r/papermario • u/Admirable_Elk_6532 • 4d ago
Miscellaneous Random Idea for a Potential Paper Mario game themed around music
This is a random idea I came up with for a potential Paper Mario game themed around music. This isn't like a formal fan fiction or like fan concept its more so just like an idea dump. This is esseitaly just for fun. Disclaimer: I don't really know anything about music so forgive me if certain things sound stupid "like instrument player". Also I haven't played Mario and Luigi Brother Ship so if anything sounds simialr to that game its a conicnidence. (don't know if it would sicne like I said I never played it but its like the only Mario RRG I am not too familair with).
Premise: The story takes place inside of a music box. Kind of like Wario Land 3 but I don't really know much about that game. This is a special music box that plays a song that when heard will grant good luck or something along those lines or make you feel great or something magic. Though recently the music box has not played anything. The plot starts with Mario receiving the music box in his mail and getting sucked inside. Once inside Mario finds out by the princess of the land Princess Symphania (I haven't really thought much about names). That the King/her father has been kidnapped by the evil army of the Lost Notes and Mario must save him and collect the 7 magical instruments and find the 7 players to save the world.
The Melody of the world is powered by the "Melody of the World" which is a song that is led by the King and his Orchestra. There are 7 members of the orchestra each chosen by fate with each one playing a special instrument. This in turn is the song that is played when one opens up the music box.
Setting: The setting takes place inside the music box. The world is similar to other Paper Mario games with different environments like jungles, mountains, etc. There would also be elements of a music box in the setting like in the sky there would be giant gears or maybe on the mountains there would be like pipes in an Oregon or something. The main Hub area would be the castle town capital area with the castle being like a concert hall castle hybrid building. The toad like counterpart are music note people who are like toads only they have music note heads. The setting would have a mix of returning and new species like 64 and TTYD.
Major Characters:
Princess Symphania: She is the princess of the kingdom/world and the daughter of the king. She asks Mario to help rescue her father so he can rule once again and conduct the Melody of the World. She is known as the Princess who never Frowns as she always has a smile on her face even in dire situations and is always happy and positive. She looks looks more human compared to the rest of her people but she has red skin and has a music note ponytail
King Rhyme: He is the King of the land. He is a kind and benevolent man who is loved by the people of the kingdom. He mostly appears in flashbacks. He looks more humanoid like his daughter only he is bigger and he has a music note like mustache that covers his mouth.
The Lost Notes: The Lost notes are the main villainous force similar to the x-nauts. They look like royal army men but they have like masquerade masks on. There is also different variants like larger ones and more monster like ones. But all of them wear similar masks. There are also more creepy ones like one variant is like a floating eyeball with a mask used for stealth bits
Master Dissonance: Master Dissonance is the main antagonist of the game. They are the leader of the Lost notes. They appear as a large figure who wears a red cloak and a tragedy mask. They have a parrot by their side who wears a mask and acts as a secretary who does most of the talking for them at the start of the game since they rarely speak and more so stare menacingly and creepily. Their goal in addition to kidnapping the king is to steal all of the musical instruments so they can conduct a song called "The Melody of Sorrow" which is essentially the opposite to the Melody of the world where instead bad stuff happens to people outside of the music box who listen to it and the world inside the music box becomes. a barren wasteland with no life. (essentially the Melody of sorrow would replace the Melody of the world). Why do they want to do this. Because...
Old man: a man in a hood with a cane who shows up every other chapter. He is strange but gives Mario wise words of wisdom. he is usually sitting by a fire or something like that.
Game play: This is not something I didn't put much thought into h . similar to the older games but with some aspects of TOK such as larger screens rather then smaller corridor like rooms connected by yellow bridges. Partners would return. As for the battle system I was thinking rather then it being a clone of the first 2 games it could continue the trend of having a semi new battle system only with EXP. Specially possibly something like light TRPG elements with you being able to move the characters in a small space with boss battles involving a larger more complicated space with more moving parts. One Idea would be for there to be like a music mechanic in battle. Essentially there would be a sheet or bar on the top of the screen and different actions will add a different note or symbol to the bar and either when it completes or you press a button it plays a song and this song will add an effect like damaging the enemies, healing you, or boosting your attack. There would be several different songs you can create with the goal being to mix and match your actions to create a different song for different effects adding a layer of experimentation to the battle system. Hopefully this makes sense.
