Through the fierce battle against Francis, Tippi and the Mario gang grew closer. Behind a fourth door lay a whole new world that beckoned to them both. What awaited was vaster and stranger than anything they'd encountered so far... In order to claim the Pure Heart, they would have to endure new, far-out trials...
Oh, how far-out can it be, I mean, we've kept our feet on the ground just fine-
...Who's ready to leap into the cosmos, well ahead of when we got there in TTYD?
Our unique drawing style is just filling the screen with stars, somehow leaving white stars behind for the ending. It's a very unique effect, and goes by too fast to figure out when the "adding space stars" ends and "leaving white stars" begins.
And out the door we go, into the vast emptiness of space.
Or on top of a very tall mountain, but I don't feel land underfoot.
Bowser: Hmm! Yeah! Space, you say? I guess I DO feel lighter... And...
There's always something to love about outer space. How different it feels out there... the stellar lighting, the feeling of weightlessness...
Tippi: What troubles you, Mario? Ah... Yes, of course... We seem to be lacking air... You need that, don't you?
Bowser: BLUUUUUUUUUUUUURGLE! C-CAN'T B-B-BREATHE!
The complete and total lack of any sort of atmosphere. Or at least, in measurable enough parts for our lungs to work with.
Good question. What happened to TTYD, where Mario could walk on the moon without question? OK, granted, the Moon has... an atmosphere, but not that much more than nothing.
Quick, Return Pipe, Return Pipe!
Right after the heartwarming moment where we saved Tippi from the clutches of Francis and she learned to trust us, we get Tippi panicking and being unable to save us despite the fact we have an easy means with which to do so.
On its own, not awful, but the juxtaposition isn't doing her any favours.
I have absolutely no idea what power this is, but it's probably the thing that she used on Mario to take him to Flipside in the first place. With Tippi panicking, though, it feels more external.
Bowser: Hunh? Whoa! How'd we get back here?!
A small miracle. But we have a bigger problem.
OK, that's not the greatest. Tippi's panic ability was genuinely unintentional. Come on, let her keep at least some of her head in a crisis. What's the point of the Return Pipe if not to be used at the proper moment?
We need to explore Outer Space in order to find that Pure Heart, and necessary or not, we refuse to do so until we figure out how to breathe out there. So, back to Flipside it is.
Technically, this could've been last update, but...
In this game? More likely than you think.
As plans to kill us go, it's an incredibly effective one.
On the other hand, it wasn't a plan to kill us.
"Or, well, they said they couldn't, I could breathe just fine."
Part of the reason that I question the premise that Mario & Co. need air to breathe is that their solution is... brave.
Tippi: And...you have one?
Bowser: Great. Super. So... you gonna hand one over or what?
Space helmets aren't just found by rummaging through the junk drawer, after all.
...
...
...
Merlon, this is about our ability to breathe. You can't just slap some duct tape on it and call it good.
So what, exactly, are we putting on our head?
And why does it sound like I've got more errands to run?
I'm not sure what's funnier: That this happened just before doomsday, or Merlon deciding that mid-doomsday was a good time to do his spring cleaning. "The other day", and the fact we can't see this object before it is plot relevant, suggests it's the option that happened before we got here, but also ambiguous timescales.
I like how he suggests that he'd recycle the object in question as opposed to throwing it out. I guess that does show why he'd choose not to, but also seems a bit pointless to recycle glass when it's not broken.
Here's hoping he'll part with it as easily as Merlon did.
I never came up here since I knew we'd be coming back. I did mean to talk to the kid, though.
Everyone seems to love talking about this mystery black Flipside Tower. Again, we're not due to receive an explanation until next chapter.
Well, isn't somebody attached to that original design. Although I do think it looks better in white than it does in black.
Right, get him to walk away so I can talk to Pook...
Presumably, it wasn't a fishbowl when Merlon owned it. But still. We are using this to breathe. Are you seriously prepared to trust it?
Pook's pet goldfish has been growing healthily, so the fishbowl was incredibly nice for him to receive. Guess that means we're probably not getting it...
Oh. Never mind. Turns out the fishbowl wasn't the permanent solution Pook was looking for.
That's... moderately alarming. How big is this fishbowl, anyway? I'm getting alarmed at the possibility we're not squeezing this onto our head.
