The Paper Mario series was taken in another new direction. But was this direction even worth turning towards in the first place? Like what I do? Well you can support me on my Patreon! www.patreon.com/scionvyse
And yes, the cover of No Children by The Mountain Goats at 44:21 was entirely sung and played by me. I had more fun doing that than anything else for this video.
What I hate most about the removal of the leveling system is the advertising, where they brag about it. In the eshop description of the game, it states, "In a first for the series, there are no experience points, so finding new items to enhance Mario's abilities is more important than ever!" The lack of a leveling system nearly ruined the entire game on its own, making battling utterly pointless and a waste of time, and they have the audacity to gaslight me by telling me that this is a good thing? Seriously?
Sticker Star is the saddest history in Paper Mario. it was meant as a semi remake of PM64 and reboot, but due to Myiamoto's idea was brutally butchered to poor mediocrety :(
It wasn’t a corporate mandate, he just recommended that they should have used preexisting Mario characters, they could have used characters like Wario & Rosalina but didn’t
Worse was It wasn't even Miyamoto's fault, he just said that he didn't wanted a copy of TTYD, so talked to the developers to change some stuff. He wanted to put Gameplay over story, unlike SPM. And fun fact: When he played the second prototipe, far Closer to the actual product, he said It was kind of boring. Ironic, huh.
@@JoseViktor4099Almost as he wasn't a good game developer. He's "a boomer" in terms of taste and it shows way too often. I see the appeal of focusing back in the 80s and early 3D due to limited resources (If you can only do one thing great better be its gameplay) but even as early as late 5th gen a game could do more than just being fun to play, therefore his idea of gaming became outdated.
Half a year late, but... the bosses are even worse. If you DO beat a world boss without the Thing it expects, you get unique dialogue: mockery. Kersti will say something along the lines of "Man, that guy was tough and you sure used a lot of stickers. Maybe you could've used a certain sticker to make that easier?" THE GAME ITSELF CHASTISES AND INSULTS YOU FOR NOT KNOWING A CRYPTIC PUZZLE BOSS THAT DOESN'T GIVE YOU HINTS BEFOREHAND AND BRUTE-FORCING THE BOSS. Fuck. This. Game.
The player: YES! I finally managed to beat this boss without the thing sticker! I'm a genius! Kersti: Well, we won, and that's the most important thing. But we wasted a lot of stickers by bruteforcing our way into battle. Try to use your head next time. (That's actually something she says. Not the direct quote, but it's extremely close)
The game should congratulate you from beating the boss without abusing their weakness, its as if Dr. Light was to call you a moron for not fighting the Robot Masters with the weapon strong against them to defeat them
@@dustymcwari4468The funny thing is? In the PSP remake of the classic Mega-Man games, not only are you _praised_ for beating bosses only with the standard Mega Buster, but you also unlock the ability to play _as_ that particular Robot Master.
I would like to point out that Myiamoto later played a demo version of the game later in development, and said it was boring and not fun. And the team making the game didn't listen to him then.
I will also add in that another reason why they left out the story in this game was that they did some "research" to see what people thought of Super Paper Mario's story, since that was the richest story in any Mario game period, let alone Paper Mario, and what they got back was that 99% of people didn't like it--well, the only research they did was in the Super Mario Club, and that was it. They didn't take a public survey or look at reviews on IGN or anything. They were thinking about dropping the story altogether and then Shigeru Miyamoto made his infamous quote to them that finally settled things among them. That being said, I do whole-heartedly agree with what you said in this review, and I do believe that, as much as I love Miyamoto, it was a mistake on the developers' part to go with what he said (as well as do a poor job on researching what their audience wanted, but I digress). The one thing I disagree with you on (just being honest, because I'm in the same boat with you on how I feel about this game as a whole) is the music. A lot of people out there say that the music in this game is its one redeeming factor. I, personally, hate the music in this game. Don't get me wrong; it's not all bad; it does have some good tracks in it, like Wiggler's theme and the winter music. But I'm not really a big jazz person, unless it's done right, and, due to the 3DS's limitations, the overall soundtrack has always sounded slightly poorly mixed, which makes it a little rough on the ears (can't stand the way that sax sounds, ugh). What probably doesn't help is the fact that it comes from a bad game to begin with, but I don't think that matters. It probably could've been good if it were mixed better, and if somebody comes out with a remixed version with this problem fixed, maybe I can appreciate it more. But what really puts it over for me is the two songs I really can't stand to listen to in this game: Kamek's theme (which I was very, very infuriated to see return in the subsequent games) and the theme of 2-3 plus the inside of the pyramid (which I'm sure really didn't help your experience with 2-3. Maybe it didn't matter to you; apologies if it didn't, but in my experience it definitely didn't help me when I played this game). That's just my personal nitpick, though; I'm a video game music connoisseur, so that's one part I especially enjoy talking about. Overall, though, fantastic reviews! I'm always happy to see other people's opinions on some of my favorite games (Paper Mario, especially), and I'm even happier to see that I'm one with a crowd!
