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blogging paper mario

 
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i've been putting it off because there really are other things i should be spending my videogame time on (outrun 2006 and road rash 2 are in the mail), but i finally started replaying paper mario (for my third time). playing super paper mario - which is trash - made me want to revisit the beginning of the series. i was thinking about replaying the thousand year door instead, since i've only played through that once so far, but it's not as pure as the original and introduces some of the problems that make super paper such a frustrating experience.

i like that the plot of the game is about something as unassuming as a fight between mario and bowser. i like that about a minute after starting a new game, you're playing. i like that the script is humble and charming and devoid of internet humor. i like that you get to see the inside of peach's castle from mario 64 as it might actually be used, not as some arbitrary videogame construction.

i like the title screen. the one that appears in-game, after your first confrontation with bowser, with mario falling through the clouds. this game gives me chills. the understated story of this game is more sincere than the bathos of super paper could hope to be.

the combat in this game is so perfect. people got excited when super paper mario appeared to have no turn-based combat whatsoever, because we all hate fun-with-numbers jrpg battles - but paper mario's is a complete rethinking of way combat works in jrpgs. the numbers it uses are low enough that you can actually follow them - mario does one damage when attacking, two if you get the timing right. there's strategy, because of the different properties of enemies and the properties of mario's - and his companions' - attacks. there's skill, because you can block enemy attacks or augment your own with properly timed button-presses. super paper mario's sloppy platform mechanics make elegance like that impossible.

this game, this game, this game. i just finished chapter 1, which is really just an introduction to dungeon-exploring. chapter 2 has always been, for me, the part where the game really comes together and shows itself as something amazing, something lasting. more distant, chapter 3's ghost house has always been my most treasured experience with the game. i am looking forward to this.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i played through chapter 2 of paper mario, when i probably should have been writing.

the little interludes with peach sneaking around the castle, which grow in complexity over the course of the game, are really lovely and keep you from losing sight of the overall narrative as you plunder tombs and explore ghostly mansions.

toad town is a great little hub - there's always so much to check in on when you get there, though it's all completely optional. and there are secrets everywhere. the casino! chet rippo! the music that plays in club64. and the tunnels underground are great - a whole bonus dungeon that gradually opens up to you each time you return - complete with bosses - though you're free to ignore it for most of the game.

chapter 2 is excellent. the boss that you can trick into letting you past without a fight is one of the shining moments of the game, for me. then the desert, an overwhelmingly large area that opens up to you bit by bit: first you're told to just follow the path to the right to reach the outpost (though you're free to explore if you want to), then you're asked to find a location just outside the outpost, which you can get directions to. finally you're sent out into the desert to find a hidden location with a magic compass that beeps the closer you get to it. the whole moustafa sequence is brilliant, and watching the ruins emerge from the sands gives me chills every time.

really, one of the joys of the game - and one that's lost on subsequent episodes of the series, which are forced to find new ground to cover - is getting to meet the characters that populate mario's world for the first time. the way the koopa turtles are embarrassed to be seen without their shells is just adorable.

next is one of my favorite parts of the game: the haunted mansion.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 2:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

not sure how relevant / original of a contribution this is, but while you're playing the original paper mario, i might as well throw in that i played thousand-year door first (when it was released), loved it, and didn't get around to the original paper mario until a few months ago, which i liked though i honestly thought that thousand-year door was a better game.

a lot of the business with simplicity of numbers can be attributed to only being laudable on first impressions, i guess, so there's that, but i thought the level design and general narrative inspiration in thousand-year door (at least on a per chapter basis - see: train, haunted level) was a lot better. selective memory, maybe, though i don't think so.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well, it's like: in the first game they covered all their bases. hell, in the final dungeon alone they covered everything the developers could come up with. so in the second game they had to stretch really far - they had to come up with stuff that was unheard of. some of it's brilliant - the glitz pit, and - on the opposite end of the spectrum - the train. but there's just as much stuff that doesn't work. the haunted cathedral stage has an amazing premise, but there's an obscene amount of running back and forth over the same screens, seeing the same stuff, having the same battles. other chapters have the same problem. those stages that don't outright shine are just bland - the pirate's cove, the final dungeon.

