Where Did We Go Wrong? The "Iwata Asks" That Started It All

When one discusses Paper Mario, there's one thing that can't go without mention: The Iwata Asks interview that caused the whole backlash. Miyamoto looked at Sticker Star, disagreed with the RPG loop, and told IS to take it out. If you hate Sticker Star, you are going to point at this as the root of your problems. And why wouldn't you? The RPG Paper Marios were good, the new ones aren't, surely that's what the issue was? Looking at SPM, though, I'm not as sure. Sure, the game doesn't have the onslaught of nothing but Toads that characterises the modern trilogy, but do the Flipside Folk really distinguish themselves much further? In the rare instances where they even appear at all?

Let's start with the two things that Miyamoto set: "Does Mario need a story?" and "Complete it with the Super Mario world cast". There's not that much I can say in defence of the first- RPGs have an optimisation ceiling inherent to raw numbers games that platformers lack, so rewarding the player for progressing with narrative is something in much higher demand than it is in a game where the gameplay loop is in replaying levels to improve your skill. Miyamoto, who sees games more as the latter, perhaps has a blind spot in this regard. The other question, however, is more important. Consider who the major characters were in Super Paper Mario- Tippi, Bleck, Dimentio, etc. The plot of Super Paper Mario is utterly divorced from Mario's context, and the inclusion of Mario does not even reflect back on this contrast in a way that suggests deliberateness on the developer's part. Thousand-Year Door, on the other hand, had some obscenely not-Mario settings and concepts, but the fact they conformed to the rules of the Mario world helped them feel like this is a story that belongs in the Mario brand. Super Paper Mario is so far away from Mario that it might have suffered less if it were attached to a different IP entirely, and Miyamoto's suggestion that IS focus on the Mario cast to produce a story more in line with TTYD (or perhaps 64) was well-founded. By continuing to sideline Peach and Bowser in Sticker Star and focusing the climax of Origami King around the original origami characters like Super does, the modern Paper Mario trilogy suggests an unwillingness to return to classic Mario on the developer's part- and shows why the IP management team looks more fondly on Mario & Luigi than Paper Mario.

I have to knock them for this one, it's obligatory. But let's step away from the "what about Piantas and Yoshis?" argument and instead focus on what this suggestion really says about the gameplay. NPCs that use distinctive mannerisms to establish continuity... doesn't really solve the problem posed by a limited roster. This suggests- and Sticker Star shows- that NPCs would show up to help you, but you're not really supposed to get attached enough to them that their lives govern your actions going forward: they're not going to be the focal characters of Town Stories. Sticker Star includes a single idea that qualifies as a Town Story: Wiggler in Chapter 3. The events of the other chapters, where they even include story at all, lack this cohesiveness- possibly deliberately, on Miyamoto's direction, but this is ultimately why Sticker Star fails as an RPG. Unfortunately, I cannot comment as comprehensively on Colour Splash and Origami King as I'd like, but I feel that Bobby, at least, demonstrates the sort of character you need to drive an RPG narrative. I believe there are more instances that can at least do the job, even if I only have unreliable accounts of how well that job was performed. In essence, if you want strong characters in your RPGs, what you want to solve is looking at "why am I here?" in each town and providing characters and motivations that support something stronger than just "because there is a shiny thing here". 64 and TTYD established that each Town Story was a means to an end for the Star Spirit/Crystal Star, but they only became beloved because the Town Stories were themselves robust.

But really, there's one thing I want to come around to here. In the furore over how the developers now approach the RPG mechanics and characters highlighted above, there's one more element to Miyamoto's objections that gets overlooked- if you read the original interview, it's sandwiched between the two passages! Part of the reason why is perhaps that it refers to another interview. But I want to highlight it, because it's so important to the topic, and the Mario IP in general, that it can't go without saying. I am speaking, of course, of the tremendous role Super Mario Galaxy had on the Paper Mario franchise.

Super Mario Galaxy, in case it's been so long since 2007 that you've become too used to seeing Rosalina partying with Peach and Daisy, was a massive risk. How do you make Mario when you take him away from the things he is most associated with? In a game about running and jumping, gravity and planetoids mess with the fundamentals so severely that anything less than perfection will be disastrous. And Nintendo EAD did not take it well. What company could? For an IP as big and important as Mario, things had to go perfectly. And Miyamoto did what Miyamoto does best.

 

He solved it. Miyamoto sat down, he thought about 25 years of making Mario games, how he designed things as fundamental as making it fun to approach the humble Koopa Troopa back when it was called Shellcreeper. He wanted to look at why otherwise perfectly cromulent cute characters didn't match his vision for Mario's look. And he wanted to know what Mario was like to play when the familiar laws of physics Mario depends on were taken away. Super Mario Galaxy was a galactic success, easily competing with and even surpassing the impressions given by SMB1 and SM64 before it, and it could only have been done with a thorough understanding of what they were supposed to make the fundamental keystones of that process.

At the same time, though... this was the moment that Mario kinda lost his fast-and-loose approach that facilitated many of his more wacky adventures and became more of a united cultural hegemon. Classic enemies were redesigned many times over those first 25 years, but now that consoles have as good a grasp of cartoon design as they need, it is time for Mario and friends to assume their iconic designs that have persisted for the fifteen years since. Mario has found its identity, and that may have caused the "sameyness" that modern Paper Mario finds itself a victim of. To some, Paper Mario itself is a victim of Miyamoto figuring this out. 

Count Bleck and Dimentio were clearly not Mario characters, but only now can Miyamoto vocalise exactly what it is that bothers him about them and explain how to course correct. Without his Galaxy epiphany, perhaps Paper Mario could've continued to implement characters like them. Ultimately, however, I agree with Miyamoto's call, and I think Sticker Star, for everything it did poorly, was the better wake-up call for Paper Mario than the theoretical Paper Mario 4 that gets even more existential and morbid. IS was lucky as hell that Super made it past the IP brand director. I can only imagine what would happen if a game that pushes the envelope any further were designed. Perhaps that was what was going on in the interview before Miyamoto intervened.

Modern Paper Mario is a trilogy that suffers under its restrictions, but I think this is not the fault of the restrictions. What I can see, comparing the restrictions to what is offered by the classic trilogy, is a writing team that doesn't really connect with the Super Mario characters enough to develop them the way Mario & Luigi does, and when the option not to do so is taken away, they resort to using literal paper-thin methods to fill in the gaps because that's the best they can see. Modern Paper Mario could improve if the restrictions were taken away- assuming the developers are able to find a combat system that actually functions properly- but it may be that it will never be a Mario game, but yet another Super Paper Mario- a game about other characters where Mario is in the corner staring blankly. As dismal as a conclusion as that is... the answer really is that Paper Mario is never going to get good again. A return to TTYD-quality writing is possible, and this is where Bug Fables and its ilk of Paper Mario-alikes lean into frame... and if all you wanted out of a good new Paper Mario is more adventures with characters like Doopliss and Flavio, it probably will be the case that these games will be the ones you want to see. If you want a return to exploring Mario's Rogue's Gallery... well, that depends on what happened to AlphaDream. But it will be unlikely that it will come with adding more and more variations on Koopa Troopa. If a new RPG wants to use King Bob-omb to helm a story about the Bob-ombs, hear him out. He may look familiar, but he is just as capable of gripping you as a brand-new Bob-omb buddy would be.