Considering the audience's enjoyment of your battle is what gives you Star Power, what if that's the canon explanation for why it refills it? "Wow, he literally just poisoned himself to 1 HP and 0 FP, that's a bold move, let's give this fight ALL of the applause."
Bowser's AI having an automatic stunlock is hilarious. I wonder if it's because of: 1. They meant to do the opposite (prevent him from using an attack that just failed) and got the logic backwards 2. They made it that way on purpose (Bowser dumb) 3. The AI is coded so that it decides what move to use at the end of the previous turn, but Bowser getting hurt interrupts the script that chooses a next move and it never runs? All seem plausible, really.
I like second choice I can imagine something along the lines of "Arggh, that dammed plumber, he blocked my attack... Bet this time I will be able to break through his defenses!"
Closest to 3; Bowser is scripted to use specific moves for his first three actions (with progress through them handled by one of his battle unit's state variables). This is always updated after completing the attack (whether he hits or misses); think "in case 0: run attack code, then increment state to 1, case 1: run attack code, then increment state to 2..., etc." Bowser getting countered terminates the attack script early, and the state value never gets a chance to increment. Funnily enough there's at least one case (one of the Marilyn fights, iirc) where an AI state value would be set incorrectly in such a way that would cause their AI to repeat every turn indefinitely, and only doesn't because they self-inflict a status that ends the script early.
4:35 Wait, you can affect enemies with earth tremor even though the ripple doesn't reach them? Here I thought the top two Grodus X would be unaffected by that level of earth tremor. Is this just Grodus being weird or is Earth Tremor more generous than I thought? P.S. That Bowser AI exploit with electro pop was sick. Younger me would've loved abusing that on my first playthrough.
Yes, you need to fill 0 bars to hit hovering enemies, 2 bars to hit flying enemies and 4 to hit ceiling enemies. The visual collision with the floor doesn't matter.
I was gonna say, TIL too. Could have sworn that the visual collision determined it, and that I definitely remember hitting lower-down Mini Yuxes without it hitting the upper ones too...
I was going to comment the same thing. This is especially weird because the lower X's even went into a damage animation, while the upper ones remained in an idle animation. I was so surprised
@@nj8833The lower yuxs count as being at grounded level, I believe, with quake hammer type immunity. Anything Koops can hit is this type of "grounded."
The funny thing about Trial Stew is that it was probably meant to be a bad item, seeing as one of the ingredients is a Poison Shroom. However, it actually ended up being one of the best items in the game. Also, those SP strats were cool to watch. It makes me wonder if Trial Stew could have strong uses in Level Zero runs, despite the fact that you can't use badges.
I don't think it was meant to be bad per se, I think the developers just heavily overrated Star Power or balanced this item in some state of development where Star Power was harder to get.
@@JoeJoel nah, it's a gross-looking food made out of literal poison that bottoms out two of your most important stats and is named as if eating it is a test of courage; that shit is absolutely meant to be _rank_ it's not supposed to indicate that refilling your star power in a single turn is worth all of your fp and all but 1 of your hp. it's just supposed to be a meal so awful that it's nigh-lethal. the fact that it _does_ refill your star power is moreso just the trope of making a seemingly useless or outright detrimental option hide situational but potentially powerful upside, like jigglypuff's rest in smash. it's a way to add depth to an item or move that would otherwise just be a waste of a slot after the punchline lands, as while it may still be a pretty bad option in most cases, a clever player may just stumble upon a way to exploit that cheeky bit of utility
@@JoeJoel Have you not used Star Power? Earth Tremor clears most fights or let a partner finish off everything. Powerlift destroys bosses. You have two incredible healing options as well. You actively have to be ignoring these, or get hit by a few very specific attacks, to get a game over.