playing thousand year door first could definitely be a factor, as most of the characters / abilities are direct substitutions for characters in the first game - goomba who tells you things, koopa you can kick, bomb who explodes. (having to worry about your companion's health in addition to your own, for me, is a step away from the purity and focus of the first game, though i understand the developers' desire to mix up the formula at least a little.)

the thousand year door is very hit-or-miss - though the good parts do shine - whereas the original paper mario is much more consistent in quality.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

paper mario chapter 3:

the forest is great. (mushroom light show!) it's a simple observational puzzle (and it sets the tone really well), but you're being chased by enemies. once you get through, you reach the haunted mansion, which is a giant puzzle where you're menaced by no enemies whatsoever. the first time i encountered it it took me a good long while to figure out, and i regret that i can pass it so quickly now. there are so many little jump scares! the character of the boos really comes through. ("boo you very much!")

the 8-bit easter egg is oddly appropriate in the eerie old mansion.

then, the dungeon (actually it's more of a villa). you gain the ability to hide yourself from enemies in this chapter, so the dungeon is full of opportunities for stealth: you can hide from guards, or sneak past them while they're sleeping (a trick someone playing this game when it was first released would have just picked up from super mario 64). or you're totally free to fight your way through the whole mansion, beating up every guard you see. alternately, sneak up on sleeping guards and clobber them from behind to surprise-attack them.

(i didn't fight a single enemy this time through the villa.)

and then, after that, the final mad dash down the mountain. chapter 3 is great; chapter 4 might be the most interesting in the game.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

paper mario's title screen music is so unexpectedly haunting.

so, chapter 4. you return to your happy hub town to find that baddies are terrorizing the townspeople and stealing their equipment, disabling their services until you recover them. finding the baddies' hide-out is a really clever puzzle, as is restoring the train. actually, all of the platforming puzzles in this chapter are great.

the fights in this chapter are great. i love that the baddies either get applause or trip and fall depending on whether you block their attacks. the lantern ghost is genuinely spooky, though i found a good strategy the first time i played the game that has served me well every game since. the end-of-chapter boss rush is fantastic. the optional anti-guy fight is also in this, but i am keeping away from it, at least for now. it's quite a wake-up the first time you charge into it unknowingly, though.

super paper mario copies the "which of these does mario hate most?" almost word-for-word from this chapter. it's much more effective here, not only because it's fresh but because there's a much longer time between the setup and the delivery. super paper's version fails to grasp the importance of timing.

oh, and the secret in mario's own house, and how the game hints at it, is great. "i remember when we played golf and tennis and had parties!"

so now i have the defense up and quick change badges equipped. they're expensive, but i havn't been developing my flower points (for special attacks) in favor of badge points. i should take this opportunity to point out that the badge system is fantastic, because it essentially lets you alter the rules of the game. there's a threshold, which you have to invest in, and more game-breaking stuff costs more points, but there's a lot you can do with it. (the thousand year door's first chapter, incidentally, does something brilliant with a seemingly-inconsequential zero-point badge. i am going to have to replay that game next.)

chapter 5: yoshi's island.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 3:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

chapter 5. it's great how if you let the chapter screen sit a few seconds, it'll start playing the theme from the original super mario bros.

as ridiculous as it is to ask peach to bake a cake, baking the cake is actually a pretty great little trial. the thousand year door reprises the scene, but with potions in a lab instead of ingrediants in a kitchen. the thousand year door copies this chapter more-or-less wholesale, actually.

this chapter has a lot of running around in the jungle. the jungle is appropriately hazardous, as things you're used to doing instinctively - shaking bushes, checking plants, bopping trees, grabbing coins - will sometimes get you bit by something. the way the boss fight ends, and the way the chapter itself ends, further subvert your expectations for the game.

i like the fountain puzzle in this chapter a lot. and the dungeon is full of platformy stuff.

next chapter: the miracle.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 12:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chapter 6.

the quiz show is clever. thousand year door cribs this one too.

so in this chapter something that's been building up all game finally pays off, and you get to go somewhere new and huge. it's the first chapter so far (in this playthrough) that i havn't been able to bring myself to finish in a single sitting, so there you go. more as it develops!

