Topic: Paper Mario: The Origami King

I'm in the closing battles of the game. Can't wait to see how it "unfolds" 😉

I did it guys and gals. Beat TOK. What a wonderful surprise to have this dropped on us when we only knew about it two months ago. Didn't have much time to get hyped, but the amount I did, was definitely surpassed. The final area was great, the last few boss fights were rock solid. And the ending was beautifully done and may have even tugged on my own personal heart strings. Its up there for me as GOTY with XC:DE.

Now I want to experience even more in the series. I still have sticker star unplayed, and I can grab color splash, super paper mario, and 1000 year door at some point. We'll see how much down time we have from now until the new year.

@Apportal
Already did that. I’ve gotten every Toad in the game thus far. Aside from a few in Whispering Woods. It says 91% completion for Toads. Now, I have a suspicion the campfire has something to do with it. The wood says something about longing to burn? But I can’t figure out a way to light it on Fire.

If you can tip me off to the final 9% of Whispering Woods (don’t know if that’s 1 Toad or 3, if it’s all in one discovery or multiple), that would be greatly appreciated!

@JaxonH the campfire does not grant you any toads, instead you just need to come back to that area and there will be a magic circle to use and it will set on fire. You can then use it to cook certain things. But here’s where some toads you may have missed are.
Some toads I missed the first time around was on the tree around the campfire disguised as a bug. There’s one on the nearby log swing as a bug as well. The plate on the picnic table is one too.
And lastly, arguably the hardest to find, You need to go to the log cabin and go to the batch of flowers on the fence. Go underneath and hit the one that doesn’t bloom any flowers and one will bloom. Yep you guess it, it’s a toad. Hope this helps 😊 Happy gaming!

@NintendoByNature I’m so glad you liked it! I was super excited and my expectations were met too. I bet all the lazy and immature haters for this game are feeling pretty awful 😂 I for one and enjoying it. Gonna beat it Tommorow. I’ll keep you posted

@Apportal
Yep, got all those. But the campfire 🔥 I didn’t notice a magic circle. I had my suspicions once I got the Fire Vellumental, but I didn’t recall seeing any magic circle so I kind of wrote that off as a possibility. Guess I’ll have to go back there and check again now. I have the clam seashell thingy and figured I could roast it if I got the Fire going, but didn’t know how to get the fire going. Now I do, thanks!

As for the criticism, some of it is legitimate as people just didn’t enjoy it, and that I’m fine with. But the game is so remarkably good I find it hard to believe a lot of the criticism, or even most of it for that matter, is actually legitimate. I suspect a lot of it is stemming from preconceived notions and bias, hating the game and hating the combat no matter what.

I’ve seen so many middling reviews, or reviews that completely slam the combat as something they “hate” (even NintendoLife ran a video titled “Paper Mario’s BAFFLING combat”) it just makes me lose even more trust in the media and those with positions of influence. It just sounds like criticisms that were pre-decided in advance due to the whole XP narrative, to the point I can very accurately predict what criticisms will be before they’re even said. And anytime you can predict someone’s opinion before they even share it, there’s a good chance they’ve become ideologically indoctrinated. People who think for themselves can never be accurately predicted like that. Not when the combat is not only not a problem, but surprisingly fun. It never outstays it’s welcome as the frequency of battles is well done, the “super hard puzzles” are a GOOD thing, so that each battle is a challenge to line it up the best as you can, and the better you perform in doing so the more damage you earn the right to deal- yet everyone acts like it’s some binary mechanic you’re supposed to 100% solve every time otherwise you’ve “failed” (hence the complaints of it being “ridiculously hard to line up” as if failing to 100% solve it is some detrimental blow rather than a challenge that simply results in you lining up say, 75% of the enemies and doing what damage you can, with the enemies getting a turn in). It’s utter nonsense. If you line up all but one enemy then you’re going to do damage to all but one enemy. If you line up all but three enemies you’re going to do damage to all but three enemies. The better you perform, the more damage you earn the right to do. And that system only works when it’s hard enough that you’re unable to 100% solve it every time. Not solving a puzzle perfectly isn’t bad, it’s what allows the enemy to get attacks in against you. And if that wasn’t the case the game would be incredibly boring! What’s really awesome though is the fact that whenever an enemy does damage you it can be directly attributed to a failure in your own skill set and performance. This is a game where, for every single point of damage taken, you have no one to blame but yourself. Likewise, when you take an enemy out with precision it feels all the more rewarding because it’s thanks to your own cleverness.

