Paper Mario: The Origami King is the sixth Paper Mario installment. Since the series’ games borrow heavily from role-playing conventions, there’s an logical narrative involved, contrasted with the thin “save the princess” plots of Mario’s side-scroller games. While the story for Origami King is good, even great at some points, there are times when it falters. Here’s some ideas to improve it.
First, the original plot, stolen from Wikipedia:
Mario and Luigi are invited by Princess Peach to an Origami Festival near her castle in Toad Town. However, the town is abandoned and Peach has been turned into origami and brainwashed by King Olly. Many of Bowser’s minions have met a similar fate, having been transformed into origami enemies called Folded Soldiers. Bowser himself has been folded and stapled into a square. Mario rescues Olly’s sister Olivia, and eventually Bowser, and the three attempt to escape. However, Olly wraps the castle in five multicolored streamers and rips it off its foundations, transporting it to a nearby volcano. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser barely escape on a Koopa Clown Car, but are struck by a streamer, causing the trio to separate.
Mario and Olivia land in a forest near Toad Town. It is discovered that many of the Toads have been folded into origami by the folded soldiers. They rescue Luigi, who sets off to find the key to Peach’s Castle, while Mario and Olivia set off to Overlook Mountain, defeating the Earth Vellumental and the guardian of the red streamer, Colored Pencils. The two head to unravel the blue streamer, and along the way they meet an amnesiac Bob-omb without a fuse that Olivia nicknames “Bobby”. After defeating the Water Vellumental, the three travel to Shogun Studios, a Japanese-themed amusement park, defeating Rubber Band and destroying the streamer. Bobby regains his memory from celebratory fireworks.
The three head to Scorching Sandpaper Desert to unravel the yellow streamer. However, Olly blocks the path with a giant boulder, and tramples Olivia under it. Bobby and Mario visit the ocean liner The Princess Peach to recover a box containing a fuse. Bobby reveals the backstory of his amnesia, and proceeds to light the fuse so he can sacrifice himself to destroy the boulder Olivia is stuck under. A distraught Olivia breaks down, but Mario is able to cheer her up.
In the Sandpaper Desert, Mario and Olivia find that the sun has disappeared from the sky. They encounter Professor Toad, who joins them to help them solve the mysteries of the desert, and defeat the Fire Vellumental along the way. After defeating Hole Punch, they restore the sun and destroy the yellow streamer. The three find Captain T. Ode, an ancient sea captain frozen in ice, who helps Mario and Olivia navigate the Great Sea, where they defeat the Ice Vellumental and find the Origami Craftsman responsible for the creation of Olly. At the Sea Tower, Mario and Olivia defeat Tape and destroy the purple streamer. They gain access to Shangri-Spa, a spa located in the clouds.
Mario and Olivia find that Bowser’s Castle has crash-landed at Shangri-Spa. They team up with Kamek and Bowser Jr. to gain access to the castle, where they rescue Bowser and defeat Scissors, clearing the green streamer. Mario, Bowser, and his remaining minions use an airship to head to Peach’s Castle, but crash-land in the volcano after being attacked by Olly’s squadron of paper airplanes. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser escape and head to face Olly. Olly refolds Peach’s Castle into the Origami Castle; the trio traverse through, defeating Stapler and returning Bowser to his original form.
The three confront King Olly, who reveals he has folded 999 paper cranes, one away from the 1,000 needed to grant him ultimate power to create his origami kingdom and turn all Toads into normal paper. He reveals that his hatred of Toads comes from the Origami Craftsman, who disrespected the art of origami by writing on his body. A fight ensues, and Mario, Olivia, and Bowser manage to defeat Olly.
Upon death, Olly apologizes for his actions. Olivia reads the writing on his body, revealing that the Toad only meant to send good wishes to Olly. Olly realizes his mistake, and at his request, Olivia folds him into the 1000th crane, and Olivia wishes to undo all the origami King Olly has folded, which includes herself. The game closes with a celebration of the Origami Festival.
There’s two main things I’ll fix here. The motivation for Olly’s rage and despotism is flimsy: there no reason for people living in our particular universe to think that writing on origami is necessarily a bad thing. There needs to be more to make us hook our affections onto his motivation. Secondly, the introduction of the Origami Craftsman and the 1,000 crane blessing are introduced way too late in the story’s narrative. They should be brought in sooner and play a bigger role.
