Content warning: The following preview article features an overabundance of bread-based wordplay — those who suffer from chronic pun intolerance should proceed with extreme caution. Nintendo Life takes no responsibility for 'cringuries' or loss of humour.
The appetite for a 'true' return of Paper Mario has long been on the lips of many who grew up with the N64 and the GameCube. Despite the series' attempts to reinvent itself multiple times, fans have come to relish the taste of the original duo [Blimey!... I'll allow it - Ed.], a pair of turn-based RPGs that were the best thing since sliced bread. But in place of a new 'proper' paper game, many indie developers have risen to the challenge to create their own paper-thin homage to the beloved series.
Born of Bread, then, comes at a time when Paper Mario mania might be at its peak. With The Origami King proving pleasant (if a little bland in the battle department), the N64 original available via Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Switch remaster coming in 2024 (not to mention the progenitor of the Mario RPG series getting its own Switch remake in less than a month), fans are champing at the bit for Paper Mario action. We've had a chance to play the first three hours of Born of Bread on Steam, but if the Switch version is up to snuff — and if the first three hours are anything to go by — we think Born of Bread is going to be in the upper crust of Paper Mario-inspired RPGs.
One thing that's immediately obvious with Born of Bread is that it's not afraid to be silly. The premise alone is goofy enough, but the doughy puns, fun jokes, and lighthearted tone mean this is a loaf where every slice is bursting with charm. Papa Baker's immediate infatuation with his accidental bread-child creation is infectious, if a little bit ludicrous — but it made us laugh, and that's the key ingredient in Born of Bread.
Your main character, Loaf, is a silent protagonist, but his doughy facial expressions make him hard not to love. And he's surrounded by a great cast of characters: Lint, the adorable writer raccoon, is the perfect sweet-natured companion; and Papa Baker's overwhelmingly positive personality and willingness to accept the situation at hand is hilarious. We're also fond of Piper, a newcomer at the Adventurer's Guild and a former thief who is desperately trying to please his superiors.
Even though Born of Bread is very clearly inspired by Paper Mario, it has enough of its own ingredients to rise above the competition. For one, Loaf's skills are tied to the weapons and items he carries in his inventory, and it's not just a case of picking up the item and having constant access to it. There's a dash of Resident Evil 4-style inventory management, where you have to fit each item into a grid before you can use it.
We only picked up three different items during the demo — a sickle, a pickaxe, and a bow — but it forced us to juggle around our gear space so we could get the best combination of items. The pickaxe, for example, takes up three squares in an 'L' shape, while the bow takes up four squares in a 2x2 format. You have the ability to upgrade your bag size as you level up, but it'll be interesting to see just how many weapons you can pick up.
Another unique twist in this loaf takes an idea we love from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and The Origami King — the audience. Battles take place not on a stage á la TTYD, but are in fact streamed by Dub, a companion who also travels the world and saves your progress on his laptop by parking up at routers installed across the area. That means that yes, every battle is essentially a Twitch stream, which means you have an audience to keep happy.
Born of Bread goes beyond simply keeping the audience happy by doing well, however. You'll occasionally get requests mid-battle from those watching your stream — sometimes you'll be asked to use a certain skill or eat a particular item, and if you fulfil those requests, you'll get bonuses. But it's also just funny to see how chat reacts to every move. A failed block will get an "oof" or a dismayed reaction from the audience, and your numbers will dwindle. But you'll also just see normal conversations or phrases in chat. You don't have to have the chat up if you find it annoying, but it adds a new layer of fun and interaction to the game. These two features really help Born of Bread rise above its obvious inspirations.
Combat is otherwise similar to Paper Mario, where you have timed inputs or little quick-time events to complete in order to pull off attacks effectively. You can also block enemy attacks by timing your button presses. Attacks that use different weapons consume Will Points (WP), which you can get back by Defending for a turn while Resolve Points (RP) allow you to use skills to buff your party — but potentially at a cost. For instance, Loaf's Roast skill lets him boost his defense and potentially be able to completely block the next attack, but if you hold down the 'A' button for too long, you'll burn him, turning his crust dark and causing damage.
Even with its robust combat options and unique twists on the Paper Mario formula, by far our favourite thing to do in Born of Bread was simply explore. In the first three hours, we got to see the Forest of Roots, the Lapwing Village, Crystal Mines, and the city of Royal Town. Each area is vibrant and colourful, and the 3D backgrounds really help make the paper characters pop. But what surprised us was just how detailed the environments were — the trees of the forest are intricately knotted together like pipes, and you can see the light breaking through the branches and illuminating the ground.