another super-hard optional boss fight becomes available in this chapter. it serves as good motivation to start exploring the underground if you havn't already been, because that becomes important next chapter.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

paper mario. chapter 6 feels like the biggest place mario's been so far, mostly because of the way it's arranged: sprawling in all directions from a central hub. parts of the area open up to you in a linear fashion, though. enemies start getting difficult in this chapter, and the first really formidable boss makes an appearance. there's another optional super-hard fight in this chapter.

smashing the huff puff machine is really satisfying.

i'm now wearing the flower saver badge, which makes all my special attacks cheaper. my total flower points are 20; i havn't been investing much in them in favor of heart points and (more than anything) badge points. i've also upgraded my first companion to master class: watt, because her attack ignores enemy defense ratings, and 'cuz i like her.

there's one star spirit left to find. chapter 7 is maybe the best in the game.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 5:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

paper mario chapter 7. wow, this is a great chapter.

the peach segment lets you explore the castle for the first time since the prologue, which is wonderful foreshadowing for the final chapter. the murder mystery is a great little episode that the thousand year door expands on a lot; the solution is simple, but it took me a while to find it the first time i played.

the crystal palace is, wow, excellent. it feels like a myst age. the themes of the dungeon are illusion and duality. the end fight is difficult; when you win, it feels like you're ready to take on bowser's castle.

final chapter: the gauntlet.
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

finished paper mario.

so, the last chapter: if you havn't played the game, peach's castle is now on top of bowser's castle, which is now in the sky, high enough that it's perpetually night. after rescuing all seven star spirits, you gain the means to ascend to star haven, and from there, invade bowser's fortress.

the fortress is a gauntlet. it's a huge structure - there's something like five save points scattered across it - and it requires you to use every companion and every ability you've accumulated in the game so far. challenges range from platforming to illusions to tough battles to an observation quiz to an homage to the maze castles of the original super mario.

reaching peach's castle - which you've snuck around with the princess in between chapters, but havn't visited as mario since the first moments of the game - is a great moment, and it feels as though the game comes full circle. the penultimate fight is the first fight of the game, only now you're equipped with the means to surmount the obstacle that made that fight unwinnable. also satisfying: the fight before it is against the second foe you encountered, who has been chasing you the entire game, fighting you at the beginning of each chapter. at the end of the game, you finally have the opportunity for a final showdown.

and then the ending is great, especially contrasted to super paper mario's montage of sepia-toned screenshots.

i spent the star pieces i've been collecting throughout the entire game to get the power plus badge, which increases the damage my attacks do. i finished the game at level 23, with 50 heart points total (the maximum), 30 flower points, and 30 badge points (also the maximum). i invested in flower points the least, and rarely bought or used items. the only star powers i used were healing ones and, of course, the star beam.

a nice detail is that they changed the descriptions of bowser's and peach's castles for the five minutes you're allowed to play at the end of the game. during that time i checked the status board at mario's house and found out: i collected 1,136 coins total, found 36 of 80 badges and 27 of 160 star pieces (25 of which were spent on the power plus badge), and fought 287 battles total, 131 of which i achieved a first strike on (and 47 of which the enemies achieved the first strike on). the second to last entry in the secret diary is the single greatest thing i've read the entire game.

so my clock, during the ending, read sixteen hours total, which is about two hours a chapter. for contrast, there's a save file on the cartridge which has about fifteen hours, and is only up to chapter 4. in that game, i made sure to tattle everything, to read every description, to pursue all of the optional stuff. i made good time in this playthrough, though i spent a while between chapters doing stuff in the hub town and exploring the underground (which is ultimately inevitable). i did completely ignore the casino, the dojo, delivering letters, all of the super-hard optional bosses, and (as much as i enjoy them) the l'il oinks.

at some point i'm going to replay the thousand year door. but not now, because i have better things to do, and because i know there are parts of that game that will frustrate or annoy me. i didn't intend to replay paper mario that soon, either, but i'm glad i did. after super paper mario, it was a good reminder of how brilliant the series was when it was a single game.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

split from the games you are playing thread in anticipation of my imminent playthrough of the thousand year door, which i will probably be posting notes on in the same fashion.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're making me think about tracking a cart of this game down. My 64 doesn't get enough love.

Quote:
the numbers it uses are low enough that you can actually follow them - mario does one damage when attacking, two if you get the timing right.

This is something that impressed me at the time I first saw it.