Honestly yeah I agree on Stickers music. Like comparing it’s ost to most of the more unique and atmospheric tracks from the original trilogy were as Stickers is more safe and less memorable for the most part despite it being nice composed stuff by itself.
I'd like to point out that even after using the baseball bat thing on the world 2 boss, you can still mess up the action command and put yourself in a near unwinnable situation. This was the first game I ever bought with my own money made from having a job. What a letdown.
You were so right when mentionning that this game is like a point and click adventure when it comes to bosses. I got stuck in multiple levels not knowing what to do, having used my "things" in battles and not having many in my inventory, and not knowing which would be good for which. I never got into the logic of this game. For example, I never would have thought to use a baseball bat to hit the desert boss!
While I do agree Miyamoto may had have reverence from developers, I still think it is up to the final directors and producers who do have the final say in these projects. It has been cited that Itoi of the Earthbound/Mother series actually went to Miyamoto to kickstart his project and knowing the series it seems unlikely Miyamoto discouraged story from that angle. Miyamoto also got more involved in Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario 64 and TTYD the most and as we know they expanded the narrative more upfront. While I do agree Miyamoto probably shouldn't have said those quotes, I think it has to do with the story being pretty tame probably even at the start, and may seem to bog down the gameplay. Ironically, Miyamoto in that interview said that the changed gameplay to what it became was boring, and yet Tanabe, the main producer and IMO a "Miyamoto simp" who takes things too literal, so Tanabe seems to pick and choose what guidelines to follow from his senior. Not only that the Mario series had a lot on it beyond Toads, Koopas and Shy Guys (a notable overexposure since Sticker Star probably due to Tanabe, who has a big hand in SMB2, where Shy Guys were first seen) that weren't even tried to incorporated in the game. Most of this info comes from this video, which ironically came from a Modern Paper Mario ranter: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hFqizj8WNJc.html P.S. I can cite the Itoi interview talking about him approaching Miyamoto if you want to.
39:39 you can beat bosses without the things but kriste tells you that was their another way to beat it basically. You basically got to use infina jumps and be good at them to do this
so thing is if you beat Kamik then leave to the over world the game will auto save, meaning if you just got to the room before Bowser then leave to say turn in for the night upon turning it back on it'll remember that you beaten Kamic and was about to fight Bowser(pointless at this point I know but I do enjoy Sticker Star enough to admit you are correct on its short coming and do wish to know how to mod in hacks to fix the issues as there are status effects that only SOME things and enemies can inflict but are so niche or rarely get pulled off I wonder why they even bother including them at all)
From what I can recall, the game actually _does_ remember if you have already beat Kamek in his second encounter if you were to bail to go restock your stickers and things afterwards, so... that was merciful of them.
34:04 Not quite true. There's ONE action command that's not done with the A button, and that's the Cake Thing. What does it use instead? The microphone - you're supposed to blow, because the cake has _candles on it_ - duh! Why _wouldn't_ you blow into the microphone, when it's a candled cake? ...Ugh, the game never tells you this, instead expecting you to realise the above when everything else just used A. That's just player-hostile.
The way the game teaches you is a joke too. Instead of actually showing when to press A or have a tutorial when you get new stickers, there's a sign that just says: "Press A at the right time!" Are you kidding me?
@@zaneheaston8254 It was supposed to be a continuation but miyamoto made them create link's crossbow training. He even argued against them putting a boss in it to.
20:56 Video's one year old and I'm the first to notice the DK Rap here? ...because you always wait until the lines fit so naturally into the script they slide right by. But I'm on to you.
Thinking back, I wonder why Miyamoto had nothing against Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario 1 ect. At least with ttyd and Super he should have already had the power within Nintendo to stomp it. Additionally it’s hypocritical because Pikmin 1 for example has a lot of narrative and world building, although mostly in a way that older Monster Hunter games do. (basically lots of creature and nature lore instead of an story in style of jrpgs)
I also wanna mention that Kersti sacrificing herself BEFORE I knew she would come back just made me feel relieved. Since her character type never evolved from a self absorbed, unlikable sassy queen, her sacrifice felt more like a celebration than a tearjerker. And the fact Mario even THOUGHT about bringing her back cements this ending's position of the second worst behind Super Mario Odyssey.
