Some bugs are worse than others; while we're used to seeing the odd graphical or audio issue in our games, these don't ordinarily render a game unwinnable – but it would seem that Paper Mario: The Origami King is saddled with a design hiccup which means you can't complete it.
The issue – as detailed in the video below – involves the section where you are tasked with visiting four spas in the Shangri-Spa area in order to gain access to a secret fifth spa. The issue is that once the NPC guarding the entrance asks to see the membership card required to enter, it is removed from your inventory entirely – so if you exit the area for whatever reason, you can no longer gain access because you don't have the membership card, nor does the NPC remember taking it from you; it's also not possible to obtain a replacement.
To make matters worse, this area is found towards the end of the game, and if you unwittingly save your progress after making this mistake, you'll have to restart the entire game from scratch as it's not possible to roll back to earlier saves, as you can in, say, Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That means losing around 30 hours of progress.
But that's not all – according to Gaming Reinvented, second game design issue exists which locks players out of obtaining 100% completion. This one is present in the Snif/Shroom City area, where, if you turn off the water in the hotel and leave without freeing the Toad which is being used as a surfboard, it’s impossible to liberate that Toad later on in the game. While this isn't as dramatic an issue as you can still finish the game, you won't get that all-important 100% rating.
We'd imagine that Nintendo will fix both of these problems pretty quickly, but let us know if you've fallen foul of this design glitch by posting a comment below.
[source gamingreinvented.com]
Comments 76
Only just finished the river boat first section after the Water Vellumental. I think I have a ways to go until I experience these bugs, but I suppose they are good to be aware of.
This is definitely gonna get patched out.
Kind of surprising something like this slipped by if it seems as obvious as the situation with the membership card. Hope nobody here has run into this issue.
I'm playing through all the Paper Mario games in order, and I'm only on the first one so I imagine it'll be patched well before I get to Origami King.
I suppose you could say there's a few creases that need to be flattened out...
Big oof. Very glad to know to know about these.
Aren't there tons of games where you can't get 100% if you do something or progress past a certain point without doing something, you can't make 100%?
Helpful video, I’ll just have to remember to continue in the tunnel at this part. There really isn’t much reason to leave, but yeah, this is a potential problem and should get patched ASAP.
@Crimson_Ridley That joke made me creased up and folded.
Pre order cancelled.
Glad I'm not that far into this game, man I'm awful at Boss battles, but hey still gonna slog through. I love the comedy of these games
@FantasiaWHT yeah like XC DE. Really annoyed me that I couldn't do the whole Bana sidequest since I was already to far into the game
@Moon Why do you still have your pre-order since the game is already been out for a week now haha
Bug Fables crossover confirmed
@mariomaster96 oh, I haven't heard of this one yet. But, doesn't XE mark quests that need to be done before long in the story or they will be unobtainable with a clock symbol or something?
@FantasiaWHT I'd hazard a guess that's a game design choice. It happened in many Final Fantasy of old (can't vouch for the newer ones) on purpose. But Paper Mario, and mostly Nintendo, tend to be more lenient on that. They usually let the player 100% on their own pace. I could be wrong about Origami King, though
dang, that softlock is pretty late in the game too, hope it gets patched sooner than later
I'm pleased to see original NPCs were sacrificed for good game design, care and hindsight.
Oh people actively trying to pretend the game is bad or broken to discourage others from playing it because they didn't get the game they wanted? Shocker
Lots of Rpgs have missable events / quests to prevent 100%. But this isn't a missable. It's a bug. And it'll definitely get patched.
I've also discovered a gamebreaking bug for the new Paper Mario game. It's called "Bug Fables"
glares at Intelligent Systems
@Bobb yes but i didn't know that since i didn't know what that clock meant
Where are the guys that are always spouting that “the quality of first-party Nintendo games pays for themselves” when stuff like this happens..?
RIP to anyone who lost all their progress. Heaven help me if something similar happens to me whilst I try finishing Colour Splash; that will kill any hope I have of ever finishing that game.
@mariomaster96 as a completionist, it pains me to hear that. I'm sorry
Horrible. How could this get past game testing?
Just imagine this happening in the GC era. It wouldn't be possible to simply "patch" something like that.
