Paper Mario: The Origami King has been out for a few days now, and fans have discovered a potentially game-breaking bug that could occur during the later stages of the game.

The bug in question occurs after players visit the four spas in the Shangri-Spa area, which gives access to the secret fifth spa. Over the course of this section, players will receive a VIP membership card which they must pass to a guard NPC to get access to a new area that progresses the story.

However, players have discovered that if they leave the area after giving the VIP card to the guard, they will no longer be able to return to that area to move on with the story. The guard does not recall taking the card from the player, and there is no way for them to get a replacement card.

If the unlucky player had saved at any point in time after this moment, they will be permanently unable to progress the story and have to restart the entire game. This is especially frustrating as this point happens quite close to the end of the game.

You can watch a video demonstration of the bug in a video from Nintendo Unity below:

A similar, but less severe version of this issue can also block players out of 100% completion. In the Snif/Shroom City area, if players turn off the water at the hotel without rescuing a Toad that is being used as a surfboard, they will not be able to return to rescue that Toad later, a requirement for 100% completion for the game.

Hopefully, Nintendo is aware of these issues and is working on a patch to fix them. We will be sure to bring more updates as they come.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.