#pm tok

[paperroyalstar]

Been a bit since I drew these two, so take a Bobby and Olivia!!

[hunter-the-sad-skeleton]

Saw a trend on tumblr a while ago and finally decided to join :D Designs for the Legion of Stationary from Paper Mario: The Origami King! :D Hope y’all enjoy!(Reblogs appreciated!)

[sugarsweets9987]

Nintendo why did you do this to me. HE WAS SO INNOCENT ;A;

[mariotrashpit]

Apparently I never posted these here??? Anyway play origami king it good

[goldensadnessdolphin]

My thoughts on Paper Mario: The Origami King

We have a new Paper Mario title (trailer here) and the first question I had, which was the same for at least the last two, was: Is this going back to the better games (i.e. TTYD style) or will this be another misstep like Stickerstar and Colour Splash? The answer, this time, is... not immediately clear. We seem to have a combination of both on a mechanics level and I will get to those. But let’s first look at what they did with the graphics. Spoiler: I’m not a fan.

We have the very Colour Splash-esque type semi-realistic cardboard focused overall aesthetic

It’s not the style I personally think Paper Mario should go for. While it might make some neat looking screen shots with all that bloom coming in through the window, I think the more stylized, cartoony way of the first few games just makes the total more appealing. It also low key clashes with Mario and other character’s sticker based sprite, as it necessitates more dimension in a way the early games did not. This becomes an even bigger problem with the premisse of the new game. Origami characters.

This just looks bad. All that lovely, meaningfully detailed animation the older games had, such as moving different body parts or making expressions to give the character a more lively feel is gone. In the course of the trailer, I think they try to spin this into a “this is uncanny because it’s the work of the bad side“, but hell, the earlier PM titles managed to make antagonists unsettling because of their control of animation. This does not really seem like the kind of decision a team of artists made, it seems like something that was decided because the whole “paper“ theme ran out of ideas. The levels themselves seem to also lean more into the Colour Splash broad, open stages instead of condensed but generally more filled environments 64 and TTYD had

I guess this is someones idea of making the games bigger? Just stretching the stages so that there is physically more space, which they have not been too sucessful in filling, as seen in this example

But okay, we haven’t seen a ton of what the game can offer, maybe that’s an outlier to sell the scale. Except it isn’t because traversing that kind of too big, empty sandbox-style level is a feature.

Point being that nothing of that impressed me, since I still think the stylized earlier titles handed more power to the artists instead of giving them seemingly hard constaints, especially since most of this stuff needs to read clearly from a distance, which further reduces the possible detail possible. Everything needs to constantly sell the aesthetic or it falls apart. Now, let’s look into where The Origami King might show potential by going back to the series’ roots. Two big things jumped out at me. First, the reintroduction of overworld moves that seem to replace specific one time “solution“ stickers

While we don’t know a lot about these, I’d hazard a guess that these will play a bigger role, tying your sense of progression to yourself instead of to random items and potentially giving you an actual reason to back track, which is nice. The second thing that made me perk up if you will was that - seemingly - partners might make a return in some fashion. We don’t have anything concrete (because the game obviously couldn’t support that weight lol), but at least two partners might be teased, those being a origami faerie of some type and a common Bob-Omb.

Both are with you least once more in the trailer, suggesting that they have at least some importance

Again, the de-characterization of any NPC is a huge problem. I suspect that the backstory of the other Bob-Omb partner from an earlier PM title alone will have more impact than the story of this game in its entirety. Remember Admiral Bobbery?

I’m pretty sure nobody who played through his story or even up to his story in the Thousand Year Door would be able to forget him. Instead, we get another nobody. I don’t think I have to add more to that gondola ride pictured above. But even then, the real test would be the battle system. I am sorry to disappoint, but I think this will be another mangle that doesn’t understand the simple but deep elegance of the earlier titles. I have two reasons for this. First, we have seen INCREDIBLY little of the battle system, which is always a sign of “they don’t want people to talk about this since it might upset them“. The other reason comes with evidence that this is probably the case. The battle system seems to have this kind of Yokai Watch element of rotating the battle field, just somehow even more stupid

A timer, a move resource that depletes and seemingly no partner in battle, so there goes that plus. I’d imagine this will probably bring each new wave or even (if the enemy can change the rings) every round to a halt because you have to figure out how to maximise your damage output.

You get literally punished if you don’t master this system. Which is different to the star power in earlier games for example, where you got rewarded passively in general or actively if you wanted and put in some timing skill (i.e. the “stylish” flourishes after attacks) And then, there is the nail in the coffin which shows that in the end, the team did not seem to learn anything from the criticism they have received for what, 3+ games now? Because OF COURSE there are still stickers in this game (see upper left corner under HP

All of this suggests a misunderstanding of what makes made Paper Mario games great. All the uniqueness and interesting ideas have been sandblasted off to have something that more easily slots into the Mario™ brand while disregarding what made people love those games to begin with.

[arcadetheatre]

Been playing The Origami King

I just got to the Blue Streamer Area (2nd Area) and I am having a lot of fun. The biggest issue I have with the game is that Battles feel really pointless and the fun of lining up all the enemies gets old very quickly. Other than that, everything else is great.

The Music is absolutely superb, the writing is on point, and the gags and scenarios are hilarious. I’ve only known Bobby for 10 minutes and I would take a bullet for him. (btw on the lift when he asks to join it is really funny if you keep saying “No”)

The exploration is also pretty satisfying and I can tell that it is going to take some good effort to complete the entire museum. At first the “Toad finding” came on kind of strong - because they were absolutely everywhere - but the ones that you find in extraordinary predicaments and scenarios are really fun. The all say something witty as well.

I am also happy that the coin economy is well-balanced. I had a ton of coins at the beginning, but then quickly blew through them purchasing accessories, collectibles, and other little things. I’m still pretty early in the game, so it could become unbalanced later on, but so far it is a huge relief and it genuinely feels rewarding to find coins while exploring.

The standard battles, as I mentioned, can get pretty stale and I’ve just been avoiding field-enemies and trying to only fighting the ones that the story makes you battle - which has been working very well. It’s actually kind of fun to jump around trying to dodge them.

The boss battles, on the other hand, are very fun to participate in.

So, yeah, The Origami King is a fantastic Action Adventure game so far. I lament that we will probably never get a classic RPG Paper Mario ever again, but it looks like they have finally found a good footing for the new genre. 

[paperroyalstar]

Decided to redesign my Vellumental outfits for Olivia!!

Original designs below cut + separates for each design!

[paperroyalstar]

✿ Doodling ✿