@@darkeneddaylight5422 It had to do with Peach being out of character. Mario jumps across the whole world to save her, which is more than he ever does any other time. He takes down the dreadful wedding planners of Bowser and Peach, as well as the equally dreadful wedding, saves her from the turtle she hates the most, AND prevents said turtle from hooking up with her for all eternity against her will. Does she even thank Mario? NO! She rejects the marriage of both Mario AND Bowser even though she clearly loves Mario. And who does she think she is trying to strand Mario on the moon when she flies up in the Odyssey? This could've been an insane turning point for the story of Mario, but instead Nintendo went ahead and crushed that dream in the name of never developing characters. If they were gonna do that, the least they could've done is something that doesn't hint at the story going further, and ESPECIALLY not with someone being out of character, and ESPECIALLY especially break one of her most hardworking plumber's spirits. This is the only ending I've ever needed a head canon to fix to accept.
@TheRealHedgehogSonic [Vimeo] I wouldn't say it's exactly out of character, she has moments like this in games like Super Paper Mario. But I will agree that rejecting Mario and almost leaving him stranded with Bowser was a bold move. Then again, both Mario and Bowser were desperately trying to propose to her and it is pretty normal for someone like Peach to have that reaction.
@@darkeneddaylight5422But stealing your Ship? I can understand she not wanting marriage, but she literally went to the Odyssey and sailed it before the captain arrived.
@@N12015 I saw it more that they were so focused on their sorrows that they didn't notice she was leaving, so she called Mario to quit that and hurry because the Odyssey was already moving And I think Bowser just thought Peach was calling him as well, which Mario corrected him by stomped him away while also helping himself as his way to say "get lost, no one called you"
i remember playing thousand year door when i was 8. so i really thought sticker star was thousand year door 2 because of the original now deleted trailer and then i got the game on Christmas and i kept waiting for the game to get good and even beat it in 2 days and i hated every minute of it. it was such a lie. i was so upset. i was 12
Miyamoto's advice/ideology being brought up I feel is unfair, mostly due to games potentially going through hundreds to thousands of ideas. I think it is more on the developers for poorly implementing the idea if they wanted to include it. Did the blowing mechanic in donkey kong feel bad probably (haven't played either), but looking at the clip example it mostly seems bad due to being implemented at the simplest possible level. Just adding objects to be blown on will always suck and feel half baked, but if kept rare or used in creative means the idea isn't bad and could be seen as helping to cultivate creativity. Secondly the issue on does it need a story is both good and bad, if you take a really bad or mediocre story that takes 20+ hours to get through it hurts a game, and based on some modern examples potentially shows how stories and poor decisions can just outright ruin them. I don't really feel anyone praises pokemon stories, and often point out some could be changed or removed to make it better (like some the old team plot stuff). Nuance I think the big point landing enough for the premise, but not going to the point of bogging down the experience. RPG games by defaults do benefit by having more story then platformers and other similar genres, however I don't know trying to recreate TTYD levels of story if consistently missed the mark (boring uninteresting characters, thin motives, etc...) would make a this game better vs the really simple premise. I am not the best at express ideas or points in text, so a summary would be asking a question like what if X could do Y is fine, and likely could help creativity but taking that question and poorly implementing it as a core mechanic will always go poorly. Too much story or a bad story is just as bad if not worse then not enough story in my experience, but ideally should take the genre into account. The rest is mostly fair, and especially turn based rpg combat needs to be good or at the very least passable since that could be majority of the experience. However if going for a little to no story it really needs to be great (and actually where most mario rpg's fall short for me) since combat generally isn't needed or provides very little benefit. I personally don't like rpg games that try to separate combat strength from level, as more often then not that leaves encounters feeling worse in my opinion (which is by far worse then mediocre story). As pointed out in this video there is little reason to fight anything you either waste good stuff for worse stuff, or don't gain enough to justify the resource expense (ironically a flaw I feel breath of the wild shares)
@@retrofan4963 While yes, it is nothing compared to the first 3 games (even super) some people liked the puzzles (myself included) and the real-time combat was fun. However, the weird badge things were dumb, the game actively wanted you to cheat in standard encounters with Olivia being able to pause the battle, it went overboard with the puzzles, and the designs of the characters were rather lackluster. The lack of experience also brought down the game, and partners being back was only a gimmick, as they barely do anything. I personally thought the game was fine, but many didn’t, and your opinion is far from unpopular.
I’m currently playing through sticker star for the first time, and it’s honestly enjoying it somehow. The game has so SO many problems, but after years of hearing how bad it was, I’m presently surprised. I’m currently on the start of world 4 so maybe It’ll get worse.
