Paper Mario - Tales Of The Turning Pages

Paper Mario - Tales Of The Turning Pages is the seventh entry in the Paper Mario series. It is the sequel to the previous entry in the series, Paper Mario - The Origami King.
The game is a massive return to form for the series, taking multiple influences from the first two entries of the series, such as a massive return to form, in the battle system.
In Paper Mario's latest adventure, his sworn nemesis, the vile Bowser, has joined forces with a mysterious cloaked figure, who has the ability to take ordinary books and open gateways into the contents of their pages, creating entirely new worlds, in the process. 
Bowser easily kidnaps the beloved Princess Peach, keeping her locked away within a world of Bowser's own design, being constructed by the mysterious figure, and it's up to Mario and company to find this world and save the princess, once more.
=Full Story=
== Opening ==
Ahem! Well, today...
I'm going to tell you all a story.
A story of love.
A story of adventure.
A story of betrayal.
A long time ago, a shelled tyrant tried to steal something that wasn't his.
An object of immense, magical power.
A man in a spiked shell, is seen, stealing a golden staff with a star atop it. Some beings shaped like stars, gazing at the thief.
But you know how that little story ends, don't you?
The overall-clad hero in red and his friends stopped him, of course!
We see a familiar silhouette, whacking this menace with a hammer, surrounded by many of his friends, dropping the staff.
But, none of them ever knew...
...what this object was truly capable of. 
We see this rod blast of bright light into the sky, seemingly tearing a rift into the sky. Zooming out, this image is revealed to be an ancient drawing, written on a wall in a seemingly alien land.
This object was created by the people of the stars to seal all the amazing and uncontrollable powers of the world in one compact space.
And, even when that powerful turtle got ahold of it...
...he didn't realize the object's full potential.
But, enough about that!
You want to hear a new story, do you not?
Well, perhaps we should start with that same turtle...
...On a stormy night, that would change everything, for the Koopa King...
We see Bowser's Castle, rising into the sky on a cloudy night.
We see a large Clown Car flying towards the castle, and it goes inside. 
Inside the castle, we see Bowser, Bowser Junior, and Kamek get out of the Clown Car, with Junior remarking that he's glad to be home, saying that the "festival" was boring (referencing the final scene of Paper Mario - The Origami King). Bowser agrees, and Junior remarks that working with Mario on his last adventure was fun, and asks if he could do it again.
The stubborn Bowser shouts that he refuses to work with his enemy ever again, even saying that he could have taken down the Origami King himself. 
Suddenly, a unknown person in the shadows in heard, their voice feminine and raspy, saying that Bowser was very easily defeated when Olly attacked, and calling Bowser pathetic for working with his enemy. 
Bowser is angered by this comment, yelling at the figure to show her face.
Suddenly, a cloaked figure appears in front of Bowser, telling the Koopa King that she would prefer not to. 
Bowser tells the cloaked figure (Who will be called "The Mage") to leave his castle, but she refuses, instead telling the king that he came to help him. Bowser asks who the Mage is, with her simply saying that she is the guardian of this world, and the connecting point between this world and other ones.
The Mage reminds Bowser of when he was pulled into another world very similar to his own, and met a alternate version of himself (Bowser mutters that this alternate Bowser was simply a knockoff). She explains that the world they are in is not the only world within a book. Bowser is confused where the Mage is going with this.
She notices a sketchbook that Kamek was scribbling in, and The Mage shoots a large, red beam of magic at the book, shocking Kamek, dropping the book to the floor. Kamek angrily asks why the Mage did such a thing, only for her ask what Kamek drew in this sketchbook. Kamek reluctantly reveals it was sketches of a fantasy of a kingdom taken over by a dictator, similar to Bowser. The Mage grins. 
The magic beam then fades, only for the book to open on it's own, revealing a page to be glowing. The three are unimpressed, with Junior even saying that he has a paintbrush that can overpower it.
Suddenly, the drawings that Kamek made in the sketchbook begin to gain sentience and move around the page. Kamek is shocked; a spell that gives life to inanimate things requires nearly complete expertise, when performing it. 
Then, the living drawings manage to escape the sketchbook, bearing a similarity to Shy Guys, and they aimlessly run around. The Mage uses a brainwashing spell on these creatures, and then they stand still. 
