It's finally done, I know a lot of you have been waiting awhile for this video and I'm so sorry it took so long. I was pretty confident that I could make this video quickly, even mentioning I wanted it to be done before July. Yeah that didn't age so well... This shouldn't have taken half a year to make but it proved to be a much harder task then expected. Took so long that a Thousand Year Door remake got announced. Yeah I know about it, and I will cover it in some fashion, the extent of which I haven't decided yet. But it won't happen until after the Origami King video, and at least one other video. Speaking of which as I promised before, I'm heading straight into Origami King with no other distractions. I won't promise it will be done quickly, but it won't take 2 years, and hopefully not 6 months either. But first, I think I need a short mental health break. Also I was unable to record the gamepad for this, so I had to get it elsewhere. The nicer looking footage was captured by Horayn using an emulator, and the camera footage was taken from YTSunny’s walkthrough, here’s a link to that playlist. ua-cam.com/play/PLtA3RKX1_Yx2fFQ-Fb3ps3cTkzKrQTDsa.html
I agree take a break you need it after that beast so no reworking it to be like TTYD I suppose which kind of sucks I made a whole concept sheet for it and everything to help you out.
But If you want to know I will tell you some of the ideas I came up for it one that I like is the peach Interludes which deal with Bowser's personality being altered by the black paint which is toxic corrupting and mutagenic it makes everything more monstrous in body and mind and for bowser he's become a needlessly cruel controlling tyrant who is abusive and bullying toward is minions something the normal Bowser would never do and this causes quite a bit of discontent among their ranks one of the interludes even has Peach helping a Bunch of goomba's who have decided to defect because they have had enough of Bowser's newfound power and madness even Peach is concerned for him the Holopeach that plays in Tangerino Grill instead talks just this instead of his plan staying that she's genuinely worried for him. Oh also you known the Shunned Guy well he's one of many enemies that are the result of normal minions being corrupted by the black paint into Deformed mindless horrors solely loyal to Bowser and the black paint I even came up with the idea of the Black Paint possessing bowser turning into this Giant Eldritch humanoid thing for the final boss and it desires to turn the world into the perfect Blackness, nothingness itself erasing the world from existence. I haven't finished it yet but if your interested and do want to make this project after Origami King I'm glad to help and provide it too you. Oh also side note I love the little Querrness analogy you made though I didn't see it like that me being Straight and all so I say it as a Funny Mario Paint game I love that it may not have been intentional but it's great you see it like that.
If you are planning to do a rewrite of this game like what you did with Sticker Star, I can help with some ideas! 1-To have the rescue squad more involved with the plot maybe each team captain is one of Mario's companions (like in the first 2 games) Plus Huey and maybe a few secret companions. (Maybe one of the companions could be that scrapped Doopliss ghost found in the concept art gallery) 2-Speaking of the concept art of the game Maybe those bottle creatures that are unused Huey prototypes could be these games new species. Like these are being native to Port Prisma. Also, for other NPCs I would like to see more obscure Mario species become NPCs or enemies in this game. (Not just the main series with Piantas, Sprixies, or even species created for the Paper Mario series like with Super but ones that haven't been seen in a while like Cobrat, Buster Beetle, Pionpi, Cataquack, Jammyfish, or even Lobb return in this game to in brace the game uniqueness theme. Heck don't stop at just the mainline games put in some DKC enemies & Luigi's Mansion ghosts could make this game's message stand out more. Also, you got to have the toad pirate captain have his darker skin tone from the concept art. HECK! Since this game takes place on a tropical island give all the Toads from there a darker skin tone as well. Of course, the Paint Stars are like the Star Spirits from 64 with their own personalities in this rewrite (with connections to the black paint) Also I think I saw someone else come up with this idea but like with Luigi having his own adventure in TTYD maybe we have Wario as a somewhat rival in the adventure while having one of his own. Like he even has his own party members & fights you in battles. (Think Blue from gen 1 of Pokémon) Like for a small plot twist Wario and his party get one of the Paint Starts before you do! and of course the Koopalings are only after game optional bosses while each chapter has its own unique boss. 3-I had an idea for the tone of the game the tone presents itself as very jokey & lighthearted. (Like there's even a running gag where they reference the Matrix, and it even plays a part in the final boss fight.) But as you unlock more and more content the game gets darker and more serious. Something similar to the tone of Adventure Time or Jak and Daxter even. When you unlock the true ending (and through SPM styled optional intermissions) the game reviles that Huey was the prince of the island and sacrificed himself to save his island and people. And the rescue squads were born after the reembrace of the other saviors of the island. Also, the Black paint didn't possess Bowser there's a plot twist in the game where you think this ink bat (based off another Huey prototype) is the black paint that was recently released. But it turns out when Bowser accidently released him, he tricked him into switching bodies with him. You learn this by playing though the optional chapter inter missions where Bowers in Ink Bat form teems up with this other character like what happened in TTYD chapter 5. I didn't want to rewrite the tone since that's why the people who like the game like it so much. So instead of changing it I'm expanding upon it. 4-Like what 3 implies side quest return. But the twist is that is you want your partner to learn a new move in battle you have to go on a side quest that gives them character development. There would probably be only 2 of these side quests like in TTYD. But still a nice concept to have that really highlights the tone of the game. 5-The Merlon family returns but this twist has Merlon & Merluvlee be the married Mayor & secretary of Port Prisma while Merlee is their rebellious punk daughter. There's even a whole side quest where you have to reconnect Merlee with her parents. (Maybe Merlee could even be a companion if you really wanted to) Did this to give these recurring side characters a bit more story relevance. Merluvlee is the one that grants the party member a new move. 6-Like you said in the video. From the concept art were going to use the more water colored themed art style. 7-For Roshambo all the temple masters have different designs and unique personalities. And after you fight all of the temple master's you fight in the big Legue and become the Roshambo master. And instead of Rock, Paper, Scissors, it fights with the Thing Cards. Just a fun side thing to brighten up the game. 9- The gameplay is like 64/TTDY no brainer. But the twist is that you can have 2 companions at once.
You know what would have been an interesting story element? Kamek secretly working against the black paint to save Bowser. Like, he send Peach the Toad not to lure Peach into a trap, but to bring Mario there.
Yes. Further elaborating on that idea, what if there was a black paint star and black mini stars that served as minions and the black paint star was an ancient evil force kamic faced off against long ago edit: also the koppalings could be also on your side
Oh and to keep the random Kamek sheninegans with that idea, maybe when it's introduced Kamek would talk about his plan, but in an elusive way so that you don't get it too early. For now he's more excited about helping you with his magic. Epic fail. It still does the exact same thing as in the normal game. He then talks about that embarrassing failure to help, he's a bad guy, he delves into dark magic, not really the good guys' magic or something like that. He'll talk about how he'll "help" you again, saying he's master the good magic, but no. You still don't get why he wanna help you btw. Or at least until the very end, in the last level, he really helps you by upgrading all the cards in your current deck, they all become their biggest versions. Mario doesn't talk so he can't ask more detail about why he helps, and Huey doesn't know that he's one of Bowser's minions normally. So when Kamek finally manages to help Mario, Huey remarks that it is nice and bravo for pulling the magic trick out, but that they should leave the castle as it's too dangerous. Kamek explains to Huey that he's among Bowser's army but that since Bowser is clearly not himself, he decided to do what you described, so that the player can know about Kamek's plan. After that he would stay at the start of the final level, you can return at any time to upgrade cards until you finish the game.
I honest to god thought that was why Kamek sent the letter. I know Bowser what wanted to steal Peaches pinkness so he could always have her with him but i thought the game was implying Kamek wanted mario and peach to help Bowser
Fun fact: In the tutorial area of Port Prisma, if you leave all of the optional enemies alive, they stay there for the rest of the game. It makes it seem like there are different varieties of locals in the area... They just want to kill you though. It's kinda funny and sad.
When you think about it, paper Mario color splash is the exact opposite of Mario sunshine. In sunshine Mario goes to an island he’s never been to before in order to clean up all of the “icky paint like goop” whereas in color splash he goes to an island he’s never been to before in order to paint all of it. This is why I think it’s weird that Bowser Jr isn’t in the game at all
For some reason there isn't a paper Mario that has both bowser jr and koopalings. Like c'mon, where were they when king olly took over the bowser castle ?
47:14 that entire shy guy train conversation is great, but the way it's concluded is really amazing, a fantastic sucker punch - you would absolutely not be thinking about that conversation way later in the game while fighting a random enemy, but then you see the post-battle dialog and it hits you all at once that everything he predicted when he poured his heart out to you, came true. and the dialog is short, and simple, and sweet, and then he dies.
i believe I played the woods chapter first and so I didn't get the post battle dialogue... or maybe the fight never happened... At least I don't remember it
@@UnicornStormIts an easy to miss fight since you need to intentionally trigger it as I believe it’s the shyguy swinging above on a trapeze so they cant get to you, you need to go to them. Considering its near the end of the game you will be avoiding battles for sure at that point which is why its so easy to miss. (Been years since I played though so I might be misremembering, but I remember getting it.)
It really made me wish all the more they'd bring back partners without having to remake TTYD. There's no doubt in my mind that Shy Guy would've been a partner.
Before you go to the arena and fight Iggy, the shy guy asks you if you have the bone card with you. He keeps saying bone to the point where it’s obvious you need a bone.
Fun fact: Wendy actually has an very cool special gimmick if you pay attention. All her attacks are syncronized to the music, so when she does a barrage of attacks , you have to pay more attention to the theme rather than the visuals in order to sucessfully block. I would wanted to see more like of this honestly, fights affecting music or the other way around are fun very often.
“…fights affecting music or the other way around are fun very often.” The glaring ironic exception to that is Gooper Blooper in Sticker Star, who funny enough, has the same weakness as Wendy: put something in front of Mario to take the super attack instead.
@@TheDMan2003 I actually consider Gooper Blooper the best boss in SS by far. If just weren´t in , you, know, Sticker Star with its goofy decisions to make bosses more like a wall of "do you have the thing or not", Blooper would had been one of the most interesting Mario bosses otherwise.
@@JoseViktor4099 Agreed. Heck, I’d say it could work in something like Mario Galaxy as a musical variant to King Kaliente or something. In a way, the bosses of Galaxy 1 and 2 can be considered puzzles in the way that you have to figure out how to deal damage; for King K., you need to spin back the coconuts for example. A simple puzzle that is easy to solve. I don’t know what I’d make the puzzle be for G.B., but I would NOT make it “seek cover behind a wall to evade a blast of poison that backfires.” Maybe if you could knock a coconut or something into his snout somehow, it’d get stuck, and the pressure release is what deals the damage. That’d be an interesting fight, wouldn’t it?
@@TheDMan2003 Yes. True is, there is multiples ways to tackle this fight utilizing more his music aspect. My idea would be that all comands have the music timing, the faster the music,the harder is to manage to attack/defend appropiatly.
I still think my two favorite jokes were the "We can't do much else without raising the game's age rating" and "The Internet (Print Edition)" as just completely offhand jokes.
The story of the Shy Guy who couldn't escape from Bowser's war machine, and falls in battle against Mario just as he predicted, is surprisingly moving from Sticker Star 2.
I think that Color Splash represents a revival for the series in the bigger picture as Sticker Star was VERY bad and Color Splash improves on it in basically every aspect. Then we get Origami King which goes even further with deeper story a characters. And finally we're getting the TTYD remake which might signify the true revival of the series. It's through this bigger picture that I myself start to really like respect and become fond of Color Splash for effectively setting the series back on course. That's why I like it!
37:15 actually, Nintendo DID give Larry an actual personality, but it was unfortunately lost in translation. in the Japanese version, Larry had a distinct personality, that being that he's does what Bowser says because he's scared, he has attitude because he's trying to be cool, but isn't really all that good at it, he isn't very smart, but not dumb either, he's slacks and would rather hang with friends (at least that's what I got out of it). While in the English translation, they tried to make him sound like he's evil and loves to do bad things when that's not the case. Translation errors are really stupid sometimes
I know Japanese and English are two separate and completely different languages and translating between them isn’t easy, but personality isn’t the same as language. In theory, everything that can be said in one language can be said in all languages, so if they want to say that Larry has a distinct personality, why not write him to actually have that kind of character?
I would argue the Toads actually add to the theme of non-conformity. Sure they may look similar, but they still manage to find ways to stand out from the crowd in other ways. The fact you could recognize individual toads during the paint star celebration scenes is a testament to that. I still remember the Captain, eagerly following the footsteps of his hero. The Blue Key, sailing off into the horizon while other toads scorn him for even attempting. The two Cafe toads meeting and agreeing to exchange establishments to better fit the lifestyle they prefer. Even something as simple as the Bridge toads cheering whenever you cross their newly built bridge. If you're just another face in the crowd, then it's what you do that makes you unique that's meaningful.
