Paper Mario: The Origami King Review in Progress
Paper Mario: The Origami King
Release Date: July 17, 2020Platforms: Switch
The past two Paper Mario games were announced with little fanfare, somewhat. Color Splash was announced during a Direct, while The Origami King‘s announcement was stealth dropped. Color Splash decided to change up the battle formula, but Origami King keeps the trend going while also adding elements from Thousand-Year Door.
The story has you saving the Mushroom Kingdom from being turned into Origami, with Bowser’s enemies being turn into brainwashed henchmen. You are assisted by the pure-hearted Origami King’s sister, Olivia.
On my current playthough, let me get the elephant out of the room right now. No, this is not a successor to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and frankly, I don’t see them going back to that formula many Mario RPG fanatics love.
The battle system got a change with it being a ring. What happens is that the enemies will be on the ring and get randomly moved. You have a time limit to move each section of the ring so that the enemies match on each section. Doing this will give you extra damage. If you fail, your attack will not be as powerful. After a few battles I got used to the mechanics, but the problem I can see for some is being overwhelmed when more enemies are added with the time limit. This can be eased down with Toads you find in the game helping you in battle. During the battle you can use coins to add more time or pay the audience to assist you. The more coins you pay the crowd, the easier they make the battle. This is the system from Thousand-Year Door that makes a return with the battles being played out in front of an audience.
Once you get the hang of it, the system changes for boss battles. This requires more strategy as you must guide yourself through the ring sections to the boss’s weak point. Once again, it you’re stomped, you can pay the audience to help you.
So far, I’m a having a blast with The Origami King, however, there are things about the game preventing me from fully enjoying the adventure.
