List of Paper Mario: The Origami King pre-release and unused content

This article is under construction. Therefore, please excuse its informal appearance while it is being worked on. We hope to have it completed as soon as possible.

It has been requested that this article be rewritten and expanded to include more information. Reason: expand the unused content section and Add descriptions for the rest of the Musee Champignon art.

This is a list of pre-release and unused content for the game Paper Mario: The Origami King.

Concept art

As with the art gallery at the Prisma Museum in Paper Mario: Color Splash, there is an art gallery in the Musée Champignon dedicated to concept art showing various original designs for characters and locations.

The Red Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

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  Various early designs for Peach's Castle.

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  An unused nighttime theme for what appears to be a section in Whispering Woods.

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  A variety of sketches for Magic Circles, including those for the 1,000-Fold Arms and Earth Vellumental.

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  The museum itself, with a Super Marino of a lighter yellow. The piece in the southeast corner appears to show a Blooper sideways rather than upright. Signs are placed next to the doors, rather than being lights overhead.

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  A conception of the Battle Lab. The Bossotronic Fighter was red instead of blue, while the floor was a lighter shade of blue.

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  A very early idea for Picnic Road. Notably, it is inhabited by regular Paper Goombas rather than origami Goombas. Mario is also in his fire form in outside of battle.

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  Early concepts for Ol' Grandsappy and Sweet Sap Loggins.

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  Rescue Squad Toad members donning the Picnic Road souvenir shops southeast.

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  A rockier version of the Earth Vellumental Temple with stalagmites and stalactites.

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  Different ideas for what Autumn Mountain would look like in the background of Overlook Mountain.

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  Furniture and take-out boxes from Overlook Tower.

The Blue Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

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  Whirlpools for Eddy River. A certain, much larger whirlpool features a variety of vibrant colors.

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  Three different models of the Water Vellumental Shrine, each a different tone.

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  A model of the storage room in Shogun Studios, with the Goomba Mask away from the shelves.

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  The Dress-Up Photo Studio. Photos on the wall include Birdo, a blue Toad, two Toads in ninja outfits, a Toad with glasses and another with a mustache, and a Goomba.

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  Several models of a theoretical Ninja Attraction. Although most of the rooms are similar, the cutout ninjas had a completely different design.

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  Early designs for the Thwomp seen in the Ninja Attraction.

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The Yellow Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

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  A different stand for the Toad mechanic, set up in Breezy Tunnel.

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  A completely unused area for what appears to be a training facility occupied by Paper Macho Soldiers.

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  An early version of the entrance to the Temple of Shrooms, with different-looking Toad statues at the back of the room.

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  The sarcophagus room in the Temple of Shrooms, showing the faceless Toads were red rather than yellow. A Donkey Kong-esque mural is present on a wall to the right.

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  Concept designs for the Fire Vellumental statues.

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  Early photos of Scorching Sandpaper Desert show the desert tower was much closer to the Fire Vellumental Cave.

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  Captain T. Ode sporting an eyepatch.

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The Purple Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

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  An early draft of the Paper Macho Gooper Blooper battle, depicting Gooper Blooper in his regular form.

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  Early drafts of the boat Sea Captain Toad owns and the Super Marino.

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  An early image of ? Island does not have a Sensor Lab door.

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  One of the areas in Ice Vellumental Mountain featuring a paper Sledge Bro rather than an origami one. The chest off to the side containing a MAX UP Heart appears to be missing.

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The Green Streamer section shows early ideas such as:

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  Raccoon Mario in Shangri-Spa outside of battle.

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  A completely different setup for one of the springs, as well as Mario in a Frog Suit, which does not even appear in the final game.

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  Shy Guys Finish Last being hosted by a Snifit.

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  The shortcut pipe in the Spring of Rainbows being orange rather than green.

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The Origami Castle section shows early ideas such as:

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  Designs for Bowser's airship.

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  Various designs for the Paper Plane Squadron.