1:40:02 Not sure if you knew this but there was a time where Kamek ended up softlocking Fatguy703 in a battle because he turned all his cards into flip flops and he was fighting Swoopers (enemies that can fly) he was only able to get out of that fight by using all his cards until he had nothing left. Only then did the option to flee became active again. Edit: I saw you talk about it
i feel like when color splash was new, i sort of forced myself to like it because i was still in the mindset of "surely they wouldnt make a direct sequel to their worst performing game on a console thats not selling well, right?" that mindset eventually changed to "oh haha i get it, theyre just goofing around for this game and they'll make a proper paper mario the next time, right???" now its "if the direction of the paper mario series continues to be down a flight of stairs, this one might have had more charm that I may have overlooked when i first played it" addendum: Prism Island is an interesting location that I actually care a lot about. It says a lot that I remember more about the location itself than the characters that live on it youre supposed to care about.
1:09:35 I actually disagree with this right here. The two Shy Guys, especially the one on the train, are the rare circumstances where I think them having the generic same model was an amazing choice. The fact that that Shy Guy on the train was *just* another Shy Guy made the message stronger. It shows that every Shy Guy could have a personality. When you later fight him, before he talks, you don't even really acknowledge him or think about killing him just like with every other Shy Guy. Which shows that all the other Shy Guys, or any of Bowser's minions, that you kill without putting much thought into it could have dreams and feelings as well. The game didn't give him an unique sprite, because he isn't more important than the other Shy Guys. He isn't the only Shy Guy that you see a glimpse of his personality of because he is the only Shy Guy that has one, no, every random soldier in Bowser's army has their own feelings and desires, he is just the only one that happened to express them to you. I know it's just a silly little kids game, so obviously you don't see the enemies in it as individuals that you don't want to kill, but I still think it's a good analogy for Soldiers in real life. On the grand scheme of things they are just numbers, ressources, expendable. One or two soldiers don't make a difference. Even soldiers themselves have to train not to think of their enemies as humans or else they would go crazy. Yet every single casualty is an entire human life as expansive as ours. After the war, for most people a soldiers life is just one extra number in a statistic, but for the soldier themself and their friends and family they were an entire distinct human with personality, goals and accomplishments even if they are indistinguishable from other soldiers when looking from the outside.
Another good example to compare the toads to would be the common blades in xenoblade chronicles 2. There are base designs for them, but their voices, liked items, abilities, field skills etc can make them more useful than some of the rare blades. And across all 3 xenoblade games you have the nopon. They play a similar role as the toads. But they are named, have unique traits, and are distinguishable from each other and on occasion there are generic npc ones that you can’t interact with.
34:34, about that... if you pay attention, each koopaling's wand has a specific color on them that points out which star they guard. so if you notice small details like that, you've essentially figured out which boss you could possibly fight next. but yeah, i played this up to the final boss and did not have as much fun as you might think.
I do remember the wands being different in Mario 3 and NSMB Wii, 2, and U (even if in the latter, only Larry, Iggy, and Ludwig used wands), but what about the wand sprite on its own that they drop when you beat them in Mario 3? Isn’t that the same sprite each time?
Paper Mario color splash could’ve been a amazing game. The graphics are amazing, the writing is top notch and easily The funniest Mario game ever made, there are levels instead of an open world but I don’t mind that because every level is fun to explore and has something memorable and interesting about it, the music is fantastic and the bosses are the koopalings but this is the one game where I don’t mind that because they actually have personalities for once. The games only major problem is the battle system which drags everything down. I believe that color splash (and origami king) would be 1000 times better if there was no battle system and every enemy was just an overworld enemy like in super paper Mario
The battles in origami king are like half as time consuming, 1/10 as resource consuming, and built to be ended in one turn. Origami king’s battles are just fine
@@agent_beta420 Unfortunately no, most battles in SS/CS/OK can be ended in 1 turn. The issue in OK is that 1 turn is rotating enemies then setting up your attacks but you need to sit down and think to be sure before rotating. Compare this to SS where you just select your attacks and CS where you color your attacks then attack. Similarly in OK the resource consuming issue still applies. It doesn't matter if it is 1/10th or 1/100000th resource consuming, consuming resources to get more of that same resource doesn't work as avoiding the fight is the same thing. You need to get new resources constantly (Borderlands) or have some 3rd system you progress down such as levels, ability points, ect.
Not sure if you address this later on in the video, will delete this if that is the case: Although the white outline can be viewed as a way of signaling that the characters were drawn on and then cut from a sheet of paper, and although the concept art leans in that direction, I think it was done almost entirely for the paint system. Character’s double as their health bars now. In the same way that a health bar drains of its color, so too do the characters. Outlines on health bars are used to immediately convey which color represents fullness and which represents emptiness. I think that’s why they added white outlines.
1:12 It's really quite the heartwarming turnaround to see Paper Mario (TTYD, at the very least) treated with that very fanfare that Color Splash's reveal lacked. It was a Direct-ending "One More Thing," and that means a lot these days.
I absolutely loved your focus on this game’s themes, I 100% agree that no game is “below” such analysis. Amazing video as usual, and your openness with your identity+perspective are massively appreciated!
I recently watched your Sticksr Star review and SPM/SS improvement videos, and as someone who adores Color Splash, I absolutely loved this review. There's not a lot of people willing to review Color Splash in the past few years, so listening to you lay out each reason why I've loved this game for years really means a lot. Despite being in the same camp as "early Paper Mario good, Sticker Star bad", there's still so much about Color Splash that I've adored since the first time I beat it years ago. It's not a perfect game by any means, but it easily holds the place as my #1 guilty pleasure game.
It would be interesting if Koopalings were a mid-chapter villain, but later there's a main chapter villain of sorts. At least it wouldn't be "oh, I'm at the end. WHICH Koopaling will attempt to kill me this time?" at the end of the chapter. Like, imagine Larry fight being after we satisfy the VIP guest in that one place and train having a unique boss fight?
i don’t know if u noticed, but there’s a subtle hint of foreshadowing in marmalade valley, before princess comes out of the wall huey claims that he would throw his body in front of him to save him, at the end of the game when u make it to the second phase of the final boss, huey is used to block the black paint every time bowser hits mario with it and it’s used by LITERALLY THROWING HIS BODY IN FRONT OF MARIO, it took me a while to figure out but it was a very interesting part of the specific level
When I was a kid, wearing the girl's uniform in the winter was the worst. We would hubble up together at recess on an snow covered lot with cars in it like a bunch of penguins. My mom went and told the school I can't be standing out in the snow with just a skirt on because I have sickle cell anemia and would go into a pain crisis. So the school allowed me to wear the boy's uniform with was just pants at school. When the other girls saw me wearing pants, they began to wear pants too, and the school was not happy about the girls not wearing the "girl's uniform" and told them that only I was allowed. The other parents got mad complaining about their kids getting cold, so my school allowed it only for the winter, but we kept wearing them, so they gave up. The girls now had a choice to pick what uniform we want to wear, 7 year old revolutionary without knowing it.😂
@starlite5154 according to that one Texan Principal, a core value of America(land of the free, home of the brave, also state well known for the trope of refusing to follow authority) is conformity and obedience.
I don’t mind this game having a Basic story because it’s not trying to have a grand story. It’s just trying to be a funny Mario adventure and I’m fine with that. My only problem with the story is that it’s heavily implied and then revealed that Bowser was possessed by the black paint the entire game, but they never do anything with that and then at the end of the game everyone acts like he was the bad guy the whole time even though he was doing everything against his will. It’s just so weird. I also don’t buy that Kamek didn’t know bowser was possessed. He’s smarter than that. The game also could have made the black paints plan be a lot more interesting just by using what’s already in the game. In the game black paint is extremely toxic and can kill you and it can also possess you. The paint possessing Bowser wanted to cover the entire world in black paint, so why not reveal that the reason he wants to do that is because he would kill everybody on the Earth, and then the black paint would possess their dead bodies creating a new world of paint folk that he would be the ruler of. All of the pieces are there it’s just that the game doesn’t use any of them
@@tiagocervera5661 not really, villains try to kill people and take over the world all the time even in stuff for kids. Basically all of super paper Mario is more extreme than this
@@tiagocervera5661To be fair, yes, but this is the same series with Super Paper Mario, where Count Bleck wanted to outright ERASE EVERYTHING, something that could be far worse than the outlined plan depending on how you feel about Bleck.
@@arenbuffaloe6578. This is also the same series that, in the second game, had a thousand year old demon who caused the entire world to be covered in darkness simply by getting out of it's seal.
Seeing the progression of the "modern Paper Mario trilogy" from Sticker Star to Origami King was genuinely really fascinating to me, not just as a Paper Mario fan but on the game dev side as well. Going from the obviously passionless and careless effort of SS to the genuine labor of love of TOK while still being under the same very general direction left Color Splash as this awkward middle child. It's still unsure of itself in many respects and doesn't commit to making the changes it needed , while also having so many visible signs of developers seriously trying to make something cool. I personally have a soft spot for the game but it's easy to see why its flaws really stifle down its enjoyment. I loved your review and how thoughtful and personal you were, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say about Origami King (my own favorite in the series as a longtime fan).
About the koopalings: I feel like it would have been cool if some of the koopalings were posessed by the black paint as well. Like the ones that are a bit smarter or empathetic like Ludwig (or maybe Wendy? It would give her a bit of depht)worry about Bowser for acting weird and the paint notices and posesses them. It would be very surprising to get to the boss, expecting a koopaling like the 2 - 3 before but suddenly they are posessed just like Bowser. If Peach had her moments inside Bowsers castle like in thousand year door, she could have discovered the factory and maybe spy on Roy (who I headcannon to have stayed behind to take care of Bowser because he's worried). He could have teamed up with Peach and slightly help her with sending messages and staying hidden. Roy gets found out by posessed Bowser and the black posesses him aswell, leading to Peach getting caught and Mario still having to fight him in the end. As for Morton, he is probably too stupid to notice and he is the tutorial boss so he's good.(Also he shouldn't spoil anything) Iggy could be posessed and the people in the arena talk about him acting different, for example he hasn't made an appearance in a while or he is more cruel than usual. Ludwig would be cool to fight once when he's normal, he fled to the military basis to get away from posessed Bowser and after fighting him he tells you about some "stategic escape" and you stay at the base for a bit exploring some more and getting information. After progressing at the base you find some black goo which hid in the vents and it posesses Ludwig and you have to fight him again. Wendy should have had more of a pirate theme OR they go all Out with the parallel dimension and give the island a city there with an Orchestra because she likes music and it again gives her more personality.
I'll be honest: I don't mind color splash. I think the story is decent enough it's just the awful battle system that they can't seem to get rid of plus the lack of any unique characters.
You think the battle system is bad because your perception of it is painted by your bad experience with the unrefined version of it from Sticker Star, therefore you refuse to engage with it in this superior format. *Use* summons. *Use* enemy cards. Spend your coins on already painted cards at the beginning of each chapter not only because they're more expensive but because they do more damage and use less resources. I always see people complaining about the battle system when it's the least of this game's problems
@@CassiusStelar My personal gripe is how slow can it feel to choose an attack for how its made. Its ironic , but Sticker Star was better presented, but here you have to scroll side to side in order to get the command you want, and as you have to choose a 15 second process than in another RPG could do it in 2, it can get somewhat annoying from my experience. Battle system is an improvement over Sticker Star mainly because the incentive is better, which is to fill a bar that help you do more attacks, and I like that you have to take care to another resource apart of that. Apart of that, I feel it has not a room, but an entire house of improvement.
@@CassiusStelar You know what uses less resources? Not fighting. When you talk about optimizing things you open up this gate, and suddenly everything you listed says "Avoid every enemy and use these pre-paid cards for bosses." I won't deny Color Splash is better then Sticker Star, but that is like having an individual in a broken wheelchair be passed by someone in crutches. It doesn't change the fact they are broken from problems they faced.
I wish they had some kind of mechanic like the trophy bases from smash bros brawl, and you capture Bowser's minions, hell if THAT was the main mechanic and we got a pokemon-like paper mario rpg that would've been so cool. I wish they brought back the enemy cards somehow in origami king, but sadly we only got our followers for that
After watching the Sticker Star review, I was VERY excited to see the Color Splash since it's my favorite Paper Mario game imo. And after watching the review, I like this game even more and you show me little things that I didn't even know exist in the game that I really like. Such as the themes of conformity and trying to be different. Even tho you won't make a video of how you'd change Color Splash, it's great that the review is finally here. Keep with the great content Red!❤ P.S. really excited for the TTYD remake🎉
I find aspects of modern Paper Mario charming in a distinct way to the classics. I just wish they didn’t have so many weird hang-ups. Had Origami King embraced Zelda-like combat and allowed some more unique character designs / names (except Bob-omb. I’ll die on the hill that him being generic is absolutely vital for his story), I would adore it as much as the classics. And Color Splash probably would have been on par with at least 64. But it just ends up bad in so many weird, easily avoidable ways had they not dedicated themselves to so many weird decisions.
The Thousand Year Door remake might prove that the mandates were either false or they just let them free to bring back old characters and maybe new characters since in the trailer, there’s a purple Toad we’ve never seen before. Wonder what your thoughts and reaction was.
Your videos are some of the best on the platform. In depth, articulate and most importantly; engaging. Really looking forward to the Origami King video and whatever else you have planned, after your well deserved break of course. Keep up the awesome work!