Pook entrusts us with his pet fish, and tells us we can keep the bowl so long as we find something to put him in instead.
I'm just saying, we could totally flush this down the toilet.
There are a number of places with water we could potentially put the Captain in, but Pook's clue tells us the place we should be choosing is the one found inside Flipside itself.
So where exactly is that?
B2F. This random strip of water. More than just an excuse to have swimming mechanics!
Be free, Captain Gills! Free to swim around in a slightly bigger body of water!
In addition to no longer containing Captain Gills, this fishbowl now sports an antenna to denote it as a space helmet as opposed to a conventional helmet. The resemblance to Captain Olimar's helmet is likely intentional.
Let me poke around a bit at what I just did first, K?
That's a goldfish... He's the cute fish that the boy on the third floor loves... He seems happy to have a larger area to swim in... It's much better than the bowl. Oh, and I hear his name is Captain Gills...
Captain Gills will hang around this body of water for the rest of the game, and we will not accept anything less.
Again, you are putting a lot of faith that I put the Captain in a body of water. He never does actually check up on the Captain, sadly. Perhaps he wanted to throw the fish out himself but didn't have the guts.
Anyway, back to adventure! We'll have plenty of time to explore the far reaches of outer space.
Bowser pokes his head into outer space.
He takes one look at the helmet and asks how exactly he's supposed to stick his gigantic head in there.
Tippi suggests that being in outer space is different to being in water, which only raises the question of how Mario and Co. breathe underwater. Unlike space travel, where there are about three or four games to point at, underwater without an air meter happens in every 2D Mario game as well as more than a few spinoffs. Not that Mario Kart had amphibious vehicles until 7.
Despite Tippi's "convincing" argument, Bowser continues to refuse the helmet.
Most of the stuff that comes out of his mouth is hot air.
You mean it ever worked? Bold assumption.
Bowser can take it. He's survived worse.
Quit asking, he's clearly made up his mind.
Tippi's going to go find someone saner to spend the rest of her life with.
Welp. I guess we shouldn't have trusted Bowser with the fate of the world.
Fortunately for the world, saner heads prevailed, and Peach decides to see if this goldfish bowl is worth it. In doing so, she actually shows me something new about this game I wasn't actually aware of: If Peach wears the Space Helmet, she does her hair up in her Sunshine ponytail. Since space has no use for gliding or the shield, you're never going to actively choose to use Peach unless you really like her.
With the problem of breathing solved, we are free to forget tht skit ever happened.
Bowser: Oh! Oh YEAH! I can breathe! But now my nose itches! Man, I hate space!
Some of us are more excited than others.
This is an alarmingly vague suggestion.
On the bright side, we've got one bombastic tune to get lost to. Space travel uses a variant of the swimming controls, but with a little more control over the up-and-down.
...You know, come to think of it, I've not actually fully tested which attacking Pixls and moves work here.
Unlike swimming, however, travel is strictly limited in 3D: You may only move forward, backward, left and right in 3D. There is no capacity to change your Z axis.
The only thing to find on this screen is this little stream of SOS signals.
This is one of the few things in the entire game that is Tippi-locked with logical in-universe reasoning. Not that we'll have this explained, but I can totally believe this was Tippi locked, in some form, in the Gamecube version. Perhaps some other of Mario's abilities would have been necessary to find it there (possibly it would have existed only in the third dimension).
So, what is it we've found?
...It's... adorable? It seems to have come out of the freezer section, though.
And its reaction implies it's been in some kind of slumber.
Tippi: Oh, dear. Who are you? An... alien, perhaps?
Bowser: Good gravy, you're ugly! What in the world ARE you? And what're you doing here?
Peach and Bowser have made their opinions on its appearance known. Tippi is more diplomatic, which sorta implies she doesn't think highly of its appearance either?
...That is roughly zero of what I was expecting to hear.
Tippi's immediate response on hearing that the alien knows about the Pure Heart is to suspect him of being allied with Count Bleck. At this point in the story, we have not yet encountered any Pure Hearts that have been safeguarded by anybody other than the Ancients, so this suspicion is, to an extent, warranted.
...Also, "cuter than I thought" makes it sound a lot like it's friends with Mimi.
This is the counterargument provided. The game actually drags its feet somewhat on the reveal that Squirps is genuine, and we're going to be spending a lot of time glaring at him suspiciously.