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  Early ideas for Origami Castle.

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There are also various early designs for origami characters.

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  Parabones

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  Bony Beetles, Bob-ombs, Dino Rhinos, Sombrero Guys, Amazing Flyin' Hammer Brothers, and origami Monty Moles

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  Concepts for the Paper Macho Chain Chomp.

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  Early designs of the Earth Vellumental.

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  Early drafts of the Fire Vellumental.

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  Concepts of the Water Vellumental.

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  Various ideas for the Ice Vellumental.

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  Origami forms of Princess Peach.

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  Early designs of costumes for Mario, Olivia, Koopa Troopas, and Goombas, related to Japanese culture. Costumed Buzzy Beetles, Ninjis, and Spikes are shown, but do not appear in the final game.

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  Costume designs of Toads, Bob-ombs, Goombas, and Snifits related to Japanese culture.

Unused graphics

Before entering Peach's Castle for the first time, the player was originally going to have a 360-degree view of the castle as well as some models of Princess Peach, which appear unused in the game's files with different hair and jewels on her crown.

This game's models and sprites are heavily based on Paper Mario: Color Splash. Many animations from the former game are re-used, while the sprites have been redrawn. For example, paper NPCs that were enemies in Paper Mario: Color Splash retain their attacking animations and sprites, despite not appearing in battle in this game.

P_MAR_E.Default.bntx.zst and subclasses of P_KNP_E.bfres.zst, which were both used in Paper Mario: Color Splash, have all their corresponding animations in this game. This includes 2D sprites with Mario's hammer, which is 3D in Paper Mario: The Origami King.

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  Sprites of the hammer

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  Mario holding his hammer

Host Snifit has unused graphics. While they were part of MUC_E.bfres.lz in Paper Mario: Color Splash, he has a unique model with no recolors called P_MUCL.Default.bntx.zst Some sprites are unfinished, while new ones have been added, such as Host Snifit sleeping or jumping.

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  Host Snifit

Red paper versions of Koopa Troopas can be found in P_NOK.Red.bntx.zst.

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  A red Koopa Troopa

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  A Red Shell

Shy Guys have red, blue, yellow, green, and black colors (texture subclasses of P_HEI.bfres.zst). While the green one appears in an ending screenshot, the rest are not seen in-game. The model retains animations for the Black Shy Guy, Silver Shy Guy, and Gold Shy Guy from Paper Mario: Color Splash, all of which use a single idle frame. They also have animations for cleaning a vertical column at Shangri-Spa.

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  A blue Shy Guy

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  A green Shy Guy

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  A yellow Shy Guy

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  A pink Shy Guy

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  A Black Shy Guy

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  A Shangri-Spa worker Shy Guy

P_KNP_Eat.bfres.zst and its texture subclasses are for Toads with silverware. These are in Paper Mario: Color Splash, but go unused here. They are only seen in an ending screenshot.

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  A Toad holding silverware

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  A Toad holding silverware

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  A Toad holding silverware

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  A Toad holding silverware

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  A Toad holding silverware

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  A Toad holding silverware

The Fun, Funky, and Functional Monty Mole has walking animations, as seen in P_CRP_Shop.Default.bntx.zst.

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  The walking shop Monty Mole

The Big Thwomp has back graphics, seen in P_DSN.Default.bntx.zst

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  The back of a Big Thwomp

Captain T. Ode (P_KNPC.Default.bntx.zst) has many unused sprites, most of them showing his eyes open, paired with different poses.

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Some graphics depict Bowser and Bowser Jr. in the Koopa Clown Car (P_KPA_Crown.Default.bntx.zst).

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  The Koopa Clown Car

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  Bowser in his Koopa Clown Car

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  Bowser Jr. in the Koopa Clown Car

Bowser Jr. has a glitched back sprite that depicts his leg mislayered and placed far above his body. It exists as Pera_Albedo.0066_Back in P_KPAJ.Default.bntx.zst.

