60 hours, wow thats like two months of gaming for me at least. I should probably add another 10 hours since I am terrible at games too. Devoting that much time to one game is tough for me, I like to spread my love out to a lot of games at one time.

I picked this game up in the buy 2 get 1 sale at TRU this week and I've been having fun. I just finished Chapter 1 and am at 4 hours in. I'm not a big RPG fan but this is like RPG-lite and really fun so far. My kids really enjoy me reading to them and there's a LOT to read in this game. While I do enjoy the story and even I don't mind reading it I wonder when Nintendo is going to start producing "talkies". It seems like Nintendo is the last company out there that is still making their game players read gobs and gobs of text. I can't think of a single Nintendo game where there is a substantial amount of voice acting. That said I guess I would rather read the text than have really crappy voice acting but it really seems like Nintendo is behind the times in this regard.

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fab

I finished Ch. 1 last night too a tad under 4 hours. I'm really liking this game. I'm finally getting a hang of the combat. Now I have a full crowd cheering for me.

I don't mind the non-talking. My wife says I don't read enough anyways.

Did you look for the missing tattles? You can find some there.

ADDICTIVE GAME! I am in the area where the people are being turned into pigs. It is amazing how the difficulty level jumped. Loving it!!

Sam

This game is keeping me from San Andreas, trying to finish it this week, then Halo 2 next week Arrgh!!!

No, it's not really necessary since I've used tattle on every enemy I've fought. The one I missed was in the Spooky Steeple.

Oh God, this game is so insanely fun and addicting. Save for a couple of spots where I went to hang out with my friends I played the entire weekend. I just finished chapter 6 and I'm really dying to see what happens next (which sucks, cause I almost never have time to play during the work week). The basic plot is pretty clichéd, but then again what game isn't these days? Where this game excels above the others is the way it's told and presented, the whole game just oozes with style and quality presentation. I love how they even poke fun at the cliché aspect by having Luigi tell his adventure about collecting the seven compass pieces; makes you both laugh out loud and realize what a fantastic game they've built around such a simple premise.

One thing that has really taken me is how each chapter feels like a fresh adventure. They did a damn fine job of making each part of the game feel at least a bit new. I also love the whole "Metroid" aspect of how each new move or partner you get opens up exploration in each of the previous areas. Each new power you obtain you're instantly anxious to go back to areas you remember seeing those obstacles before.

Oh, and Art Attack is the single coolest special attack ever in an RPG!

Beat it over the weekend, including the very evil Pit of 100 Trials. What an awesome (and extremely hot) final boss. Appears to be a few more things you can do after you beat it, at least a couple of new missions at the Trouble Center.. but that's probably it.

Did anybody find the 8-bit secret on the moon base?

I'm nearly at the end (I think, I'm playing with no guide), but no I missed the 8-bit secret. I remeber there being one in the first Paper Mario.

Weird thing is I bet I know exactly how to do it. I was going to drop down that grate and didn't even bother to do it. I'm guessing returning to the Moon Base is impossible too.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to, but I know for sure that it's possible.

Just beat the game and I will return to the moon base to check this out. I'm just mad, because I knew I should have done that at the time. Absolutely loved this game. Still have the pit of 100 trials to do so I will be playing it for awhile longer.

The Pit of 100 Trials was probably the most nerveracking video game experience I've had in a while. Do I go for the next 10 levels or wuss out and go back and save? There were at least 2 times I went for it and got a game over. Very frustrating, especially when I was in the upper 90s.

I got to about level 37 before I died, but I was only around level 11 at the time. I will try again once I'm a bit stronger.

The Pit of 100 Trials was evil, and yes.. very nerve-racking. I went in about level 25 and cleared it without dying. Once you get to floor 70 you start getting mad star points. I think I gained 4-5 levels down there.

Here's some advice.. first and foremost is to MASTER THE ACTION COMMANDS. Super Guard is SO important; it becomes difficult to execute deep down on some attacks, but every attack you can nullify counts. If you can't quite get the Super Guard down, equip 3 Guard Plus badges, this will take 4 damage off each attack you regular guard and they only use 2 BP. Secondly, MASTER THE STYLISH COMMANDS!! Equip Timing Tutor if you need to, but trust me, you will need to use Sweet Feast and Art Attack frequently.. so the quicker your Star Power is increased, the better. Have your partner appeal instead of defend if they can't do anything for a round, or have Mario and your partner appeal to fill up when your on the last enemy in a fight. Both Super Appeal badges are nice for this if you have a spare 2 BP.. which brings us to..