Themewise, I believe the Thousand Year Door's would be about family, forming bonds, and connections. So many examples: 1. Koops avenging his father. 2. Punio trying to save his sister and his bond with a Jabbie despite their kind being rivals. 3. Jolene doing everything to find out what happened to her brother. 4. Vivian's strained relationship with Bedlam along with Doopliss severing Mario's connection with the party resulting in him establishing one with Vivian. 5. Bobbery losing his wife and in her last words telling him not to throw away his bond to the sea, Cortez being bound to his treasure along with establishing a connection by having him act as a ferryman. 6. Riding the train via "connections", helping the passengers, and the Smorg boss itself being composed of many smorgs. 7. The Bob-ombs of Farh Outpost refusing to make any type of connection with anyone that isn't a Bob-omb. 8. Being cheered on by all the people through the Crystal Stars Mario and co thanks to the bonds and connections formed with them throughout the adventure. Other examples exist, such as establishing "connections" with the Piantas after helping with their family issues, Gloomtail's connection to Hooktail, having the option to make a connection with Ms. Mowz, Atomic Boo (similar to the smorg), Tec severing his connection with Grodus to have a connection with Peach,
I’m happy to say that the Koopalings’ portrayals in the Mario & Luigi games are very well done. Especially in Paper Jam, even though that game is kinda mixed in general. You don’t have to read what each character is like, personality wise, but I’ve provided a list. Morton- just a meathead with a good heart, but he does like getting up to shenanigans with Lemmy and Iggy Iggy- wacky and crazy, likes to charge into battle with outlandish schemes Ludwig- a really good mentor figure for Bowser Junior and very smart, but also very arrogant Wendy- she is very girly, but she’s got MAJOR sass and can be very violent. Her and Roy have a “sibling rivalry” relationship of sorts. Larry- he’s pretty basic. But he has a relationship with Ludwig in that they’re both nerds who like card collecting. Lemmy- think Iggy without the “crazy”, he’s just very childish and wacky because…he’s a literal child Roy- a gruff bully type that knows when to respect those as strong or stronger than him, or are loyal to Bowser like he is.
1:16:27 That just straight up sounds like Sign of Hero from Klonoa Heroes. EDIT: Timestamp got messed up somehow. Actually, now I think about it, the other tracks seem pretty familiar too. Bloo Bay Beach sounds kinda like a take on Apatos day from Sonic Unleashed, for example.
Color Splash is the Platonic ideal of what Sticker Star was going for, in the same way Thousand-Year Door was for the original Paper Mario. The problem is that TTYD was building on a much better foundation. I don't hate Color Splash. It's... fine I guess. But it could've been great. I do actually like it better than Origami King, though.
OMG i havent even started the video yet and the way my face lit up when i saw this on my notifications was like a kid on Christmas!!! Omg im so excited
You have done incredible work with these paper mario reviews, well done good sir. Tho I must admit, missed opportunity to talk about the "Shunned Guy", straight up nightmare fuel, (slighty exaggerated, but true)
I'll gladly take phase 2 of Bowser's fight in this game than the tedium of his whole fight in Sticker Star... The devs really just wanted us to trial and error that mess lmao.
51:49 I agree, to the point I have several concepts for a Paper Mario fanstory, and there is a rule I made to myself subconsciously, and very clearly: Avoid Toads. Honestly pretty easy to do, one concept is on island unrelated to Mushroom Kingdom, another mostly takes place outside Mushroom Kingdom and most Toads evacuate or seek shelter from the main threat.
I agree, I would love for someone recreate the bosses in the thousand year door theme, also congrats on editing this monster of a vid your efforts payed off🎉
Not to mention the boss themes, you kinda overlooked the phenomenal boos tracks, my favorites being Lemmys Grand Finale and Rumble with Wendy. Edit: the only reason im doing this is because i commented this before i got to this part, but in the final boss with bowser you can still use spin jumps, which are very powerful and i usually have them stocked up before bosses, so it wadnt much of a pain
One of my favorite things about this game is the manual. Like most people I never bothered to look at the manual because why would I? One day though I decided to and I’m so glad I did. The manual is hysterical Just like the rest of the game and gives some really interesting insight to the development of the game. Like for example when they were trying to make the steak look perfect, During a company barbecue event, they had a professional cameraman take pictures of it during various stages of preparation. It also tells story details not stated anywhere else in the game. Like the real reason Bowser drained Peach of her color was because he got enamored by her pinkness and wanted to have it all to himself. The manual also give us a lot more information about the lore of the dark blue inn. This game easily has the best manual I have ever seen which doesn’t sound like that much of a compliment, but it really is. I recommend looking at it if you haven’t
I still like this game, it made me think that Modern Paper Mario isn't so bad. Color Splash having TTYD's battle system would've been really good. Now that TTYD is being remade I hope the series will reach a middle ground with the next game.
The game giving you more actions as you progress reminds me of an idea for an RPG I wanna make My idea is more of a traditional RPG loop but I want to partially balance it around 2 factors: - Characters, stats, and mechanics are balanced around a baseline of 2-3 actions per turn, per character; some might get more, some might get less, and you can find equipment items that affect a character's action count too - You get mostly full intel of the "timeline" each turn, being able to see whose actions occur when (your team's actions would even get visually slotted into the timeline between the enemies')... but not how any RNG rolls play out, those happen once you lock in your choices for the turn
YES!!! Just so you know I will definitely give credit to you as inspiration with the Dark Pronosticus and Sticker Comet videos, but rest assured that Color Splash 2.0 (or how I will call it “Paper Mario and the Color Thieves”) will have plenty of original ideas. Thanks for the permission and see you in 2024!… Hopefully!
1:35:09 What happens is that if he finishes draining all the color, ALL the colorless spots that you filled with the paint on that specific level will revert back to their base colorless state, thus losing all progress on filling them.
The original concept of the black paint being a living breathing organism instead of something that possess Bowser should have been used. Like the paint is created by the Shy Guys instead of Bowser in retaliation for him putting them in positions that they don't agree with and they make the black paint their new boss, who takes advantage of them without them even knowing. Hence why Kamek mails the Toad to Peach, to get her and Mario to the dirty work for Bowser. Also the battle system should've just been the same from the first two games minus the partners and the flower points.
47:00 this entire part makes me think it's what Intelligent systems are trying to say about Nintendo. Nintendo wants the shy guy to be just a generic enemy The shy guy wants to be completely different.
… That speech regarding the theme of conformity and the resistance thereof actually hit real hard for me. I don’t know if I identify as queer like you do, but I am bi, and non-binary; my profile picture even has a female version which I honestly see myself as more than I do the male one sometimes, depending on my current mood. I’m not kidding when I say that whole bit actually made me feel a bit like the characters in the game: I strive to not conform to the standard society has thrust upon me, but… I have no choice. I have to conform. I can’t express myself plainly, and not just because of social awkwardness. But I still show my non-conforming in small ways (it sometimes feels like a stance against the conformers), which does at least allow me to feel something. And the Toad section… You hit the nail on the head with how I felt here. I already knew that there are parts of the game that specifically allude to the fact that all the Toads look identical; there’s literally a scene where you have to play a ball-in-cup game with “identical quintuplets.” Maybe they knew. How could they not? This just straight up feels like a slap in the face to me and probably many others. Now, to those who see this comment that don’t know me or what I’ve gone through in the past, you’re probably thinking to type “Dude, it’s a game about sentient paper dolls, why are you taking it seriously?” If you are thinking of typing something like that… Stop. That’s who I am. I enjoy looking for deeper meaning in fiction and seeing others’ analyses. It’s a part of who I am, and nothing that gets typed in that reply thread will change that. But more to the point, that whole speech on the idea of rejecting conformity and how the Toads laugh in the face of it is, like I said, personal to me. I’m not saying it isn’t personal to others-it clearly was personal to Red too-but Red’s words really opened up my eyes to this. I can finally understand my own bitterness towards this game. I’ve never played it, and frankly, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to. But I always knew there was something I didn’t like about this game besides “Sticker Star 2.0”. And I think I’ve finally begun to understand my biggest gripe with this trilogy: the complete sanitization of everything. Nothing sticks out, nothing’s memorable. It’s not Paper Mario. It’s paper that’s shaped like Mario.
Coming back here after the Origami King review, I realize that isn’t as sanitized as Sticker Star and Colour Splash are. It does still suffer from backwards requirements that don’t make sense, but I realize that there’s a lot more variety than what I gave credit for. What’s kinda funny is that you bring up the idea of rejecting conformity there too, and there’s a case for the opposite theme to also hold true there. Olly doesn’t conform to the standards of the local citizens, and tries to make others into his image so they too don’t conform. He does go too far with this though, to the point where his non-conformity ironically suffers from conformity, and that’s why he has to be stopped.
Funnily enough I've gotten kinda the opposite view, kinda, but also kinda the same as for the theme of the game. True, the colors do all create a rainbow together, however rather then all the paint being rainbow paint, the paint is all red, blue, yellow, etc. All the colors while different from each other all are enjoyed in harmony. Then Bowser comes in, but, Bowser doesn't mean to do anything cruel to the toads, or make them conform into his army or anything, he just wants a cool rainbow shell, something that honesty... I think he should totally be able to enjoy having a rainbow shell, you do you Bowser. The issue comes not from Bowser wanting to take the paint from all the toads at the beginning, he just hops in and dives into the paint mixing it all up without thinking with no concern to what he's doing or how it'll affect the toads, just that he thinks he'll get a rainbow shell (again, totally cool with that bowser) but the way he went about it is the issue. Bowser having carelessly made black paint didn't use it to conform the toads, rather the black paint Bower created, out of his want to show off a rainbow shell, ended up consuming him, and now carelessly mixes up the paint to create what was ment to be a beautiful rainbow and spread that all across the world regardless if anyone wants it or not. The bad guy literally has no idea he's being a bad guy until all the Black paint is taken away from him. Afterwards he's just his goofy self. Edit: This along with your take also makes the scenes with the shy guy that talks to you a lot more interesting, that not everyone under Bowser really cares about everyone conforming or corrupting anyone, and can and do treat Mario with respect. Same with Mario, he didn't wake up up deciding he wanted to hurt shy guys or even that shy guy, he was just on his quest to save the toads and Peach.
Another issue with the battle system is that if you take too long to make an attack on enemies during battles, the enemy will actually hit you and cheap shot you for damage, which is really cheap especially if you're looking for specific cards to use in battle
I get that you don't want to do improved versions of games anymore - it is a ton of work. But I would like to hear what partners people would come of that for Color Splash. Anyone have any good idea. (No need to mention the Shy Guy who wants out, of course that one will be a partner.)
Man, the jagged paper outlines could also kinda help with the repetitive character design! Many Toads could have different outlines to help identify them! Also, maybe toads could have different shades of colors. Dark red, light blue, kinda whiteish yellow. Ooooh and also maybe Toads could have different combinations of vests and caps! We already have the red capped blue vested Toad. Also, I think Toads only have natural facial hair since their caps are like hair. One Toad in the Bloo Beach says "My hair is ruined!" This Toad was referring to his cap when he said that. And Toadettes piggy tails kinda look like her cap. I think the Toads from older paper Mario games with hair were just wearing fake hair. These are some ideas that I have that could probably help with the repetitive Toads.
I've always had a soft spot for Color Splash. The Rescue Toads are a fun addition that I actually really want to see return in some fashion. The Koopalings have actual personalities for just about the first time ever, and I love it. The music is fantastic. It looks amazing, regardless of it being a Wii U game. Huey is in my top 3 partner characters in the series. The humor is great; the part where you "fight" toads by getting yelled at, fighting a realistic steak in order to cook it, the puns that are based on more than just office supplies. The list goes on. The only problem that weighs it down in any meaningful way is the card system. It's clunky, relies on the gamepad's awful battery life, and doesn't leave any possibility of strategic thinking. I don't really mind, though. The positives outweigh the negatives enough for me to enjoy replaying it every now and then. It's a shame that it's just brushed off as Sticker Star 2 by so many people, because it's a pretty good game. Maybe that's the problem, though. "Pretty good" is like the positive description equivalent of a C-, and even though it's a passing grade, nobody is satisfied with a C-.
@49:10 Ar-Arbitrary!? The examples of clothing conduct is a ruling placed on an institution (which people can actually decide NOT to be a part of, as it NOT enforced). But THAT IS a choice made by someone, and it is not on a whim or a choice! It is certainly not at random or is it chance nor unreasonable! it is made with an intent : Socializing children, standardized curricula, equality and fairness, cultural cohesion, and more importantly.. Control and Discipline. How is physical definition of something arbitrary? How is a "system" designed with a real purpose and implemented by nature (before the existence of humanity) arbitrary!? The statement "no diverging from what we say you should be" is arrogant, conceited, and beyond narcissistic! Humanity does not get to redefine something that IS just because they feel like it. That's nothing but hubris! And not "conforming" at all. @51:07 "I didn't realize I was queer back then" It's always funny to hear someone say that.. I wonder if under different previous circumstances, they would reach the same "conclusion" or "revelation"! Specially considering how it is something that varies with cultural context. Most likely not.