Quote:
finally you're sent out into the desert to find a hidden location with a magic compass that beeps the closer you get to it. the whole moustafa sequence is brilliant, and watching the ruins emerge from the sands gives me chills every time.

I was hanging out with my friend in his basement when I watched this whole sequence and it did seem pretty spectacular.

The designers of this game knew something about realizing aesthetic completion on the console and the initial conceit of the "paper" characters still strikes me as a clever solution to the limited hardware.
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 11:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm pretty sure it was this sequence of posts that finally convinced me that yes, I need to be checking the Gamer's Quarter forums every day.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 12:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

you should play more super paper mario
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

so, the thousand year door. the original's visual design - the paper motif - is a response to the technical limitations of its platform, and looks absolutely gorgeous on the nintendo 64. paper mario 2 isn't hindered by those limitations - and so it doesn't look quite as appropriate on the gamecube. there's some lovely papercraft and cut-out-looking stuff, but it isn't quite as beautiful on the gamecube as paper mario is on the nintendo 64.

there are a bunch of small additions to the thousand year door, which seem to have been made just to set the game apart from the original. in battle, mario's companions now have their own hit points, and there's an audience, a slot machine, and the ability to perform "stylish" attacks. none of these seem to actually add much to fighting, which is the consequence of adding on to something that was more or less perfect to begin with. and the companions, for the most part, are near identical to mario's companions in paper mario, with slightly altered abilities.

the setting is also quite different. the first paper mario thoroughly mapped out the mushroom kingdom, so the sequel is set somewhere entirely different. the thousand year door is a genuinely darker game. in contrast to the mushroom kingdom's sparkling town square, thousand year door's rogueport is a filthy den of crooks and thieves. a gallows stands in the center of town, and the player witnesses a pair of mafiosos beating on members of a rival gang in the background of one of the first of the game's conversations.

it's a real disappointment when the player goes through a pipe and finds herself in a meadow full of flowers. though that location and its dungeon are probably the most forgettable in the game, the boss is a great character. the climb to her tower, with the camera far in the distance, is wonderfully forboding. the game also pulls possibly its most clever trick in this battle: during your exploration of the dungeon, you're told that the boss has a weakness, and that there's an item pertaining to it somewhere in the dungeon. you search the whole thing, but in the end resign yourself to the fact that you'll have to do without it and stride into the boss's chambers. then, during the battle, you learn that you've not only found but have in fact equipped the pertinant item, and it is a brilliant moment.

i finished chapter one, and the game has introduced some of its ongoing themes. there's the seemingly arbitrary black chests, whose surprisingly relevant backstory is revealed in an optional bit of dialogue in an out-of-the-way place toward the end of the game. there's the introduction of a character you can optionally have join your party, though it's never hinted that this is possible. and there's the ambiguity surrounding what exactly the nature of the "treasure" mario's hunting is, which will pervade most of the game. the villians have yet to be unveiled in their full generic glory, but they shall in the next chapter.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think my favourite bit about the thousand year door was the fact that a computer falls "in love" with Peach only after he spies on her taking a shower. It's only love if and when you see her naked, guys
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm playing this mofo over christmas, then

It's on the Wii's virtual console don't you know.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

captaincabinets wrote:
It's only love when you see her naked, guys


Lesson for life. Computers can teach us so much about ourselves.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chapter 2 of the thousand year door establishes most of the ongoing elements of the game, including peach's and bowser's roles in the narrative and the utterly unmemorable villians. luigi appears in town and, between adventures, will regale mario with tales of his own quest, actually a cute parody of the thousand year door's premise. there's also the game's clever solution to fit 2d platforming into the game: pipes that take mario into flat platform landscapes in the background.

the underground area of the game's hub town, which mario is required to revisit after every episode, becomes quicker to navigate with each new ability. (the pit of one hundred trials, a long series of battles the player can optionally participate in, becomes available at this point.) the town itself also opens up, and i like the ways the game keeps the player from moving freely at first. particularly, i like the guard who charges a toll every time the player wants to pass until she's capable of beating him in a fight.

this chapter also introduces a more unfortunate recurring theme: forcing the player to backtrack over flat, linear, previously seen territory.

the negative image forest is probably the most gorgeous area in the game. here mario gets involved in some sort of territorial conflict, and as neat as it is to watch a hundred tiny pikmin-like creatures follow mario around and do battle with enemies, getting all one hundred through the various bottlenecks in the "dungeon" can be clumsy and tedious.