Mostly because Tippi refuses to take his explanations at face value. Reasonably or otherwise.
To be fair, I do not believe we ever get a valid explanation for why Squirps does not explain himself sooner.
However, we are strong-armed to doing things Squirps' way by loud yelling.
Although I will say, it is absolutely hilarious that they integrate that demand into the narrative with this textbox. This is the only textbox like this (there are a few scenes where it'd be possible to squeeze in some more, although perhaps they were worried about overplaying), but it's still absolutely hilarious.
Yes sir.
The Hero nods at this question.
Mario doesn't explain himself, but Peach reasons Squirps can hardly mean too badly.
Considering her reputation, I am amazed by her lack of regard, but not ultimately surprised. She wants to do the right thing, although she doesn't really have much of a pragmatic edge.
Bowser: Whatever... But the second this kid crosses me, I'll munch him like a green corn niblet!
Bowser just isn't threatened by something so small. This guy is popcorn if he fits in the helmet.
Tippi will go along with it, and regret throwing her lot in with us after the big dramatic moment last chapter. She wasn't prepared for what exactly she was signing herself up for.
Squoogle?
Yes, there will be a lot of this.
I've gotta say, if Tippi has the right idea, this one is a bad idea.
This is expressed through mechanics, although I frankly have no idea how much power is "enough" power to satisfy Squirps. I think the game will tell us when we have enough.
Squarp us away, squiglet!
That power was enough to create a wormhole through the cosmos, allowing us to reach our destination.
These things are the warp pipes/doors of outer space, and can be used freely.
Squirps quickly notices we have not arrived at the resting place of the Pure Heart.
And blames us for it.
At no point does Bowser decide this niblet is too much trouble and eat him.
If we're not getting there through squarping, we must get there manually. It could be worse.
The game, somewhat aware that the Tile Pool was about the limits of water level mechanics, has given us an out for the space mechanics: While we are in outer space, we have access to Squirps, who can change the genre of this game to "space shmup". Prepare your mashing fingers, space cadets!
Pew! Pew! Pew!
That is young Squirps... The mysterious space child... He understands our mission well...
Squirps's Tattle was, I think, required to be written for both during the chapter (where we are wary of him) and after the chapter (where we understand who he is). I could be wrong, but I imagine the vagueness is trying to make sense at both points in the story.
That's a Jellien. It is a strange, gelatinous creature that floats about in space... Max HP is 4 and Attack is 2. It drifts lazily towards potential morsels... It moves slowly, so watch it carefully and you should be able to avoid it...
Our first space enemy is the Jellien, whose only plan is to waddle slowly on our position. Super Mario Galaxy wasn't entirely out by the time this game was being made, and I don't think many of the cosmic enemies seen there would work in the shmup segments, anyway.
With our current attack score, Jelliens can be destroyed in a single blast.
Finally, a Big Egg to replace the one I lost! It's still going to be a while before we have reliable access to Big Eggs.
Some of these asteroids are entirely here for scenery, but some, denoted by these thicker colours, are in our plane and will block your movement and fire.
In 2D.
Jelliens are probably at their most dangerous in cramped quarters like this. As dangerous as they can be, at any rate.
Fotons fire super-fast, superheated particles. Of course, they're big crowd-pleasers at parties.
We haven't even seen that enemy yet. They sorta look like party decorations, which is where I think they're coming from with that card, but it looks like we'll be able to handle them fine once we find them.
Ooh, looks like flipping into 2D inside the rock gives us some funky shooting. Fortunately, we can swim out of this position.
You can't hit Save Blocks, or any non-Brick Block, with Squirps. You still need to use your head for that.
Huh. Off in the distance...
That Foton is a space organism that is orbited by small blue particles... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 2. When it senses danger, it... Well, it shouldn't be much of a problem unless you're surrounded by them...
It's Foton! An enemy we'd two-shot without the Card and oneshot with, they have literally one attack: throwing those two blue particles as a slow-moving projectile. What do I mean by "literally one"? They don't get those particles back. Poor party-balls.
Welcome to the maze that is the vast emptiness of space.
Navigating this is going to take some doing. No, those constellations don't help.
Just flipping and scouting around for what exactly I can see.
Pew pew pew into the camera!
Um... am I looping?
Well, this is clearly new.
