Paper Mario: The Ancient Book

Paper Mario: The Ancient Book (known as Paper Mario: Book of Spells in Japan) is the upcoming sixth installment for the Paper Mario Series  and is going to be released for the Nintendo Switch, being in development by Intelligent Systems.

The story revolves around Mario, who must collect the Mystic Gems in order to prevent an evil being from taking possession of the Star Novel, or known by the public as the "Ancient Book". However after knowing that Princess Peach has been kidnapped by an alien race called the Lunaters, he goes on a journey to rescue her.

This game brings back the chapter intermissions where you can assume the role of Bowser, Peach or Luigi. Who's stories are connected with the main story.



Gameplay
Unlike Super Paper Mario, Sticker Star and Color Splash. This game returns the original format from the first two Paper Mario games.

The game includes a free overworld and a similar Battle System. It also includes new partners with different abilities and personalities, as well as characters and objects in the overworld to interact with. Now the main focus in the game is to search for the nine Mystic Gems in order to avoid an evil entity and its troops from trying to obtain them to get the Ancient Book's magic and take over the Mushroom World. To do so Mario needs to defeat different Bosses in 10 different chapters (A thing that also changes since past Paper Mario games had 8 chapters).

The Jump, Hammer and the Action Commands of course return, with the Stylish Moves and the theater-like feeling in the battles from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. The game has background scenery as well as intermissions in which you can control Peach, Bowser and Luigi. In the first Intermission the player can control Peach, who is held captive in the Lunatic Empire. Then it is followed by a Bowser intermission, in which Bowser visits the places Mario has been in the previous chapter and several missions include a side-scrolling level in the style of Super Mario Bros.. The Bowser intermission is then followed by a Luigi intermission, which is a new addition to the Paper Mario intermission system from the first two installments.

Luigi's intermissions are far more different. He still visits the places. Mario visited before in that chapter, but he has to travel back in time to look for some clues the villains leave behind them after they invade the area using a special device called the Side Scroll Gadget. Luigi has partners as well, and he usually has to solve puzzles in these intermissions.

A new thing in the gameplay is the Virtual Swap which is done with the help of Droppy, Mario's little robotic buddy. Droppy can teleport Mario inside of Virtual Dimension, which depends on the place they are and the place the dimension swap is done. In the virtual dimension there is a slight difference from the reality of the place, for example, in the real dimension it may lack a bridge but in the virtual dimension there's a bridge, then after passing through it Mario can exit the virtual dimension. Another thing that could happen is that in the virtual dimension there may be a switch, and by pressing the switch it alters the reality outside of the virtual dimension and make the bridge appear.

Mario Battles
Mario's Battles will always take place in a theatre stage with a background, scenery, and an audience. Apart from the traditional turn-based combat, many things can happen during the battle since the characters interact with the scenery, for example: The background may fall damaging all the characters on-stage, the audience helps Mario gain Star Power and throw items at the stage, an enemy can go to the back-stage and throw a bucket (damages and sometimes causes Dizzy on the character) or a bunch of worms (does nothing) and lastly, some Bosses can use the audience for their advantage.

Attacking
While fighting in a battle, Mario and his partner can attack with extra power using the Action Command. However, the Action Commands can be shifted, if controls are changed from Table-Top Mode to Handheld Mode.


 * Countdown: Tilt and hold the circle stick left, then release when the red light flashes. Tricky Timing: Pressing the X button to hammer the enemy before it lands on Mario


 * Aiming: Aligning a cursor in the center of the targeting reticule.


 * Button Mania: Holding on to or repeatedly tapping a button or input an entire sequence.


 * Switchie Frenzy: Shaking the two Joycons up and down to the beat of the battle song.

Guarding
To perform a guard action command, one must press the A button while holding the circle pad down. when Mario's opponent is about to strike him. Guarding reduces the damage he takes from enemy attacks and help the player resist status effects. The player must time it right, though.


 * Guard: To perform a Guard move, the player must press A and hold the circle pad down to dodge enemy attacks, reducing the damage they do by 1, and also protecting Mario from negative status effects. The player will have 8 frames (roughly 2/15 of a second) to guard.


