Paper Mario: The Origami King (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.1 Update

Paper Mario: The Origami King Come along with Mario and his new ally, Olivia, as they embark on a hilarious adventure to save the kingdom from the origami threat. Join forces with the dynamic duo to defeat the wicked Folded Soldiers, repair the ruined environment, and rescue Princess Peach’s castle from the grasp of King Olly.

GAMEPLAY

The Origami King is a genre-bending video game that incorporates elements of action-adventure, RPG, and puzzle games. Players control a two-dimensional paper version of Mario and explore a linear open world that resembles paper and cardboard. The player’s goal is to destroy King Olly, the main antagonist of the game, and his five decorative origami streamers. As the game progresses, the player begins tracking each of his five streamers as they explore a vast area. These areas contain puzzles that the player must solve in order to progress. Along the way, Mario can collect coins that can be used to purchase combat items, as well as hidden treasures that can be displayed in a museum. These hidden collectibles include toads folded into origami or folded and crumpled. Mario can interact with non-player characters, some of whom can temporarily join the player’s party to assist Mario in combat or interact with obstacles in the overworld. In certain areas of the game, Mario can use an ability known as “1000 Fold Arms”, which allows him to tear apart parts of the paper environment to reveal secrets.

Mario can use bags of confetti to fill holes in the area. Screenshot of an arena shaped like a dartboard Players rotate the ring to line up their opponents. If executed correctly, the player receives an attack bonus. Players fight against enemies using a turn-based combat system. When Mario encounters one or more enemies in the overworld, the game switches to a battle screen. During the battle, Mario stands in the center of a dartboard-like arena divided into four ring-shaped sections with twelve radial slots. Each enemy occupies a different location. At the start of a turn, players position the enemy by moving the ring horizontally or vertically, allowing them to attack multiple enemies at once. Players are given a limited time and number of spins. Once the player has finished moving an enemy, he can attack with a hammer, which targets enemies in a 2-by-2 section of the grid adjacent to the center, or with a boot, which targets a 4-column section one column at a time.

Players can use items of various powers to attack enemies and increase heart points. Attack power increases when the maximum number of enemies is targeted during a round. If the player needs additional help, all the Toads rescued by Mario before they fall will cause damage, or the puzzle can be solved by partially rotating the ring. The amount of help they provide is determined by the amount Mario gives them. The remaining enemies attack Mario before the play returns to the player’s turn. Coins can be earned when the player wins a battle. Boss battles follow a similar pattern to wrestling matches, but with the enemy in the center and Mario on the outside.

Players can rotate the ring horizontally or vertically. Arrows on the ground indicate the path Mario will follow. Mario starts with an arrow placed in front of him and follows the ring until he reaches the endpoint, which is an attack tile or a magic circle tile. Players can activate by passing a battle tile, but magic circle tiles must be activated by passing an “ON” tile. Other items such as health points and coins are scattered around the square. To defeat each boss, players must follow certain rules. These vary depending on the enemy Mario fights. For example, Earth’s Belmental has five exposed body parts on him, and Mario must attack and retreat each one before doing significant damage.

PLOT

Princess Peach invites Mario and Luigi to an origami festival held near the mysterious ruined castle of Toad Town. When Peach enters the Castle to find out where everyone went, she discovers that she was turned into origami and brainwashed by King Olly, a sentient origami doll. Many of Bowser’s minions suffered a similar fate, before being transformed into origami enemies called Fold Soldiers. Bowser was folded into a square and stapled together. Mario rescues Olly’s sister Olivia (who had been imprisoned for her betrayal), and eventually Bowser, and the three attempt to escape. However, Olly wraps the castle in five colorful streamers, rips it from its foundation, and transports it to a nearby volcano. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser make a narrow escape, but a streamer hits them and breaks them apart.

When Mario and Olivia land in the Whispering Woods, a forest near Toad Town, they find that many toads have been folded into origami by folded soldiers. They rescue Luigi, who goes in search of the key to Peach’s castle. Mario and Olivia must chase and destroy each streamer until they reach the end. At the end of the red streamer, they discover colored pencils and members of Olly’s “stationery army”. This group is a group of six anthropomorphic office supplies who work for him, five of whom protect each streamer. The two set off to untie the blue streamer and encounter an amnesiac and fuseless Bob Ombu, whom Olivia calls “Bobby”. After they defeat Rubberband and eliminate the blue streamer, celebratory fireworks are set off and Bobby regains his memories.

