Paper Mario: The Origami King's Circular Battle System Explained
With the release of Paper Mario: The Origami King in just over two weeks, Nintendo have elaborated more on what will be in the upcoming release, including its peculiar new combat system. Paper Mario: The Origami King will be the sixth entry in the Paper Mario series and the first since 2016's Paper Mario: Color Splash.
The Paper Mario series first launched in North America back in 2001 as an RPG for the Nintendo 64 and was immediately a hit. The original received critical acclaim for its blend of of platforming and RPG, as well as being easily accessible. The next two entries in the Paper Mario series (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in 2004, and Super Paper Mario in 2007) continued the trend of high praise for the series, however 2012's Paper Mario: Sticker Star saw a slight dip in critical reception as critics found the title unnecessarily frustrating at times. When Paper Mario: Color Splash released in 2016, the negative reception continued as critics were disappointed by the plot and the combat system, which were both lacking in comparison to previous entries.
Now, four years later, Nintendo believes it has found a way to address the issue of combat in a way that fans will be happy with. In an in-depth Game Informer preview, Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe (who has worked on the Paper Mario series since 2004) said that Intelligent Systems' Naohiko Aoyama "asked for a battle system in which the enemies surround Mario to attack from all sides," which Tanab says was the game's "starting point when think about how the battles would work." Tanabe and the rest of his team took this idea and developed a circular, Rubik's Cube inspired grid, where players have a limited amount of time to rotate and shuffle enemies around Paper Mario in a way that allows them to maximize their attacks. As Game Informer puts it,"The goal is to line enemies up in groups so that Mario can take them out efficiently."
Nintendo and the Intelligent Systems team felt this system worked well, although they were faced with the question of how to approach the game's boss fights. To get around the issue, the circular combat system was inverted for boss battles, with the boss in the center and Paper Mario on the outside. In this setup, players will be designing a path to travel around the bosses that allow them to pick up boosts and attack enemy weak points. Throughout the game, players will be joined by a team of characters who will help in combat, and even discover Toad villagers who have been turned into origami and need to be rescued. These villagers can either help you in combat, or return to their village where they re-open shops that will allow you to buy items, including upgrades to give you more time in combat.
A lot rides on the next Paper Mario game's success, as fans of the series have been wary of the franchise since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Nintendo is still looking to capitalize on the Switch's continued success. While no one has officially stated or hinted that this could be the last Paper Mario entry should it not perform well, it's always possible. Fans of the series would still hate to see the series go away, especially with another lackluster entry, as would Nintendo, so everyone seems to have their fingers crossed.
Paper Mario: The Origami King launches July 17 for Nintendo Switch.
Source: Game Informer