Paprium: The Official Thread Mk 2

[Devil N]

Yeah that guide is how I knew about the Royale A path, and it also confirmed that taunting is something you need to unlock by playing Original mode. But it didn't say anything about how to get the Good Ending so I had to figure that one out for myself. I'm glad that I got it right because I'm kinda sick of grinding the same paths over and over in Paprium by now.

Edit: I've now also uploaded the recording that I made while playing through the Royale A path and the Good Ending that I got:



BTW I played in Japanese mode in that video, if you're curious to see what that's like.

[peido]

It's not the language setting of the game that makes it show all those diferences, but the region setting of the console. If you have access to a moded Mega Drive maybe you can try changing the region to see if that makes any difference.

Unfortunately I only own unmodified PAL Mega Drives :S
I also have a NTSC-US 32X (unmodified), but I don't think you can set the region on the 32X, I think the region is always set by the Mega Drive.

[inqualls]

Well, I finally got my hands on a copy of the limited (U) version and I'm having a pretty good time with it. Before I go on I'd like to confirm that this is not my copy (which has yet to ship) but one I got to play thanks to an acquaintance.

To start, this game will do a great job at giving you many mixed feelings. At first, the stiff and lacking core game play bummed me out but it does feel a little better as you get use to it? This might make sense to some who have played quite a bit as of now. Aesthetically it's surpassed my expectations. You can tell that most of the passion and imagination went into creating Paprium's levels. The music and BG pixel art alone make the game worth your time exploring. It's a great audio/visual experience and what keeps you coming back. Sadly, the game play itself is underwhelming.

Combat and core mechanics are barely on par with SOR1. What really hampers combat are the bland sound effects and sparse animations. Most attacks are single frames accompanied by the same muffled thud. There are a few progressive mechanics that hint at more advanced brawling features but their implementation feels unfinished and/or pointless. For example, running offensive attacks land one hit and they barely do more damage then the basic jump attack. It also doesn't help that many core actions are ONE frame animations. Of course, the large sprites make it all the more noticeable. Single frame actions can make for some very unnatural looking maneuvers and enemy actions are hard to decipher at times with hardly any frames to convey what's taking place.

As far as design choices, the continue system is pretty painful imo. Having to play an entire level over from the beginning is a real buzz kill and a great way to showcase just how shallow combat can become. The other design choice that bothers me more than some is the way special attacks are handled. Why can't we use an offensive special at the cost of hp? Taking the pill should power up all base attacks and allow penalty-free specials during it's duration. Only having one attack during drug use makes it more of a nuisance than a perk. From the player's standpoint, if they can't use specials for crowd control the next best thing is going to be jump attacks. I hate to say it but with the abuse of jump attacks you can control most enemy waves and even beat bosses with ease. I took down Murdock on Very Hard using jump attacks as I only had 2 lives at that point and really didn't want to play the whole level over again. This is probably the worst part of the whole experience. Jump attacks do decent enough damage and hurt most enemies (even in down/dizzy state) that it just becomes a cheap go to tactic when things become dicey.

Overall, I don't hate the game but I'm not gushing over it either. If I had to sum it up in a single statement, I would say that without the phenomenal aesthetics Paprium would deliver a really weak beat'em up experience when compared to other 90's arcade titles and one of the most vanilla offerings from the 16 bit console era. Technically speaking, the cart does wonders at leveraging the sega/mega drive's capabilities and you can sometimes forget that your playing this on a 30 year old console. Furthermore, the cart I played managed to hold up as I had no game breaking moments during any of my play time. The only 'technical' bug I noticed was the music did shift out of tune a couple times doing pill use but eventually worked itself out.

Here's my rating in Paprium form:

LEVEL ART: A+
LEVEL LAYOUT: B+
SPRITE ART: B+

MUSIC: A+
SFX: B

HERO ANIM: C+
ENEMY ANIM: C
BOSS ANIM: D

GAMEPLAY: C+
ENEMY AI: C
BOSS AI: D

VERDICT: C

Now, I'm just going to throw this out there for Fonzie and the Melon Krew. If there is going to be further updates to Paprium I would gladly work on and increase the number of sprite animations for all characters in Paprium given the opportunity. Most characters suffer from lack of animation frames as many only have single frames for throws, jump attacks and other basic actions. Certain enemies, especially bosses feel unfinished like they are from a late Alpha/early beta version of the game. For instance, Police Chief Murdock walks and uppercuts. That's pretty much it. So yeah, I'm offering to help out and willing to sign a NDA if need be.