That's a Warpid, a being of pure energy that can warp through space... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 2. It will pursue any new discovery... Don't allow yourself to be mesmerized by its slowly undulating lines...
Warpids are the last enemy in this leg of the cosmos, warping from place to place and taking three shots to defeat at our current Atk rating. The problem with these guys is that they are only tangible when they are not warping at all- if they're mid animation in any way, they're still invincible.
This is foreshadowing.
...Well, OK, no it's not. Notice how there is a Warpid on top of the screen and a Warpid destination in front of Mario. These are the same Warpid.
So the jerk was not considered a valid target and I lost that Catch Card SP.
Ooh, now that's something to pay attention to in the background there. Whenever there's been a secret in the background like that, the entrance hasn't been far away.
Like, for example, behind this asteroid?
Secret coin room!
Also a chance to see our space helmet being used in a conventional map. I believe this is the only time this occurs.
Funnily enough, that was the very end of 4-1. Just need to find which wormholes are the correct ones and you're out.
I say as if this were easy.
Mario and the gang cruised through space, led by the young alien named Squirps. What kind of creature was it, anyway? And what was with those weird noises? Whenever confronted with a question, it would say, "Squirps is Squirps, SQUAAK!" All they could do was trust that he knew where the Pure Heart was and follow him. They were doing just that when something appeared ahead of them. It was a teeny-tiny planet.
It is 100% possible that Squirps is, in fact, Squirps. Not that the answers to these questions would answer the pressing questions Tippi and Bowser have about Squirps' allegiance and motives. It would be nice if he wasn't so vague about answering them, though, it makes him look much more suspicious.
...Exsqueeze me? I guess this game is ostensibly paper. ...Well, that isn't helpful.
They call this a planet, but considering it doesn't even have enough of an atmosphere to have a sky, I speculate on whether this meets the definition of "planet".
This game released less than a year after the IAU definition of "planet" excluded Kuiper Belt objects such as Pluto. Presumably, it would've come too late to squeeze in the script.
Good question. Although the real question is "how does this get us there?"
Somewhere we can find a route straight to our destination. Apparently "byways" exist in the cosmos.
How... look, just go with it.
Well, where are we going?
...Why am I not surprised?
We're asking this question, which feels like another attempt to cast suspicion on Squirps, when I feel like the question we should really be asking is "is Squirps going to be helpful at all?" I think you can ask the question with the same words, but not the same tone.
Bowser: Gah! I KNEW it! All along, I KNEW something was off about this deal! You! Space niblet! I didn't trust you from the BEGINNING, squaaargh! What in the... GRAAGH! Now I'm talking like you!
Bowser leans in hard on the "suspicious of Squirps" interpretation, incidentally, when I feel he's more likely to get angry at him forgetting important intel.
...In other words, we'll be doing all the work.
He's being a brat, but that seems a bit much, don't you think?
Peach gets angry here, but Mario and Bowser have been angry since the pratfall. Peach was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Squirps is going to distract us from this train of thought with a new one.
...You OK, buddy?
Oh gods. We're talking to an actual child. Complete with all the garbage parts.
By the way, this is a Mario game.
Squirps runs off to go find some place to go do his business.
By the way, that conversation was all in silence, with Planet Blobule's music being the same as the rest of space.
We're working in low grav here, although the planet isn't noticably curved, in spite of its size. Then again, I think the Moon has a similar issue, and it's not like we can see far enough for a curve to be noticeable even in 3D.
Floating along, we are quickly brought to Squirps' pit stop, an intergalactic outhouse.
That's an... outhouse, isn't it? Now why in the world would that be there...
Again. This is a Mario game. At least it's gender-neutral.
"And there isn't another bathroom for the next hundred light years!" Knowing the state of the RPG bathrooms, probably.
I'm sure there's some bush around here you can dig a hole and... oh, right, tentacles.
The bathroom is occupied by someone singing in a rather obnoxious trailing voice, probably to make sure every line is the same length.
For once, Squirps is the one getting frustrated.
This guy went into the bathroom, found out there was no toilet paper, and has been waiting 100 years to wipe.
...
I mean, presumably, it would've dried off on its own by now? Running water, even?
The puzzle in question is that we need to find this poet some paper so he can wipe, leave the bathroom, and let Squirps get on with his business.
I think we've well and truly gotten a divorce from the logic of the more grounded Paper Mario games.
