Author Topic: Paper Mario: Sticker Star  (Read 13835 times)

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Offline Do_What

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Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« on: November 15, 2012, 12:22:23 PM »
Anyone playing this? It's awesome. I'm only two worlds into it, but it's so good. I like the lack of experience and how easy it is to avoid battles. There's a nice push pull to using stickers and going through the world and battling. The exploration so far is fun and a lot more enjoyable than most rpgs. It feels like a very light platformer much more than an rpg. The world is laid out that way as well. It's a nice and nostalgic feeling. Love it.
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Offline Ceric

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2012, 01:56:52 PM »
I don't really like the lack of experience, personally.  Makes avoiding fights the best thing you can do in most scenarios but when you do that you have a lot of Sticker Management.  I don't know how a Sticker Bank didn't make it into this game. 

I'm not really sold on the things either.  Here are special expensive stickers you have to have for certain things.  Oh and sticking the wrong sticker onto and area gets rid of that sticker. 
Then the area right after Yoshi Sphinx is just confusing.

The first boss battle is more than likely unbeatable without a special sticker.

Stickers nice concept but the execution is a little flawed.
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Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2012, 07:21:08 PM »
Anyone playing this? It's awesome. I'm only two worlds into it, but it's so good. I like the lack of experience and how easy it is to avoid battles. There's a nice push pull to using stickers and going through the world and battling. The exploration so far is fun and a lot more enjoyable than most rpgs. It feels like a very light platformer much more than an rpg. The world is laid out that way as well. It's a nice and nostalgic feeling. Love it.
Agree with all this. Loving it. Seems like ther will be plenty to do, plenty of places to explore. Feels like I have barely scratched the surface.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2012, 09:10:54 PM »
I seem to be stuck in the desert right now, with only 1 piece of the giant tablet sticker. Unfortunately, the only ways forward seem to be blocked by Object Sticker spots, and I'm not sure which ones to use.

1.  There's one in front of the Yoshi Sphinx's foot. Am I supposed to place the Magnifying Glass there (to hot-foot the statue or something)?

2.  There's another right next to a giant tornado. I have no idea whatsoever what to place there to stop a tornado, as none of my objects seem to fit the scenario.

Overall, the game's good but I wish there was a point to the combat (outside of getting coins I don't need, as I already have over 2,000 coins) and I really wish there was a point to the Sticker Museum because the reward you get for doing that sidequest is so not worth the effort outside completionism. And yeah, the way the game doesn't give you any inventory space for a special sticker and then practically requires you to have one for the first real boss is total BS.
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Offline matx88

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2012, 12:33:23 AM »
I think sticker star's mechanics really compliment the platform. It feels perfect for a portable "paperized" mario adventure
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Offline Do_What

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2012, 08:53:17 AM »
I realize that I completely skipped the desert and went right to the woods. I'll see if I can figure out the tablet thing later.
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Offline Zacko

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2012, 03:16:20 PM »
I'm loving this game so far, but I'm not really enjoying how hidden objects in the game are REQUIRED to progress. Perfect example is the tiles in the game. I kept playing through it, and all of a sudden I get to a level where a bunch of piles are missing. I hadn't run into any of them, so it was frustrating to have to go back and play through levels multiple times in order to progress. I can understand the idea of hidden areas, but those should be optional. If I want to just run from the beginning of the level to the end I should able to. Then go back afterwards to find all the hidden stuff.
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Offline Adrock

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2012, 10:53:28 PM »
I just started this today. I like it though I didn't get far. I'm a bit disappointed that they got rid of the way the walls of buildings fold down when you enter. I thought that was cool. Oh well. It doesn't really affect the game, just something I noticed.

Offline alegoicoe

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #8 on: December 21, 2012, 07:48:55 PM »
Just beat the giant ice bowser, with a boombox and fire items you should do just fine.
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2012, 05:00:47 PM »
Indulge me. The following post will contain 100% bitching.
 
Man, that was frustrating!
 
I was loving this game for the first 10 hours or so and then I just hit a dead end. When I finally worked out what it was that was preventing me from proceeding I was actually pretty furious. Spoilers ahead I guess.
 
