Alola, Everyone, And Welcome To The World of Pokemon!

Ah, Pokemon. A franchise that has ballooned so massively that it's caught up in its wake and chasing bigger and bigger investments while utterly refusing to form a coherent plan for how to maintain such a large consumer base. For reference sake, while Pokemon is a primarily-Nintendo company and we don't actually know how big it is, we're talking a franchise with buying power on par with Star Wars here. While this is a property known for pursuing the hearts and minds of the youngest video gaming demographic, there has been a passionate core somewhere in the team that bursts out every other attempt. And besides, shouldn't we understand the content aimed at children best?

The four Pokemon games set in the Alola region, Pokemon Sun & Moon (2016) and their improved versions Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon (2017), form what is known in the Pokemon community as "Gen VII" of Pokemon games. For simplicity's sake, I will say that a "generation" of Pokemon games begins with the pair of games set in a new region with new Pokemon hitherto unusable in prior games, and they also feature the biggest set of mechanical overhauls between game releases. Gen VII was released as a special 20th anniversary celebration of the Pokemon IP, which kinda says a lot about what the Ultra pair of games released the next year might have been. In the long term, these games have taken on a reputation of being slow, bogged down with cutscenes, and with "story issues". As part of this analysis, I will be looking at both the original pair and the Ultra pair, and talking about where the two diverge to explain what's in the story- and what we can see emerge about how the product was presented as a result.

As suggested by the image at the header of the page, the primary playthrough will be in Pokemon Sun. Pokemon Moon is functionally identical, but with some different available Pokemon, a different time mechanic, and some other minor tweaks here and there- this is a tradition of the Pokemon series that you just kinda learn to live with at this point, rather than like. Unless I am specifically going into version differences, we'll be focusing mainly on Pokemon Sun. I will also be playing with a relatively benign gimmick: I will only be using the new Pokemon available to the Alola region. This is a condition I like to impose on myself when playing new Pokemon games, and I think it's a fitting one for this playthrough's purposes. The other versions will also be happy to show us a few things old favourites can do- and some of the new tools they've gotten- where I think they are relevant.

The Line Between Platformer and RPG: Super Paper Mario

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.

Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door: A Legendary Treasure

Ah, Thousand Year Door. Easily the most beloved of the original Paper Mario trilogy, and the measuring stick to which all Paper Mario games, past and future, are compared. This game, in many ways, takes the flaws of Paper Mario 64's systems and directly fixes them, although often suffers the issue of including new flaws in new systems or poorly considering how the fixes worked in practice. Narratively, it also represents a tone found nowhere else in the Mario brand, something that hinders it as much as it helps it.

Ultimately, I feel that this game set itself huge goals and rose admirably to meet them, but the reputation it developed in the fandom in the wake of Sticker Star's legacy caused fan expectations to rise even higher, leaving the game's myriad flaws to sting all the more. I came in with low expectations, due to having given up a previous playthrough in frustration, and I think I walked away from this run with a new appreciation for some of the game's strengths. But at the same time... those weaknesses that turned me away haven't disappeared.

Much like Paper Mario, the opening attract cutscene has exposition and story setup.

They mean the actual Door, not the title of the game. Although I'm sure that could get confusing if they made any jokes about it.

TTYD, unlike Paper Mario, takes place exclusively in a far-off land.

A kingdom of peace, prosperity, and existed a long time ago.

I don't think anyone needed to be too surprised.

An interesting thought occurs to me: While we do (eventually) learn what caused this cataclysm, we don't actually learn that much about the form it took.

All we know is that it was vicious, it was destructive...

And it was total.

No one left to even historically catalog the town. All we know is myth and rumour from what others found in its place from what remained.

Not, strictly speaking, true, although it is true that there is a new town on this site.

See? Although there's nothing that remains of the old city on the surface, the old city lives on, in ruins, beneath their feet.

And legends tell that there is more to the story than that.

The old city holds a secret. And we're going to find out what.