Right, let's examine these very tall peaks and very deep valleys offered by the low gravity physics.
...I can't help but feel like these get very dull, especially the valleys, which are hard to escape and cover the screen with this dull colour.
That thing is a Longator. It can stretch beyond the limits of imagination... Max HP is 12 and Attack is 1. It likes to stretch its neck at enemies... Watch where you land near them. They look relaxed, but they can get aggressive...
Especially when you get knocked down there by these guys. Longators are tiny little things that stretch out to make tricky jumps that much trickier. When you're approaching them, they suck.
But it should be noted that they can be jumped on at any point while extended. It turns out being an enemy that can massive increase their horizontal hitbox doesn't do them any favours in a game about jumping on things.
Healing up here, if you were wondering. Space physics mean we can make it just fine.
You wouldn't happen to be the location of the Space Byway, would you?
Shortcut behind a mountain here.
And a mountain whose way out exists only in 3D. So annoying.
That's a space rift... I hear these form to conceal hidden things...
Oh. One of those again. I suppose they're common in space. Maybe.
...
Just as long as we don't touch it.
Dangit, moon physics and coin blocks, not getting the full ten out of this.
Also one of these down here. Every one helps!
The door at the end of this room is covered in brick blocks.
The door will not open unless all the brick blocks are gone. Despite, you know, opening in the other direction.
We start in another pit. This one, we can't jump out of.
Well, past the second level.
We can, however, slip through this part.
This is a Boing-Oing... It's a stronger relative of the Sproing-Oing... Max HP is 8 and Attack is 2. If you hurt it, it will split into multiple Mini-Boings... If you don't time your jump perfectly, you'll get hurt... I wonder how it got so many pretty colors...
Upgraded one of these, Boing-Oing is about as dangerous as it was back in Chapter 1. Actually, less so because of the low grav. Makes more sense in space, though. Maybe.
Speed Flower in the cosmos, that'll help getting around.
Once you jump up from here, there's a switch so you don't have to do the Slim thing again.
...Is it really that out-of-the-way? Any switch to Peach is basically the same.
To add insult to injury, they're only one block thick.
So what's over on this side, then?
That Choppa is a strange organism that flies through the air...and dimensions... Max HP is 5 and Attack is 1. It's hard to track, as it occasionally flips... However, it occasionally stops to rest. That's your chance...
These guys, Choppas, fly around the map in your vague direction (usually cardinally), and will flip into the other dimension if they feel like it. They're annoying to deal with out here in space, and surprisingly, are less annoying when used later because of the less space.
Into the dimension it's easier to jump on your heads.
It is absolutely hilarious how deep into this wall we can push ourselves with 3D.
The 3D in this place is getting... weird.
The bright and colourful trees in 2D are nice, I guess.
...A door?
This young lady is Blollop... She's a native of the planet Blobule... Space is vast, but the young are the same no matter what world they hail from...
There are a number of "houses" around Planet Blobule, containing these weirdly designed characters, generously described as "people". I guess they wanted to go all-in on the alien designs, but well...
...I'm not going to judge.
"The young are the same no matter what", apparently means only having a passing interest in a treasure no one's seemed to have found.
...Wait, we're not looking for an ancient treasure, we're looking for the entrance to a shortcut. Squirps, what are you not telling us? Other than the things he's not telling us because he is not aware of them.
There's some 3D flipping around here, although this one is empty.
Speaking of 3D, this bridge only exists in 3D. I think we'll have to cross this to get pat that wall up there.
Because there's nothing down here.
Much like the similar puzzle in TTYD, this is much easier when you move with a D-Pad. Unlike TTYD, this is the intended way to play the game.
Pal Pills in here. Hm...
Yep, I can get a horde of angry Bowsers. No, these ones don't have double Attack.
And they're already gone.
Bonus coins up here.
...We're just finding all the doors to look around in, aren't we?
That's a Hooligon. They are space creatures that are made up of many parts... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 2. It loses pieces of itself as it takes damage... The head is the weak spot... You have to hit it there to defeat it...
Hooligons are actually moderately clever enemies. The only part of it you can damage is the head. If you jump on any of the other squares, they disappear with the Hooligon not caring. This sort of enemy could be pretty intriguing if it did a little more than jump around aimlessly. With that said, this arcing path means it's difficult to attack on the way back down, if perhaps easy on the way up.