In the level 'loop loop river' there is a bridge which has been destroyed over time (this is told to you by a nearby Toad). I could float along the river on lily pads, but I could see no way up and there was no (visible) way of crossing the gap. So I spent the next several hours traveling through all the levels I had already visited, unlocking hidden doors, paperizing everything I could see, and basically examining every inch of every level. When I finally broke down and checked a guide I found out that there are invisible coin blocks underneath where the bridge had once been... :@
 
So, I'm on a lily pad floating on a poison river surrounded by several Shy Guys in the water, and I was somehow expected to make the illogical leap that there would be invisible coin blocks? I had absolutely no f***ing intention of jumping off that lily pad! Why should I? In fact, I was very determined to remain on the bloody thing until I had something else to jump on to.
 
Invisible coin blocks? I'd expect invisible coin blocks to be a solution in something like Kaizo Mario World but not Paper Mario. It's such a mind-numbingly arbitrary solution to what on the face of it seemed like a pretty explicit puzzle. 'The bridge is missing'. 'Got it. Now I have to find a way to restore the old bridge or create a new one'. I spent so much time looking for stickers which might cause the water to rise or stickers which might act as a new bridge, I tried to collect and restore all the pieces of Wiggler in the hope that he would span the river himself thus creating a makeshift centipede bridge, I tried to find a way of knocking down the bowling pins at Strike Lake in the hope that the solution might be found behind them, I tried so many things and in the end it was bloody invisible blocks.
 
Man, that was frustrating!
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Offline Nintendad

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2012, 09:49:06 PM »
I couldn't agree more. Personally, I hate using guides and only use them as a last resort. But with this game, I'm making an exception. If I play through a level one time and hit a dead end, or face a boss one time with no idea which sticker to use, I'm going straight to a guide. I hit the exact dead-end you described and there is no way I would have found those invisible blocks on my own unless I played the level 10+ times AND would happen to find it by accident. Sorry, don't have time for that.


I do like this game (I'm about 75% through) and enjoy everything about it except these puzzles/bosses in which the solutions are obtuse. Kersti does give hints on some of it, which I thankfully use, but not all of them. I've probably used a guide 4-5 times so far, mostly when I don't know which sticker to use. I don't feel bad about it at all. I'm surprised a game built like this came from Nintendo.

Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2012, 10:32:24 PM »
I'm surprised a game built like this came from Nintendo.

Same here. I'm shocked quite frankly that this game met Nintendo's normally rigorous QA standards. It's one of the oddest Nintendo games I've ever played. It is simultaneously incredibly polished and yet woefully derelict in providing the player with feedback on what it is they're supposed to be doing.
 
I think it was the designers' intention for Kersti to offer hints as to where the player might want to explore next, but half the time you talk to her you aren't even given the option. It makes no sense. Sometimes I would go off exploring, trying to find new stickers or unlock new areas, but eventually I would want to return to the main thread. I'd press 'L' to call her up and she would give me a description of where I was currently and then vanish. I have no idea which factors dictate whether or not she will give you a hint. Regardless, surely the decision as to whether or not a hint is needed should be left with the player, rather than only being made available when the game deems it suitable.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2012, 10:35:54 PM by Pixelated Pixies »
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #12 on: January 01, 2013, 06:51:02 PM »
Heads up for anyone else who finds invisible s*** in video games infuriating. There's another invisible block in level 5-1. As with the previous invisible block puzzle in level 3-5 I found this to be just as infuriating, pointless and lazy.
 
 
« Last Edit: January 01, 2013, 06:58:49 PM by Pixelated Pixies »
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Offline Do_What

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2013, 12:24:43 PM »
Those invisible blocks are kind of garbage. I was lucky throughout playing this game because I played it sort of slowly and one level at a time over a couple of months. So when I needed stickers I had them and I liked avoiding fighting enemies. I liked it a lot, but I think I like it more than most just because of the way I played it. Also, because I really did get lucky with having the right stickers at the right time.
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #14 on: January 02, 2013, 02:53:20 PM »
I liked it a lot, but I think I like it more than most just because of the way I played it. Also, because I really did get lucky with having the right stickers at the right time.

I would have enjoyed this game so much more if my experience was like yours. Unfortunately it hasn't been.
 
Here's another tirade. Just some thoughts I've been mulling since yesterday.
 
