Post by sightshade on Oct 7, 2016 0:41:29 GMT -5
I felt like this post was too long to stick in the main thread, so I'm giving it a new one. Sorry 'bout that. 
So, the new game is basically out; or near enough. Having seen the whole thing via streams, I’m going to try to cobble my feelings together into a big, all-encompassing review. I’ll try to be fair, but honest; and hopefully my thoughts can help somebody.
(Mild spoilers below~!)
1. Story and Characters - This is probably the section where I'll be the most overtly negative. As an RPG player, the characters and storyline of a game are very important to me. I love the Paper Mario series because, while it's quirky and silly, it also has a lot of genuine heart and emotion. The stories of past games weren't afraid to get into some pretty deep stuff. Remember SPM's whole big plot about lost love, suicide, and the end of the multiverse? Remember Vivian, and her very human character arc about overcoming abuse?
Color Splash has the quirkiness, but none of the heart. It's a simple plot about Bowser and Peach, with a little bit of extra stuff at the very end. Y'know, standard Mario fare; but after the earlier games and their twists, it seems very underwhelming. Plus, there’s the incredible blandness of the NPC cast to deal with. (Toads, Toads, Costumed Toads, Shy Guys, Toads). The one truly new character - Huey the paint can - doesn't even have much of a personality by himself. He speaks with the exact same cheeky tone as every other NPC, which brings us to...
2. The Writing - The dialogue in this game is incredibly witty – I’ll just say that from the start. You can tell that every line of text was lovingly crafted to achieve maximum laughter. I was giggling throughout, I really was.
But the problem is, it tries so hard to be ~wacky~ that it loses a lot of subtlety in the process. I mentioned the cheeky NPCs earlier – there are no characters in this game that truly feel unique from one another. Everyone sounds exactly the same; from Toad #13, to Huey, to Toad #49, and so on. They’re not characters, they’re quips; and after a while it starts to feel very shallow.
Plus, there’s the small matter of memes and dated slang. Words like “fam” are used, there’s a Luigi Death Stare reference, and the whole thing just feels very 2016. That’s not a problem *now,* really, but in a few years it might be.
3. Graphics - The visuals are *gorgeous,* it has to be said. This is probably one of the best looking games on the Wii U – everything looks like literal paper, actually there inside your TV. The characters sway in the breeze, and you can even see the papery textures!
…I’m not a fan of the art style, though, for that exact reason. Everything is paper, or cardboard, and I feel like it goes a bit too far. In the earlier games, the “paper” thing was a subtle stylistic choice and nothing more – an aesthetic that wasn’t actually “canon,” so to speak. Nobody mentioned being made of paper; and in TTYD, the “paper curses” were treated as unnatural, eldritch transformations, not a part of everyday life. Heck, PM64’s original title in Japan was *Mario Story,* which has nothing to do with “paper” at all!
So, that’s a bit of a gripe that I have. The graphics are beautiful, but I think they could’ve been even more special if they hadn’t taken the paper style so literally.
4. Level Design/Variety - In the beginning, Color Splash feels kind of samey and NSMB-esque. There’s a grass world, and a desert world, and a volcano, and a beach with Cheep Cheeps… And that’s all in the first world!
Then you start getting further, and the really creative stuff starts showing up. Later levels include a coliseum tournament, an underwater game show, a tiny-huge forest, and a saloon where you fight a literal Steak as a miniboss, which you have to beat by cooking it properly.
It feels really special; and at the best of times, it’s almost up there with TTYD’s fun scenarios. I just wish, with all my heart, that it wasn’t just Toads (and Toads, and Toads…) that were there to fill the space. The level variety is so great, so what about the character variety, huh?
5. Music - No complaints here – none whatsoever. The soundtrack is heavenly. It’s very jazzy, and I’m not even normally a fan of jazz; but I’ve found myself listening to certain tracks from this game on constant loop for the past two weeks.
In fact, I think the credits medley might be the best song in the entire series; and that’s saying a lot, because TTYD and SPM had godlike soundtracks by themselves.
6. Battles - Combat in games isn’t a huge deal to me – like I said earlier, I’m a narrative kind of gal. I didn’t mind SPM switching to real-time battles, simply because the story was so great.
This game’s battle system is essentially Sticker Star’s, with very little having been changed. Stickers are cards now, but they’re obtained in the same way, and they’re still consumed after one use. It’s still impossible to target specific enemies, “Thing” cards are still a big part of strategy, and they’re still necessary to beat all bosses. It’s easier to actually *get* the Thing cards this time though, which is very nice.
There’s a paint meter that you can use to color in cards to deal extra damage, and the game has EXP-like pickups which are used to level up the meter. It’s nice to see leveling return; but it’s ultimately a useless feature, because running out of paint is basically impossible. Free refills are literally everywhere – you can whack the scenery, and paint spurts up in huge globs to be collected. What’s the point of increasing the meter if you never run out of paint to begin with?
Overall/Final Thoughts - Color Splash is leagues better than Sticker Star, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m sure that plenty of people will be satisfied with that, but there are a lot of us who won’t be. I see this game becoming very divisive in the coming months, because everybody has their own ideas about what they want from a "true" Paper Mario game. Do you like humor, creativity, and paper puns? If so, then I think you’ll love Color Splash. Do you like worldbuilding, sweet stories, and memorable characters? *Do you like the first three games?* If so, then this one might not be for you.
In my final opinion, it’s is a step in the right direction; but that’s not much comfort when we’re already about *thirty* steps down the wrong road.