The environments are also hugely interactive and packed full of secrets. You can break barrels, boxes, vegetables, and more by hitting things with Loaf's ladle, and you'll find Clovers (money) and hidden items by doing this. There are environmental puzzles like using green mushrooms to jump higher or getting flattened by a hydraulic press to turn Loaf from a ball of dough to a wheel of pizza dough (that floats when you jump).
This approach really incentivised us to explore every nook and cranny of every area and talk to every single person we met, too. Even in the mines, there were NPCs wandering around that could either deliver a line of witty dialogue or give us a sidequest, such as racing one of the Adventurer's Guild members back to town or finding a prop toolbox for an aspiring actor who is pretending to be a miner for... reasons.
Ultimately, there is a danger of Born of Bread feeling a bit too much like Paper Mario — its light-hearted humour, the intro in the forest, and the combat all teeter on a paper-thin edge. But there's so much love put into the world, characters, and just enough new ideas kneaded in that Born of Bread could be the perfect slice to stave off our hunger until Thousand-Year Door returns next year.
Born of Bread is due to release on Switch in 2023.
Comments 51
Sweet, aside from Bug Fables there surprisingly hasn’t been much Paper Mario-likes out there. Glad to see we have another good one coming.
Despite Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake releasing next year and being (far) more excited for that, I'm still interested in Born of Bread myself, especially considering how much "closer" it is looking to being a proper "Paper Mario-like" to me; as much as I greatly enjoyed Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling and The Outbound Ghost myself, neither of them were enough to fully scratch that Paper Mario itch of mine.
On a related note, I'm wondering how Scrap Story is doing...
I'll keep an eye on this one for sure. I bought Bug Fables and found it to be a great experience, so I hope this one feels the same.
Wow, it looks really good!! I'll be paying attention to the reviews.
@StephenYap3 Why not playing Origami King?? It's definitely another great entry on the PM franchise, right after TTYD, imo. Yes, better than 64 and Super.
Waiting for the gluten free edition
I liked the Steam demo quite a bit, and it seems to hold up well on Switch based on how it ran when I checked out the European eShop demo briefly. Definitely on my radar
Last thing I need is to spend $$$ on another paper mario clone that sucks. Bug Fables was great! But the outbound ghost on switch was a travesty. I'm done simply buying a game with a good preview from Nintendolife before the final reviews come out.
@the_beaver LMAO. NO. There is no way that Origami King is better than N64 Paper Mario. They aren't even in the same genre to me. TTYD and N64 PM are the only two TRUE paper mario games out there big N ruined the series.
@umbreon_sylveon Dude, it's MY opinion, ok? Respect.
And I enjoyed it much more than PM 64. For me it's such a great game. The battle system is different, true, but the feeling is the same. If it had the same battle system and so, it would have scored higher than TTYD for sure.
And it's a waaay better game than Bug Fables, imo.
I knew immediately when I saw the disclaimer that this was going to be an Alana article LOL I love it!
Haven’t tried bug fables and haven’t tried outbound ghost but this one I most certainly will be. I love that twitch stream and audience and router save point concept. That screams originality and uniqueness which is what I look for in a game nowadays more and more.
This looks awesome and I can’t wait to baguette this onto my wishlist!
@ChromaticDracula Bug fables for sure scratches that Paper Mario itch. It is not as good or as polished as TTYD or N64 PM, but it is a good RPG. I never truly connected to the characters or the party members like I did with TTYD or N64 PM, but most likely that is due to me not having 20 years or so of love for Mario!
I played the demo on the Switch eshop a few weeks back and found it very pleasant.
Gameplay was akin to the original Paper Mario's, so right up my street! And it looked great and ran well too on Switch.
Definitely on my radar!
Grateful there was a demo to try it out, otherwise I feel it would have flown right past me!
I'll give it a go. The last Paper Mario game I played was on Wii U and regret every moment spent with it.
I've played the demo a while back, it's excellent and plays well for a Paper Mario style game. Only issue is that it feels you burn through the equivalent of FP very easily on attacks.
The character designs are pretty nice, though a little plain. I'm not the biggest fan of the villains designs personally.
@umbreon_sylveon Origami King is excellent and I think trying to instantly dismiss it for not being a "true entry" more speaks to your fear of comparing them than Paper Mario 64 actually coming out ontop if they were.
Really it's still action and platforming in the overworld and turn based battles. Origami King has a more expansive, explorable world. It's characters are a much more developed than anything in Paper Mario 64, and there's a lot more things to do in every location.
