Humor is a difficult discipline for writers, but Paper Mario: The Origami King easily overcomes this hurdle on the Nintendo Switch. The premise of the series that started on the Nintendo 64 is hilarious: the entire Mario universe is interpreted as a paper version. Characters are now drawings on flat sheets, and everything is made of cardboard or office supplies.
A paper world with a lot of heart
The paper world gets a special charm from the creation of the new villain: The Paper Mario origami king Olly raids the mushroom kingdom and folds almost all residents into malicious origami. That was it with the plot, which is quite typical for Mario. Save kingdom and princess? Check. But the way is the goal, because the real attraction is to travel through the varied world and see how the inhabitants deal with the invasion.
You meet Toads, whose grill party has fallen into the water. Or you can see how the origami zombies crash a musical. In general, there is a whole series of great (and mostly non-interactive) musical interludes that surprise from nothing. This applies to the entire campaign, which lasts around 30 hours. Because whether it is through deserts, restaurants, castles or enchanted forests: Again and again there are unforeseen situations that are not only humorous but also tell a little something about the mushroom kingdom.
The best way to learn how the world, which we have known from other Mario titles for decades, ticks, breathes, works here. Mario’s companion Olivia, the kind-hearted sister of Olly, also ensures serenity. The happy nature always has a brisk saying in store and can provide the plumber with tips if he gets stuck.
Just Like the classic ZELDA
Mario can use some hints, because in addition to cities and extensive upper worlds, the trip also leads to dungeons with Zelda-like puzzles. For example, Mario has to redirect a sliding ice platform in a tricky labyrinth to the exit with a hammer blow.
There are a few boring slide puzzles every now and then, but otherwise the quest design surprises with well-woven mini-games. Before you know it, for example, you end up in the forest in a game of memory, where pairs of symbols have to be revealed under leaves. The tasks are not particularly difficult, but they are diverse. Nice deposits, such as a canoe trip, also loosen up the campaign.
The game world is divided into large sections that are connected by a linear story. Completed sections can be visited again, conveniently via fast travel via the fax machine (!) To solve optional collectibles or side tasks. Similar to the Wii-U predecessor Color Splash, there are artworks for a virtual gallery. In addition, due to the invasion chaos, some toads got into hidden cracks, from which you have to pull them out.
Action With spice of Puzzle
Thanks to the humor and the great paper presentation, exploring is great fun. It is the loveliest world in the entire Paper Mario series, with every corner literally handmade. Mario interacts and hops through here in an action-adventure manner. For fights, however, it usually goes to an arena, where a new combat system is introduced: The combat area consists of several rings, on which opponents are randomly distributed. Before each fight you have to arrange them under time pressure so that Mario can then carry out optimal attacks.
Mario stands in the middle and carries out attacks from the inside out. Enemies in a row can be mastered in a jump combo, while cutting weapons can kill enemies lying next to each other.
With intermediate and end bosses, the tables are turned and Mario is now outside the ring. Similar to a board game, there are symbols on the floor that encourage or inhibit Mario. So you make your way to the opponent, which can be really difficult depending on the boss. For example, one of the opponents is a huge roll of adhesive tape. She is putting some rings together so that you can only rotate them to a limited extent.
The combat system is unusual, but its concept works. At least if you can get involved in dividing the puzzle and action parts. In the last third of the game in particular, there are a few head nuts that we needed several attempts at.
Too bad: While the boss fights are usually great, the enemy information is repeated very often in the standard fights. This causes fatigue, and you are caught avoiding enemies. Fortunately, since there are no experience points and you can collect enough money by exploring, only a few story-related fights remain – for example, if Mario is ambushed.
If you expect a classic RPG like the one at The Legend of the Aeon Gate on the GameCube, you will be slightly disappointed. You can roughly classify Paper Mario Origami King as an action RPG, but tinkering with numbers and a sense of reward from fights are completely absent.
King Of Origami
It is well known that the story within any role-playing title plays an extremely important role so that the experience can go ahead, however, within all its spirit of rebellion, the Paper Mario series has challenged that convention with each of its deliveries.
For Intelligent Systems, this is not about telling an epic story with an elaborate narrative, rather it is about presenting an original script that gets out of the box and is constantly experimenting with things like sarcasm and humor of all kinds, many sometimes a bit dark and sour. This of course, it may make some noise, but for those who click on us, we are usually getting a huge smile with each of the dialogues that are presented to us.
One fine day, our beloved Mario is heading to Princess Peach’s castle along with Luigi to attend the origami festival. When they arrive at the main square of the royal family’s domain, they realize that something is wrong, as none of the attendees seems to be present. After doing some research, we stumbled across a rather chilling origami version of Peach, which pulls in a couple of dialogues that clearly tell us that something is really wrong.
