Paper Mario - Retro Playthrough - April 2015

[singlebanana]

Initial thoughts on the game:

Some of the things that I really like about the game are the puzzles and the variations in the worlds for each Chapter you explore. One of my favorite puzzles in the game was Dry Dry Desert Ruins; it wasn't overly difficult, but somewhat challenging (like most of the puzzles in the game). The battle with Tutankoopa was fairly easy especially if you focused on him and avoided the Chomp. I got lucky in that over 75% of his ceiling attacks backfired on him and knocked him down to the lower level (not sure if this is the norm). The Koopa Bros. (an obvious TMNT knockoff) were fairly simple and seemed to be a fair first boss battle. Nothing overly impressive, but I appreciate the game forcing you have implement a strategy early on.

The game has some interesting concepts, especially the leveling system. Unlike most games where your power increases upon leveling, instead you choose from HP, FP (mana), and badge points. It seems that the power structure of your character is dependent on Badges, which is pretty interesting to say the least. I'm not a big fan of the low scoring attacks and a combat system with no crits. Really? However, the combat system is not without its charm and integrates the +blocking and +attack interactive system from SMRPG, which is cool. 

[Disposed Hero]

The battle with Tutankoopa was fairly easy especially if you focused on him and avoided the Chomp. I got lucky in that over 75% of his ceiling attacks backfired on him and knocked him down to the lower level (not sure if this is the norm).

I agree.  Many of the early boss fights are pretty easy, but seem to get more difficult later on.  Either way, I'm finding the boss fights to be pretty enjoyable and among the highlights of the game.

The Koopa Bros. (an obvious TMNT knockoff) were fairly simple and seemed to be a fair first boss battle.

Haha, I also thought of them as a TMNT clone.  Another enjoyable boss fight.

The game has some interesting concepts, especially the leveling system. Unlike most games where your power increases upon leveling, instead you choose from HP, FP (mana), and badge points.

Yeah, not a huge fan of the leveling system.  My biggest gripe is that leveling up doesn't feel as worthwhile in this game as most other RPGs.  Sure, you can increase your HP and the like, but what I really want to do is increase my attack power.  Although, on the very rare occasion that the game does increase your attack power, it just makes it that much sweeter.

It seems that the power structure of your character is dependent on Badges, which is pretty interesting to say the least. I'm not a big fan of the low scoring attacks and a combat system with no crits. Really? However, the combat system is not without its charm and integrates the +blocking and +attack interactive system from SMRPG, which is cool. 

Great point about the badges, and it might be worth throwing out some suggestions on what badges you're typically using.  One in particular that I love is the 'Quick Change' badge which lets you switch your party members without wasting a turn.  I never go without it.  I also make good use of the 'Power Bounce' badge.

[singlebanana]

To me, the "Peekaboo" badge that you trade with Merlow for is essential. I like being able to see every enemy's HP (including bosses) and you can use a companion other than Goombario and don't have to keep wasting a turn to use his ability.

"Pretty Lucky" is another I kept on quite a bit (until I got the upgrade); it causes enemies to periodically miss and without it, you basically always get hit.

"Zap Tap" is another I like and it can keep enemies with multiple melee attacks down to one attack and cause 1 damage for each enemy attack.

"Feeling Fine" is another I always have on hand. It prevents status effects like poison and dizzy and can be crucial in quite a few battles. The latter three are also acquired from Merlow.

"I Spy" is great for later on if you are looking for star pieces to fill out your badge inventory, and only takes 1 BP to use. (badge shop quest)  

I also keep the "Power Bounce" badge on at all times and it's probably the only one I never switch out. (Koppa Bros. fortress)

[Disposed Hero]

I'll have to get the "Peekaboo" badge if I don't have it already.  I was just thinking last night during a boss fight that it would be nice to know the enemy's HP, but didn't want to waste a turn having Goombario use Tattle.

Because you have so little BP in the early parts of the game, I have a ton of badges that I wasn't able to use when I first got them and have since forgotten about them.  I'll have to go back through my list and see what's all there.

[singlebanana]

Well that's the crux of the game isn't it? Spend your levels on BP and get leet offensively and/or defensively, or invest in HP/FP for longer battles. It's an interesting concept and I think it makes most gamers seek to find some sort of balance. I will say this.....there is a 2:34:00 speed run on YouTube. I'm going to have to watch it when I finish. There has to be some sort of exploit using a combination of  the badges.

