Paper Mario Story

Paper Mario Story is the fourth installment in the Paper Mario series released for the Nintendo Wii U in late 2012. Its plot revolves around Mario and Luigi being forced to work together with and against Bowser to stop a satanic lord called Hailtrex from taking over the Mushroom Kingdom with the power of the Year Heart in under 168 Hours before time stands still and fades out of existance.

Prolouge: Wave of Darkness
"Ah- welcome, museum patrons! For today’s tour, I thought we’d travel down the lane of history to discuss the Lo Cor Kingdom’s past. Long ago, there was a king. He was incredibly open with his subjects, despite suggestions to keep his distance. He also preached the importance of different ideals. Finally, in an effort to ensure his loyal subjects would be safe, the king commissioned a machine with control over color itself. The machine was built over the years with love, eventually that love went into the machine."

"Unfortunately, this was not to last. For, like many, his service to the throne ended."

"Soon, there was a struggle for who would be crowned next. And reformatting that machine for conflict really did not help matters. Eventually it was decided that a woman would do the job, and she did it fairly well. However there were disadvantages with another so called ruler, a king of turtles, he had a family. They had many wars with the opposing side, and it got worse over the years."

"Eventually that machine was left to rot for a long time, but that bit of love stayed inside it and didn't leave it forever. No one knows where it is, and it is rumoured that if one on the heartless side finds it, time and tide will flow over everyone and wipe us all out of existance."

Prolouge Part 2: Dungeons for Dragons
Mario and Luigi open to the dungeon of Mushroom Castle, with Toadsworth who is trembling with terror, they're trying to get rid of a visitor. An uninvited visitor, who is not happy. They battle enemies along the way and  run into Captain Toad and Sargent Koopcrop, in a cage. Who have been captured by the visitor. They join Mario, and the four of them find the visitor, over a pit full of poison. The visitor is a Dragon by the name of KrackTail. He threatens Mario that he will be burned up if he doesn't give him some privacy. Mario ignores this threat and battles him. After the battle, KrackTail rises and is about to burn the four, when suddenly. A Toad, in a Ninja costume smashes through the ceiling, he introduces himself as Toadzen, and he defeats KrackTail, with his squeezed scissors. Looking at the masked hero, Mario and Luigi shrug their shoulders and walk out of the dungeon with the others.

Chapter One: A Decal's Welcoming
That night in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toadsworth are invited to the annual Sticker Fest in the Decal Lands of Shroom City. As they all celebrate the event with the locals, Bowser and his minions manage to sneak inside the party to try to steal the Sticker Comet and use it for their own self benefit. They walk past a strange looking machine that doesn't seem to be functioning right. As the son of the late Kammy Koopa, Kamek recgonises this machine rightaway as something familar, something that hasn't been touched upon in a long tme.

Kamek grabs Bowser by the tail and stops him, but before Bowser can punch Kamek in the goolies, he looks at the machine and can see in Kamek's glasses that something is rather familar with this particular thing, something mind boggling, something that might have been a part of Bowser's childhood that was lost forever.

As he is about to touch the machine and pick it up, a mysterious figure in all black, slowly forms behind him. Bowser turns around and sees two yellow eyes, the figure introduces himself as Hailtrex the dark lord of the Koopa Kingdom, a run down kingdom that was corrupted by death and war. He migratted to the Decal Lands and died a slow and painful death, all because of that one machine behind Bowser and the war it caused. He plans to use it and take over the Mushroom Kingdom, putting it how he should see it.

Bowser laughs at this and punches him, with no effect whatsoever since he's a ghost. He turns around and sees the devil put his claws on the machine, and posses it. Bowser grabs the machine feeling pleased with himself, seeing as he'd be able to throw the machine and make sure that it won't steal his thunder. He manages to do so, off a peer. Ready to get the spook on, he and the minions crash the party. After Mario defeats a few of them, Bowser decides to just touch the Sticker Comet. Mario and Luigi get in his way and try to push him back, but Bowser pushes them off the stage and is about to touch the comet, when suddenly a black smoke covers the entire place, Mario and Luigi look around and get spooked by two yellow eyes, two scary hands grab Bowser, and swing in the air, sending him across the sky to who knows where.

The hands then turn to the brothers and the shaken crowd, the eyes then head towards the hand and the full body forms into Hailtrex, attempting to be strong, the brothers jump at the dark lord and fight him. The fight only lasts for a whatever amount of time, but it eventually results in the brothers being defeated. Once the brothers die, the figure snaps his fingers and everything goes white.

Battle System
After forgoing the classic battle system in favor of a sidescrolling platformer-style system in Super Paper MarioPaper Mario Story returns to the turn-based system from the first two installments. In battle, Mario, Luigi and Bowser's attacks are determined by Battle cards, which act similar to badges from the frist two installments. The characters all have exclusive cards that can only be used by them, as well as cards that can be used by any character. Cards can be found in the overworld, in special shops, or even after completing sidequests. In order to use a card, the characters must have the specified amount of card points, which replaces flower points from previous games. They earn card points each turn, depending on their preformances in battle. While a specific card can only be used once per turn, that card will return to their hands at the next turn.

As well as using cards, Mario, Luigi or Bowser can also use one time use healing and attack items called Stickers  as well as preforming strategic actions that don't require a card. The number of actions the characters have  are limited to a certain number that is shown in the upper left corner of the screen. Whlie this number starts at one, it will quickly increase as Mario meets new partners and completes chapters, eventually maxing out at ten. While one character can preform all of the actions during a turn, the audience prefers it when all two or three characters are active together. Unlike the audience from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door which consited of NPCS from Rougeport, this audience consists of Star Spirits and Planet Peeps that act as critcs and rank how well the characters preform their attacks with numbers one to ten instead of words. The numbers will then fill up the characters' Combo gauge which allows all three or two characters to use a special attack that requires teamwork.

By defeating enemies in battle, Mario, Luigi and Bowser will earn Star Points that will be added to their Super Stage, when it reaches 100, they level up. Leveling up is now done in a similar fashion to the Mario & Luigi games, where each stat gets an increase, plus you can choose one stat to boost by ten.
 * HP
 * CP
 * BP

Overworld
Unlike Super Paper Mario, the overworld is now 3D like in the first two games. Replacing save blocks from previous games are checkpoint flags, which act as both save points and warp points, also replacing the sewer system from the first two games. Unlike the first three games, chapters are unlocked in sets of two, this means that they can be completed in any specific order whatsoever with the exception of the fourth and final set.