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The Rescue Squad captains (palettes of P_KNPRL.bfres.zst and P_KNPRL_E.bfres.zst) have unused graphics and animations including them blowing a whistle, pulling an object, and carrying an object. These are leftovers from Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Multiple characters, including the Toad and Snifit accessory shop owners (palettes of P_KNP_Shop.bfres.zst and P_MUC_Shop.bfres.zst), the Toad Researchers (palettes of P_KNPASS.bfres.zst), the ninja Toad (palettes of P_KNPNIN.bfres.zst), the inked Toad at the Princess Peach (palettes of P_KNP_Sumi.bfres.zst), and the faceless Toads (P_KNP_HoleBundle.bfres.zst), have unused color swaps.

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  Green recolor of a Snifit Accessory Shop owner

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  Pink recolor of a Snifit Accessory Shop owner

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  Blue recolor of a inked Toad

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  Red recolor of a inked Toad

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  Red recolor of a inked Toad

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  Green recolor of an inked Toad

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  Yellow recolor of an inked Toad

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  A faceless blue Toad

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  A faceless green Toad

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  A faceless red Toad

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  A faceless purple Toad

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  Blue recolor of a Toad Accessory Shop owner

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  Red recolor of a Toad accessory shop owner

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  Green recolor of a Toad accessory shop owner

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  Purple recolor of a Toad accessory shop owner

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  Yellow recolor of a Toad Researcher

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  Blue recolor of a ninja Toad

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  Green recolor of a ninja Toad

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  Purple recolor of a ninja Toad

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  Yellow recolor of a ninja Toad

Love Toad has back sprites in P_KNP_Unique.Red.bntx.zst. In-game, he remains in one place after being rescued, and does not turn around.

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  Love Toad's back sprite

The P_KNP_L.Default.bntx.zst file contains graphics for lime-capped Toads with neon blue vests. P_KNP_LL.Default.bntx.zst contains Toads of the same coloring, except in a group of three and sometimes placed at different heights. These Toads are used in-game as the audience in battles, who sit on the side and cheer for Mario. However, they are recolored in-engine.

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  A sprite from P_KNP_L

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  A sprite from P_KNP_LL

In the Snifit's graphics, sprite 66 is a purple crosshair. Sprite 67 is a slightly wider version of the crosshair. This is present for all colors except red (P_MUC.Default.bntx.zst and P_MUC.Red.bntx.zst), which have the sprites removed.

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  The purple crosshair

Some Toads, such as Professor Toad (P_KNPP.Default.bntx.zst) and the Origami Craftsman (P_KNPOLI.Default.bntx.zst), have unused relaxing poses.

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  Professor Toad relaxing

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  The Origami Craftsman relaxing

Several of the hidden Toads use this graphic, showing a more prominent face. A full, unobscured graphic shows that this is part of a Toad depicted with a very large head; it has screaming animations as well. It is found in P_KNP_Telescope.bntx.zst and its palette swaps.

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  The full version of the Toad on the telescope

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  A blue version of the Toad on the telescope

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  A red version of the Toad on the telescope

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  A yellow version of the Toad on the telescope

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  A green version of the Toad on the telescope

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  A purple version of the Toad on the telescope

Buzzy Beetles (P_MET.Default.bntx.zst), Goombas (P_KUR.Default.bntx.zst), Hammer Bros (P_BRSH.Default.bntx.zst), and Shy Guys (palettes of P_HEI.bfres.zst) all have unused graphics of them as Shangri-Spa cleaners.

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  A Shangri-Spa worker Buzzy Beetle

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  A Shangri-Spa worker Goomba

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  A Shangri-Spa worker Hammer Bro

Bob-omb has ghost versions of nearly all of his sprites, located in P_BOMG.Default.bntx.zst.