Revisions:
Mario and Luigi travel to Toad Town for the Origami Festival, where the Origami Craftsman will reveal his new creations, Olly and Olivia. They are twin origami figures he created using the Fold of Life technique, and they will have the power to accomplish the Thousand Crane folding in one day, thus granting the ruling monarch, Princess Peach, one wish.
Mario rescues Olivia as in the official story, but she suspects she has amnesia, because all she can remember is after Bowser’s attack…nothing before it. Her amnesia will help her bond closer to Bobby, who suffered from memory loss as well.
After Mario rescues Bowser in Olly’s Castle, he reveals that he heard of the festival and the Thousand Crane attempt, and wanted to steal the wish for himself. On approach to Peach’s Castle, his airship was attacked by the Colored Pencils and he was captured. He thinks the ship crashed somewhere, but he’s not sure where.
When Mario, Olivia, and Bowser escape Peach’s dungeon, they meet Olly, who is horribly “scarred” with a marker streak on his face. He is angry that the Craftsman created him so ugly, so after Olly came alive and saw himself, he revolted and started creating the Folded Soldiers from Bowser’s army, and folded all the Toads and Princess Peach, and imprisoned the Origami Craftsman somewhere.
Olly’s motivation to “fold” everyone/everything is so that he won’t have to feel alone in his ugliness. By making a kingdom of folded people who were once flat paper, he’ll feel at home. He even considers himself merciful, because he could force everyone to bear a scar like he does, but he feels folding is enough for everyone to view him as their rightful king.
At some point in the game, maybe after she receives a Vellumental’s power and folds into it for the first time, Mario points out (in his silent protagonist way) something he saw underneath the folds of Olivia’s crown. She looks at it and these words are written: “May she find joy in everything and share it.” Olivia, with some of her early memories returning, wonders if Olly has something like that written on him by the Origami Craftsman.
Mario, Olivia, and Luigi rescue the Origami Craftsman as in the original, and he reveals that Olly has been working on the Thousand Cranes creation by himself. He has a number of cranes already made, but they have to hurry because there’s no telling when he will be finished. The Craftsman, not knowing about Olivia’s amnesia, almost lets slip something that she had done before she was captured by Olly, but he stops himself before mentioning it.
When the team finally meets King Olly, he’s just about to finish the Thousand Cranes and receive the blessing. Mario defeats him with the Olivia Hammer, like in the original story, but the Craftsman’s writing is clearly visible. After Olly’s defeat, the Craftsman explains what happened with Olly. He created Olivia first, and after he had folded Olly to completion, he was writing his wish on Olly, just like he did with Olivia. Olivia was too excited (there’s that “joy”) to see what the Craftsman was doing that she knocked over a bookshelf right next to the Craftsman, who had to jump out of the way. The mess fell on top of Olly and the Craftsman’s markers, and thus created Olly’s scarring.
Olivia, now with her memory regained, is understandably distraught that she caused her brother’s disfigurement, even if it was on accident. The Craftsman then reveals the writing on Olly: “May he be a kind and wise ruler.” Olly, regretting that he misinterpreted the Craftsman’s actions, and desiring to set things right with Olivia, tells the Craftsman to fold him into the thousandth crane, and reset everything he had done.
Here’re the revisions, folded into (heh) the original plot outline:
Mario and Luigi are invited by Princess Peach to an Origami Festival near her castle in Toad Town, where the Origami Craftsman will reveal his new creations, Olly and Olivia. They are twin origami figures he created using the Fold of Life technique, and they will have the power to accomplish the Thousand Crane folding in one day, thus granting Princess Peach one wish.
However, the town is abandoned and Peach has been turned into origami and brainwashed by King Olly. Many of Bowser’s minions have met a similar fate, having been transformed into origami enemies called Folded Soldiers. Bowser himself has been folded and stapled into a square. Mario rescues Olly’s sister Olivia, who has no memory going back further than Bowser’s attack.
The pair eventually rescue Bowser, who reveals that he heard of the festival and the Thousand Crane attempt, and wanted to steal the wish for himself. On approach to Peach’s Castle, his airship was attacked by the Colored Pencils and he was captured. The whereabouts of his crashed ship are unknown.
