WhilePaper Mario: The Origami Kingwas well received both critically and commercially upon its launch in July, the game has done little to win over hardcore fans of the RPG series since the change in direction followingPaper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. While improving on gameplay systems fromSuper Paper Mario,Paper Mario: Sticker Star, andPaper Mario: Color Splash,Origami Kingstill continues the franchise’s shift in a direction away from the distinct RPGs on the Nintendo 64 and GameCube. This has lead people to assume thatMariocreator Shigeru Miyamoto has limited Intelligent Systems' use of the IP when creatingPaper Mariogames, which series producer Kensuke Tanabe claims is false.
In an interview with Eurogamer, which has since been translated by Nintendo Everything, Tanabe claimed that while Miyamoto did limit the team during the development of the Nintendo 3DS’sPaper Mario: Sticker Star, restricting them from altering existingMariocharacter designs and pushing the series in a directionmore similar to the 2D platforming titles, these restrictions have been lifted since the development ofPaper Mario: Color Splash. “Ever sincePaper Mario: Color Splash, we have almost complete control over the creative direction of the game."
RELATED:Paper Mario: The Origami King - 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Olivia
Commenting on Miyamoto’s involvement, Tanabe claims “Mr. Miyamoto checked in on development once or twice, but there were no specific requests to make changes. However, all character designs have to pass a check by our IP team, which is pretty strict. Nonetheless, we were allowed to change the outfits of some Toads in this game.” Tanabe’s claims regarding character designs needing to be checked by the IP teammatches up with his claims back in Julythat the team cannot alter the designs of existingMariocharacters following the release ofSuper Paper Mario.
Paper Mario: The Origami Kingdirector Masahiko Nagaya also chimed in during the interview, adding that “Mr. Tanabe is correct about us having complete creative control over the crucial elements of the game. We were constantly checking whether or not our approach was moving too far away fromtheMariouniverse. During development, we were also careful not to disappoint the expectations of fans of the coreMarioseries. As mentioned, there are strict guidelines related to the use of characters. It’s a challenge to emphasize the unique aspects of the game while still adhering to the guidelines.”
While the team claims that Nintendo has not restricted its creative control overPaper Mariotitles, it still sounds like there are a lot of restrictions that Intelligent Systems has when developing newPaper Mariotitles. Despite this, during this interview Tanabe commented on how the teamplans to continue experimenting with battle systemsgoing forward, implying that it has no desire of returning to the RPG roots of the series any time soon.
Paper Mario: The Origami Kingis available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
MORE:Nintendo’s Pikmin and Paper Mario Announcements Are Parties to Two Different Camps
