Could Paper Mario: The Origami King Be an RPG?
Nintendo’s had a funny habit of quickly announcing and releasing new games for around the last decade, one maintained regardless of whether it’s worked out or not. (It absolutely has not for some smaller games.) But the reveal and impending arrival of Paper Mario: The Origami King was short even by their standards. It was revealed through a trailer uploaded to YouTube, social media posts, and general press releases just about a week ago, due for a release in less than two months from now on July 17th. There’s a good chance the COVID-19 pandemic upended plans for a larger announcement through a Nintendo Direct, the kind of presentation we may not see for a good while if recent rumors are to be believed (scroll down to the “Nintendo” section).
Even vocal Mario fans who’ve been hoping for the sub-series’ return since Paper Mario: Color Splash released for Wii U in fall 2016 didn’t think a new installment was coming quite this quickly, but they’re not complaining. The quick period between now and its arrival shouldn’t be a problem either, thanks to the franchise involved and how through the roof video game sales have been lately — especially for one particular Nintendo game.
There’s one intriguing question surrounding The Origami King: Is it an RPG? For as much as Paper Mario fans have been awaiting a new title, they’ve been further anticipating a new RPG installment. There hasn’t been an RPG PM title since The Thousand-Year Door on GameCube in 2004 (nearly 16 years ago!), and the entire future of Mario RPGs has been hazy since Mario & Luigi series developer AlphaDream’s closure. Fortunately, there are positive signs that Paper Mario could fill that void again.
For one, the game will have turn-based battles, with Mario and enemies being transported to a special arena after he bumps into or jumps on them. Mario has a technique where he can jump on all enemies in a line if they’re properly situated on a wheel, shown through this very short battle video from GameXplain posted today. He also has HP that can be displayed in battle, and enemies lose it when hit. It’s an encouraging signal that this will be a more “traditional” installment, so to speak.
Yet, that’s nowhere near enough to definitively say this will be an RPG. The short footage suggests it’s inheriting elements from the RPG titles, but so did Sticker Star, the RPG experience in which as very watered down. Whether The Origami King will have partners hasn’t been determined, along with, more importantly, experience points. Recent installments, including Sticker Star, have included a small problem where little reward was provided for finishing select smaller skirmishes, for which providing EXP would be an easy anodyne. The question of whether this will have a larger focus on story is also up in the air, though the description of its overall plot suggests that could be the case.
It’s a good thing there won’t be much of a wait to find out if this is truly the successor to TTYD. Rumors about the game from earlier in the year suggested it would be, and this will provide a chance to help determine whether those sources are legitimate or had a small misfire.
We might be waiting a while for the next Direct presentation from Nintendo thanks to the pandemic, but expect more games to be suddenly announced and released quickly in the near future. Well, unless the games themselves are also delayed thanks to the pandemic. Hell of a time we live in, but at least video games can help pass the time and maintain a portion of sanity.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
