@Noqanky:
It has been already stated multiple times that it would be more alluring to fans if it weren't for the fact that it's coming after years of not actually providing main games with the qualities people have come to love about the series. The insulting thing is the timing, it's like if they had released animal crossing amiibo festival after 6 years of no main animal crossing title.
Just because you clearly don't give a fuck about the game being a bastardized addition to the series doesn't mean that other people have to "get over it". People have the right to have standards about products they enjoy and to criticize content. Without criticism we're all just mindless consumers, but I guess you're ok with that?
Criticism is fine. The constant mindless bashing, especially when no one has played the damn game, is ridiculous.
@Noqanky:
I'm blaming the company, not the audience. A proper management would involve catering to a wide demographic with titles aimed at each, instead of trying to make every title appeal to everyone. It's the same in any industry… you try to make a product that appeal to as many people as possible, you're going to miss a huge amount of your audience.
I agree with that. I just disagree with the reasons why you think the series is evolving this way.
@Noqanky:
Just with the badge system you have multiple ways of approaching battles. You say thousand year door was more stale but there was a literal fuckton more inventiveness in that battle system that the original didn't have. With the original paper mario I was able to cheese 99% of the battles with two things: charge and power bounce. Renders bosses useless and if you manage partners well the random enemies you fight in the overworld are no problem.
I tried the same thing in thousand-year door, and that didn't quite work. Bosses are actually structured to test adaptability to different situations, aside perhaps from Crump who's just weak every single time you fight him. Then you have things like the pit of 100 trials where item management, badge allocation and other things come into play and it's actually a rather enjoyable experience THAT REQUIRES THOUGHT. Gets even more interesting if you go and try the pre-hooktail pit of 100 trials.
I didn't say Thousand Year Door was more stale. I said the battle system felt quickly stale for me, after having played the first one. I would not have payed the first one beforehand, I guess I would have no problem with it. It just felt more of the same and the management of badges is not enough to engage me.
@Noqanky:
GRINDING? IN PAPER MARIO? I'm certain now you're talking about some other game, because there's something fucking wrong if you're grinding in fucking paper mario.
Forced grinding. Like the shitload of mandatory back and forth through the level during the ghost chapter. Or the whole chapter of the arena being only fights. That may not be the exact definition of grinding but I felt it like that.
@Noqanky:
Also, levels in paper mario rpgs is not even close to being the same thing as the level system they have in sticker star and seem to have in color splash. It's a game design thing. In the rpgs the game has life, the towns have residents and you move freely between them, exploring and interacting. It's worldbuilding, and pretty good one too particularly in thousand-year door where you have NPCs with their own individual story arcs and different lines at different points in the game.
Having a level system doesn't allow for that. It segments gameplay so that you enter, you have a mission, and you leave, and that prevents world-building from being as organic or player-oriented. Like, compare the world-building in Luigi's Mansion and Dark Moon, and you should see how it's different. In one it's you moving around and exploring, having missions of course but still you directing gameplay. In the other it's some old dude saying "oh, I done fucked up again, could you go to that mansion again to do this and only this and then be pulled back here before being sent back?"
it cuts the experience, interrupts it, and can even discourage further play, because hey, I got to sleep and I don't feel like doing another chapter. Whereas an open-world environment means it's easier to get lost and invested in the game's world.
Misunderstanding again. I better get your point and we agree. You are talking about static levels with fixed objectives. I was talking about levels from a strict level design point of view i.e defined areas isolated from the others. Even with a world-map, it could have evolutive life and PNGs (but it don't…).
I guess I just have been disappointed a little too much by so-called metroidvanias which, instead of a full interconnected world map, have a hub-like structure which make them feels more linear than they should (Guacamelee for example).
Although, I'd argue about your last point: the first two paper mario have the same kind of structure. The chapters are just longer than levels.
@Noqanky:
Except that the mario and luigi system is much much closer to the paper mario system than it is to sticker star or color splash. The latter two involve collecting shit and then throwing it at enemies. The former involve character progression and attacks based on action commands.
That's… exactly what I said. They had two similar systems for their Mario RPGs. So they decided to keep this system for Mario and Luigi and try something else with Paper Mario because it shows more potential outside of that.
@Noqanky:
It's like you work for Nintendo because you seem to also completely miss the point of what paper mario is….
Rant
Nope. Like I said, I just disagree with the reasons why you think the series is evolving this way (i.e broader audience) and I can see why they are doing that with the series.
I didn't said I was fully agreeing with them nor was I saying the classic Paper Mario formula was utter shit (just that it needs to rework its battle system).
@Noqanky:
Yea… except that's not true. Thing is, unless there's drastic reworking into a title chances are you can capture the feel of it from the first release. It's this superpower you get from having played games and worked in the industry and developed an expertise for it.
Like Mario 3D World, which was completely destroyed at its annoucement and was warmly welcomed at release? I agree that it doesn't look appealing right now (and you have rights to be pissed off since one of your favorite series is becoming another one) but let's see how it turns out.