Badge use is important, don't waste all your level ups on HP and FP.. I went in with something like 30/35 HP and 25/30 max FP. I did level up HP twice while I was down there, but BP is so much more important. If you have an excess of HP or FP, there's a guy under Rougeport that can make adjustments. All or Nothing is a super useful badge. Piercing Blow is a MUST HAVE. Super Jump (whichever badge lets you jump attack an enemy until you miss the action command) is very useful. Heart and Flower Finder are must haves to give you small refills after each battle. Lucky Day (or whatever badge causes attacks to randomly miss Mario) has saved me a few times. I know there are more ones that are just really useful down there, but I'm at work and can't check.

Yoshi and Bobbery were the most useful partners in my opinion. Yoshi's Gulp attack is just really useful; Bobbery has high HP and attack so he can be swapped to take some damage for Mario, plus his Super Explode attack clears enemies real quick (though expensive). If you see a new enemy, switch to Goombella BEFORE getting into battle and tattle.. or you can equip the badge that allows you to see enemy HP, either way.. you really want to see how much each bad guy has. If you have FP to spare, Goombella's Rally Wink is totally useful. Bring Ms. Mows out if you're against high defense enemies.

Item use is important too. Seriously, go to Floor 50, get the item that allows you to carry 20 items first and leave to stock up. Take a few Life Shrooms with you (but be careful not to let them get wasted by your partners). Cook items to get high-HP refill items.. I don't know combinations off hand, but you'll want items that can refill 20 or more HP if possible. FP restore is less of a concern I found, so I wouldn't bother.. HP usually gets low before FP and a single Sweet Feast will clear both up. Equip an Item Hog badge (if you haven't already, that's the first badge I got and was ALWAYS on, hehe) and make sure to use each item that is dropped. Fire Flowers and POW Blocks are so useful even if the damage is low. Defense is never considered, they ALWAYS do 2 and 3 damage to each enemy.. and POW Blocks flip over high defense baddies making them easy bait. Even stuff I never used normally was helpful down here.. Volt Shrooms essentially give you 2 full rounds of auto super guarding (as long as the enemy makes a DIRECT attack) for example.

Okay, last hint for now.. before you make your 100 floor trek, pay for the 50 coin curse.

Yeah, my strategy for the last guy was to put my partners in front. About half of his attacks only hit the person in front, so Mario was doing well, but he went through most of his partners before beating him.

I finished Paper Mario last night at Level 27 and just under 32 hours of play time. I didn't do all the side quests or the Pit. I may revisit it in the future to complete more of the game. I think it's a really great feature to let you keep playing even after you have finished the game. It wasn't a very challenging game but it sure was fun and addicting. I only collected a little over half of the badges and I didn't get the secret party member but I did have all of my other party members at their highest rank. I only got GAME OVER twice: once in the woods in Twilight Town where I was surprised by one of those Super Daisys and got 20 HP knocked off in one blow and the other time was when I opened the ghost's diary on the Excess Express.

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fab

I thought the soundtrack was really great. It was very un-Mario sounding. A couple hours into the game I was thinking "There's no way in hell this is a Koji Kondo soundtrack.." Too bad there's no sound test..

That ghost diary was great.

Just finished this game tonight, I spent 37 hours and got all the shine sprites and almost all of the star pieces. I almost beat the 100 trials before I went into the last chapter but after dying on floor 89 I couldn't force myself to try again.

Anyhow, the game was alot of fun, highly recommended.

I'm playing Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga now, it's fantastic and has my dying to play Paper Mario. Hopefully when I finish it and the other games I need to get through this game will have a price drop.

I just got to the moon in Chapter 7 and I'm getting my ass kicked by the Moon Clefts (spiky things) I can beat them but it seems like I'm gonna use up all my items before I even reach the X-Nauts base. I'm Lvl. 21, do I need to be at a higher level? I guess I could go to the pit of 100 trials but I hate having to take time out of the game just leveling up.

Lv. 21 is high enough. Just use Mario's Quake Hammer or Yoshi's Gulp, and that should make pretty quick work of them.

Leveling up will only marginally improve your chances of success. The key to this game is strategic use of available moves, items, partners and most importantly: mastering the action commands.

I was tired of fighting those things, so I just hopped on Yoshi and boogied right past 'em.