I like the humor in the story, definitely would be getting this if it got a release before Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door remastered.
@blindsquarel Bug Fables was great! Hopefully this is just as good, if not better.
@Bizzyb
Hopefully! Bug Fables is probably the best RPG I've played and in my top five all time, so its a high bar to beat. But I think Born of Bread will be on a similar level.
Removed - disrespecting others
It will be on PS5 too. 😊
I hope the game will get physical release someday.
@umbreon_sylveon There's a demo on the EU eShop for Born of Bread.
@Eggolor The problem is that people simply refuse to play Origami King only because they believe it's another Sticker Star. And it has nothing to do with it! It's far better than that, there's no comparison.
I just want people to at least TRY it. Some people are too blinded, they just believe what a couple of youtubers say, as if that was a general truth. And they are missing out a fantastic game.
Bow answer to me honestly: have you played Origami King? If so, what did you dislike about it? Other than the battle system, which is peculiar and not for everyone, ok.
Btw, I don't believe OK is better that TTYD. Not many games are better than that lol.
@Eggolor
How dare someone not think that TTYD is the greatest game to exist, while any new Paper Mario game is trash with no redeeming qualities!
@the_beaver As much as I enjoyed the first five games in the series, The Origami King kind of left me with "low" feelings. The gameplay lacked depth and focus in that it has a hard time trying to provide a decent amount of fun factor between turn-based battles and Paper Macho battles, the former especially since you're forced to fiddle around with the Ring Slider each turn before even planning an attack. I feel that the game should've doubled-down on the turn-based battles or the Paper Macho battles, not both.
And while TOK does attempt to become closer to the first two games, I don't think it's close enough. Mario's attacks are among some of the weakest I've ever seen in the series in terms of selection, the enemy variety is too slim, there are still no statistical incentives to fighting enemies (even though Color Splash had "Hammer Scraps" to increase Paint capacity, but that's not the same), the out-of-battle Game Over situations are way out of hand and plentiful, and the accessories system is still a far cry from the first two games' Badge system (to the point that there's literally no reason to unequip the Heart, Guard, and Time Plus accessories).
That said, while TOK didn't impress me as much as its five predecessors, I still found it to be "okay" (at best). Hopefully the upcoming TTYD remake becomes the wake up call Intelligent Systems needs for the future of the series because while I did enjoy Sticker Star and Color Splash myself for what they were, their formulas have sung their last already and TOK is further proof of that, in my opinion.
@the_beaver Played TOK. Bug Fables was more enjoyable.
@the_beaver I haven't played TOK, but before you completely ignore the rest of my comment, please hear me out! I've watched several hour-long reviews of this game, and I believe I have some points that are worth bringing up.
Origami King's narrative and dialogue suffer from the same problem as Sticker Star and Colour Splash in that they hinge entirely on the world and characters being made out of paper. This is in contrast to the original trilogy which had stellar worldbuilding and writing while barely acknowledging the paper theme as being anything more than an artstyle. Toad Town and Rogueport especially feel like actual lived-in places as opposed to one big diorama filled with characters that constantly acknowledge the fact that they're made of paper. It gets old fast and kills the immersion even faster.
The frequent meta jokes and meme humour also feel incredibly forced and come across as trying too hard to be funny, whereas the first three games, generally speaking, had a wider variety of jokes, most of which were more subtle and cleverly written as well.
This game also still suffers from needless creative restrictions placed on character designs. I'm so sick and tired of seeing nothing but generic Toads and enemies in these games, and I dearly miss the memorable, iconic and visually distinct casts of the first three titles. I don't remember Generic Toad #5003 or "Bob-omb". I do remember Goombella, Admiral Bobbery, Vivian, Doopliss, Lord Crump, Count Bleck, Dimentio, I could go on. And don't even get me started on the boss designs. You can only take the paper theme so far before you end up with literal office supplies as bosses, which is exactly what this game did. The Legion of Stationary are beyond a joke, and are the perfect representation of scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Lastly, Origami King constantly goes out of its way to undermine any serious emotional moments it has. Bobb- sorry, "Bob-omb" sacrifices himself (something that could have easily been avoided btw) and Mario and Olivia mourn him for a while, only for them to sacrifice dozens upon dozens of Bob-ombs in a similar fashion later on, and they don't give it a second thought.