You know, your analysis of the theme of conformity made me realize some HUGE pet peeves with how Mario Spin-offs are handled. And that’s how little of the characters created by other spin-offs don’t have much overlap with each other, with confusing exceptions. For example, Many of the characters hudsonsoft created for Mario Party only seemed to be exclusive to Mario Party, but other characters that originated from another spin-off (like paper Mario) could somehow be in those games. Weirdly, this applies to other spin-off franchises. You see Donkey Kong in games like DKC, and Mario Kart; But not in the main Mario games. You see Waluigi in sports (being that he’s a creation by Camelot), and also Mario Kart. But he’s nowhere to be found in either Wario series, which don’t have any characters that crossover with each other besides Wario. But perhaps there’s some copyright explanation. Some of those characters are created by different companies after all. But then it gets weirder when the spin-offs are restricted from using many of the enemies from the main series. Some enemies from SMB3 and World get used, but others are seemingly untouchable. And as we descend across the main series of Mario games, it seems like less and less of the enemies, characters, and iconography are ever acknowledged in the spin-offs. Like Odyssey came out at the beginning of the switch era, yet I felt like none of the spin-offs ever seemed to acknowledge that game save for Pauline, and even that was saved for Mario Kart and it’s sports games. Same for Bowser’s Fury. It’s just the usual toads, and the usual enemies that are most of the Mario spin-offs. At some point, it felt like the world of Mario was growing smaller and faker, or at least that’s what the spin-offs would lead you to believe. All seemingly comforting to the restrictions the brand forces onto every part of the Mario series, with only the main series being untouchable. Heck, will any of Mario Wonder’s unique designs ever be utilized by any of the spin-off games like Paper Mario or a possibly new M&L? Feels like missed potential. Its a reason why I miss the GameCube era of Mario. It was that era where the main series and spin-offs felt the most connected, but nowadays that feels like a pipedream. Apologies for the rant.
(Sorry about losing your heart! I was editing my comment!) I think the greatest sin committed by the modern paper Mario trilogy is how much it makes the world of Mario feel bland and boring. But when you only use a small sample size, it fails as both a representation of Mario and the Paper Mario world.
good god when I saw wonderful 101 being a great example I nearly cried cause I haven't thought about it in a while and it's such a good game that means so much to me
I watched your sticker star review and honestly it went over all the reasons why I disliked sticker star I have been waiting to go fully indepth with that game specifically and I have been waiting for the next one and I got it hope you're able to continue I I honestly think you deserve it
The thing that happens if you don't get to the Shy Bandit in time is actually one of the biggest horribly designed parts of the game- it will revert your progress on filling in the colorless spots on that level, making you do it all over again. That + the Kamek RNG and its potential to make an unwinnable fight are the two biggest gameplay downgrades from Sticker Star imo.
I watched this with about a hundred other people live, and wow, that was an experience. The internet is really something, huh? I don't really have a lot of sympathy for Sticker Star 2, because being better than Sticker Star isn't a compliment. If anything, it should be a basic expectation - we're supposed to pay for video games, after all. I do see the improvements, and they are nice, but the combat was Sticker Star's worst aspect, and the decision to not improve it (and even make it worse in some ways) is baffling. I can't imagine the thought process that made them decide to sell this again. Would be like if they made Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts 2, where the music is really good and the cars could transform into monster trucks. They improved everything except the thing people would care about most. I know you're most interested to hear in comments about reception to the topic of themes. Yeah, I think you read into it way too much. It doesn't help that the copy/pasted Toads debatably have an even bigger presence against the theme than the evidence for it. Actually, funny thing here, during the live watch, I made that realization before the video itself got to it, and now I feel like I kinda stole it's thunder, haha. Anyways, in regards to overthinking: How far do you go? Black paint was made using all of the other colors of paint - so is the diversity of multiple colors now a corrupting force? Or did they just not think that far ahead? Or did they not think far enough for the theme to be intentional in the first place? Who knows. For what it's worth, I have long hair in real life. :| Following the Paper Mario retrospective has been a wild ride. I guess the plus side about feeling entirely ambivalent about this game is that you can go into the next one with no expectations. And because the next one ISN'T Sticker Star 3, we don't even need to hold it against the series anymore. And heck, even if it's bad, The TTYD remake could be the light at the end of the tunnel. Someone out there at Nintendo realizes how much we care. It's kind of like the Spongebob segment where he's all like, "They seem to like it when I put these patties on the grill" and the girl fish is like "THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR"
There was a cut part of the script where I bring up how the mixing of the colors creates the black paint can have some very, uh, bad implications. But I didn't have a good place for it to fit, and it didn't serve much of a purpose. I don't believe they intended it to have a bad implication like that, but that the point is to create it, you have to destroy the other colors. Mixing paint in every other context isn't viewed as bad like mixing red and blue to make purple. I know that I am looking too deep into it, but I don't think it was completely unintentional even if there wasn't a lot of thought put into it. But as I said in the video, art is about your own interpretation as much as the artist's, and I don't think there's anything wrong with looking too deep into art, especially when you can find interesting things to talk about as a result.
This channel is criminally under viewed. These long form analyses videos are so well done. Love the Paper Mario series, especially the first two as I like the action command based combat systems of the Mario RPG games. Sticker Star is bad, but that's the only one I truly dislike. I like Color Splash the most out of the non-RPG games in the series. I still can't believe the TTYD remake is real and is coming out so soon. Hopefully the next new game is allowed to be a true sequel to the original games.
AAAAWWWWWW YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHH. Just got off work. I'm pumped to see a new video to watch a few dozen times! Was hoping you would do Color Splash and Origami King.
1:35:12 decided to research it. If he finishes it, he makes all the colorless spots you filled in unfilled again. That’s right, he un-100% completes levels. …that’s baffling.
The fact that the theme of nonconformity clashes so much with the very basic, non-expressive designs of the NPCs and enemies to me feel like the developers rebelled against strict design requirements set by their superiors in the only way they could. In fact, the entire train conversation and its conclusion basically screams this to me. They want to make something more original, something with more soul, but can't.
I don't have as much to say about this game, seeing as how I never played it. Heck, I didn't even own a Wii U, so, unless I played it on someone else's console (I was offered to once, but we were in college at the time and then Covid hit) there really wasn't any way for me to. But I was okay with that because I definitely wasn't on board with this game's existence. Of course, that being said, I can still express my opinions on this game fairly enough, because I watched ZachScottGames play it, and I've seen plenty of other people talk about it. What's funny is, I actually played through Sticker Star the same year that this game came out--during the summer, which meant it was after the announcement. I don't remember when I actually heard about this game for the first time, though, since I was pretty new to watching UA-cam at the time and I was out of loop on Nintendo news since I was a loner gamer as a teenager. That being said, when I did find out, especially after how crappy Sticker Star was, I was pretty disappointed, because, like everybody else, I knew Paper Mario went in a new direction that I was not okay with. I could go further with this on Origami King, Bug Fables, and now (yay! finally!) the Thousand-Year Door remake, but I'll probably save those for my comments on those reviews (looking forward to, btw!). So, yeah, it's pretty interesting what I've been through regarding all this. As for what I think of this game, after watching your review and seeing what this game has to offer, it's definitely a mid-tier game. I always thought that this game didn't deserve to exist and that it pretty much was as bland as video games get, but that seems to be more of a Sticker Star thing, which is ironic because that was the game that made this one what it is. I now understand Arlo's four out of seven rating (though having no number system is smarter). This game has things in it that I like, but I'm not sure if I would rather have seen them portrayed in a different way in Paper Mario or if this is the best game they could appear in so as not to make them waste better potential for what Paper Mario is supposed to be. Those things being colors and the Koopalings. I'm just saying, I love colors, and I like what they did with them here. It's just out of place in a Paper Mario game, and I think a game having colors as the main theme could've been done well. I was always wondering what a Paper Mario game would be like having the Koopalings in it, and, after seeing Color Splash, I can see now that it's a pretty bad idea--leastways to have them be the bosses. It could've been more interesting if they were portrayed as something else, like side characters or something. I love the Koopalings and would love to see them implemented more. But I understand the complaints about having them be bosses too many times. It is getting kinda repetitive at this point. The music in this game is all right. I've listened to the soundtrack at work a few times, and I will say, it does get a little boring to listen to after a while, but it does have some good tracks that do help at least a little bit. I was pretty happy that you recognized Island in Violet, because that one's definitely one of my favorites! I also like the posh version of the Toad House theme, and the Roshambo music (though I understand that definitely wasn't your favorite part of the game). But a lot of the tracks in this game, at least in my opinion, don't feel very well constructed. Leastways, not in a way that feels catchy. I don't know how many others feel this way about it, but I don't know. A lot of them just don't seem to resonate with me that well. I was wondering how you would improve this game, considering you had some excellent ideas for Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star, and I will say, it's probably a good thing you aren't doing that for this one. It probably would've been a repeat of Sticker Star, not to mention it would be pretty hard to think of things that you could improve on just as much as in there (considering there is more good stuff in this game than in Sticker Star. Probably the most obvious things would be the to improve the story just a tad, definitely work on the battle system more, and fix the Roshambo temples).
I think the big issue with the koopalings is Nintendo seems to think they're world-boss material since that's what they were in Mario 3 and Mario World but even in those games they were kind of lame... The koopalings would be fine if they were fortress/tower bosses like Bowser Jr was in the original New Super Mario Bros, even if that same "philosophy" was used in a game like this we'd still get to have wacky koopaling hyjinx but it wouldn't spoil the big bad of every following world since the Koopalings would just be a boss you meet/fight in the world who could even set up the real true boss!
A little constructive criticism. There are times where you mention something multiple times, sometimes hours apart, and I had to keep checking to make sure I didn't accidentally go back an hour or so in the video and was watching the same part over again. But otherwise great video, keep up the good work!
Yeah it happened a bit more than usual here, sometimes it was necessary to describe the same thing in a different context, sometimes it was because the script took so long to write I forgot what I said about certain things earlier lol. A couple instances were edited down from what's in the script, like in the script the two times I bring up Luigi's Mansion 3 I basically said the exact same thing both times lol.
I have a copy of Color Splash but I never bothered playing the game. The last new game I played on the Wii U was.... Shantae Half Genie Hero. The end of the Wii U era was so underwhelming that I looked forward to playing an indie game instead. I barely know much of Color Splash as well other than the gameplay is seemingly the same and how the Koopaling boss fights force you into using their weakness or else you get hit with an instant death attack
I'd like to talk about the theming of being forced to conform and such. Because I feel that it fits a lot more with Splatoon (Yeah, another game with colored paint that came on the Wii U, go figure). Moreso the third game of the series. The game was created with the word "chaos" in mind, but instead of making it like a generic wasted land full of bad people, they desided to make it about diversity. It's extremly present in the Musics and the cultural representations of the Idols in this game for exemple. You also fight a form of authority who want's to make everyone conform to his point of view. It also helps that the Spaltoon Comunity is very openly queer and accepting of queer people in general. Other than that, very great review and I have to say, I share your opinion on this game. Even tho I played it when it was still new.
It's finally done, I know a lot of you have been waiting awhile for this video and I'm so sorry it took so long. I was pretty confident that I could make this video quickly, even mentioning I wanted it to be done before July. Yeah that didn't age so well... This shouldn't have taken half a year to make but it proved to be a much harder task then expected. Took so long that a Thousand Year Door remake got announced. Yeah I know about it, and I will cover it in some fashion, the extent of which I haven't decided yet. But it won't happen until after the Origami King video, and at least one other video. Speaking of which as I promised before, I'm heading straight into Origami King with no other distractions. I won't promise it will be done quickly, but it won't take 2 years, and hopefully not 6 months either. But first, I think I need a short mental health break.
Also I was unable to record the gamepad for this, so I had to get it elsewhere. The nicer looking footage was captured by Horayn using an emulator, and the camera footage was taken from YTSunny’s walkthrough, here’s a link to that playlist. ua-cam.com/play/PLtA3RKX1_Yx2fFQ-Fb3ps3cTkzKrQTDsa.html
I agree take a break you need it after that beast so no reworking it to be like TTYD I suppose which kind of sucks I made a whole concept sheet for it and everything to help you out.
But If you want to know I will tell you some of the ideas I came up for it one that I like is the peach Interludes which deal with Bowser's personality being altered by the black paint which is toxic corrupting and mutagenic it makes everything more monstrous in body and mind and for bowser he's become a needlessly cruel controlling tyrant who is abusive and bullying toward is minions something the normal Bowser would never do and this causes quite a bit of discontent among their ranks one of the interludes even has Peach helping a Bunch of goomba's who have decided to defect because they have had enough of Bowser's newfound power and madness even Peach is concerned for him the Holopeach that plays in Tangerino Grill instead talks just this instead of his plan staying that she's genuinely worried for him. Oh also you known the Shunned Guy well he's one of many enemies that are the result of normal minions being corrupted by the black paint into Deformed mindless horrors solely loyal to Bowser and the black paint I even came up with the idea of the Black Paint possessing bowser turning into this Giant Eldritch humanoid thing for the final boss and it desires to turn the world into the perfect Blackness, nothingness itself erasing the world from existence. I haven't finished it yet but if your interested and do want to make this project after Origami King I'm glad to help and provide it too you. Oh also side note I love the little Querrness analogy you made though I didn't see it like that me being Straight and all so I say it as a Funny Mario Paint game I love that it may not have been intentional but it's great you see it like that.
Why is this comment older than the video?
If you are planning to do a rewrite of this game like what you did with Sticker Star, I can help with some ideas!