the gamecube control pad is missing the four extra face buttons of the nintendo 64 pad (replacing them with an analog stick), which in the original paper mario are used to bring up small menus for using items and swapping companions. in the thousand year door, that means a lot more pressing start to bring up the BIG menu, then tabbing over to the menu i want, then making my choice. i wish there were a button for swapping companions at least, as that is often essential to basic navigation and the lack of one makes travel a bit slower.
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's your take on Mario RPG being, at the very least, the necessary evil for Paper Mario to have come about?
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i havn't played mario rpg in a long time. i remember it being a squaresoft game, though: with the kind of melodrama that actually seems to have infected the more recent games in the paper mario series, with numbers that are far too big and unwieldy, with the pressure to continually upgrade everyone's equipment and to grind, and with platforming mechanics that feel as though the developers considered them a cute distraction and little more. it's a stepping stone toward paper mario, i suppose, and i think the mario & luigi games are actually somewhere between those two titles.
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i never had to grind in mario rpg

i also really appreciated how the level cap was on level 30.

and it wasnt a huge squaresoft the world was going to end, it was someone taking the stars so no one could make wishes

my favorite part in that game is still wandering around on star hill reading everyones wishes, and you find luigis wish that he could be like his brother mario, and mallows wish and mallow gets all upset becuase SOME WISHES ARE PRIVATE, and i think you find one of the cooks wish
you find a lot of characters wishes from the game and it makes you that much more motivated to find all the star pieces so people can wish again!!

oh yeah and boomers tower with all the little secrets in it, like going behind the curtain in that room and turning into classic mario

and the secret casino

and the barrel roll mission down the water

admittiedly the last factory was kind of a lame series of bosses, and that was really squaresofty

but man you cant just knock it off like paper marios redneck cousin or something
come on guys
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

oh yeah and listening to the sounds to do critical hits on enemies, i love kicking the shell to the beat

the weapons were great, peach fought with a parasol and a frying pan, mario had those giant punch gloves, bowser THREW MARIO

the star guys gun (i dont remember his name, i didnt like him that much because that dumb kid made him tougher than mario when he was playing with the dolls) god bigger bullets as you got weapons

oh and yoshis island with the yoshi race!
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

it's more memorable than any final fantasy game, anyway. it's been a while since i've played.

so it turns out there actually are buttons to bring up individual menus for items and companions. they're mapped to the d-pad that i keep forgetting the gamecube controller has.

chapter 3 is my favorite chapter in the thousand year door. it takes place in a professional wrestling-styled arena, naturally building off the audience battles have been given in this game, and mario has to fight his way through the rankings battle by battle. it should be tedious but it isn't, because of increasingly tricky victory conditions (like "don't use your hammer", "don't attack for three turns", or "let your partner do all the fighting"), a number of nice boss fights that break up the fighting, and a mystery that gradually unravels in between matches (naturally building off the wireless email device mario's been equipped with).

mario retreads the same small map a number of times, eventually hunting out all its secrets, and all the characters who populate the area have different things to say each time he speaks to them. it makes you feel like the story is progressing, not that you're stuck in this place until you've fought twenty battles.

this chapter also has the first of the bowser platforming stages, which set the precedent for super paper mario. they're a lot more enjoyable than super paper's platforming, though.
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd just like to note my support and love for Mario RPG. Then again, I'm an unabashed Final Fantasy player, as well. Still, I think SMRPG was very unpretentious compared to some of the other games being mentioned here...a pretty lush world, full of secrets, and all that. I'll have to replay it, meself...

also, SMRPG had a "freshness" none of these games can match: Mario and RPG united for the first time. I mean...that was surely unprecedented. That move alone made it a thrill to play. At least I think. In SMRPG moreso than Paper Mario you're exploring the Mushroom Kingdom and meeting all its quirky characters, neh?

On Mario & luigi: i don't know what to think of them. I've played both of them. I remember the first being pretty fun. I never beat the second one, I got pretty far; but I also got tired. God it's been so long, I can't make insightful comments. I did kind of feel at that point that they were over-capitalising on the whole MARIO + RPG concept but, well...I don't know.