How could they let something as simple as that happen when you can buy 2 different tickets for the studio right outside? That's not even really a "bug", a bug should be something you really couldn't forsee happening, this is just stupid game design. Plain stupidity.
Just so we're clear though - this is a REQUIREMENT to continue the main story of the game, not just some simple side quest or something? I'm not a completionist of any sort, I just like playing to the end, so I'll never get Expert in that toss game, but I think I'm fine w/o it. If this just breaks a minigame it's not that big of a deal, but if you literally can't continue the game if you leave the spa and save Nintendo should be issuing $60 refunds.
It's on them for not allowing multiple save points in the game. Every long game needs at least 2, maybe 3 save slots, you can rotate every 2 or 3 hours for situations like this. They can't be bothered to offer that, and make a game that breaks on something that stupid, they don't deserve our money.
Anybody know if cloud saves keep more than 1 or how often they update in case anyone else gets stuck? I paid for online but haven't ever checked how cloud saves work.
@MS7000 I never finished Color Splash b/c I couldn't get past that stupid memory matching game. Not the 1st time when you needed 3 out of 5 correct, I got 3 out of 5, but the 2nd time later in the game when you need like 7 out of 7 so no mistakes. I tried a couple of times but got SO PO'D after that I never went back. 😡
@Moon a simple glitch and you cancel your pre-order? Over dramatic or just want likes?
I actually just finished that whole desert area. No joke my favorite area in any Nintendo game ever. The Music is absolutely banger and the secrets are so fun. Definitely something worth to go back too.
Good thing I never intended to get this game so I won't be plagued by these bugs.~
I have a Toad that I can't get in Shangri-Spa after you shut off the fountain in the hotel pool. Instead of talking to the Snifit and getting the folded paper airplane Toad, I walked into another room. When I came back, the Snifit was gone, and the folded Toad is still there, but I can't do anything to unfold him with the hammer. I saw a couple people post this on Nintendo's forums as well
Oh boy, hope this gets fixed asap.
@moon hah! I was going to say the same thing
While it's not uncommon to be locked out of 100%ing a game after certain points of no return, the instance with the Toad definitely sounds like a bug.
@Bobb Yes, XC: DE does mark plot-sensitive quests with clock symbols. However, I've discovered (the hard way) that not all quest exclamation icons are unlocked right away. Some understandably don't unlock until other quests are completed, but a few don't show up at all until you create certain affinity links by talking to certain NPCs. I've learned I've permanently missed a couple of good quest chains thanks to this.
Just finished the Spring of Rainbows last night. As a completist, I often backtrack in games, so fortunately I didn't do so in this case. The weird thing about this particular glitch is that you get to keep your other tickets (such as the Royalty Pass to Shogun Studios) after showing them; that's all it would take to render this one nonexistent.
Having played that deep into the game, I have to say that while it has its charming moments and some catchy tunes at certain points, the overall design is a bit erratic, and I'm not referring to the battle system, which has its high points (the Bosses) but generally feels unrewarding given the time required to win a fight (especially since there's no leveling up or motive to do so other than to collect coins).
One cardinal sin in game design where I'm personally concerned is the high-difficulty challenge which is overly long and/or which requires a lot of repeated dialogue or animation to do over again. The Eddy River is one such area where A) it takes several minutes to get through, B) there are two Near-Bottomless Holes and a HUGE number of (often highly difficult) coins to collect 100% "to get a special prize", and C) there is NO WAY TO BACK OUT until you've completely gone through. Fail, it's Game Over and a bunch of menu screens and non-skippable dialogue on top of that agonizingly long river course. Yes, I completed the river and managed to fill the two Holes, but after several tries I just don't see myself bothering to try for whatever that "special prize" is.
Word of warning: hit that Save block just before you enter that final door at the Spring of Rainbows. There's another, potentially EXTREMELY long, unskippable challenge whose mechanics are completely out of left field (and which I beat by the skin of my teeth) immediately afterward. And oh yes, there's an option to push your luck with a bonus "win or Game Over" scenario immediately after that. Lose this one and you're looking at repeating probably 10 minutes easy, maybe a lot more.