1-To have the rescue squad more involved with the plot maybe each team captain is one of Mario's companions (like in the first 2 games) Plus Huey and maybe a few secret companions. (Maybe one of the companions could be that scrapped Doopliss ghost found in the concept art gallery)
2-Speaking of the concept art of the game Maybe those bottle creatures that are unused Huey prototypes could be these games new species. Like these are being native to Port Prisma. Also, for other NPCs I would like to see more obscure Mario species become NPCs or enemies in this game. (Not just the main series with Piantas, Sprixies, or even species created for the Paper Mario series like with Super but ones that haven't been seen in a while like Cobrat, Buster Beetle, Pionpi, Cataquack, Jammyfish, or even Lobb return in this game to in brace the game uniqueness theme. Heck don't stop at just the mainline games put in some DKC enemies & Luigi's Mansion ghosts could make this game's message stand out more. Also, you got to have the toad pirate captain have his darker skin tone from the concept art. HECK! Since this game takes place on a tropical island give all the Toads from there a darker skin tone as well. Of course, the Paint Stars are like the Star Spirits from 64 with their own personalities in this rewrite (with connections to the black paint) Also I think I saw someone else come up with this idea but like with Luigi having his own adventure in TTYD maybe we have Wario as a somewhat rival in the adventure while having one of his own. Like he even has his own party members & fights you in battles. (Think Blue from gen 1 of Pokémon) Like for a small plot twist Wario and his party get one of the Paint Starts before you do! and of course the Koopalings are only after game optional bosses while each chapter has its own unique boss.
3-I had an idea for the tone of the game the tone presents itself as very jokey & lighthearted. (Like there's even a running gag where they reference the Matrix, and it even plays a part in the final boss fight.) But as you unlock more and more content the game gets darker and more serious. Something similar to the tone of Adventure Time or Jak and Daxter even. When you unlock the true ending (and through SPM styled optional intermissions) the game reviles that Huey was the prince of the island and sacrificed himself to save his island and people. And the rescue squads were born after the reembrace of the other saviors of the island. Also, the Black paint didn't possess Bowser there's a plot twist in the game where you think this ink bat (based off another Huey prototype) is the black paint that was recently released. But it turns out when Bowser accidently released him, he tricked him into switching bodies with him. You learn this by playing though the optional chapter inter missions where Bowers in Ink Bat form teems up with this other character like what happened in TTYD chapter 5. I didn't want to rewrite the tone since that's why the people who like the game like it so much. So instead of changing it I'm expanding upon it.
4-Like what 3 implies side quest return. But the twist is that is you want your partner to learn a new move in battle you have to go on a side quest that gives them character development. There would probably be only 2 of these side quests like in TTYD. But still a nice concept to have that really highlights the tone of the game.
5-The Merlon family returns but this twist has Merlon & Merluvlee be the married Mayor & secretary of Port Prisma while Merlee is their rebellious punk daughter. There's even a whole side quest where you have to reconnect Merlee with her parents. (Maybe Merlee could even be a companion if you really wanted to) Did this to give these recurring side characters a bit more story relevance. Merluvlee is the one that grants the party member a new move.
6-Like you said in the video. From the concept art were going to use the more water colored themed art style.
7-For Roshambo all the temple masters have different designs and unique personalities. And after you fight all of the temple master's you fight in the big Legue and become the Roshambo master. And instead of Rock, Paper, Scissors, it fights with the Thing Cards. Just a fun side thing to brighten up the game.
9- The gameplay is like 64/TTDY no brainer. But the twist is that you can have 2 companions at once.
@@ladysegagenesis Interesting Interesting cool.
You know what would have been an interesting story element? Kamek secretly working against the black paint to save Bowser. Like, he send Peach the Toad not to lure Peach into a trap, but to bring Mario there.
Yes. Further elaborating on that idea, what if there was a black paint star and black mini stars that served as minions and the black paint star was an ancient evil force kamic faced off against long ago edit: also the koppalings could be also on your side
Oh and to keep the random Kamek sheninegans with that idea, maybe when it's introduced Kamek would talk about his plan, but in an elusive way so that you don't get it too early. For now he's more excited about helping you with his magic. Epic fail. It still does the exact same thing as in the normal game. He then talks about that embarrassing failure to help, he's a bad guy, he delves into dark magic, not really the good guys' magic or something like that. He'll talk about how he'll "help" you again, saying he's master the good magic, but no. You still don't get why he wanna help you btw. Or at least until the very end, in the last level, he really helps you by upgrading all the cards in your current deck, they all become their biggest versions.
Mario doesn't talk so he can't ask more detail about why he helps, and Huey doesn't know that he's one of Bowser's minions normally. So when Kamek finally manages to help Mario, Huey remarks that it is nice and bravo for pulling the magic trick out, but that they should leave the castle as it's too dangerous. Kamek explains to Huey that he's among Bowser's army but that since Bowser is clearly not himself, he decided to do what you described, so that the player can know about Kamek's plan. After that he would stay at the start of the final level, you can return at any time to upgrade cards until you finish the game.
Something like that was in Super Mario 63.
I honest to god thought that was why Kamek sent the letter. I know Bowser what wanted to steal Peaches pinkness so he could always have her with him but i thought the game was implying Kamek wanted mario and peach to help Bowser
Fun fact: In the tutorial area of Port Prisma, if you leave all of the optional enemies alive, they stay there for the rest of the game. It makes it seem like there are different varieties of locals in the area... They just want to kill you though. It's kinda funny and sad.
When you think about it, paper Mario color splash is the exact opposite of Mario sunshine. In sunshine Mario goes to an island he’s never been to before in order to clean up all of the “icky paint like goop” whereas in color splash he goes to an island he’s never been to before in order to paint all of it. This is why I think it’s weird that Bowser Jr isn’t in the game at all
For some reason there isn't a paper Mario that has both bowser jr and koopalings. Like c'mon, where were they when king olly took over the bowser castle ?
Yeah that's always bothered me, the Koopalings are here but no Bowser Jr? it would've been cool to see Paper Shadow Mario.
Still real sad we didn't get Shadow Mario as the final boss.
Too perfect of an opportunity.
Bowser junior is in the game he just in chapter 9
Bowser Jr is in Sticker Star too
47:14 that entire shy guy train conversation is great, but the way it's concluded is really amazing, a fantastic sucker punch - you would absolutely not be thinking about that conversation way later in the game while fighting a random enemy, but then you see the post-battle dialog and it hits you all at once that everything he predicted when he poured his heart out to you, came true. and the dialog is short, and simple, and sweet, and then he dies.
i believe I played the woods chapter first and so I didn't get the post battle dialogue... or maybe the fight never happened... At least I don't remember it
@@UnicornStormIts an easy to miss fight since you need to intentionally trigger it as I believe it’s the shyguy swinging above on a trapeze so they cant get to you, you need to go to them. Considering its near the end of the game you will be avoiding battles for sure at that point which is why its so easy to miss. (Been years since I played though so I might be misremembering, but I remember getting it.)
Pp❤ PPP p❤pp
It really made me wish all the more they'd bring back partners without having to remake TTYD. There's no doubt in my mind that Shy Guy would've been a partner.
Before you go to the arena and fight Iggy, the shy guy asks you if you have the bone card with you. He keeps saying bone to the point where it’s obvious you need a bone.
Fun fact: Wendy actually has an very cool special gimmick if you pay attention.
All her attacks are syncronized to the music, so when she does a barrage of attacks , you have to pay more attention to the theme rather than the visuals in order to sucessfully block.
I would wanted to see more like of this honestly, fights affecting music or the other way around are fun very often.
“…fights affecting music or the other way around are fun very often.”
The glaring ironic exception to that is Gooper Blooper in Sticker Star, who funny enough, has the same weakness as Wendy: put something in front of Mario to take the super attack instead.
@@TheDMan2003 I actually consider Gooper Blooper the best boss in SS by far.
If just weren´t in , you, know, Sticker Star with its goofy decisions to make bosses more like a wall of "do you have the thing or not", Blooper would had been one of the most interesting Mario bosses otherwise.
@@JoseViktor4099 Agreed. Heck, I’d say it could work in something like Mario Galaxy as a musical variant to King Kaliente or something. In a way, the bosses of Galaxy 1 and 2 can be considered puzzles in the way that you have to figure out how to deal damage; for King K., you need to spin back the coconuts for example. A simple puzzle that is easy to solve. I don’t know what I’d make the puzzle be for G.B., but I would NOT make it “seek cover behind a wall to evade a blast of poison that backfires.” Maybe if you could knock a coconut or something into his snout somehow, it’d get stuck, and the pressure release is what deals the damage. That’d be an interesting fight, wouldn’t it?
@@TheDMan2003 Yes. True is, there is multiples ways to tackle this fight utilizing more his music aspect. My idea would be that all comands have the music timing, the faster the music,the harder is to manage to attack/defend appropiatly.
@@JoseViktor4099
I still think my two favorite jokes were the "We can't do much else without raising the game's age rating" and "The Internet (Print Edition)" as just completely offhand jokes.
The story of the Shy Guy who couldn't escape from Bowser's war machine, and falls in battle against Mario just as he predicted, is surprisingly moving from Sticker Star 2.
I think that Color Splash represents a revival for the series in the bigger picture as Sticker Star was VERY bad and Color Splash improves on it in basically every aspect. Then we get Origami King which goes even further with deeper story a characters. And finally we're getting the TTYD remake which might signify the true revival of the series. It's through this bigger picture that I myself start to really like respect and become fond of Color Splash for effectively setting the series back on course. That's why I like it!
37:15 actually, Nintendo DID give Larry an actual personality, but it was unfortunately lost in translation. in the Japanese version, Larry had a distinct personality, that being that he's does what Bowser says because he's scared, he has attitude because he's trying to be cool, but isn't really all that good at it, he isn't very smart, but not dumb either, he's slacks and would rather hang with friends (at least that's what I got out of it). While in the English translation, they tried to make him sound like he's evil and loves to do bad things when that's not the case. Translation errors are really stupid sometimes
I know Japanese and English are two separate and completely different languages and translating between them isn’t easy, but personality isn’t the same as language. In theory, everything that can be said in one language can be said in all languages, so if they want to say that Larry has a distinct personality, why not write him to actually have that kind of character?
@@TheDMan2003 THATS WHAT IM SAYING
I would argue the Toads actually add to the theme of non-conformity. Sure they may look similar, but they still manage to find ways to stand out from the crowd in other ways. The fact you could recognize individual toads during the paint star celebration scenes is a testament to that.
I still remember the Captain, eagerly following the footsteps of his hero. The Blue Key, sailing off into the horizon while other toads scorn him for even attempting. The two Cafe toads meeting and agreeing to exchange establishments to better fit the lifestyle they prefer. Even something as simple as the Bridge toads cheering whenever you cross their newly built bridge.
If you're just another face in the crowd, then it's what you do that makes you unique that's meaningful.
we eatin good with this color splash review and chugga’s sticker star finale
They dovetail well. Any chance you’ll cover the SMRPG Remake, Red?
Chuggaconroy flashbacks
1:40:02 Not sure if you knew this but there was a time where Kamek ended up softlocking Fatguy703 in a battle because he turned all his cards into flip flops and he was fighting Swoopers (enemies that can fly) he was only able to get out of that fight by using all his cards until he had nothing left. Only then did the option to flee became active again.
Edit: I saw you talk about it
*cards
i feel like when color splash was new, i sort of forced myself to like it because i was still in the mindset of "surely they wouldnt make a direct sequel to their worst performing game on a console thats not selling well, right?"
that mindset eventually changed to "oh haha i get it, theyre just goofing around for this game and they'll make a proper paper mario the next time, right???"
now its "if the direction of the paper mario series continues to be down a flight of stairs, this one might have had more charm that I may have overlooked when i first played it"
addendum: Prism Island is an interesting location that I actually care a lot about. It says a lot that I remember more about the location itself than the characters that live on it youre supposed to care about.
1:09:35 I actually disagree with this right here. The two Shy Guys, especially the one on the train, are the rare circumstances where I think them having the generic same model was an amazing choice. The fact that that Shy Guy on the train was *just* another Shy Guy made the message stronger.
It shows that every Shy Guy could have a personality. When you later fight him, before he talks, you don't even really acknowledge him or think about killing him just like with every other Shy Guy. Which shows that all the other Shy Guys, or any of Bowser's minions, that you kill without putting much thought into it could have dreams and feelings as well.
The game didn't give him an unique sprite, because he isn't more important than the other Shy Guys. He isn't the only Shy Guy that you see a glimpse of his personality of because he is the only Shy Guy that has one, no, every random soldier in Bowser's army has their own feelings and desires, he is just the only one that happened to express them to you.
I know it's just a silly little kids game, so obviously you don't see the enemies in it as individuals that you don't want to kill, but I still think it's a good analogy for Soldiers in real life. On the grand scheme of things they are just numbers, ressources, expendable. One or two soldiers don't make a difference. Even soldiers themselves have to train not to think of their enemies as humans or else they would go crazy. Yet every single casualty is an entire human life as expansive as ours. After the war, for most people a soldiers life is just one extra number in a statistic, but for the soldier themself and their friends and family they were an entire distinct human with personality, goals and accomplishments even if they are indistinguishable from other soldiers when looking from the outside.
