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Jan 27th, 2008 at 16:26:33 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC) |
Well, it is day #2 of my Paper Mario adventure. I only played roughly for 45 minutes this time because I lost my patience with the game. Actually, I got stuck not knowing what to do next. :(
Today's adventure dealt with searching for the first crystal star to unlock the Thousand Year Door. And no, I was never able to find it...but I did have some excitement on my journey. Allow me to elaborate on my quest. I set out from Rogueport in an attempt to find Petalburg, a nearby village where the first crystal star is supposedly hidden nearby. To find the city, I had to battle a giant cute squid! The whole ordeal was so traumatic. This poor giant squid was floating merrily near a dock with a tentacle sticking out of the water and I didn't know what it was...I thought it might be a giant button or levitating pad or something, so I hit it like crazy with my hammer. This unfortunately forced me into a turn-based RPG battle with the squid. He tried to put me in "a world of hurt" (his words, not mine) for my accidental attack on him...but I successfully pummeled that squid until he LITERALLY cried (no joking)! It was so sad that I almost turned the game off. Anyway, my squid battle unlocked the passage to Petalburg, so it was a necessary evil. Other interesting things that happened today...I got chewed on a few times by random piranhas (I fell into water twice - big mistake). I battled what are called "fuzzies"...and they suctioned to my head as their battle tactic, sucking my brain (depleted HPs). I discovered huge flying dragons! I think I have to battle one named Hooktail later, but today I just saw him fly over me. He enjoys eating the people of Petalburg, or so I've heard. Um...this is strange...I received an email today (from Dr. Frankley, a professor of Goombrella's). Apparently anyone you meet can email you. Since when in any game has Mario ever been capable of receiving emails??? What's more...the emails can have normal-type email attachments, like pictures. It's strange; I was just randomly walking through town, when I was notified by the game that I had received an email. Mario doesn't even have a computer! Maybe he has a miniature cell phone device or something. Who knows? It was strange. Also, I discovered a new fighting tactic...SHEEP. And not just one sheep...but a monster heard of them. Apparently, when you have the right token in your inventory (a sheep token), you can command a heard of sheep to rush at your enemy. The effect is that the enemies are put to sleep (the traditional counting sheep phenomenon) for a certain amount of time, which allows you to attack and kill them (or possibly run from them), without allowing them their retaliatory attack on you. Furthermore, as I journeyed, I was searching for a stone key...the place that you find the key had a large stone statue boss that you had to fight. I was intimidated, but decided to battle him. Strangely, the battle turned into a game show (called the 65th Superfun Quick Quiz), where the statue guy was the host, with his microphone and brightly colored duds. The room's walls fell off (like paper) and revealed walls of brightly colored lights. I was reminded of Vegas. This was definitely an unexpected turn of events - but was fun.
I also discovered several reminiscent elements that draw upon previous Mario games. For example, I noticed that when Mario jumps (not in battle mode), he makes the "woo" sound that I believe came from Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64). Additionally, I saw coin blocks (the type that you jump up and hit to receive coins)...those are common in all Mario games, as are mushrooms. In this game, however, a mushroom replenishes 5HP, which is effectively the same as making Mario bigger. I saw switch blocks today, which show up in Super Mario World (SNES)...although the switch block was used to build a bridge, which is slightly different. (When the bridge was being built, the whole screen took on a storybook type of appearance and pages flipped, as in traditional animation, to gradually build the bridge...it was neat.) You can also gain POW blocks, as in Super Mario 2 (NES), and these you can use in battle mode to take out all of your opponents. Warping pipes, which are typical of every single Mario game, are again present here and a sound clip similar to the original Mario game (NES) accompanies these pipe journeys. I wonder if Yoshi is going to show up! That would be SOOOOO exciting!
