#not putting this in the main tag bc ik people don't like seeing negativity in a main fandom tag (which is understandable!)

[i3utterflyeffect]

Paper Mario & The Origami King: Shortcomings

Okay. So. Here’s the thing: This is my first Paper Mario game. I’ve seen playthroughs, yeah, but that’s about it.

I’ve seen a lot of people gripe about how Color Splash or whatever it’s called changed a lot of mechanics of Paper Mario, but I’m not going to be talking about that. So... yeah. No ‘first Gen was better’ sort of stuff.

Also, this is completely my opinion. I am in no way trying to bash you if you do enjoy this game, because you know what? Good for you! It makes you happy; don’t let me, some random internet person, stop you! These are just flaws that I’ve noticed and wanted to point out.

So with that out of the way, these are my four big gripes with the Origami King.

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1: Character Design

The character design for the Legion Of Stationery is... extremely, extremely underwhelming. Like, look at this.

I can appreciate the fights, they’re pretty fun, but like... come on... It’s... it’s just a stapler. It’s just colored pencils. 

Almost all of them are like this.

Tape? Just tape. Hole punch? Just a hole punch. SCISSORS? THEY’RE SCISSORS!

THEY DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER PUTTING EYES ON THEM. OR GIVING THEM PUNNY NAMES.

Now. I will make one exception: Rubber Band.

Look! This is creative! This is fun! I like this; It’s a little rubber-band doll, and not just one big rubber band! I mean... Once you beat it and strip it to the bare bones, it’s just one big rubber band; but the design itself is more than that.

I understand focusing most of your design power onto the Vellumentals, Olly, and Olivia, if they didn’t quite have enough time or manpower for that. But if they had gotten that, I feel that the Legion of Stationery could have been... a lot less boring.

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2: The Hammer

Okay. This is a tiny thing but it pisses me off so bad.

The hammer. You don’t press it as soon as the the meter turns red. If you do that, you only get a Great.

You press it just before the red goes away, and you know you’ve timed it right when you see the blue again for like, a millisecond. 

I have one question

WHY? 

I don’t get it! Why would you time it like that? It should absolutely be as soon as the red appears! Do I have an unusually fast reaction time? I don’t think I do?

...I swear Olivia said at the beginning it’s ‘as soon as the meter turns red’. I really, really hope I’m not imagining that, because it’s been driving me nuts the whole game.

It’s not to say it’s impossible to time it right; you just... can’t rely on the supposed cue. Which is really, really weird.

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2.5: Gameplay Review Which May Be Unreliable and/or Biased

Listen. I’m going to be upfront about 2 things:

I don’t have the best coordination out there.

I am terrible at puzzle games, and have the memory of a goldfish.

The gameplay was... usually fun. Usually.

Every now and then, though, it became super, super frustrating, for one reason or another.

It took me a while to figure out that sometimes, you have to hit things to get a Magic Circle. In Whispering Woods, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to figure out how to bust open the party popper and get to the Soul Seed.

I also really didn’t want to hit the trees because I felt bad; so until I (finally) searched up a guide, I was just completely lost.

To be fair: they did give me Olivia, and probably expected me to use her.

ALTHOUGH, there was Breezy Tunnel as well; it was pretty obvious to me how to cheer up Olivia; but it wasn’t obvious that I had to backtrack and... be contacted by Bobby’s ghost apparently.

And the final of my gameplay gripes: Shy Guys Finish Last.

Dear god, I hated that. I passed it, yes, but I really hated it. Maybe I just got unlucky with the minigame roulette and got a bad first impression, but honestly, I never want to go back there again.

...why were they even there? Do I want to know? Probably not.

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3: The Ending

The ending... Oh, the ending.

Listen.

The gameplay was okay. It was occasionally frustrating, sure. But I’m probably not reliable with that part.

But the story beats... oh, the story beats. They could have been done so much better and it breaks my heart.

It felt so much like the writers panicked and crammed everything they could into the end, and if they’d just taken a little more time, I feel like it could have been so much better.

And...

Let me break down the 2 parts that bother me the most.

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Olly’s Last-Minute 360

The motivation doesn’t actually bother me. I know it might seem ridiculous to some other people, but let me tell you: Some people are just like that.

My issue is with him suddenly going ‘oh, what I did was wrong’. It felt... Rushed. Sudden. Kind of hollow.

If he’d died angry, it would have felt much more impactful; to see what had been written on the paper all this time, to realize that Olly had been doing this in pointless, selfish anger, when the note had been something so kind.

Instead, it’s just ‘i was wrooonnnngggg..... you beat the crap out of me so hard i had a complete change in personality....’

