honestly origami king seems FAR better thus far than both sticker star and color splash by miles

but still i miss when the paper mario series was about the mario part and not about the paper part

like beforehand the worlds seemed so real, especially in the thousand year door, the towns were just teeming with life and it felt so joyful and adventurous

but now it's like every game needs a special paper gimmick and that's what the game is focused on

Nintendo higher-ups seem to think they just shouldn't make new Mario themed characters or have a story in Paper Mario anymore, and the devs have been working under those restrictions and suggestions ever since Sticker Star

they have the choice of "use existing Mario characters" or "make up new ones that don't touch on any Mario elements at all"

Miyamoto has also said things like "It's fine without a story, so do we really need one?"

so... yeah, they've really completely lost the point of the franchise, and it's only the devs trying their best to make it work despite that

BRUH

that's so unfair

i mean they managed to create some GREAT visuals in every game tho, even in sticker star

yeah, they're still really creative! but like you mentioned... it seems that creativity has been forced to shift away from, you know... the things everyone loved about Paper Mario.

yeah, it's really sad i had heard that the director switched right before sticker star, but i didn't know that backstory wtf

i'm not really sure why they would do that either?? like wouldn't it make more sense to focus on story since that's what people loved so much about the old games

but also i guess their market strategy is ever-changing since their main demographic is probably children

that's the thing, yeah. I don't think they're looking at 15+-year-old titles and going "clearly we need to do more of what worked then"