When there's a communication breakdown between the designers and the player you might sometimes chalk that up to user error on the part of the player. With Sticker Star, however, those breakdowns happen so often that the blame absolutely must lie with the designers. The most egregious problem that Sticker Star has is that the puzzles are quite frankly crap, but that is further compounded by the fact that the game does a terrible job of imparting to the player the 'logic' of each sticker (particularly in relation to boss battles) and the fact that if the player has not yet found the sticker that is required to proceed then they will have to laboriously search through all the previous levels in the hope that they'll stumble across it.
 
Just to give you an example, I ran straight past the Light Bulb 'Thing' in the Yoshi Sphinx. I flat out did not notice it and ran up the steps to the next area. So when I finally hit a brick wall later on in the game and had no where else to explore except the darkened warehouse in the harbor, I spent hours just wandering about looking for the correct sticker.
 
I ended up wasting a Spotlight sticker, a Car Battery sticker, a Lighter sticker, a Matches sticker. When I finally got around to searching the desert again and found the Light Bulb I felt really dumb. Then I thought about it some more and realised that while I had clearly messed up and had made a mistake, the game had taken no account of me as a player. At no point had the designers thought, 'Hey, what if someone did not find this one very specific item?'. Each time I brought up 'Kersti' to get a tip all she told me was that I should go to the harbor, but without the item I needed there was no bloody point in going to the harbor!
 
I'm probably flogging a dead horse here, but I really do think that the Paper Mario series has gradually shed pretty much everything I liked about it. What I loved about those first two games was the hilarious characters, the setting (the Mushroom Kingdom but not as we knew it), the great art style, and the satisfying RPG elements. In my opinion the only thing that has been retained right through to Sticker Star is the great art style and music. Everything else has been shorn along the way.

« Last Edit: January 02, 2013, 02:59:31 PM by Pixelated Pixies »
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Offline Nintendad

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2013, 12:22:36 PM »
I walked right by the lightbulb sticker too because, if I remember, you have to do something 3 times before you actually get it. I did it once, nothing happened so I moved on thinking I had already checked this area. Only when I checked a guide did I realize I had walked past it.


I'll be honest, about halfway through the game I began to rely on guides anytime I came to a dead-end. Between invisible blocks and solutions like the one above, I didn't want to spend hours searching for answers I'd probably never find on my own. Believe me, I don't like using guides which is why my enjoyment of this game greatly decreased the further I got.


And I can tell you right now, the chances of figuring out the exact order and timing of stickers to use during the final boss fight is between slim and none without a guide. First there are 6-8 specific types of stickers you  need to have with you (again, you have no idea going on which the 100+ stickers in the game you need to have), and you have to use them at certain times. Figuring out when to use them is probably doable if you know what you need, but I didn't feel like spending hours trial and erroring to figure it out.


Nintendo, you are way better than this.

Offline TJ Spyke

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #16 on: January 06, 2013, 12:28:17 PM »
I am so glad I have not gotten the game, the whole sticker idea annoyed me anyways. But I am surprised, Nintendo doesn't usually do stuff like have hidden blocks that are REQUIRED to progress (usually hidden blocks just have optional bonuses).
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #17 on: January 06, 2013, 12:29:40 PM »
Yeah, I pretty much just broke down yesterday and bought the guide so I could get through the game. I'm sick of this game's ****ing obtuse and user unfriendly "puzzles", and just glancing through the guide there's a lot of stuff I need to progress that I missed because the game never pointed me over there.
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Offline nickmitch

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #18 on: January 06, 2013, 10:25:12 PM »
I've been playing this game, and I REALLY wish there was a leveling system. I'm in the forest area, and once I got to the shop where you can find the secret door stickers I decided to go back and explore earlier levels. Thankfully, I could kill goombas with just the hammer outside of battle, but the fights were still annoying and tough to deal with. Another problem I had was with a boss that I started fighting and coudln't beat because I didn't have the secret sticker. I almost beat it, but died (twice) before caving in and going all the way back to get the sticker and sell of space in my sticker book. Crap like that is annoying. I wouldn't mind it as much if fighting enemies actually did anything for me besides burn stickers.

