Paper Mario Producer Is “Not Opposed To Fans’ Opinions”

Paper Mario series producer Kensuke Tanabe says that he's "not opposed to the fans' opinions" in a new interview. He talked to Eurogamer Germany about the entire process of bringing The Origami King to life. In Nintendo Everything's translation of the comments, the Paper Mario producer says that he's trying to deliver unique gameplay experiences. Now, it is undoubtedly true that changing the battle system will make every entry unique, but that execution has put Nintendo at odds with the large and vocal fanbase for the series. Paper Mario fans have been adamant that they want a return to the series roots of the first entry and The Thousand-Year Door. These recent comments from Tanabe make it sounds like that's not going to happen any time soon.

"The game development philosophy I've adopted from Mr. Miyamoto is developing innovative and unique gameplay systems. I'm not opposed to the fans' opinions. However, I view my game development philosophy as separate from that," he explained. "If we used the same gameplay system wanted by the fans again and again, we wouldn't be able to surprise them or deliver new gameplay experiences. We always try our best to exceed expectations in surprising ways. At the same time, there's no guarantee that we'll always succeed in doing that – so it's a real challenge."

Tanabe's initial comments to VGC have been a source of conversation among Paper Mario all summer. It seems that every release strays a bit further from the heights of The Thousand-Year Door. Fans continue to push for a rerelease of the first two games, or at least a return to the classic battle system. But, Nintendo is pressing forward despite those desires.

"Since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, it's no longer possible to modify Mario characters or to create original characters that touch on the Mario universe," Tanabe said. "That means that if we aren't using Mario characters for bosses, we need to create original characters with designs that don't involve the Mario universe at all, like we've done with Olly and the stationary bosses."

Recently, the producer talked about the claims around original characters with GamesRadar.

"From the production of Paper Mario: Sticker Star onwards, we were no longer able to graphically represent individual characteristics, such as age, gender etc., in the Toad NPCs (non-playable characters), and so it has become that much more important to convey their personalities simply through text," Tanabe outlined. "Our writer, Mr Taro Kudo, has been grappling with this difficult challenge since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, but has managed to achieve giving all the texts a sense of humour. In this instalment, Paper Mario: The Origami King, we were able to include some Toads wearing an outfit to match their role, and also created original origami characters."

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