The sad thing is that the overall company of Nintendo literally told the developers of Origami King that they couldn't stray too far from the set formula of character design since their main concern was marketing characters already familiar to the canon. I agree it's infuriating to have literally forty Toads in the same scene dance the exact same way, but it's also beyond the control of the developers.
At the very least, it looks like the devs figured out some more meaningful workarounds partway through development, probably when they got to working on Shogun Studios. Professor Toad, the Vellumentals, Captain T Ode, probably Emcee Shy Guy...they’re far closer to full original characters compared to the craftsman or the Bob-omb nicknamed Bobby, both who I suspect were from an earlier part of development. For the Toad thing, though, the only restriction was mainline only, and every new character can’t look too much like them. Other than that, the restrictions allow use of mainline species like the Piantas, the Gearmos, Lochladies and others.
I mean, It's still a pretty arbitrary restriction. Considering all other Mario games like Mario Odyssey or Mario & Luigi can have original characters, then it doesn't make sense why it's specifically Paper Mario that can't. It presents a double standard if anything.
I think that's the problem actually. Because it was just Paper Mario development that faced that problem. Because Odyssey was supposed to be the big celebration and Paper Mario had to make all the different origami forms work in addition to not wanting to upstage Odyssey, that restriction was only put on Paper Mario
Technically, the devs behind Mario & Luigi at AlphaDream were hit w/ the design embargo too, Paper Jam has no Paper Mario or M&L native species designs, and a few designs in the DX remakes were changed to match main canon Mario, such as Hammer Bro. Then they went bankrupt because of BIS remake not doing well enough to save them. As for Mario Odyssey, it's probably because of it being a 1st party developed Mario game, which makes it *special* and thus they were able to make new species designs w/o restrictions. It's sad, but the moment Mario became the Mickey Mouse of Video Games for being mainstream and family friendly, the design restriction was unfortunately doomed to happen. They have to defend their design property and force 3rd party developers not to stray away from that.
@@drafang62 uhhh, M&L enemy designs weren't changed much other than Koopa Troopeas and Hammer bros, the enemies still retain their design. Pretty sure this is all tanabe's doing.
I actually like more simple characters like the Bob-ombs in TTYD or the Partners in 64. I like it when the Characters aren't too different from their counterpart.
The thing that nintendo didn't thought at all is to change the paper type : -treasure map paper for pirate toads - Papyrus (haha funibone joke) for egyptian style toads - china ink style for shogunland toads...etc... For me, it's the perfect way to keep the characters unique even if they're T O A D S
I don't really think it helps with the character design issues it's got, but that's a really cool idea nonetheless. Especially if they're continuing with "everything is literally made out of paper".
Yes, and roll himself into a paper cyllinder, if I remember correctly. But I think the point being made is that now the whole world revolves around paper (and occasionally tools), instead of just the name and, well, Mario.
The only one I didn't like was T. Ode, but the other two were really lovely. It's crazy, but the one thing that killed T. Ode's redesign for me was that his eye was open. A huge part of his characters is that he is literally too cool to be unfazed by pretty much anything, and so he never opens his eyes.
I agree, "Love Toad" definitely needed some kind of heart motif to make him stand out. If the dialogue wasn't sucking you in and expecting you to talk to everyone for laughs, you could quite easily pass him up for looking like any other red Toad. Only notable difference is he leans on a pole.
@StarHeart Studios ohoho! If that's the case, I do actually have two from color splash I'd like to see redesigned: Computer lab scientist, and the lazy barista from the mustard cafe.
One character that really deserved a more unique design was the Origami Craftsman. He had a different outfit, but he's such an important character he needed a little more, maybe some features to make him look older than the other Toads.
I’m definitely on the neutral about Origami King because it didn’t feel like a conventional RPG, but that was because I was looking in as an outsider. It definitely seems like a step up from Sticker Star and Color Splash, but I miss the old days of PM64 and TTYD. Apparently the reason behind the New Trilogy having barely any creative designs was because the team was told to keep characters consistent with the established Super Mario brand.
