As a longtime fan of the series, Paper Mario: The Origami King has its signature humor and charm, but it misses its engaging RPG.
Paper Mario: The Origami King It does its best to divide the line between what fans of original games love and the desire to move the franchise in a new direction. In many ways, it succeeds. However, there are countless bugs along the way that make it a difficult game to give a full recommendation.
In The king of origami, a little origami man named Olly has turned the Mushroom Kingdom into an origami world. Princess Peach is a soulless zombie who does Olly’s orders, and Mario must save her and the world from their evil folds. Next to you is Olivia, Olly’s sister, and a powerful origami folder in her own right. Your journey will take you throughout the Kingdom, allowing you to explore exotic places and meet interesting people.
The biggest talking point of Paper Mario: The Origami King It is the new battle system. It’s kind of hard to describe in just words, but essentially, every fight takes place on a battlefield that you can rotate and move. This allows you to organize fights in a way that allows you to easily manipulate the position of Olly’s minions as you see fit.
Once you set up the folded fighters, you have two basic attacks; Mario can stomp and can hit a hammer. There are a few other special items and attacks, but these two are the plumber’s bread and butter. Or a wrench and plunger, if you want to be a technician. There’s also a little active time button press that allows you to deal additional damage, but it never seems so important. For the most part, every battle against minor minions works exactly the same. There are some enemies that spice things up, but not significantly.
And that’s one of Paper Mario: The Origami KingThe biggest problems: there is no leveling. You can get better shoes and hammers to make your attacks stronger, it just never feels like a big deal. Therefore, battles seem, at worst, a way for developers to steal their good items and, at best, a waste of time. After the first hour or so, he was doing his best to skip them. Fortunately, most minions are easier to dodge than a 90-year-old grandmother.
Having said all this, there is a very important caveat to all of this; While normal enemy encounters are terrible, boss battles are inspired. Instead of Mario being at the center of the board and rotating enemies instead, they change the script. Mario is outside and while using different symbols on the board, he must trace his way to the different members of the Stationary Legion. That’s a stable pro wrestling name of all time if I’ve ever seen one.
They really go out of their way with these. Each boss has his own mechanics to solve, and some of the first ones are spectacular. Boss fights lose a bit of steam as you progress towards the end, particularly with a boss who can kill you with one hit and force you to replay your entire section before trying again. I pray it doesn’t happen to you because it was very frustrating to make the wrong decision and get 20 minutes of progress back. That said, the final fight against the boss escalates again in a way that I can appreciate. I won’t spoil it, but seeing an old nemesis join the fight in a “big” way was great. Be sure to check off that last sentence so you can go back and appreciate my amazing pun.
Even so, Paper Mario: The Origami King does not respect your time in combat. There seems to be little or no sense in participating in minion battles. Along with that, the time between bosses extends to hours. Unless you’re a kid on a summer break, it’s a tough game to recommend based solely on combat.
Fortunately, that’s not all The king of origami bring to the table. The series is known for its humor and exploration; They are both here in swords. Personally, I stopped exploring a lot after the first few hours because I felt like collecting things just for the sake of collecting. And the game constantly asks you to back off anyway. Everything just aged fast. However, if you can really take your time and not play under the limitations of needing to get a review, I can see that this is an excellent podcast game. You can just go out and find some toads. And really, it’s not all you can ask for.
The king of origami Also mainly nails the funnies. I mean, of course, when you’re throwing phrases with any other line of dialogue, some are bound to hit. With that said, I actually laughed out loud more times than I can count in my approximately 30 hours with the game. Kamek, in particular, makes an exceptional turn as Bowser’s right-hand wizard. There’s also a secret coffee shop where you can meet up with some of Bowser’s other minions, which could be the best part of the game. If you pick the last Paper Mario trip, look it up.
Here’s the thing though: The king of origami It also takes some surprisingly dark curves. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are quite a few story beats that made me wonder if this is really child’s play. If you are a parent learning this, be prepared for some potential waterworks and difficult conversations that come your way.
At the end of my time with Paper Mario: The Origami King, I wonder who exactly this game is for. Classic Paper Mario fans will be left wanting due to the game’s combat and the lack of progression of the RPG. People looking for a fun game with a silly story can bristle throughout the game and complete the content.
And kids? In many ways, this seems like a great game for younger players; However, I can’t help but remember several moments that would have left me crying as a little friend. If you are a parent who believes your child can handle it, this is an excellent option. You will certainly get your money’s worth from a time perspective. Just don’t come to me if you also have to pay some psychiatrist bills in a few years.
I’m mainly kidding (pour one for Bobby). However, it really feels like a game that doesn’t fully know what it wants to be. The nature of puzzle-based combat seems like a fun direction to take in the game, but divorcing it from progression kills any desire to participate in it.
Paper Mario: The Origami King it is far from being a bad game; it just isn’t one that reaches its potential. This feels like a solid first step for Smart Systems to finally find a new beat for the franchise. Hopefully the team will continue iterating on the design and delivering a follow-up that will finally mix that classic Paper Mario Tone and feel with quality gameplay that fans love. It can, and possibly should, be different from the original games, but it should be more than this.
