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[Alex]

I'm about 5 hours in, so far I think it's pretty great. Haven't run into any real stumpers on puzzles yet, though, but the game does encourage a lot of good exploration and exhausting your options.

The lack of character progression is pretty saddening, though, especially considering the tweaks to the combat and various other bits really would have made it feel a lot more solid. It's really fun but it just feels sort of meaningless to actually bother to fight anything you don't need to. More incidental of not being able to avoid it.

I think they got the area design and pacing really right though, especially for the system. It's amusing while never being too wordy and the world map and zone breakdown is really nice. My only complaint is that filling in the museum is a bit obnoxious.

It's not the same kind of deal as the first two entries, at all, so that may put down some peoples hopes but it is a far cry from the kind of blunder Super Paper Mario was. Really digging it.

 

[Javier]

Paper Mario gameplay + Secret Exits = GLORIOUS

 

[pwack]

Finished 1-6; lots of fun so far. One question, one point:

1. What's the proper timing for fire/ice flowers? I got an excellent first use, but can't figure out since then.

2. So far, there does seem to be a sense of progression/character growth. Hp goes up, arsenal of stickers increasing in potency. No more worn out hammers, for example, now shinys or hurl hammers, etc. It's not traditional leveling, but if both my weapons and my health are increasing, that seems like progress.

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

Finished 1-6; lots of fun so far. One question, one point:

1. What's the proper timing for fire/ice flowers? I got an excellent first use, but can't figure out since then.

2. So far, there does seem to be a sense of progression/character growth. Hp goes up, arsenal of stickers increasing in potency. No more worn out hammers, for example, now shinys or hurl hammers, etc. It's not traditional leveling, but if both my weapons and my health are increasing, that seems like progress.

1. There's usually a light that glows in your hand, you press it then, but there's not that much of a gap to press the button. Gotta tap it once for every enemy on the field.

2. Yep, something I've noted that people initially missed out on back around launch. There's more to character progression than numbers.

In a way, this game seems like.... what SPM should've been in some ways. It makes more sense for Super Paper Mario...

 

[Roto13]

You can get an excellent rank on fire and ice flower stickers by just mashing the A button. Also works for most (but not all) thing stickers.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

I'm stuck and the FAQs don't seem to help. Just beat world 2-3, there's no entrance anywhere to 2-4 and there's a big empty section that needs a big sticker on 2-5. Any ideas?

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

I'm stuck and the FAQs don't seem to help. Just beat world 2-3, there's no entrance anywhere to 2-4 and there's a big empty section that needs a big sticker on 2-5. Any ideas?

Go back to World 2-3. I think the order of the maze was Right Left Left or something in order of ways you had to go.

 

[Doorman]

I'm stuck and the FAQs don't seem to help. Just beat world 2-3, there's no entrance anywhere to 2-4 and there's a big empty section that needs a big sticker on 2-5. Any ideas?

There's a secret exit in 2-3 that unlocks the path to 2-4. Have fun trying to navigate that thing until you find it!

As for 2-5, you need to

Spoiler

collect three scraps to put that back together, they're hidden across 2-1, 2-2, and 2-4

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Thanks for the tips.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

I'm stuck again. Where do you get the faucet? Please don't say 2-3. I've had my fill of that place.

 

[Saint Gregory]

I'm stuck again. Where do you get the faucet? Please don't say 2-3. I've had my fill of that place.

Spoiler

The faucet is in 1-3 IIRC, the level with the Bowser waterfall. You may not have gotten that far if you just got the first comet piece and never went back to the level again.

 

[Doorman]

I'm stuck again. Where do you get the faucet? Please don't say 2-3. I've had my fill of that place.

Spoiler

The faucet is in 1-3 IIRC, the level with the Bowser waterfall. You may not have gotten that far if you just got the first comet piece and never went back to the level again.

^ You HAVE to go that far, at least, in order to obtain the Comet piece that you first encounter there.

Gah, accursed bosses! I knew who the world 3 boss would be going into the level, so I brought what I thought would be the sensible item to counter him...now that I've gone through the fight a few turns it's looking like I was off the mark as to what his weakness would be and now I'm scratching my head trying to think through just what things would weaken him in the way I think they would.
EDIT: Wait.....wait...I may have been right after all, lol.

 

[zroid]

Snifit or Whiffit. GOTY confirmed.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Spoiler

The faucet is in 1-3 IIRC, the level with the Bowser waterfall. You may not have gotten that far if you just got the first comet piece and never went back to the level again.

Backtracking confirmed.