Wasnt it confirmed that origami king is in no way goin the direction of the originals Thanks to the interview with tanabe?? I kno I pretty much am done with the series cuz of it, I liked it for what it was an not for what it became lol
@@solidillusion8008 That's totally fine if you think that way. And maybe that's what's been said, but honestly, i don't really know, or expect, anyone to fully know everything.
Man, amazing how some minor additions can go so far to make them more expressive and give them a sense of individuality. Yo, imagine if she gijinka-fied the Legion of Stationery. I would actually really like to see that!
If you do Paper Mario again do the Shop keepers, The Chef at the lighthouse, and maybe the Ice Vellemental, they all have designs that could be worked on
I thought about a redesign of Bobby, too, but given his backstory, I'd considered giving him a bunch of bandages all over his body (especially around his head, cuz of the whole amnesia thing) and a stick where his fuse would normally be. Maybe a few stray leaves or something in the bandages. Like he's just kinda been wandering around, lost and confused.
I used to agree with you, but thinking back on the more fleshed-out Paper Mario games, every character was kinda unique (despite sprites being reused), with clothes and all. Yeah all of them are regular bob-ombs, but every regular bob-omb could wear either a bandana, different colour of shoes, a cap, glasses, while remaining regular bob-ombs. Not only "special" characters should have individual features.
@@SytRReD all the enemy bob-ombs used the generic design, Bobby is meant to be an enemy bob-omb with no distinguishing features so that he stands out more by his actions rather than appearance
@@idunno_ You see, the problem with that is he not an enemy bobomb anymore and therefore is able to look different. Or maybe he can be embarrased about his lack of fuse amd covers it with a hat or something. Maybe he could be a little dirty because he washed up on sore.
@@TopOfAllWorlds Either way, it doesn't matter if he looks better with a unique design because Intelligent Systems isn't allowed to modify the designs. But if he did have a unique design, the scene before Bowser's airship where we see other bob-ombs wouldn't have as much meaning as Bobby would look different from them.
I would love to see you make proper character designs for the legion of stationary. I've seen a lot of great takes on them, and I's like to see what you do with them.
I'd love to see you redesign the stationery bosses in this game! They have a lot of personality through their dialogue, but honestly I would love if you could turn them into actual characters who have a motif based on the stationery they represent, instead of being a literal case of colored pencils for instance. :P
Consider this: In Sticker Star, you had the Things and everyone complained about them. But in this game, you realize why they're so devastating to opponents made of paper. It wouldn't work nearly as well if they were just paper characters with a motif.
honestly them being regular stationery makes them more charming with their personalities, the battles themselves are pretty good. except tape, i freaking hate tape.
It's amazing how such simple changes make the designs so much better. You didn't even do anything wild here, just leaning into the concepts more. Great job! You should be a character designer for this series! Would love to see more!
Let me just say that I’m kinda mixed on how Toads are a collectible? On one hand, it’s kind of a foil to Olly and the fanbase, who say “they’re all the same,” since they all have some personality and uniqueness. But on the other, are you really telling me that most of this world is populated exclusively by toads? I mean, seriously, there is an area that’s based off of Chinese and Japanese culture, but you see almost no obvious creatures like Ninjis. Shangri-spa is literally populated by Angel toads, and we’ve already seen angelic creatures before in SPM’s Overthere. I’d be fine with the idea that the closest area to Toad Town, the red sector, is inhabited by Toads, but I’d also enjoy seeing more civilisations inhabited by different species, like the Scorching Sandpaper desert being inhabited by Snifits and some other species (maybe bird creatures, like the carpet riders from SMB2, because the Red Sector is also inhabited by koopas, who see the turtle-like earth vellumental as a god, and the fire vellumental is a Phoenix)
They're a collectible because of a specific element in the game's story. You're not really 'collecting' them as much as rescuing them. It makes sense in context.
