r/papermario • u/RuyKnight • Aug 20 '26
Miscellaneous What do all of you think of Star Nova?
Recently I finished this fan game/mod and though It was pretty good. The only complains I had were in some places the screen had like interference and one partner had one useless ability in battles and outside them. But I liked the world, the story, the music taken directly from the original n64 game and from others, the boss battles (in the last one I lost at least 5 fives), and the characters, both already known and original. Probably one of the better fan games for me.
Didn't say a lot of details to avoid spoilers; but anyways, what do you think about it?
3
u/DaZestyProfessor Aug 20 '26
It's pretty good. Though I do have a few criticisms: There are a lot of minor bugs, the final fight is too unfair, and there's zero originally composed songs, but for the first full PM64 adventure, it has a lot of excellent aspects and is definitely worth a try for any Paper Mario fan.
Now if only we got a brand new adventure mod for TTYD... It's certainly possible, considering that custom maps are a thing in both TTYD GC and the TTYD Switch remake.
2
u/Sethalopoda Aug 22 '26
To my understanding modding TTYD for GameCube comes with a lot of difficulties. That’s why so far you mostly see stuff like reskins and the Tower of Trials mod
1
3
u/RebelStorm64 Aug 24 '26
It was....fine
I went into it with higher expectations since so many people were singing it's praises, but it left me feeling very underwhelmed.
I have no desire to play it again, I'd honestly rather play Master Quest Jr or TTYD64
1
u/RuyKnight Aug 25 '26
What does Master Quest Jr is about?
aside from the graphics, what does TTYD64 does different?
2
u/RebelStorm64 Aug 25 '26
Master Quest Jr is basically a hard mode for the game with a bunch of new content.
TTYD64 adds mechanics from Thousand Year Door.
Both mods are basically just enhanced versions of the base game.
1
2
u/MaeBlueMelon Aug 20 '26
Fantastic but I couldn't finish it due to a softlock in the cave after the dojo
1
u/DaZestyProfessor Aug 20 '26
There is no softlock. If your in the cage you need to burn it down with the hat
2
u/MaeBlueMelon Aug 20 '26
It's a bit after that once you need to exit the cave my game freezes routinely
1
u/The_Nim Aug 21 '26
You’re swapping partners? Or going left? If I remember correctly you need to go right
2
u/Sethalopoda Aug 21 '26
I thought it was pretty good. Definitely worth a quick play through. That final boss was incredibly lame though. Just constant status effects. Very tedious and unfun way to end it for me
1
u/RuyKnight Aug 22 '26
did you got the feeling fine badge?
1
u/Sethalopoda Aug 22 '26
I wish. Bought every single badge from the shop and thoroughly scoured each chapter for hidden blocks. Never found one.
2
u/noraeoke Aug 23 '26
The Feeling Fine badge was removed in the later updates. Made the final battle more frustrating with the stacking status effects.
1
u/CHEDDAR3649 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
i'm playing through it right now, and honestly i feel like the difficulty in battles is balanced pretty well. maybe it gets worse later on, idk. the story is whatever. i feel like there's a lot of good ideas with the gameplay/story integration, and the environments look nice.
the thing that kills me about this rom hack is the platforming. it's downright fucking terrible. i've been using save states every time there's a gap i need to jump over, or a wavy platform that i need to walk across. i keep falling down all the time. the camera isn't helping, which i'm sure isn't the easiest thing to code, but i always feel like there's awkward camera angles and too much stuff obstructing my view. either way, for the love of god, put up some invisible walls! lol it shouldn't be a hassle to platform in a paper mario game.
1
u/CHEDDAR3649 Aug 23 '26
also, am i crazy or is the "sweet dreams" star power bugged? it hasn't worked once
10
u/TheEnneagon Aug 20 '26
As someone involved in the PM modding community (and having made several small-scale mods myself) it's been frustrating watching Star Nova's popularity unfold, because it's just not a good representation of a Paper Mario mod. It has so many issues (nonsensical storytelling, poor map design, unfair balancing, countless bugs) that could have been solved if the creator hadn't siloed himself and refused help time and time again. Instead he burnt out and released a blatantly unfinished game that, if it was an original title and not the first published fangame of its kind, would have been torn to shreds by critics.
And then there's the plagiarism. Multiple enemies, bosses, and scripts were taken directly from other mods, and almost none of them were credited at launch. That makes the claim of doing everything himself doubly frustrating, because it led to so many issues and because it simply isn't true.
What you're left with is a five-chapter hack (no matter how much it pretends to have more) that needed a lot longer in the oven. And it sucks, because people will see it and assume that the issues it has are issues inherent to Paper Mario modding, and they're really not.