Theres a lot of words people use to describ toads and correct me if im wrong about this but is it a thing that toads are stupid is that a word to describ them
you get significantly more coins at the end if u defeated more enemies. it might look like u only got a few coins but you get more later depending on how many you fought
I don't mind the idea of Paper Mario becoming full-on puzzle-adventure games. Something like Monkey Island. I actually welcome the idea. The problem is the combat-mechanics are so incredibly tedious and feels needless.
Music is all there for Paper Mario Sticker Star but nobody liked the sticker collecting which were the moves you have to pick, in thousand year door you had the jump and hammer right off the bat and yes you can select them unlimited amount of times as part of the strategy spike enemies with hammer and non spiked enemies with jump also you can use the hammer if you want, Sticker Star however the stickers that you collect represent your moves and they are limited once you use a sticker its gone and you have to choose a different sticker which is stupid and not many people enjoyed it.
THANK YOU. Finally, someone else sees that Miyamoto, for all the good he's done, has ironically become the Mario series' biggest threat. He's a legend, yes, but he just seems *incapable* of changing. Every Mario soundtrack has to have horns and marimbas. Every game has to have as little story as possible. Even the *graphics and the engine* of most Mario games seem to be identical now. The endless NSMB games all look pretty identical, at least. I get that Mario is Shiggy's baby and has a huge legacy and reputation that he wants to protect, but Miyamoto really seems like a control freak sometimes.
Thankfully, Nintendo is starting to let Mario be creative with their Mario games again with Mario Odyssey, the Mario +Rabbids games, Mario Wonder, Bowser's Fury, Mario Wonder, SMRPG, the upcoming TTYD remake, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Princess Peach Showtime being prime examples. Although nothing has changed yet with the party and sports games as of yet.
Miyamoto hasn't been in charge of a Mario game since Super Mario 64. He has no control over any of the devs and only gives advice. The devs are mainly at fault
I think I would hate this game a lot more if I didn't enjoy the "puzzles" (as paper-thin as some of them were if not obtuse) and the entire Gooper Blooper fight because that track slapped
I'm pretty sure a notable amount of bosses can be defeated without the Thing sticker. Gooper Blooper at the very least. And also, some bosses like Kamek and Bowser Jr. don't even have Thing weaknesses, do they? Saying that all bosses need Things is just objectively wrong and makes the already weak and highly subjective criticisms of this game even weaker.
And how are most of the complaints of Sticker Star weak? I do agree; if you hate the game, hate it correctly. And yes, some things are perspectives, like the sticker battle system or the unengaging fights. The problem is that even if you taken Sticker Star at its word for what it actually is, it still sucks at what it is. If it were marketed as a handheld point-and-click adventure game separate from Mario, it would still garner hatred, and it doesn’t even do many of those things correctly. It sucks as a game overall, not just as a Paper Mario game nor just as a Mario game.
since i was never a story guy and I actually liked fighting in sticker star to pass the time, I gotta say my 2 biggest problems with this game is, If you fail to put the correct thing sticker into a place, putting the wrong one SHOULD HAVE had Kersti come out and say "hey, i see you are having trouble putting a thing into that spot. The thing you need is in *insert level here* and you need it to progress." That would have been pretty decent game design and at least help the player not need a freakin guide. Also she should have told you before a boss fight that a special item is required to "win". A small hint as to the shape or the design of the item would go a long way here. my 2nd problem is Line jump. The blue jump sticker. It's completely worthless. If you need to beat groups of enemies in boss fights, a thing sticker is way better, Also enemies are 100% optional except in the rare cases of needing a few extra coins or an item drops from them that is actually really strong. You could remove line jump, and the game would not be any worse for it. Battling is actively a bad idea if it's not required.
Miyamoto definitely has a part in this mess. His game design philosophy is very... unconventional, to say the least. He dislikes typical, rpg-ish level-up progression and has repeatedly stepped into many games development to go out of his way and have them remove it. He thinks it's an artificial way of rewarding the player (which it definitely kind of is, after all it is proven tgat dopamine is being released during typical level-up progression) and that a good game should be able to reward the player with its game design. While interesting on paper, I find the execution quite flawed and not at all applicable for every genre (sticker star being an excellent example) and hate how much influence this man has on many games that he should be having no say in. He is a genius and an established authority in his own field (which is definitely not the RPG genre). He's made decisions that led to nintendo becoming more successful, but at the same time, there are some games that have been either ruined or have become lesser because of his influence. I do not like Miyamoto and think it is about time for him to retire the industry. He may become a decent consultant for games he actually knows shit about, but he shouldn't have as much authority on development (especially for stuff that is not his expertise), as he currently does.