Another good example to compare the toads to would be the common blades in xenoblade chronicles 2. There are base designs for them, but their voices, liked items, abilities, field skills etc can make them more useful than some of the rare blades. And across all 3 xenoblade games you have the nopon. They play a similar role as the toads. But they are named, have unique traits, and are distinguishable from each other and on occasion there are generic npc ones that you can’t interact with.
34:34, about that... if you pay attention, each koopaling's wand has a specific color on them that points out which star they guard. so if you notice small details like that, you've essentially figured out which boss you could possibly fight next.
but yeah, i played this up to the final boss and did not have as much fun as you might think.
I've... never noticed that... Even as far back as the Mario 3 official art, it's been consistent... Wow...
I do remember the wands being different in Mario 3 and NSMB Wii, 2, and U (even if in the latter, only Larry, Iggy, and Ludwig used wands), but what about the wand sprite on its own that they drop when you beat them in Mario 3? Isn’t that the same sprite each time?
Paper Mario color splash could’ve been a amazing game. The graphics are amazing, the writing is top notch and easily The funniest Mario game ever made, there are levels instead of an open world but I don’t mind that because every level is fun to explore and has something memorable and interesting about it, the music is fantastic and the bosses are the koopalings but this is the one game where I don’t mind that because they actually have personalities for once. The games only major problem is the battle system which drags everything down. I believe that color splash (and origami king) would be 1000 times better if there was no battle system and every enemy was just an overworld enemy like in super paper Mario
I personally love it.
That honestly is the reason why the paper mache enemies are widely considered the best parts of battling in Origami King
The battles in origami king are like half as time consuming, 1/10 as resource consuming, and built to be ended in one turn. Origami king’s battles are just fine
@@agent_beta420 Unfortunately no, most battles in SS/CS/OK can be ended in 1 turn. The issue in OK is that 1 turn is rotating enemies then setting up your attacks but you need to sit down and think to be sure before rotating. Compare this to SS where you just select your attacks and CS where you color your attacks then attack. Similarly in OK the resource consuming issue still applies.
It doesn't matter if it is 1/10th or 1/100000th resource consuming, consuming resources to get more of that same resource doesn't work as avoiding the fight is the same thing. You need to get new resources constantly (Borderlands) or have some 3rd system you progress down such as levels, ability points, ect.
@@Buglin_Burger7878 I’m sorry, thinking during battles is an issue?
Not sure if you address this later on in the video, will delete this if that is the case:
Although the white outline can be viewed as a way of signaling that the characters were drawn on and then cut from a sheet of paper, and although the concept art leans in that direction, I think it was done almost entirely for the paint system.
Character’s double as their health bars now. In the same way that a health bar drains of its color, so too do the characters. Outlines on health bars are used to immediately convey which color represents fullness and which represents emptiness. I think that’s why they added white outlines.
1:12 It's really quite the heartwarming turnaround to see Paper Mario (TTYD, at the very least) treated with that very fanfare that Color Splash's reveal lacked. It was a Direct-ending "One More Thing," and that means a lot these days.
I absolutely loved your focus on this game’s themes, I 100% agree that no game is “below” such analysis. Amazing video as usual, and your openness with your identity+perspective are massively appreciated!
I recently watched your Sticksr Star review and SPM/SS improvement videos, and as someone who adores Color Splash, I absolutely loved this review. There's not a lot of people willing to review Color Splash in the past few years, so listening to you lay out each reason why I've loved this game for years really means a lot.
Despite being in the same camp as "early Paper Mario good, Sticker Star bad", there's still so much about Color Splash that I've adored since the first time I beat it years ago. It's not a perfect game by any means, but it easily holds the place as my #1 guilty pleasure game.
It would be interesting if Koopalings were a mid-chapter villain, but later there's a main chapter villain of sorts. At least it wouldn't be "oh, I'm at the end. WHICH Koopaling will attempt to kill me this time?" at the end of the chapter. Like, imagine Larry fight being after we satisfy the VIP guest in that one place and train having a unique boss fight?
i don’t know if u noticed, but there’s a subtle hint of foreshadowing in marmalade valley, before princess comes out of the wall huey claims that he would throw his body in front of him to save him, at the end of the game when u make it to the second phase of the final boss, huey is used to block the black paint every time bowser hits mario with it and it’s used by LITERALLY THROWING HIS BODY IN FRONT OF MARIO, it took me a while to figure out but it was a very interesting part of the specific level
When I was a kid, wearing the girl's uniform in the winter was the worst. We would hubble up together at recess on an snow covered lot with cars in it like a bunch of penguins. My mom went and told the school I can't be standing out in the snow with just a skirt on because I have sickle cell anemia and would go into a pain crisis. So the school allowed me to wear the boy's uniform with was just pants at school. When the other girls saw me wearing pants, they began to wear pants too, and the school was not happy about the girls not wearing the "girl's uniform" and told them that only I was allowed. The other parents got mad complaining about their kids getting cold, so my school allowed it only for the winter, but we kept wearing them, so they gave up. The girls now had a choice to pick what uniform we want to wear, 7 year old revolutionary without knowing it.😂
Nice
:D
infuriating how it was more important for the school for little girls to wear skirts than being comfortable
You wasted my time dislike
@starlite5154 according to that one Texan Principal, a core value of America(land of the free, home of the brave, also state well known for the trope of refusing to follow authority) is conformity and obedience.
You say the economy of Color Splash is broken, since the player is showered with coins... Oh boy, just you wait until you play The Origami King...
I don’t mind this game having a Basic story because it’s not trying to have a grand story. It’s just trying to be a funny Mario adventure and I’m fine with that. My only problem with the story is that it’s heavily implied and then revealed that Bowser was possessed by the black paint the entire game, but they never do anything with that and then at the end of the game everyone acts like he was the bad guy the whole time even though he was doing everything against his will. It’s just so weird. I also don’t buy that Kamek didn’t know bowser was possessed. He’s smarter than that. The game also could have made the black paints plan be a lot more interesting just by using what’s already in the game. In the game black paint is extremely toxic and can kill you and it can also possess you. The paint possessing Bowser wanted to cover the entire world in black paint, so why not reveal that the reason he wants to do that is because he would kill everybody on the Earth, and then the black paint would possess their dead bodies creating a new world of paint folk that he would be the ruler of. All of the pieces are there it’s just that the game doesn’t use any of them
Dosen't that sound a little extrem
@@tiagocervera5661 not really, villains try to kill people and take over the world all the time even in stuff for kids. Basically all of super paper Mario is more extreme than this
@@tiagocervera5661To be fair, yes, but this is the same series with Super Paper Mario, where Count Bleck wanted to outright ERASE EVERYTHING, something that could be far worse than the outlined plan depending on how you feel about Bleck.
@@arenbuffaloe6578. This is also the same series that, in the second game, had a thousand year old demon who caused the entire world to be covered in darkness simply by getting out of it's seal.
Seeing the progression of the "modern Paper Mario trilogy" from Sticker Star to Origami King was genuinely really fascinating to me, not just as a Paper Mario fan but on the game dev side as well. Going from the obviously passionless and careless effort of SS to the genuine labor of love of TOK while still being under the same very general direction left Color Splash as this awkward middle child. It's still unsure of itself in many respects and doesn't commit to making the changes it needed , while also having so many visible signs of developers seriously trying to make something cool.
I personally have a soft spot for the game but it's easy to see why its flaws really stifle down its enjoyment. I loved your review and how thoughtful and personal you were, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you have to say about Origami King (my own favorite in the series as a longtime fan).
About the koopalings:
I feel like it would have been cool if some of the koopalings were posessed by the black paint as well. Like the ones that are a bit smarter or empathetic like Ludwig (or maybe Wendy? It would give her a bit of depht)worry about Bowser for acting weird and the paint notices and posesses them. It would be very surprising to get to the boss, expecting a koopaling like the 2 - 3 before but suddenly they are posessed just like Bowser.
If Peach had her moments inside Bowsers castle like in thousand year door, she could have discovered the factory and maybe spy on Roy (who I headcannon to have stayed behind to take care of Bowser because he's worried). He could have teamed up with Peach and slightly help her with sending messages and staying hidden. Roy gets found out by posessed Bowser and the black posesses him aswell, leading to Peach getting caught and Mario still having to fight him in the end.
As for Morton, he is probably too stupid to notice and he is the tutorial boss so he's good.(Also he shouldn't spoil anything)
Iggy could be posessed and the people in the arena talk about him acting different, for example he hasn't made an appearance in a while or he is more cruel than usual.
Ludwig would be cool to fight once when he's normal, he fled to the military basis to get away from posessed Bowser and after fighting him he tells you about some "stategic escape" and you stay at the base for a bit exploring some more and getting information. After progressing at the base you find some black goo which hid in the vents and it posesses Ludwig and you have to fight him again.
Wendy should have had more of a pirate theme OR they go all Out with the parallel dimension and give the island a city there with an Orchestra because she likes music and it again gives her more personality.
This was SO worth the wait, you never disappoint with these reviews
I'll be honest: I don't mind color splash. I think the story is decent enough it's just the awful battle system that they can't seem to get rid of plus the lack of any unique characters.
You think the battle system is bad because your perception of it is painted by your bad experience with the unrefined version of it from Sticker Star, therefore you refuse to engage with it in this superior format.
*Use* summons. *Use* enemy cards. Spend your coins on already painted cards at the beginning of each chapter not only because they're more expensive but because they do more damage and use less resources.
I always see people complaining about the battle system when it's the least of this game's problems
@@CassiusStelar My personal gripe is how slow can it feel to choose an attack for how its made. Its ironic , but Sticker Star was better presented, but here you have to scroll side to side in order to get the command you want, and as you have to choose a 15 second process than in another RPG could do it in 2, it can get somewhat annoying from my experience. Battle system is an improvement over Sticker Star mainly because the incentive is better, which is to fill a bar that help you do more attacks, and I like that you have to take care to another resource apart of that. Apart of that, I feel it has not a room, but an entire house of improvement.
@@JoseViktor4099use advanced touch controls then, cuts out that second phase
@@CassiusStelar Thanks, but my problem is with the first phase, not the second . How the cards are organized on a single lane.
@@CassiusStelar You know what uses less resources? Not fighting.
When you talk about optimizing things you open up this gate, and suddenly everything you listed says "Avoid every enemy and use these pre-paid cards for bosses."
I won't deny Color Splash is better then Sticker Star, but that is like having an individual in a broken wheelchair be passed by someone in crutches. It doesn't change the fact they are broken from problems they faced.
I will be honest, "Black Paint" kinda reminds me of "Black Aliens" from Shadow the Hedgehog, though at the same time, it feels a bit less weird.
I wish they had some kind of mechanic like the trophy bases from smash bros brawl, and you capture Bowser's minions, hell if THAT was the main mechanic and we got a pokemon-like paper mario rpg that would've been so cool. I wish they brought back the enemy cards somehow in origami king, but sadly we only got our followers for that
After watching the Sticker Star review, I was VERY excited to see the Color Splash since it's my favorite Paper Mario game imo. And after watching the review, I like this game even more and you show me little things that I didn't even know exist in the game that I really like. Such as the themes of conformity and trying to be different. Even tho you won't make a video of how you'd change Color Splash, it's great that the review is finally here. Keep with the great content Red!❤
P.S. really excited for the TTYD remake🎉
This game seems like apology for Sticker Star, except they failed at battle system part.
I find aspects of modern Paper Mario charming in a distinct way to the classics. I just wish they didn’t have so many weird hang-ups. Had Origami King embraced Zelda-like combat and allowed some more unique character designs / names (except Bob-omb. I’ll die on the hill that him being generic is absolutely vital for his story), I would adore it as much as the classics. And Color Splash probably would have been on par with at least 64. But it just ends up bad in so many weird, easily avoidable ways had they not dedicated themselves to so many weird decisions.
I am so sure everyone was terrified what Huey might be like because Kersti would give them PTSD.
I love how they upgraded the use things to help you beat bosses into use things or die
I like the concept of Color Splash, bring colorfulness to a colorless and "lifeless" world, but of course in execution it's not good at all
May I recommend De Blob then?
@@marxxplaysgames I thought the execution was pretty alright.
I had no idea Huey came back if you got all the achievements. Unfortunate to say, but this detracts from his badassity.
Slightly saddened that kersty didn't get used as fire wood, but other than that good video as all ways.
The Thousand Year Door remake might prove that the mandates were either false or they just let them free to bring back old characters and maybe new characters since in the trailer, there’s a purple Toad we’ve never seen before.
Wonder what your thoughts and reaction was.
I have mixed feelings about the remake, but I'll talk about it at a later time.
Well red Guy kinda hates remakes, but this is ttyd so it,s complicated.
Your videos are some of the best on the platform. In depth, articulate and most importantly; engaging. Really looking forward to the Origami King video and whatever else you have planned, after your well deserved break of course. Keep up the awesome work!
Themewise, I believe the Thousand Year Door's would be about family, forming bonds, and connections. So many examples:
1. Koops avenging his father.
2. Punio trying to save his sister and his bond with a Jabbie despite their kind being rivals.
3. Jolene doing everything to find out what happened to her brother.
4. Vivian's strained relationship with Bedlam along with Doopliss severing Mario's connection with the party resulting in him establishing one with Vivian.