The Mage further explains that she could tamper with any book they could find; she could summon the book's characters into the real world, she could open a portal into a book, and, with enough magic stored, she could use a spell to fuse a book's contents and reality, practically allowing her to control everything in the entire world, and all Bowser has to do is write it down. The Mage adds that with her expertise of magic, and Bowser's power and armies, they could take over the Mushroom Kingdom, and maybe more. 
Bowser is impressed, and hires The Mage as his right-hand man. Kamek tells the king that he is his right-hand man, and Bowser quickly tells the Koopa Wizard that he has been demoted. Kamek is shocked as his magic broomstick is taken by Bowser, and offered to the Mage, with the Mage refusing, saying "I've tried riding those things. Their very unreliable". Kamek waddles away, with his head down, muttering. 
He orders his minions to scout the entire Mushroom Kingdom for books of any kind, and to bring them to him.
Bowser had begun devising a plan to attack the Mushroom Kingdom, once again. He tells Junior to ready the airships for a full-scale attack.
A Koopa Troopa arrives with a blank sketchbook, and The Mage states that whatever he writes will become part of his new world within the book, and later, will become reality.
Bowser laughs manically, as the camera zooms out, as the stars have been covered by thundering clouds. Lightning strikes, and the games title appears, sending you to the game's title screen.
==Prologue - The Palace Of Books==
When the game officially begins, we see the camera pan out of a few trees and we see the house of the Mario Bros.
The brothers walk outside and stand on their deck, and Luigi remarks that it's such a nice day.
Mario nods in agreement, as it was quite a nice day, minimal clouds, clear blue sky, and the sun shining down from above. The brothers decide to go through a casual stroll through the Mushroom Kingdom, and use the pipe in front of their house to go to Toad Town.
When they arrive, they see many of the townsfolk in panic. Toadsworth dashes over to the brothers, and is relieved that Mario is here. He explains that Peach's Castle had been taken over by Bowser and his minions, and the minions had begun to attack the town.
One of said minions sneaks up behind Toadsworth, but Mario notices and attacks the minion; a lowly Goomba.
After being taught the battle system by Toadsworth, he asks Luigi to take care of the enemies around town, and for Mario to go inside Peach's Castle and trounce Bowser.
Toadsworth follows Mario, teaching you basic overworld abilities, but, the two are blocked from reaching the castle by some familiar large yellow blocks.
Mario then notices a Toad using a hammer to fend some the minions, but is becoming overwhelmed, and Mario must step in to fight 2 Koopa Troopas, where Toadsworth teaches Mario about defense points.
After defeating the minions, the Toad thanks Mario, introducing himself as "Dolan Steel", a blacksmith that had recently moved to the Mushroom Kingdom after hearing of a famous adventurer that resided there. Dolan is overjoyed to meet Mario, but tells him they should chat when the enemy threat has subsided. Before Mario can leave, however, Dolan offers Mario his hammer, which the plumber happily accepts, unlocking the hammer in the overworld, and in battle; Mario can use it to break large yellow blocks and interact with certain objects.
Mario is then able to make quick work of the blocks, and makes it to the castle's drawbridge.
Mario sees two Spike Goombas stand guard, as another Goomba with a blue hat threatens to fight the guards if they don't let him in. The guards laugh and tell him to buzz off. But he's persistent and goes in for a head bonk, but the guards counterattack with spike hats, leaving him defeated. Mario quickly steps into help, and the Goombas are quickly defeated.
After the battle, you help the hurt Goomba with the blue hat, and he recognizes the plumber, revealing himself to be Goombario from Paper Mario 64, and both are excited to see each other once again.
They both quickly realize they are there for the same reason; to confront Bowser and save Peach.
The two decide to join forces, and Goombario becomes your first party member. His abilities are very similar to what they were in Paper Mario 64, in the overworld, he can tattle NPCs and give you hints, and in battle, he can headbonk enemies, and tattle them for their stats to put into a bestiary, which you will receive later.
The two enter the castle, but there are dozens of guards, and many are too powerful to fight currently, so Mario must sneak around them to get around the castle, and have to fight a few of the weaker guards scoping around the castle, such as Goombas and Koopa Troopas.
The two quickly realized that many of the doors and passageways are either locked or heavily guarded, but they spot an unguarded door, with a faint glow emanating from inside. Before Mario can investigate, he is stopped by a pair of Hammer Bros. They tell the plumber that he isn't going anywhere. 
Although Hammer Bros serve as simple recurring enemies, later in the game, they are considered a boss here, just due to how early in the game you face them.
After defeating the Hammer Bros, Mario and Goombario go creak open the unguarded door.