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  One of Bob-omb's unused sprites as a ghost

Whistle Snifits have graphics in subclasses of P_MUC.Default.bntx.zst. The red one appears in an ending screenshot.

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  A blue Whistle Snifit

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  A red Whistle Snifit

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  A yellow Whistle Snifit

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  A green Whistle Snifit

Palettes of P_KNP_Town.bfres.zst contain sprites of Toads found in Port Prisma in Paper Mario: Color Splash, including the Guide Toad, Rescue Squad Chief, and Card Connoisseur Toad. These graphics have been redrawn slightly, and include brand new back sprites. The Toadmaster General appears in P_KNP_E.Yellow.bntx.zst, as back sprite 231.

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  Card Connoisseur Toad

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  Back sprite of the Card Connoisseur Toad

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  "Deep Cuts" Toad

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  Back sprite of the "Deep Cuts" Toad

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  Guide Toad

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  Back sprite of Guide Toad

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  Guide Toad's idle animation

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  Rescue Squad Chief

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  Rescue Squad Chief

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  Back sprite of the Rescue Squad Chief

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  Back sprite of the Rescue Squad Chief

Every character has a "Kusya" file that is displayed when Mario hits them with his hammer. Some of these characters have Kusya graphics even though Mario cannot hit them, such as Emcee Shy Guy (P_HEIL_Kusya.Default.bntx.zst). If modded into regularly accessible areas, this crumpling functionality works as intended.

Sombrero Guys (P_HEISOM.Default.bntx.zst) retain most of their battle graphics from Paper Mario: Color Splash, which cannot be seen in-game as Mario does not battle them. They also have a party icon.

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  A Sombrero Guy after throwing its sombrero

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  Sombrero Guy's party icon

Various Toads in sunglasses have graphics, although they do not appear in-game (P_KNPG.bfres.zst, P_KNPG_E.bfres.zst, P_KNPG_Crampled.bfres.zst).

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  A sunglasses-wearing blue Toad

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  A sunglasses-wearing red Toad

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  A sunglasses-wearing red Toad

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  A sunglasses-wearing yellow Toad

Cheep Cheeps have two unused Kusya graphics. While these exist in the texture file, they are not called by the model's animations. The used ones have the Cheep Cheep tilted upwards rather than downwards. Additionally, there are unused sprites of a Cheep Cheep sleeping, which are not called by textures animations. These are redraws of similar unused sprites from Paper Mario: Color Splash.

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  An injured Cheep Cheep

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  An injured Cheep Cheep

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  A sleeping Cheep Cheep.

Princess Peach has graphics of her with her parasol, which she does not use in-game.

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  Princess Peach with her parasol

Ninjis (P_HKN.bntx.zst) have unused animations. One consists of a Ninji sitting down and sleeping. This is not loaded in their state data in-game, and there is no way to inflict Sleep on characters in Paper Mario: The Origami King. The other is a set of panicking animations, with the Ninji waving its arms in shock.

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  A panicked Ninji

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  A sleeping Ninji

Chef Kinopio (P_KNPCK.bntx.zst) has a set of unused emotions and poses. Most of these are used for the Tangerino Grill Chef in Paper Mario: Color Splash. Only the panicking animation has state data programmed. The back sprites cannot be seen due to the Toad always facing forward.

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  Chef Kinopio, angry

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  Chef Kinopio smiling

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  Chef Kinopio panicking

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  Chef Kinopio sitting down

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  Chef Kinopio worrying

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  Chef Kinopio's back sprite

Bowser has graphics for retreating into his shell.

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  Bowser's shell

There are sprites for a Spiny Egg. While Spinys appear on the overworld, they do not hatch from eggs, and Lakitus are absent.

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  A Spiny Egg

An item icon called Kicon_X_DLAGONPEARL_BLUE is located within the item preview graphics (\ui\ItemIcon.bntx.zst). It is a blue recolor of the Red Gem. It is also referenced in the item file for the Earth and Water Vellumental room of the Sea Tower (\data\map\W4C3_EarthWater\data_Item.elf.zst), which contains the text Item_DragonPearl_Red and Item_DragonPearl_Blue.