Trial stews have very strong uses on level zero runs, especially on level -1/level zero double damage, in fact level -1 was the first run where I actually used trial stews and the run that made me realise how good they are. They make the Shadow Queen so much easier, and they're actually the main reason why I think she is actually harder on level zero scavenge than any other level zero runs (since as you know, you can't use trial stews or any cooked items on level zero scavenge but on any other level zero run, you can which trivialises the SQ), and the reason they're so good against the SQ on level zero runs is because of how useful star power and special moves are on level zero runs since the most optimal strat on the SQ is basically spamming Art Attack because it is the highest potential damage output on level zero runs against the SQ and since trial stews are the only item that heals star power, it just gives you more opportunities to do the most damage. The reason why they're especially good on level -1 is because all the SQ's attacks can 1-hit KO Mario anyway so trial stews dropping his HP to 1 doesn't even make a difference and FP getting depleted doesn't matter either when you're not really going to be using FP anyway since you're just going to be attacking with Art Attack instead and just using either Vivian or Bobbery's generic attacks. I remember the items I had going into the SQ for level -1 were: 7 life shrooms, 1 boo's sheet, and 2 trial stews, and those 2 trial stews made the battle significantly easier, I even had 2 life shrooms left after beating her. A few years ago I also did a level zero no superguard no life shrooms (and no stange sack) run and I'm convinced that the SQ would have actually been impossible without trial stews so on this run they not only made the battle significantly easier, but they were absolutely necessary.
@@tessaPMpro Yeah, that makes sense. Level Zero Scavenge is the only Level Zero run I've done, so I haven't really had an opportunity to see how well Trial Stew works for those kind of runs.
Peach gets kidnapped by someone who isnt Bowser and will get used to be the vessel for the shadow queen, who is located behind the thousand year door which requires the star things to open (i assume) Mario meets a goomba, a koopa, a mouse, a bob-omb, a baby yoshi, a cloud thing and Vivian who was an enemy earlier before joining Mario in the fight against his doppelgänger Doopliss who then joins Vivian's sisters. Somewhere they also fight in a tournament where Mario gets the nickname Gonzales and fights Rawk Hawk. Theres also a chapter on a train which gets attacked by some fuzzy things In the end they come to defeat Grodus and Bowser + Kammy who did their own thing up to this point and the shadow queen gets revived by Vivian's sisters and takes over peach until beaten and everything is well again That's my interpretation
That's an interesting question. It nearly kills the consumer, which would suggest it tastes very bad, but then again Mario and friends can apparently easily swallow the whole thing without puking it back up or even cringing, and it also bestows star power, which may taste good.
"Exact damage on Bowser with 1 HP Mario, 0 HP Partner, 0 FP, and 0 Star Power!" The whole game suddenly looks much more fun once you take Superguarding out of the equasion, given how many quirks come to play in succession in order to reach this perfect goal. Magic of small numbers, honestly. 10:45 Oh, pain. 2 Damage Yeah I never understood why Art Attack registers non-3 damage attacks as a success(?), but aiming only around one target not. You get no star power anyways so it's more of cosmetic nature (unless it still interacts with the audience idk) but it's still weird.
I believe Art Attack registers a "Nice/Good/etc" as long as you hit every (non-defeated) enemy on the field, regardless of how much of them you covered.
The game was made by the developers of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, both franchises which are highly beloved for the same reasons: the mathematics can be pre-calculated and the challenge is in optimising the numbers such that you can exactly land a critical victory before they defeat you. Ironically, both FE and Paper Mario are struggling gameplay-wise because they've added a lot of mechanics that obfuscate the ability to do this.
@@phineas81707 I recently got into Fire Emblem abit and yeah, as a newbie the random ambushes, critical hits and money-system did cause me some troubles to properly enjoy the game at times as I felt abit cheesed out. For context, I played Sacred Stones without resets, and didn't remember the Collosseum gave you money, soft-locking myself into the last few chapters because I can't leave anymore. (Also yes, I know people say it's one of the easiest FE games because you can farm EXP very easily, amongst other things. Doesn't help my case as a newbie lol.) Advanced Wars doesn't has that issue thankfully, but even after trying the gameplay didn't fully reached me unfortunately.