It was a small supply closet, but Mario notices a strange, glowing book in the corner of the closet.
Goombario wonders why it is glowing, so Mario grabs the book and places it on a table, also in the closet.
The book appeared to be a sketchbook of sorts, as it read "200-Page Sketchbook For All Ages" on the front of it, with a handwritten letter "K" on it.
Mario opens the book only to find a strange portal on the page. He puts his hand into it, but Goombario quickly becomes frightened, telling Mario to be careful, and he inches closer to keep a good eye on him.
Suddenly, The door to the closet slammed open, startling Mario and Goombario, and the two tip over and fall into the portal of the book, screaming in horror, as a familiar hand closes the book.
The camera pans up, revealing the one to have startled the duo was Bowser, as he laughs manically, saying that he will be trapped there forever.
The Mage appears near him, with an unconscious Peach in hand, and reassures the king that Mario has no chance of winning this time, even if he escapes the sketchbook.
Bowser tells The Mage to begin with the final phase of his plan, and the three disappear.
==Chapter 1 - Colorless Days In Penman==
Mario and Goombario fall from a great height, and both pass out when landing. When they awake shortly after, Goombario wakes up Mario with a scream of fear, asking where the heck they are.
The two looked around and saw that this world had no color as far as their eyes could see, everything was bone white, with the exception of the black outlines of the ground and trees.
Goombario begins to theorize that Kamek had created portals into books, and the other books that were in the throne rooms we're also portals, and they both agree to leave the sketchbook to try and find out more about what Bowser's doing.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be no real way to exit the book, there wasn't even a portal where they fell from above. Goombario worried that they might be stuck in the book forever, which Mario says that's exactly what Bowser would want.
Goombario suggests to go to a higher location to see if there are any other exits to the world. Goombario notices a castle on the top of a steep hill in the distance, and, strangely, unlike everything else, it was so colorful it may have hurt the eyes just to look at it. More importantly, however, it was very high up, and Mario theorizes that going there will give them a good view of everything around them, so they can possibly find a way out of the sketchbook. Goombario agrees, and the two set off.
This chapter is entirely played in two dimensions, like a side-scrolling platformer. As such, this chapter is much more based on platforming than puzzles.
Mario and Goombario being there trek to the distant castle, only to be stopped rather quickly. A colorless, sketched Shy Guy (Officially called a "Sketch Guy") drops out of a nearby tree, as he had been spying on them ever since they arrived in this world.
The Sketch Guy tells Mario and Goombario that they are not allowed to have colors, and orders that they follow him for proper color extraction from the "Sketch King". You are then given an option to go with the Sketch Guy willingly ("Alright, we'll go."), or engaging in combat with it ("No way, José!"). There is a different outcome for both responses;
*Alright, we'll go. - The Sketch Guy thanks you for coming willingly. Goombario, however, is shocked that Mario made this decision, but Mario has a plan; he wants to know who this King is, and wants to come peacefully, because he may be peaceful as well. While the Sketch Guy escorts Mario and Goombario, he says that they're about to pass through a villager of other Sketch Guys whose color has just been drained, and a few captured for interrogation as well. Mario hears this, and quickly realizes that this army may not be on their side, and Mario decides to give this Sketch Guy a nice whack on the head using his hammer. After he does, he calls over 2 other Sketch Guys (one with a spike on his head, and the other was airborne via a balloon) that were patrolling the town, and they all prepare for battle.
*No way, José! - The Sketch Guy is not only offended because you disobeyed him, but because his name is Kevin, not José. He calls over 2 other Sketch Guys to join him in a fight. Once Mario defeats the three of them, Goombario says that they should fight any more Sketch Guys they see, which Mario agrees with.
Whatever choice you pick, you still continue forward.
After a bit more walking, the two arrive in a village called "Penman", and a female Shy Guy notices that you arrive. She had a flower attached to her hood, & her mask had adjustments to make sure each eye's singular eyelash. Mario initially mistakes her for an enemy, but she assures him that she is his friend, and wanted to thank Mario and Goombario for defeating the troops that had taken over their village. She invites our two heroes in for some drinks and chatter, to which they accept.
As this unknown Sketch Guy lead the two to her house, Goombario noticed a strange circular stone on the top of a few stone stairs. Goombario asks what it is, and she said that this stone structure appeared there a little while ago, and it once had a strange blue portal inside the circular stone, but the drained color has made it stop functioning. Most inhabitants of Penman were scared of the portal, as none of them knew where it lead.
