--Origami Peach, Paper Mario: The Origami King
The Origami King, the most recent Paper Mario title, brings the two-dimensional version of Mario to the Switch at last, adding several new gameplay elements to an already niche subseries. By this point, the RPG-like battles of the series have lost several features, but the core of The Origami King certainly fits in with other Paper Mario games. One of the worst parts is actually just the inability to save multiple games to a single Switch profile. If you want to start over from the beginning, you must use a different profile, transfer the save data to a second Switch and delete the save data from the first console, or just delete the profile's save data directly. This is a pathetic design obstacle that is unnecessarily forced upon players even if it might only be noticed by those who reach the end and wish to start over.
Production Values
As is typical with first-party games on Nintendo systems, The Origami King is brimming with color and smooth animations that are shown off in various locations. The environments consistently maintain higher quality graphics than many other Switch games not developed by Nintendo. Each major landscape and region is distinct from the others, with a forest, an autumn mountainside, a cave system, and more being among the mandatory areas that each have their own style of battle arena. As has been the company norm for most of its history, there is no voice acting (other than a handful of songs that are not in English), but personality still gets conveyed when central characters--or the many Toads of the game--speak using text bubbles or when they react to their environment. Especially when it comes to the Toads, there are also witty lines that capitalize on the presence of paper in the game and that even parody things from our lives.
Gameplay
The combat is still turn-based, as it was in the original Paper Mario and other games like The Thousand Year Door, but it does differ sharply from the fights in many other RPGs and even those of the first Paper Mario games. Victory in battles grants coins instead of XP, and enemies must actually be lined up manually in seemingly randomized puzzles before you can attack them, unless you are content to forfeit a 1.5 damage multiplier and not be able to take out rows/clusters of smaller foes in one turn. Players (Mario) stand in the middle of a circle with rotating rings around it, spin slots on which enemies stand to group them according to which attack is best, and then launch attacks. Boss fights invert this norm by having the boss stand in the circle and having Mario navigate his way through the rings.
In between fights, there are numerous lost Toads to save, something often done by pulling them out of crevices or hitting them with a hammer to unfold them. An accessory available after a certain point in the early fifth of the game makes the sound of a ringing bell when Toads are nearby, although this does not always mean their positions immediately become obvious. However, finding them is worthwhile: every rescued Toad earns a Toad Point that can be spent on unlockables in Toad Town, a city that serves as a hub for vendors and fast travel pipes.
There are also holes in the paper world that need to be covered with confetti to be restored by Mario. Not only do coins appear in return, but some must be filled to continue the story and others allow you to obtain optional items. Like saving lost Toads, finding and covering these tears affects part of Toad Town. There is much to do outside of just fighting enemies--the latter being something that is largely repetitive aside from boss battles. Lacking the XP progression system of traditional RPGs and older Paper Mario games does not help give a reason for accidental or prolonged fights to be especially looked forward to, though there is thankfully a lot to the game beyond this.
Story
Some spoilers are below.
An egoistic figure called the Origami King seeks to transform all flat paper creatures into folded shapes that he can at least indirectly control. After predictably converting Princess Peach into origami, he lifts her castle off of the ground, surrounding it with massive streamers, and moves it to a new area. Mario escapes unscathed along with an origami being called Olivia, the sister of the Origami King, and she helps him access abilities derived from folding paper.
Intellectual Content
This is not necessarily the most secret-laden Paper Mario game (I have not played them all), and even if some Toads that can be found are concealed very cleverly, many optional chests, Toads, and items are out in the open. There are even moments of genuine character development or exploration that touch upon the nature of relationships, as well as sometimes complicated puzzles to line up enemies in battle, but The Origami King is nonetheless a game more aimed at providing a lighthearted, accessible experience instead of extreme thematic depth or environmental puzzles. One segment of the game does deal with a money-driven religious group in a way that some might find humorous, but even this is more of a comedic part of the story than anything else.
Conclusion
The Origami King does embrace a trend of Paper Mario distancing itself from some of the specific mechanics and features that made The Thousand Year Door such a rich, deep game, but it is by no means a game of poor quality despite this. High production values and a lengthy story are just two of its best aspects. Yes, the RPG elements are relatively minor in some ways compared to what they used to be. There are still plenty of RPG mechanics, including some that develop more and more as one ventures through the mandatory parts of the game. The vibrant animations and settings alone make this a trip worth taking for Switch players who appreciate the Paper Mario series.
Content:
1. Violence: Players inflict completely bloodless, mild violence on paper enemies by using a hammer or jumping on their bodies.
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