Taylor Lomba

A lot of fun so far. Mixed feelings but overall positive. Once the battle system “clicked” I found myself look forward to doing the battles/puzzles. It’s not the customizable rpg style of the first two paper Mario games (which i still prefer).. developers seem to limit variety of attacks/badges instead emphasize finding “correct puzzle solutions”. For example, you manipulate the board to position enemies a certain way to use one of two attack patterns - a 4-enemy-long line jump or a 2x2 hammer attack. You always manipulate the board to put all enemies in a position where a combination of those attacks will neatly hit every one of them. A lot of Origami King’s design elicits the feel of the original PM games - in the cleverness, lovable characters, and even how the battle system “feels” when you plan a perfect line up. Finding the correct solution feels great. BUT, it would be more fun to make up your own creative answers to the puzzles with a greater variety of attacks. [my wish? That there were more Unique options to interact with enemies on the board.. Like items that maybe dealt damage and shifted enemies over one column.. or hit all enemies in the inner-most ring. Or shot fireballs that moved diagonally.. It would be cool if you could use a different combination of attacks to accomplish the same goal a different way, or clean up imperfections from your last turn. You can’t do that in this game, which is a loss. As-is, the battlefield is not very dynamic to the players choices.. After the attack phase, no matter what happens, enemies line up in a new “puzzle” to solve. Again, this is more about “finding the correct solution”. And when it clicks, it feels great. However, the creative problem-solving that is so prevalent in the first two games is not really pronounced in the Origami King. This game focuses less on giving players options for creative expression and instead maxes out on charm and presentation... edit: actually, the game opens that creativity in the boss battles, just not standard ones] Still, it’s been a great experience. I am giving it 5 stars despite those drawbacks, which speaks to how well they pull off what goes right. If I could be more precise, it feels like 4.35 stars or so, and I like it enough I’d rather round up. The feel of this game is very well crafted, visually the best in the series by far and the music is great. It’s a very enjoyable game. Hopefully in future installments in the series the developers prioritize letting player get more creative like in the original games.