YMMV / Paper Mario: The Origami King

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• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The Desert Towers are meant to resemble very tall Toads. This unfortunately results in a very phallic-looking tower. Said tower also happens to be Collectible Treasure #69 and located in a hotel suite.
  • After you save a Toad that was folded into a flower at Toad's BBQ Foodeatery, talking to him again will have him say "...I bloom myself." It's very clearly a pun on "I blame myself," but reading it aloud can sound like...something else.
• Adorkable: Bobby the Bob-omb gushes over Mario and describes his amnesia as "Thinky-thinky panic".
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • A Reddit post brings up a point that Bobby may be suffering through PTSD.
  • How exactly King Olly's motivation is interpreted varies.
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • The final battle. Only the first phase of the final battle is an actual fight, and it involves bosses you've already fought before and know how to handle (save for the Earth Vellumental, who didn't have a weakness in its fight, but it isn't hard to guess what the weakness is via process of elimination), who can be beaten in only two 1,000-Fold Arms attacks. The second phase is a short sumo-wrestling match that isn't very difficult, and the third phase is a puzzle that's only made difficult due to a time limit and intermittent quick-time events. You can't even use any of the items, weapons, accessories, or Toads you've collected throughout the game for the second or third phase, and weapons aren't needed for the first phase, letting down players who put in extra time gathering collectibles and powering up for the final boss.
  • The Ice Vellumental isn't quite as tricky as the two before it. In the first phase, all you have to do is use the Fire Vellumental panel, and then 1000-Fold Arms for huge damage and a stun. The second phase is trickier, as the boss starts to freeze certain panels and charge its unguardable ultimate attack, but it also opens every turn by showing you the correct path to the 1000-Fold Arms panel, so if you have good memory (or abuse the Switch's Capture function), then you can easily solve the puzzle every time.
• Awesome Boss: The boss fight against Scissors has been praised for being an intense duel, particularly with Scissors' Final Cut attack being a One-Hit KO and the epic rock guitar theme playing.
• Awesome Levels:
  • The Blue Streamer arc starts out pretty basic, but the latter half takes place in Shogun Studios, a Japanese theme park, a pretty unique location with lots of rooms to explore, attractions to unlock, and the fantastic buildup of the central Big Sho' Theater having a stage show on each floor, leading up to the diva director Rubber Band's fight at the top.
  • The Temple of Shrooms in the Yellow Streamer arc has a mysterious feeling and some genuinely creepy moments. It's very open to exploration and doesn't have too many enemies, and the puzzles are difficult but fair. And when you get to DJ Toad, you can start playing Thrills at Night, a catchy disco song, and collecting Toads around the temple. This leads to an amazingly done dance sequence and a pretty fun boss fight after it.
  • The Green Streamer arc has Mario exploring the gorgeous Shangri-Spa alongside Kamek and Bowser Jr. for help. This leads to Bowser's Castle, which has been well-received for the Boss Bonanza surrounding it, the all-out war between paper minions and Folded Soldiers, Luigi at his funniest, and Bowser finally reappearing after vanishing for a majority of the game. The arc also features a memorable villain in the form of Scissors, who brings an atmosphere of actual dread during the lead-up to his boss battle.
  • The Origami Castle has been praised for being a major step up compared to the final levels from the previous 2 games thanks to its interesting aesthetics, plentiful traps and puzzles to solve, decent length, the fight with Stapler, and the incredible score that plays as you storm the castle.
• Awesome Music: As always, the soundtrack is absolutely stellar.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • While the Legion of Stationery still have their fans, at the end of the day, other fans have taken umbrage with how uninspired most of their designs are, with only the Elastic Entertainer having a someone inspired golem design before being reduced to a singular band. Though fans of the characters echo the creative team’s sentiments that personality is all they needed, critics point out how the Legion were allowed more interesting designs under the words and spirit of the restrictions, an argument further fueled by the Vellumentals in the same game. The only thing both sides can agree on is hoping that “literal objects as major bosses” doesn’t become a recurring trend for future Paper Mario games.
  • Bobby faces similar scrutiny for his lacking design and the lengths taken to tapdance around giving him a name. Bobby fans tout how Bobby being generic and having no true name is the point. They also see him as an Ensemble Dark Horse due to his extensive backstory, being the first non-tattling partner in years, his lazy idle animation, and especially his sacrifice. Meanwhile, critics of Bobby offer a rebuttal of the restrictions allowing non-body altering visuals like bandages or other medical indica and smarter workarounds to be called Bobby while preserving the point. In addition, the bizarre nature of his sacrifice contradicting older games (Bob-ombs in previous games can explode as much as they want and still live, something previous Bob-omb partners Bombette and Admiral Bobbery do. Even all of the generic Bob-ombs in Fahr Outpost are shown to be perfectly fine after exploding in unison to activate the cannon.) and Bobby not actually fighting Macho Gooper Blooper or even following Mario into the fight dilutes the intended emotion behind Bobby’s sacrifice for critics.
  • Olivia suffers a little from this as well. Her fans find her endearing for her perky, innocent demeanor, while her detractors can't stand her for her constant talking and pointing out things that are occurring right in front of you.
  • Olly is this too. Depending on who you ask, he's either a great villain who fits with the game's origami theme, or the worst non-Bowser villain in the series for his petty motivation, lack of screen time and unintentional unsympathetic-ness.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Luigi getting imprisoned in a giant magic lamp that you'd expect a genie to come out of for losing an obviously-crooked carnival game. Mario can share that fate if you fail to outwit the Snifit running the game.
