PAPER MARIO: THE ORIGAMI KING RECEIVES NEW DETAILS ABOUT STORY, COMBAT, AND GAMEPLAY FEATURES

Earlier this week, Gameinformer published a massive feature on Paper Mario: The Origami King revealing several new details about the game.

This batch of info contains interesting tidbits about the game’s plot, how the battle system works, as well as other miscellaneous gameplay features. You can check out a summary of the key details below:

Story info

  • Toad Town is hosting a special origami festival, and Mario and Luigi are among the requested guests
  • Upon arriving, the duo finds that the ordinarily thriving town is ­virtually abandoned
  • Peach has been transformed into an origami form, and her normally friendly personality replaced with a detached automaton
  • The person behind this is King Olly, the ­diabolical ruler of the Origami Kingdom
    Mario gets dropped into a dungeon, and Olly wraps Peach’s castle in five massive streamers and places it atop a mountain
  • Mario meets Olivia, one of the few origami creations who isn’t an enemy
  • Mario and Olivia need to figure out how to restore Toad Town and the rest of the land to its normal, the two end up helping a ­partially origami’d Bowser along the way
  • Each of the five streamers encasing Peach’s castle is guarded by a member of the Legion of Stationary
  • The Legion of Stationary are realistic depictions of familiar art supplies such as colored pencils, rubber bands, and tape
  • The story isn’t chapter-focused, as players can travel from region to region seamlessly in an open-world setup, where bosses are scattered around the world, their locations indicated by the colored streamers.

Combat breakdown

  • When combat begins, players have a set number of turns in the planning phase to optimize their positioning
  • The goal is to line enemies up in groups so that Mario can take them out efficiently
  • Mario’s stomp attack hits enemies lined up in a row
  • Mario’s hammer deals more concentrated damage to groups of enemies that are standing side-by-side and one row deep
  • You can spend coins to purchase more time to think if you’re running low on time
  • Toad friends can give you hints if you pay them
  • Even if you mess up the first time, you can rearrange the stragglers once both you and the enemies have taken turns

Misc Gameplay features

  • Mario can run around to travel, drive a boot-shaped car, and captain a boat

  • Mario will also climb aboard an airship, where he takes command of the ship’s defenses to fire rockets at paper plane

  • The game is filled with one-off activities and miscellaneous diversions

    • Mario will encounter a host of Toads who have been folded into different origami forms
    • Hitting them with his hammer reverts them back to their normal form
    • At this point, they might return to Toad Town, restoring valuable services to the location
    • Toads may also join Mario in battle, watching from the sidelines and helping when asked (and paid).
    • You can also go fishing
  • Olivia is a constant companion throughout the adventure, and other characters join and leave along the way

Paper Mario: The Origami King launches July 17th on Switch.