@JaxonH
Honestly, I don't read reviews much anymore. Sometimes I'll watch Youtube reviews after I've beaten a game just to see what other people thought of the same experience, but reviews just ruin games for me because I find myself subconsciously subscribing to what the reviewer thinks of the game even if I don't want to. Sometimes the opposite happens and I "fight" against a reviewer's opinion simply for the sake of trying to not agree lol. No matter the situation, it almost always ruins my experience with the game.

In the best of worlds, I prefer to play a demo first to decide if I want to buy a game. If no demo exists, when it comes to first-party Nintendo games, 99% of the time I feel secure in making the purchase if it's a genre I know I enjoy. Same goes for a lot of the third-party AAA games that I know at the very least will have polish to them even if there are flaws.

In the Origami King's case, lots of the mainstream reviews were extremely misleading, but that's just my opinion. So many people are gonna miss out on this game because they bought into the media speculation and then piling-on for things like lack of experience, the battle system, the party members, etc. When, if you actually play the game, you see why they made those choices and (in my opinion) understand why those things either don't matter or actually turn out to be more fun and sometimes slightly challenging (the battle system).

I think reviews have a new place in the modern landscape of gaming, rather than saying if games are good or not I normally use them to find out if the latest AAA game is a broken mess or not. It does annoy me when reviewers get told by the publisher that the day one 50GB+ patch will fix everything so they completely leave it out of the review.

It doesn't really affect Ninty as they are normally tighter on these things. Reviews are kinda redundant for Ninty too as you are so familiar with their franchises already you know what to expect and is something is different then it will ruin the surprise.

I find people are too desperate for reviews to match their own opinion as justification that they are right about the game they are invested in as well as the weird obsession that any game that isn't 9 or 10/10 isn't worth bothering with.

Ya, that's probably fair. Even if reviews were all saying it's great, how many would actually decide to buy it as opposed to just stop talking about the game since they ran out of ammo to batter it with.

The idea of sub-9 being unplayable is unfortunate. I feel we need separate scores for fun factor and addictiveness, so that even a game thats 7/10 could score a 9/10 in fun factor/addictiveness. Because I've played a lot of games that weren't 9/10s but I loved them so much and couldnt stop playing (Wonderful 101 is a good example, Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon, etc).

@Apportal it was nearly a perfect experience for me. Just a couple frustrating parts but other than that, phenomenal time

@JaxonH for the campfire, there should be a magic circle underneath the shed where the supply of woods used to be. There if course you can light it on fire. Have you found all the toads yet? If not the only ones left are in the tents. Just unzip them.

Maybe its still a bit to early to give my opinion (only at Shogun studios so far) but here I go: I have mixed feelings!

Plus:

The game looks great of course and has nice music (not as catchy as Color splash though).
I like the Origami creatures, they look creepy and cute (I especially love the Goomba's).
Humor is great as always.
Exploring and finding toads is fun.
Lovely bosses, reminds me a bit of Mario party.

Minus:

Battle system might be original, but is to simplistic. I mean, the arranging part is pretty unique, but after that it becomes so straight-forward. You either choose your hammer for a "cluster" of enemies, or a jump for a line of enemies. Other things like Fire flowers are just optional.

Nintendo might call it "open world" because it doesn't have chapters, but it has never been more lineair before. Its really Nintendo at its old antics, faaaar removed from Breath of the wild. You just go from Streamer area to Streamer area in a VERY lineair fashion. Often things happen where Olivia keeps calling you back when you want to do something else. Can't I get the freedom, this is old-fashioned Nintendo. It may sound very weird, but this feels more lineair to me then Color splash, and that one was chapter/level based. Oh, and why do we only see Olly at the start? Count Bleck was actually a villain that you saw multiple time through the game (speeches to his minions).