[Mr. Ksoft]

Hey everyone, I've been working to consolidate all the information about the game's secrets and unlockables since a lot of it is spread across this thread as well as Twitter. I set up a page on my website, and eventually I'll turn it into a full walkthrough instead of just an info dump. There are still a few things I need to clarify in it (for instance. I haven't played all the arcade routes to verify the level orders), and I'm sure that there will be more discoveries going forward (like those last 11 music tracks, wtf?). Get in touch with me if you find anything new, or if I made a mistake. I'll keep trawling this thread for news.

Paprium: The Unofficial, Incomplete Guide

[Sut]

I had my first proper play through today as well, I really enjoyed it.
The graphics and some effects are really good, some of the music is outstanding, I didn’t seem to notice any great issues with the AI some seem to complain about.

I agree with Inqualls it could really do with better sound effects for the attacks, I know it is going to draw comparisons with the SOR series because of the console it is on, but for me it plays more like a Konami brawler gameplay wise.

Personally I would give it an 8/10.

[Devil N]

Hey everyone, I've been working to consolidate all the information about the game's secrets and unlockables since a lot of it is spread across this thread as well as Twitter. I set up a page on my website, and eventually I'll turn it into a full walkthrough instead of just an info dump. There are still a few things I need to clarify in it (for instance. I haven't played all the arcade routes to verify the level orders), and I'm sure that there will be more discoveries going forward (like those last 11 music tracks, wtf?). Get in touch with me if you find anything new, or if I made a mistake. I'll keep trawling this thread for news.

Paprium: The Unofficial, Incomplete Guide

Good job, and thanks for giving credit where it is due!

I've been keeping various notes on my findings while playing through Paprium, and this is what I've got up to this point. It would be good to have all the available information in one location, so you can add what you want from this list:

* Differences from Hard to Very Hard
    * More enemies overall
    * Enemies move faster, do more damage
    * Some bosses appear in pairs (e.g. Yolo, Leach, Torch)
    * Final stages must be re-played in full (i.e. no shortcut to throned character after one or two sub-bosses)
    * Sexy Sax Man appears on some stages
    * No hidden extra life in Block 888's first room (instead there's a Moutay can)
	
* Bonus missions
    * Police HQ
        1. Central Park (boss = Leach & V.V.) music: Jazzy Shuffle ("Pest Control")
        2. Sky Spa (boss = Gandium) music: Funk Enhanced Mix ("Breach at the Sky Spa")
        3. Freeway (boss = Rondo Red) music: Waterfront Beat ("Rondo Kidnapped a Kid")
    * Golden of Seas
        1. Ice Factory (boss = Chavez Yellow-Green) music: Neon Rider ("A Foe is in Trouble")
        2. Restaurant (boss = Rondo Red) music: Slow Mood Ext ("Big Troubles at Our Restaurant")
        3. The Docks (boss = Gandium) music: Neo Metal ("Cult at the Docks")
    * Bhopal B2
        1. Aquaworld (boss = Showtime) music: Indie Break Beat ("We Lost the Aquaworld")
        2. Blue Bar (boss = Tiger/Bear) music: Club Shuffle ("Wrestling Replacement")
        3. Powder Zone (boss = Chavez Yellow-Green) music: Evolve ("Police is Raiding Our Facilities")
		
* Sexy Sax Man sightings (only on Very Hard and Paprium difficulty)
    * Intercom (Mid-Levels path)
    * Bion-Mart
    * Central Park
    * Ice Factory
    * Green Cross
    * Blue Bar (during Romulus & Remus boss fight)
    * Sky Spa
	
* Secret paths
    * Block 888 (move left) => skip to boss, only after first playthrough
    * Block 888 (breakable door) => items
    * Rooftops (X on pillar) => secret passage
    * Police HQ (breakable door) => items
    * Ice Factory (breakable garage door) => secret passage, leads to S.P.U.
    * Powder Zone (breakable lock on pillar) => secret passage, unlock L.Ektra
    * The Docks (breakable panel) => secret passage, unlock Baba
    * Juvenium (breakable door) => tied-up enemy
    * Digniti KTV (breakable VIP chain) => items
	
* Bonus mini-games
    * Shot-a-Tron => after Bion-Mart, shoot hoops with enemies (music = Dubstep Groove)
	
* Misc
    * Soft reset by pausing, then pressing A+B+C+Start
    * Taunt by pressing the Mode button
    * Some enemies can be picked up by grabbing them and then pressing Up+B
    * Sometimes one of the plus-sized Iridium-type enemies will start convulsing, burst open and turn into a Baby Leach headcrab monster
    * The rollerskating TokTok enemies can be mounted as a vehicle, but they can also ride vehicles themselves. This means that sometimes you will see them riding each other!
    * Sometimes the enemy AI will get stuck and if this takes too long, the enemy will get reset and dropped down in the center of the arena.
	
