Paper Mario: Sticker Star

I've heard things like the game not having a leveling system, but those are usually grindfests anyways and wastes of times in my opinion. Are there side quests? Is there lots of exploration? Can you get partners/sidekicks?
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HP is the only stat that you can increase (which also affects the damage your first strikes do, when you iniate a battle by hammering or jumping on a foe). You can get more sticker pages by beating bosses, but that's really it. Stickers come in varying power levels (regular, Shiny, Flashy, etc.), which deal increasing damage as quality increases. You get coins for winning battles in 1 turn, and collecting a comet piece at the end of each stage (I'll get to this tidbit soon) will give you lots of coins if you defeat lots of enemies.

The world map is similar to that of SMW, secret paths and all. There are 5 worlds, not counting the short world 6; each have between 5 and 6 stages, with world 3 the outlier having 12 stages. You can collect comet pieces from stages to open up other stages. Some stages will require you to have certain "Things", as the game calls the real-world-objects, to progress, which could mean for some backtracking if you don't have what's needed at that time.

The battle system is fairly different. Mario is fighting solo, though later on in the beginning, you get access to the battle spinner, which for some small coin price, you can score extra attacks in a turn, along with other affects if you score a jackpot (think: TTYD's command slot machine, even the Poison Mushrooms). Stickers are consumed after use, but the game throws ****loads of them at you, so there's no need to conserve them. For once in a Paper Mario, you can cut loose and kill enemies openly and be rewarded for it.

As far as battle progression goes, you cannot select the targets of your attacks. Unless you use the battle spinner, your stickers will target the first foe closest to you. With the spinner, though, on second or third attacks in a turn, the second sticker will target the second foe in the line, and the third foe with the third sticker. This means, to get Perfects, strategy and timing are crucial. Every sticker has Action Commands, even Mushrooms and the "Things".

The game saves every time you go to the overworld, and you can save at blocks in a good many of the stages in the game. It is exceedingly fun, but if you are getting it for the story, hate to say that it's pretty much nonexistent, not even one line of dialogue for Bowser.

Hope this can give you some light on the situatuon.
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Ar Rappy of the PS0 board | Rappy Souls: 1054 | 3DS FC: 1590-4884-9269
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Tayo2345 posted...

It's an RPG without RPG elements.

No, it's an adventure game with RPG elements. Turn-based combat does not specifically make the game an RPG.
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Ar Rappy of the PS0 board | Rappy Souls: 1054 | 3DS FC: 1590-4884-9269
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Better, yes, but remember, RPG stands for Role-Playing Game, not a genre added to games that use turn-based battles. You would probably think the LoZ series isn't an RPG just because there ISN'T, though, but it is, as declared by Shiggy himself in the past... so it's not as much of a surprise people would think this is an RPG, because of its series it's a part of.
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Ar Rappy of the PS0 board | Rappy Souls: 1054 | 3DS FC: 1590-4884-9269
Sage of The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave board ( http://i48.tinypic.com/20gmued.jpg )

Yes, but that doesn't mean it's primary focus as an adventure game means it can't have some RPG in it. The products are there, but something else is more relevant when I see this game rather than RPG, but that's not to say it isn't partial to being treated as an RPG either because it DOES contain RPG elements, but the other stuff does seem to apply more than the RPG side of it.
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Ar Rappy of the PS0 board | Rappy Souls: 1054 | 3DS FC: 1590-4884-9269
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