is going to be relevant to the story being told, for the people playing who might not even know this is a running joke for poor Luigi.
Meanwhile, at Bowser Castle:
Bowser is preparing to give a speech to his minions, eager to tell them about how funny that joke he told last night was.
Or, well, his latest scheme to kidnap Princess Peach. Same thing.
Nothing supporting this assertion other than "I've got a good feeling about this this time, guys!"
YEEEAH!
It's OUR turn!
Bowser, Bowser, WOO!
Your Rudeness!
We're under attack!
WHOAAA!
This is the full list of things the Koopa Troop can say to cheer Bowser on. I wouldn't have necessarily highlighted this, but this time, I only got the purely enthusiastic ones.
"We're under attack!" is plot-relevant, and Bowser brings it up. You'd think this would have been forced had it really been so important.
Bowser notices some errant moustaches on the team. So, which member of the Koopa Troop having a 'stache looks most ridiculous? I think we have seen mustachioed Troopas in some games.
Bowser leaps into the middle of the pack, and notices that Red and Green have already made it here. Seems we found a Warp Whistle somewhere along the way.
...Goddammit, Bowser. Then again, it's not like Bowser has not been known to leave an unlocked gate- Super Mario World openly lets you go in through the Back Door.
Bowser throws a TTYD-style temper tantrum at his minion's stupidity. Sorry, mate, but you had to have a better security system than this.
Mario and Luigi are here to rescue Peach...
But wait, didn't Bowser say he was going to do that? Either we're playing fast and loose with the timeline, or...
Someone else was to blame.
Luigi, I think you owe Bowser an apology.
In fact, the person who did the deed of kidnapping Peach is the minister from the wedding we saw in the intro, Count Bleck.
Although who that is is not obvious at all. Like, his name is Count Bleck, but why do I care?
This is Bleck's formal namedrop, even if his speech pattern means you're going to be hearing him say his own name a lot.
For every question he chooses to answer, he raises ten more. We already know he read the Dark Prognosticus and decided he wants to trigger the events contained within, but now we learn he is a dimension hopper and still don't know what his motives are.
Bowser has noticed he's running on a deficit from TTYD, and delivers one hell of a burn by throwing Bleck's speech pattern back at him while saying what I have in fewer words.
"Release Peach so I can kidnap her and... these two can rescue her back, I suppose?"
Of course, the villain wants Peach for what she is rather than what she can do. This is a trend among Mario villains who need to figure out why their villains are kidnapping Peach other than "because that's what Mario games do", and amazingly, Super Paper Mario is probably one of the better games about treating Peach well as part of this arrangement.
Oh yeah, that thing where Bleck wants to destroy not just everything he ever knew, but everything anyone ever ever knew.
Mario attempts to stop him, only to be repelled by a barrier matching the one around Peach.
At which point Bleck retaliates with this really tiny, really ominous and really effective attack.
"Oh no, he beat Mario!"
Ironically, this one decision may have ultimately saved the day in the end. There is something else that helps things along, but this is the first domino in a long, long chain.
Bowser looked at the size of that attack and decided he can't destroy the entire Koopa Troop at once. Now, whether they can deal any damage when Mario could not is another matter.
At any rate, the reason Bleck even came here to taunt Bowser was because he also planned to kidnap him for evil ends. This is part of the reason it doesn't suck so much that Peach is a doomsday maiden as always- not only is Bowser also a doomsday man, but Bleck also stops caring about them once they have done the thing he needs them to do.
Bleck captures not just Bowser, but Luigi and the entire Koopa Troop in the room. And conspicuously leaves the "weakling" Mario behind.
He is off to go and perform the wedding that we already saw in the opening sequence. This sort of non-linear narrative doesn't really work in the game's favour and is an annoying thing to work around when you're trying to share the story. Many people who do video splice in the wedding here. I decided to present it in the order the game did, to really hammer home how it feels to see it as the game presents it.
Count Bleck rounds out the scene with his signature laugh, "Bleh heh heh heh! Bleck!" He really is a caricature of a villain, but an effective one nonetheless. Expect to hear this laugh a lot.
He then does the click-and-drag teleport animation.
(To be specific, the wedding should go here, and then cut to this next scene.)
Someone has finally gone back for Mario.
...And it's... a rainbow butterfly?