  • Late green streamer: With the exception of the Handaconda who is responsible for kidnapping Olivia, Kamek, Jr. and the rest of Bowser's minions, the rest of the Cutout Soldiers serve no plot purpose and only exist to give Mario two new creepy and bizarre enemy types to fight for 2 rooms before disappearing from the rest of the game, never to be mentioned again.
  • While the game has a lot of song-and-dance numbers, one of the most random is when you finish the Diamond Island trials and the Toad statues begin dancing to samba music. It's completely unexpected and never brought up again.
  • In Shogun Studios's staff room, you can get masks that look like a Goomba, Donkey Kong, and Samus. While the Goomba mask is used twice more in the game, the Donkey Kong and Samus masks are joke items (which is never explained), and if you do pick them up, they remain in your inventory for the rest of the game despite not having a purpose.
  • Shy Guys Finish Last: Suddenly game show!
• Breather Boss:
  • Compared to the bosses before and after him, Hole Punch doesn't put up much of a fight. Though Hole Punch relies on Maximum HP Reduction moves, they're functionally like Percent Damage Attacks, meaning he has a hard time actually depleting Mario's HP. In addition, the holes he punches into the playfield are incredibly obvious and few in number compared to Rubber Band's... rubber bands, the Fire Vellumental's feathers, or the Ice Vellumental's frozen patches. Hole Punch spits them back out in short order anyway.
  • Stapler is far easier than both the boss before and after. Despite being able to prevent you from taking a turn by stapling you to the ground and has a powerful attack in Untag Wag, you will have so much health at this point that most of the attacks won't come off as a danger to the player. Using 1000-Fold Arms can also shave off massive chunks of its health, to the point where you can nearly skip certain phases. And unlike many of its fellow bosses, it has no way of getting rid of panels, meaning you have free range to hit it with 1000-Fold Arms at your leisure.
• Broken Base: The "ring system" used in battles is a major point of contention. Some say it brings back a level of strategy in battles and allows for improvements over past battle systems, but others say that in reality it actually dumbs down the combat because of how similar the attack options are. The puzzles themselves are either satisfying to finish or a tedious chore that has no place in turn-based combat, and the Cheer mechanic is either useful to bypass annoying or difficult puzzles or evidence that the system was flawed from the start. The boss battles are similarly divisive, either being an engaging strategic challenge due to placing more emphasis on planning a path to approach and deal with the boss, or a more frustrating slog that's closer to Trial-and-Error Gameplay if you make a mistake.
• Catharsis Factor: After eight years in real life, Paper Mario players finally get to destroy Things in the form of boss fights. Even better, said Things explode upon defeat.
• Character Rerailment:
  • In Sticker Star and Color Splash, Kamek was… not quite himself. He acted more like a Faux Affably Evil sorcerer who failed to notice twice that Bowser was also not himself, despite raising Bowser from birth. While some people did like this portrayal, it had the unfortunate effect of making Kamek look unusually dumb and uncaring of Bowser. In this game, Kamek acts more like the loyal and attentive Beleaguered Assistant he’s portrayed as in most spinoffs, with his doubts on the respect he gets for his loyalty even being explored a little. Some Wangst aside, the rerailment seemed to have worked, as even fans who would have preferred Kammy to return or the restriction-compliant and underused Kamella to take his place found this version of Kamek more likeable than his previous portrayal.
  • Bowser himself was reduced to a Generic Doomsday Villain in Sticker Star with no dialogue and hardly any involvement in the main story. Color Splash wasn't much better, as he spent most of the game possessed by the Black Paint, and thus lacked usual charming personality. The Origami King restores him to the Affably Evil Nominal Hero that many Mario RPG fans love, on top of getting some hilarious (and heartfelt) lines that harkens back to the first three Paper Mario games.
• Contested Sequel: While the game was well received by critics, fan opinions are much more divided. Some think that it continues to do the same things they disliked the previous two games for or that, where it makes changes, these are too little and tentative to make much of a difference. Others instead feel that it successfully addresses these same issues or, at least, manages to be a well-made and enjoyable game in its own right.
• Creepy Awesome: The cutout soldiers are freaky jet-black humanoids that move unnervingly and provide what might be the scariest moment in this game, but that is the reason they're so liked by the fans in the first place, as they provide as a great build up to Scissors and also as great Mood Whiplash to the previous scene.
• Critical Dissonance: While thankfully not to the extent of the previous two Paper Mario games, The Origami King still unfortunately fell victim to this. Critics were largely positive and appreciated its unique ideas, visuals, and well-rounded characters. Fans, however, remain divided on whether the game is a fun and worthy successor to the first three entries or yet another example of how detrimentally far the series has strayed from its roots. At the very least, both parties agree that the game is a Surprisingly Improved Sequel to what came before.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • A bunch of logs with eyes don't mind being used for kindle as they'll turn to ash and grow again. Then you can talk to the three logs at a campfire who are overly excited about being set on fire.
  • As if to twist the knife that is Bobby's Heroic Sacrifice, the area immediately afterward contains collectible treasures of the boulder and the box containing the fuse. If you don't find it a huge punch to the gut, you're likely to find it darkly hilarious.
  • Upon meeting the Toad who lost its face, Olivia floats in, innocently acting like the Toad's missing face while questioning that nothing is wrong.
  • After snapping Stapler's jaw, one of the Toads comments on how "he should get a dog".
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The singing trees from the beginning of the game for being the game's first song and dance number and their Muse-like qualities.