These ones could get interesting in a hurry, if they keep up this pattern.
How many of these things are in here, anyhow?
...Huh. Maybe I should've gone over here first. Meh.
At least I got a level up from it. 5 Atk, we now hit a bunch more enemies around here for a nicer number of hits. Lots of 3 shots turning into 2 shots, as well as one-shotting Choppas now. Not sure if I was supposed to have 5 Atk by now or this is a reward for being thorough.
This side room is so we can find another of the Blobulean houses.
This young man is Blarfle... He's a strapping young Blobule... He never leaves this star, but drives his thoughts to the endless spaces...
Not the one we need to find, though.
This line makes it sound like Blarfle runs a shop. He doesn't. He is a regular NPC the same as Blollop and the only reason to visit him is to talk to the native Blobuleans. I'm not sure whether he'd be an actual shopkeep like Howzit or a specialised seller- he feels a bit too deep into 4-2 to actually be a shop you'd return to often.
He does acknowledge we're looking for the Space Byway, but he has about the same interest in it and leaves us to our own devices. If someone came into your house and asked you to point them to somewhere you didn't know how to get to, how likely would you be to point them in a helpful direction?
...Nothing in 3D here?
Oh, Tippi block.
...
How many of these exist in the world that nobody's discovered?
(It's a Coin Block.)
Yay? At least it's an easy Choppa kill.
Another secret tunnel!
There's the end of the room.
So what can we find in this room?
...Oh.
The game has had enough of a break from the Mega Star that it feels like now is the time to give Bowser his chance. Even if his snout does look comically like spectacles without colour.
...Was that shading on his spikes always there? Considering Super Mario Bros. is so ancient that it couldn't draw Bowser's black armbands (sprites were limited to three colours), I'm impressed they went to that level of detail. I guess there's a reason Bowser stuck around.
That curious, bouncing ball of fur is a Fuzzy... Nobody knows why they bounce... Max HP is 5 and Attack is 1. No remarkable abilities aside from the bouncing... I suggest you keep your distance until you can predict its erratic movements...
The single Mario-based enemy in all of Chapter 4, Fuzzy has been reimagined as a space critter here for some reason. They can't HP leech you anymore, not that we don't oneshot them right now. That awkward bounce they got from Paper Mario does them wonders here in SPM, though.
I imagine the fact Galaxy was concurrent with this game prevented, say, Octoombas from appearing.
This Beepboxer blasts blaring sounds at anyone it doesn't like... Max HP is 10 and Attack is 4. It gets startled by its own loud noises... Maybe it's mad because people keep interrupting its music-listening time...
There are also Beepboxers here, too. They're kinda scary here because of their Mega Star positioning, mainly. Don't worry, these aren't the only place to find them, though.
Thoreau was a much better option around here.
...Wow, how much destruction did Bowser not cause?
...Oh yeah, there's a second room.
Best be prepared.
And pack the shield.
This isn't safety, this is pure flourish. Nothing's nearby, although I'm a long way from my next level.
Ooh, this is a neat find. Space Food has a special use in this game and I could probably use it now.
I'll want to show it off anyway, so into the pocket it goes.
Take that, Boomboxers, I need the free inventory space.
At the end of the room, all we can find is our third Blobulean house.
That's Blappy... He serves as the elder of the Blobules... He's selling treasure clues he copied from space relics... How greedy...
Judgemental little fairy, Tippi. Why should he be judged for this, it's a pretty reasonable business. It's not like it's outside his right. Or depriving people of things they should be free to possess. We're not entitled to these clues.
Still active at 72? Then again, you are an unusual species, who knows how old you live to be.
...Is this treasure the Pure Heart? It'll explain why everyone's talking about it when we ask about the Space Byway. Assuming they know what's at the other end for us- I think a byway only goes to one place, but space works on different rules.
...That may be a bit of an unreasonable price, but at the same time, not that much.
Sorry, not enough cash.
He's enough nice enough to cut the price! Greedy is such an exaggeration for this guy. With that said, however...
So much for active. Tippi's accusation of greed is echoed by Mario if you try and haggle the price a second time, and I really don't feel like this suspicion is reflected in the presentation.
If it's the Pure Heart, I can see why.