I guess I can understand if that was the only way they could think of to get the thousandth-paper-crane thing kicked off. Folding him into the thousandth paper crane was impactful too, even if I feel that it was an unrealistic change in personality.

But the very end. The very end is what gets me the most.

Olivia’s Double-Bladed Wish (and How Nintendo Did Her Dirty)

So.

As you might know, at the very end, Olivia wishes for all the origami that Olly folded to be unfolded again.

Hey, Nintendo? Why did you gloss over the fact that Olivia FUCKING DIED?

She died from that wish because her brother finished folding her!

She was being folded by the Origami Craftsman when Olly trapped him, so he took the unfinished product and finished her!

SHE DIED! Nintendo, you barely even acknowledged that! 

It was literally just like “oh, where’d origami girl go?” and that was about it! Nintendo, you dirty cowards! 

Bobby got more sendoff than Olivia. A bob-omb that was with us for two streamers got more sendoff than the companion with us for the entire game. (don’t get me wrong, Bobby’s great and all, but he got more sendoff than Olivia.)

Why? Why would you do that? You hardly even acknowledged her sacrifice. Not even a single firework in her honor.

I know people say that resurrecting a dead character means the original death was surefire shock value, but even that would feel more fufilling.

Just stick an after-credits scene back at the Origami Craftsman’s house, where Olivia is refolded anew from the parts that Olly had not folded, and that would have felt so much more satisfying than the end we got.

Which brings us to the final point:

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4: Unrewarding Completion

In my opinion, the ending felt extremely unrewarding.

I had this issue with BOTW too: It just kicks you back to the last save before completion, and it feels like nothing you did mattered at all; Like the ‘It was just a dream’ trope.

You’re just back again, standing before the door of the final boss.

It feels more like a punishment than anything to me.

I understand it from a gameplay perspective. There wouldn’t be any more folded soldiers to fight; no more enemies, no more challenge. But combined with an underwhelming ending and Olivia dying and not even being acknowledged, it didn’t feel rewarding at all.

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Conclusion/TL;DR

Paper Mario and the Origami King could have been better.

However, they focused on gameplay, and I understand the thought process that led to that decision. An enjoyable playing experience is the most important part of a game.

The character designs may have been underwhelming, and the story may have not reached full potential, but in the end, the gameplay is most important.

However, I feel that the ending could have used more work, and it’s unfortunate that it ended up turning out in such a disappointing fashion.

If you like puzzle games, then you might enjoy this game. It’s generally enjoyable, and the dialogue isn’t too bad. 

Just keep in mind that the ending might not be too rewarding, so don’t rush; take your time to enjoy the game by finding collectibles and saving toads.

[eulchu]

this is why i need certain people to leave dteam alone cause apparently people now think it’s okay to joke about how dreamnap are together while gnf is alone in london. i literally went onto twitter just to see if there’s anything new on tl and this is the shit i come to -_-

both george and dream we have been told that this has affected their mental health, and all of dteam aren’t motivated to upload bc of it. why tf do these people think it’s okay to make “jokes” to say dreamnap are fucking while gnf is alone, when it’s about something that negatively affects all of them irl ??? sorry but this is why i can’t stand sapnap mains lawl. sure enjoy your sapnap ships but don’t fucking talk about the fact that george still isn’t in florida to validate it

also these people have the nerve to say “it’s not in their boundaries to not make jokes like this”. hmmmm wonder why… maybe it’s cause dteam would expect people to have basic human decency. not everything needs to be made into a boundary when it should be common sense. there are too many people who use “it’s not in their boundaries” to excuse their shitty “jokes” and i hope they choke. exposing themselves as terrible people over /r dreamnap? yikes🤢

i need the meetup to happen for mine and dteams mental health. i’m just sick of any time i check twitter anymore, i see these god awful takes and ik the meetup will make them shut the fuck up at least for a little. genuinely have felt so meh about fandom since Amsterdam happened. i wish people could just be normal about dteam meetup. that’s what’s really makes me annoyed. like there’s no need for people to joke about it still not happening <<which also was happening with twitchcon when people would tag dream saying they met george before him>>. you can talk about being excited and what you think we’ll see from them post meetup, not about hahahah george is alone, dream sap fucking and in love

some people are so incredibly disrespectful and gross and for what, to get a raise out of other fans? no stupid "ship war" or whatever will be worth putting the animosity over real life relationships and i really need people to drill it into their brains.

shipping might be within the dteam's boundaries but not being an asshole is literal fucking common decency. i don't care if it's a joke, use your brain and learn to read the damn room. it stops being funny it stops being a "ship war" when you involve real feelings and real circumstances about real friendships. fuck off and die srs