Paper Mario : The Origami King Review

Paper Mario: The Origami King came out on Friday, June 17, 2020. Prior to release, I wrote an article talking about what I anticipated for the game, went over some reviews that had already come out, and essentially gave my overall thoughts at that point. The following will now be my after thoughts (having now played and beaten the entire game), some stuff I really liked, and some stuff I really wish they had fleshed out just a tad more .

What I Liked About Origami King

This game is visually astounding. Paper Mario: The Origami King is so beautiful I could actually cry. The level of detail that went into each character, boss, and every piece of the game is so good visually that I could not ask for anything better. Everything that should look like paper does and looks so polished. I love when textiles in games look this good, and they did not disappoint me there. On the tail of Paper Mario Color Splash, they took all that beautiful, risky, artistic talent and brought it home with Origami King.

All the characters have fresh quirky dialogue that I love. Olivia being sweet and maybe even a bit naive about well, everything. Olly’s character is capable of inspiring a considerable amount of loathing. He’s arrogant and spiteful (almost stark in contrast to Olivia’s character, personality, and mannerisms). Bowser is one of my favorite characters in the game. He is portrayed as more than just a villain, and watching him run in the trailer was enough to get me (boy was it even better playing it). The Toads are all diverse, with each adding some funny dialogue to the game.

Everything and everyone that you can talk to in this game has something to say that’s unique. Not all toads, trees, gumbas, shyguys and so on are the same – they all have something different to tell you when you interact with them. Of course nothing is perfect, so yes dialogue does sometimes repeat, but they’re all quirky and funny to talk to. The dancing scenes are also hilarious, Bowser and Bobby, and anytime any character has side comments during the main dialogue is always hilarious.

What Could Be Improved With Origami King

Now its time for stuff I didn’t like as much. While I did do a lot of praising of the characters in the game for being funny and having quirky personalities, I did find a lack of depth to their character development. I felt angry and flustered at every character that was killed off to sort of resolve or tie off any loose ends in the game. I wonder if this has anything to do with the developers no longer being able to modify or change the Paper Mario Universe? Perhaps I am reaching a bit, but at least in my most recent recollection of Color Splash, I noticed a similar formula. Nintendo will introduce a companion character and before you know it, by the end of the game they no longer exist. This “keeps the games fresh” by adding new things during the gameplay, while preventing a new character from being added to the universe overall.

This is frustrating because maybe people do want a race of origami people, or just new personalities within the universe. There’s no need to necessarily have this entirely separate from other games in the Paper Mario series – these characters could go on after the current game completes. Another thing I was very frustrated with was the puzzle battle system. I was initially very excited about this because it was different and new; I liked the idea of trying to align the baddies so you can stack high point combos. Not being able to gain a discernible way to level up (through experience points per say), you would find yourself avoiding enemies and trying not to engage in battles as much as possible.

This battle mechanic would be fine as a novelty, maybe with boss battles and other little elements in the game, but this isn’t how they chose to implement it. Every battle uses this method, making it less exciting and more of a chore each time. The boss battles with this mechanic can be frustrating, kind of a money drain for the less initiated(i.e myself). I do like the ending boss battle with Olly, this felt well done and the frustration levels weren’t as high for me, I feel like I would have loved the battle system a little bit more if it were fewer and was not used in every single battle.

Overall, I would say that Paper Mario: The Origami King is a great game. I recommend that if you haven’t played it, that hopefully this article was vague enough that nothing was spoiled for you outright. If you have played it yourself, what did you think of The Origami King? Let us know down below!