We can get it for 10 coins if we haggle him down a second time. 100 is fairly reasonable, but for a mandatory item mid-Chapter, I do kinda want that extra discount.
This Clue is mandatory- it's a "clue", so you think you can get away without on a replay, but no, you need it this time.
...If this is the secret this guy is stuck on, that also makes sense, but at the same time makes the question of "what treasure are they looking for" harder to answer. They didn't even get off the planet...
He's happy to throw his product at us and tell us to get lost. Yeah, I'm not arguing he was a pleasant interaction, but he's not an unreasonably crotchety man.
Bloog! This is a business, not a butter-pastry shop! I hate window-shoppers!
If you say no again, you get kicked out of the conversation, of course.
Want to buy that clue now? That's very smart of you. Not all kids are brats, bloog. Now, explorer to explorer... I'll sell it to you for a mere 100 coins!
The more important thing to note is that you get locked out of the 10 coin sale. That was a one-time offer: Deny it, and the best you get is 100 coins.
The usual in here.
Now for the long walk back to the outhouse.
...And, er... this.
Blollop's house had a Mushroom in it, incidentally.
Now, why would the Ancient Clue be relevant? In many respects, it's honestly kind of worthless as a clue- all it's telling you is to investigate those two mustachioed rocks we saw a while ago.
No, what it actually is is toilet paper.
I guess they always say useless paper is toilet paper.
Imagine paying 100 coins for toilet paper.
...Er, pre-pandemic.
Pedant notice: Fleep proceeds to flush the clue down the toilet, as one does all toilet paper. It's not important now, more later.
Squirps figures, with the wiping done, he's OK to just burst in and get started, while the current occupant hastens out to let him get on with it.
Oh hey, so the rainbow textbox was because you are our next Pixl companion!
...Please do not refer to it as "the happy".
...Oh yeah, "amore" is Italian and not French. Well, I guess he's speaking Mario's language?
I think this is alluding to something in the backstory, but it's also... at odds with the whole "the Pixls are meant to serve the Hero" thing. Plus, this one didn't come in a box.
...Already I'm starting to have second thoughts about this arrangement, and I know you're not going to say another word for the rest of the game after this.
Like it or not, we now have Fleep added to the roster- the only new Pixl of Chapter 4.
Don't worry, you don't have to flip the screen randomly. There's always a clue that Fleep will be useful to you. But yes, Fleep's job is to flip a piece of the environment, and either produce an item or unveil a secret. You can also flip enemies to stun them, which makes him at least equally useful to Slim (probably moreso considering his range), but he's certainly hardly making himself necessary for your party outside using him for his required uses.
Again, do you have to call it the happy? I think his philosophy fits the power, at least. More than can be said for some of the Pixls.
Squirps. Squirps. I know for a fact that there isn't any toilet paper in there. Wash your tentacles before I use you in the next shmup level, please.
...It's the Space Bypass now? There are an almost equal amount of instances of "Space Bypass" compared to "Space Byway", with few real cases of "this is the more definitive source". I do not know enough about byways or bypasses to tell you what the difference is between them, though.
That's Fleep. This Pixl can flip the very fabric of space... He was rescued from Planet Blobule, where he was stuck in an outhouse without paper... He was desperately waiting for the hero to arrive...
At least he wasn't waiting for the hero to be let in to the outhouse.
If we wanted back over here, to the rift in space and time...
We can press 1 to summon Fleep, navigate him with the D-Pad around the screen, and then press 1 again to flip that square. "Rifts in space and time" can, for some reason, be Fleeped (I'm not sure this was a good idea...), and this one drops a key for our use.
The key wasn't that far off, we just need to go down here.
Ending the chapter under a magnificent glowing tree... and apparently on top of a Fuzzy bouncing around underneath the End of Chapter block. That's hilarious, especially since I seem to have gotten Stylish off of it.
Mario and friends headed to the Space Bypass in search of the Pure Heart. How did Squirps know about this secret route? Our heroes stared suspiciously at him. "Why are you staring like that?" said Squirps. "Are you falling for Squirps?!" In the darkness of space, the eyes of Squirps glinted mischievously...
The Chapter narrator is doing a good job of continuing to portray Squirps as suspicious. The explanation is almost certainly Squirps being Squirps, though. Being oblivious and unhelpful is just what happens when you are a literal child and probably don't understand how not to be either.
Next time: The man in green appears.
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