Fort Francis

Fort Francis is the setting of Chapter 3-4 in Super Paper Mario. It is found in The Bitlands and is the home of Francis, a chameleon obsessed with gaming technology. The castle is also staffed with various Meowmaids, robots that serve Francis and guard the castle from outsiders. Mario, Princess Peach, and Bowser visit the castle after Francis kidnaps Tippi while also attempting to find a Pure Heart.

Chapter 3-4: The Battle of Fort Francis
The level begins outside the fort, which is locked. The key is found by hitting a switch in an underground room accessed via pipe in 3-D. The entrance of the fort contains a Save Block and a Meowmaid, as well as the door to main room. Behind the door is a pipe leading to the dungeon.

In the main room, Mario and co. find several Meowmaids (who mistake the player for Francis) and a large double-door with two locks. They can look through the keyholes to see Francis taking pictures of Tippi, who is caged. The room after the main one is apparently a library, though the books have been removed so as not to clog passages. The shelves can be climbe din 3-D to reach a door, which is guarded by a SurpriseMeow. The next room has some PatrolMeows and two doors hanging on the ceiling, which can be knocked down by ground pounding underneath them with Thudley.

The right door contains several spikes that cannot be crossed initially. The door on the other side leads to a SecuriMeow, guarding Francis' room. The left door leads to room with more climbable shelves, followed by an outdoor area with several AirMeows, which are used to hit a Switch Block, which in turn creates a bridge to reach a door. Through the door is a SecuriMeow, guarding the door to Francis' lair. It asks several questions about things that interest Francis, such as comic books and video games, the answers to all of which is "true". It then asks for a code. If an incorrect code is given, the player is dropped first into a room containing a Chain Chomp and a button requiring the weight of the player and a block. The button reveals a pipe leading to the dungeon.

The dungeon contains many PatrolMeows. There is a sign giving the codes to the two SecuriMeows (2323 for the right room, 2828 for the left). The Pixl Carrie is imprisoned here, but freed by the player. Her ability allows the player to cross spikes and access the right room.

In Francis' room and lair, the keys to the room where Tippi is being kept, but the door prevents anyone who is not an attractive female from entering; if Mario or Bowser attempt to open the door, it attacks them with laser beams. If Princess Peach attempts to enter the room, the door quizzes her on various nerdy topics to discern if she is romantically compatible with Francis (every question involves a simple true-false answer, with the answer always being true). Once Peach enters the room, she angrily confronts Francis. Francis immediately freaks out about the woman in his room and boots up Swoon.exe, an interface that lets him interact with Peach while emulating a dating sim. Francis then attempts to woo her as if she was a character in a dating sim, and Peach's responses (as chosen by the player) vary from inviting to irritated.

Regardless of the outcome, Peach eventually becomes annoyed with her responses and the whole "date", and blows up the entire interface with Boomer. Francis is distraught by the loss of Swoon.exe, but quickly realizes that Peach came to rescue Tippi (whom he calls Francine). He vows to protect Tippi from who he perceives to be an intruder, and a boss fight ensues. Francis attacks by using his camera flash to stun the player and summoning Meowbombs to blow up the player, or grabbing the player with his tongue, making the player go inside of him, and he also turns invisible to hide himself. He can only be attacked when he is visible. Once he is defeated, he gives up and runs away, and Tippi is rescued. Tippi becomes so happy that a Pure Heart suddenly appears. The group takes the Pure Heart for themselves, ending the chapter.

Once the player defeats the final boss of Super Paper Mario, they are able to return to Fort Francis. At the same room where they fought Francis, he offers to sell them Tiptron, a robotic replacement Pixl for Tippi. Francis sells Tiptron for 999 coins, the largest amount of coins that can possibly be held at once.



Enemies

 * AirMeow
 * BigMeow
 * Chain Chomp
 * Francis (Chapter 3 Boss)
 * Meowbomb
 * PatrolMeow
 * SurpriseMeow

Trivia

 * Fort Francis was once a castle owned by the Tribe of Ancients, as stated by Merlon.
 * The fort is filled with references to the other Paper Mario games and the Mario series in general; for example, posters of Bow, Bootler, and Petuni are visible in Francis' room. There are also numerous Nintendo consoles put on display, including the Nintendo GameCube, the Family Computer, and the Virtual Boy.

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