 

[zashga]

Only on World 2 so far, but this game is delightful. It looks and sounds great, and the gameplay and level design are really clever. Stuff like the

Spoiler

domino mountain sequence

(1-5) or the

Spoiler

hidden treasure on the end of the Yoshi sphinx's tongue

(2-2?) make me genuinely giddy. They're not as flashy as Retro or EAD Tokyo, but Intelligent Systems may well be my favorite Nintendo team. Bring on Crashmo and Fire Emblem!

 

[Doorman]

Backtracking confirmed.

If you don't want to backtrack, you have the option to

Spoiler

buy expended "things" from a black market shop next to the sling a thing stall in Decalburg. Just keep walking to the left beyond there.

Just keep in mind the cost associated with that.

 

[MrDaravon]

Okay, apologies if this is old as I haven't been keeping up with this thread (I haven't started yet), but I am tripping out a bit right now. Our copy of the guide just came in from Barnes and Noble (which was the only place I could find it at all last week), it's awesome and is normal guide size (8x11 or whatever).

I'm tripping out because I actually stumbled across the the guide yesterday at Walmart, except the copies they had there were a smaller size similar to say the Doublejump guides (Persona, etc) if you're familiar with those. I swear I'm not crazy. Does anyone have any idea what's up with this? I can't find anything online.

Edit: Okay, I just found an ebay listing that shows a copy of the smaller guide next to a copy of the game, what the fuck? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paper-Mario...8474?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item2577e1107a

Did they print identical versions of the guide but in different sizes for some insane reason? I've never even heard of that.

 

[EvilMario]

Backtracking confirmed.

Backtracking is entirely worth it in this game. You'll uncover a bunch of things you missed before, and some stages change over the course of the game.

 

[MetalGuardian]

How does the run away mechanic work? I can't seem to figure out what I need to do, if anything, to increase my chances of successfully fleeing the battle as opposed to falling flat on my face like a papery doofus

 

[Roto13]

How does the run away mechanic work? I can't seem to figure out what I need to do, if anything, to increase my chances of successfully fleeing the battle as opposed to falling flat on my face like a papery doofus

Mash A. The darker the screen gets, the more likely you are to get away. It can fail, but if it fails and you try to run away again, it'll be more likely to work the second time.

 

[velvet_nitemare]

Got the game at launch, but between work, HoTS beta and girls i haven't had time for it. Played it some today, really impressed. Overflowing with charm and sound gameplay mechanics. Nintendo at it's finest, mad props on this one.

 

[Saint Gregory]

This game has so many awesome touches. I noticed last night that as mario moves towards and away from the foreground the sound effects and music get louder and softer respectively

I wonder how much time Nintendo gave IntSys to polish the game to this degree?

 

[Nose Master]

Backtracking confirmed.

Wouldn't really consider going through a 3 minute level twice for a second exit (and new level) backtracking.

Unrelated: (End game spoilers)

Spoiler

Bowser

fight is so obnoxious. Ran out of stickers after

Spoiler

Kersti did her thing

. I also wish they would have given

Spoiler

Bowser an actual dungeon, ffs. A hallway? Really?

On the bright side, there's lots of little touches here and there, like Mario taking a bit longer to pull stickers off the wall when he's standing on ice.

I could have done without the Thing system, though. Just seems like it exists so there's something to fill the

Spoiler

secret doors

with.

 

[RedSwirl]

So wait, you need stickers for even basic attacks in this game? Sounds a little bit like a card-based RPG to me.

 

[Tunavi]

what are the point of battles? they seems very pointless

 

[Beats]

what are the point of battles? they seems very pointless

Getting coins that you can use to buy better stickers. You also get a coin bonus at the end of each stage that depends on the number of battles you completed in the stage. I'm not sure what else can affect the coin bonus, but when I completed stages without fighting a single enemy I would get very little coins at the end.

The more coins you have the easier it is to maintain an inventory filled with powerful stickers, which can make future battles/boss battles easier. That's how I see it anyway.

 

[Vibed]

TBH, I maxed out my coins and had a full inventory of mid to high stickers by 4-2 or so, so I bought a number of expensive stickers and now I'm even more overpowered than I was before, lol.

 

[Tunavi]

mmm this game is gorgeous.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Enjoying this game so far (I'm at 2-5). It has the typical hidden secret area stuff the old games had, but that's ok.

 

[Tralfamadore64]

Alright, I'm stuck in the Ice World in

Spoiler

the Ghost Mansion

I've been stuck a few times in the game, but I've always been able to find my way after some experimentation. Here, though, I'm at a total loss. I've hammered every surface and paperized every inch of every area with no luck.

