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Paper Mario: Sticker Star |OT| Delicious Flat Characters

K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
So after some thought, there's mysterious Level Ups that I noticed during gameplay.

Back then, attacking anything will deal damage and you'll get into battle, but later on, dealing an initial blow is enough to kill an enemy without getting into battle. From what I'm guessing, grabbing HP ups will actually boost your attack (not your stickers) to the point that you can kill enemies outright.

However I think it's for every 10 HP, and not every 5HP. This was a badge skill back in Paper Mario and TTYD that you needed to equip in order to do this (bit of a waste of space for something better) so it's nice that it's actually a passive effect.
 
Z

zroid

Banned
Kirbyguy said:
So after some thought, there's mysterious Level Ups that I noticed during gameplay.

Back then, attacking anything will deal damage and you'll get into battle, but later on, dealing an initial blow is enough to kill an enemy without getting into battle. From what I'm guessing, grabbing HP ups will actually boost your attack (not your stickers) to the point that you can kill enemies outright.

However I think it's for every 10 HP, and not every 5HP. This was a badge skill back in Paper Mario and TTYD that you needed to equip in order to do this (bit of a waste of space for something better) so it's nice that it's actually a passive effect.
Click to expand...

I noticed this but I wasn't sure what caused it. At first I thought maybe attack increased by 1 for each sticker page you earned, but HP makes a lot of sense.
 
M

MetalGuardian

Banned
I absolutely love this game so far. I've played every Paper Mario, though I've beaten exactly zero of them, so I've never had any attachment or affinity towards specific mechanics in the franchise

The market is so starved for titles that have creative charm and whimsical atmosphere. The sticker theme and battle system are wonderful... heck, so far ALL of the design choices seem to flow well with the theme of the in-game world. It's cohesive and has that "Nintendo" spark of brilliance written all over it
 
A

Amir0x

Banned
Kaijima said:
To a degree, I'm reminded of the junction system in FFVIII - where every spell cast cost you stats, and made you think about what you were spending.
Click to expand...




I don't know if this is entirely accurate as a comparison, but there is some truth to it... and maybe that's part of the reason it lacks fun for me. FFVIII is easily one of the worst FF games, and the junction system is one of the reasons why for me :p
 
N

nckillthegrimace

Member
The sticker system is superior to the hammer/jump system of previous games by mere virtue of the fact that it forces you to think beyond the cursory infant strategy of not jumping on the guys covered in spikes. It also has the added benefit of making the game more difficult; instead of simply coddling mediocre players who heavily rely on things like unlimited resources and cartoon allies with super powerful attacks, the player is forced to be as efficient as possible and plan ahead.

As a side note, as I near the end of the game, I am completely surprised that so many reviews had so much trouble with any of the puzzles. They've all been pretty obvious. I can see maybe using the incorrect sticker once or twice, but having to go back and forth multiple times as you struggle to piece together something as allegedly obtuse as
waking a character up or melting some snow
is an enormous stretch.
 
Y

Yes Boss!

Member
So I finally got really stuck.

Just opened up 3-12, Whitecap Beach, and there is absolutely nothing to do in this world, no Wiggler on the pier or anything other than getting the buried watch. Is there something I need to do to trigger it? I've been wandering around in the other worlds looking with no luck.
 
K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
Yes Boss! said:
So I finally got really stuck.

Just opened up 3-12, Whitecap Beach, and there is absolutely nothing to do in this world, no Wiggler on the pier or anything other than getting the buried watch. Is there something I need to do to trigger it? I've been wandering around in the other worlds looking with no luck.
Click to expand...

In 3-11, you need to go behind a bush on the first screen. There's a poison puddle to note the bush in particular.

Also All things get!
 
D

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
Roto13 said:
You're missing just how important coins are. The stickers you find in the wild early on are enough to take out basically anything, but they won't cut it later. When the giant stickers start becoming a regular part of your arsenal, you'll need those coins. And that's not even mentioning Thing Stickers, which can cost hundreds of coins for a single attack. They're meant to be actually used in regular battle, and not just during boss fights or as keys to certain obstacles as the game may lead you to believe. (That's why there's 60+ of them and maybe a dozen of them are mandatory or nearly mandatory for bosses.) Coins are essentially EXP and MP at the same time in this game.
Click to expand...

It took me a bit to get used to the game and to stop hording stickers (I always horde items in RPG games), but once I "got" it the game became more fun.

I can see folks being annoyed as it feels different than the other "traditional" Mario RPG games, but the battles are more strategic now. Coins serve a purpose -- folks avoiding battles are losing coins, making the game more annoying and difficult as they progress.