In her house, The Shy Guy introduces herself as "Shade", and says that she is the leader of a group of Sketch Guys who betrayed their king and built a secret village for freedom fighters on the outskirts of the kingdom.
Mario introduce himself as a hero from another world, and asks Shade if she knows any way to leave this world (trying not to reveal that she lives within a book), but she says she cannot help them with that, but she may have an idea on how to help him.
Recently the Sketch King had stolen all the color from the kingdom of "Twohundredpagesforallagesia", and has contained the color at the top of his heavily-guarded castle, leaving the only things to be the king and his castle, not even the highest ranked guards got any color.
But, strangely enough, the king also stole a strange stone from Shade that she had in her possession for years, given to her by her father before his passing, but she never quite knew why she was given it.
Mario suggests planning a full-on attack on the castle, but Shade refuses, however, as the castle is heavily guarded by his minions, and she brings up that a few weeks ago, that her brother, Drew, tried to overthrow the Sketch King by storming his palace, but was never heard from again after entering the castle.
Goombario asks if she knows of Mario's many feats, and tells her that they could easily dispatch of the Sketch King's minions. But Shade refuses, telling him that it's too risky.
Before Mario can persuade Shade any longer, The three of them hear screaming outside. The three dash to a window to see about a dozen sketch minions attacking the town, looking for a man with blue overalls and a red hat.
They're obviously looking for Mario, so Mario decides to face them head-on, as manages to catch them off-guard and First Strike them in a battle with 3 Sketch Guys.
After the battle, the other minions realize you are a threat, and retreats, but manage to kidnap a few of the villagers.
Shade, knowing that her people might be in trouble, changes her mind and decides to allow Mario and Goombario to sneak into the castle, free the prisoners, and (possibly) defeat the Sketch King. Shade tells one of the villagers to open the gate that leads to the castle, to which he does.
But before Mario leaves, Shade gives Mario a "Power Jump" badge, and explains how to eqiup badges. Wanting to see if Mario really knows what he is doing, Shade does battle with him, by himself. Shade teaches Mario more advanced commands, in battle, such as badge moves and how they use FP. 
After Mario learns this, Shade also gives Mario a "Tattle Log" a bestiary that will catalog infomation about all eneimes tattled by Goombario, and all previously cataloged enemies will be added into the Tattle Log upon reciving it.
After that. Mario and Goombario walk out of the Penman and toward a, truly, Sketchy Castle, hoping that nothing gets worse.
Mario and Goombario must climb a steep hill to reach the palace, and will run into a few enemies along the way, each of which have the same sketch design as the other characters seen earlier, but all part of the "Sketch Guy" species.
The drawbridge to the castle has been risen up, however, and Mario will have to go through a short dungeon to find an emergency switch underground that will lower the drawbridge.
When they arrive at the gate of the castle, they're confronted by two Sketch Guys in bulky armor, who warn the duo that they'll become nothing but paper shreds if they step forward. The overconfident Mario steps forward, and the two of them are beat up and launched away from the castle. They land in the previous area, and the two quickly realize that there is no getting past them, and Goombario suggests they go back to the village to find another way to get in.
On the way back to Penman, Goombario spots a massive boulder on the tip of a cliff behind them. They notice how if the boulder were to be tipped over the edge of the cliff, It would roll directly towards the Sketch Castle, creating an easy route in. Unfortunately, a wall of tall, flat rocks was blocking the way to the cliff all around it, and there was only one crevice in the rocks, although it was far too thin to skim through.
Back in Penman, Shade is waiting for them at the entrance of town, wondering what happened. When the duo arrived back, battered and bruised, she knew that her theories were true; It was nearly impossible to get in.
They both accept that they were wrong, and ask if there are any other routes to get in the castle, but she says that the entrance that they tried to get into was only the castle's back door, and every other entrance to the castle had 10 times as many guards. Goombario then recalls the boulder on the cliff they saw earlier, and explains how it might be able to get rid of the guards in front of the castle's door if they could fit through the only crevice of the rocks.
Shade tells them that all Sketch people could get through thin crevices, and she proves this by showing that she can turn 90 degrees and become completely flat, which excites Mario, and he asks her to come with them to use the boulder, but she refuses. She explains that many of the villagers who were brave enough to leave the town also had this thought, but not only was the only crevice of the wall of rocks too thin, but it was also too small, so none of them could get through it. Goombario believes that a strong swing of a powerful weapon could make the crevice a bit larger. Shade agrees, but simple spears could not accomplish that. Mario shows off his hammer, which could do the job nicely.
