(Originally published to Glitchwave on 4/12/2020)
[Image from glitchwave.com]
Paper Mario
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre(s): JRPG
Platforms: N64
Release Date: August 11, 2000
Fortunately, I got to base my preconceived notions of this game on already playing through The Thousand-Year Door. The sequel to Paper Mario became one of my all-time favorites initially during my first playthrough of it. My experience with The Thousand-Year Door
made me quite excited to go back and play the first Paper Mario. For the most part, the first game delivered on the same quality as its sequel despite a couple of negative aspects that the sequel fixed. I liked The Thousand-Year Door much more than this game for many years, most likely because I played it first, and it was the much more polished game with snappier dialogue and more advantageous use of the paper style of the series. However, after playing both of these games back-to-back, I'm having trouble deciding which of these two games is better. The Thousand-Year Door may have more polish and style, but the first Paper Mario may be the essential Mario experience.
Like most other Mario experiences, it starts with Bowser kidnapping Peach. He crashes an extravagant party Peach is hosting in her castle. The surprise is that Bowser has somehow stacked Peach's castle onto his own beneath the ground, violently unearthing and raising it above the skies. Bowser's new trick is the star rod, a powerful artifact he stole that grants him invulnerability. He displays this to its full extent when he blasts Mario out of the window of Peach's castle, and Mario dies. No, really, Mario dies at the beginning of this game after failing to defeat Bowser. It's not a spoiler because it happens right at the beginning. The seven Star Spirits that guard the star rod resurrect Mario and their physical forms are scattered all over the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario has to rescue all of them, giving Mario their collective power to defeat Bowser once he does this. Sound familiar? That's about the extent of Paper Mario being a direct sequel to SMRPG.
The methods behind the RPG combat between SMRPG and Paper Mario couldn't be any more different. SMRPG's mission was to translate the Mario universe into the RPG genre, sharing similar qualities to most RPGs of the time. Conversely, Paper Mario's direction is to translate RPG elements that fit the Mario franchise more appropriately. I wouldn't consider any Mario game easy, but the franchise has always been comparatively more accessible than its contemporaries across any genre. The focal point of the Mario franchise is accessibility which most RPG games shy away from to maintain their niche appeal. Accessibility in gaming doesn't always have to be synonymous with banality and patronizing to the player. Paper Mario's more streamlined approach to RPG combat has given it a unique system unlike any other RPG game before or after it. Mario and his selected partner will stand on the left side of a stage-like setting with a general background representing the area. The enemies will be on the right side with an appropriate space between both parties. Mario has a selection of a jump attack, hammer attack, item selection, star powers, and tactics. Any amount of damage Mario does to enemies can be counted on all fingers, same with the damage the enemies will do to Mario (god help you on the rare occasions that an enemy can do more harm than that). The numbers in Paper Mario coinciding with statistics never surpass grade school arithmetic. This elementary range of numbers most likely wasn't done with a specifically young audience to cater to, but rather to hold the standard of Mario's worldwide appeal to a large demographic of gamers. The heart of the Paper Mario combat system lies in the action command. Pressing the A button at precise moments in combat will warrant extra damage. Blocking will decrease the damage Mario takes as well. Using the hammer requires pulling back on the control stick and releasing it at a certain point to damage the enemy. The moves partners can use require the same amount of precision and unique button combinations to execute them. It's a simple system, alright, but combat in Paper Mario is much more interactive than picking an attack or other tactic in a standard RPG.
Paper Mario also upholds a more straightforward method of RPG progression. When Mario defeats an enemy, they leave behind star points which act as experience points. Once Mario acquires 100 of these, he'll level up and get a choice to increase his health, SP, and BP by three to five. Health is self-explanatory, and SP coincides with Mario's unique attack gauge. BP relates to badge points. Badges are perks Mario acquires in the game that can either be found, bought, or traded for star pieces. They vary in use as some of them are new jump/hammer moves, increase Mario's offense or defense, and some are just for the novelty. Players have the choice to increase any of these stats any way they choose, with some opting for a balanced Paper Mario experience and some opting to only raise one stat over the others. Many experienced players usually challenge themselves by only raising BP and SP over their health, becoming a powerhouse with badge abilities while being more cautious of taking damage. A game that intentionally makes for a more accessible, streamlined RPG experience, level progression, and scaling is still as refreshing and customizable as any other RPG. Paper Mario's RPG initiative is simple and even like an RPG metric system.