  • Professor Toad and Captain T. Ode, both for being uniquely designed toads and for having decent, likable characterization.
  • The Cutout Soldiers and the Handaconda, due to hearkening back to the series's Surprisingly Creepy Moments and causing a great Mood Whiplash in the chapter they appear in.
  • Scissors and Tape are among the most popular members of the Legion of Stationery, the former being due to its Blood Knight tendencies and having one of the most intense fights in the game, and the latter for its surprisingly gangster demeanor and fairly clever design choices.
• Evil Is Cool: While reactions to the Legion of Stationery as a whole are mixed, Scissors is generally well-regarded for how surprisingly serious and powerful they are, on top of having some memorable Badass Boasts and a boss theme that goes ridiculously hard.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Wet Floor Bowser" for Bowser's folded up form, due to him resembling a wet floor sign.
  • After the first trailer, the fandom started calling the Bob-omb lacking a fuse "Bob". Funnily enough, the character receives the similar nickname of "Bobby" in the game proper.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: It's not very hard to find people who ship Olivia and Bobby thanks to their interactions and the former's heartbreaking reaction to the latter's death. At least by the end they would be Together in Death.
• Fanon: Rubber Band is generally believed to be the one female member of the Legion of Stationery, due to the woman's voice singing before their boss battle and the lack of gendered pronouns being used in reference to them.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Surprisingly, fans of the Paper Mario series have started to get along with fans of Ghost of Tsushima since both games were released on the same date, July 17th, 2020.
  • In the lead-up to Min Min's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the fanbases for both Paper Mario and ARMS had fun with Mario either interacting with other ARMS fighters, or half-jokingly suggesting that he would have been the chosen ARMS fighter.
• Game-Breaker: Pressing X in the middle of a battle will have Olivia give you a hint. That's not the broken part. As long as her text is on the screen, the timer for the fight will pause, giving you a good view of the battlefield and as much time as you need to plan a way to organize the foes into their proper locations.
• Genius Bonus: While the name of the Vellumentals may seem like a simple pun on the term "elemental," it also references the word "vellum," another term for parchment paper.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • Rubber Band can be annoying for many reasons. To start with, only 1000-Fold Arms attacks can damage them. Nothing else works and there is no way to make them vulnerable to other types of attack. Meaning you have to hope and pray that they don't get rid of the On switch when they fire off the rubber bands. Building on this, they can pull a Kaizo Trap on you once you do wear them down to just the one rubber band. When you try to grab them with the 1,000-Fold Arms, they'll bounce back and forth, only pausing for a split second to be grabbed, and they'll attack you if you fail to do so. A 1-UP or several Cheers may be needed in order to survive.
  • The Ice Vellumental isn't a difficult boss if you know what you're doing, but it's also one that happens to take the most turns for speedrunners. It has several unavoidable attacks and unless if you have a good memory with the Ice Maze or abuse the Switch's capture function, you could be stuck in its second phase for a while. It's even worse when King Olly decides to take the Ice Vellumental's form, as he slowly regenerates while you're being indecisive.
  • The Fire Vellumental might be the most annoying fight in this game. Its gimmick is that when you attack it, some of its feathers fall off and land on the battlefield. The feathers are on fire and deal a lot of damage when you touch them, and can stack up to three on a single tile. It ensures that you need to move across the least spaces you can, all while still being able to reach the boss. You're supposed to use the Water Vellumental power to extinguish the board, but you have to activate the space first. If you use it too early, and it's very hard to tell when you need to, the Fire Vellumental regenerates all of its health. You have to go through all this again, and your weapons have probably worn down by now.
• Harsher in Hindsight: That adorable Item Get! moment Bobby does when he shows off the item that would save Olivia? It immediately turns into depressing when it's revealed that the item was a fuse which he uses to blow himself up.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A week before the game's release, it was leaked, leading to a bunch of Youtube and Twitch users livestreaming it. This makes a certain Toad's line pretty funny:
  "I know streamers haven't had the best reputation recently, but these ones are cute, huh?"
• Iron Woobie:
  • Bobby has no memory of his past, no purpose in the present, constantly winds up in dangerous situations, and acknowledges that he and the rest of his Bob-omb kin have short lifespans, yet he remains a Nice Guy with a laidback attitude and positive outlook despite that. The real kicker? He has a Dark and Troubled Past where all of his friends blew themselves up in an attempt to stop a rampaging Gooper Blooper. He finally regains his memory just in time to follow in their footsteps by detonating himself in order to save Olivia.
  • Although he makes it through in the end like always, Mario himself gets put through the wringer. He sees the love of his life transformed and brainwashed into serving a tyrant before witnessing two of his newest friends sacrifice themselves right before his eyes while he's powerless to stop them. Notably, this is one of the only games to show the cheery plumber experiencing full-blown Heroic BSoD.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Again the lack of partners main characters which was cited to be one of the negatives of the game and has fans still exasperated with Nintendo's stubborn resistance to allow them once again. While at the least you do get temporary partners now and then, you can't control them and it's a random chance if they even do an attack that'll connect.
• Magnificent Bastard: Scissors is one of King Olly's Lieutenants and the main guard for the final streamer. Having taken over Bowser's Castle, Scissors is first introduced cutting Bowser Jr. to pieces. After Mario and company fix Bowser Jr. and subsequently invade Bowser's Castle, Scissors ends up creating Handaconda to kidnap most of Mario's allies, and later a Paper Mistake Buzzy Beetle to impede him further. Finally battling Mario head on, Scissors sheathes its scissor blades and only unsheathes once Mario proves a challenge. A literal pair of scissors in a world of paper, they are dead serious in their mission to destroy Mario and help Olly conquer the Mushroom Kingdom.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The folded-up version of Bowser that follows Mario around is commonly referred to as "Wet Floor Sign Bowser".