I almost feel like this could have been "Paper Mario: The Trading Card Game"...
 
K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
MetalGuardian said:
Are there any missable stickers? As in, stickers that disappear forever and thus you can potentially never complete your museum?
Click to expand...

No.

Since I'm about to finish the game, I pretty much have every collectable available, so here's a list of Mega Flash stickers

Megaflash Infinijump: 5-3 to the right of the secret exit.
Megaflash Chillhammer: 4-6 in one of the ? blocks on the platform in the second cart cave.
Megaflash Hammer: 2-2 in the room on the Yoshi's right side (your left).
Megaflash Burnhammer: 5-5 hidden room accessed behind a rock on the first screen.
Megaflash Line Jump: 4-6 ? block outside on the right. You need to come back after defeating the boss, go to where it was, and jump down on the right.
Megaflash Hopslipper: 5-4 in a secret room. In the room with the three pushers on top of ledges, go to the right where there is a piranha plant in a little alcove. There is a hidden door at the left of that alcove, and the sticker is in one of the 3 ? blocks in that room.
Megaflash Baahammer: 5-4 same place as Hopslipper.
Megaflash Hurlhammer: 5-4 same place as Hopslipper.
Megaflash Jump: 6-2 in a ? block through the secret door.
Megaflash Clone Jump: 5-6 falls from one of the chains in the central column.
Megaflash Slaphammer: 5-5 in one of the underground holes opened by the falling lava.
Megaflash Iron Jump: 5-5 in undergournd through the hole opened by the falling lava right near the end of the level.
Megaflash Eekhammer: In a ? block near the beginning of 5-4.


HP and Things Locations/Requirements
 
R

Roto13

Member
Nice to know this game's stupid habit of not telegraphing which stickers you'll need until you need them is in full effect for the final boss.
 
G

gashikunFLCL

Member
Papercuts said:
This game has such good attention to detail. I was just in 2-1 and 2-2, there's a few segments where enemies are on quicksand pits. I noticed the battleground changed to this, and if you take too long to pick a move Mario starts sinking. Well, so do the enemies! I let the spiny sink since it's shorter than Mario, and it died.
Click to expand...

In world 3 if you fight in the
poison
if you take too long to pick you take damage.
 
K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
Roto13 said:
Hey.

Gimme a list of Thing Stickers to bring to fight Bowser.
Click to expand...

Phase 1, nothing. Phase 2, Any kind of scissors, preferrably Sewing Scissors to make room for other stickers. Phase 3, Snow Cone and/or Refrigerator to freeze Podaboos. Phase 4, you need a tail sticker to defend against Bowser's Chain Chomp Swing to end the battle. If you don't have a tail sticker, the game will provide you with one. Phase 5, Any Thing Sticker, but not until a special event happens. This is where you go all out. Good thing I kept some Infinistickers. If you're going to use any jump sticker, make sure it targets his hands and not his head since it's spiky.
 
R

Roto13

Member
Kirbyguy said:
Phase 1, nothing. Phase 2, Any kind of scissors, preferrably Sewing Scissors to make room for other stickers. Phase 3, Snow Cone and/or Refrigerator to freeze Podaboos. Phase 4, you need a tail sticker to defend against Bowser's Chain Chomp Swing to end the battle. If you don't have a tail sticker, the game will provide you with one. Phase 5, Any Thing Sticker, but not until a special event happens. This is where you go all out. Good thing I kept some Infinistickers. If you're going to use any jump sticker, make sure it targets his hands and not his head since it's spiky.
Click to expand...

I used that exact sticker for phase 2 and nothing happened. :(
 
D

Dr.Hadji

Member
Kaijima said:
It doesn't hurt that the battles are fun, don't take too long when you know what you're doing. In addition, they remain interesting because of the very fact that you don't have a default "free" attack like a basic stomp and hammer attack. By making every single action cost a sticker, there's no motivation to be lazy and just mash basic attacks knowing that you can survive attrition to your own HP by the time the enemies are dead. That is in fact a big problem with a lot of traditional RPG battle systems - high level strategy breaks down and becomes a bit pointless when you can just perform mindless actions and outlast the enemy because say, you're wearing good gear or have overleveled hit points. That doesn't happen here, so far at least.
Click to expand...

So very true. This is what baffles me about the "simple" battle system comments in the reviews. It is not anymore simple than the previous Paper Mario games. What Sticker Star and the rest of the Paper Marios don't have is a level of complexity to muddy your battle strats. Took me 12 hours of playing Xenoblade to confirm I've been using the same strat for the entire game. Just a bunch of layer and systems to bolster up customization.
 