The three set off into the scorching sandpaper desert to untie the yellow streamers, but they soon run into Olly, who blocks their path with a giant rock and pins Olivia under him. To rescue her, Mario and Bobby head to the ocean liner Princess Peach, where Bobby discovers an object that later turns out to be a fuse. He sets it on fire so he can sacrifice himself to destroy the rock holding OliviaDistraught, Olivia collapses, but Mario is able to cheer her up. After defeating Hole Punch, Tape, and Scissors and eliminating the Yellow, Purple, and Green Streamers, the three rescue Bowser from the Scissors before heading to Peach’s Castle. Luigi returns and sadly claims that he can’t find her keys, but she soon realizes that it is in her own car. Once they are inside, Olly folds Peach’s castle into an origami castle. The trio, excluding Luigi, cross it, defeat the Stapler, and restore Bowser to his normal form.

The three confront King Olly, who reveals that he has folded 999 paper cranes. She is one of the 1,000 cranes needed to build an origami kingdom and gives her the ultimate power to turn all toads into blank sheets of paper. He says that his hatred for toads stems from the fact that origami artists used the forbidden “crease of life” technique to create toads and that Olly himself later used the technique to bring Olivia to life. Told. However, the craftsman wrote words on Ollie’s paper, which Ollie took as a disdain for art. A battle ensues and Mario, Olivia, and Bowser defeat Olly. On his deathbed, Olly apologizes for his actions. Olivia reads the writing on his body, and it is revealed that Toad only gave Olly the blessing to rule as king. Olly realizes his mistake and, at his request, Olivia folds him into the thousandth crane after his death. She fulfills her ultimate wish of restoring all the origami cases that King Olly has folded, including himself, and the game ends with the celebration of the Origami Festival.

CHARACTERS

Since the release of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, new characters in the Paper Mario series could not be modified versions of existing characters, such as a change in age or gender, and any original characters had to have had no previous involvement with the Mario universe. Character designs went through a critical review by Nintendo’s intellectual property team, although the designers were allowed to give Toads different outfits. On June 12, 2020, Nintendo released another trailer revealing partners that will join Mario on his adventure and help complete tasks, such as aiding in combat. Although the feature had remained absent from the games since Sticker Star, critics were still disappointed that the Allies did not seem to have much functionality; some were hoping for partners that would help solve puzzles and progress in skill alongside Mario.

Tanabe intended the origami Princess Peach to have an inhuman aura which he used to appeal to a more adult audience. He visualized her approaching Mario while she turned into an origami form; the game’s opening sequence eventually used this action. To ensure characters would still be recognizable in their origami form, the artists analyzed each character to determine “whether a side-on or front-on view would be best to bring out their individuality”. They created real-life mock-ups to make sure the in-game forms would be similarly realistic. The Legion of Stationery is an example of the concept of having characters not involved with the Mario franchise. The developers chose “objects that everyone will have interacted with at some point in their lives” for these roles.

Tanabe referenced his childhood to develop these characters imagining what their weaknesses would be based on their function, such as hitting the backside of the hole punch during its boss battler to knock out previously punched paper. He also conceptualized their attacks based on childhood imagination and how children pretend what objects could do. For example, colored pencils act as missiles in-game because of their shape. Mario’s first partner conceptualized for the game was Bobby. He was conceived with the intention of providing more memorable events tied to specific areas, rather than having a complicated story.

The Origami King established characters that would appear alongside Mario and Olivia as the game progressed. In an interview with Video Games Chronicle, Tanabe claimed Bobby became just as memorable as Olivia. Deciding upon other additional characters, he added “We chose the characters that would be the best fit for the events in each stage of the game”. Bowser Jr. “was an exception”; the team added him as a character before they had figured out what role he would play because Masahiko Nagaya, an Intelligent Systems director, “had strong feelings about including a storyline where a son sets out to save his father”. When developing Olivia, the creators aimed to give her as much personality as possible. Tanabe said most characters that aid the protagonist tend to be guides or teachers and have little personality. He wanted to have a female character with as much of an outgoing personality as possible. He modeled her on “a certain Japanese actress”. Initially, it took a lot of effort to write her dialogue, but toward the end of development, it became rather easy. Tanabe felt she was almost “writing her own lines”.