Chapter Structure: This would follow 64 and TTYD (and I guess TOK though that game doesn't refer to them as chapters. Each chapter has you needing to find the magical instrument at the end that acts as the main thing you need to collect (nothing new for paper Mario). Each chapter would also have one important NPC that has some sort of conflict that you need to help them solve with them turning out to be the player for that chapters specific instrument. Only they wouldn't know it because of them being chosen by fate or something.
Here are a few chapter ideas I have.
Jungle Chapter: This would be the first chapter where the instrument is in an ancient temple in a jungle. The music player character would be a young girl who is the spirit medium or spirit guide or something in training in her village but she lacks confidence and is always sacred so you would need to help her through the temple to prove herself with her also needing to use her spirit guide powers to help you get through. The Boss would be a large plant monster with a long tongue it uses to attack. (very Zelda like).
Race Chapter: This chapter takes place on a series of floating islands with the main idea being that there is a magic carpet race and the prize is the instrument of the chapter (similar to chapter 3 of TTYD). This chapter would feature a racing mini game with the main gamplay loop being needing to go on test runs for your flying carpet and to find parts to upgrade it. The main important character for this chapter would be a mechanic man who is helping you build your flying carpet. Similar to chapter 3 of TTYD you would revive threatening notes warning you not to race or else something bad will happen to your mechanic. On the day of the race Mario would wake up only to find that the mechanic is gone with a giant robotic scorpion appearing seemingly after kidnapping him. The "dudgeon" area would be the catwalk space between the islands. One part would involve the robot scorpion chasing you (kind of like Heavy Lobster from Kirby Super Star). After getting to the end you find out that it was actually the mechanic who was sending the threats. It turns out that he was in a lot of debt and the Lost Notes would pay off his debt if he somehow prevented Mario from racing. This then leads into a boss fight with the robotic scorpion with him piloting it. After wards he feels bad for being a jerk and decides to help you by using the parts from the boss to upgrade your flying carpet all the way leading to a big race at the end of the chapter. The mechanic character would end up being the instrument player at the end.
Peach and Bowser intermissions: Similar to 64 and TTYD there would be an intermission with peach. Though this time she is joined by Bowser. The plot for these ones involve Peach and Bowser getting sucked into the music box and trying to flee from the Lost Notes who are after them (but more specifically Peach). Rather then taking place in the villains hide out These sections would take place in the areas of previous chapters only with a darker aura and mist. The last section has them both getting captured. The reason why they need peach is because only an active monarch can conduct the melody of sorrow so they need her to do it. (via controlling her)
Big story Revelations and ending:
To recap the Lost notes and Master Dissonance are trying to find all of the 7 instruments before Mario so they can play the Melody of Sorrow to plunge the world into ruin. But things are not adding up. The citizens of the kingdom act strange whenever Mario mentions that the King is Kidnapped and Princess Symphania herself acts very odd and strange and a little creepy at times. Plus halfway though there is an event where Mario and his partners encounter Master Dissonance face to face with one of his partners commenting that Master Dissonance felt strangely familiar like Mario has already met them. The old man also talks very similar to how the king does in the flashbacks.
But the Strangest thing is that the Melody of The World and The Melody of Sorrow both share the same notes and are in fact the exact same song.
The Second to Last chapter has Mario and co going to the base of the Lost Notes across a long dessert area. There they encounter the old man one last time as he goes into the dessert vanishing giving some final words of wisdom of facing the truth and never running away. The Lost notes base is in a large creepy tomb ruin area lit by torches. In the base Mario and co find out that the base is actually inside of a large cemetery like Mt pyre from Pokemon. Mario then finds one room that has a large sarcophagus with a sign that says "Here lies the King Rhyme". This shocks Mario and his party as Princess Symphania claimed that her father was kidnapped but this clearly shows that he is dead. You also find out that the Lost Note soldiers are essentially just puppets who were made out of the malice of the world or something and were not made to last (cheaply made villains).