At the beginning of the game, Mario ventures off the beaten path to find a quaint little house owned by a family of Goombas. The young son of this family, Goombario, is a giant fan of Mario who ecstatically joins Mario on his quest to fulfill one of his dreams. This sequence introduces one of my absolute favorite aspects of the Paper Mario series: partners. Throughout the game, several partners join Mario with their unique attributes to aid Mario during combat and solve puzzles to get through the areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. These partners are slightly more anthropomorphic/domesticated versions of Mario enemies from the original Mario games (ex. Parakarry the Parakoopa and Bow the Boo). During combat, the partners will take one turn and Mario to attack or debuff the enemy. Goombario will bounce on enemies with his skull, similar to Mario's jump ability. Kooper the Koopa will fling his body/shell at an entire row of enemies. Bombette, the Bob-omb explodes near enemies for massive damage. Bow the Boo bitch slaps enemies and can hide Mario and make him incorporeal during combat to protect him. Watt (of which I am uncertain which Mario creature she's supposed to be) can paralyze enemies with her electric body, Sushie squirts water at enemies, and Lakilester/Spike can throw spinies at enemies. While all of these partners are useful due to their uniqueness, my favorite of the bunch is Parakarry. He's a Parakoopa mailman whose powerful, one-target attacks make for every boss's worst nightmare. The partners also have unique moves that help Mario traverse the game's overworld. Parakarry can lift Mario for a brief period to help him get over gaps, Bombette can uncover hidden areas by blowing up cracks in walls, Watt illuminates dark rooms, Sushie can swim, etc. The only partner that feels underutilized in both combat and overworld-aid is Lakilester. He's the last partner introduced, and it's way too late in the game. His ability to hover over hazards is useful a few times, and it's more than likely that most players won't upgrade him fully due to the more familiar partners holding precedence over him. Riding around on his cloud like it's a two-seated bicycle is amusing, however.
The partner aspect of this game feels so refreshing because it indicates how Paper Mario improves on the already established world of the Mushroom Kingdom and the typical Mario experience. The residents of the Mushroom Kingdom aren't just faceless pawns that Mario scrapes off the bottom of his boots. The thing that most separates the partners from the NPCs scattered around the game is a single distinguishable feature like a hat or a different color (ex. Kooper is blue and Goombario has a blue hat). However, the typical enemies in this game are still Goombas, Koopas, etc. Pondering this may lead to many questions about the different races and class dynamics in the Mushroom Kingdom, which might verge into dicey, socio-political territory. The Shy Guys seem to be the only Mario enemy that is still a race of savages in this civilized Mario world.
As characters, the partners are still a bit underwhelming. Giving a character a different color or putting a simple hat on them and calling that an improvement is indicative of the lack of character depth the Mario series has. Kooper, Watt, and Parakarry are as flat and wooden as characters like ironed pieces of cardboard. Other characters have interesting personalities, but these characteristics start to dissipate after joining Mario's team. Bow, for instance, is a self-important diva, naturally so due to her aristocratic status. She is bull-headed and brash, taking no nonsense from anyone. Once her introduction chapter ends, she never exudes these personality traits again. This happens with all of the other partners that started as unique characters. I can probably fault this to Paper Mario keeping Mario as a silent protagonist in the main series. He doesn't even utter squabbles like "let's a-go!" either. The RPG is a very dialogue-heavy game genre, and there is plenty of dialogue in Paper Mario. Most dialogue is spoken at Mario and his partners rather than a discourse between two or more characters. Once the more discernable NPCs become Mario partners, they zip their lips and seldom utter a single word, almost as if Mario is forcing them to shut up. The only exception to this is Goombario whose ability is to offer observations about areas and scenarios. Sometimes, I would travel around with him to hear his input because he's the only party member that gives it.
I also feel that referring to these playable buddies as "partners" feels a tad inappropriate. The word partners connote even importance and equality between two or more people. It's incredibly evident that the partner characters are only here to support Mario to a fault. Their subdued interactions in the dialogue already illustrate this, but it's even more apparent in combat. Unlike Mario, every partner only has two options: attacking and switching each other out for another partner. They share the SP gauge with Mario, but they don't have their health bars. Enemies will only attack Mario, and for the rare occurrences when a partner is hit, they are immobilized for a few turns. They can't use items, run away, active star power, etc. Given their roles in combat and the overworld, Mario uses these characters that should have more involvement and depth as a "Mario enemy swiss-army knife." It's a shame, considering the potential all of these partners could've had.