***TL;DR: Eh, it’s okay.***
So, the new game is basically out; or near enough. Having seen the whole thing via streams, I’m going to try to cobble my feelings together into a big, all-encompassing review. I’ll try to be fair, but honest; and hopefully my thoughts can help somebody.
(Mild spoilers below~!)
1. Story and Characters - This is probably the section where I'll be the most overtly negative. As an RPG player, the characters and storyline of a game are very important to me. I love the Paper Mario series because, while it's quirky and silly, it also has a lot of genuine heart and emotion. The stories of past games weren't afraid to get into some pretty deep stuff. Remember SPM's whole big plot about lost love, suicide, and the end of the multiverse? Remember Vivian, and her very human character arc about overcoming abuse?
Color Splash has the quirkiness, but none of the heart. It's a simple plot about Bowser and Peach, with a little bit of extra stuff at the very end. Y'know, standard Mario fare; but after the earlier games and their twists, it seems very underwhelming. Plus, there’s the incredible blandness of the NPC cast to deal with. (Toads, Toads, Costumed Toads, Shy Guys, Toads). The one truly new character - Huey the paint can - doesn't even have much of a personality by himself. He speaks with the exact same cheeky tone as every other NPC, which brings us to...
2. The Writing - The dialogue in this game is incredibly witty – I’ll just say that from the start. You can tell that every line of text was lovingly crafted to achieve maximum laughter. I was giggling throughout, I really was.
But the problem is, it tries so hard to be ~wacky~ that it loses a lot of subtlety in the process. I mentioned the cheeky NPCs earlier – there are no characters in this game that truly feel unique from one another. Everyone sounds exactly the same; from Toad #13, to Huey, to Toad #49, and so on. They’re not characters, they’re quips; and after a while it starts to feel very shallow.
Plus, there’s the small matter of memes and dated slang. Words like “fam” are used, there’s a Luigi Death Stare reference, and the whole thing just feels very 2016. That’s not a problem *now,* really, but in a few years it might be.
3. Graphics - The visuals are *gorgeous,* it has to be said. This is probably one of the best looking games on the Wii U – everything looks like literal paper, actually there inside your TV. The characters sway in the breeze, and you can even see the papery textures!
…I’m not a fan of the art style, though, for that exact reason. Everything is paper, or cardboard, and I feel like it goes a bit too far. In the earlier games, the “paper” thing was a subtle stylistic choice and nothing more – an aesthetic that wasn’t actually “canon,” so to speak. Nobody mentioned being made of paper; and in TTYD, the “paper curses” were treated as unnatural, eldritch transformations, not a part of everyday life. Heck, PM64’s original title in Japan was *Mario Story,* which has nothing to do with “paper” at all!
So, that’s a bit of a gripe that I have. The graphics are beautiful, but I think they could’ve been even more special if they hadn’t taken the paper style so literally.
4. Level Design/Variety - In the beginning, Color Splash feels kind of samey and NSMB-esque. There’s a grass world, and a desert world, and a volcano, and a beach with Cheep Cheeps… And that’s all in the first world!
Then you start getting further, and the really creative stuff starts showing up. Later levels include a coliseum tournament, an underwater game show, a tiny-huge forest, and a saloon where you fight a literal Steak as a miniboss, which you have to beat by cooking it properly.
It feels really special; and at the best of times, it’s almost up there with TTYD’s fun scenarios. I just wish, with all my heart, that it wasn’t just Toads (and Toads, and Toads…) that were there to fill the space. The level variety is so great, so what about the character variety, huh?
5. Music - No complaints here – none whatsoever. The soundtrack is heavenly. It’s very jazzy, and I’m not even normally a fan of jazz; but I’ve found myself listening to certain tracks from this game on constant loop for the past two weeks.
In fact, I think the credits medley might be the best song in the entire series; and that’s saying a lot, because TTYD and SPM had godlike soundtracks by themselves.
6. Battles - Combat in games isn’t a huge deal to me – like I said earlier, I’m a narrative kind of gal. I didn’t mind SPM switching to real-time battles, simply because the story was so great.
This game’s battle system is essentially Sticker Star’s, with very little having been changed. Stickers are cards now, but they’re obtained in the same way, and they’re still consumed after one use. It’s still impossible to target specific enemies, “Thing” cards are still a big part of strategy, and they’re still necessary to beat all bosses. It’s easier to actually *get* the Thing cards this time though, which is very nice.
There’s a paint meter that you can use to color in cards to deal extra damage, and the game has EXP-like pickups which are used to level up the meter. It’s nice to see leveling return; but it’s ultimately a useless feature, because running out of paint is basically impossible. Free refills are literally everywhere – you can whack the scenery, and paint spurts up in huge globs to be collected. What’s the point of increasing the meter if you never run out of paint to begin with?
Overall/Final Thoughts - Color Splash is leagues better than Sticker Star, and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. I’m sure that plenty of people will be satisfied with that, but there are a lot of us who won’t be. I see this game becoming very divisive in the coming months, because everybody has their own ideas about what they want from a "true" Paper Mario game. Do you like humor, creativity, and paper puns? If so, then I think you’ll love Color Splash. Do you like worldbuilding, sweet stories, and memorable characters? *Do you like the first three games?* If so, then this one might not be for you.
In my final opinion, it’s is a step in the right direction; but that’s not much comfort when we’re already about *thirty* steps down the wrong road.
***TL;DR: Eh, it’s okay.***