King Olly especially might just be the worst villain I've ever seen in a game. His entire motivation is that his creator scribbled on him, so he wants to commit genocide against his creator's species because he can't tell the difference between Toads. Not only is this an extremely unsubtle metaphor for the creative restrictions behind this game that actively mocks fans of the older games for being upset about it, but it becomes even more stupid when it's revealed that Olly's creator wrote on him saying he wanted him to be a good king. Olly only learns this after his plan to commit mass genocide has failed, says what basically amounts to "whoops, sorry", then dies. And we're supposed to feel bad for him? lol
I hope you've made it this far and now have a better understanding of why I and others have such disdain for this game. And to anyone who may try to discredit my arguments because I "haven't even played it", that doesn't make my points any less valid. I've seen and heard enough about this game to know that it isn't worth my time or money.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
@blindsquarel I never said any of that, so please don't put words in my mouth.
@Eggolor
You litarally said that anyone who puts the original 3 games below Origami King shouldn't have their opinion taken seriously. So yes, while exagerrated, you did essentially say that nobody should think that TTYD, or any of the original games, are worse than TOK.
@blindsquarel My bad then. I tried to frame that comment in a way that wouldn't come across as standoff-ish, but it may have come across as more passive-aggressive than I intended. I won't deny that TTYD isn't perfect, and that Super Paper Mario has underwhelming gameplay compared to its predecessors. I also won't deny that the artstyle of the newer games is good in a vacuum, and that the music of those games is arguably better. Please see my above comment if you'd like to read a more thorough critique from me on the direction of the modern games (specifically Origami King).
do you collect flour points?
Looking at the title, as a Brit living in France and trying to learn as much of French culture as I can, I joked to myself "an RPG about bread? This has got to be French!". Not actually being serious.
(For context, where I live there is an annual competition to find the best baker in the city, and the prize is for them to bring their fresh baked bread to the President every morning for a year. Its widely covered in the national media, and seen as the highest honour. Bread is srs-bizniz round these parts, naturellement.)
Opened the article, looked at the art style - those are the most French looking character designs I've seen in a while. By the way, that's not a bad thing, the graphics look beautiful. A cut above others in this genre. I really love Manfra (French Manga) and BD (French graphic novels), and grew up with Franco/Japonais collaborative anime, and the Franco/Belge equivalents. Its just a very distinctive style that you can see a mile off if you are experienced in it.
I read the article, watched the video, it looks wonderful. I'm really hyped to play this game, more traditional paper mario style games are always welcome, and this looks top tier.
But, no mention of its origins. It was bug-(fable)-ing me. (or "pain-ing me" ?! ) so I looked up the studio, making a bet with myself that it was from French designers. Turns out... Français-Canadien. Bien sûr! 😅
I work in Canada a lot, all over - from Vancouver to Toronto and even deep into Alberta. The only part of Canada I haven't been to, nor do I know any people from, is the French speaking part. And when I ever mention to my Canadian friends that I want to go there, and it will be good because I speak French and live in France so I have things to talk about with locals... they respond to me that French-Canadians are "far more French than French people" 😂
I'm very excited to play this game. I hope there is a French language option with as many equivalent puns as the English. If so, I'll play it twice!
I want us all to buy TTYD remake in droves so that big N can return to the OG formula. Unfortunately, the newest games have outsold the OG games:
Paper Mario - 1.37 million.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - 1.91 million.
Super Paper Mario - 4.23 million.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star - 2.49 million.
Paper Mario: Color Splash.
Paper Mario: The Origami King - 3.47 million.
Let's make TTYD remake the highest selling game in the "franchise"
@umbreon_sylveon Sure, but Wii, DS and Switch all had enormously bigger user bases than the N64 or Gamecube did. You didn't include the numbers for Colour Splash, which was on Wii U - I bet that one had numbers closer (or very likely less than) the N64 and GC entries?
That said, I agree with you. Its very important that both TTYD and SMRPG remakes sell big numbers to show Nintendo these types of games are popular and will be accepted by the casual Mario audiences as well as a hardcore vocal niche audience. I think they will both do well, and possibly out-sell Origami King, despite being remakes towards the end of the life of the console.
@umbreon_sylveon
Did you not include Color Splash because it didn't prove your point? Although then you would need to take into account that it was on a system with 14 million units sold.
But I do agree. Let the sales of TTYD decide whether the fans really want a return to the old style, or if thats just a vocal minority.