Ah, yes, that explains things. Pixls do have an established presence in the world, but saying "I am a Pixl" is not going to convey that. I think "fairy" might cover the basics for now.
Mario is actually wary of Tippi, leaning in to his aggressive stance.
With that said, Tippi is aware of the plot that has transpired and what Mario is likely to be familiar with.
And from the sounds of things, things we do not know.
Yes, it'll be easier if we have things explained at the destination.
But that's all the explanation we get beforehand.
Tippi draws a click-and-drag window around Mario, and fortunately, I have managed to capture the mouse cursor this time.
Tippi teleports Mario and herself away to dimensions unknown, and with that, say goodbye to the world of Mario, because we're never going back. We barely made it halfway into the first update and already we've cut away from the franchise's roots harder than TTYD did.
Welcome to the hub world of SPM.
And say hello to the man with the massive beard who will serve as our major expositional guide, the SPM version of Merlon from the mystery tribe Paper Mario keeps around. And with his appearance, it's time to formally touch on something we've been seeing a lot of and is only going to get more prominent: SPM's very not-Mario tone is matched by the artstyle adopting an "early Internet clip-art" aesthetic, with the characters who are not members of Mario's voluminous cast instead being comprised of various squares, triangles, circles, and the sorts of preset shapes you might expect to see when given the base version of any image-editing software. In the context of SPM itself, this is perfectly fine: It makes sense nobody looks like Mario characters if we really are tackling problems outside the scope of the Mario world. But that still means we're mostly using designs that don't mesh together with Mario's. This is the sort of problem that wouldn't matter as much if SPM were an entirely original project.
Despite not even being in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore, Mario is still being recognised. Imagine being so famous you can't even leave your own dimension to escape it.
With that said, we are not being recognised for being Super Mario, insert "Charles Martinet having the time of his life" noises. We are being recognised as a character in a book called the Light Prognosticus, a plot point that makes some intuitive sense because of its name. Which is good, because the explanation of what the Light Prognosticus is itself isn't very coherent.
Welcome to Flipside. He says "the Mushroom Kingdom of your dimension", but as far as I can tell, ours is the only Mushroom Kingdom around. Which makes sense- there are probably dimensions without mushrooms.
Flipside itself is "not a dimension", an assertion that makes no real sense and I forget if they ever actually explain what this means and why this matters. It's mostly symbolic of the fact this is a hub world.
The Ancients are an ancient race significant to the story of Super Paper Mario, but whether the Merlons, Merlees and Merluvlees of 64 and TTYD are part of this tribe or their own thing is left unanswered. Probably for the best.
A description usually applied to crazy conspiracy theorists. His texts were at least written by reputable sources!
"To tell you the truth, you're the first one that asked." In all seriousness, since we can quite literally point to the evidence, I assume he's taken more seriously than most. He also seems to be well-known in the community.
She seemed to think you were better equipped to explain it.
Our answer is the literal black hole in the background.
Be prepared to get very familiar with this sight.
This hole in the fabric of dimensions exists in all worlds, and no matter where we go, we will see it in the sky. How dangerous is it? That depends on how big it is, but when it grows all the time...
He "wields" a book of prophecies. Sure. But regardless of what the hell he just said, his meaning is well understood.
The Chaos Heart is usually interpreted to have been summoned by the union of two souls who were not meant to be together. In that regards, Count Bleck's very slapdash approach to proceedings may very well have supported the effort, making it explicit, at every step of the way, that this wedding absolutely should not have happened.
The Chaos Heart's awakening caused the Void to appear, although it also sounded like Bleck had a hand in that process. I think we are supposed to assume he did.
This is doing an excellent job of obfuscating what exactly the Light Prognosticus is right out of the gate. The Light Prognosticus is not a book of prophecies, but rather a book of instructions.
Its most important job is this: There exists a prophecy in the Dark Prognosticus that the world shall come to an end through this method, and the Light Prognosticus describes how that fate shall be averted.
We slip a little Mario whimsy into this serious story we've found ourselves in, with the job of collecting eight shiny things to get to the ending and beat the bad guy. And even then, the fact they are hearts and not stars betrays the fact that the Hearts mean more to SPM than they do to Mario.
By the way, unlike what one might expect, Merlon is not showing us a physical representation of a Pure Heart, he is actually showing us a Pure Heart. He has one. In his possession.
