Despite the restrictions on character design, its creators claim that they have been able to maintain creative independence.
The cellulose world of Paper Mario: The Origimi King has been built under Nintendo’s watch, which does not mean that the Intelligent System did not have creative freedom when designing its proposal. Although in a company like Nintendo there are always a series of golden rules that must be followed, producer Kensuke Tanabe has revealed in an interview with Eurogamer Germany that the studio has enjoyed “almost total” control during the development of this new title, that It went on sale at the end of July exclusively for Nintendo Switch. At least when it comes to the core elements.
“From Paper Mario: Color Splash we have almost total control of the creative direction of the games,” says the producer. “Mr. Miyamoto checks once or twice, but there were no specific requests to make any changes.” Of course, all character designs “go through our team of intellectual properties which is very strict.” Thus, the producer acknowledges, they had to change the costumes to some of the Toads that appear in the video game.
Paper Mario: The Origami King.
Balance between the new and the pre-existing
Director Masahiko Nagaya has underlined Tanabe’s words and confirmed that the team has not been constrained by Nintendo’s vision, although the use of Mario characters has its limitations. “We were constantly checking to see if our vision strayed too far from the Mario universe. During development we were careful with the expectations of Mario fans. As mentioned, there are strict guidelines regarding the use of characters. It’s a challenge to emphasize the unique aspects of the game while adhering to the guidelines. “
Paper Mario: The Origimi King is not an RPG like some of its predecessors, although the developers have created a turn-based battle system. However, the battles take place in the form of puzzles, all in a world in which an evil king has managed to subdue many of the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom and has turned them into Japanese origami figurines. Mario must eliminate the streamers that have sealed Peach’s castle to restore peace to the kingdom.