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  The unused gem item

Origami Spikes (O_GBN.bfres.zst) have a 3D model of a spiked roller, similar to the ones they throw in Super Mario 3D World. This does not appear in any of their animations, and they use Spike Balls instead in-game. This was likely done for consistency for Snow Spikes and Stone Spikes, which throw snowballs and spherical rocks. Despite this, both the rollers and spike balls appear in a room in Bowser's Castle.

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  The spiked roller

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  Spike with the spiked roller

O_HKN.bfres.zst, Ninji, has an unused green color swap.

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  A green origami Ninji

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  Ninji

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  Ninji (Grass)

O_BSA.bfres.zst, Swoop, has an unused palette with King Olly's color scheme, having a yellow head and purple wings.

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  A Swoop with King Olly's colors

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  A Swoop with King Olly's colors

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  Swoop with King Olly's colors

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  Swoop with King Olly's colors

O_NOK.bfres.zst, Koopa Troopa, has an unused red color swap for its Folded Soldier version.

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  An origami red Koopa Troopa

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  Red Koopa Troopa render

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  Red Koopa Troopa Shell render

The Origami Craftsman holds three sheets of paper: red, yellow, and green. The texture for these paper sheets (P_KNPOLI_ITEM.bfres.zst) includes a blue one, which isn't seen in-game.

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  The Origami Craftsman's sheets of paper

\ui\battle\Accessory.bfres.zst contains a texture named "Accessory_Dmy." It is a placeholder depicting a blue gradient.

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  The accessory dummy texture

A rainbow-colored dummy graphic, called "DummyTexture," is present in \ui\menu\SheetStatus.bfres.zst.

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  A dummy texture

There is a single file for a character called "KNPF": P_KNPF_Kusya.bfres.zst. It has no corresponding textures or a non-Kusya file, so there are no graphics remaining.

Sea Captain Toad's Kusya graphics (P_KNPCAP_Kusya.Default.bntx.zst) also contain two sprites of a regular Toad, one front and one back.

Every origami Toad, with the exception of the monkey, has palette swaps that are not seen in-game. These include red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, along with a "default" one that varies between models.

Origami Shy Guys (O_HEI.bfres.zst) have six color palettes: red, blue, yellow, green, pink, and black. Red and black appear as regular enemies, and Olly disguises himself as a yellow Shy Guy during the prologue. However, the blue, green, and pink variants do not appear at any point in the game.

Unused data

Among the partner IDs in the save file, there is data for a Sombrero Guy partner for Mario. This partner does not appear in battle or have any special abilities, but was presumably meant to be the one from the Canned-Food Par-tay Trio whom the player is meant to rescue along with the others.

There is also an EXP variable, which indicated the game had experience points during development. This can be found in save files as battle_win_exP.

Mario in an unused rematch against the Paper Macho Shy Guys with fire buckets.

\data\map\maplink.elf.zst contains nodes linking to unused Bossotronic rematches against all three Big Sho' Theater Paper Macho battles, the second wave of Paper Macho Shy Guys with buckets in the Fire Vellumental Cave, and the Paper Macho Mummy Goombas in the Temple of Shrooms. These can be activated by replacing event values in other Bossotronic entries, though the bosses do not appear as the links are unfinished:

Node	Starting Room	Event	Destination
7	"W1G1_BattleLab"	"HarikoBattleTHEATER_1F"	"W3G2_SamboArea"
8	"W1G1_BattleLab"	"HarikoBattleTHEATER_2F"	"W3G2_SamboArea"
9	"W1G1_BattleLab"	"HarikoBattleTHEATER_3F"	"W3G2_SamboArea"
10	"W1G1_BattleLab"	"HarikoBattleKURB"	"W3C4_MummyKuriboArea"
11	"W1G1_BattleLab"	"HarikoBattleHEI_BUCKET"	"W3C3_FireBucketB"