By which they mean "the Light Prognosticus describes the Hero in question and you match his physical description". I'm inclined to take the book at its word that they more or less knew the plot of the game and summarised it, but in terms of the actions Merlon needs to take, they do appear pretty ridiculous without the justification provided.
By the way, you are given the option to say no to this quest. This is an actual option.
What?! How can you refuse? If you do not accept this, all worlds will end! You must!
After all I have told you, you still refuse?! You are our very last soap. ...Wait, what did I say? Hope! Very last HOPE! This is the final time I will ask you. Please... Save the world!
I see... Then all worlds are as good as doomed... Ohhhhh...
You will be given three chances to accept your duty as protagonist. If you continue to refuse (the responses get more and more dismissive the longer you go), Merlon will realise that the Light Prognosticus was false, there is no hope for the world, and resign himself to watching the Void swallow Flipside and him inside it. Considering what, exactly, his plan was, it's not like he couldn't have seen this coming, but it's an utterly miserable way to go. Although it's not like Mario isn't going to get what's coming to him.
We have not gained control of our character, by the way. You can Game Over before you start playing.
Of course Mario accepts. Merlon's book of prophecies is worth the paper it's printed on!
Merlon bestows upon us the first of our collectibles, meaning that while there are eight to most game's seven, we're still using the traditional "seven chapters to collect shinies, then fight final boss" format.
This one isn't quite as dramatic as the usual jingle, and I think is actually truncated compared to the normal one. At least part of this is because the usual flourish involves a mechanic we haven't seen yet.
The game seems to go with portraying Mario as being only mostly willing to lend a hand. I do wish they wouldn't. It seems to be a bit of a trend with IS to show Mario as not being as heroic as he acts.
The Pure Hearts are pretty worthless mechanically. Unlike the Star Spirits and Crystal Stars, they do not grant additional abilities to Mario, although unlike the Star Pieces from SMRPG, they do have a mechanical use. For that to become apparent, however, they must be placed in a Heart Pillar. I am honestly not entirely clear on why, mechanically or narratively. From the former perspective, the main use seems to be facilitating a reason to explore Flipside after completing chapters rather than rushing the whole story in a row. Why this is desirable, on the other hand, is less clear. Unfortunately, I suspect the answer is "because they knew there wasn't much else in Flipside to draw your attention."
At last, we are going to be given some gameplay to do-
Oh, one last tutorial. A somewhat necessary one, but it does kinda feel like "one last slap in the face" here.
...Tee hee. The prompt to interact with something is usually "Up" on the D-Pad, but if it "makes more sense" to hit Left or Right, the game will actually make you press that direction, and even the tutorial is mentioning it. Probably for the best, but...
At last! Control of our character! We can move, jump and duck, much like Mario can in his platformers. No run button, though.
Tippi is instructing us to use that elevator (denoted by the black square with a red arrow pointing down), but I have a better idea for all concerned. Except maybe Mario.
If you jump off Flipside's Tower, you will land on the top floor of Flipside (3F). Fortunately, this also happens to be where the Heart Pillar is!
(If you jump off the other side, you will spawn on the other side of the room and have to walk over here).
Right, then.
There's a second jingle that plays when you put a Heart into a Pillar, and we do get the full effect for the freebie. The Heart Pillar starts pulsing, and the Heart appears to respond.
Setting itself into the heart-shaped indent, and drawing a complicated mass of measuring circles of some kind. Probably astronomy or an outdated form of math. Or even both!
Setting a Pure Heart into a Heart Pillar is necessary to open the door to the next Chapter. Literally, this time. In TTYD, showing a Crystal Star to the Door merely told you where in the world to look, which you then had to show to Frankly to be told how to get there. Now we don't even have the option of going there until we do the setting.
The circles clear away by expanding until they are too large to fit the frame. That's certainly one way to do it.
...Not a talkative one, are we?
Tippi will follow behind us this time, rather than leading the way. I guess she figures there's no leading us. Although this time, with nothing to jump off, we're at the mercy of the game's directions.
Flipside is filled with these NPCs. They do not have a name, but they will be the predominant NPC we encounter throughout the game, when a given Chapter doesn't have a different one to use.
They seem to be a bit of boiling down an NPC to its most barest essentials: Feet to walk around with and a head to use to talk. They're charming enough, but they're no substitute for a real character.
This kid has some accent that puts "s"s where they shouldn't be. I know I've heard this accent on child characters before, but I think it's a very old-fashioned sort of choice.
