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indigosfindings · 7 months ago

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updates post-chapter 4:

i like how perceptibly several of the pixls replicate/replace/remix the overworld movement mechanics from pm1 & ttyd (slim being both the paper curse & vivian/bow, thudley being the super boots, etc etc)

imo the ideal for a zelda- or metroid-style upgrade is for it to have both specific circumstantial interactions (ie allowing you to unlock a new section of the map) AND a broader moment-to-moment usefulness (think how super missiles in metroid both open a new kind of door & provide you with a new combat option), & in that vein some of the pixls (eg carrie) have absolutely delivered, while slim & fleep, for example, despite having ostensible generic functions, are really not getting a lot of use from me outside of the moments ordained by the game lmaooo

the variety of items & recipes, while another extremely charming aspect of this game, really hammers in the absence of FP. like the only variables for recipe items are like "restores more or less HP" "gives you 1 or 2 status effects" & "replicates the effect of a different combat item" which is a bit sad. granted, it would not exactly be *easy* to incorporate FP into this game, but it does just highlight one of the biggest ways that spm is simply Less Deep

in a similar vein, i really feel the level-up system could (should!) have been handled differently. its linearity robs it of impact & strategy, and i recall from my childhood playthroughs that it's reeeaaal easy to end up overleveled

also reeeeaaaally feeling the lack of sidequests tbh. inter-chapter activities boil down to "play minigames" & "talk to NPCs". a trouble centre equivalent would have done a LOT viz. producing a sense of Scope & Fullness, encouraging you to spend more time with the characters & setting, etc.

i dont just want to be measuring every trait of spm against ttyd, but it is something that spm kind of begs for in several ways lmao

what drives me crazy is that spm ABSOLUTELY has the *means* to be an incredibly complex gameplay experience. it's practically begging for a difficulty mod lmao

barry was always one of my fave pixls as a kid but now he's a bit of a letdown tbh. reflecting projectiles is almost never a better option than just walking up to an enemy and attacking them lmaoo

the damage multipliers are a little off the wall. when my ATK is 4, it just takes bowser + thudley/boomer + catch card to make it 32, which is FAR more than it really should be. cant help but think "+1" wouldve been a far better pick than "x2"

LOVE the bitlands, especially the theme song with its really interesting & kinetic deployment of smb samples. a masterclass in designing a "retro" level without sacrificing its sense of personality & while also effectively remixing the "retro" material in question

there's a LOT of personality in fort francis which is extremely charming. his petuni action figure lmao

i continue to love the visuals (that literal star background in chapter 4 😍), especially some of the choices in the 3d sections (the trippy visuals in the whoa zone, the vector-game visual when you flip during the brobot fight)

actually on that note, the brobot fight was amazing. it's a shame all those power-ups dont appear anywhere else. im also obsessed with brobot as a whole concept. guy whose whole personality is being someone else's brother to such an extent that it comes out even when he's mindwiped

squirps is sooo fun. i love a zeep zoop alien

"squirp korogaline squirpina" has been swimming in my head like an agitated koi since like middle school

i am OBSESSEDDDD with flopside. i absolutely love the thought of setting up a hub-world with all of its quirky gimmicky NPCs and then having the reverse version where all of the same NPCs have, like, Dark Versions. i really love how the Flop versions are particularly mundane reversals of the flipside npcs--one that got a particular laugh out of me was when the "im going to blow your mind: press 2 to jump!!!" guy's counterpart was like "[describes somewhat granular game mechanic]....... you probably already knew that though :("

the minigames are pretty fun. im unsure if forget me not is actually unduly easy or if i just played it for such an obscene amount of time as a kid that it seems that way. the tilty one is a lot of fun (the item variety is subtle but adds depth!) & the haunted house one is a blast... reminds me of hotd :)

replaying super paper mario, sporadic thoughts post-chapter 2:

very easy so far--& although ttyd was also easy, spm's gameplay is sadly substantially less rich thab ttyd's was

having said that the game design in spm is! unrelentingly charming!! the use of platforming as a framework for a varied stream of stage styles (straightforward levels, dungeons, towns, the entire 2-3 Situation) is creative in a way that imo predicts the sort of things the mario maker community later ended up making. chapter 2's set pieces in particular are extremely quirky (the rooms with traps, the rubee thing, the mazelike basement, the merlee game show lmao)

few platformers have boss fights that feel like genuine Combat, so that's pretty cool

i will confess that as a First Dungeon, yold ruins doesnt have half the sauce of hooktail castle--it's much more linear in layout, with far less of that zelda-y "explore & comprehend the space" principle that made ttyd's dungeons hit

in a similar vein, it's kind of crazy how tippi has like a fraction of the personality that goombella had. it's a bit sad for the character doing the vast majority of the talking to just.... not really have any opinions on anything

the momentum of the chapters likewise means very few npcs ever get to stick out. like, even the "first town crotchety old mayor" character was a total one-and-done, one dialogue and you never have a reason to speak to him again (mostly just speaks to the game structure, which is as mentioned a bold enough exercise that i feel i cant really fault it for that)

bringing up a menu to use items In A Platforming Context is not at all natural to me, so im finding myself just not really using them

this game is a masterclass in visual design imo. the npcs & enemies & pixls being made of primitives that reconfigure themselves into different shapes really elevates the interplay of 2d & 3d, the backgrounds/environments are extremely aesthetically satisfying (the Mathmosphere in lineland, the optical illusion in the sky in gloam valley, all of castle bleck), & i love how the constant "digital/tech" motif (eg the "dragging selection boxes to flip/teleport", the trees & shrubs looking like something youd make in ms paint, etc) is an ingenious progression of paper mario's core aesthetic design

dimentio is so fun

the inter-chapter dialogue flashbacks are surprisingly earnest? for such a tongue-in-cheek game where almost every line of dialogue contains a joke of some kind, those exchanges feel humourless & sincere. that probably contributes to the Space the game occupies in all of our memories lol

i ADOOOORE nastasia

likewise it was really interesting how peach's "escape" sequence after chapter 1 was (while, again, still extremely sardonic) aesthetically & narratively framed with such a sense of Hopelessness. that's not to say like "woahh this mario game is 10x darker than you thought!!!!", more that it's just not a space the series commonly ventures into

the Ancients stuff is being leaned into extremely hard lol. ttyd mostly teases at that kind of "mysterious rpg lore" thing peripherally (the riddle tower inscriptions, grifty, etc) so it's interesting how spm puts it front & centre in contrast, without ever sacrificing the sense of mystique

this game really highlights how interesting the wiimote is as a controller--pressing the A button while holding it sideways (ie removing your left thumb from the direction input to press a button) is something that i cant think of any other controller doing, & it projects onto that button a really interesting sense of, like, Valence

it's the kind of game that seems to beg for one of thsoe posts like "things that ACTUALLY HAPPEN in _____"

#spm liveblog #indigoing

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