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Which should I get: Dream Team or Sticker Star

Anactoria

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Ok ok, so given all the bad reviews for Sticker Star, this choice should seem obvious. That said, this will be my first Mario/Paper Mario rpg, and so I (luckily?) don't have any standards to judge other games by yet. Sticker Star is being sold at half the price (used seller) for me as well, so there's another consideration. I'd appreciate any suggestions!
 
I'd compromise and go with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. It's fairly easy so it's a great entry-point to the Mario RPG games, and you get a taste of both games (granted most of it is M&L and not so much of Paper Mario, but you still get a bit of both). Dream Team is my favorite M&L game, but it is possibly the most difficult one in the series, and can be tedious at times and discourage new players from completing it. Sticker Star is... well you know already.
 
Idk why people say sticker star is rly bad?.... When I was younger both me and my brother both enjoyed it. Is there something I'm missing? lol
 
From what I've read in reviews, a lot of people feel like it doesn't have any RPG elements in it or that it doesn't have the charm of previous Paper Marios. I haven't played any though, so I feel like maybe it wouldn't matter so much as a standalone kind of experience?
 
I finished Sticker Star 100%. I'm one of those people who actually like SS for what it is. But I wouldn't recommend it for a first-timer. It's hard and confusing. You'll probably going to give in looking through guides because you got lost (it's normal to get lost in this game haha). I almost finished Dream Team but I always get distracted and end up restarting it. I've done that many times so I just give up and moved on to Paper Jam. Dream Team is a very good game though if you have the patience to bear going through the tutorials every now and then, but compared with Paper Jam, the latter is easier to get into and as someone said above, you get a taste of playing both games.
 
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Will I be missing out on anything by going Paper Jam first? Not only in terms of in-game references, but also will the humour or plot of the game make sense if I haven't played either Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario? The only thing I know about Paper Jam is that it's about a clash between these two worlds, so somehow I feel I will miss a lot of the "ohhh haha, Paper & real interactions!" moments if I haven't played at least one of them first. :S
 
Will I be missing out on anything by going Paper Jam first? Not only in terms of in-game references, but also will the humour or plot of the game make sense if I haven't played either Mario & Luigi or Paper Mario? The only thing I know about Paper Jam is that it's about a clash between these two worlds, so somehow I feel I will miss a lot of the "ohhh haha, Paper & real interactions!" moments if I haven't played at least one of them first. :S

Not really, there's very minimal references but the games are separate experiences. The only ones that are really connected are the original M&L trilogy (Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser's Inside Story), but the games after that aren't connected.
 
From what I've read in reviews, a lot of people feel like it doesn't have any RPG elements in it or that it doesn't have the charm of previous Paper Marios. I haven't played any though, so I feel like maybe it wouldn't matter so much as a standalone kind of experience?

Even as a standalone experience, I have a hard time recommending this derivative game over Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. While I don't have qualms with it being an adventure-oriented game with light RPG elements, a few of the most glaring problems that can ruin your enjoyment:

  • With two exceptions to the rule, the characters severely lack personality and the writing isn't anything to write home about
  • Many of the bosses either has you use the right stickers at the most crucial moments or have you very slowly whittle down their HP with plenty and plenty of stickers
  • The solution for many of the environmental puzzles and boss fights are often either too well-hidden or absent, therefore having a walkthrough with you is almost a necessity in order to enjoy a better pacing
  • Due of the combination of consumable stickers and the lack of any incentive other than coins, skipping fights is encouraged, which undermines the justification of the otherwise annoying battle system

So, is the unmemorable experience of Sticker Star worth your hard-earned cash when taking all of these big issues into consideration? Unless you happen to be very tolerant of bad game designs, the game's going to be a very tough sell for you.
 
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The thing about S-star is that it is NOT a true p-mario game while MaL Dream was just AMAZING I liked it so much that I liked MaL pJam less because no dreams :( tho Dream team is hard
 
So a couple of you have suggested that Dream Team is kinda difficult. Where is the difficulty? :confused: Please don't let it be platforming *sigh*
 
All Mario RPG games (M&L and Paper Mario) have platforming, but that is not the main focus, and falling just means going back to where you were before and trying again instead of outright dying.
The difficulty in Dream Team comes from the boss battles. They all have quite a bit of HP and can take a while before going down. Most bosses also have an insta-kill attack that can be tricky to avoid. Some bosses that are pretty late into the game force you to use gyro controls and they can be a bit finnicky. There's also a lot of bosses in general. Also Hard Mode exists which septuples the enemy's attack and defense which makes battles drag on way longer and getting hit by almost anything means death, but you unlock that after beating the game. I had some masochistic fun with it.
Paper Jam has bosses return to the normal-ish stat ranges, but the addition of Paper Mario helps a ton by giving you a third party member.

And like JC mentioned, Sticker Star can be difficult since you need a specific sticker for every boss to beat them, and you need to know when to use it. The game offers virtually no hints as to what sticker you need, and from what I remember only the first boss' sticker is a part of the story. So for every other boss, you need to not only know what sticker to use and when to use it, but you also need to go out of the way to find it since they're hidden away somewhere. So you really do need a walkthrough for it.
 
So a couple of you have suggested that Dream Team is kinda difficult. Where is the difficulty? :confused: Please don't let it be platforming *sigh*
Platforming in it is very low it has a inate problem that rpgs have and that's the need for grinding
 
Definitely Dream Team, while I'm not against Sticker Star like basically everybody, Dream Team is a lot more fun and it also kept me busy for a longer amount of time.
 
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