I keep noticing more and more details on how the creators of this game have tried to deal with the 2D/3D meshing. For example, when you walk into a house, the house collapses radially outward, with the walls being effectively paper, so that you can see the inside. I don't really know why they picked this method, but it looks good on screen. Also, the game has inns that Mario and Goombrella can stay in to replenish their HPs and when you see them get into bed, they slip in without disturbing the sheets at all because they're flat (a useful skill...I would like to not have to make my bed every morning). Additionally, it is interesting to watch Mario and Goombrella go down pipes; they swirl around in a circle (like folding a paper around to have both ends touch), as if being sucked into a whirlpool. The graphics never fail to amuse me!
As for gameplay, this is where I feel the game really falls short of my expectations. I have gotten used to the turn-based battles...but I feel that there are FAR too many battles. The villains in this game (goombas, turtles, fuzzies, etc.) are so fast that you basically cannot avoid a single battle! If you can, you're lucky. Also, if you get into a battle and try to run from the villains, they chase you at the same very fast pace, AND they rob you of money as you're running from them! It was very frustrating to be on a mission and get stopped once or twice per screen because the villains are virtually unavoidable. I ended the game today, feeling like I hadn't accomplished much, other than beating up some bad guys. I did, however, increase my HPs by a level and my BPs (badge points) by a level, so yay for me. The dialog has decreased a bit, since I am now actually playing the game, instead of trying to figure out the storyline - this is an improvement over my previous gaming experience. One new thing that I find to be frustrating, however, is Mario's inventory/log screen. When you push Select/Start on the controller, the screen is filled up by a five tab window that controls Mario's inventory, stats (HP, BP, SP, FP, etc.), emails, Goombrella's stats and more that I haven't learned. I've been trying to learn all of the options available with this menu, but there are just too many buttons and options. I have had much difficulty trying to figure out how to do very simple things. And as I postulated in my previous log, I do, in fact, have trouble remembering what all of the different points systems are for and how they are useful during battle. This is hugely frustrating because I was paying attention! I think all of these details have overloaded what I can retain at this point...and there's no where (within the game) to go to look up what specific things do! So, I may not be developing my tactics and abilities at an appropriate rate. :(
Overall, the game is not incredibly complex - it's appropriately complex for individuals expecting a similar complexity to the other Mario games. I think the creators made a big mistake by doing the turn-based battling, though. This is a real turn-off to me because I enjoy actively battling villains. This is the #1 thing I would do differently. Second on my list is to simplify the point system, if one is even needed. The game makers were enormously creative in different areas - such as the different methods of battling, the unexpected twists, cool graphics, and interesting characters. But I understand why this game is not more popular. The essence of all previous Mario games (active battling, uncomplicated reward systems) is not captured in this game. Unfortunately, I am probably not going to be able to play this game to completion.
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Jan 26th, 2008 at 02:04:35 - Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC) |
Today I, myself, played Paper Mario for the first time ever...which is strange since I've owned the game for several years. I watched my husband play it once right after we bought the game...but that was the first and last time the game was even touched.
After playing for 1.5 hours, it is time to reflect upon the experience...
I bought this game because I loved the "old school" Mario games passionately! I was hoping for a similar but different experience. And so far, that's kind of what I got. This game is a one-player game and like always, it seems (although I can't be certain at this point) that Mario is going to have to save the princess (Princess Peach) from the grip of an evil force (probably Bowser, but the plot hasn't been fully laid out yet). While I believe that this is going to be the underlying plot, there are other subplots; in particular, this game is a vast treasure hunt. From the very long intro, the story is as follows. Princess Peach has sent Mario a treasure map, leading to the whereabouts of the "Thousand Year Door", behind which is a mystical treasure is located. She implores Mario to meet up with her in a town called Rogueport (where, SHOCKINGLY, rogue savages roam the city). Mario agrees to meet her there...but when he arrives, she is already missing. Like I said, I suspect she was abducted by Bowser, but I haven't gotten far enough into the game. Mario thinks that if he continues to look for the treasure without her, he might stumble onto her since she's looking for it too. (Sounds to me like he just wants to be greedy and snatch the goodies for himself, but hey what do I know.) Anyway, he takes the treasure map to the Thousand Year Door, which is surprisingly easy to find and it reveals to him (because of him having the special map in his possession) the location of a crystal. I think there are a series of crystals that must be obtained to unlock the door. Currently, I have been revealed the location of a single crystal and that's as far as I managed to get in this time frame.