Using an elevator correctly this time. They are at least having fun with their chosen aesthetic.
Flipside 2F here (side note, in the PAL version, the Floor numbers are shifted to account for the existence of the Ground Floor, but I'm actually playing the NA version for a change) is one of the bigger areas for businesses, containing some, but not all, essential services.
We'll start on the right-hand side, because that's where the lift came out.
Merluvlee is the hint NPC, and what a tumble she's taken since the RPGs. Super Paper Mario doesn't have any massive collection quest like the Star Pieces and Shine Sprites to point you to, so she can only tell you what your next objective is.
In a linear platforming game.
There's a reason Mario games don't typically have a Merluvlee equivalent.
At least it's but a pittance. Not that we have any coins to our name.
I'm never going to use this place.
This little girl tends to talk highly of Merluvlee, but for now, most of the NPCs are reacting to the Void or us.
Or just not realising there's anything out of the ordinary.
The house with a bed icon is, of course, an inn to rest in. This is the only place to find an Inn in the game.
5 coins to be restored to full HP can be a good deal, but I usually find it's never worth it. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe that's the way the game's balanced.
Tinga at least has a nice curtsey animation when she's done talking to you.
...I mean... I'm not sure how one gets in or out of this place.
Tippi introduces us to Save Blocks, which are mostly useful as a warning in this game. If there's a Save Block, there's usually a reason to reset nearby.
Nice 64 Merlon reference. This won't be too common, Merlon likes to go back home after talking to us.
The elevator to the next floor down, where one can find other useful services for our adventure, is currently Out of Order due to plot, and won't be accessible until we beat Chapter 1.
This is very inconvenient to the people of Flipside, who have to suffer through it too. My real question is why there is only one elevator going from floor to floor. This isn't me ribbing the game's world-building design from in-universe, this is going to become a genuine complaint mechanically.
I'll take your word for it. Couldn't have at least sprung for Keep Out tape?
Sadly, a very reasonable reaction to disaster on the scale of the Void. It is going to become a Very Big Problem for him, but he's one man, and a man who doesn't even have arms. What's he going to do about it? It's probably best for all concerned not to tell him about impending doom: He'll spend the rest of the Void's existence worrying and he has no agency in whether or not it will end with his own life.
The house with a Mushroom on the door is a shop. I always tend to think of Mushrooms as "healing" and not "items"- they've abandoned the Fire Flower design from the RPGs.
Howzit, the shop's proprietor, likes to elongate his words unnecessarily. I hate it when it's vocalised and it's somehow just as bad in text form.
Shop Points were a pretty inconsequential mechanic in the RPGs, but they... honestly, they're not that great in this game, either, but they do give things other than more (and rare) items in this one.
I don't think they give you double shop point bonuses at any point.
Ahahaha... ha...
Unlike the RPGs, "Buying" is now actually done by talking to Howzit: the shelves are decorative and not even a comprehensive list of what he can sell. The other three services, however, function as they did in the RPGs.
- Shroom Shake: The equivalent to a regular Mushroom, these have been buffed since the RPGs. Mushrooms in the RPGs healed 5 HP, which kinda quickly got outclassed and made finding decent healing pretty tough. 10 HP a pop, though, not only gets outclassed later, but also the way damage works means we can make 10 HP last us longer than we might've done in the turn-based games. As a side note, all healing items except one cure poison, you can kinda remove that part of the description from your minds.
- Long-Last Shake: Well, that didn't last long. This is the one healing item that doesn't cure poison, instead healing us for a few HP at a time- between 10 and 20, depending on how well you do at an Action Command minigame that uses motion controls. On console, this is relatively easy, but because of the way I've mapped my controls, it won't work well for me. It's honestly not the greatest item even if you can get it to work.
- Life Shroom: Having seen a matching nerf to the Mushroom's buff, Life Shrooms now heal you to 5 HP on being killed. While I did praise 10 HP as lasting longer than 5 did in the RPGs, I will say that 5 HP upon being brought back to life is a very dangerous position. Many lategame enemies will be using attacks that do more damage than that, meaning that if your response to eating a Life Shroom isn't to eat another inventory item, you might find yourself on your way to eating a second one in short order in the situations you might be eating one at all.
- Fire Burst: The equivalent to a Fire Flower, because I guess the SPM devs were feeling really eager to not be a Mario game, this can do small damage to everything on the screen. Like a Fire Flower, this stops being good pretty quick, and it's a common immunity.