I started a new playthrough yesterday, using peril strats for the first time. I stayed away from it 'cause it seemed anxiety-inducing, but good Lord. So OP Still not good enough to reach Floor 80 pre-Chapter 2, though
Once you complete chapter 5, you can visit a guy who can adjust your stats. If you’re below level 57, you can have your max HP be at 5 to make use of Power Rush. With a lot of those, and 5 HP max, Mario becomes a god, dealing so much damage, almost no enemy can survive. Your max FP can go up to 100 while your max BP can go up to 99. Once you max those out, you’re forced to raise max HP every time you level up, though there’s really no point in gaining that many levels as enemies give 1 less star point than usual after each level gain. Once you pass level 51, even Amazy Dayzees won’t yield more than 1 star point. If you really want to grind to max level, get and equip as many defense plus badges as you can and let yourself get first struck repeatedly by the bullet bills in Pirate’s Grotto. This way, you take no damage when they detonate on you and you walk away with a star point each time.
Only the first time is guaranteed. After that the chances of his scepter not working depends on the damage you deal on it (10% x damage). If you deal 10+ damage it will always fail
@@LG-ii7gl I believe if you target both Grodus and his Scepter, by using Fire Drive, it's actually the combined damage x 10%. So, if you used Fire Drive with +1 attack, that's 6+5 or 11 damage, which would make it guaranteed. Even without the attack boost, 5+4 damage is still a pretty high 90% chance. Perhaps that's why it seemed like it was guaranteed to you.
Amazing work. Though I personally just stack a shit-load of Super Appeals for my special move centric builds. Seriously, stack enough of it and you can cast Sweet Feast every other turn!
it's a potential health code violation but it drives the crowd wild
Considering the audience's enjoyment of your battle is what gives you Star Power, what if that's the canon explanation for why it refills it? "Wow, he literally just poisoned himself to 1 HP and 0 FP, that's a bold move, let's give this fight ALL of the applause."
The Stew contains the souls of dead audience members. That's my explanation.
@@Koopatrol You _do_ need a Couple's Cake in order to make it.
most balanced paper mario item
Mario: I’m drawing circles around you bowser
Bowser: Don’t you mean running circles
Mario: No
4:36 the yuxes on top werent even hit but they died of sadness anyway
Those are Grodus X’s, not Mini-Yuxes.
When isn't shattering both your legs a great tactical move
Bowser's AI having an automatic stunlock is hilarious. I wonder if it's because of:
1. They meant to do the opposite (prevent him from using an attack that just failed) and got the logic backwards
2. They made it that way on purpose (Bowser dumb)
3. The AI is coded so that it decides what move to use at the end of the previous turn, but Bowser getting hurt interrupts the script that chooses a next move and it never runs?
All seem plausible, really.
I like second choice
I can imagine something along the lines of "Arggh, that dammed plumber, he blocked my attack... Bet this time I will be able to break through his defenses!"
Closest to 3; Bowser is scripted to use specific moves for his first three actions (with progress through them handled by one of his battle unit's state variables). This is always updated after completing the attack (whether he hits or misses); think "in case 0: run attack code, then increment state to 1, case 1: run attack code, then increment state to 2..., etc."
Bowser getting countered terminates the attack script early, and the state value never gets a chance to increment.
Funnily enough there's at least one case (one of the Marilyn fights, iirc) where an AI state value would be set incorrectly in such a way that would cause their AI to repeat every turn indefinitely, and only doesn't because they self-inflict a status that ends the script early.
@@jdaster64 Shame. The fact Bowser has a chance of being hit with Showstopper makes me feel like there was intentionality to it, but I guess not.
That Bowser fight is art.
4:35
Wait, you can affect enemies with earth tremor even though the ripple doesn't reach them? Here I thought the top two Grodus X would be unaffected by that level of earth tremor. Is this just Grodus being weird or is Earth Tremor more generous than I thought?
P.S. That Bowser AI exploit with electro pop was sick. Younger me would've loved abusing that on my first playthrough.