The three attempt to escape. However, Olly confronts them. Olly, who is horribly “scarred” with a marker streak on his face, is angry that the Craftsman created him so ugly. After Olly came alive and saw himself, he revolted and started creating the Folded Soldiers from Bowser’s army, and folded all the Toads and Princess Peach, and imprisoned the Origami Craftsman somewhere.
Olly then wraps the castle in five multicolored streamers and rips it off its foundations, transporting it to a nearby volcano. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser barely escape on a Koopa Clown Car, but are struck by a streamer, causing the trio to separate.
Mario and Olivia land in a forest near Toad Town. It is discovered that many of the Toads have been folded into origami by the folded soldiers. They rescue Luigi, who sets off to find the key to Peach’s Castle, while Mario and Olivia set off to Overlook Mountain, defeating the Earth Vellumental and the guardian of the red streamer, Colored Pencils. The two head to unravel the blue streamer, and along the way they meet an amnesiac Bob-omb without a fuse that Olivia nicknames “Bobby”.
After defeating the Water Vellumental, she finds words written underneath the folds of her crown: “May she find joy in everything and share it.” Olivia, with some of her early memories returning, wonders if Olly has something like that written on him by the Origami Craftsman.
The three then travel to Shogun Studios, a Japanese-themed amusement park, defeating Rubber Band and destroying the streamer. Bobby regains his memory from celebratory fireworks.
The three head to Scorching Sandpaper Desert to unravel the yellow streamer. However, Olly blocks the path with a giant boulder, and tramples Olivia under it. Bobby and Mario visit the ocean liner The Princess Peach to recover a box containing a fuse. Bobby reveals the backstory of his amnesia, and proceeds to light the fuse so he can sacrifice himself to destroy the boulder Olivia is stuck under. A distraught Olivia breaks down, but Mario is able to cheer her up.
In the Sandpaper Desert, Mario and Olivia find that the sun has disappeared from the sky. They encounter Professor Toad, who joins them to help them solve the mysteries of the desert, and defeat the Fire Vellumental along the way. After defeating Hole Punch, they restore the sun and destroy the yellow streamer. The three find Captain T. Ode, an ancient sea captain frozen in ice, who helps Mario and Olivia navigate the Great Sea, where they defeat the Ice Vellumental and find the Origami Craftsman responsible for the creation of Olly.
The Craftsman reveals that Olly has been working on the Thousand Cranes creation by himself. He has a number of cranes already made, but they have to hurry because there’s no telling when he will be finished. The Craftsman, not knowing about Olivia’s amnesia, almost lets slip something that she had done before she was captured by Olly, but he stops himself before mentioning it.
At the Sea Tower, Mario and Olivia defeat Tape and destroy the purple streamer. They gain access to Shangri-Spa, a spa located in the clouds.
Mario and Olivia find that Bowser’s Castle has crash-landed at Shangri-Spa. They team up with Kamek and Bowser Jr. to gain access to the castle, where they rescue Bowser and defeat Scissors, clearing the green streamer. Mario, Bowser, and his remaining minions use an airship to head to Peach’s Castle, but crash-land in the volcano after being attacked by Olly’s squadron of paper airplanes. Mario, Olivia, and Bowser escape and head to face Olly. Olly refolds Peach’s Castle into the Origami Castle; the trio traverse through, defeating Stapler and returning Bowser to his original form.
Mario, Olivia, and Bowser, then fight King Olly. Mario finishes him off with the Olivia Hammer, and while in that form Craftsman’s writing is clearly visible. After Olly’s defeat, the Craftsman explains what happened with Olly. He created Olivia first, and after he had folded Olly to completion, he was writing his wish on Olly, just like he did with Olivia. Olivia was too excited (there’s that “joy”) to see what the Craftsman was doing that she knocked over a bookshelf right next to the Craftsman, who had to jump out of the way. The mess fell on top of Olly and the Craftsman’s markers, and thus created Olly’s scarring.
Olivia, now with her memory regained, is understandably distraught that she caused her brother’s disfigurement, even if it was on accident. The Craftsman then reveals the writing on Olly: “May he be a kind and wise ruler.” Olly, regretting that he misinterpreted the Craftsman’s actions, and desiring to set things right with Olivia, tells the Craftsman to fold him into the thousandth crane, and reset everything he had done.