* FAQ
    * What's the point of the tied-up enemies?
        * Free five to get an extra life
    * What do the NX Terminals do?
        * Warp to Juvenium for X credits
    * What's up with the scoring system?
        * Hexadecimal notation
    * How do I unlock the secret characters?
        * Powder Zone & The Docks hidden areas
    * What is the point of throning?
        * Unlock Sky Spa path & KTV path
        * Unlock extra bonus missions at the end of a path
    * How do the levels fit together?
        * Map: https://imgur.com/gd2R1qk
    * What's up with the music?
        * Key change midway through level
        * Goes out of tune when low on health
        * Pitch goes up when using a Blu pill
    * What do the Blu pills do?
        * Unleash a powerful special attack
        * Partial invincibility
        * Health recovers to the size of the blue portion of your health bar
    * How does the addiction mechanic work?
        * Using Blu pills in a run will increase the blue portion of your health bar for the next run
        * If your health goes down into the blue portion, you enter a "crisis" state:
            * Your attacks become weaker
            * You can only run for about half a screen, gradually you get slower and eventually you end up in a stunned state
            * Blocking is less effective

[NeoVamp]

but it does feel a little better as you get use to it?

[Qjimbo]

Still no sign of my cartridge that was supposed to come from Las Vegas, the status just says "Shipping...". I even emailed WM support for a tracking number on the 13th and no response. Anyone in Canada got their copy yet?

[inqualls]

@NeoVamp: I needed this laugh today. You're right though, I'm in the bargaining stage. I know it's finished but when I played it, it definitely didn't feel that way. All of the untapped potential that could be. Balancing damage values, adding a few more animations to characters, and smartening up the AI would make all the difference.

@Qjimbo: Fonzie has gone on hiatus until January 25th due to customer support overload issues. Before he shut down customer support he sent out a mass email explaining that not all copies have been shipped out yet. For those of us with the "shipping..." status, our copies have not yet gone out. So, right now everyone is basically waiting for the next announcement to see when the rest of the copies are to be shipped.

[Mr. Ksoft]

Good job, and thanks for giving credit where it is due!

I've been keeping various notes on my findings while playing through Paprium, and this is what I've got up to this point. It would be good to have all the available information in one location, so you can add what you want from this list:

Thank you! I have updated the page with your info and some other stuff I found.

[Qjimbo]

@Qjimbo: Fonzie has gone on hiatus until January 25th due to customer support overload issues. Before he shut down customer support he sent out a mass email explaining that not all copies have been shipped out yet. For those of us with the "shipping..." status, our copies have not yet gone out. So, right now everyone is basically waiting for the next announcement to see when the rest of the copies are to be shipped.

Thank you I haven't been able to follow this that closely so I appreciate the update. Hopefully there will be some news after the 25th. At least I'm not alone!

[nieds16]

This is the funniest post I've seen in a long time. Well done.

[cowboyscowboys]

Still no sign of my cartridge that was supposed to come from Las Vegas, the status just says "Shipping...". I even emailed WM support for a tracking number on the 13th and no response. Anyone in Canada got their copy yet?

No and I wouldn't expect it to be shipped until April.

[Kamon]

No and I wouldn't expect it to be shipped until April.

I'm inclined to believe the same. If he had the stock he'd have shipped it by now surely. He can tell us it's because he's waiting for the backlog of packages from Christmas and coronavirus related delays to clear but he really can't claim that anymore. It didn't make much sense before, a package not in the queue isn't getting sent any faster. I got something sent from the Los Angeles (An area many would consider one of the most affected by the virus) 9 days ago. It got sent out of the us in 3 and reached Australia in 7. I know that is circumstantial at best but if that's the best case scenario for delivery time I would have appreciated it being sent out asap than waiting for some vague date that covers an entire month from a serial liar who doesn't respect his customers at all. Man I regret preordering that stick, why did I believe he had all the units ready to ship?

[Frost Blossom]

@inqualls

yeah, that's pretty much in line with how I feel about Paprium. Really good visual/sound presentation with some glaring problems (Choppy anims, weak SFX for hitting enemies) with mediocre gameplay.