Hello! Producer Otani here. Well, Mario & Luigi games are really full to the brim with Toads, so we thought we'd better bring lots of staff members for a similar feel! We're going to gang up in the hope that we can answer everyone's questions.

Seriously?

No introductions?

That's a bit harsh!

Now that's just cutting corners!

That's MariChan for you!

Mamma mia!

Right. We went through all of the trouble of getting a great crowd of us together, so please give us all a fair shake!

Understood. Let's get started!

Roger that.

I'll do my best.

I wonder if you'll make it round to me…?

I can't wait!

Okey-dokey!

Hello, everyone! I'm Akira Otani, a producer. Mario & Luigi games in the past were all about using two buttons, but for this title, we thought that we'd try to break new ground and make the action based on three buttons instead. However, when we tried to think of a new third character, we didn't come up with anything very good. Things carried on like that until we thought, "Wouldn't it be fun if there were two Marios?", and then Paper Mario emerged as a prime candidate. We felt that Paper Mario would push Mario & Luigi towards some new play styles, by means of a contrast between the solid and the flat, so we put forward the idea of a crossover.

We did think "We've got to have double bros!" at one point, but we also thought that we should stick with three-button play, that four buttons might be too difficult, and that the game would be frustrating to play. Because of that, we made ease-of-play a priority, and settled on just using the A/B/Y buttons, which meant unfortunately that Paper Luigi would have to sit this one out. Sorry about that!

I don't know about haunting, but Paper Luigi does make an appearance in the game! (Hello, by the way - I'm the director, Shunsuke Kobayashi.) But yes, let's say it was more of a friendly break-up. As for where he is and what he's doing exactly...you'll have to find that out by playing the game!

It was probably making the most of Paper Mario as a main character. He has specific qualities, like his "paperishness" and unique gameplay style, and we had to find ways to show these qualities in lots of different settings, in a manner that was fitting for this crossover. And since we had to work from the Mario & Luigi base, Paper Mario didn't always catch the attention as much as we'd hoped... We started to worry that we were going to be in deep trouble with the Paper Mario team! Well, I'm joking a little here, but I did have to work hard to create big scenes for the Paper Mario character.

...It did. We were thinking, since the paper characters were coming all the way from the paper world, let's make the main story something really bizarre, crammed with red herrings and misapprehensions. We had things like going back and forth to the paper world, and the Mushroom Kingdom turning gradually into paper... But we overdid it a bit, and the first draft of the plot ended up being a complete muddle that wouldn't resonate with anyone... So we simplified the script and structured it with greater emphasis on showing the different characters meeting and interacting with each other. We had to do a lot of re-writes...

No grumbles from me! Although... Actually, the in-house coordination was quite a big job. We really had to make an effort to give all three characters their own characteristics and chances to stand out, because when Paper Mario came to the fore too much, Mario and Luigi's parts seemed a bit thin by comparison. "Crossovers are tough, and I'd be the first one to say it!", I thought. But rewriting the script, adjusting the overworld actions, balancing the battles, and making sure that each character had their own special scenes resulted in lots more evolutions of the finished product than usual, so ultimately I think it turned out the better for it.

Oh no, nothing to do with that! This time, since we had so many paper characters and doubles of the same character together, we had to prioritize moving the story forward and communicating the contrast between them. It would have been really difficult to put in original characters and work out when would be the best time for them to appear.

Hello, I'm Yoko Shimomura. Since we were fortunate enough to have Paper Mario joining in this time, I consciously tried to go for a lighter, "poppier" feel than usual. Overall, I feel like it has the typical atmosphere of a Mario & Luigi title, but I'd be really pleased if people could detect some of those other nuances in the battle theme and the arrangement of the title theme.

My songs are like my children, so I can't really choose one and say, "That's my favorite child!" I wouldn't say it's my favorite as such, but "Mountaintop Secrets" (the background music for Mount Brrr) has a certain fantastical atmosphere that isn't usually found in the Mario world, and having the opportunity to put a song with that kind of feel into a Mario game is something that's quite unique to the Mario & Luigi series, I think.

Yes, of course!

Hey, why aren't we getting the same treatment?

Yeah, when it's us, you ask all the difficult questions…

I'd recommend the final boss theme too! ...Whew, I finally got to say something.

Is it my turn yet?

You haven't forgotten me, have you?

It'll be a shame if it finishes and I don't get to say anything…

Battle designer Jun Iwasaki here. When it comes to creating battle systems, I always think the real trick is to "narrow down your focus". So for this title's battle system, the first thing we focused on was "How can I make use of three buttons?" Once that was decided, we brainstormed lots of ideas on paper, then picked the ones that looked the most fun and tested them with a prototype.