Yes, you need to fill 0 bars to hit hovering enemies, 2 bars to hit flying enemies and 4 to hit ceiling enemies. The visual collision with the floor doesn't matter.
@@jdaster64 nice
I was gonna say, TIL too. Could have sworn that the visual collision determined it, and that I definitely remember hitting lower-down Mini Yuxes without it hitting the upper ones too...
I was going to comment the same thing. This is especially weird because the lower X's even went into a damage animation, while the upper ones remained in an idle animation. I was so surprised
@@nj8833The lower yuxs count as being at grounded level, I believe, with quake hammer type immunity. Anything Koops can hit is this type of "grounded."
YOU CAN ATTACK GRODUS’ SCEPTRE?????
I’ve been playing this game for 19 years and I’ve beat it at least 20 times. I never knew that until now.
I also learned it from a previous Koop video
I get these comments all the freakin' time whenever I post a strategy video involving Grodus
yeah i don't think anyone is gonna try hitting a staff when it auto targets him already.
No FP items required
what are those? Out of badges and special powers, FP is the weakest thing because it relies on both to be strong.
The funny thing about Trial Stew is that it was probably meant to be a bad item, seeing as one of the ingredients is a Poison Shroom. However, it actually ended up being one of the best items in the game.
Also, those SP strats were cool to watch. It makes me wonder if Trial Stew could have strong uses in Level Zero runs, despite the fact that you can't use badges.
I don't think it was meant to be bad per se, I think the developers just heavily overrated Star Power or balanced this item in some state of development where Star Power was harder to get.
@@JoeJoel nah, it's a gross-looking food made out of literal poison that bottoms out two of your most important stats and is named as if eating it is a test of courage; that shit is absolutely meant to be _rank_
it's not supposed to indicate that refilling your star power in a single turn is worth all of your fp and all but 1 of your hp. it's just supposed to be a meal so awful that it's nigh-lethal. the fact that it _does_ refill your star power is moreso just the trope of making a seemingly useless or outright detrimental option hide situational but potentially powerful upside, like jigglypuff's rest in smash. it's a way to add depth to an item or move that would otherwise just be a waste of a slot after the punchline lands, as while it may still be a pretty bad option in most cases, a clever player may just stumble upon a way to exploit that cheeky bit of utility
@@JoeJoel Have you not used Star Power? Earth Tremor clears most fights or let a partner finish off everything. Powerlift destroys bosses. You have two incredible healing options as well.
You actively have to be ignoring these, or get hit by a few very specific attacks, to get a game over.
Trial stews have very strong uses on level zero runs, especially on level -1/level zero double damage, in fact level -1 was the first run where I actually used trial stews and the run that made me realise how good they are. They make the Shadow Queen so much easier, and they're actually the main reason why I think she is actually harder on level zero scavenge than any other level zero runs (since as you know, you can't use trial stews or any cooked items on level zero scavenge but on any other level zero run, you can which trivialises the SQ), and the reason they're so good against the SQ on level zero runs is because of how useful star power and special moves are on level zero runs since the most optimal strat on the SQ is basically spamming Art Attack because it is the highest potential damage output on level zero runs against the SQ and since trial stews are the only item that heals star power, it just gives you more opportunities to do the most damage. The reason why they're especially good on level -1 is because all the SQ's attacks can 1-hit KO Mario anyway so trial stews dropping his HP to 1 doesn't even make a difference and FP getting depleted doesn't matter either when you're not really going to be using FP anyway since you're just going to be attacking with Art Attack instead and just using either Vivian or Bobbery's generic attacks. I remember the items I had going into the SQ for level -1 were: 7 life shrooms, 1 boo's sheet, and 2 trial stews, and those 2 trial stews made the battle significantly easier, I even had 2 life shrooms left after beating her. A few years ago I also did a level zero no superguard no life shrooms (and no stange sack) run and I'm convinced that the SQ would have actually been impossible without trial stews so on this run they not only made the battle significantly easier, but they were absolutely necessary.