[techwizard]

don't forget about the HP and FP increasing badges, i found those essential as well. with them it made it worthwhile to focus on BP upgrades when levelling, because you can use the BP to increase your other stats. there are some badges, including the FP and HP ones, that you can use multiple of the same badge at once, not sure if anyone caught on to that.

another one that i can't remember the name of but i found extremely useful was one that i believe lowered your HP slightly to give you an increase in attack power. great on bosses, though useless on most battles.

[singlebanana]

I used some of the HP and FP increasing badges early on, but I finally realized that at 6 BP per badge, that space was better used in increasing my attacks; you can equip about 2-3 badges for the 6 points it takes to use one HP/FP increase. Those badges only up your HP/FP by 5 points (the amount increased in one level up), so they really aren't helping that much when you consider that an enemy can do that much damage in one turn. On the flip side, if you increase attack power, you can take down enemies quicker and not have to worry about additional attacks; this saves you more HP in the long run. If anything, the badges are well-designed in that they are not overpowering, but make you really consider what you need most for both normal and boss fights.

[techwizard]

those are good points but i found the HP/FP increases really helpful on some bosses. there were some that i already had all my available attack increases applied, but each time i was dying within 1 or 2 turns of winning. so even though they don't add a huge amount of HP, they let me hold on just long enough to finish off some battles that i was otherwise getting really frustrated with.

on the flip side like i said, some battles you were better off sacrificing the HP for the attack bonus, it all depends on the situation. i just found that the HP increases were usually more helpful than the attack increases.

[Disposed Hero]

The Power Bounce ability can be pretty overpowered if you can get the timing down.  I used to struggle just to get 10 consecutive hits with it, now it's not uncommon for me to get 30+ hits with a single attack.  I used it against a certain mini-boss last night and defeated it in one turn.

I guess the only thing keeping me from using it against the tougher bosses are their higher defense ratings.  Most of the hits do 0 damage against them. 

[singlebanana]

The Power Bounce ability can be pretty overpowered if you can get the timing down.  I used to struggle just to get 10 consecutive hits with it, now it's not uncommon for me to get 30+ hits with a single attack.  I used it against a certain mini-boss last night and defeated it in one turn.

I guess the only thing keeping me from using it against the tougher bosses are their higher defense ratings.  Most of the hits do 0 damage against them. 

Like Mario RPG, I could never really get the feel of the power bounce down. Often doing a double jump would do just as much, if not more damage than 3 power bounces, so I never wanted to risk it. The good thing about this game is that you don't have to use the power bounce and can still do fine in the game. It's nice to be able to do it, but like most abilities, the game doesn't make you rely on it.

[techwizard]

wow, i had no idea power bounce could do more than 7 hits. somehow i always managed to lose the timing at the same number of hits.

[Disposed Hero]

wow, i had no idea power bounce could do more than 7 hits. somehow i always managed to lose the timing at the same number of hits.

Apparently the world record is 101.    Yeah, I doubt I'll ever come remotely close to that.

[MetalFRO]

Well, I've been woefully absent for most of this discussion, in part because I've been working way too many hours, had personal stuff going on, and have been focusing my off-time on my Game Boy Guru project.  However, last night I fired up Paper Mario and played for a little while, so I've hit the checkpoints for Week 1 and Week 2, by completing Chapter 4.  I started Chapter 5 last night after that, but died on an enemy in the jungle after saving the first Yoshi, so I have a bunch I have to redo, sadly.  I feel like every time I go into a new area, Mario is underpowered.  If I use a powered up companion, that helps, but it's not until I level up that I feel like I can take on any enemies without fear of dying and having to start that chapter practically all over again.  Maybe my badge layout needs to be tweaked, but I'm using at least one HP badge, and a badge that decreases the damage I take by 1, so that should be helping somewhat.  I guess I just need to keep leveling up my badge points and adding more HP badges.

[singlebanana]

Are you blocking each time and using star powers? I'd say to look over your badges and try to find a good combination that works well for you. Like I said, I didn't use HP badges but concentrated on offense and defense upgrades instead.

[MetalFRO]

I try to use the maneuver where you press "A" to block, but some enemies it's hard to predict when to actually press the button, so some stuff appears to either be unblockable, or I'm just not skilled enough at it to do so.  In any event, I did get through Chapter 5 on my 2nd try, and had little trouble with the Piranha boss, once I had Sushie powered up a 2nd time.  That "Squirt" technique is killer when you can go full powered and score 9 hits against the boss in a single attack.  Once I enabled that badge that decreases damage by 1, that helped a lot.  6 Badge Points seems like a lot to sacrifice for that, but it really goes a long way to keeping enemies that are hard to block from milking away your HP too fast.