My biggest complaint so far is that the game is VERY wordy. There's so much reading that I don't really feel like I ever got to play the game, but maybe (hopefully) it will get better. Much of the text was about revealing the game's story and much of it was about being taught (using other characters) how to do things like attack the bad guys and use the different power features. This game reminds me a great deal of a mixture between the second Legend of Zelda game and the original Final Fantasy game. For the most part, I've just spent my time wandering around in a village talking to people, but you can attack people in the classical turn-based RPG style. I'm not sure I like the turn-based attacking games...I don't think I ever really have. "Hit points", as I remember them being called in other games take the form of "health points" in this game, but there are other (too many) types of similar points to keep track of. Flower points. Star points. Badge points. What the heck? How am I going to remember these things???
There are some "cutenesses" to this game, as well...actually there are several things that made me laugh to myself as I was playing. (Cause I'm lame.) For example, did you know that Mario's comrade in this game is a female goomba (yes, a goomba) named Goombrella, who is a student at the University of Goom (also referred to in the game as UGoom). Their mascot is, not surprisingly, a goomba (rah rah...GO GOOMBAS)! She speaks with strange condescending middle school type grammar. In particular, she likes to call people names and poke fun at them...for example (yes, these are real), she has SO FAR called others "smelly lunatics", "airheads", and "great hoogaly boogalys" (my personal favorite, but not sure that the spelling is valid). She has said other things that are unusual to find in a game and I'm sure that there are other things to mention about her, but I can't remember them. Additionally, I am enamored by the cute little blinking star that appears in all dialogue boxes...for no other reason than it's adorable (what can I say, I'm a girl). :D Oh, something else that I find strangely intriguing...did I mention that Mario was CURSED by a creature that he unlocked in a treasure chest? The curse turns Mario into a paper airplane...yes...an airplane! Ha! Take that Mario, you sucker! What a curse...I wish I could turn into a paper airplane and steer myself around the world with little effort...imagine all the places you could go! And really, doesn't this just enable Mario to go EVEN MORE places than he normally would? He can even change back into his normal self whenever he wants, so I'm missing the point of this "curse"...maybe it's just over my head.
Probably the most notable thing in this game is the graphics. I think the graphics in this game are innovative...or at the very least, original. The game combines a 3D world with 2D characters. The characters are "paper" (hence the title of the game), that is, they are flat...but the paper spins around its vertical axis if the character wants to change direction. The camera is not allowed to move around much in this 3D world and you cannot change views, so for the most part, the paper characters work for me...they are mostly easy to maneuver in this world and personally, I find cartoonish graphics to be more pleasant to look at. It is definitely a bit more difficult to jump up and hit a save block or some other extremely localized object (there's not a good sense of depth, perhaps, with the 2D characters), but this 2D/3D mixture is a neat effect.
So, in summary, the game probably progresses slower than I enjoy. There are two many interactions that result in cut-scenes or dialog between characters (hence reading text on the screen...boring) and not enough rock-em-sock-em action...there is some...but it's very sparsely distributed, in comparison to the older Mario games that I'm in love with. Also, what's up with some of the goombas in the Rogueport being villains and some being friends or non-interacting bystanders? They all look the same and in a game, I prefer consistency...it saves time and effort. I tried to hit an innocent bystander with a hammer in this game...and afterwards...I felt sorrow that I could be as senseless as to harm an innocent. I don't need those kinds of emotions during game-play! :D
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