I really love your heart toad, he's so cute! Id love to see more paper mario redesigns, especially if they were more in the style of the original game. I feel like I'm the only one, but I think the 64 aesthetic is still the best out of all the paper mario games. I don't know how feasible it would be for you since 64 uses sprites rather than regular art like later games, but any paper mario content would be great ❤ or any redesigns in general, I really love your style
i'm sure others have mentioned this in the comments already but the designers were actually not allowed to put much if any variance in the npc designs which SUCKS but at least that did result in these neat redesigns! was kinda hoping you'd redesign at least one of the stationary themed bosses though, those boring designs are one of the most disappointing aspects of origami king to me
If your wondering about the reason why paper mario fanbase isn't to happy about origami king (even though I agree its a fun game) its mostly due to the controversy on its creation and the new limitations due to it being a mario game. There is a reason why all the character designs are limited compared to the first 3 paper mario games its because the creators are now not allowed to make completely new designs from existing characters like before and no new characters. Which is what made paper mario story fun and doesn't make sense since Olivia and Oly exist. Thats one of the controversys atleast one that's related to the video look some more up it'll make ya sad. P.S (example of sad facts)In the creation of sticker star Miyamoto apparently asked if the story was necessary ...in a paper mario game.
It's also contradictory because. In Super Mario Galaxy the story elements were made behind Miyamoto's back and when it was done he was surprised and let it be. In the sequel he stopped that before it could even start. Then in Odyssey they found the perfect balance. So it's odd that in Origami King it barely was a balance. In the few parts I've completed from Super Paper Mario I see it not too dialogue-filled, story doesn't interrupts gameplay that much, etc, not that it would be a bad thing if it did, TTYD was one hell of a game when I bet it some months ago, but I've heard Super Paper Mario has the best story of the bunch, and I haven't see it interfer with gameplay, while having lots of original characters, so *_pApEr mAriO oRigAMi kInG's bLanD dESiGnS dOn'T mAkE sEnSe_*
@@MrDiana1706 They got away with so much in both those games I doubt Nintendo now would even want to do that again. No naked invisible Peach or literally visiting Hell.
@@MrDiana1706 That's why Mario Galaxy is my favorite. That little cutesy story by Rosalina made me care about Her and the cute star children Luma's that I wanted to save the universe. In Mario Galaxy 2 I really couldn't care less because of lack of motivation and care.
It's good to see you again, Courtney! Also, just to give an opinion, I loved your idea about the mushroom caps, and I also like to imagine that only the Toads from around the Mushroom Kingdom have these polka dotted caps. Maybe, the Toads coming from regions that have a lot of oriental inspirations could have shiitake caps, maybe the more 'european' ones have boletus caps, etc.
they look really great i love the idea of t.ode (or howerver you spell it) being an old musroom beacuse of him being called ancient also love the heart motive on love toad
I mean, I figured the stock character designs was what everyone was complaining about anyway. The characterizations and gameplay of modern PM is fine (mostly): it's just that little bit of charm lost that upsets me personally.
The annoying part is that the developers admitted that they couldn’t stray to far away from the normal template because the higher ups wouldn’t let them.
its not really toxic to just.. not like the way they did it.. if you start arguments and all around just be a turd, then its toxic. but just civil discussion and nitpicking is fine... the game still could’ve actually had more non-toad characters though, still love the game anyway
I really like what you did with the love toad but perhaps give Captain T. Ode back his signature “Never looking straight ahead but also really calm” facial expression. Also, I would love to see a redesign of The dance toads, DJ Toad, and Professor Toad
Personally, my biggest gripe with 'oragami king' is the battling system. There are a few things I dislike about the battle system, but I'm going to keep it to 1 point. They made battling next to pointless, you only battle to earn coins and since I tend to spend more coins then I earn I pretty much stopped fighting.
Definitely more episodes. This series really interesting, and I'd like to see more of your designs on Paper Mario characters. Maybe with the next episode, you can try the Legion of stationery. I mean they're all pretty bland generic office items, so it would be pretty interesting to see you put life into them. okay, that's all, thank you!
