Topic: The Future of Paper Mario

So, the Thousand Year Door remake is coming in soon and(despite my reservations) it's shaping up to be a near-perfect game remake following two divisive entries in the series and with a high probability of success, it's no doubt going to mean good things for the series moving forward.

Of course, when a game is remade it often brings up the question: What's going to happen to the series after the remake?

This thread is here to answer that question. Post your suggestions for Paper Mario's fate after the TTYD remake here.

Me personally, I'm hoping for a new game to bring together the stand out qualities of the first two titles(good battle systems, partners, unique characters) as well as the positive qualities(they exist) of Color Splash and Origami King(visuals, world design, character interactions).

The future of Paper Mario is the 3rd party clones.
I personally prefer those games than Paper Mario games itself.

@Anti-Matter so just Bug Fables then

I just want a super paper mario port.

Hard to say honestly. Cuz that's probably gonna be a "only time will tell" kinda scenario. What i can say is, though, that I can see it selling very well. I mean, this is a remake of highly regarded game.

Honestly, it may be crazy, but I believe we’re getting return to form. TTYD will likely sell well, and will likely be way more critically acclaimed than any of the other Paper Mario games the past 12 years.

Honestly Idk if they can top TTYD but making a game that could be considered on the same level would just be insane.

@N00BiSH
Don't forget Born of Bread and The Outbound Ghost for another Paper Mario clones.

@N00BiSH Yeah, I agree with that last point. I actually enjoy some of the post-TTYD games (some even more than TTYD itself) so I wouldn't want IntSys to just write off everything that isn't the first two games. I think every Paper Mario (except Sticker Star) does at least one thing the best in the series (64's movement and pacing, TTYD's battle system and aesthetics, Super's story-telling, Color Splash's comedy and level design, TOK's music and character writing, TTYD Remake's visuals), and a game that could combine all of their strengths would be pretty much perfect.

I can say that, even if they somehow decide to go back to the style of the more controversial games (not impossible, but far from guaranteed), the fact is that TTYD won't be just a "lost" Gamecube game anymore, being easily available for one of Nintendo's most popular machines. It will always be there as a point of comparison.

@StarryCiel I agree with you!! CS and OK were hilarious and I wouldn't mind more games that are a mix of old and new.

I have zero doubt TTYD will sell well on Switch. Super Mario RPG sold over 3 million copies on Switch. TTYD will match that, and likely sell even more. This game is also beloved by fans who have called for a remake for many years as well as finding an original copy being so hard and expensive, but because Paper Mario is a series unlike Mario RPG, it's more publicly familiar. This is easily Nintendo's biggest game of the year so far.

It's hard telling what Nintendo will do with this certain success. They've been stubborn about Paper Mario gameplay being different with each installment for so long. Even if the next new game isn't a traditional RPG, this should hopefully convince them to give it personality by allowing more original characters and unique designs for existing character species like Toads, Goombas, Koopa Troopas, and so forth. After this, I believe there's just no going back to Paper Mario's recent generic history.

It's interesting how there's been a Paper Mario game every four years since 2012. It's remarkably consistent. Sticker Star was in 2012, Color Splash in 2016, Origami King in 2020, and now a TTYD remake in 2024. If that's not a pattern, I don't know what is. I'm looking forward to the new game in 2028!

After a decade of frustration over this, I came to a definite opinion on this.

1. Every once in a while, Nintendo should release a Mario RPG that understands the appeal of both Mario RPGs and RPGs in general.

2. Paper Mario should pick a genre and be good at that genre instead of this turn based non-RPG thing that pointlessly disregards why genres or basic storytelling elements work.

I don't wanna be like "back in my day" about Paper Mario, especially since I loved Super Paper Mario, which was a weird direction to take already. But I just want Nintendo to not continually fumble some of the best games they could be making with weird choices that half the time no one wanted anyway..

So far I've played Super Paper Mario, Color Splash, and The Origami King. SPM is my favorite of the bunch. I realize it still isn't like the earlier two "traditional" games, but I loved the plot, original characters, music, some of the writing, and how dark aspects of it are - for a Mario game. Not to mention I think this entire scene had me dying by the end:

For reasons everyone knows, I have no desire to ever play Sticker Star unless I can pick it up dirt cheap somewhere. I'm happy TTYD is finally coming to a system where I won't be required to sell a kidney in order to play it. I would like to play the original N64 title eventually too.

I also concur! Both had some great writing and fun levels. What really killed them both for me were their respective battle systems (TOK was a mild improvement, but I became bored outside of boss battles and would run from encounters). Though I wasn't fond of a certain something that undoes level progress in CS on some occasions either.

I don’t expect any major changes to the franchise direction personally. This is simply a remake of a game that will likely sell well and is old enough to get a new generation of fans that never played it before. Short of the next new entry tanking I don’t see any changes. I didn’t really become a paper mario fan personally until Super so I like the experimental nature of the franchise but that is just me.

@Ryu_Niiyama That's partly what I'm expecting, too. But given that this is a remake of a game that people have been extremely vocal about for ages now, coming after a string of games that not everyone agreed upon, I think it's worth considering what that'll mean for the level of experimentation the series will have afterwards. Will IntSys consider making more games in the TTYD format without much deviation? Continue with the route they went for with the modern titles? Or will try to find some halfway point between old and new? All of these possibilities are on the table and I don't think it's too far-fetched to speculate on which is more likely to happen.

I loved TTYD and SPM but I'm more than happy with the direction they've taken with TOK. The TTYD remake throws some more interesting possibilities into the mix too, so I wouldn't complain if that's got some impact into the future of the series too.

The one game that I think truly let the series down was Sticker Star, and that's thankfully looking like an aberration that's been fully corrected by now.

All this hatred of Sticker Star almost makes me want to play it. I apparently missed an experience 😛 I see Nintendo Life rated it 8/10 (same as Origami King) but the player rating is a flat 5/10 😆 Basically the same on metacritic... I wonder why the professionals reviewers liked it so much more than players.

My main problem with Sticker Star is that the story is so bland. There just aren't any of the interesting characters and plot twists that made TTYD and SPM such great games.

Sticker Star is ok if you just play it as a generic Mario spinoff, at least until you run into the really obnoxious and poorly explained parts. (so stop before chapter 3)

I liked sticker star, but my biggest complaint is that it did a terrible job with its puzzles.
it was almost impossible for me to progress in certain areas because I had no idea which Sticker to use in that area to progress. like in one part of the game, you have to have a goat thing sticker eat a bunch of garbage... how would just a regular player think of that?!