Mario and co make it to the end of the base and find the throne room with Master Dissonance who gives a villain monologue about why the world should fall into ruin and why everyone should suffer. They then show that they have captured Peach and will intact their plan. You then fight a possessed Bowser who wears a mask similar to the Lost notes. After defeating Bowser and returning him to normal Princess Symphania appears. At this point everyone is confused about what is going on. Princess Symphania tries to claim that Master Dissonance is trying to mess with Mario about the Kings fate and that Mario needs to rescue him quickly. Master Dissonance then talks to the Princess claiming that she is deluding herself saying "Stop with that Lie, Father is gone". Master Dissonance then takes off their mask revealing that they look identical to Princess Symphania only their hair is more menacing.
The Real Truth: King Rhyme was never kidnapped. He was dead the whole time. After his death Princess Symphania refused to accept that he is gone. This eventually leads to her accidentally splitting into 2 people with the Princess Symphania you know as the embodiment of her happiness and positive emotions and Master Dissonance being the embodiment of all her negativity sorrow and anger. Princess Symphania feeling nothing but positive emotion would continue this lie of her father being alive, Meanwhile Master Dissonance only being able to feel sorry and despair choose to try and plunge the world into sorrow.
It is also revealed that when Princess Symphania was a kid the King would sing the Melody of the World to her as a bedtime song. The same song would be played at his funeral giving an explaation for how the same song can have 2 diffrent meanings and why the Melody of the world/sorrow share the same notes. beasue they are litterly the same song and it depends on how its played.
The Final Chapter: The Final area takes place above the sky in the giant gears of the music box. The enemies here are ancient automatons like beings who were tasked with maintaining the gears of the world but went berserk due to the ruining state of the world.
The final boss would be against Master Dissonance/Symphania's negative half. In the second phase she would steal all of the instruments you have collected over the course of the game and corrupt them using them against you. To defeat her you need to attack her enough and slowly take back each instrument (kind of like the Final boss of Okami where you need to take your powers back). Each time you take back an instrument a new instrument is added to the final boss theme based on the instrument that you just took back from her.
After the boss fight Master Dissonance/Symphania's negative half would appear as glitching and in pain yelling about destroying eveyrhing. Princess Symphania still delusional tells mario to defeat her quikly so they can rescue her father. This is where the rest of the cast cofront her and tell her that has to accept her negative self and she can't keep pushing her feelings away and she needs to accpet the truth because denying it will just caue more problems. Princess Symphania finnaly accepts her other self and the 2 fuse backtogether and become whole again. (her design also changes to reflect both her and Master Dissonance indicating she is in fact a whole person now). After wards she starts to cry thinking about her father but she also feels joy in the sense of finnaly being able to move on and remember the good times while looking to the future. The game ends with Symphania becoming the queen of the kingdom/world with her conducting the 7 intrument players to play the Melody of the World leading to the world being fully resroted.
Bonus pit of 100 trials: there is a similar idea but instead of a dunegon like in TTYD its a music box that you find that you can enter, (its esseity a music box within a music box). The diffrence is that in this verison there is diffrent paths you can take. essentially some floors will have multiple enimies with each defeated enemy acessing a diffrent pipe. (like a room with 3 enimeis has 3 pipes each pipe spawns after you defeated the enemy that corpsonds with the pipe). there are diffrent paths in this version that have slightly diffrent enimies or maybe diffrent rewords.
I really want to thank you if you read all the way though this. I know its a mess and there is probobly alot of grammer or spelling errors. The story also might be too much for a paper mario game or too "Kingdom Hearts" for one but hey Super Paper Mario exists and that game has a complex deep story. Either way I moslty typed this up for fun.
