And the fact that none of the worlds are remotely unique. Sticker Star's trial-and-error based gameplay style - in terms of both puzzles AND boss fights - just does not work with consumable items. I shouldn't be screwed if I use the wrong one in the wrong place. The "Thing" stickers were a clever idea, but the fact that they're one-use-only is what ultimately kills it. Paperization is cool as hell because it actually encourages you to observe and manipulate the environment, and it also capitalizes on the fact that the world is made up of "paper" even more than TTYD did. The presentation really is excellent, and there a handful of pretty damn unique mechanics in there. It's literally one of the worst-designed final bosses I've ever played, and that's saying a lot. You're going to have fun with the final boss. Kind of hard to play now that Color Splash did pretty much everything better, but I still prefer aspects of SS' battle system.
#PAPER MARIO STICKER STAR ALL BOSSES SERIES#
I agree that the lack of unique characters was disappointing, but the writing was still just as good as the other games in the series IMHO. And of course, in 2018 (and even 2012 or whenever it came out), everyone has google at their fingertips, so go ahead and just look it up if you want to, I don't think it takes too much away from the game. Also, not all bosses require a thing sticker to beat, and most have multiple different ones as weaknesses. Even if you can't figure it out, fight the boss for a few rounds and your partner just basically tells you the answer, and I'm not sure what you're talking about in the OP, but you can absolutely flee the battle with no penalty and go grab it if you need to. The common complaint of having absolutely no indication of what to use on the boss is also just not true. Also, you can get some great items from enemies, as well as coins, and you have plenty of trash stickers to clear out trash mobs with.
I would get into the fights most of the time just because they were fun. If you're a couple levels above an enemy, you'll quickly start getting 1 XP per battle. Battles are only slightly more 'pointless' than in the revered TTYD, which has some of the steepest xp scaling in any game I've ever played. The combat system is still really enjoyable for me. That said, I actually really like this game. So I'll preface this by saying I absolutely understand why people are pissed we didn't get a real TTYD sequel. People seem to like Color Splash at least so I'm looking forward to playing that one.
I'm halfway through it already though so I'll finish it. So basically the correct course of action for a boss is to google it beforehand. The game doesn't even telegraph when to use the sticker, and they're one time use items so if you use it at the wrong time, bad luck, reset again. You can't run from boss fights so the course of action is to figure out what you need, reset the system and reload to go get the thing sticker. You have a limited inventory and there are a bunch of 'things' in the game, so you're not going to have all of them converted into stickers. There's next to no indication of what you need, and if you need something you missed there's absolutely nothing to indicate you're missing it or where to find it. You don't really need many coins which is the only reward from them, and they just drain your resource of stickers, so you basically run through the levels avoiding enemies.īut that's a minor issue compared to the boss fights, which are my major problem with the game.īasically, for each boss you need to use a specific "thing" sticker. Surely after defeating this latest boss I'll return to the main town for a bit before continuing on? Nope, I just select 4-1 on the map and keep going. There's also no real pacing to speak of, an RPG will usually have some sort of downtime after a chapter before things ramp back up again. Across 12 stages I can think of 4 "characters", and this is the most the game has had in a world so far, the first two worlds basically had nothing. Take the world I've just finished for instance, the notable characters were: a friendly wiggler, a toad living in the forest, a snifit show host, and the big blooper that was the boss. The bigger problem with them though, is the lack of characters and story.
The worlds themselves are all pretty lifeless, just the standard themed Mario worlds (so far plains, desert and swamp, with snow and jungle up next). I've just wrapped up world 3 and I can safely say that yes, this is a very mediocre game. So I was looking at my backlog and for reasons unknown to even myself, I had a strong desire to start up Sticker Star, and see for myself just how mediocre it is.