  • "I'm the Origami Killer".^ExplanationBoth Heavy Rain and The Origami King having their villains subscribe to extensive origami imagery led to many a joke comparing the two games.
  • "This is a Toad."^ExplanationThe second trailer revealed that Mario can interact with various objects to rescue transformed Toads. This has led to jokes about other random objects actually being Toads, such as the bosses, King Olly, or the narrator himself.
  • When it was revealed that some of the game's major bosses would be sentient stationery, some people like to joke that one of the bosses is Clippy. People have also compared them to the Things from Sticker Star and Color Splash, bringing up how cathartic it is to finally destroy them after all these years.
  • Bob-omb with no fuse? (X) with no (Y).^ExplanationThe first partner revealed for the game, Bobby, looks exactly the same as a regular Bob-omb, only without a fuse. Fans have poked fun at the partner having such a basic design compared to partners in the series' past by drawing other Mario enemies with minor things changed. The format's name is additionally a reference to the Yankee with no brim meme. Though it's quickly becoming a Discredited Meme due to being overused on the subreddit.
  • Thinky-Thinky Panic.^ExplanationBobby's name for amnesia shown off in the second trailer, a reference to Doki Doki Panic. Fans latched onto it immediately.
  • BOBBY NO!!!! (Spoilers) ^ExplanationEssentially every player's reaction to Bobby's death.
    • Dangit Bobby... (Spoilers) ^ExplanationAnother reaction to Bobby's death.
  • The surprisingly brutal way Mario finishes off Stapler (read: violently dislocating its "jaw" and snapping it wide open) has gained memetic status due to the sheer ruthlessness of the attack.
  • "She's my sister and my daughter!"^ExplanationThe reveal on Mushroom Island that Olly personally created his "sister" Olivia, which would technically make her his daughter, led to comparisons with a similar twist from Chinatown.
  • The objective of taking down Olly's streamers that hold Peach's Castle captive often becomes amusingly meta when an online personality decides to broadcast their play sessions of the game (as in streaming).
  • The game's boxart is pretty exploitable.
• Memetic Psychopath: Before the final boss, should Mario defeat Stapler via the 1000-Fold Arms, it ends with him snapping its jaws backwards. A lot of fans have commented on how dark it is since Stapler is akin to a dog.
• Moe: Olivia is adorable with her constant soft expression and Genki Girl attitude.
• Moral Event Horizon: If he didn't cross it by turning numbers of Bowser's Minions and Toads into helpless origami, causing Bobby to sacrifices himself to save Olivia or having Scissors turn Bowser Jr and the remaining minions into confetti, then King Olly definitely cross it by turning Peach into a decorations for the Origami Castle. Because of this, many players considering his Alas, Poor Villain sendoff to be unacceptable.
• Narm:
  • During the final battle, Olly takes on the forms of the Vellumentals you've fought previously, but with their appearance changed to match his. The Fire, Water, and Earth Vellumental forms look threatening/cool enough (bangs aside), but his Ice Vellumental form looks like a tuxedo-wearing polar bear. All while intense electric guitars are playing in the background.
  • Midway through the final boss battle, Olly and Olivia have a conversation about Olly's evil motives. This scene is supposed to be serious and develop his character, but it's kind of ruined when there's an entire audience of smiling Toads in the background, who do not react to anything Olly says.
• Older Than They Think: Being able to see the percentage of ? Blocks hit in certain areas is a nice convenience, and it actually originated in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The Goomba that laments how he never got to see a Toad before succumbing to his folds, both for being darkly funny and showing how much power the new villain has.
  • The Legion of Stationery, as all of them only physically appear for one scene, but they have very memorable dialogue. Whether it's Colored Pencils' talk about art, Rubber Band's intro, Hole Punch's personality, Tape's speech patterns, or Scissors' surprisingly serious demeanor, it's pretty hard to forget about these guys once you've fought them. Even Stapler, who has no dialogue since he's a Right-Hand Attack Dog, is a very memorable opponent.
• Player Punch:
  • Early yellow streamer, Bobby dons the fuse of a fallen Bob-omb and then detonates himself to save Olivia, with Mario freaking out at this, because no one expected Bobby to go out with a bang and not return.
  • At the end of the game, Olivia uses the One Thousand Origami Cranes to save the Mushroom Kingdom by wishing for all of Olly's origami to be unfolded… including herself. During the final scene before the credits, Mario stares sadly at an empty replica of Olivia's throne.
• Rooting for the Empire: Given the fandom’s growing disdain for Toads due to the newer games in the series overusing them, when Origami Peach proposes silencing all the Toads and gave the choice at the beginning of this game, most fans actually pick “Yes”. However, some fans draw the line when Olly clarifies at the end of the game what exactly “silencing” entails.
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Scissors intentionally handicaps themselves by covering their blades in a sheath, so as to give both themself and Mario an even fight. If you want to prevent getting one-shot, you have to be careful where your attacks land lest you break the sheath and make Scissors graduate to using One-Hit Kill attacks every time they act, while also disabling all Magic Circles for the rest of the fight... unless, of course, you actually want that challenge. In that case, feel free to demolish that sheath right off the bat. The risk of death becomes high (especially since not even Iron Boots can prevent getting one-shot, forcing you to use hammers), and if you slightly mistime your dodges, SNIP. The tension and excitement run high if you go this route... and it becomes so very cathartic if you dodge every one of Scissors' attacks AND destroy them.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Near the start of the Yellow Streamer area, Bobby's Heroic Sacrifice, dying to save Olivia. Notably because this is the first time a Bob-omb partner died via self-destruct.