Mario SRPG anyone??
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daphaknee
just enemies now
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i will totally blog super mario rpg, but i write nothing like dess

um about mario and luigi: i played both of them, and i ADORED the humor and characters, but the last boss fights were impossible so i never finished either
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Harveyjames
the meteor kid
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My favorite thing about the Mario+Luigi RPGs was how Mario and Luigi talked to each other in psuedo-Italian gibberish, like 'EBEGOBLIGOUBOULIOSBODIO'.
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daphaknee
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

they sounded like little retarded italian monkey babies! it was so cute!

abdbadodononododamm? OOO OO OO!
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Harveyjames
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It made me think 'hey these "Mario Bros." are pretty cool customers!'

I think the Mario Bros should never be able to talk any more then Scooby-Doo can talk and preferably less.
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I haven't played a mario rpg for more than one session! I have bought paper mario on the VC so I finally could! but then my wii wasn't plugged in for about a year, so yeah.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chapter four has such a great little twist, and one that really lends weight to mario's muteness. it's really daring, and that's why it's disappointing that the chapter requires you to run back and forth over the same flat, linear territory over and over (at least five times, in fact). (i do like that the pipe-into-the-background is used to give an impression of going deeper and deeper into a forest, though.)

from about halfway through this chapter you have the opportunity to enter a password. you don't have the opportunity to learn the password until near the end of the chapter, though. to keep you from entering it early, one of the letters is missing. you find it the same place you find the password. that's clever.

the character who joins mario in this chapter is transgendered, but, unsurprisingly, the american localization totally ignores this fact.

i really appreciate how, if you press the A button an extra time after landing your bonus good timing jump on an enemy, mario will bounce off extra high. mario report: i've been investing most of my level-ups in badge points, and now mario's attacks all do an extra point of damage, mario's special moves cost one less "flower point", and mario takes one less damage from every attack. i think i'll buy the "quick change" badge next, to get rid of the delay between swapping in a companion and attacking with her.
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Harveyjames
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

dessgeega wrote:
chapter four has such a great little twist, and one that really lends weight to mario's muteness. it's really daring


Cool, can you say what it is in spolier tags? Since I'm probably not going to play it.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

alright:

chapter four takes place in a land of perpetual twilight. upon arriving, mario and his companions find a village in chaos: when the bell of the abandoned steeple in the woods tolls, one of the village's residents is turned into a pig. mario, convinced this is the place to which his magical map is leading him, sets off into the woods. after making his way through the trees, sneaking into the steeple, inadvertantly unleashing a great number of lost souls and puzzling out a switch-and-staircase puzzle, mario confronts the villian who has been transforming the villagers at the top of the bell tower.

in a boss battle of the type that typically concludes one of the game's adventures, the villian reveals that pigs are not the end of his transformative powers, turning himself into a dark, faceless shadow of mario. the player finishes off the shadow with ease, the magic crystal which mario discovers in each chapter is collected, and the END OF CHAPTER summary is displayed. then mario and his companions vacate the bell tower, leaving the shadow mario prone on the floor. the camera does not follow them.

the camera stays on this scene, mario's shadow lying on the floor beneath the mighty bell, until the player presses the A button - the jump button. at which point the shadow promptly jumps up. the player discovers that she now controls the faceless shadow that was the boss of the previous fight, alone in an abandoned steeple with no explanation. she leads the shadow out of the steeple and through the woods, and, outside of the cursed village, she is confronted by none other than super mario.

have you caught on yet, he taunts, the first time we've seen mario's body speak all game. i stole your name. i like being you. everyone loves super mario. he gives you a chance to guess his real name, which you can't - because you don't know it, and even if you did, one of the letters is conspicuously missing from the text entry screen - and tries to finish you: an invincible foe in your current state, but you can use the "run away" option in battle to flee past him into the village.

in the village, everyone is talking about how great super mario is. they're hostile and unwelcoming to the shadow. your companions ignore you. there is no option to reason with them; mario has been mute the entire game. in contrast, the new, talking super mario proves himself an arrogant, violent egomaniac. one companion, confused by the sudden change, pines for the silent strength of the old mario.

to set things right, mario will have to join with one of his enemies, herself ignored and villianized, and unrecognizing mario without his name and face, and together sneak back into the steeple and recover the villian's name and the missing letter required to spell it. shattering the villian's power by speaking his true name, the shadow must finally confront the corrupt super mario in the belltower, as he orders the player's former companions to fight her. victory gets mario his name and face back, and the chapter ends for real.