Shade believes that a couple swings from Mario's hammer could work, and decides to join you for this rescue mission, and Shade joins your party, but she states that their allegiance is only temporary. 
Shade's overworld ability is to be able to turn 90 degrees and become completely flat, which allows her to get through thin crevices in the walls or in between buildings. In battle, she can also use this ability to increase her evasion, but she can also tackle enemies with her regular move as well.
Mario leads Shade to the wall of rocks, and hits the crevice a few times with this hammer, which opens it up a bit more, allowing Shade to get in. 
(NOTE: When Shade goes through a crevice in this chapter, due to the fact that it's entirely two-dimensional, It will simply load a new area for Shade)
She pushes the boulder on the tip of the hill, causing it to roll down the path, crushing the guards of the gate, and creating an easy path into the castle.
Mario and Shade, now in the castle, realize that the guards have been put on high alert after the boulder destroyed some of their castle's defenses. However, The damage from the boulder also created an easy route to some stairs that went up. Mario believes that's where the Sketch King is, but Shade reminds Mario that they need to save the villagers first, and she notices another staircase nearby that goes down, so Mario battles a few enemies to get to the stairs, and, sure enough, these stairs lead to the dungeon.
In the dungeon, Mario is immediately ambushed by some Sketch Guys. Once Mario defeats them, he notices the prisoners inside the four cells of the dungeon, which held many of Penman's inhabitants, even Shade's brother, Drew, which she is very happy to see. 
Shade tells the townsfolk to get out of the cells by slimifying themselves, but the crevices in the bars are far to low, as they were also bars going in rows.
Of course, all 4 of the cells are locked, and each needed a separate key to be unlocked. But, one of the townsfolk mentions that when he was being carried in, he saw a general hand a key to one guard each, and he identifies a unique trait of each of the four guards that were handed keys, One's mask was on upside-down, another's armor had multiple stains on it, the third had a different weapon from the rest, and the last one fell asleep multiple times during the conversation. Shade tells Mario to remember that.
Mario goes back up to the main floor, and has to remember which guards the townsfolk described, and sneak around them and take quick work of the ones that hold keys. This is a stealth mission, and you must sneak around the guard's flashlights and only attack the ones that the villager described. If you attack the wrong guard or get caught sneaking around, any keys you previously had will be confiscated and you will be taken down to the dungeon and will have to restart the mission.
Once you get all four keys from four of the guards, you go back into the dungeon and unlock each of the cells, where Shade tells them to go back to the village, to which they all do, but not before a hug between Shade and Drew.
Now that the townsfolk have been saved, Mario heads up the stairs, but is stopped by a Sketch Guy with a red mask and a black suit, weilding a oddly colorful staff, the same woman that handed out the keys to the troops. The Sketch Guy angerly attacks Mario for freeing her prisioners, and plans to defeat Mario to apologize to her king. Shade looks at this woman with shock, then puts her head down with shame. 
The general sees an opening and fires and charges her magic staff, forming a blob of color paint into horrifying black paint, firing the blob at Shade. Mario, knowing of black paint's power jumps in front of her, taking the hit. Mario immediatly falls to the ground, and Goombario is horrified.
The general tells Shade that she has not changed, since she was run out the castle, when her king took over, but Shade stands her ground, formally introducing her new friends to the general, and telling her that she is nothing compared to her, and takes her on in a battle, by herself, where the generl reveals her name; "Cil".
When she is defeated, Goombario has helped Mario get back on his feet. Shade thanks Mario for saving him, revealing to him that she lacks good relationships, in her life; her parents passed away, when she was very young, and her brother had been captured for months. She then asks Mario if he'll ever leave her behind, and Mario and Goombario say they will not. Shade is overjoyed, and deicdes to help Mario, not just as a asset, but as a friend.
What follows is a small series of puzzles to unlock the door to the top floor, where you must ultilize the skills you have learned to reach the top.
On the top floor of the castle, Mario, Goombario, and Shade see a large figure looking at a cage of bright colors, and says in a booming voice that he has expected them to arrive, and not very happy about them defeating most of his guards and freeing his prisoners.
Shade tells the king that he is a horrible ruler, and that they have come to defeat him. He laughs at her, and turns around, revealing himself to be an overweight, regal, and very colorful Sketch Guy. He recognizes Shade as a coward who fled from him when he took over, but Shade tells him that she has changed. The king laughs.