  • Olivia's Wham Line on Mushroom Island, resulting in a lot of backstory behind her creation.
    Olivia: It's good to be home.
  • Right before the final battle, Olly reveals that he's embedded Peach into the walls of his throne room as a decoration.
• Signature Scene: Near the Yellow Streamer area, Bobby's Heroic Sacrifice via detonating himself is the most talked-about and memed scene in the game, both for being a first for the series in terms of permanent ally deaths and being very sad.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The Whispering Woods, which primarily consists of walking between the start of the forest and the Spring of Restoration, briefly interrupted by relatively simple tutorial battles. The game begins to pick up at Picnic Road.
• Squick:
  • Apparently, the sapient forest sign's relative is a tongue depressor.
  • At one point in the Green Streamer area, Bowser Jr. mentions that Bowser has never taken a shower. Just how bad does he smell to the other characters? Do his minions even shower? If not, it really brings to mind how bad a room full of minions must smell. Thankfully, there's an image of Bowser and his minions taking a bath during the end credits.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Compared to the previous two installments in the franchise. Whereas Sticker Star is considered the black sheep, and Color Splash was an improvement but still suffered from many of the same problems, Origami King has been generally received better than both of them.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: More likely as a case of affectionate genre tribute, but the disco track "Thrills at Night" sounds quite a bit like classic disco tracks "Le Freak" and "Celebration" blended together. Additionally, the flute section may owe itself to "The Hustle" as well.
• Tainted by the Preview: In the week leading up to Origami King's official release, early previews of the game confirmed that just like Sticker Star, battles do not give experience points. This caused many fans who were previously optimistic about the game to decry it, even after various sources stated that coins acted as a sort of replacement. Many fans have also been pre-tainted for all future games by this interview that has implied that future games won't return to their RPG roots as long as the restrictions are in place. From the same interview, many fans have also been pre-tainted to future games at the reveal that no past Paper Mario characters can return if they were based on enemy types. Considering that many characters who fall into that pitfall were past partners (many of which are Ensemble Darkhorses), this change has caused many fans to lose hope of seeing the creative designs from the first three games.
• That One Achievement: Believe it or not, the game will congratulate you and give your save file a special icon for beating the game without dying once, as well as another one for never equipping any battle Accessories. Given the many instant-death traps, as well as genuinely difficult bosses, getting the former achievement is surprisingly difficult unless you already know exactly what you are doing. To make matters worse, the game silently auto-saves after getting a Game Over specifically to prevent resetting upon death, so one death means you'll have to start the whole game over again, Slow-Paced Beginning and all, for another shot at the achievement.
• That One Boss:
  • Bosses in general are a step up in difficulty compared to the previous entries, since not only do you have to solve a puzzle to get an attack in, but they also reveal their weaknesses near the end of the fight or continue to battle otherwise. Scissors is the culmination of this design, since they spam an insta-kill attack that they can also delay with little to no warning and will unleash these extremely dangerous attacks at the beginning of the fight if you attack their sheath. While Scissors is in their insta-kill state, jumping on them, even with iron boots, will also instantly kill you, even though the game gives you no warning. Sure, you can freeze them with the Ice Vellumental^note which isn't available if you decide to destroy their cover earlier in the battle, giving you an even harder fight, but Scissors has a good chance to cut up those panels before you can even move. Better bring a 1-Up with you just in case…
  • Scuffle Island is a gauntlet of Paper Macho fights that must be won without the ability to use healing items (small hearts are dropped after the fights), and with enemies that deal higher damage. Of them, the Paratroopa, which comes fifth, is probably the most challenging, due to its sticker weak points only being able to be hit while the Paratroopa is actively diving toward you, requiring the perfect distance from it and good timing to hit it, with the consequence of being hit and taking high damage if you miss.
• That One Level: The Earth Vellumental Temple is way too hard for being so early in the game. It's full of fire bars and spike pits that take away a lot of Mario's health, an instant death trap, and many moving pillars and platforms that require a good sense of timing.
• That One Puzzle:
  • The Water Vellumental Shrine has a 3x3 sliding puzzle, which can get on your nerves very easily. It's unclear what path you have to form, and you can rotate the pieces. Thankfully, you can pay for hints, with one outright solving the puzzle for you.
  • The puzzle "a star lights your way" in the Temple of Shrooms. There is no indication on what to do exactly, the layout can indicate that you have to think more complicated than you actually have to (it resembles multiple stars more than a single big one), and unlike other complicated puzzles in the game, this one does not give you any hints if you fail repeatedly.
  • Heart Island in the purple streamer area. The level consists of knocking down bushes with buttons on the back, and there's no way to know what a button will do until you press it. Some of these are jokes (like making the ship's horn go off), some are enemy ambushes, and one even resets the entire puzzle. You need good memory to know which order you're supposed to hit them in, and even how to reach some of them.
  • Shy Guys Finish Last's math and picture-fixing puzzles require intricate, quick knowledge of how the ring system works to be able to complete them accurately, with the timer only making things harder.