Those are the sort of design choices that can easily make gamers rage-quit and walk away from a game.
Someone's not getting their post launch bonus.
@Damo
No, after the game reset the entrance at spring, reset the card too. They did just half of it.
They needed came back to the card again to prove is really a bug here. They need came back AND TALK TO THE TOAD here AFTER they don't be able enter the spring. Because, AFTER, the card will be here again.
This part don't was done, if they really want prove this is a bug. you can check in the video. To help the ilusion, they just walked in front of it after. This ilusion of a bug was made by someone who know how code, looks like.
@Waluigifan I seem to recall a similar game-breaking bug being discovered in Super Paper Mario on the Wii shortly after its release. If I remember correctly, you could send your disc to Nintendo and get it replaced.
I have encountered a game breaking bug, it's called the Ring Battle System; specifically, the puzzles. Gamebreaking in the sense that they make me want to put the game down.... Otherwise a charming and lovely entry in the Paper Mario franchise.
@MS7000 @NintendoByNature @Tyranexx
Hey, guys, if You are worried, just read what I writed in my previous comment.
@FlashBoomerang thanks appreciate the tip!
@rjejr same here with that game to get the camera card.... i just held up my phone and recorded the cards as they were revealed lol.... it worked for me but your right 7 outta 7 is tough lol
"This area is found towards the end of the game... That means losing around 30 hours of progress."
This is more alarming to me than the bug. I guess they don't make em as long as they used to.
@rjejr
$60 refunds? You've got quite the flair for the dramatic, eh?
@BeefSanta I like to think of it as "flair for the fair". 😎
Companies shouldn't be allowed to sell broken games that can't be finished thru no fault of the player. There have been plenty of games I've never finished b/c I didn't feel like it, or it got to difficult for me. I'd never expect any type of refund for those, that's on me for not doing the research. The problem isn't w/ Nintendo and 1 game, the problem is if gamers let this slide then what's next? At what point to companies just start putting out broken garbage they sell for $60 w/o recourse?
In case you aren't aware, WWE 2020 was so broken on PS4 Sony actually issued refunds. So if that was Sony being "dramatic" well count me in.
https://wccftech.com/wwe-2k20-refunds-patch/#:~:text=If%20you%20want%20to%20get,purchase%20to%20get%20a%20refund.
@skycargav2000 I considered asking my son to do it for me, said it only took him a few tries, but by that point I had moved on to another game. There's always another game.
I’m about at the halfway point and so far it’s pretty fun. Enemy encounters remind me of the sewers in TTYD. I just hit them with the hammer. I’m glad someone found this out though because I tend to leave areas to find toads I have missed. Stinks cause I would like a patch of course but the full game was on the cart.
I had no issues during the game.
Only in one part where you have to fill in a hole with confeti, I ran out of it and couldn’t leave. Had to exit the game to restart from the save point.
It’s a pretty good game, don’t listen to the haters.
Just don’t do what this page says and you’ll be fine.
This is why you hire video game testers.
@rjejr I had one of the 3 versions of OoT that I had to restart a file on because of a bug. I didn't get $60 back.
I had a copy of Scooby-Doo on SNES that had a end-game bug requiring a save wipe. I didn't get $60 back.
Did I get annoyed? Sure. Did I just keep playing? Absolutely.
@rjejr okay, fam, you do you. We now live in a world where these things can be fixed. Should the game have shipped with something this broken? No, of course not. But here we are, and it'll get handled I'm sure.
This game decided to crash on me during the first area on Overlook Tower. After defeating the three Paper Macho Shy Guys, I decided to go on further left as I know a hidden treasure chest was hiding there, but the game froze all of a sudden. No idea why this is the case, but there you go.
@HobbitGamer
I ran into a breaking scenario for OOT on N64. I was too young to know what was going on at the time but I was at the castle at the end of the game. The game crashed on me when I made it down the steps right after you cross the bridge of light and enter the castle. I powered off the console, powered on the console. Selected the same file and ended up in Kakariko with the inventory messed up. Yes, it crashed again shortly after. It was something else but it actually stripped the save feature from the game and deleted all the progress. 🤷♂️
This was like 20 years ago. Ha.