 * Super Guard: To perform a Super Guard move, the player must press the B button while holding down the circle pad to dodge enemy attacks, negating the attack completely and sometimes damaging the attacker--generally a Super Guard deals 1 damage to an enemy who attacks directly and none to foes who attack at range, but it does deflect Pokeys ranged attacks back at them. The player will only have 3 frames (or 1/20 of a second) to superguard, making it more difficult to time than a regular guard.


 * Ultra Guard: To preform an Ultra Guard move, the player must press the X button to hammer an enemy and dodge enemy attacks, negating the attack completely and sometimes damaging the attacker--generally by 2 damage.

Star Points
Every time Mario wins a battle, he will earn Star Points. When Mario's Star Point Level gets up to 100, the player can choose whether to upgrade Mario's Heart Points, Flower Points or Sticker Points. Upgrading HP or FP will increase the upgraded stat by 5 and choosing SP will raise Mario's SP by 3. Mario stops levelling up at 99. Each stat has its own maximum value, which it cannot be upgraded beyond. For HP and FP, this value is 200, but for SP, this value is 99; however, it is impossible for the player to have all three stats simultaneously be at their maximum value at any one time, since the lack of level ups prevent at least one of the stats to be at its maximum.

Shine Sprites
There are several Shine Sprites throughout the game. When collecting these, Mario can give 3 Shine Sprites to Merlon and Merlon will level up Mario's party, increasing their HP and teaching them new moves. When Mario gets the Red Orb and gives it to Merlon, he'll replace his Purple Orb with it and will level up Mario's party for a second time (by giving him 3 Shine Sprites too) and will teach them ultra-rank moves.

Audience
Like in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door there are audiences in the battles, and they determine how much Star Power (SP) Mario recovers in the battle. The audience consists in various friends and foes sitting and cheering when attacking. If using the Stylish move in battle, Mario will recover more SP. Some Bosses use the audience to recover their HP or even attack Mario and co. Some spectators in the audience may throw helpful or hurtful items at Mario or his partner, and some may incapacitate the rest of the audience, making SP recover more difficult.

Luigi Battles
Luigi's Battles are very different from Mario's.

Instead of a stage, the battles take place on a floating disc where instead of one partner, Luigi can have three partners behind him, making a full group of four.

In order to attack enemies, Luigi must draw different attacks on his sketch book, with the help of his main companion, Kupid, an enlarged pencil. The player can use the move using the Touch Screen (or alternatively, mashing the A button) by following the grey lines in order to make it efficient. A more powerful version are Super Drawing Attack, which are more powerful and doesn't require any Drawing Points but instead requires the Ledder Meter to be maximized.

Luigi's Partners don't use this feature however. Instead of Kupid helping a partner out, the partners can create copies of themselves with a Copy Dice, deciding the number of copies they get to use in battle. They attack the enemies to a beat, depending on the number of copies they have.

Luigi and his partners can level up by collecting Moon Morphs after finishing a battle. The limit for their levels is 80.

There is also a Bingo Slot that appears when the player is lucky enough; if performing well, a successful performance will make a Shine Sprite, a Fire Flower, or a Mushroom and a failed attempt will make a Poison Mushroom. Sometimes, the Shine Sprites or Fire Flowers are replaced by Mega Mushrooms. If three icons matches, it will do any of the effect below depended on the matched icons;


 * Mushroom will heal Luigi and the partners by 50% of their HPs.
 * A Fire Flower will recover 50% of the FPs and DPs for Luigi and the partners.
 * A Power Moon will not only fully recover the HPs, FPs and DPs for Luigi and the Partners, but the Audience will also be full.
 * A Poison Mushroom will not only halve the current HPs, FPs and DPs of Luigi and the Partners, but the entire Audience will leave.
 * A new addition of the slot is the Mega Mushroom; a Mega Mushroom match will cause Luigi and the Partners to become bigger, with their Attack and Defense raised by two, as well as Super Meter fully recharged.