Paper Mario (series)

The Paper Mario series is an RPG action-adventure series of the Mario franchise developed by Intelligent Systems. Four games have been released - three for home consoles, one for the Nintendo 3DS - and a fifth, for Wii U, is due to be released in late 2016. The series has gone through three iterations so far: Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are RPGs, Super Paper Mario is a RPG-platformer hybrid, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash are action-adventure games.

Exploration
Having its roots in the action-RPG genre that Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars followed, Mario is the primary character to be controlled in the Paper Mario series and finds himself in 3D settings in which items can be found, foes can be fought, and non-playable characters can be discussed with. However, unlike Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars's isometric view, areas in the Paper Mario series are reminiscent of levels in the main Mario series such as Super Mario World by generally being made of simple horizontal paths, with Mario having to go from the left to the right and finding enemies and secrets along the way, while going through platforming trials, collecting coins and striking Blocks. To discover secrets, Mario can use many abilities he gains over the course of the game, such as a Hammer to strike Blocks, a Koopa Troopa shell to reach distant objects or the ability to remove and replace elements of the environment. Traps can also be found in the field however, and will decrease Mario's HP if he gets harmed, although his HP cannot drop below 1, except in Super Paper Mario. Save Blocks and Heart Blocks can be found, saving the player's game and healing Mario's HP and FP respectively.

Towns can also be visited, and act as areas in which Mario can rest, craft new items, talk to residents and shop for items. Side quests can also be found in towns, generally consisting in helping out dwellers in exchange for rewards. Each game has a main town as well that acts as a bigger area where the player may need to return to frequently for purposes revolving around the story, such as unlocking the next area that needs to be visited. These towns gradually change as the story advances, and in the case of the first three games of the story, also possess underground areas and optional battles. These towns are Toad Town for Paper Mario, Rogueport for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Flipside for Super Paper Mario, Decalburg for Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Port Prisma for Paper Mario: Color Splash.

Certain side quests will lead to an optional partner being obtained. Hidden objects such as Badges, Star Pieces, Coins and Stickers can also be found. Such items can make Mario stronger, making the game easier to progress through. In Paper Mario: Sticker Star exclusively, HP-Up Hearts may also be found, giving Mario more HP and First Strike Attack Power.

Battling
Battles are an essential aspect of the Paper Mario series. While exploring, Mario will encounter enemies on the field, who will generally attempt to engage him into battle upon seeing him. Although battles are important, the way they work is regularly changed in the series, with the only consistent element being HP (Heart Points), which indicate Mario's health and decrease depending on how much damage he receives: if his HP reach zero, the player obtains a Game Over and must resume the game from their latest save point.

Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Several characteristics are found in battle and help Mario defeat his foes:


 * HP: Heart Points. They decrease when Mario gets hit by an enemy or gets poisoned, and increase when he uses a recovery item such as a Mushroom or recovers automatically with a Happy Heart badge. Enemies also share this characteristic, and their amount of HP can be seen if they are Tattled or with the Peekaboo badge. If Mario's HP hit zero, the player gets a Game Over, but if an enemy's HP hit zero, they are defeated. Mario begins at 10 HP and can reach up to 50 HP (200 HP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without badges or Chet Rippo.
 * Attack Power: Mario shares this trait with partners and enemies. Attack Power determines how many HP are lost by the opponent upon being attacked after being substracted by the opponent's Defense Power, however partners do not have HP and instead remain knocked out for as many turns as the Attack Power of the attack that hit them, substracted by their Defense Power. Attack Power is leveled up for Mario when obtaining stronger versions of his Boots and Hammer, while it is leveled up for partners with Super Blocks (Shine Sprites brought to Merlon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door). Mario's Attack Power begins at 1 and reaches up to 3 without badges.
 * Defense Power: Mario shares this trait with partners and enemies. While Attack Power makes an attack stronger, Defense Power makes it weaker, as seen above. The actual strenght of an attack follows this equation: Attack Power - Defense Power = actual strenght of an attack. Mario and his partners' Defense Power remains at 0 without badges, or at 1 for Kooper, Parakarry and Koops. Watt and Ms. Mowz's attacks also ignore Defense Power.
 * FP: Flower Points. Different moves will require a different amount of Flower Points, and if Mario does not have enough, him and his partner will be unable to use attacks that need them. They increase when Mario uses a recovery item such as a Honey Syrup. Mario begins at 5 FP and can reach up to 50 FP (200 FP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without badges or Chet Rippo.
 * BP: Badge Points. Although they do not directly appear in battle, they are necessary to equip Badges and as such use stronger attacks and strategies. They can be used on the pause screen outside of battle: equipping a Badge will reserve a certain amount of BP for that Badge, and unequipping it will restore the same amount of BP. Badges can give Mario new attacks such as Power Jump, allow new commands such as Group Focus, enhance his abilities in the field such as Speedy Spin, etc. Mario begins at 3 BP and can reach up to 30 BP (99 BP in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door) without Chet Rippo.
 * Star Power: Star Power is a gauge made up of seven units that is used for Special Moves. Mario will gain 1 Star Power unit with every Star Spirit he rescues. When the gauge depletes in Paper Mario, one fraction of a unit will be automatically filled up after each turn, although Mario can use Focus to manually fill up the gauge. When the gauge depletes in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the Audience will fill up Mario's Star Power gauge to a varying amount, depending on the amount of active people in the audience, on Action Commands being performed correctly, and on Stylish Moves being executed.
 * Partners: In battle, Mario is helped out by a partner character that was met in the story. Partners have their turn after Mario's and can use the Abilities and Strategy commands just like him, as well as the Items command in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. In Paper Mario, they do not have their own HP or FP: they will be knocked out of battle for the same amount of turns as the strength of the attack that hurt them, and their FP reserves are shared with Mario, however they have their own Attack Power and Defense Power, the former being upgraded with Super Blocks. In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, partners have their own HP however, and cannot be used for the rest of the battle unless they are revived with a Life Shroom. Partners are acquired throughout the story, and Mario can choose from eight partners by the end of the game, with one partner being optional in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
 * Star Points: When enemies are defeated, they drop Star Points. Once Mario collects 100 Star Points, he levels up and resets to 0 Star Points. Mario cannot obtain more than 100 Star Points in a battle, and after leveling up enough, earlier enemies will stop giving out Star Points. When leveling up, the player can upgrade Mario's HP by 5, his FP by 5, or his BP by 3. Mario starts out at level 1 and can get up to level 27 (level 99 in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door).

Trivia

 * The Paper Mario title itself is mentioned in several games. In the party at the end of Paper Mario, a Bumpty mentions that Herringway is writing a novel called "Paper Mario". The same occurs in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door with the blue Toad living in a house in the Rogueport west side, who also writes a Paper Mario novel based off Mario's adventures, which gets adapted into a play.
 * The novel written by Herringway is titled "Mario Story" in Japanese. In Luigi's Mansion, Neville can be seen reading a book with the same title.