@@tessaPMpro Yeah, that makes sense. Level Zero Scavenge is the only Level Zero run I've done, so I haven't really had an opportunity to see how well Trial Stew works for those kind of runs.
im so full of trial stew yum!!
I approach everything at life how you approach this game.
Currently running 1hp peril strats through life as we speak.
Begin each day with a concussion
Sickening Strats
Mario, goombella, and Yoshi: literally on the edge of death
Also the same dudes: *annihilates their opps like it's nothing*
I have never played this game in my life but through your channel mostly I know all these strats and even roughly the plot
Describe your interpretation of the plot using only this source
Peach gets kidnapped by someone who isnt Bowser and will get used to be the vessel for the shadow queen, who is located behind the thousand year door which requires the star things to open (i assume)
Mario meets a goomba, a koopa, a mouse, a bob-omb, a baby yoshi, a cloud thing and Vivian who was an enemy earlier before joining Mario in the fight against his doppelgänger Doopliss who then joins Vivian's sisters.
Somewhere they also fight in a tournament where Mario gets the nickname Gonzales and fights Rawk Hawk.
Theres also a chapter on a train which gets attacked by some fuzzy things
In the end they come to defeat Grodus and Bowser + Kammy who did their own thing up to this point and the shadow queen gets revived by Vivian's sisters and takes over peach until beaten and everything is well again
That's my interpretation
@@luckyfini7320 That's honestly pretty good.
Play it once the remake comes out. You will not be dissapointed
YOU CAN DO WHAT TO GRODUS' SCEPTER?
😉
the game never tells you what targets you can pick. we were fighting him wrong the whole time.
trial by stew
I always wondered what this stuff tasted like.
Day-old extra-hot Korean or Mexican food.
Cilantro
probably exactly the same as it does coming up
That's an interesting question. It nearly kills the consumer, which would suggest it tastes very bad, but then again Mario and friends can apparently easily swallow the whole thing without puking it back up or even cringing, and it also bestows star power, which may taste good.
By analyzing the recipe, you can assume that it tastes sickly sweet, spicy, and weirdly savory all at once. In other words, like vomit.
"Exact damage on Bowser with 1 HP Mario, 0 HP Partner, 0 FP, and 0 Star Power!"
The whole game suddenly looks much more fun once you take Superguarding out of the equasion, given how many quirks come to play in succession in order to reach this perfect goal.
Magic of small numbers, honestly.
10:45 Oh, pain. 2 Damage
Yeah I never understood why Art Attack registers non-3 damage attacks as a success(?), but aiming only around one target not.
You get no star power anyways so it's more of cosmetic nature (unless it still interacts with the audience idk) but it's still weird.
I believe Art Attack registers a "Nice/Good/etc" as long as you hit every (non-defeated) enemy on the field, regardless of how much of them you covered.
The game was made by the developers of Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, both franchises which are highly beloved for the same reasons: the mathematics can be pre-calculated and the challenge is in optimising the numbers such that you can exactly land a critical victory before they defeat you.
Ironically, both FE and Paper Mario are struggling gameplay-wise because they've added a lot of mechanics that obfuscate the ability to do this.
@@phineas81707 I recently got into Fire Emblem abit and yeah, as a newbie the random ambushes, critical hits and money-system did cause me some troubles to properly enjoy the game at times as I felt abit cheesed out.
For context, I played Sacred Stones without resets, and didn't remember the Collosseum gave you money, soft-locking myself into the last few chapters because I can't leave anymore.
(Also yes, I know people say it's one of the easiest FE games because you can farm EXP very easily, amongst other things. Doesn't help my case as a newbie lol.)
Advanced Wars doesn't has that issue thankfully, but even after trying the gameplay didn't fully reached me unfortunately.
the smorgs theme is by far, the best theme i will ever hear, of all boss themes
It definitely keeps up the anxiety of a frantic battle atop a rushing train, despite shifting to the always stationary stage
6:06 I'm sorry, ATTACK HIS SCEPTER?
THAT'S A THING?
THAT'S BEEN A THING THIS WHOLE TIME?