Five dummy scripts are present in the game's data:

• \script\wld\btl\enemy\btl_enemy_OnMapDummy.bin.zst
• \script\wld\btl\enemy\boss\btl_enemy_boss_Dummy.bin.zst
• \script\wld\fld\map\Fld_DummyScript.bin.zst
• \script\wld\fld\mobj\mobj_dummy.bin.zst
• \script\wld\fld\npc\npc_dummy.bin.zst

\script\wld\btl\player\btl_player_Mario.bin.zst contains a list of Mario's attacks. This includes an entry for an item known as the ElectricHammer, placed between the Ice Hammer and Mushroom. The Electric Hammer has no corresponding text or graphics beyond a particle effect for when it is used in battle. There is also a sound effect for when enemies are defeated by an electric attack, although Mario can not use any in the final game.

\data\data_item.elf.zst contains unused sell prices for each item in the game, equal to the buy price divided by 5. Additionally, the Gold Boots have a price of 800 coins and the Gold Hammer has a price of 920 coins, despite these items not being sold in shops.

There is data for the small box that Bob-omb owns as a Useful Item. It has no description. Its icon is defined as Kicon_X_SMALLBOX, although this does not exist in ItemIcon.bntx.zst.

Some characters have health values that do not show up in normal gameplay. Mario's default HP, before being modified by the game, is 25. Olivia's HP is 99, and each battle partner has an HP value of 1.

Unused text

The glossary.msbt file contains multiple item names that cannot be seen in-game: 1-Coin, 10-Coin, 100-Coin, 1000-Coin, Healing Heart, Shiny Healing Heart, Flashy Healing Heart, Star, small confetti bag, medium confetti bag, and large confetti bag. Additionally, an item called the Dirty Coin is listed between the Soul Seed and Shriveled Mushroom, suggesting it was another item that has to be thrown into the spring in Whispering Woods. This file contains battle-related text not used in the game: Arrow Panel, Hint Envelope, Treasure Chest, Magic Circle Switch, Magic Circle Panel, Action Panel, ×2 Striking Power, Extra Action Panel, ×1.5 Striking Power, Angry Enemy, and Damaged Weapon. Various characters' names, including Slurp Guy, Bony Beetle, Parabones, Poison Blooper, Dino Rhino, are listed despite not being visible in-game. The text string OVERLOOK is also present among the "other" section of the glossary.

Unused music

There are two music tracks that go completely unreferenced in the data files: BGM_EVT_DJ_A_W5_opus.opus and BGM_EVT_DJ_B_W5_opus.opus. They are soundalikes of "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. The files' naming structure matches the tracks used for the Sudden Death round in Shy Guys Finish Last, with the "A" track being the lyrics and "B" being the instrumental. The "DJ" in the title seems to refer to DJ Toad, who goes by this name in \data\map\W3C4_DiscoHall\data_npc.elf.zst and \script\wld\fld\map\W3C4\W3C4_DiscoHall.bin.zst. This hints that DJ Toad might have had a song sequence with lyrics, which was cut later in development.

DJ A	File infoMedia:PMTOK DJ A.oga ​

DJ B	File infoMedia:PMTOK DJ B.oga ​

Help:Media • Having trouble playing?

The track "Paper Macho Soccer" is mistakenly duplicated: the version used in-game is BGM_EVT_Samba_W1G3_opus.opus, while the unused version is BGM_EVT_W1G3_Samba_opus.opus. This is more in-line with the rest of The Origami King's sound files, which have the title first and then the level code. There are no differences between the two versions.

There is a labeling error for the track "Paper Macho Gooper Blooper". Its filename is BGM_EVT_Hariko_W1C4_opus.opus. "W1C4" is the level code for Overlook Tower, while the code for the Princess Peach is "W4C1".