X

XenoRaven

Member
So I don't get how the hammer works in this game. I thought I was supposed to hold the button down, but if I hold it down and let it go at the second flash the hammer pops off. Did I miss some important piece of information?
 
R

Roto13

Member
XenoRaven said:
So I don't get how the hammer works in this game. I thought I was supposed to hold the button down, but if I hold it down and let it go at the second flash the hammer pops off. Did I miss some important piece of information?
Click to expand...

You're just supposed to press A at the right moment. That's how every action command works in this game.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
XenoRaven said:
So I don't get how the hammer works in this game. I thought I was supposed to hold the button down, but if I hold it down and let it go at the second flash the hammer pops off. Did I miss some important piece of information?
Click to expand...

Don't hold it. Tap the button when the flash is at the biggest point, too late and the top falls off.

I don't get how to use the Eek hammer at all, it seems like a rapid hit attack but I never get more than 2.
 
K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
Gonna write down necessary thing stickers


For Mini Bosses/Bosses
Goomba King - Scissors/Fan
Giant Pokey - Baseball bat, use it when his body's exposed
Gooper Blooper - Sponge, use it when he's purple
Big Cheep Cheep - Fishing Hook 3-6, Spike Helmet
Big Boo - Fan
Ice Bowser - Anything with a Fire Element, Hair Dryer works as well as the Radiator
Chain Chomp in 5-6 Baahammer.
Petey - Nothing really needed
Bowser - At best, you only need Scissors for phase 2 and SnowCone/Refrig for Phase 3. But Thing Stickers aren't necessary.

Required Things for Puzzles and location to find em

Vacuum Cleaner (or varients) - Sunshine Harbor
Scissors - Forced to get
Fan - Forced in 1-2
Faucet - 1-3
Trumpet - 1-6
Lightbulb - 2-2
Bowling Ball - 3-2 (need to advance in the story before you can get it)
Fishing Hook - 3-6
Radiator - 3-10
Goat - 4-1
Refrigerator - 4-3
 
D

DSGamer

Neo Member
Man. I'm so mixed on this game. I played some more tonight and my opinion has changed, but not necessarily gone up. I get the battle system now, but there is so much backtracking that I'm not sure how long I'll hang with this. It just isn't fun for me to know exactly how to solve a "puzzle", but have no idea where to find the sticker you need. Nevermind the knowledge that this is mostly likely 3 levels in and hidden behind two more layers, ensuring you'll be back there at some point.
 
X

XenoRaven

Member
Thanks guys. I messed myself up because at first I thought you were only supposed to press at the flash but I tried that and he just swung right away. I must have accidentally hit the button and didn't realize it. Now I can actually start buying and using hammers!
 
Z

zroid

Banned
Rodney McKay said:
WHAAAAAAT!!!????

I just realized that moving the 3DS effects your Shiny stickers in your album. :D
Click to expand...

I kind of wish I hadn't been spoiled on that weeks ago, because everyone's reactions to noticing it for the first time are incredibly precious. xD

DSGamer said:
Man. I'm so mixed on this game. I played some more tonight and my opinion has changed, but not necessarily gone up. I get the battle system now, but there is so much backtracking that I'm not sure how long I'll hang with this. It just isn't fun for me to know exactly how to solve a "puzzle", but have no idea where to find the sticker you need. Nevermind the knowledge that this is mostly likely 3 levels in and hidden behind two more layers, ensuring you'll be back there at some point.
Click to expand...

You really do need to explore thoroughly before progressing, because your complaints are perfectly valid. I guess some might consider it a kind of design flaw when a game doesn't spell it out for you where you've missed that critical item, but I think most here probably just appreciate the lack of handholding.

My advice: if you've missed something, just ask someone for the solution, or look it up. It's not worth getting frustrated over.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Zeer0id said:
I kind of wish I hadn't been spoiled on that weeks ago, because everyone's reactions to noticing it for the first time are incredibly precious. xD
Click to expand...

If you quickly move the 3ds while in a battle the health bars swing on the rope. This game is full of little details like this, I love it.
 
R

Roto13

Member
I'm at the end of the game and I can kind of hypothetically see the backtracking complaint. I've never not had the Thing I needed to progress (as in, I've always had the actual Thing, but I've sometimes needed to go back to turn it into a Thing Sticker but that's not a big deal) because I explore every level thoroughly. But I can think of a couple of times when, if I didn't have the necessary Thing, I wouldn't know where to start looking for it.
 