Shook me to my core, I never knew this either!
@@willgembitsky Glad I'm not alone!
Koop takes good care of his green yoshi
I started a new playthrough yesterday, using peril strats for the first time. I stayed away from it 'cause it seemed anxiety-inducing, but good Lord. So OP
Still not good enough to reach Floor 80 pre-Chapter 2, though
Once you complete chapter 5, you can visit a guy who can adjust your stats. If you’re below level 57, you can have your max HP be at 5 to make use of Power Rush. With a lot of those, and 5 HP max, Mario becomes a god, dealing so much damage, almost no enemy can survive. Your max FP can go up to 100 while your max BP can go up to 99. Once you max those out, you’re forced to raise max HP every time you level up, though there’s really no point in gaining that many levels as enemies give 1 less star point than usual after each level gain. Once you pass level 51, even Amazy Dayzees won’t yield more than 1 star point. If you really want to grind to max level, get and equip as many defense plus badges as you can and let yourself get first struck repeatedly by the bullet bills in Pirate’s Grotto. This way, you take no damage when they detonate on you and you walk away with a star point each time.
Don't forget that one could use double dip and use the boo sheet on the character too and the partner swap badge to evade damage!
The last bowser fight is cool
What the fuck i never knew you could attack grodus' staff
even the restoring star power thing can be broken if you use it correctly per fight.
I just played the game with a yoshi that had +4 attack from badges and destroyed everything
So this is how I find out a trial stew restores SP, huh? and here I thought it was just a good way to get into peril.
Impressive as always
Very artsy strats!
I noticed a single 2 using Art Attack against Bowser... was that a sneaky way to deal exact damage? ;)
I just messed up
@@Koopatrol I mean, if you had said "yes" I would have believed it.
Did not know you could give mario more attacks with Rally Wink
.....what did you think Rally Wink was?
@@Koopatrol clearly he thought she was just hitting on him through skills.
And then they made it into a tool to alleviate grinding near the endgame of the sequel instead
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... My Favourite, Poison Stew! 😋
Revisiting this, I love how stupid and utterly ridiculous 1 health strats are
yum yum
Wait, you can attack Grodus' scepter?
yep, if you do it every turn he's completely nullified
no idea why they programmed this lmao
Only the first time is guaranteed. After that the chances of his scepter not working depends on the damage you deal on it (10% x damage). If you deal 10+ damage it will always fail
@@Koopatrol oh wow I didn't know it worked like that, I guess I just got really lucky as a kid
@@LG-ii7gl I believe if you target both Grodus and his Scepter, by using Fire Drive, it's actually the combined damage x 10%. So, if you used Fire Drive with +1 attack, that's 6+5 or 11 damage, which would make it guaranteed. Even without the attack boost, 5+4 damage is still a pretty high 90% chance. Perhaps that's why it seemed like it was guaranteed to you.
I learned this today as well.
Wait, you can attack Grodus' scepter!?
You can attack Grodus' scepter what now?
hey, can you make a strat, to beat the WHOLE 100-pit trial thing?
How i can create this food?
Trial Stew = Poison Shroom + Couple's Cake
Poison Shroom = Slow Shroom + Point Swap
Couple's Cake = Spicy Soup + Snow Bunny
Spicy Soup = Fire Flower
Snow Bunny = Ice Storm + Golden Leaf
In the JP version, Trial Stew = Thunder Rage + Thunder Bolt
@@Koopatrol damn that some cooking that i never knew.
Amazing work. Though I personally just stack a shit-load of Super Appeals for my special move centric builds. Seriously, stack enough of it and you can cast Sweet Feast every other turn!
Why do you not Superguard?
Because I don't have to
superguard is a crutch. you can beat pretty much anything without super guard with enough good badges, even level 1 in a lot of cases 😏
Do you think that, hypothetically speaking, Trial Stew should also double the amount of Star Points you earn on victory?
It should not.
In the 10+ years I have played this game, I never knew you could attack the scepter to disable a turn!!!