I'm at the point where I've

Spoiler

removed the portrait from upstairs. I know I need the crumpled sticker from atop the bookshelf in the first floor's rightmost room, but I can't find my way over there. I assume I need to place a sticker on the purple area that looks like a bookshelf, but I can't find anywhere in the mansion that allows me to pull a shelf or anything blocky off to place there.

Any hints?

Edit: Nevermind! Got it.

Spoiler

Had to bump the lamp in the room with the door sticker to kill the lights and expose the ghosts.

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

Alright, I'm stuck in the Ice World in

Spoiler

the Ghost Mansion

I've been stuck a few times in the game, but I've always been able to find my way after some experimentation. Here, though, I'm at a total loss. I've hammered every surface and paperized every inch of every area with no luck.

I'm at the point where I've

Spoiler

removed the portrait from upstairs. I know I need the crumpled sticker from atop the bookshelf in the first floor's rightmost room, but I can't find my way over there. I assume I need to place a sticker on the purple area that looks like a bookshelf, but I can't find anywhere in the mansion that allows me to pull a shelf or anything blocky off to place there.

Any hints?

Turn off the lights

 

[Electivirus]

Spoiler

The Enigmansion

is quickly becoming my favorite location in the series.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Stuck on

Spoiler

Tower Power Pokey (Boss of 2-5). He crumples me and does big damage before I get the chance to hit his 4 sections with the bat. How do you attack him when his mid sections are exposed? Using any attack gets canceled and you bump into him for 5 damage.

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

Stuck on

Spoiler

Tower Power Pokey (Boss of 2-5). He crumples me and does big damage before I get the chance to hit his 4 sections with the bat. How do you attack him when his mid sections are exposed? Using any attack gets canceled and you bump into him for 5 damage.

I think, for what I did, is kept blocking properly in order to make sure I don't get wiped out. Don't remember what else.

 

[ShadowElliot]

Spoiler

The Enigmansion

is quickly becoming my favorite location in the series.

Agreed. I found the

Spoiler

Boo Stack fight

hilarious. Plus the 3D effect there is quite nice.

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

Let me make sure I didn't mess anything up. There's no post-game correct? It just places you so you can still fight the final boss and the only thing different is the extra NPC in Decalburg?

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

Let me make sure I didn't mess anything up. There's no post-game correct? It just places you so you can still fight the final boss and the only thing different is the extra NPC in Decalburg?

That's basically all I noticed.

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

That's basically all I noticed.

Then I guess it's time to 100% this.

Fantastic game, this is easily one of my favorite games this year. It's been a blast to play.

 

[GhostTrick]

7th december in Europe.;_;

 

[Socreges]

So few negative impressions in here. So what's the story about the game leaving no clues for certain obstacles? Did some reviewers just rush through the game or are you guys just not minding those problems?

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

So few negative impressions in here. So what's the story about the game leaving no clues for certain obstacles? Did some reviewers just rush through the game or are you guys just not minding those problems?

I'm guessing they rushed through. I always had an idea of what thing I needed to use to move on. I think I'm only missing around eight things, so I was pretty thorough. You can blame the reviewer for rushing though, they don't have a huge amount of time to play the game.

 

[Lunar15]

After being a little worried due to the initial reviews, I kind of have to echo this thread and say that the game isn't bad at all. Are there some weird design choices? Yeah, but nothing killer. What it does, it does pretty solidly. I haven't found anything that was outright wrong with the game. It's far more generic than the previous titles, but the sticker/diorama theme adds some welcome spice. The music is ridiculously good, especially for a series that already has had some great soundtracks.

Overall, digging it way more than SPM, but not as much as TTYD. It's a different beast though. Fun and addicting. Very good "pick up and play" design, which makes more sense for a portable.

 

[poppedcollar69]

I'm sure it's been said before, but this game has such a great soundtrack.

 

[Kouriozan]

7th december in Europe.;_;

Ah, why do you have to remind me this >.<
2 weeks to go, thankfully there is the Wii U in one week.

 

[Roto13]

So few negative impressions in here. So what's the story about the game leaving no clues for certain obstacles? Did some reviewers just rush through the game or are you guys just not minding those problems?

Hypothetically, if you were to come to the point where you needed certain Thing STickers and you didn't have them, you'd have no idea where to look for them.

But if you explore each level thoroughly, that probably won't happen.

 

[TheyTookOurJobs]

Finally beat the boss of 2-5 and used up a ton of stickers in the process! That was a tough boss fight!

 

[Currygan]

jesus christ this month is bloody fucking slow

 

[GiantEnemyGoomba]

Is there a guide for battle sticker locations?

 

[hatchx]

Thanks for all the impressions guys, I think I'll pick this one up around Xmas.

 

[Nose Master]

If I didn't have my nintendo club account linked when I bought Paper Mario, do I still get DK ?