Unpopular opinion: I really enjoyed this game. Granted I was a kid, so a lot of the “bad” points didn’t really matter to me, but regardless I enjoyed it. Even played through it multiple times.
The bad points were worse to me as a kid. I was super hesitant to use the internet cuz… y’know… dangerous viruses and scary websites my parents rationally warned me about. So it was just an obnoxious, confusing, backtracky mess with impossible bosses and boring environments.
I think part of the reason I may not have found the puzzles to be so tedious is because I, maybe like internally, realized that the Things were important so I didnt haphazardly blow them in normal combat. It was oddly satisfying to go at a giant pokey with a baseball bat too
What I think is the worst part of Sticker Star isn't how dishwater the story is, the insulatingly basic battle mechanics or cryptic puzzles. No, the worst part about it, is the worst thing any video game, let alone a Mario game, can be: it's boring and forgettable. Say what you want about games that are arguably worse, but they are at least notoriously bad. Like, you'll never forget them for as long as you live bad. But Sticker Star is such a nothing game. It feels like a game made by robots who are trying to finish one simple goal and nothing else. With little accountability for quality, fresh ideas and passion.
Perfectly said, at least with really bad games they wrap back around to being funny or something. Sticker Star is just regular bad, a black hole of nothingness that makes people that have played it feel very little for it at all.
The obsessive redesigning to please the most famous guy in the company has really been undermining the good will nintendo had over the past decade; yeah he should be respected for launching and solidifying the platformer genre, but that shouldn't mean they need to abandon every other design philosophy just to suck up to him. Do the developers consider it illegal or something to apply common sense when it goes against the executives' decisions, the occasional blatant mistakes like these make me wonder.
To be fair, a huge part of Japanese culture is not to go against the manager or the leader. It certainly can be done, but it is risky. I would say that is a part of the misinterpretation of Miyamoto’s criticism against Super Paper Mario.
@@iantaakalla8180 Granted every businesses pretty much requires some internal mutual agreement to even function, but they way nintendo does it seems almost cult-like at times; it's frustrating and concerning how often these misinterpretations happen with their nonstandard formats.
Miyamoto really needs to be booted from Nintendo. He have once been the pioneer who let their rise, but these days his ideologies are out dated. He keeps trying to play things safe in a time period Nintendo needs to be experimenting and finding their wings again.
I mean, this is the game that basically ruined all Mario JRPGs. Yes, it was so bad that it also took out the Mario and Luigi series by dint of the underperforming Paper Jam. The only extant Mario RPG after that was the Mario + Rabbids series and those are SRPGs. And to think this all stemmed from misinterpretation of garbage survey questions.
5:45 Even though she does absolutely nothing except stand there in front of the Observatory's power source, in-game...I've never understood why people like Rosalina, when she's literally useless. She's not even the NPC that moves Prankster Comets or anything, ffs.
@@ahmedhasan4966 People forgive her for being _utterly useless_ just because of an optional, easily-missable bit of lore? Okay...still doesn't make me like her at all, but at least I now understand why some people do.
@@JamesP7 I suppose - if they've got an interesting personality or backstory. However, Rosalina has minimal personality aside from "mysterious", and her backstory is hidden away and easily skippable, so if you don't know where to find the storybook you'll never experience it. So, unless you go out of your way to explore the spaceship, Rosalina is literally a plank of wood. Boring, uninteresting, easily replaceable and worthless. Still don't see why she's so beloved; is it her appearance, more than anything else? If so, then yeah she's cute, but so are many other girls, both Nintendo and not.
Miyamoto does not actually have any talent anymore. He's way past his prime, to the point where he just doesn't "get" games anymore. It's one thing for story to not matter in a simple 8-bit platformer. He is not suited to working on any even remotely modern games.
Honestly, people give a lot less credit to this game than due. Y'all expect it to have as much features as its console counterparts, despite handhelds being a lot less powerful than home consoles. Stop having such high expectations.
dude the 3ds is an order of magnitude more capable than the N64 or GCN. and even if it wasnt the things that are bad about this game arent dude to console limitations. For reference one of if not the best mario RPG (Bowser's Inside Story) runs on DS
You know what you're right, expecting you to have a basic grasp on the fact games existed before is far too high expectations. I forget humans don't learn from their history. That the GBA and GB both had complex good looking RPGs. That this system can handle these and good looking/good mechanical games from the SNES and NES as well. That the world existed before and we can look at things to prove the issues with Sticker Star is too much.
