'Paper Mario: Sticker Star' is a bad RPG. Surely you've heard the reasons before: No XP, one annoying partner, no upgrades, blah blah blah. THAT SAID, however, there is a way to make the game, if not fun, then at least interesting: play it like a stealth game.
Going into this game initially, I picked fights with every enemy, partly due to die-hard RPG instincts and partly under the assumption that coins, the only real thing you gain from winning battles, were really important. And they are to an extent, mainly to fuel the Battle Spinner and to buy spare Things. But generally, there are enough coins in the overworld, rewarded at the end of levels, and from selling extra stickers to get you the money you need.
Realizing this, the focus of the game changes to accumulating as good a sticker collection as possible while selectively avoiding fights. This sounds counter-intuitive, but unlike the first two Paper Mario games, the battle system here is easily overshadowed by overworld exploration, which remains in-depth and fun in spite of Mario's lack of abilities or transformations, thanks to how dynamic the overworlds themselves are this time around. In any given level, the terrain is liable to be drastically altered over the course of the game. Two positive things that can be said about 'Sticker Star' is that it is colorful and that its set-pieces are generally fun to traverse and explore.
The threat of battles in 'Sticker Star' are more exciting than the battles themselves: When the goal is to avoid fights whenever possible, every time you have to flee a fast-moving Goomba by circling around a bush or sidestep a Paratroopa in a tight corridor is a little bit suspenseful. Soon you'll know the enemies' varied overworld movements, the little quirks that each type of foe has that you can exploit to give them the slip. And the battles that are hard to avoid have much more of a risk-reward factor that the player must consider: Sure, there's a shiny sticker guarded by two Spinies, but are the stickers I might expend in battle worth it?
Bosses remain one of the biggest problems in the game, relying too much on specific Thing stickers to exploit their weaknesses. But playing stealthily, even this is made more enjoyable by not wasting valuable stickers on common mooks. At the very least, boss battles can become a little less experimental and tedious.
"Paper Mario: Sticker Star"? More like Metal Gear Mario.
'Paper Mario: Sticker Star' is a bad RPG. Surely you've heard the reasons before: No XP, one annoying partner, no upgrades, blah blah blah. THAT SAID, however, there is a way to make the game, if not fun, then at least interesting: play it like a stealth game.
Going into this game initially, I picked fights with every enemy, partly due to die-hard RPG instincts and partly under the assumption that coins, the only real thing you gain from winning battles, were really important. And they are to an extent, mainly to fuel the Battle Spinner and to buy spare Things. But generally, there are enough coins in the overworld, rewarded at the end of levels, and from selling extra stickers to get you the money you need.
Realizing this, the focus of the game changes to accumulating as good a sticker collection as possible while selectively avoiding fights. This sounds counter-intuitive, but unlike the first two Paper Mario games, the battle system here is easily overshadowed by overworld exploration, which remains in-depth and fun in spite of Mario's lack of abilities or transformations, thanks to how dynamic the overworlds themselves are this time around. In any given level, the terrain is liable to be drastically altered over the course of the game. Two positive things that can be said about 'Sticker Star' is that it is colorful and that its set-pieces are generally fun to traverse and explore.
The threat of battles in 'Sticker Star' are more exciting than the battles themselves: When the goal is to avoid fights whenever possible, every time you have to flee a fast-moving Goomba by circling around a bush or sidestep a Paratroopa in a tight corridor is a little bit suspenseful. Soon you'll know the enemies' varied overworld movements, the little quirks that each type of foe has that you can exploit to give them the slip. And the battles that are hard to avoid have much more of a risk-reward factor that the player must consider: Sure, there's a shiny sticker guarded by two Spinies, but are the stickers I might expend in battle worth it?
Bosses remain one of the biggest problems in the game, relying too much on specific Thing stickers to exploit their weaknesses. But playing stealthily, even this is made more enjoyable by not wasting valuable stickers on common mooks. At the very least, boss battles can become a little less experimental and tedious.