No but like this is genuinely one of the games I dislike the most. I'm not the type to play games she dislikes on purpose because I don't have time for that, but this one absolutely blind-sided me with how atrocious it was.
I remember playing and enjoying The Thousand-Year Door a lot, so I was excited about the prospect of a Paper Mario game that returned to its more RPG-lite roots. The first world felt like such an uninspired drudge that I kept playing expecting there to be a rug-pull. Knowing Super Paper Mario, being boring on purpose and then surprising you would very much be on-brand for this series' sense of humor. Except I kept going. And kept going.
Eventually I found the core loop of the game to be tiring, with a battle system that just does not work. Each attack is treated like an item and is permanently used up. An interesting idea, but this falls apart in scenarios where you encounter absolutely HP-sponge bosses and eventually run out of stickers, at which point you just can no longer use your jump attack. At least a Pokemon out of PP of all its moves can use Struggle! Like what gives?! As it turns out, the "Intended" way to fight bosses is to simply use the right "Thing". Every single Thing sticker, however, 100% turns the boss fight into a joke. So either you're slowly whittling a 300 HP boss down by 7 HP per turn, maybe 14 if you got the coins for an extra attack slot. OR, you just take off 80% of the boss's HP by immediately using the Baseball Bat Thing and it leaves the boss in a pitifully easy-to-beat state. It's just pick your poison.
But even if you fight the bosses the "Hard" way, Kersti has the fucking gall to reprimand you for not taking the easy out. Like, just straight up says "Try a little harder next time!" Fuck off, Kersti.
The most dreadful video game experience I've ever had in my life. And the only reason I finished it is because it was the only thing I had to play during the winter after it came out. Awful.
I remember playing and enjoying The Thousand-Year Door a lot, so I was excited about the prospect of a Paper Mario game that returned to its more RPG-lite roots. The first world felt like such an uninspired drudge that I kept playing expecting there to be a rug-pull. Knowing Super Paper Mario, being boring on purpose and then surprising you would very much be on-brand for this series' sense of humor. Except I kept going. And kept going.
Eventually I found the core loop of the game to be tiring, with a battle system that just does not work. Each attack is treated like an item and is permanently used up. An interesting idea, but this falls apart in scenarios where you encounter absolutely HP-sponge bosses and eventually run out of stickers, at which point you just can no longer use your jump attack. At least a Pokemon out of PP of all its moves can use Struggle! Like what gives?! As it turns out, the "Intended" way to fight bosses is to simply use the right "Thing". Every single Thing sticker, however, 100% turns the boss fight into a joke. So either you're slowly whittling a 300 HP boss down by 7 HP per turn, maybe 14 if you got the coins for an extra attack slot. OR, you just take off 80% of the boss's HP by immediately using the Baseball Bat Thing and it leaves the boss in a pitifully easy-to-beat state. It's just pick your poison.
But even if you fight the bosses the "Hard" way, Kersti has the fucking gall to reprimand you for not taking the easy out. Like, just straight up says "Try a little harder next time!" Fuck off, Kersti.
The most dreadful video game experience I've ever had in my life. And the only reason I finished it is because it was the only thing I had to play during the winter after it came out. Awful.