[js71]

Anyone played it?
I know lots of people think it's too kiddy and silly, but personally I love it and its strange humor. In my opinion, it certainly matches its predecessor, Mario RPG-- Except maybe in the music department. Most of Mario RPG's music was nearly flawless... The battle and boss music in Paper Mario, however, just don't seem to have had much effort put into them... And most of the other music gets a little annoying after a short while. But apart from that, I think it's a really cool idea that was executed about as well as it could be... Despite a lot of other people's opinions... What do you guys think?

[Fooolking]

I haven't played paper mario, because I sold my N64 before it came out.

I did play Mario RPG on SNes and I thought that was amazing.
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Never milk cows that have uni-brows.

[Sirocco]

Paper Mario is one of the *very* few "perfect" games I've ever played. I've finished it twice, and have absolutely no complaints regarding any aspect of the game's execution and design.

Fun. Flawless. Funky.

[js71]

[Sirocco]

I started playing Paper Mario last night in preparation of the day when I finally pick up Paper Mario 2. Gotta say I love it as much as I did the first time around.

I was kinda intrigued by how well the 'low scale' damage system worked out. Being used to RPGs where you're dealing out hundreds and even thousands of points of damage within a few hours of play, it seems weird to move to a system where you start out with 1 point of damage and progress to about 6 or 8 by the end of the game.

The leveling is also really nice, as you can look at your star points and know how close you are to gaining a level; and the game handles lower-level enemies gracefully, giving you less and less experience as the player-enemy level gap widens. Simplicity can be a good thing. I may end up retooling the EXP system in FB with some new ideas acquired from Paper Mario and other titles.

[Sirocco]

Heh, too late. My wife picked up Paper Mario 2 yesterday :)

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[js71]

Paper Mario 2 is out already?
Geez...
Anyway, Sirocco, have you played Mario RPG?
Don't get me wrong, Paper Mario is a damn fine game, but in my opinion Mario RPG is even better.
I'd like to hear your opinion on Paper Mario 2 once you play a bit more of it, too. I'm not sure about it myself, it looks like maybe they overdid the cutesyness a bit too much, but I'm curious nonetheless.

[Sirocco]

Super Mario RPG was okay, but the muddy rendered graphics didn't do much for me, and the music didn't excite me either. It was pretty fun, and had some silly moments with the bom-ombs and all.

PM2 is extremely similar to PM, but the battle system is enhanced to include interaction with the crowds, and more abilities and combat options. Graphically it is far sharper and more crisp, but suffers from the lack of interaction that plagued the original PM. On the whole, the colors are more washed out, and the first few stages really didn't do much for me (although I'm not very far into the game) since I loved the retina-burning intensity of the stages in PM.

Musically it sucks; I'll just come out and say it. There are rare moments when it's sort of catchy, but whoever was behind the score on this title should be fired immediately. Unless something seriously improves between now and the time I finish the game, I won't be rating this as highly as the original.

There's plenty of extras, such as a "trouble center" where you can take on side quests to earn goodies and money, shine sprites to upgrade your companions, and quite a few paper modes where Mario can fold himself to get around better. I can see myself putting in plenty of time making sure I find everything.

All the usual suspects are there: The fortune teller, the charm lady, the star piece collector... and most of PM's badges are back, along with plenty of new ones. You'll also spend time controlling Peach and Bowser in mini-games. The gameplay on the whole is compelling, varied, and fun, and never seems to resort to the usual "wander and fight until you level up" tactic that a lot of RPGs embrace.

The environments tell a different story, and feel like they are from an entirely different world. This is not a good thing... but more on that later.

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[ThousandKnives]

I'm more than satisfied with Paper Mario 2. The original was, I have to agree, one of the greatest games ever made. That being the case, any attempt at comparison between the original and the sequel is somewhat foolhardy. PM2 plays a lot like PM1, and that works for me. It is essentially an extension of the original, and I love it so far. Maybe it isn't as good as the first, but I'm not ready to make that call yet. There certainly wasn't anything like either the 2nd or 3rd chapters in the original (both of those chapters are exceptional). And there's plenty of fun exploration to be done, which always wins big points in my book. And I simply will not accept any complaints about the graphics.