  • Similarly to the entry above, The final boss's final phase is a difficult picture-solving puzzle combined with intermittent quick-time events, giving less time to think or look at the picture you're supposed to solve, and is also timed — run out of time, and it's a Game Over.
• That One Sidequest:
  • Collecting all the coins in Eddy River, which earns you a trophy that counts towards 100% completion, requires a lot of tedious trial and error, not to mention the constant risk of a Game Over due to debris and whirlpools. Special mention goes to the giant whirlpool that deals 3 out of your maximum 5 health and has coins along its edge.
  • A perfect game of Shy Guys Finish Last is required for 100% completion, including the Sudden Death round, and failure at any point means you have to try the whole quiz show again.
  • To get the Speed Ring King trophy, you must clear 16 levels of Speed Rings within only 100 seconds, meaning an average of 6 seconds per puzzle. Unless you have quick muscle memory and fast reflexes, this challenge is almost impossible to complete without using a guide for reference.
  • Finding all the hidden ? Blocks, which are hidden in random places with almost no indication. While the block alert and radar do help, have fun desperately swinging your hammer and jumping around when the alert goes off.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • While Origami Peach is featured prominently in marketing, she only shows up at the beginning and end of the game and is never battled, as King Olly eventually unfolds her into a tapestry. As Peach does have some natural magic of her own in various games, and has been possessed by a villain before, it would have been nice to see her as Olly’s main dragon, as well as witness what she could do with her own abilities against Mario.
  • There are players, fans or critics alike, who believe Bobby sacrificing himself to the boulder should have been held off until closer to the end of the game, to give him more screentime and not rush his plot.
  • Captain T. Ode is built up as a legendary figure throughout the Yellow Streamer area, and even tags along with you for the Purple Streamer area. Despite this, he has very little involvement outside of providing Mario with the sea chart and manning the Super Marino. He always stays in the boat while Mario and Olivia explore the various islands, does not assist in any battles, and his entire backstory is divulged by a random Toad in the Shangri-Spa who the player isn't even required to talk to. Particularly, there's the reveal that Shangri-Spa still exists, along with Captain T. Ode. Do the people of Shangri-Spa fear him? Does T. Ode try to apologize for stealing the Marino, or use his reputation to manipulate them? Neither of these plot points are brought up.
  • Like Origami Peach, Bowser only appears at the beginning and end of the game. Once he gets unfolded, he can’t actually take part in normal battles anymore, shambling a lot of potential in the coolness of fighting alongside him at full strength. Finally, while he does participate in the final battle, it’s only for one gimmick phase, and is taken out easily before the next phase.
  • The only new normal enemies in the game are two sizes of Cutout Soldiers, created by Scissors. However, they only appear briefly in Bowser's Castle, cutting down on their screentime. Considering all the Folded are a result of Stapler, another Legion member, and the Folded keep showing up even after Stapler's demise, it doesn't make sense why either the Cutout Soldiers don’t appear more or why other Legion members don't have unique minions.
  • The Origami Guru is revealed to be Olly's creator, first appearing during the lore dump about Olly and Olivia's backstory in the Purple Streamer chapter. He's just yet another Toad with a slightly different outfit and doesn't end up playing a very big role in the rest of the game despite his importance to the backstory, which feels like a huge waste of the creative potential that such a character could have had.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • In concept, the game was given several ways to compromise on the “literal paper” angle. Since Olly, Olivia and his minions are actual paper or related to it, it could have been written only they are paper beings, while everyone else is flesh & bone bewitched by Olly and his Legion into paper a la the classic games’ curses. In addition, as the Vellumentals are deities and the Earth Vellumental in particular is worshipped by the Koopas, their introduction could have been used to explain away the new literal paper angle and possibly even better connect the modern games to the classic ones.
  • While Olly’s solution to deal with the Toads crosses a line and is horrifying, the fact he as Big Bad and the brainwashed Peach are the only characters to have a problem with them, as well as Ol’Grandsappy and his subjects’ issues with the Toads undermined by their logged remains wanting to be burnt and series villain Bowser never voicing any grievance with their angelic counterparts punishing his minions for something Olly’s soldiers did can make the effect fall flat and seem like bending the story’s morals in the Toads’ favor. On a similar note, no-one ever points out how what the Toads of Whispering Woods do to the trees is similar to what Olly does to Peach and the various enemies.
  • Despite the inherent tragedy of Bobby’s character, him outright refusing to fight Macho Gooper Blooper severely undermines whatever effect his arc was supposed to have, especially as his Bobombrades implicitly died fighting it, something he remembers at this point. In addition, the retcon to Bob-omb physiology often overshadows the discussion of his sacrifice. Combined with Bobby sitting out every other major event pre-sacrifice, it makes the whole thing come across as a shallow and greatly underthought shock death for a coward who didn’t truly earn it. Having Bobby actually fight Macho Gooper Blooper in the present would have made him more authenticly brave. Meanwhile, changing Bobby’s species to another explosive mainline Mario species not seen in Paper Mario before, such as Kab-bomb or the Super Mario Sunshine version of Bob-ombs, would have kept the focus more on his sacrifice.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • The game's partner system is underused by the end, as you don't have a lot of partners, they can fail to attack enemies at times, and they are completely absent during boss battles. Due to the combat's focus on defeating enemies in one turn, and the partners' lack of control, they feel more like bonus damage if you fail a puzzle than actual party members. Despite the engine being able to support four partners at maximum, you can only have one at a time (two in very specific circumstances, often lasting only a single battle).