- Ice Storm: Does twice as much damage as a Fire Burst and has a chance of freezing an enemy solid. I guess it didn't take that long.
- Sleepy Sheep: Attempts to put enemies to sleep. I wonder if this is better than I give it credit for, but if it's anything like TTYD sleep, it's probably not worth the inventory slot.
- Courage Shell: Reduces damage taken by half for 25-40 seconds. Decent in the right hands, but usually you're more scared of combos than of power.
- Shell Shock: Summons an 8-bit Koopa Shell to bounce around the screen for a while, comboing enemies on the ground if it doesn't go sailing into nowhere. Useful in the right circumstances, pretty terrible otherwise.
- Star Medal: Gives the player 1000 points. Despite the fact that the platformers have been tracking your score from Super Mario Bros. all the way to the Wii U, Super Paper Mario is one of the few games in which Points have a mechanical value. With that said, this isn't really the best way to acquire 1000 Points- you'll probably wind up getting more than that just farming the coins.
- Gold Bar: Retaining its purpose as a way to "store" money, Gold Bars are actually a decent option for purchase in this game: If you sell them to a store outside Flipside, they're actually worth more than the asking price. Good to know if you have money but need it. A rare situation.
That's our tour of the facilities done, back up to the top of Flipside Tower we go.
The elevator trip stops at the top and starts going sideways, so we can appear in the corner. This rather spindly-looking path looks bad enough, but it disappears after we're done using it. I'm starting to agree with the lady who asked for stairs.
Merlon has been waiting to show us this shiny new door. Aw, look at him.
The doors always lead to a dimension where one of the Pure Hearts is kept, although considering the places some of them appear, I have to wonder if this line is more metaphorical than literal. In the weird edge cases, the game is more ambiguous about which seems more suitable.
Tippi will be happy to help, and nothing more. She's now got an actual mechanical function.
And Merlon has one more thing to bestow, much more useful than it first sounds.
The Return Pipe can, with almost no exception, take us from wherever we are in the world directly back to Flipside. More specifically, it teleports us to the right-hand side of Flipside Tower, and if you jump off the tower, you land right next to the elevator to 2F. Depending on your business in Flipside, probably faster than using the elevator designed for us. And, of course, we now have next to no reason to ever use that elevator going up again.
Or... at all, really. I think it is possible to beat the game without using the Return Pipe, but it cuts out so much travel time...
One important thing to note, however, is that if you use the Return Pipe during a Chapter, you will be forced to return to the place the Chapter starts. You will not lose any story progress, but in a linear platformer, repeating already completed levels is one of the bigger forms of backtracking you can face. That's not to say it's useless, but try to stay in a Chapter unless absolutely necessary (as in, your inventory is empty, you're on 3 HP and surrounded by enemies).
There's only one place I thought it didn't work, but it turns out there are actually multiple places to keep on your toes for. Most of which I probably should've expected, but one was a surprise. The least spoilery (and probably most important) one to mention now is there's a blanket ban on Return Piping out of boss fights.
Merlon has one important thing to tell us, and it turns out this is a very important thing to mention. This is mainly to make it clear he knows what to expect- and also to make us want it when the offer is made.
With that said, I am amazed he's taking it for granted he'll be here.
I'll be 100% honest, I wasn't actually expecting to do any actual gameplay this update. But instead, we're starting Chapter 1! ...And that's it. We're not going to look at Mario until next time.
That's because now is the time for the first enemy intermission! More or less after every Chapter, we'll have an opportunity to peek in at what our bad guy pack is up to. This isn't the replacement for Peach intermissions, but... well, let's just say the game has different plans for those.
Count Bleck, of course, is pleased that stage one has gone to plan, and is gloating about it to his three best friends.
Starting with captain big-and-burly, O'Chunks. This guy may be the most charming of Bleck's crew, although it may disappoint fans of Scottish clansmen to note that his boss theme does not actually contain bagpipes.
The Irish name was a localisation invention: The French and Spanish translations noticed the Americans got the wrong patronym and gave the correct one to McAstagne and McCachos, respectively. With that said, I do think the PAL version keeps him as O'Chunks rather than McChunks- or perhaps an alternative name that doesn't sound like vomit.
(With that said, he does sound rather like a teenage girl in this line.)