Not bottomless holes aren't that fun as colorless spots, because they are easier to find and don't require any skill to fill. With the colorless spots you had to hit them in different parts to fill them up (the bigger ones).

Pay to win elements: I feel that if you throw enough coins to the toads during battles, the game plays itself. Same with the timer, you can extent it with coins. Maybe for a pretty long time. Well, at least its optional.

If the game continues like this I would probably give it a 75% while I would give Color splash a 85%.
I am happy with my buy, I really am. But I hoped for a bit better.

@Henmii
I’m pretty sure Nintendo never claimed Paper Mario was open world. That was just gamers jumping to conclusions based on what they saw. It is pretty open in terms of connected areas and freedom though, even if areas are separated by a loading screen. It’s meant to be linear progression, and that’s not a bad thing. In fact I think the most open area of the game is the weakest link (the desert and ocean, not that those areas are bad by any means but I did enjoy them slightly less, especially the ocean). Because being too open means empty, and that means spending a lot of time traversing. It’s definitely not meant to be an open world game where you just go do whatever you want whenever you want. It’s designed to have linear progression and I think that’s a very good thing. You still have plenty of freedom to travel back through the other areas and even explore the large areas you’re in, which if you’re trying to get all the toads and blocks and collectibles you’ll definitely spend some time doing. Just not having a world map makes a huge difference in how it feels. Even if it ultimately makes little difference in the structure it makes a pretty big difference in player experience.

I don’t think it’s “old fashioned” or “antics” for a game to have a structure of progression. It’s a solid development concept that most gamers enjoy, and many developers across the board adhere to. Last of Us is the most linear game of all time, yet people still enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with every game not being Breath of the Wild in structure. It doesn’t work for every game. And that’s perfectly OK. Not to mention, this isn’t even close to being the most linear type of game. This game actually falls in a middle ground where, though it does have linearity, at the same time, the areas you progress through are pretty large and open enough to provide an experience conducive to exploration and discovery.

Also, pay to win refers to paying real money to gain advantage. In this game you pay coins, which are a limited commodity earned in-game. So there’s a cost benefit ratio for using them. If you spent a few hundred coins in every battle to extend time and get aid from the toads (which to be clear, doesn’t play it for you, it just makes one move for you, or does a bit of damage, unless you pay an obscene amount of coins or something, which I never tried). But it’s a trade off because your coins are your lifeline to other items, collectibles and accessories. And as you mentioned, it’s optional.

I do agree that I wish Ollie was shown more throughout the game. That’s a fair point. He does actually make an appearance very soon after you leave Shogun Studios though. But aside from that, I think that’s about it until the end of the game.

@JaxonH,

I am pretty sure a article on this site mentioned that someone from Nintendo said its open-world. I am not against linearity persee, for example I loved Luigi's mansion 3. And I agree not everything should be like Breath of the wild in terms of scope, that would be bad. By the way, I had quite some fun in Shogun studio's. It was quite a big area with lots of rooms you could enter. But before that I felt often like I was pushed through a long corridor, but that might just be me. I would have liked more freedom, but I still like the game.

asdf;kljsadg;lksadjg;lkasgjsad "open world" ads;flkjasdl;fkjasl;kdjfas

I can't. I just. Blargle.

I’m at Peach’s Castle. This is it. The final stretch.

I’m strapped to the hilt with heavy artillery. Nothin’ but Legendary Boots, Legendary Iron Boots, Legendary Hammers and Shiny Hurlhammers here.

@JaxonH that's all I had equipped too. Youll do just fine. Love the ending, let me know how you like it.

@JaxonH @NintendoByNature Wow, you've gotten far! I'm only at the abandoned ship, about to fight a boss.

I must be really bad at this game. Still in Toad Town, rescued that Shy Guy’s friend, he doesn’t have the sewer hook, went to the red house, opened the wall now back to figuring out what to do.

@Quarth I finished the game Sunday I believe? I cant remember but it was phenomenal. I honestly thought I only played about 15-20 hours since it flew by and I had such a blast. Finally my switch showed my play time and it said "25 hours or more." So there ya have it, you know a game is good if you don't even realize how long you played for.