The game is still fun, it's just structured really poorly.
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #19 on: January 07, 2013, 02:24:46 AM »
About half way through the game I started just running from battles. Alot of the time you'll fail to run away, but taking a few hits is alot quicker than actually battling. Plus, it has the added benefit of not burning through stickers. It's an indictment of the game that I've started to play this way, but without any correlation between the battles and my character progression I just don't see the point in engaging in the battles.
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Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #20 on: January 07, 2013, 07:23:09 PM »
I guess this will be my last update on the game. I finished it today. To be honest, it was a struggle to motivate myself to come back to it. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a bad game, but it's certainly not a good one. Man, for me 2012 has been rough for retail releases!
 
Thank god for eShop.
 
I'd take Mutant Mudds, Crashmo and VVVVVV over Kid Icarus: Uprising, NSMB 2 and Sticker Star any day.
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Offline Adrock

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #21 on: January 09, 2013, 09:26:58 AM »
Yeah, I pretty much just broke down yesterday and bought the guide...
Noooooooooooo... Gamefaqs, yo. Or Game Explain on youtube.

I don't like using guides, free or otherwise, but if I'm stuck, I'm stuck. I remember being so terrible at video games that I didn't see the switch to untwist the hallway in The Forest Temple of Ocarina of Time. I was stuck for an entire month. F that noise, I'll just use the Internet to help me.

Anyway, I haven't played Sticker Star in a few weeks. I finally completed NSMBU 100% (holy shiz, Run For It! was brutal) so I hope to jump back into SS so I can finally open and start Kid Icarus Uprising.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 09:32:18 AM by Adrock »

Offline Pixelated Pixies

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #22 on: January 09, 2013, 06:24:42 PM »
I remember being so terrible at video games that I didn't see the switch to untwist the hallway in The Forest Temple of Ocarina of Time.

I have a similar story. When I got Goldeneye for the N64 I got stuck in 'Dam' (the first level!) because I didn't realise you could interact with the switch to open the large metal doors that bisected the level. What a dumbass!
 
It took me a whole day to work it out, lol.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #23 on: January 09, 2013, 11:28:12 PM »
Yeah, I pretty much just broke down yesterday and bought the guide...
Noooooooooooo... Gamefaqs, yo. Or Game Explain on youtube.

I don't like using guides, free or otherwise, but if I'm stuck, I'm stuck. I remember being so terrible at video games that I didn't see the switch to untwist the hallway in The Forest Temple of Ocarina of Time. I was stuck for an entire month. F that noise, I'll just use the Internet to help me.

Yeah, I know there are other outlets out there, but I'm old-fashioned and I really like having a physical guide at the ready to flip to whatever information I need to find at the moment (rather than having to remember to keep a web browser open and spend several minutes searching for the exact information I need).  Plus, Paper Mario's printed guide is very well-organized with plenty of surprisingly-helpful pictures of exactly where certain secret areas are.

Hell, I'd say for games like Persona 4 you really need that printed guide because in a game like that you need important information like enemy weaknesses; drop rates; Social Link schedules; etc. at the ready any time you play the game.

In any case, with the guide at the ready (mostly for the purpose of tracking "Things" and what "Things" I would need to deal w/ the incredibly obtuse puzzles) I did manage to beat Paper Mario: Sticker Star. That would have been a surprisingly difficult final Bowser fight if I wasn't carrying that game's equivalent of a nuclear arsenal with me by that point.  I had to *facepalm* at the ending, though, if only because it's yet another Paper Mario game to rip-off the infinitely better Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

Overall, I thought Paper Mario was incredibly...average. It's a disappointing experience made merely "OK" if you have a guide or walkthrough at hand to help you deal with the very badly-handled puzzles and boss fights (where you either have very particular Thing stickers with you, or you lose).  I think we can add this one to Miyamoto's growing list of games he's apparently ruined with his tea table-flipping (along with Star Fox Adventures).  Supposedly, he's the one responsible for ripping out all the story and RPG elements from the game.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 11:30:31 PM by broodwars »
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Offline Evan_B

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Re: Paper Mario: Sticker Star
« Reply #24 on: January 17, 2013, 02:52:47 PM »
Well, I didn't need a guide through the entire game, so I guess that means I just understood the game and its hint system better than anyone else or you all hate puzzles.

Seriously, the puzzles were freaking easy in this one.
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