I'm not sure what your beef with the music is either, I think there are some great tunes. The first PM didn't have really stand-out music either, but it did the job and struck the right notes with what was happening in the game.

So far I would say it is easily the best game I have played that has been released since PM1, although considering the tripe that passes for a video game these days that might not be saying much.

Only 15 hours in now, we shall see.

[js71]

This post is completely opinion based, I suppose.
But that doesn't stop me from voicing what I think in it.
(Opinion. It's all opinion, even if I can't help but get pissed off by other people's opinions sometimes. Sorry, but that's just what I do. =p)

I dunno.
Paper Mario was a great game, but one of the best games ever made? It's all opinion, I suppose...
I just really don't like the direction Nintendo (and a few other developers) are going with their games.
It started with Zelda: Ocarina of time, for me. Still a good game, but what I call "stupid humor" (bit of an inside joke, but I'll be using it to describe things) started there.
Example: The carpenters in Kakarico (Cakarico? Kacariko? I dunno) Village. ...Yeah, I don't think I need to say any more about them. In fact, almost every npc in the game looked horribly stupid and cutesy, though there were of course exceptions. Oh, and the worst parts were Tingle and the Happy Mask salesman. Those were two of the best examples of 'stupid humor' in that game.
Of course, it didn't stop and Majora's Mask had it too.
Seems every game since then has had this... Stupid humor... in it. It's just... Well, simply put, it looks fucking stupid and doesn't add at all to the game. There's a big difference between good, kinda silly humor in games and over-the-top, stupid looking, occasionally too cutesy, 'humor'.
Paper Mario managed to avoid a lot of this, but there are still big spots with plenty of it.
The boss of the Flower Fields. "Master Huffnpuff".
...
Hell, a lot of the flower fields was like that.
Worst chapter in the game, in my opinion.
The thing that disgusts me, though, is that people seem to take no notice of 'stupid humor' and just act as if it's perfectly ordinary and amusing.
I haven't played Paper Mario 2, but I've seen screenshots and from what I've seen, it looks to be a bit too stupidly cutesy. Either that, or the screenies I saw were just taken from bad points in the game, which would make sense as this 'stupid humor' seems to be getting more popular for SOME fucking reason.
(by the way... is there any reason mario is shaped like a pear with floating feet? ...)
Yes, I rant too much.
But this just really pisses me off.
...Yes, I also voice my opinion too much.
If no one else has a problem with the overly cutesy look and content of a lot of new games, fine, but I'm just saying what I think... So, that's it.

(Oh, one more thing. This is all my opinion, but it kinda makes sense to me... Mario RPG had more play time than Paper Mario, had a more entertaining and fun battle system, next to no stupid humor, more overhead view, which in my opinion is better suited for a pseudo-rpg than a near-sidescrolling view, and finally a catchy, atmospheric, perfectly suiting, and also at times badass soundtrack. I don't see how the graphics are 'muddy', though by today's standards they certainly aren't great. Yeah, but it's a fairly old game. Slightly better story than PM as well, even if they are very simmilar. Also, the final 'dungeon' and final boss were both more unique and fun to beat.)

EDIT: Shit, looks like I've contradicted my first post a little bit. Hmm, ah well. I guess my opinion changes.
(I think Paper Mario still kicks ass, just not as much ass as Mario RPG.)

[Sirocco]

This is why I generally dislike reviewing sequels... because there's the automatic need to view it both as a standalone work as well as in the context of the original work. If Paper Mario had never been made this would still be a great game; no doubt about that.

[js71]

I have no doubt it's a very fun game, and I'll probably end up renting/buying it when I get around to purchasing a gamecube.
But there's just things about the most recent nintendo games that bug me...