Paper Mario: The Origami King

I went into this game very excited. Since the disappointment of Sticker Star, the franchise felt like it was going in the right direction with Color Splash, a game I actually like quite a bit. Everything about this game looked like it would continue down this path.

For the first chapter or 2, I was having a great time and really enjoying the game. The characters were enticing, the writing was solid with good humor, and it felt fun to explore. But the more I played, the more the game started to wear on me.

The writing never really evolved, and the humor started to get old after a while. Exploration started to feel less rewarding. It was not particularly fun to do on its own, and the rewards were completely meaningless, just collectible trophies at best. There was no intrinsic nor extrinsic value to it. The story never really got interesting, and the characters felt more and more stale as the game progressed.

All of this would make for a very average game if it weren't for the game's biggest flaw: the battle system. While battles in Sticker Star and Color Splash were ultimately meaningless, they were at least quick. This game's battles are equally meaningless while also taking way more time to complete. By the middle of the game, I was actively dreading and avoiding battles. If I happened to get sucked into one I was running away immediately.

The boss fights were slightly better on paper, but they go on way too long, sometimes upwards of 30 minutes. And if you make one mistake late in the battle (which is easy to do because sometimes what you're supposed to do is obtuse), you have to start the entire battle over, which is very painful given their length. There is no room for creativity in these fights, as there is always only one way you can damage the boss, in much the same way as you needed to use the proper "Thing" sticker or card in the previous two games.

Ultimately, I was very optimistic about this game to start, but it ended up being my least favorite game in the series, even worse than Sticker Star. If it had a more standard battle system, it would at least be 2nd worst (after Sticker Star).

abolutely titanic effort was made to make the game interesting while also not coming up with any sort of truly original character or scenario. it has succeeded with flying colors, but the devs frustrated screams of squandred potential echo through the entire experience. extermely funny """battle system""", consisting entirely of easy spacial puzzles injected arbitrarily into an rpg interface, and the funny thing is, its brisk pacing and lively animations somehow manage to sell it for me

however, this entire review is actually fuckin bullshit, as the only thing that really carries the game is the music, which is some of the best arranged, performed and composed shit i've ever heard in my life. it's frankly annoying as fuck how much heart is in these compositions. they tend to burst with color and energy out of completely nowhere (snifit hotel pool theme......). i can't fuckin focus on how underachieving and mediocre the 546450645069th goomba spinning puzzle is, while the plucky slap bass of the autumn mountain theme rends into my very soul. i can't analyze the boss design of the stapler battle while im busy dislocating my spine from headbanging to its gnarly guitar solos.

i can logically discern that the experience of listening to these amazing tunes is not really cohesive with the rest of the game, but those two became entangled in my mind to the point of me not being able to even judge the game with any kind of emotional detachment. hope it changes one day, as i feel that this game's failures are deeply interesting and warrants further analysis

Definitiely an amazing game, worth playing.

The story is really good, the world exploration was cool, and the soundtrack is actually decent. but man the game goes on for way longer than it needed to and the battle system gave me a migraine every time I played it. I don't know how this is the only Paper Mario I've beaten, but man was it a slog at some points.