5. Bobbery losing his wife and in her last words telling him not to throw away his bond to the sea, Cortez being bound to his treasure along with establishing a connection by having him act as a ferryman.
6. Riding the train via "connections", helping the passengers, and the Smorg boss itself being composed of many smorgs.
7. The Bob-ombs of Farh Outpost refusing to make any type of connection with anyone that isn't a Bob-omb.
8. Being cheered on by all the people through the Crystal Stars Mario and co thanks to the bonds and connections formed with them throughout the adventure.
Other examples exist, such as establishing "connections" with the Piantas after helping with their family issues, Gloomtail's connection to Hooktail, having the option to make a connection with Ms. Mowz, Atomic Boo (similar to the smorg), Tec severing his connection with Grodus to have a connection with Peach,
There's also Flurrie's treasured necklace, and the Shadow Queen forcing a bond with Peach.
I’m happy to say that the Koopalings’ portrayals in the Mario & Luigi games are very well done. Especially in Paper Jam, even though that game is kinda mixed in general. You don’t have to read what each character is like, personality wise, but I’ve provided a list.
Morton- just a meathead with a good heart, but he does like getting up to shenanigans with Lemmy and Iggy
Iggy- wacky and crazy, likes to charge into battle with outlandish schemes
Ludwig- a really good mentor figure for Bowser Junior and very smart, but also very arrogant
Wendy- she is very girly, but she’s got MAJOR sass and can be very violent. Her and Roy have a “sibling rivalry” relationship of sorts.
Larry- he’s pretty basic. But he has a relationship with Ludwig in that they’re both nerds who like card collecting.
Lemmy- think Iggy without the “crazy”, he’s just very childish and wacky because…he’s a literal child
Roy- a gruff bully type that knows when to respect those as strong or stronger than him, or are loyal to Bowser like he is.
Funny, in the Mario 3 cartoons (don’t ask), Roy was renamed to “Bully” for some reason.
1:16:27 That just straight up sounds like Sign of Hero from Klonoa Heroes.
EDIT: Timestamp got messed up somehow.
Actually, now I think about it, the other tracks seem pretty familiar too. Bloo Bay Beach sounds kinda like a take on Apatos day from Sonic Unleashed, for example.
Wow, two quality Paper Mario analysis videos just one day apart!
2:27:17 if you speak to the Spike in the level he'll say something about him wanting to cork up the funnel, other wise ya this is valid
Never expected the Venom Symbiote in a Paper Mario game..
Avi Arad was right, he really is everywhere..
A positive about these new games being mediocre is that you can just steal the good ideas for free with nobody noticing
Color Splash is the Platonic ideal of what Sticker Star was going for, in the same way Thousand-Year Door was for the original Paper Mario. The problem is that TTYD was building on a much better foundation. I don't hate Color Splash. It's... fine I guess. But it could've been great. I do actually like it better than Origami King, though.
OMG i havent even started the video yet and the way my face lit up when i saw this on my notifications was like a kid on Christmas!!! Omg im so excited
You have done incredible work with these paper mario reviews, well done good sir.
Tho I must admit, missed opportunity to talk about the "Shunned Guy", straight up nightmare fuel, (slighty exaggerated, but true)
Yeah probably could have made room to mention that lol.
Scared the crap out of me as kid
I'll gladly take phase 2 of Bowser's fight in this game than the tedium of his whole fight in Sticker Star... The devs really just wanted us to trial and error that mess lmao.
how have i never listened to this soundtrack before it's incredible whaaat
"Let's paint the town red".
Who approved that line?
Mid 2010's Nintendo; That's who.
51:49 I agree, to the point I have several concepts for a Paper Mario fanstory, and there is a rule I made to myself subconsciously, and very clearly: Avoid Toads. Honestly pretty easy to do, one concept is on island unrelated to Mushroom Kingdom, another mostly takes place outside Mushroom Kingdom and most Toads evacuate or seek shelter from the main threat.
I agree, I would love for someone recreate the bosses in the thousand year door theme, also congrats on editing this monster of a vid your efforts payed off🎉
Not to mention the boss themes, you kinda overlooked the phenomenal boos tracks, my favorites being Lemmys Grand Finale and Rumble with Wendy.
Edit: the only reason im doing this is because i commented this before i got to this part, but in the final boss with bowser you can still use spin jumps, which are very powerful and i usually have them stocked up before bosses, so it wadnt much of a pain
One of my favorite things about this game is the manual. Like most people I never bothered to look at the manual because why would I? One day though I decided to and I’m so glad I did. The manual is hysterical Just like the rest of the game and gives some really interesting insight to the development of the game. Like for example when they were trying to make the steak look perfect, During a company barbecue event, they had a professional cameraman take pictures of it during various stages of preparation. It also tells story details not stated anywhere else in the game. Like the real reason Bowser drained Peach of her color was because he got enamored by her pinkness and wanted to have it all to himself. The manual also give us a lot more information about the lore of the dark blue inn. This game easily has the best manual I have ever seen which doesn’t sound like that much of a compliment, but it really is. I recommend looking at it if you haven’t
I still like this game, it made me think that Modern Paper Mario isn't so bad.
Color Splash having TTYD's battle system would've been really good.
Now that TTYD is being remade I hope the series will reach a middle ground with the next game.
This game, although not perfect, has potential.
I think this game needs to be saved.
The game giving you more actions as you progress reminds me of an idea for an RPG I wanna make
My idea is more of a traditional RPG loop but I want to partially balance it around 2 factors:
- Characters, stats, and mechanics are balanced around a baseline of 2-3 actions per turn, per character; some might get more, some might get less, and you can find equipment items that affect a character's action count too
- You get mostly full intel of the "timeline" each turn, being able to see whose actions occur when (your team's actions would even get visually slotted into the timeline between the enemies')... but not how any RNG rolls play out, those happen once you lock in your choices for the turn
1:08:47 so… if you don’t have plans to tackle Color Splash in a Rewrite/Concept video… Can I do it myself?
Go for it.
YES!!!
Just so you know I will definitely give credit to you as inspiration with the Dark Pronosticus and Sticker Comet videos, but rest assured that Color Splash 2.0 (or how I will call it “Paper Mario and the Color Thieves”) will have plenty of original ideas.
Thanks for the permission and see you in 2024!… Hopefully!
1:35:09 What happens is that if he finishes draining all the color, ALL the colorless spots that you filled with the paint on that specific level will revert back to their base colorless state, thus losing all progress on filling them.
Happy to see this video in my subscriptions, as I’ve rewatched the sticker star vid quite a bit.
The original concept of the black paint being a living breathing organism instead of something that possess Bowser should have been used. Like the paint is created by the Shy Guys instead of Bowser in retaliation for him putting them in positions that they don't agree with and they make the black paint their new boss, who takes advantage of them without them even knowing. Hence why Kamek mails the Toad to Peach, to get her and Mario to the dirty work for Bowser.
Also the battle system should've just been the same from the first two games minus the partners and the flower points.
I don't want to be beating round the Bush But coulden't have You come up with more creative with the battle system
47:00 this entire part makes me think it's what Intelligent systems are trying to say about Nintendo.
Nintendo wants the shy guy to be just a generic enemy
The shy guy wants to be completely different.
… That speech regarding the theme of conformity and the resistance thereof actually hit real hard for me. I don’t know if I identify as queer like you do, but I am bi, and non-binary; my profile picture even has a female version which I honestly see myself as more than I do the male one sometimes, depending on my current mood. I’m not kidding when I say that whole bit actually made me feel a bit like the characters in the game: I strive to not conform to the standard society has thrust upon me, but… I have no choice. I have to conform. I can’t express myself plainly, and not just because of social awkwardness. But I still show my non-conforming in small ways (it sometimes feels like a stance against the conformers), which does at least allow me to feel something.
And the Toad section… You hit the nail on the head with how I felt here. I already knew that there are parts of the game that specifically allude to the fact that all the Toads look identical; there’s literally a scene where you have to play a ball-in-cup game with “identical quintuplets.” Maybe they knew. How could they not? This just straight up feels like a slap in the face to me and probably many others.
Now, to those who see this comment that don’t know me or what I’ve gone through in the past, you’re probably thinking to type “Dude, it’s a game about sentient paper dolls, why are you taking it seriously?” If you are thinking of typing something like that…
Stop.
That’s who I am. I enjoy looking for deeper meaning in fiction and seeing others’ analyses. It’s a part of who I am, and nothing that gets typed in that reply thread will change that. But more to the point, that whole speech on the idea of rejecting conformity and how the Toads laugh in the face of it is, like I said, personal to me. I’m not saying it isn’t personal to others-it clearly was personal to Red too-but Red’s words really opened up my eyes to this. I can finally understand my own bitterness towards this game. I’ve never played it, and frankly, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to. But I always knew there was something I didn’t like about this game besides “Sticker Star 2.0”. And I think I’ve finally begun to understand my biggest gripe with this trilogy: the complete sanitization of everything. Nothing sticks out, nothing’s memorable.
It’s not Paper Mario.
It’s paper that’s shaped like Mario.
Thank you for saying this
@@TheRedGuy You’re welcome.
Coming back here after the Origami King review, I realize that isn’t as sanitized as Sticker Star and Colour Splash are. It does still suffer from backwards requirements that don’t make sense, but I realize that there’s a lot more variety than what I gave credit for. What’s kinda funny is that you bring up the idea of rejecting conformity there too, and there’s a case for the opposite theme to also hold true there. Olly doesn’t conform to the standards of the local citizens, and tries to make others into his image so they too don’t conform. He does go too far with this though, to the point where his non-conformity ironically suffers from conformity, and that’s why he has to be stopped.
Funnily enough I've gotten kinda the opposite view, kinda, but also kinda the same as for the theme of the game.
True, the colors do all create a rainbow together, however rather then all the paint being rainbow paint, the paint is all red, blue, yellow, etc. All the colors while different from each other all are enjoyed in harmony. Then Bowser comes in, but, Bowser doesn't mean to do anything cruel to the toads, or make them conform into his army or anything, he just wants a cool rainbow shell, something that honesty... I think he should totally be able to enjoy having a rainbow shell, you do you Bowser.
The issue comes not from Bowser wanting to take the paint from all the toads at the beginning, he just hops in and dives into the paint mixing it all up without thinking with no concern to what he's doing or how it'll affect the toads, just that he thinks he'll get a rainbow shell (again, totally cool with that bowser) but the way he went about it is the issue. Bowser having carelessly made black paint didn't use it to conform the toads, rather the black paint Bower created, out of his want to show off a rainbow shell, ended up consuming him, and now carelessly mixes up the paint to create what was ment to be a beautiful rainbow and spread that all across the world regardless if anyone wants it or not.
The bad guy literally has no idea he's being a bad guy until all the Black paint is taken away from him. Afterwards he's just his goofy self.
Edit: This along with your take also makes the scenes with the shy guy that talks to you a lot more interesting, that not everyone under Bowser really cares about everyone conforming or corrupting anyone, and can and do treat Mario with respect. Same with Mario, he didn't wake up up deciding he wanted to hurt shy guys or even that shy guy, he was just on his quest to save the toads and Peach.
Another issue with the battle system is that if you take too long to make an attack on enemies during battles, the enemy will actually hit you and cheap shot you for damage, which is really cheap especially if you're looking for specific cards to use in battle
Wendy’s battle did have a good theme. The instruments used and the vocals in the background were amazing!
ITS OUT. ITS FINALLY OUT! Now where is shaymay's 10 hour bdsp review?
I get that you don't want to do improved versions of games anymore - it is a ton of work. But I would like to hear what partners people would come of that for Color Splash. Anyone have any good idea. (No need to mention the Shy Guy who wants out, of course that one will be a partner.)
Color Splash looks beautiful though.
Man, the jagged paper outlines could also kinda help with the repetitive character design! Many Toads could have different outlines to help identify them! Also, maybe toads could have different shades of colors. Dark red, light blue, kinda whiteish yellow. Ooooh and also maybe Toads could have different combinations of vests and caps! We already have the red capped blue vested Toad. Also, I think Toads only have natural facial hair since their caps are like hair. One Toad in the Bloo Beach says "My hair is ruined!" This Toad was referring to his cap when he said that. And Toadettes piggy tails kinda look like her cap. I think the Toads from older paper Mario games with hair were just wearing fake hair. These are some ideas that I have that could probably help with the repetitive Toads.
I've always had a soft spot for Color Splash. The Rescue Toads are a fun addition that I actually really want to see return in some fashion. The Koopalings have actual personalities for just about the first time ever, and I love it. The music is fantastic. It looks amazing, regardless of it being a Wii U game. Huey is in my top 3 partner characters in the series. The humor is great; the part where you "fight" toads by getting yelled at, fighting a realistic steak in order to cook it, the puns that are based on more than just office supplies. The list goes on. The only problem that weighs it down in any meaningful way is the card system. It's clunky, relies on the gamepad's awful battery life, and doesn't leave any possibility of strategic thinking. I don't really mind, though. The positives outweigh the negatives enough for me to enjoy replaying it every now and then. It's a shame that it's just brushed off as Sticker Star 2 by so many people, because it's a pretty good game. Maybe that's the problem, though. "Pretty good" is like the positive description equivalent of a C-, and even though it's a passing grade, nobody is satisfied with a C-.