Down here is the friend who is usually listed last, Dimentio the magician and fan of the theatre. He does have a mouth, but when he's not lip-flapping, it's not often he keeps it open to prove it. He'll be the most competent member of the team.
That third pedestal, of course, is reserved for the latecomer at this meeting:
...Er, O'Chunks?
Even he seems a bit confused as to how exactly this happened.
Like the complete numbskull he is, O'Chunks has forgotten that the second member of Team Bleck is a shapeshifter.
She proves her point by turning into the Count, rather than reveal her true face to the audience.
O'Chunks, having shaken out the last of that confused arrival stuff, quickly realises that of course he's talking to Mimi, the rather cheeky childlike shapeshifting wonder of the group. Mimi's probably my favourite of the trio, but she has her moments where I remember this is still 2007.
O'Chunks isn't actually all that bothered by Mimi pranking him- well, not that much in comparsion to how offended he feels that Mimi has decided to mimic the Count. This is a man who has his priorities firmly in order.
With that said, the Count doesn't mind. He finds the sight of himself rather pleasant.
Mimi transforms into Peach to express her positivity. Why she transforms into Peach is a little weird in-universe: I think it's mostly just to make sure that the audience is fully aware that Mimi is a shapeshifter. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure Mimi and Peach have bumped into each other yet.
Mimi, as a female minion of a male villain, does have a bit of a crush on the Count, but since she's also a teenage girl, her crush doesn't really have ambitions about going anywhere, nor does either side really do anything with it. It really didn't have anything to do with anything and I'm not sure if they should've gone with it, but it also could've been far worse...
Dimentio throws a rather uncharacteristic tease Mimi's way. I think knowing Mimi's ideal world is all about money and hot men tells us more or less what maturity level we're dealing with here, although that's not to say Mimi is incompetent. Or hell, it's not even like we ever try appealing to her baser instincts, it's mostly just an incidental character trait.
Now that we have a rough introduction to the general mood of the villain crew, we hear Bleck's opinions: that he doesn't care what shenanigans they get up to, and once the Void has consumed all, he will reward their loyalty by giving them their respective heart's desires. Don't question that too much, the game will do that itself later on.
He will set them tasks to perform, and of course, we will be engaged with them regularly as opponents. Unlike the X-Nauts, who dominated two chapters, provided an ending to a third and largely kept to the sidelines at all other times, there is no chapter where we are safe from meeting at least one of these guys, occasionally two, although how much they do to interfere with the story changes from Chapter to Chapter.
Oh, and of course, Nastasia is not to be discounted. As Count Bleck's secretary, she's not going to be going out into the field and actively opposing us like the other three.
Nastasia's memo is the presence of Mario. Welp, looks like they have some way of tracking where we're going. I guess that's how they keep getting in our way.
Bleck, of course, needs to make sure we don't do the one thing that can stop his plans, because we are the only ones who can.
Fortunately, he himself won't have to do much.
O'Chunks is happy to take first dibs on dealing with Mario. I don't think we really expected anything less. And, once again, we can see that O'Chunks really highly values the Count.
Bleck is happy to let him get on with it. Hey, this has a good chance of Chunks coming back dusting his hands and Bleck doesn't have to care ever again. If he doesn't, then he can start thinking of more active plans.
O'Chunks offers the other two to come along, but not to help, just to watch. That's how confident he is he can take us. He leaves Count Bleck's room the same way he entered it: By jumping and falling off screen.
Dimentio is actually tempted by O'Chunks offer, and decides that yeah, he will go and watch. And possibly interfere, too, while he's there.
When Dimentio teleports to or from a location, a window expands around him, before shrinking and leaving a rippling water effect. This unique effect is mostly just for flavour.
Bleck ends by having a traditional evil laugh about the futility of the Hero's Journey. Like any good villain who really thinks his power will be enough for any circumstance. Mimi is not shown leaving the room, but as a shapeshifter... who knows when she'll appear next?
Mario was called upon once again to save the world... no small task. Could he prevent Count Bleck from pulling off his sinister plot? Would Mario reunite with Princess Peach? A truly interdimensional adventure was about to begin...
There's a lot more of these little passages between segments, with this one coming before the title card for Chapter 1. They're there, I guess. And yes, Mario's still thinking with his "must save Peach" bone.
Next time: Some actual actual gameplay.
No comments:
Post a Comment