Ah, I'll explain that! I'm Hiroshi Ohata, the battle programmer! What we mean by "prototype" here is a version which doesn't have any visual features like animation or anything like that - it's just for checking how the basic gameplay feels, like "what happens if I press this button?" If it feels engaging even without the animations, then it can only get more so after we've put them in. In the Mario & Luigi series, we've always placed a lot of emphasis on making the gameplay feel really responsive at this basic level, so we do a lot of experimentation at the prototype stage to find out what works and what doesn't. Then we carry on tuning it up until the latest possible moment, based on feedback that we get from people who play the game in development.

Hello! Mario & Luigi graphics designer Natsuko Kemi here! Perhaps I should try and keep it short… To pick an example, let's talk about the animation in the scene when Luigi is on his own. I used the way that Luigi walks in the Luigi's Mansion series as a reference when I put it together. I really like those games myself, so I hope that connection comes across and the fans are able to sense it! And then, as always, I did my best to cram lots of tiny details into the little pixel characters, like the direction of their gaze or what their hands are doing. Also, for some reason, I really focused on getting the roundness of Luigi's behind just right.

I'll... take that as a compliment?

The papercraft? Since we were doing a crossover, we wanted to have a lively, carnival-like feel for the whole of the game. We thought of something like portable shrines, of the kind they have at Japanese festivals, and it seemed fun when we passed the idea around, so we went with it. Also, we wanted to try out a play style that was different to the Giant Battles that we had before.

But that's just it - they're not robots! They're giant papercraft. And they're carried by Toads. It's surreal! Also, they're made of paper, so you can really smash 'em up! To contrast with the Giant Battles, where you'd enter commands at the right time, we wanted to try putting in something that was more action-based, with the player controlling everything for themselves. But because it's an RPG, we couldn't make it too difficult. So it's simple, but you still need to figure out a few different strategies, so it's pretty satisfying, I think!

I'm Hiroyuki Kubota, and I was in charge of designing the overworld. This goes for the battles too, of course, but the most difficult part was to avoid people feeling like the controls were "too difficult" or "more annoying" due to the addition of a third character. There may still be some players who feel that way, but we expended a lot of effort on trying to keep the three-button control scheme simple, by making sure that all the actions on the field can be performed by pressing the buttons in the same order (A → B → Y) and paying special attention to things like the Assist feature and defense in battle, all the while keeping it challenging and satisfying to play.

Simply adding an extra character doesn't automatically make the game better. For this crossover, we had to think about actions that could only be performed with Mario, Luigi and Paper Mario working together. I remember we kept thinking things like "How can we make him feel more papery?!" or "How can we make sure that each of the three characters has his own role to play?"

I suppose I can't just list ALL the examples... I remember spending ages going over the Trio Actions with Mr Otani. These are actions you perform many times within the game, and they're one of the big new features too, so we tried to make them feel new and surprising. With the Trio Grab move in particular (where Paper Mario rolls up and stretches out), I kept receiving feedback like "It looks like rubber." or "It feels too stiff." That one went through quite a few iterations... It also took a lot of work to make the models of the Mario and Luigi series interact smoothly with the Paper Mario models, and we considered finding some sort of compromise, but in the end I think we nailed it!

Me!

Me!

Me! Me! Me!

Me!

Me!

Me!

Right! You've probably forgotten, but I'm Jun Iwasaki, the battle designer! In battle, too, we worked really hard on differentiating the three characters. With Paper Mario in particular, we tried to bring out the paper aspect by letting him make copies of himself to attack multiple times, float in the air for longer, and so on.

There are some enemies that appear in stacks, like a set of sticky notes. The idea is that stacked enemies are more powerful than individual ones, but they're still made up of individual enemies with their own personalities. We wanted to do something similar for Paper Mario, but it didn't make sense to have multiple Paper Marios running around in the story. So instead, we came up with the Copy Block that he can use to make copies of himself. At certain points in the game, Mario's enemies even steal his Copy Block and make copies of themselves!

I'd probably think, "Wow, I've lost weight!" Then I'd sit him down at my desk and get him to do my work for me, naturally! I doubt anyone would notice. I'd go home and get some sleep!

I think we'd end up fighting to begin with, just like Bowser did! I'd tie him up with rope, and put him quietly away in the basement... Then if he had the guts to escape from the ropes by himself, as I'm sure Paper Mario would, I'd judge him worthy and go on an adventure with him.