@49:10 Ar-Arbitrary!?
The examples of clothing conduct is a ruling placed on an institution (which people can actually decide NOT to be a part of, as it NOT enforced). But THAT IS a choice made by someone, and it is not on a whim or a choice! It is certainly not at random or is it chance nor unreasonable! it is made with an intent : Socializing children, standardized curricula, equality and fairness, cultural cohesion, and more importantly.. Control and Discipline.
How is physical definition of something arbitrary? How is a "system" designed with a real purpose and implemented by nature (before the existence of humanity) arbitrary!?
The statement "no diverging from what we say you should be" is arrogant, conceited, and beyond narcissistic! Humanity does not get to redefine something that IS just because they feel like it. That's nothing but hubris! And not "conforming" at all.
@51:07 "I didn't realize I was queer back then"
It's always funny to hear someone say that.. I wonder if under different previous circumstances, they would reach the same "conclusion" or "revelation"! Specially considering how it is something that varies with cultural context. Most likely not.
You know, your analysis of the theme of conformity made me realize some HUGE pet peeves with how Mario Spin-offs are handled. And that’s how little of the characters created by other spin-offs don’t have much overlap with each other, with confusing exceptions. For example, Many of the characters hudsonsoft created for Mario Party only seemed to be exclusive to Mario Party, but other characters that originated from another spin-off (like paper Mario) could somehow be in those games. Weirdly, this applies to other spin-off franchises.
You see Donkey Kong in games like DKC, and Mario Kart; But not in the main Mario games.
You see Waluigi in sports (being that he’s a creation by Camelot), and also Mario Kart. But he’s nowhere to be found in either Wario series, which don’t have any characters that crossover with each other besides Wario.
But perhaps there’s some copyright explanation. Some of those characters are created by different companies after all.
But then it gets weirder when the spin-offs are restricted from using many of the enemies from the main series. Some enemies from SMB3 and World get used, but others are seemingly untouchable. And as we descend across the main series of Mario games, it seems like less and less of the enemies, characters, and iconography are ever acknowledged in the spin-offs. Like Odyssey came out at the beginning of the switch era, yet I felt like none of the spin-offs ever seemed to acknowledge that game save for Pauline, and even that was saved for Mario Kart and it’s sports games. Same for Bowser’s Fury. It’s just the usual toads, and the usual enemies that are most of the Mario spin-offs.
At some point, it felt like the world of Mario was growing smaller and faker, or at least that’s what the spin-offs would lead you to believe. All seemingly comforting to the restrictions the brand forces onto every part of the Mario series, with only the main series being untouchable.
Heck, will any of Mario Wonder’s unique designs ever be utilized by any of the spin-off games like Paper Mario or a possibly new M&L? Feels like missed potential.
Its a reason why I miss the GameCube era of Mario. It was that era where the main series and spin-offs felt the most connected, but nowadays that feels like a pipedream.
Apologies for the rant.
(Sorry about losing your heart! I was editing my comment!)
I think the greatest sin committed by the modern paper Mario trilogy is how much it makes the world of Mario feel bland and boring. But when you only use a small sample size, it fails as both a representation of Mario and the Paper Mario world.
DK wasn't in Super Mario RPG. There was just a gorilla enemy that looked like DK.
@@jlev1028 I took out that part, since you do have a point.
good god when I saw wonderful 101 being a great example I nearly cried cause I haven't thought about it in a while and it's such a good game that means so much to me
I watched your sticker star review and honestly it went over all the reasons why I disliked sticker star I have been waiting to go fully indepth with that game specifically and I have been waiting for the next one and I got it hope you're able to continue I I honestly think you deserve it
So Paper Mario Color Splash is 'Sticker Star 2' at worst and 'Sticker Star but actually good' at best.
Pretty much first game syndrome am I right?
The thing that happens if you don't get to the Shy Bandit in time is actually one of the biggest horribly designed parts of the game- it will revert your progress on filling in the colorless spots on that level, making you do it all over again. That + the Kamek RNG and its potential to make an unwinnable fight are the two biggest gameplay downgrades from Sticker Star imo.
I watched this with about a hundred other people live, and wow, that was an experience. The internet is really something, huh?
I don't really have a lot of sympathy for Sticker Star 2, because being better than Sticker Star isn't a compliment. If anything, it should be a basic expectation - we're supposed to pay for video games, after all. I do see the improvements, and they are nice, but the combat was Sticker Star's worst aspect, and the decision to not improve it (and even make it worse in some ways) is baffling. I can't imagine the thought process that made them decide to sell this again. Would be like if they made Banjo-Kazooie Nuts and Bolts 2, where the music is really good and the cars could transform into monster trucks. They improved everything except the thing people would care about most.
I know you're most interested to hear in comments about reception to the topic of themes. Yeah, I think you read into it way too much. It doesn't help that the copy/pasted Toads debatably have an even bigger presence against the theme than the evidence for it. Actually, funny thing here, during the live watch, I made that realization before the video itself got to it, and now I feel like I kinda stole it's thunder, haha.
Anyways, in regards to overthinking: How far do you go? Black paint was made using all of the other colors of paint - so is the diversity of multiple colors now a corrupting force? Or did they just not think that far ahead? Or did they not think far enough for the theme to be intentional in the first place? Who knows. For what it's worth, I have long hair in real life. :|
Following the Paper Mario retrospective has been a wild ride. I guess the plus side about feeling entirely ambivalent about this game is that you can go into the next one with no expectations. And because the next one ISN'T Sticker Star 3, we don't even need to hold it against the series anymore. And heck, even if it's bad, The TTYD remake could be the light at the end of the tunnel. Someone out there at Nintendo realizes how much we care. It's kind of like the Spongebob segment where he's all like, "They seem to like it when I put these patties on the grill" and the girl fish is like "THAT'S WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR"
There was a cut part of the script where I bring up how the mixing of the colors creates the black paint can have some very, uh, bad implications. But I didn't have a good place for it to fit, and it didn't serve much of a purpose. I don't believe they intended it to have a bad implication like that, but that the point is to create it, you have to destroy the other colors. Mixing paint in every other context isn't viewed as bad like mixing red and blue to make purple.
I know that I am looking too deep into it, but I don't think it was completely unintentional even if there wasn't a lot of thought put into it. But as I said in the video, art is about your own interpretation as much as the artist's, and I don't think there's anything wrong with looking too deep into art, especially when you can find interesting things to talk about as a result.
The further I watch this review, the more I feel like you could do a rewrite like with Sticker Star.
This channel is criminally under viewed. These long form analyses videos are so well done. Love the Paper Mario series, especially the first two as I like the action command based combat systems of the Mario RPG games. Sticker Star is bad, but that's the only one I truly dislike. I like Color Splash the most out of the non-RPG games in the series. I still can't believe the TTYD remake is real and is coming out so soon. Hopefully the next new game is allowed to be a true sequel to the original games.
AAAAWWWWWW YYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHH. Just got off work. I'm pumped to see a new video to watch a few dozen times! Was hoping you would do Color Splash and Origami King.
1:35:12 decided to research it. If he finishes it, he makes all the colorless spots you filled in unfilled again. That’s right, he un-100% completes levels. …that’s baffling.
Can't believe it's been a month since this masterpiece was released
Honestly kinda sad to see you won’t do another remake idea video. Coulda been so cool… maybe I’ll take the time to write something of my own I guess.
Go for it.
Probably the most in-depth review of Colour Splash I've ever seen. Impressive. (:
The fact that the theme of nonconformity clashes so much with the very basic, non-expressive designs of the NPCs and enemies to me feel like the developers rebelled against strict design requirements set by their superiors in the only way they could.
In fact, the entire train conversation and its conclusion basically screams this to me. They want to make something more original, something with more soul, but can't.
1:17:08 fantastic gameplay, truly compelling
What, haven't you played Mario 64?
The most shocking part of this video is the fact that you aren’t bald.
I don't have as much to say about this game, seeing as how I never played it. Heck, I didn't even own a Wii U, so, unless I played it on someone else's console (I was offered to once, but we were in college at the time and then Covid hit) there really wasn't any way for me to. But I was okay with that because I definitely wasn't on board with this game's existence. Of course, that being said, I can still express my opinions on this game fairly enough, because I watched ZachScottGames play it, and I've seen plenty of other people talk about it.
What's funny is, I actually played through Sticker Star the same year that this game came out--during the summer, which meant it was after the announcement. I don't remember when I actually heard about this game for the first time, though, since I was pretty new to watching UA-cam at the time and I was out of loop on Nintendo news since I was a loner gamer as a teenager. That being said, when I did find out, especially after how crappy Sticker Star was, I was pretty disappointed, because, like everybody else, I knew Paper Mario went in a new direction that I was not okay with. I could go further with this on Origami King, Bug Fables, and now (yay! finally!) the Thousand-Year Door remake, but I'll probably save those for my comments on those reviews (looking forward to, btw!). So, yeah, it's pretty interesting what I've been through regarding all this.
As for what I think of this game, after watching your review and seeing what this game has to offer, it's definitely a mid-tier game. I always thought that this game didn't deserve to exist and that it pretty much was as bland as video games get, but that seems to be more of a Sticker Star thing, which is ironic because that was the game that made this one what it is. I now understand Arlo's four out of seven rating (though having no number system is smarter). This game has things in it that I like, but I'm not sure if I would rather have seen them portrayed in a different way in Paper Mario or if this is the best game they could appear in so as not to make them waste better potential for what Paper Mario is supposed to be. Those things being colors and the Koopalings. I'm just saying, I love colors, and I like what they did with them here. It's just out of place in a Paper Mario game, and I think a game having colors as the main theme could've been done well. I was always wondering what a Paper Mario game would be like having the Koopalings in it, and, after seeing Color Splash, I can see now that it's a pretty bad idea--leastways to have them be the bosses. It could've been more interesting if they were portrayed as something else, like side characters or something. I love the Koopalings and would love to see them implemented more. But I understand the complaints about having them be bosses too many times. It is getting kinda repetitive at this point.
The music in this game is all right. I've listened to the soundtrack at work a few times, and I will say, it does get a little boring to listen to after a while, but it does have some good tracks that do help at least a little bit. I was pretty happy that you recognized Island in Violet, because that one's definitely one of my favorites! I also like the posh version of the Toad House theme, and the Roshambo music (though I understand that definitely wasn't your favorite part of the game). But a lot of the tracks in this game, at least in my opinion, don't feel very well constructed. Leastways, not in a way that feels catchy. I don't know how many others feel this way about it, but I don't know. A lot of them just don't seem to resonate with me that well.
I was wondering how you would improve this game, considering you had some excellent ideas for Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star, and I will say, it's probably a good thing you aren't doing that for this one. It probably would've been a repeat of Sticker Star, not to mention it would be pretty hard to think of things that you could improve on just as much as in there (considering there is more good stuff in this game than in Sticker Star. Probably the most obvious things would be the to improve the story just a tad, definitely work on the battle system more, and fix the Roshambo temples).
I think the big issue with the koopalings is Nintendo seems to think they're world-boss material since that's what they were in Mario 3 and Mario World but even in those games they were kind of lame... The koopalings would be fine if they were fortress/tower bosses like Bowser Jr was in the original New Super Mario Bros, even if that same "philosophy" was used in a game like this we'd still get to have wacky koopaling hyjinx but it wouldn't spoil the big bad of every following world since the Koopalings would just be a boss you meet/fight in the world who could even set up the real true boss!
That certainly would be better. I kinda want them to have a boss against all of them at the same time. Like 7 Force from Gunstar Heroes.
A little constructive criticism. There are times where you mention something multiple times, sometimes hours apart, and I had to keep checking to make sure I didn't accidentally go back an hour or so in the video and was watching the same part over again. But otherwise great video, keep up the good work!
Yeah it happened a bit more than usual here, sometimes it was necessary to describe the same thing in a different context, sometimes it was because the script took so long to write I forgot what I said about certain things earlier lol. A couple instances were edited down from what's in the script, like in the script the two times I bring up Luigi's Mansion 3 I basically said the exact same thing both times lol.
I have a copy of Color Splash but I never bothered playing the game. The last new game I played on the Wii U was.... Shantae Half Genie Hero. The end of the Wii U era was so underwhelming that I looked forward to playing an indie game instead.
I barely know much of Color Splash as well other than the gameplay is seemingly the same and how the Koopaling boss fights force you into using their weakness or else you get hit with an instant death attack
I'd like to talk about the theming of being forced to conform and such. Because I feel that it fits a lot more with Splatoon (Yeah, another game with colored paint that came on the Wii U, go figure). Moreso the third game of the series.
The game was created with the word "chaos" in mind, but instead of making it like a generic wasted land full of bad people, they desided to make it about diversity. It's extremly present in the Musics and the cultural representations of the Idols in this game for exemple. You also fight a form of authority who want's to make everyone conform to his point of view. It also helps that the Spaltoon Comunity is very openly queer and accepting of queer people in general.
Other than that, very great review and I have to say, I share your opinion on this game. Even tho I played it when it was still new.