ok where did toad go?

He wanted to rip you off.
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"it's that game that is so great it makes you want to destroy your Toilet." -Throwback2780

CopShow Guy posted...

I paid full price for that mess.

It doesn't really matter, because coins are coming out of your ears in this game. I was almost relieved to have a way to ditch a bunch of them quickly.

Seriously though... (huge rant incoming)


What was Nintendo thinking, putting a goon there who wants to rip you off? In Toad Town Tunnels, you get the shady looking, shady named Chet Rippo, who screams, "I'MMA RIP YE OFF OHOHOHOHOHO!!!!!!" but actually has some pretty nice items for sale. Then, in TTYD, which opens with Mario being told to watch his step, being attacked by a jerk who may have been a predator, watching some dude with a spear get KO'ed by the mafia, and then promptly getting mugged, he's asked to invest a pile of coins in a green guy who tells you flat out that he's going to leave with it and may come back broke. And he doesn't want just a few, he'll accept nothing less than 100. Bear in mind that this is a super-shady port town filled with the scum of the earth and several guys who openly admit to you that they're criminals on the lamb. And if you do decide to give to this green guy (bear in mind that money's a bit tight in the early chapters), he disappears for a good while.

But then, after chapter 7, he comes back, and if you believed him, he has a huge windfall (and I mean huge) for you, which is a great help in stocking up for the final dungeon/boss. And if you didn't help him, he gloats about how much money he made, but doesn't give you any. Lesson: trust Lumpy.

Now, we get to Sticker Star, where, in a (supposedly) idyllic burg, Mario is asked by a dude behind a house (who has no name, shady or not, and looks exactly like all the other perfectly normal toads) to buy a rare, expensive sticker. Hmm, where have we seen this before? Anyway, as the past games have been teaching us to trust NPCs, and that if things don't go your way you can always beat them up and get our stuff anyway (Gus and Kent), it figures that he's probably got a Repel Gel sticker or something that you want, a lot. Maybe it's even an HP-up heart. And of course, according to Iwata Asks, money makes this game go 'round, so it makes total sense to give it to him.

And he rips you off and runs away. No chance to punish him, no way to get your precious money back (I'm going to pretend that IS was completely unaware that money is almost useless in this game and every coin matters), and it wasn't even funny.

So, let's pretend you smelled a rat(ooey) and withheld your coins. He lowers the price. Well, in SPM, you had to haggle at one point to progress the game, but if you haggled too much he'd raise his price again and then not budge. So will you take it now? Absolutely. Burned again.

Now, let's pretend that you haggled too much, wanting to see exactly how low it would go. Oh no, he ran off. Well, no biggie- except you don't know what he was selling, and are bound to want to either reset or go back on a subsequent playthrough to see what he had to offer. And when you do, you get burned.

Realistically, there are only three ways to avoid getting ripped off by him: Not finding him (unreliable, and he's still there on later playthroughs), chasing him off, but then not wanting to do another playthrough (which is bad because the game should have had more replay value), or using a FAQ (which is lame, but apparently intended). Speaking of using a FAQ, you practically have to use one to get those missable diary pages. Poor game design, that.

So I don't know if IS found it funny to put him in here or not, but the game's humor is supposed to be for the players. Humor for the devs should be relegated to cameos and things players can enjoy, but this is just stupid.
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"it's that game that is so great it makes you want to destroy your Toilet." -Throwback2780

MarioPenguin5 posted...

Czar_Yoshi posted...

Seriously though... (huge rant incoming)

Did Sticker Star murder your parents or something

The game has a bunch of issues but this is literally the smallest thing you could complain about

No. I just don't like the game playing a dirty trick on me so the devs can have a laugh at my expense. They can do that easily enough without taking my stuff and while still allowing me to trash the perpetrator (Francis). He was funny to the player, too.


I could potentially see this as being helpful for getting into 2-1, but if that's it's purpose, why don't they tell you what it is so you don't buy it if you don't need it?
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"it's that game that is so great it makes you want to destroy your Toilet." -Throwback2780