A Mario Story: Paper Mario 64

Paper Mario is a franchise shaped, in many ways, by its identity crisis. A once-beloved arm of the Mario franchise has never been the same since Sticker Star. And, in the simplest of terms, very few people exist who prefer the modern approach of Paper Mario to the classic. Many appreciate it (it may be pertinent to note I am not one of them), but even they wonder why it came at the expense of what came before.

One prominent argument, especially from those tired of seeing nothing but praise laid at the first trilogy's feet, is that these games weren't quite as good as they are looked back upon, for a multitude of reasons related primarily to the gameplay, mostly. I believe, however, that there are a number of narrative elements that go unchallenged- some of which explain why the series went in the direction it did, and others which lament the fact and sing of missed potential. Time to prepare your paper puns, because this journey is about to unfold.

Unlike most games I have covered thus far, all three Paper Mario games have lore and important narrative before the title screen appears. Consider the title screen used as a header above to be more for bookkeeping.

This is the key world-building stuff, you're going to want to note this down.

Early in development, the game we know today as "Paper Mario" began life as "Super Mario RPG 2". Super Mario RPG was a SNES game developed by Square of Final Fantasy fame, known mostly as "the game Geno is from", and although Paper Mario is not considered a sequel of any sort, a non-zero amount of influence lingers in the corners.

Both games are about the home of wish-granting beings living high above in the stars. Although Star Haven is different from Geno's Star Road, there is enough of a relation to stand on.

Again, we're not actually going to be meeting Geno, although I suppose we don't exactly know for sure...

Unlike in SMRPG, where the Star Road had the power to grant wishes innately, Star Haven's wish-granting power is focused on a specific treasure.

These Seven Star Spirits are responsible for using the Star Rod to grant wishes, although whether or not they do anything of their own volition is less clear. I suspect they don't.

This is your reminder that, story focused as it is, it is still a Mario game, and we're going to be just as focused on making you smile as we are telling a coherent narrative. This is going to be my thesis later, as weird as that is to say in conjunction.

This is the only time in which the fact every character in the story is made of paper is relevant to the narrative being told here in 64- there's a few visual gags later, but purely visual. Although we're not really led to believe that Bowser literally taped Kammy into this book to teleport her to Star Haven, this is more symbolic.

An alternative question is "what was the story the narrator was intending to tell"? All good narratives have a conflict, or at least a "something happened". But for the "and then", this story didn't seem to be going in any such direction.

Ah, Classic Fire Emblem! Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones

Attract cutscene here. (And possibly a flashing lights warning.)

Welcome back to Fire Emblem, this time on GBA! Sacred Stones is probably one of the stranger picks for a full go, but there's a lot of little stuff scattered about that I feel one can make a solid argument in its favour. This game is a wholly stand-alone title (ie no other FE games are set in this world), and it is arguably the first game in the series to include the route-based gameplay made famous by Fire Emblems Fates and Three Houses. Despite not being the most recent title when Awakening came out, it's often called the bridge between classic FE and modern FE, because of other player-friendly gameplay decisions that will come up.

We'll be starting out using the old standby condition All Girls- Sacred Stones Eirika route is quite possibly the best game in the series for an All Girls challenge. Other games often have stupidly hard challenges (FE7 has you solo with an archer for four chapters) or stupidly easy ones (Crimson Flower All Girls is arguably a viable casual strat). When showing Ephraim route, I'll have a less restrictive character list.

Very few people play Easy difficulty, and I feel like it goes unmentioned what it actually does- it's literally Normal Mode, but there's strict "move these characters to these positions and perform these actions" tutorials- if you've ever played FE7 Lyn Mode on Normal, imagine that and you know exactly what I'm talking about.

We'll be playing Eirika route on Normal Mode. There's a semi-famous glitch with the way Normal Mode handles enemies that I almost have to show.

Ephraim route, because of its looser character selection restrictions, will take Difficult mode. Unlike Tellius, Sacred Stones Difficult mode doesn't have new content, but the two difficulty modes play like night and day.