June 2016 - Page 2 of 6 - Samantha Lienhard

Color Splash and the Future of Paper Mario

Video games 17 Responses » Tagged with: color splash, paper mario, rpg

Jun 222016

Paper Mario: Color Splash…

…

Can we talk about The Witcher again instead? No? Fine…

When Paper Mario: Color Splash was announced, it filled me with dread because of its resemblance to Sticker Star.

Let’s get one thing out of the way. I don’t hate it just because it isn’t like the original Paper Mario games.

I’d be thrilled if Color Splash looked like The Thousand-Year Door 2. I’d be thrilled if it looked like Super Paper Mario 2. Unfortunately, it looks like Sticker Star 2, and I considered Sticker Star a bad game in general.

Color Splash was one of the games shown by Nintendo Treehouse at E3 this year.

First, I’ll give it some credit. Visually, it’s great. I like Color Splash’s aesthetic.

It also doesn’t look like it has limited inventory space for cards. If you can carry as many cards as you want, that is a major improvement over Sticker Star.

However, the basic Sticker Star elements appear to be in full force: cards & paint work together to take the place of stickers, battles don’t award you experience, there are a lot of Toads instead of original characters, and Thing Cards are the equivalent of Thing Stickers to be used in puzzles and against puzzle bosses.

This doesn’t have to be terrible. Again, if the inventory isn’t limited, it’ll take away a lot of the frustration those puzzles caused. As long as the solutions are intuitive (see, the fire extinguisher makes sense) or at least hinted at, Color Splash could sidestep one of my major issues with Sticker Star.

But what about the others? It is not an RPG. Worse, GameXplain conducted an interview with the assistant producer that suggests Paper Mario will never be an RPG series again.

I don’t understand what’s wrong with having two Mario RPG series. Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, while similar, have very distinct feels. And since Mario & Luigi has also been handheld, this doesn’t do much for console players who want a Mario RPG…

Now let’s consider the matter of Color Splash’s story. In that interview, she was concerned about giving spoilers. That’s a good sign! …Assuming it’s a legitimate concern, that is. Paper Mario: Color Splash claims to be a mystery, so I’d like to see actual mystery elements in it, along with interesting characters.

(The paint bucket needs to be more than Color Splash’s Kersti, and he can’t be the only character.)

If Color Splash has a decent story and fixes Sticker Star’s gameplay issues, maybe I’ll give it a chance. Maybe. For now, I’m not convinced. Either way, I’ll lament the loss of the Paper Mario series as it once was.

As for a Thousand-Year Door HD remaster, great. Sure. It wouldn’t be the same as a new Paper Mario RPG, which is what I really want, but at least it would be something. And if it sold well, it just might convince Nintendo that there’s room for two Mario RPGs on the market after all.

Based on what we’ve seen so far of Paper Mario: Color Splash, what do you think about the game and the series’ future?

The Saga Continues in The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Reviews, Video games No Responses » Tagged with: rpg, the witcher

Jun 202016

Last Sunday, I beat The Witcher. Then E3 started, and while there are still E3 topics we could discuss, it’s time to give The Witcher its due.

(Technically it’s The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut, so the premium version of the original game.)

After completely missing my goal of catching up on the entire Witcher saga before The Witcher 3 came out (last May), I finally moved on from the books to the games.

Let’s talk about the gameplay quickly. I played on Easy because I wanted to worry about alchemy as little as possible, so I’m not the best judge of the game’s admittedly-unusual combat system. Instead of typical action RPG combat, you attack through timed clicks after selecting one of three styles: one for strong but slow attacks, one for fast but weaker attacks, and one for multiple enemies.

You’ll pick your style based on the type of enemy you face, as well as picking your steel sword for fighting humans or your silver sword for fighting monsters.

You can also cast magical signs, such as Aard (telekinetic blast) or Igni (fire). Then there’s alchemy, which lets you create potions, bombs, etc. using ingredients you collect from fallen enemies. Alchemy, as well as selecting traits from your talent tree when you level up, are two of the possible actions during meditation.

Overall, I found the basic gameplay fine, although the limited inventory drove me crazy.

The story picks up after the end of the saga told in the novels. Knowledge of the books isn’t critical, because Geralt has mysterious returned from the dead with amnesia. The amnesia isn’t a huge part of the story, but it does make it more accessible.

On the other hand, the game is filled with references to the books, which is awesome. Dandelion in particular is a goldmine for references, but there are plenty more.

Witcher-novel-reference

Witcher-referencing-an-old-friend

Witcher-Ciri-reference

Witcher-Last-Wish-reference

Witcher-Fringilla-reference

I loved catching references to the novels. The game’s story was also enjoyable, with some interesting twists and turns (and a blatant reference to H.P. Lovecraft, which was fantastic).

It also had good characters. I expected to mainly enjoy seeing familiar characters return, but it also had its share of original characters I liked quite a bit. (Like Kalkstein. Any other Kalkstein fans? He was great.)

Like many other western RPGs, The Witcher lets you select dialogue options and make key choices throughout the game. Unlike a lot of them, it often resides in a morally gray area. Which is the right choice to make? There is no right or wrong answer, but you have to decide.

(And maybe you dislike both sides and want to stay the heck out of it. You can, to an extent, which I greatly appreciated… especially after my frustration with Dragon Age II.)

Other choices are smaller, like deciding who to help in a side quest.