@blindsquarel Here's where I got the data. The source did not include Color Splash. https://www.vgchartz.com/game/226196/paper-mario/
The ONLY reason why people like me are so vocal and argumentative about the series and its direction is that while the games are liked by part of the fanbase, they are not well received by others. Big N has left my side in the dust. They are continuing to push out these games that divide the fanbase, yet don't appease both sides by creating one for each side. All of the anger and resentment goes away as soon as they make one for us. TTYD remake is a step in the right direction for sure. Notice how the internet reacted when that was announced. Nintendo really is seemingly going in the right direction by giving us TOK AND also remaking Legend of the 7 Stars and TTYD.
@umbreon_sylveon
Listen, I get it, TTYD is a great game. But to instantly write of any of the new games because they aren’t the older ones is foolish. While I personally think Origami King is the best in the series, the older style is definitely superior overall. I think instead of saying the series needs to be one or the other, they should take the best aspects of both styles. Take the battle system and creativity of the older games and the exploration and art of the newer ones. Heck, Nintendo has started to do that with the TTYD remake art-style being a blending of new and old.
Geez, I leave twitter to escape Paper Mario discourse only to find more of it here. I'll never be free.
@blindsquarel Color Splash was my first Paper Mario experience. It left a mildly bland taste in my mouth. I don't know the love for TTYD personally, but for friends around me, it has a special place in their heart.
For them, it was the first time Mario's world had a tiny bit of depth to it. You had an overall story, a cast of quirky characters, and it felt like a huge adventure. It was like the freedom to take Mario into a new universe.
Now, Im no Mario mega fan so I can't attest to what sets Paper Mario apart from 3D Mario, but that's the type of thinking my friends had at the time, and still do to this day. Wario was my jam growing up.
@Vexx234
Don’t get me wrong, I love TTYD. But I do think it is a bit overrated. (So a 8.5-9/10 instead of 10/10.) what I don’t like is this idea that the older games can do no wrong, while the newer ones do nothing right.
Looking forward to this. Tried out the demo not long ago.
Hmm. I'll have to look into this. Bug Fables was one of my favorite games of 2020 and in some ways I liked it more than PM 64 and TTYD so I have high expectations for what another indie company can do with the classic Paper Mario formula.
@N00BiSH Your pfp sums up your statement perfectly.
(That's a compliment, in case it's not clear. I love that scene from PPG)
Some of these character designs look amazing. Here’s hoping the battle system and story live up to the art style 👍
Haven't been keeping up with this one!
Looks like great fun.
@blindsquarel Yeah I agree, I always hold that side by side comparison and contrast of Paper Mario games will greatly favour TOK. There's lots of people who try and hide behind the nostalgia of TTYD and try and snipe at TOK rather than directly compare them.
As if their goal isn't to demonstrate TTYD is better but instead to trash TOK as much as possible to make it seem like that they can't compare.
Like it's hard to pretend TTYD features an uncontested epic expansive world and the new PMs don't when TTYD chapter locations are significantly smaller than Paper Mario 64s. While Paper Mario 64s is dwarved by TOKs in both size, unique locations and dungeons and the number of things to do.
People will snipe at Olly's backstory and avoid acknowledging the contrasting themes and subtext of Olivia's growth as a character against her brothers stagnation. But they won't explain why Grodus isn't worse with his Saturday morning cartoon villain goal of taking over the world and has no backstory or reason for what he does, or why the twist villain who just wants to take over the world too.
@blindsquarel I'll take your word for it. I haven't played it yet so I don't why it's revered among fans.
I will say this though. Careful to not let your nostalgia cloud your judgement. You can find yourself placing something on a pedestal that's impossible to reach.
@Vexx234
Trust me, I don’t have nostalgia for most every Paper Mario game. I played Super when I was a kid, but other than that every other game I’ve experienced within the past 4 years or so.
The chat seems like a combination of the audience and the Glitz Pit special conditions, pretty cool!
Looking forward to this, loved Bug Fables and I'm definitely down for more games in the style of Paper Mario... other than the incredible - in every sense of the word, still can't believe they're happening - remakes (absolutely including Super Mario RPG as the first Paper Mario was originally titled Super Mario RPG 2) by Nintendo!
@blindsquarel Couldn't agree more with what you said on comment #36, a new Paper Mario combining the best of all the previous games would be a dream come true and that's coming from someone who overall prefers the older style (although I still overall enjoyed the newer games to an extent, especially Origami King)!
That said, for that to happen the remakes have to sell well so I encourage anyone who is interested in them and/or the series as a whole to buy them if possible.
oh thank god
this game is available on steam
oh wait it will come soon ..... ima gonna wait
@Princess_Lilly, I'm waiting for the Whole Wheat Edition!
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