Paper Mario: The Origami King Devs Reveal They Can “No Longer Create/Modify Characters” From Existing Mario Universe

Paper Mario: The Origami King Devs Reveal They Can “No Longer Create/Modify Characters” From Existing Mario Universe

Earlier this week, Video Games Chronicle published an interview with Paper Mario: The Origami King‘s development team, where they shared many insights into the game’s development process.

During the interview, Nintendo’s Kensuke Tanabe revealed an interesting explanation behind why the series no longer features unique takes on classic Mario series enemies and characters, a feature beloved by fans of the first few Paper Mario games.

According to Tanabe, they are apparently no longer allowed to create or modify characters from existing Mario lore, requiring them to come up with brand new original characters separate from the Mario universe.

Tanabe: 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. 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 stationery bosses.

Whether a character becomes an all-time hit or not isn’t up to us on the development side; I think it’s more the case that characters that fans truly accept naturally end up that way. I hope that the origami siblings in Paper Mario: The Origami King will stay in players’ memories, even if they do only end up appearing in this title.

Although Tanabe did not go into further detail as to why this restriction is in place for Paper Mario, it would explain why the series now only sticks to the generic designs of Mario characters with little to no deviation. Furthermore, it pretty much confirms that any return to the traditional style of Paper Mario partners is quite unlikely for future titles.

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

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