There are side quests aplenty, both monster contracts obtained from notice boards (which are decent except that the contracts inexplicably take up inventory space and must be put into storage) and regular quests given by NPCs. NPCs follow their own schedules based on the day/night cycle, although you can advance to a particular time through meditation.

And there’s rarely a single main quest that advances the plot, but rather several story-relevant quests that eventually lead you to that point.

A lot of the story quests were really fun and the story’s pacing worked well, although Chapter 2 dragged on a bit and Chapter 5 felt too linear. Nevertheless, it all came together for an epic conclusion that leaves me excited to play the second game and see where the Witcher saga goes next.

In short, it’s a great RPG and I definitely recommend it… especially if you’ve read the Witcher books. What are your thoughts on The Witcher?

Buy The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut from Steam
Buy The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut from GOG

E3 2016 Part 6: Nintendo Treehouse & Miscellaneous Highlights

Video games 2 Responses » Tagged with: e3

Jun 162016

What is Nintendo doing? It’s hard to say. Nintendo Treehouse should show if their decision to skip an actual E3 show was good or bad.

We’ll also take a look at some exciting things shown elsewhere during E3.

EA
Bethesda
Microsoft
PC Gaming
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo Treehouse

Nintendo Treehouse at E3 2016

Day One

As promised, Nintendo spent the first day focused on the new Legend of Zelda game. The day began with a new trailer, which also gave it the official title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

It’s a beautiful trailer, but it left me just as uncertain about open world Zelda as I was before.

After that, they showed some new stuff from Pokémon Sun and Moon, including the new four-player Battle Royal battles. There’s also a neat new feature where the screen is shadowed as you approach a trainer who will challenge you. I like that.

Overall, the game looks good, and I think the 3D is handled better than in X and Y.

The rest of the day focused more on Zelda.

I’ll admit, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild looks pretty cool. I especially liked the shrines, which have puzzles and are dungeon-like even though the actual dungeons are different.

I will say this. Despite my concerns, the more I watched, the more Zelda-like it felt. I’m cautiously optimistic.

And that was the first day of Nintendo Treehouse at E3 2016.

Day Two

The second day began with a Pokémon GO Q&A. I’m not particularly interested in it, but the hint of a summer release should please fans. I didn’t watch everything Nintendo showed the second day, but here are the highlights.

They announced a new RPG called Ever Oasis, created by the man behind Mana series. It’s really cute and reminds me a bit of Fantasy Life in its presentation.

So far it doesn’t seem as story-driven as I like my RPGs to be, but I’ll keep it in mind for sure. They played it during the live stream, too.

I watched some footage from the new Mario Party, but I still prefer the old style. Then I watched a little Yo-Kai Watch 2, which looks great!

I’m getting it for sure.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions looks as fun as ever, and I’m happy with my decision to pre-order it.

Then… I braced myself. It was time for Paper Mario: Color Splash.

And as much as I hate to say it, Color Splash still looks like Sticker Star 2.0 to me.

My heart sank when I saw the same sort of level-select map Sticker Star used. Then they got into a battle. Combat looks very reminiscent of the sticker system, although maybe better. I couldn’t tell if the inventory was limited, and a non-limited inventory would be a definite improvement.

And at the end of the battle, they earned no experience. Just coins and paint (and cards, sometimes). Later they used a special card to defeat a puzzle boss, which brought back memories of needing the exact right item from a totally different level to defeat bosses in Sticker Star.

I want to be wrong. I wanted Color Splash to surprise me. But it still looks far too similar to Sticker Star for me to believe in it. Worse, this interview suggests our chances of getting another RPG Paper Mario are pretty slim.

Other

Every year, there are some great games shown at E3 that aren’t included in the press conferences. For example, NieR: Automata, which looks absolutely fantastic!

I better hurry up and play the first one. They also showed some boss footage later in the week.

Yep, NieR: Automata looks absolutely awesome!

Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy XV situation has gotten even larger. They announced a side-scrolling brawler tie-in called A King’s Tale: Final Fantasy XV. Unfortunately, it seems as though it’s a pre-order bonus exclusive to Gamestop and EB Games Canada. (Really? It’s not included in the super-expensive Collector’s Edition?)

The second episode of Brotherhood (the FFXV anime) was also released.

They also announced Wait Mode, which lets you pause the game during combat to choose your moves at a slower pace. As a turn-based combat fan, it feels like an excellent compromise. Everything I heard about Final Fantasy XV during E3 has me excited. I’m fully on board with it now.

In other RPG news, Tales of Berseria got an awesome new trailer. It looks awesome. I really want to believe in Berseria, despite my disappointment with Tales of Zestiria.

Capcom shared gameplay from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice. I didn’t catch the whole live stream, but what I did see looked promising.

I also checked out some Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue off-screen footage, since the demo is playable at E3. It looks phenomenal, and I’m even more excited for 2.8 than I was before (if you can believe it).

Nomura answered many questions about about Kingdom Hearts 2.8, Kingdom Hearts 3, and the possibility of a sequel to The World Ends With You (YES!) in an interview.

And World of Final Fantasy continues to look so adorable and fun, I think I’m sold on it at last.

Well, that concludes another E3! What were your favorite moments and announcements this year? Which of these games do you like the most? And what do you think about Paper Mario: Color Splash?

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Table of Contents

Nintendo Treehouse at E3 2016

Day One

Day Two

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