@Alomba87
Speak for yourself 😉
@KonaM92 Nice. My version also allowed you to lose the Master Sword if you did a quit during the Ganon fight.
This very much reminds me of a certain Mario & Luigi remake that caused players to get stuck at a Save Block in Dimble Woods...
@Apportal I felt the same way about the dessert area. The game took me a bit to get into but now I’m absolutely loving everything about it. Nintendo and Mario never disappoint. People will be haters regardless, but the game is genius.
Interesting they would create a progression flag that could be unset.
It’s baffling how many people don’t understand how games work. It’s normal for things like this to happen. For those who actually played the game to get this bug requires you doing a series of moves that the average player would not do. This was discovered by people who literally go out of their way to try to break things for fun. They are free bug testers. The average player would never go backwards immediately after entering the tunnel and then speak to the toad. If you don’t speak to that toad at the desk it doesn’t reset. But carry on criticizing because you don’t understand how coding works.
Isn`t it a bit too random to do? Usually you just get the pass and progress, only of going for 100% someone may do this, and even that is a bit unlikely
What kind of monster wouldn't rescue Toad?
I am sure they will patch this, but maybe not as soon as we hope because of Corona. By the way, I heard there's a auto-save as soon as you leave the spa. So by all means: Don't leave the spa untill you have finished it!
I have Origami King on my shelf ready. But playing through sticker star at the moment (I know, cue the laughter and hate). Feel obliged to stick with that a bit longer first.
@KevTastic84 Sticker Star is underated honestly. It’s a decent game, but compared to its others it’s pretty bad. Just play what you want to play and don’t let anyone tell you what to play.
Yeap you really had to go out of your way to get stuck like this, I mean I got stuck in Pokemon Ruby cause the SS Tidal never arrives but then I realize the in-game clock never works cause the cartridge memory battery was dead. Replacing it allows me to fix the clock and finally got on-board the SS Tidal.
@Apportal I have two young children now so getting through the backlog is hard enough. But yeh you're right, i should just be playing what makes me happy
Just about to enter this area of the game. Good thing I read this article!
Ah. The best kind of game breaking bug. The "how did they not see this?!" type.
@BeefSanta I'd take a fix over a refund. Has Nintendo acknowledged that there is a problem yet? A tweet that they are working on the problem and a fix will be forthcoming would be nice.
what will we do if Nintendo put this glitch in the game intentional?
There is actually a joke in the game about patching games and its funny they know how annoying it is
@rjejr neither would nor nice < niais < nescius := not-skilled.
issue -> problem
@alysdexiia will -> shall; not nice < niais < nescius := not-skilled; you are; would -> could; Faster -> Swifter; fast -> swift; use -> have been using -> hav been a’using; since -> for; that -> those; described -> related; Gb -> GB; large -> great; Napoleonic numeric notation fail
Am I doing that right?
I found a similar bug that prevents the use of useful items. They still show up in my inventory, but I can’t use them. When I am asked to use a useful item, I can only pick from the manhole hook and my shogun studios royalty pass. I have 9 useful items so far so that may play into the issue, but it’s really aggravating having a shriveled max heart up and not being able to fix it!
I have run into a particular bug in ver 1.0.0 of the game and I am not the only one. I cannot find Origami Character No. 28 - The Black Shy Guys in the Temple of Shrooms. The problem is, they do not respawn once you beat the temple. You might remember a scripted fight between them before you enter the disco room. For whatever reason, I was able to either smash them with my hammer or I fought them, but the game didn't recognize it. Either way, now it seems like I am unable to obtain Origami Character No. 28, thus I can't 100% the game.
I have finished the game and am going back to get stuff I missed and they just let me walk right on down the stairs no questions asked, so it must only bug out at a very specific time because you're free to come and go from there afterwards as you please.
I found a few more glitches, one. After beating the game I went to the Toad Town shop to buy the Princess Peach collectible for 30k ish coins and I did, and it didn’t register me as collecting it and it just went poof, I’m down a trophy, a collectible and 30k coins. Also I can’t get the ally tambourine either, all the accessories merchants tell me they sold me everything when in reality they didn’t, can someone please help me bring this to light?
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