  • The weapon variety leaves a lot to be desired as well. Aside from your basic Jump and Hammer attacks and their stronger versions, there are only two special weapons - the Iron Boots, which let you hit spiked enemies in a line, and the Hurlhammer, which lets you hit spiked enemies in a line. Only the items try to mix things up with their mechanics and Action Commands, and even then, all but one of them hit the same areas as the Boots or Hammer as well. The previous games all had a variety of attacks to hit your enemies with, all with quirks that made them better for different situations, but the very similar weapons here can make combat get stale fast for at least a few players.
  • The Rabbit Espresso and Turtle Tea, which increase or decrease Mario's movement speed, respectively. Both could have interesting uses, with the former being a potential Anti-Frustration Feature, but you can only buy them in Toad Town, they're consumed immediately upon purchase, and their duration is so short that it's hard to tell just what their use is supposed to be in the first place (the drinks seem to last longer if you buy multiple at once, but the increase is minor).
  • There are only three real-time boss fights in the entire game, all against Paper Machos, compared to the twelve turn-based ones.
  • The rainbow Magic Circles on Diamond Island allow you to turn into any Vellumental, which could make for some fun puzzles and critical thinking. Sadly, they're introduced too late to be relevant, only used on Diamond Island, a Sea Tower moment that makes it painfully obvious what you have to do, and the final boss.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Sidesteppers, who have only appeared as cameos and stage hazards in spinoffs since their Mario Bros. debut, appear as enemies in the Water Vellumental Temple.
  • Crowbers, which last appeared in New Super Mario Bros. 2 and were planned to appear in Paper Mario: Sticker Star, are found in the purple streamer areas.
  • Sumo Bros., infrequently-appearing enemies from Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U, are a mini-boss. Even more surprising is Boss Sumo Bro returning, after only being in New Super Mario Bros. U!
  • Galoombas, the Goomba type introduced in Super Mario World, make their Paper Mario debut, largely in Autumn Mountain and the aptly named Chestnut Valley.
  • Stingbies, found at the Spring of Jungle Mist, make their RPG debut. They were introduced in Super Mario 3D Land in 2011, making them among the most recent of common enemies in this game.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The game looks beautiful, making great work of the origami motif and rivaling Color Splash in this regard. The realistic water in Eddy River and the Water Vellumental Shrine also looks absolutely spot on. It's hard to notice that they're pre-rendered cutscenes because they blend in seamlessly.
  • The initial shot of Shroom City: a nighttime oasis town with colorful lights. While most of the establishing area shots look good, this one is notable for its cool atmosphere.
• Wangst: Kamek's entire arc is whining about how Bowser doesn't trust him and how nobody cares about him despite all the hard work he does. His complaining can get tiring for some.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The game is rated E, but its content includes genocide in a wish to turn all Toads into blank paper, Body Horror on numerous paper mooks (particularly what Scissors does to their victims), one of the bosses — akin to a dog — being killed by snapping its jaw backwards, an ally blowing himself up to save someone and later being shown as a ghost, and another making a wish that destroys herself along with the villain's origami.
• Win Back the Crowd: While the game still catches flack for having a rather lackluster combat system, many will agree that it took lengths to fix or work around various issues that plagued the previous two Paper Mario games (generic locales, uninteresting NPCs, no partners or companions, a rather forgettable story, etc.). As a result, it is not uncommon to see people call The Origami King a huge step in the right direction, or even go as far as to say it has the spirit of the first 3 games.
• The Woobie: Poor Olivia is disowned by her only family at the beginning of the game and left to travel with a complete stranger in order to stop her power-mad brother. She also deals with Survivor's Guilt after Bobby's death, cries over having to fight Olly, watches him die right in front of her, and ultimately sacrifices herself to undo his crimes. The fact that all of this happens to such a sweet girl is just the icing on the cake.
• Woolseyism:
  • Tape's Japanese personality is more like a stereotypical delinquent. In English, this was changed to being more like a gangster instead.
  • The Goombas who agree to team up with Mario at the start of the game have an extra joke in Spanish: "Today for me, tomorrow for me... I mean, for you."
  • The slogan for the Battle Lab is "Training Tough Toads Tirelessly." Some languages decided to give this a similar meaning while retaining the alliteration. In the Spanish version, this becomes "Todo Toad Tiene Talento," which means "Every Toad Has Talent." In German, it's "Trainierte Toads trainieren Toads" ("Trained Toads Train Toads").
  • When Mario tries to buy a fortune at Picnic Road but doesn't have enough money, the English version has a generic message. ("Aw, sorry. You don't have enough coins.") In the Spanish translation, the Toad says, "Bueno, la predicción para ti (mejor dicho, la constatación) es que... no tienes suficientes monedas."^Translation"Well, the prediction for you (rather, the realization) is that... you don't have enough coins." This actually adds a joke where there wasn't one in the English version.
  • One of the Toads in Overlook Tower is disappointed by a drawing of himself, demanding a new portrait. In the Spanish version, he specifies, from a different artist.
  • Another joke in Overlook Tower: when Mario rescues a certain Toad, he asks, "Do you think I can put "Mario saved me" on my résumé?" The Spanish version adds another line: "Does being rescued by Mario count as resume experience? Because I'm going to put it on!"
  • Love Toad's introduction is "I shall await you in Toad Town... by a lovesick, red brick building." In Spanish, this was made to rhyme ("En Villa Toad te espera con emoción / un edificio de ladrillo rojo pasión.")^Translation"In Toad Town awaits you with emotion / a red brick building of passion.", similarly to the rest of his dialogue.