Being taken by surprise, captured and locked up by a group of goombas dubbed as origami, we meet Olivia, a figure of this paper art form who tells us that her brother has gone completely insane and that he intends to take over the entire Mushroom Kingdom using the forces of Bowser who by the way, has also been folded and left out of action.
King Olly, who now proclaims himself King of Origami, has the entire kingdom in check after having stolen the castle of Peach himself, and having dubbed its inhabitants in origami figures that heed his orders without saying a word. Our mission, to eliminate the colored ribbons that contain the castle and if necessary, join forces with our former enemies.
The premise of Paper Mario: The Origami King is one that we have already seen many times in Mario’s RPGs, both in Intelligent Systems and in Alpha Dream. Again, an unknown villain appears in the Mushroom Kingdom to threaten both his heroes and those whom we consider to be his villains.
Our clear job is once again to embark on an adventure around the lands of the mushroom to save the day. Unoriginal argument? Definitely! But remember that the Paper Mario narrative has never been about premises, it’s about its script and that one, I can tell you, is truly outstanding.
Recommendable even though it has its own flaws
We liked the battles against creatures, which can best be described as paper mache robots. These big monsters are also encountered in battle arenas, but everything here is done in real time. Here you not only use your hammer to hit weak spots (e.g. in the back), but you also master small mini-games.
Bottomline
How is it? Is it funny?
Personally, it was really fun! It’s God!
The story was interesting, so I didn’t have any difficulty playing. I didn’t get tired of getting all the chestnuts.
The production was also unique and interesting. I was amazed at the production because it was origami or paper. I enjoyed it. The wording was also unique and interesting. Life I didn’t say Yamafold Tanifold, normal laugh
BGM was also good. The dance scene was also interesting. I never get tired of watching it. The graphics were also very beautiful. I was able to feel the four seasons with the wonderful expression of autumn leaves, water, and ice.
It was good that the background music and atmosphere changed drastically with each stage. I think it’s hard to get bored because of the device around here.Regarding battle, I think there are pros and cons, but it was interesting personally. Especially, the boss battle was different from other games.
It’s a fusion of puzzles and actions. new. You can fully enjoy the game by using your head and body. However, I enjoyed the boss battle, but I felt a bit unsatisfactory in the small fish battle. It’s a bit rude because I’m doing everything from the beginning to the end. Well, with regard to the tired laughter game, I thought it would be more enjoyable if we introduced a level system like the conventional Mario RPG and made it possible to control our friends. It’s a bit disappointing only the small fish fight. But that’s a shame.
So should I go for it?
In summary, story, battle, music, production, everything is a fun God game. I think it is okay to give 8 out of 10 points. The minus point is that there was no change in the game of small fish. The Paper Mario series also features that the battle system varies from one work to another.
Also, this time, a battle system called “360 degree battle”, which is very different from the previous work, is adopted. The battle of “Paper Mario Origami King” is to battle the enemies side by side by rotating or sliding the ring on the floor. Therefore, it is not necessary to simply select a command to fight, but it is said that the puzzle element is a stronger combat system. Also, because it is necessary to consider how to arrange each turn, it seems that the tempo of this battle seems to be quite bad.
However, according to the reviews, the battle of this work can be enjoyed at a light tempo. Therefore, “Paper Mario Origami King”‘s “360 degree battle” is a battle format that you do not see much in other games, so it may have been finished without any fun, but it seems that you do not need to worry about it.
By the way, it is said that the elements other than the battle of this work are also well evaluated, the graphics are unique, and it is said that a lot of novel play and comical world view are included.
Conclusion
The big question: is Paper Mario: The Origami King better, the same or worse than the legendary The Thousand Year Door? Very complicated questioning for a lot of reasons. The first is that going down from an altar to any work is almost impossible, because we have deep in our minds the idea of the great quality of a work like the one I mention.
On the other hand, there is the fact of how different our vision of the environment was when that Gamecube classic came out. 16 years have passed and without a doubt, that affects any possible comparison. What I can tell you is that this new Switch exclusive reminded me of many of the feelings that that 2004 title conveyed to me at the time, especially that of being on a great journey.
No, Paper Mario: The Origami King is far from perfect, plus how risky some of his ideas are, they may bump into some conventions. Whenever you innovate, this kind of thing happens.
A crazy, very cool and above all, well-managed combat system that basically mixes a puzzle game with the fundamentals of a turn-based RPG; a script that will literally make you laugh out loud in a moment and at the same time cry with unexpected and intense scenes; brilliant and very complex art direction that is perfectly executed by beautiful graphics; as well as intricately highly interactive level design are just a few of the great values of the new Nintendo Switch exclusive.
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