C

Crash Station

Member
Finally came in the mail. I went in to this mostly blind beyond a few trailers, so I didn't know just how much of a departure the battle system was compared to previous entries in the series. It's not bad, but might take a bit getting used to having attacks be consumable items.

This may be reaching, but is anyone else reminded of Baten Kaitos?
 
K

KirbYuuYuu

Member
cosmicblizzard said:
Finally came in the mail. I went in to this mostly blind beyond a few trailers, so I didn't know just how much of a departure the battle system was compared to previous entries in the series. It's not bad, but might take a bit getting used to having attacks be consumable items.

This may be reaching, but is anyone else reminded of Baten Kaitos?
Click to expand...

That's possibly one way to look at it.

Anywho, as I said, I'm well aware of possible issues in regards of backtracking and whatnot, but to me, they're the ones I don't care too much about because I replay Paper Mario games. I only really considering Backtracking an issue if it's something that's unavoidable like in TTYD. But I guess for the first playthrough, it might make the most impact for this game.

EDIT: Attempting a second playthrough going out of order. Earliest point you can split off is from doing 1-5 (before doing 1-4) in order to get a Poison shroom since the toad in the back wouldn't sell it to me then. Also did the normal exit for 1-3 so I could nab the faucet for 2-4. Having 3 pages is pretty restraining. 1-4 or 1-5 aren't necessary as far as I can tell, so the fan isn't needed to progress, but you still need the fan. Beating 1-3 the normal way is required in order to sling a thing.
 
J

JoeFu

Banned
The music in this game is just amazing. First time in a long time where I had song of a game stuck in my head shortly after playing it. Really liking the game too, 2 royal crown sticker things so far and into World 3 right now.
 
W

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
cosmicblizzard said:
Finally came in the mail. I went in to this mostly blind beyond a few trailers, so I didn't know just how much of a departure the battle system was compared to previous entries in the series. It's not bad, but might take a bit getting used to having attacks be consumable items.

This may be reaching, but is anyone else reminded of Baten Kaitos?
Click to expand...

Hell yes!

I've been mentioning the Baten Kaitos-vibe since the first Sticker trailers popped up.
 
R

Roto13

Member
Kirbyguy said:
Phase 1, nothing. Phase 2, Any kind of scissors, preferrably Sewing Scissors to make room for other stickers. Phase 3, Snow Cone and/or Refrigerator to freeze Podaboos. Phase 4, you need a tail sticker to defend against Bowser's Chain Chomp Swing to end the battle. If you don't have a tail sticker, the game will provide you with one. Phase 5, Any Thing Sticker, but not until a special event happens. This is where you go all out. Good thing I kept some Infinistickers. If you're going to use any jump sticker, make sure it targets his hands and not his head since it's spiky.
Click to expand...

Apparently the
tape sticker
is effective in the first phase.
 
W

Watch Da Birdie

I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
I'm stuck in the Forest World. I realize now this World is pretty much a Forest of Illusion shout-out

I got the first Wiggler Body at the end of Strike Lake, but now I'm confused. What do I do next? There's Loop-De-Loop's River's second exit, but I can't find out how to get to it. There's apparently a missing bridge, but no paperization spot.
 
G

GWX

Member
At sunday, I wasn't even sure I was going to buy this game. Turns out I bought it monday (downloaded it from eShop), and I'm enjoying it *very* much. Playing it slowly, exploring every single corner of the game, and I just finished world 1. I don't think there's anything about this game I don't like, well, except for the lack of hints when fighting bosses.

Spoiler about the W1-6 boss:

The first time, I went to fight that boss (can't exactly remember its name - was it megalogoomba?) with Fan and Scissors special stickers in my album. The damage caused by my standard stickers wasn't being enough. I decided then to die and get the other special stickers I could obtain, which were the faucet and the lucky cat, I believe. I used them all to kill it, and I'm glad I didn't used both the fan and the scissors before the boss was weakened! I guess I won't use all my "thing" stickers in a boss like that anymore :S
 
V

Vibed

Member
Watch Da Birdie said:
I'm stuck in the Forest World. I realize now this World is pretty much a Forest of Illusion shout-out

I got the first Wiggler Body at the end of Strike Lake, but now I'm confused. What do I do next? There's Loop-De-Loop's River's second exit, but I can't find out how to get to it. There's apparently a missing bridge, but no paperization spot.
Click to expand...

Hit the hidden block under the gap by the heart block, then climb on top using the second leaf by the first exit.
 
Z

zroid

Banned
I'm really thankful for not avoiding all that many battles early on because the advent of Door stickers is wreaking havoc on my coin purse.
 
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