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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 4:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i picked up the quick change badge, as well as the wario emblem. this item, when worn, changes the colors of mario's overalls to those of wario's. later i'll have the opportunity to acquire the luigi emblem. i felt particularly clever the first time i wore them both at the same time.

chapter 5 is bland, especially following the chapters before it. there's more of the tedious running back and forth over the same linear areas. it's really just fetch quests, and i'm not even done; they'll make me do more of it before they'll let me go back to the hub town at the start of the next chapter. there's also some unnecessary fourth wall-breaking in chapter 5.

the boss is great, though, as is the moment right before when the cramped cave opens into a huge space, allowing for platforming shennanigans in the background.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2007 11:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

the potion-baking in peach's segment of chapter six is awfully reminiscent of the cake-baking in the first paper mario. chapter five, too, had a rehash of the quiz game from the original, but it works here (because a character is trying to give information without actually giving information). this game does find a lot of reasons to get peach naked, though. i think it's just because they recorded that amazing unzipping noise and needed to find excuses to reuse it. (peach's feet still click on the floor even when she's nude, interestingly.)

the famicom disk system boot screen on the computer monitor is pretty cute.

in this chapter i'm given the opportunity to backtrack to an earlier area in order to find an object that will let me power up my characters more. i can't be bothered. in the original the game is courteous enough to give it to you during your adventure without asking you to take time out of your way and find it. you're also forced to backtrack to the place you spent enough time running back and forth across in chapter five, as i mentioned earlier.

you're also forced to listen to a character repeat the same phrase one hundred times. yes, you have to click through each line of repeated dialogue. about ten in a counter pops up so you can keep track of how many you've heard. i actually think this is pretty neat.

in contrast to chapter three, this chapter contains almost no fighting whatsoever. unfortunately, the developers couldn't seem to resist inserting a small "dungeon" and boss fight.

i recovered the luigi emblem and promptly put it on alongside the wario emblem.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

chapter 7 begins by making me run around to all the places i've been already. then i get to visit the place that i've seen during the peach segments, seemingly just because that's how the original does it. a lot of this game feels like that: there are a lot of neat ideas, but the overall shape is that of the original paper mario. it feels formulaic, and nothing feels as fresh as when the first game does it. it doesn't help that the script often feels like it's trying too hard: the plain dialogue of the original feels a lot more sincere. the villians' lair is utterly underwhelming, as are the villians themselves.

the conclusion is ahead, and i'm not sure i want to bother. i've seen all the good parts already.
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

take one for the team, dess.
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dessgeega
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

okay, i tried to. i tried to.

the final area is really generic. it seems modelled off the final chapter of the original paper mario, again, but has no real character of its own. i gave up after losing to the same boss twice. there are some hard bosses towards the end, and by hard i mean that they just do high numbers of damage.

the final boss, though, is actually pretty neat.

here's one thing i like about the game: the aftergame. in most games of this sort, you'll typically have stuff left undone when you finish the game. if you want to tie up those loose ends, you'll need to reload a saved game and run around doing errands while the death's head hangs in the sky, patiently waiting for you to mark off your side-quest checklist.

in the thousand year door, if you play your file after finishing the game, you'll see mario sailing into the game's main port as he did at the beginning of the game, come back on vacation to visit his old friends - which is exactly what you're doing. it's not unlike the ending of mother 2. it's a little disappointing that one character who sacrificed his life is back and apparently fine.

another thing i like: towards the end of the game the easy enemies in the underground you have to keep revisiting are replaced with ones better-suited to your level in accordance with the advancing of a subplot.

another nice thing: the obligatory 8-bit easter egg. this time it affects your companions too, and it's cute to see all their blocky sprites, which are unique to this game.

so overall, the thousand year door has a few very clever moments, but feels like a rehash of the original in a lot of ways, and doesn't have the same freshness or purity. the writing is more self-aware and less sincere, even as the game is trying to tell a more serious story. the original's story is compelling because it the same story of mario fighting bowser to save the princess, invested with a lot of character. the thousand year door is a step toward the train wreck that would be super paper mario.
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