Topic: Paper Mario: Color Splash - OT

@Mister_Wu This is pretty common knowledge, since the first leaks of Sticker Star looked a lot more like the first two Paper Marios, it even had partners.
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/p...

I think it's the most salt in the wound, since I knew several that bought the game going off of just these screenshots.

In before, still people that don't know that AlphaDream is a team that has the two directors that worked on Super Mario RPG. Without the two directors, I don't think the current Square Enix would be able to make a Super Mario RPG like the first one, except maybe from an aesthetic point of view and - if they are smart enough to call Yoko Shimomura for help - from a soundtrack point of view.

That being said, we'll see how the Sticker Star mechanics are improved (remember that we have EXP now to increase the amount of paint that can be carried, as well as items that permanently increase the number of attacks per turn without having to use the battle spin) and if this new Paper Mario team is at least able to address the concerns on settings and the story. Tabata is not very reassuring, as she doesn't dare to call it a proper story.

@NintyFan ...Couldn't you hold a maximum of 120 stickers in Sticker Star, as long as the stickers were regular-sized? I mean, that's actually MORE than the amount here. Also, hints won't stop back-tracking. It doesn't matter if the hint helps figure out what card you need. If you don't have it, you need to go back and look for it. Also, I'm still not all that hopeful for the story-elements if she's hesitant to call it a "proper story".
"It starts from kind of mysterious opening.. You’re not sure what is going on, and as you go through the story, you’ll realize, oh this is what happens"
Also, Spoiler alert:

I honestly don't know how the truck this game got announced. After the backlash to the Sticker Star, what does Nintendo have to gain from announcing and releasing Color Splash as the Wii U's last hurrah? Did they really need to reaffirm the whole 'disappointment' narrative of the console?

I mean, go out on a high note! The Last of Us. Halo 4. Skyward Sword. Those are the kind of games you go out on.

@Haru17 I wouldn't exactly call Skyward Sword a high note.

@Grumblevolcano Eh, it's just one bad example. You get his point, though.

You know I hate on that game for days, but it was still a Zelda game.

I think I'll get this game, looks nice. Probably not at launch, though. I want to play through other Paper Mario games first. And that may take a while.

@Haru17 Because sales and arrogance.

Nintendo sees that Sticker Star outsold the first two games, and thinks that they should use it as the base for the next, not realizing a lot of people either bought Sticker Star out of curiosity, unawareness of what it really was, or just new to the series in general.

I truly hope companies don't use sales as a metric for the aesthetic direction of their games anymore. I mean, I bought Halo 4, I bought Skyward Sword, I bought Sticker Star, and I don't like where any of those games took their series'.

@Haru17 what other statistics could they use? If they aren't profiting, then why continue with the series?

Well, look at Sony. They're funding cult sequels like The Last Guardian and Shenmue 3. Those games flatly do not have mass market appeal (especially Shenmue, jfc), but they're a platform holder, so not all of their games have to sell well individually. Their platform benefits from the positive buzz. Nintendo did the same thing with Bayonetta 2, but doing it once only appeals to the one fanbase. Repetition generalizes that reputation.

If you analyze every individual thing in the world and only continue doing the profitable ones, you'd lose so much.

If they're that obsessed with sales, why didn't they make a bunch of Super Paper Mario sequels? That game sold better than every other game in the franchise. Maybe combined.

Yeah, this is a very big hole in that logic. If they care about sales that much, then they might as well just make every game like Super from now on. And I'd actually be okay with that. Sure, Super's game-play wasn't as good as the first two, but it at least had everything else I liked about the series!

@CM30 While it sold the best, the sheer number of Wii players makes Super Paper Mario in fact have pretty unimpressive sales figures (you can say that about a lot of Wii games in general). I think Sticker Star comes out on top if you compare sales with console userbase.

EDIT: No, TTYD actually sold better than Sticker Star even without comparing sales with console userbase.

@Haru17 Nintendo has a history of completely ignoring fan feedback. They're pretty publicly dismissive of their own customers. It's a bit infuriating, to be honest.

At this point I don't know if Nintendo ignores feedback or if they listen to it specifically just to go against it these days.

I think Nintendo are just, for the most part, stubborn. They've obviously shown that they're mostly aware of fan responses, but they pick and choose when to acknowledge it or not.

Are you kidding me? People whined about Wind Waker's art style, so Nintendo made Twilight Princess with horror influences. People winged about Skyward Sword's linearity, so they made Breath of the Wild an open world game. That seems pretty attentive to me.

@Haru17 You're definitely right about WW - TP, but Breath of the Wild is absolutely a result of current trends in gaming and actually honoring Zelda tradition. Open world games are not only popular right now (as they have been for the last couple years), but they actually fit the Zelda mold incredibly well. The original Legend of Zelda is one of the best early open world titles, Majora's Mask dungeons could be completed in basically any order, and A Link Between Worlds allowed for a great deal of freedom with dungeon order as well. If anything TP and to a much greater extent SS were outliers in how linear they were relative to other titles in the series, and even then they weren't necessarily as boxed in as a lot of other games are.

To keep the topic on Paper Mario, though, this seems to be a case where new developers are just sticking with what they know.