I really loved this video!!💜 I’d like to see you redesign/draw other Origami King characters, specifically Olivia and King Olly, and perhaps other characters from the game!
I’m a big fan of Super Paper Mario, so this video automatically gets a 10/10 for all the positive references to it. Your designs are always so adorable by the way! I don’t know what you like to redesign, but why not have some fun with the Animal Crossing series? Cute animal villagers like that seem to be right up your alley. ^.^
Going into this vid, I *knew* you were gonna do "Bobby" the Bob-omb and I was worried since individuality would step on his ark but I was pleasantly surprised to see all you'd done was give him a hat that's plot relevant and change his expression, meaning once his gets a fuse and is filled with wide eyed resolve he'd once again be indistinguishable. Captain Tee Owed was another one I was like "oh no it's gonna be too noisy right?" But it's not any worse than the gawdy coat he has already and the change in cap to like like a pirate hat is brilliant. I loved all these. So subtle but so effective. I'd say you should have worked on the design team but I remembered it wasn't their fault... they were told not to be creative. :(
Please do more....these are so good and incredibly amazing if you ever decide to, here are some suggestions: Canned Food partay Trio (whichever one you want), the DJ Toad, and maybe Professor Toad
I liked these redesigns! T. Ode looks... kinda weird tho, but it was neat seeing a Toad based on another type of mushroom. Would be cool if you redesigned another PM characters. Maybe some Sticker Star and Color Splash ones?
I think that the Origami King is pretty stylish and the highlight will always be the writing, it just falls into the same pitfall as the other games. The style went from unique and fun to just... paper. The games just used the paper/storybook aesthetic, but ever since Sticker Star it went from Paper Mario to just PAPER
Well, aesthetic and occasional visual humour like falling like leafs or being a disguise, but then again, that's minor overall. Before they were paper PEOPLE, but nowadays they're PAPER "people".
With Bobby & T. Ode, I don't think a different design is necessary, however I really loved what you came up with. Unique mushroom caps has been something I've been interested in seeing for a long time, and the Bobby one is really subtle and just... works! Characters like the Love Toad could've really used a unique outfit though. The one that really sticks to my mind is the owner of the Training Dojo in Toad Town. He's the sort of character that deserves a little something more. Going back to T. Ode, I feel like his skin color could've been more pale and washed out, maybe even blue-ish, to tie into the fact that he was frozen in ice for centuries.
Honestly it's nice to see you tackle other series outside of Sonic. If you end up covering more Paper Mario, that'll be interesting. If I had to give a request for anyone in particular, maybe a unique take on Mr. L and Brobot could be cool. As for any other series, maybe you can tackle a series like Mega Man and his many spinoffs as there are a lot of cool characters. That or Undertale since you've made it clear how much you love your skeletal husbando Papyrus.
Shoves the rest of PaperMario game casts twords you, ‘You have plenty to work with, Simple changes and drawings! Easy video output if you hit a ruff time’ 😊😼
I find it interesting that you chose to use the amanita mushroom to redesign Captain T. Ode. Because that's actually the mushroom which the iconic super mushroom power up's design and effect is based on.
Thing that smashed my childhood for the Mario cartoon: the toads mushroom on there heads aren’t real... LITERALLY one episode one of the toads REMOVED there hat???? I was so confused when I sow it as a child
i liked the origami king it had so many nice and new things like the battle style and the story is amazingly very good and i love the way Luigi is goin on a jurney to find a key and he always gets the wrong key he was looking for too bad there wasn't like a dlc where u could play as Luigi and see how he manges to get to where he is and how he gets those keys
My favorite line in origami king up to what I have played so far. (Btw I have not made it past the fire vellumental cave) "... I know what a boat is ma'am."
Maybe you could have done more with the paper they're made of too. Bobby was floating around in the ocean, so it'd make more sense if he was waterlogged and floppy right? And how T. Ode is an ancient, he'd be more likely made of parchment or papyrus than modern cardpaper.