After beating the prologue, Mario arrives back in the Mushroom Kingdom, or at least the central area. Like the main series, the entirety of the Mushroom Kingdom is a geographically diverse place consisting of wetlands, deserts, islands, and snowy mountains. Maybe the Mushroom Kingdom has a history of imperialism like a certain other Kingdom in the real world. The hub-world of Paper Mario feels like it should be more significant than it is, considering it seems like the capital of this gigantic land, but maybe the limitations of the N64 prevented it from appearing massive as it could've been. However, it does fit the quaint look and tone of this game, which might have been intentional. The hub world is filled with Toads filling their roles in this society as cooks, store owners, and even martial arts directors. The hub-world feels cozy and lived-in, and it's precisely what I wanted in terms of experiencing arguably the most well-known video game setting in history.
As for the other places in the game, many of them follow the standard platformer, "fire world, desert world, field world, ice world" level dynamic of the main series games. Like the hub world, Paper Mario finds ways to flesh out these archetypical levels with charm and nuance. The first chapter reminds me of the first world of Super Mario Bros. 3. A grassy field seems to be the standard for Mario games to introduce players to each game. This field leads to Mario finding an ashy, grey fortress where the first boss is located, similar to the fortress levels in Super Mario Bros. 3. The desert level is undoubtedly a staple of the Mario series. The most notable is World 2 of Super Mario Bros. 3, with the angry sun stalking Mario in half of the levels. Instead of an angry sun, there's a buzzard hired by Bowser to stop Mario that you can avoid by lying to him that you're not Mario (did I mention that this game is also funny as well?), a desert outpost populated by Toads wearing burkas, fortune tellers, and masked thieves (getting more socio-political, eh Paper Mario?). There is a vast empty wasteland of sand that's easy to get lost in (and is probably the most cryptic and annoying part in the game) that leads to a labyrinthian tomb where you fight the final boss of the chapter. The desert chapter is probably my least favorite chapter in the game, but the setting and pacing of the chapter are still fully realized. The game even goes to great lengths to give depth to spinoff Mario franchises relatively removed from the mainline series. Chapter 5 takes place on a tropical island filled with Yoshis, inspired by Super Mario World 2 and the Yoshi spinoffs. The island is comprised of Yoshis living in a society governed like a tribe of natives. They have a spiritual leader that speaks of artifacts and lore surrounding the island as if this civilization of Yoshis is hundreds of years old. The amount of depth presented here is surprising for a Mario game.
My favorite chapter is the third one which involves saving a village of Boos from a seemingly indestructible monster named Tubba Blubba. He seems like an imposing force, and the stealth sections in his castle are an exciting touch to the direction of this game. His weakness is his heart which resides at the bottom of a dark well in the village, which is borderline "The Telltale Heart," the terrible secret kept hidden under the proverbial floorboards that make the villain vulnerable. The most unorthodox chapter in this game is the Shy Guy's Toybox hidden underneath the hub-world. It's a sub-society run by Shy Guys that functions off of stealing the items of the townsfolk of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Shy Guys travel by toy train and work for a dictator who rides around in a model tank. Oh, he's only a general, you say? Don't be so naive; I know a fascist fearmonger when I see one. Those Shy Guys are starving.
This game makes the best use of the RPG genre in a Mario setting with developing the world and characters of Mario to their fullest potential, but why paper? Does this aesthetic prove useless? I think it's funny that the final boss of the first chapter is a crappy paper mache Bowser, and there are some puzzles and platforming sections that use the mechanic. After playing both Paper Mario and its sequel sequentially, I noticed that this game consistently gave me a warm, fluttery feeling due to its aesthetic, music, and presentation. Paper Mario is like playing through a child's bedtime story and is presented like one. This game is equivalent to a hug from your mom or curling up with a hot tea and blanket by a fireplace. As lame as that sounds, the coziness of this game matched with all of the elements of its foundation tap into an intimately emotional place that no other game has. Once Bowser is defeated, the ending screen is Mario and Peach watching a distant fireworks show, accompanied by a tender lullaby track that always gets me a little choked up. It's a deserving, bittersweet end to an epic journey.
Much to the chagrin of every SMPRG fanboy, the first Paper Mario is the essential Mario RPG. The in-depth Mario experience realizes the potential of the characters and settings of the Mushroom Kingdom that every gamer is familiar with. It's also a unique RPG due to its simplified but invigorating combat system. Paper may have seemed like a strange design choice, but it proves to be masterful in presenting not only what looked like a children's storybook but one that has the snug feeling of one as well. It's the most extraordinary tale the Mushroom Kingdom has ever told.
No comments:
Post a Comment