Paper Mario 2

[djjimbob]

Cracked on with this with a 5 hour stint last night. From going into the 1000 year door to

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beating the sisters + ghost and cracking on with about 1 hour of the castle

. I eventually stopped at 12:45 and went to bed and could not sleep for toffee - ended up watching ALL of Bowling for Columbine until 1:30am.

I only saved last when taking on

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Gloomtail

- I had a chance to save again but decided I'd re-defeat the git for fun tonight

It was quite nice that when

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Gloomtail was about to do his UltraBreath

a ghost came up from the crowd and made me invisible! Nice.

I also liked the puzzles to get the keys - they were quite fun. Figured it out all on my owns as well

I've found that you can avoid a lot of the enemys in the final castle by just

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dashing around them with Yoshi.

Very handy.

Should get it finished tonight with any luck.

[Ady]

Do the X Nauts, with the green X insignias remind anyone else of anything?

Coincidence or another Wario Ware style dig perhaps?

[MerlanFrit]

Yeah I'm pretty sure you're right, Ady.

By the way, when Peach is teaching "emotions" to that computer... Couldn't it be the "emotion engine" ?

[djjimbob]

Yaay! Finished it last night.

I was taking a fairly relaxed attitude to the final few bosses as I got quite creamed by

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Grodus

so I knew I could restart if necessary.

Then

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Bowser

was a **** as he kept getting healed until I knocked off his helper.

So by the time I got to the

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Shadow Queen

I was fairly depleted. After a very intense battle, I had lost all my teammates except Goombella? and I was down to 11HP with no items or Star Power left.

The enemy was about to have 3 turns! The hands took Goombella under, killing her and leaving me standing, then the

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Queen

zapped me, but left me with 4HP. Time for a Piercing Blow to reduce the enemy to tears!

Yes, with the last shot of the fight and Mario about to be FUBAR I had done it! A good epic ding-dong that lasted about 90 minutes from the

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Sisters right thru to the Queen.

Well impressed!

[Mayhem]

A lot of people have said they had problems with the final battle length in terms of surviving. I didn't have any problems at all, I was still going very strong by the time I won. Wonder what I was doing different then...? But I was a Paper Mario freak on the N64 so it might be latent tactics and tricks coming into play here (and copious use of Vivian's hide move when you can see they are going for a big attack! Quick Change badge IS the most important one in the game)

[Ady]

So Vivian's Hide move does have a use then?

Whenever I use this move to avoid blows, my opponent gets another free go and ends up getting me anyway!

So who are everyone's favourite characters then? I like Madame Flurrie myself. That move where she blows opponents off the stage is such a diss!

[Mayhem]

True... BUT... which would you rather have... taking their massive power attack head on, or their regular attacks?

[rjpageuk]

I liked Koopa the best - he was my partner for almost the whole game.

I liked the way your partner would pipe up and say something at various parts of the game (like when you were talking to the scientist in the main village or at the end of fights) and it was different for each character.

Koopa was always really reserved and shy. His moves are really powerful and could hit multiple enemies so were really useful too.

Add to this his excellent move to initiate fights.

Yoshi was also powerful but he was really annoying and arrogant when he spoke up and got on my nerves especially during fights in the excellent chapter 3.

I hardly used Flurrie at all actually.

[Ady]

Yoshi is my second favourite next to Flurrie! I just love his cockiness and how he's always up for a scrap!

Koops has lots of good moves, but he's a bit of a bitch.

[rjpageuk]

It was great how they injected the personality of each of the characters in the way they interacted throughout the game though.

It is touches like that that set this apart from your standard RPG fare. It didnt need overblown cut scenes and silly flashbacks to give you an idea of the personalities involved - it was all part of the game.

It doesnt take itself seriously at all either which just makes it so much more fun to play.

I still havent completed this actually... I was sent around the world a hundred times searching for the bomb guy and gave up with it. I did feel it started to have a little too much backtracking by then although I really should finish it off seeing as I am so close.

What is your favourite chapter? I think mine has to be Chapter 4.

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I loved the crows and the way you thought the chapter ended early but in fact you still had lots to do. It was an excellent twist.

[Geoff D]

I didn't like Chapter 4 very much at all - it was the first time for me that the amount of backtracking became a noticeable irritation.

My favourite was

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The train section - I liked the change in pace & how the game essentially became an Agatha Christie mystery

Great game.

[Ady]

Chapter 4 featured my favourite location. I didn't mind the backtracking. It's quite minimal compared to some games.

Oh and again, the music in this game is SUPERB! All of it.

...and I love that Glitzville music!

[Geoff D]

It was just that chapter where the backtracking was a problem for me - maybe I was having a bad day.

Ever since playing PM2, I've styled myself on Rawk Hawk!

[Ady]

Heh.

He was easy to pwn, though. Just shrink his arse and pummel him. Done.

[Jason]

Fininished this last night with 38 hours on the clock. A classical Nintendo game, superb humour throughout with wondeful crisp bright colourful graphics, a welter of quests and subquest to undertake of which I am now going to finish off over the coming weeks plus an excellent translation.

When Nintendo (read Human Intelligence) do things right, there is nobody to top them! Still the best developer by far!!