Topic: Super Mario Odyssey

@Meowpheel They didn't seem to have any problem snapping at her coattails in 3D World, so it seems that one or the other has softened.

#forthecasuals

@Som64 Insert OOT Link screams and fall damage grunts.

@Maxz And yet picking up ones in flower pots makes them completely docile to the holder, despite showing the ability to turn and potentially bite the holder in the face. Those bouquet Piranha Plants seem pretty young, so perhaps they can be domesticated at that age?

@meleebrawler Man, Mushroom Kingdom horticulture is some deep Schmidt.

I suppose it's not as whack as the mushrooms being the actual people of the Kingdom.

@Maxz Or the dinosaurs that can fertilize their eggs at will.

I'm okay with no fall damage. I usually find it to be more annoying than anything else, and I don't think I've ever really had an experience where it contributed much to my overall enjoyment of a game.

How did past Mario games punish the player for losing all their lives and getting a Game Over?

@-Green- Starting over from your last safe. I think it was an alright punishment, especially in Sunshine, where getting to the FLUDD-less stages wasn't always as easy (and those where the levels that would often result in a game over). In Odyssey it wouldn't add much to the game I think, since all the worlds are coherent stages, and all you need to do is walk over there. I think the game even puts you back in the spot where you died, but I'm not sure about that.

I'm not sure I like the removal of fall damage though...

@Octane Im of two minds with fall damage.

On one hand it encourages less careful platforming knowing the only punishment is having to track back up. But at the same time that wasted time is an incentive.

But in 3d mario games of past fall damage is completely negatable.

@Tsurii True, but it's one of those ''if it ain't broke, don't fix it'' things. I had no problem with fall damage, and it's sort of part of the games, so I don't see why they need to remove it. But that's just me. If I had the choice, I would have put it in the games. The removal of fall damage isn't going to ruin the experience for me though.

I'm also okay with no fall damage but, I want to hear Mario scream.

Like he did in Mario 64 and Sunshine.

There are plenty of ways of creating high-stakes platforming other than fall damage. Then most obvious examples being bottomless pots, pools of lava, beds of spikes, sinking sand, acid lakes, oceans of fondue, etc. It's not like gravity is nature's only way of punishing poor platforming. Drowning beneath waves of softly bubbling melted Gruyere can be much more fatal than fisticuffs with Newton's favourite force.

I'm genuinely trying to think whether the fall damage helped lend some past games a more palpable sense of weight. I think it did - a bit. But I've also seen some awesome jumps from NDC Skyscrapers onto other surrounding buildings, and it'd be lame if those epic leaps were accompanied by a substantial loss of health.

Zelda made use of high places by giving you the glider. Judging from NDC's layout at least, it seems Nintendo's working a bit of the 'climb high, jump far' school of level design into Osyssey too. They weren't going to give him a glider, so I guess his already impressive long-jump combined with no fall damage is the closest Mario will get to aerial exploration. Having said that, he has been granted a cape/feathered cap for airborne frolicks in the past, so who knows what his options for flight will be this time.

I suppose you could say the sky's the limit.

@Maxz Well, they could either follow the trend of reviving old powerups like they did with the Super Leaf and do the same with the cape feather. Or go with the hat trend and bring back 64's Wing Cap. On the other hand... levels actually seem relatively devoid of standard Mario power-ups, so maybe they expect you to capture a flying enemy to do that.

@Octane You start from the most recent checkpoint you've touched. They're not just fast-travel points.

I'm ok with no fall damage. Gives the player the opportunity to think creative ways to get around the levels.

Mario never took fall damage until 64, anyway, so this super leg strength is not a new thing.

@meleebrawler We've already seen him become a Bullet Bill, which is kinda close. It wouldn't surprise me if he were able to possess an actual bird, or maybe even plane (he can possess tanks, right?) in some section the game. Probably not very often though, as allowing the players to frequently fly over stuff kinda defeats the purpose of a platforming game.

Mario Galaxy already had no fall damage, y'know. Granted, it mattered less with the level design.

@Meowpheel Right, if you don't count Donkey Kong on NES and Game Boy.

Fall-damage in Super Mario 64 was never really a bad thing, as you could always save yourself with a timed buttstomp or divejump or airkick and land softly. Really, there were at least 3 buttons that could save you from losing energy from a long distance drop, which made it easy even for beginners to avoid taking fall-damage (and we all were beginners back then in the realm of 3D platformers). It was something new and innovative back then and it felt right, and it showed some of the N64's physics and gave Mario even more skills and animations, even though they could have done without it.
Similarly in Super Mario Sunshine, you could just hover with your water tank or perform a dive jump to slide and be safe, in Galaxy you could shake the Wiimote and spin, etc.

I've no problem with taking fall-damage, especially when it's done as nice as in Donkey Kong for Game Boy and the 3D Marios. Seeing it gone in Odyssey doesn't make much of a difference to me, I will still save myself with a timed slide, just so I don't have to see Mario's crashing-into-the-ground animation and lose time. I'm fine with the game not punishing you by taking Mario's health or life, because it's punishing enough looking/playing like a noob and watching Mario's crash animation at nearly every drop, when it's so easy to avoid it in the first place.

Yea, the fall damage was easily avoidable with the "butt stomp" and such, but like @Octane said, it was still a gameplay input that the player had to make to avoid the damage, which in a small way adds to the game. They should have just kept it that way.

If I was in the decision chair, I probably would have kept it in, but it's in no way a real deal breaker for me. Like was mentioned, it depends on the level design. We may be surprised at how little we find ourselves falling great distances. Either way, nothing could make me lose hype for this game unless they introduced micro transactions or a season pass

Rough translation: "Good morning! It is a basic action "crouching". You can also attack or crouch and walk."