  • The reasoning behind why Luigi thinks the hotel key belongs to Peach is different between languages. In English, Luigi says that he heard it as a "sweet" key rather than a "suite" key, and Peach is the sweetest person he knows. In Spanish, he points out that it's gold and has a pink keychain, which are the colors of Peach's crown and dress. In French, the key says "Royal Key" (since it's to a suite in the Royal Hotel), and Luigi says that nobody is more royal than Peach. The Italian version makes it a play on words, with Luigi getting the key to a "residenza principesca" (princely residence), and he only knows one "principessa" (princess), so he assumes it's to her castle. Dutch is similar, with Luigi getting a "majestic" key that makes him think of Peach.
  • DJ Toad's sound disc shop doesn't have a joke in the English version. In Spanish, not only is it given a rhyming name of "Discos Duna Inoportuna"^Translation"Inconvenient Dune Discs", but there's a note saying "We Organize Events." In French, it says "DJ FOR HIRE" instead.
  • The inscription at the top of the Sea Tower has an impressive translation. In English, it says "Let four fold into one and / point you toward paradise." The Spanish version is "Pon de acuerdo a los cuatro / y accederás al paraíso ipso facto."^Translation"Form an agreement between the four / and access paradise immediately." It has a similar meaning, but it rhymes and makes use of a Latin phrase, "ipso facto" (which means "immediately").
  • There's a joke in Shangri-Spa where a Koopa Troopa says that he's "on the fence" about whether he wants a job, and is made to scrub the top of a fencepost. In Spanish, he says that he was offered a "high position." In French, it's that he said he watched over the borders of Bowser's kingdom. In Italian, he says that he wanted to "recitare" (act, perform), but they only heard "recintare" (fence).
  • The Toad Researcher, in English, introduces himself with this: "This is perfect! I've finally found a suitable tester..." The Spanish version has him say "Precisamente me hacía falta algún incau... sujeto con quien probar un nuevo dispositivo." He cuts himself off before he can say "incauto", which means someone who is gullible or proceeds without caution, replacing it with "subject."
  • At the start of the game, Olivia encourages Mario to fill a hole with confetti using a variety of sound effects. In Spanish, she rhymes, "¡Plas! ¡Zas! ¡Chas! ¡Ras!" The first three are real onomatopoeia, but "ras" refers to evenness or levelness, which still fits the context.
  • The Battle Lab Toad is folded as a dog, and his dialogue uses a variety of dog puns. In Spanish, when he meets Mario again at Toad Town, he says "¡Ohhh! Pero... ¡Pero si eres tú!"^Translation"Ohhh! But... but if it's you!" "Pero" means "but", while "perro" means "dog."
  • Similarly, the Battle Lab Toad's initial dialogue got translated much better. In English, it's "Woof! I mean...put up your dukes!" In Spanish, he says "¡Guau, guau!" (onomatopoeia for a dog barking), then corrects himself to "¡En guardia!" ("On guard!"), part of his Battle Lab's slogan.
  • When Mario puts on the Donkey Kong mask, Olivia says that the thumping noise sounds like "donk, donk", and Bobby uses words that rhyme with "Kong" to describe it. In Spanish, Olivia's unable to recall just whose face it is. Bobby doesn't find it familiar but says that's no surprise (since he has amnesia).
  • A joke in the Whispering Woods has Mario walking over a bridge of logs, who sing "Do Re Mi", but the last one says, "Don't mind me!" Foreign translations came up with different jokes, instead: Italian uses "Dolce musica per le mie orecchie!" ("Sweet music to my ears!"). In Dutch, the line is "Doei!" ("Bye!"). In Japanese, it's "Domo!♪" ("Thank you!♪"). In European Spanish, it's "Todo controlado!" ("Everything's under control!").
  • Bobby's Pun after turning on the electricity in the Princess Peach got effectively translated between languages. In English, he says "I knew you were a take-CHARGE kind of guy!" In American Spanish, he says Mario is "obviously a very bright guy", and in European Spanish, he makes a pun on "luces", which can mean "electricity" or "intelligence". In French, he says "Ça y est, l'électricité est de retour! Enfin, j'imagine que tu étais au courant!"^Translation"That's it, the electricity is back! Well, I guess you're already aware.", which puns on "au courant" meaning both "aware" and an electric current. In German, it's "Du weißt eben, wie man für SPANNUNG sorgt!"^Translation"You sure know how to create... excitement/electricity!", since "spannung" can mean either "excitement" or "electricity". Dutch has a similar joke to German. The Italian translation goes with a pun on "dare la carica" (usually "give encouragement", "give a lift"), which can also be "charge", referring to electricity.
  • The food that the Toad compares Full Moon Island's shape to changes between languages. In English, it's a bagel; it's a pan dulce in American Spanish, a bread roll in European Spanish, a mooncake in German, and pie in Italian and French. Dutch instead puns it on the "glass half full or half empty" phrase, with the Toad initially saying "This island looks like a crescent moon. But is the moon half full or half empty? It depends on how you look at it."
  • In one of the cafes, Mario can buy a drink from a Dry Bones called a Morbid Mocha. This Alliterative Name was easily applicable to the French ("moka morbide"), Dutch ("Morbide mokka"), and German ("Morbid-Mokka") translations. Since it doesn't work in Spanish, they opted for a "Cortado de calcio" ("calcium cortado"), with a cortado being another coffee drink.
  • The Spanish translation opted to rename Shangri-Spa to "Sparaíso"; essentially "Sparadise".

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