The king then grabs both of Mario's allies in each of his hands, cleching his fists, telling Mario that his two friends will "get it" if he comes any closer.
Mario ignores him, and draws his hammer.
The Sketch King has 15 HP, but, before you can attack him, you need to attack his fists holding your partners. If you attack his head directly before taking care of the fists, he will guard with your partners, and your partners will take the hit. Each of his hands have 4 HP, and once a hand has been dealt with, The partner is free from the king's grasp and you can use him/her in battle.
Once both arms are properly taken care of, he calls upon some of his minions and runs away temporarily. After defeating a Sketch Guy, a Spiked Sketch Guy, and a Ballon Sketch Guy, the King comes back to the battle, and breaks the cage of color behind him. The color circles around the room, and it will now improve his attack power, now being able to directly attack the Sketch King.
Once you defeat the king, he explodes in a flash of light, the only this remaining being the odd stone with the shape of a key carved into it, that Shade spoke of, previously. Mario grabs it, much to his confusion. 
All the color of the kingdom then returns back in the cage, and Mario simply breaks it with his hammer, and the colors go flying away out of the castle to recolor the kingdom, returning it to its rightful glory. Shade is also recolored, and the townsfolk in Penman are filled with joy. Mario also notices the stone structure was also repainted, and a blue portal had appeared withing the circular stone atop it.
Many of the Sketch Soldiers immediately rebelled against their king once color returned to their world, and joined the other rebels in Penman.
Shade thanks Mario for all his help, and reconfirms that she will stay by Mario's side, no matter what. The three friends, happy for their victory, begin the trek back to Penman.
===Chapter 1 - Interlude===
After fading to black at the end of the previous scene, we see Bowser, sitting on a throne as he watches his empire being created before his eyes. The Mage, terraforming the land to his design, is very proud of her own work.
Then, a minion walks into Bowser's throne room, and informs the two that color has returned to Kamek's sketchbook, and Mario has found the means to escape it. Bowser is furious, and angrily questions The Mage, as she previously told Bowser that Mario would not escape. The Mage remains calm, and whispers to the Koopa King where Mario would likely to be led to if he escapes the sketchbook. Bowser laughs, gleefully before getting a notice on his security cameras. The Mage informs the king that their "guest" has woken up.
We then see what appears to be a beautiful white & pink bedroom, with multiple pictures of Peach and Bowser on the walk, and then we see a beautiful white bed with pink blankets and pillows, where we see a familiar face bundled up in the bed.
Peach's eyes slowly opened, realizing she doesn't know where she is, and she quickly jumped out of the bed, and realized she was wearing a beautiful night gown. Peach looked around, remembering the dire situation she was in in what felt like seconds ago, and wondering how she got here, but still memorized by this luxury she had been given.
The player is then given control of Peach, and you have to look around the room, and try to figure out what has happened. In this room, you will find;
*Many of Peach's favorite dresses hung in a closet, and she decides to change into her most common pink dress. (You are required to do this).
*A large plate filled filled many types of fruits, vegetables, and beverages they could keep her well-fed for months. 
*A locked exit, a large, out-of-place iron wall was in the place of the exit.
Soon, Peach begins to hear noises of keys jingling and loud clanging from outside the door. The iron door opens, and Peach none other than Kamek. However, he looked a bit different than usual; he was wearing some kind of uniform, and did not have his handy magic wand. 
Peach smirks at Kamek's new attire. Kamek frustratingly tells Peach that he has been demoted from "Royal Magician", but that won't stop him from keeping an eye on her. Kamek then hands Peach a letter from the real Bowser. Peach reluctantly opens it.
The letter states to Peach that she is currently within a world of Bowser's own design, and he has found a new Royal Magician to carry out his plans, and Kamek will be her caretaker.
Kamek makes his exit, but Peach questions where Mario is. Kamek states that it's classified information, only for Peach to trick him and ask what this information is, and Kamek indirectly reveals to the Princess that Mario has the means to escape the sketchbook. Peach slyly thanks Kamek for for his information. Kamek is shocked and scared, and tells Peach he won't make the same mistake, again, shuffling out of the room, and closing the door.
Although Peach feels accomplished, she is still worried about Mario's safety, but reassures herself that Mario has saved her before, and he will save her, again. 
===Post-Chapter 1===
After the Peach segment, you see a zoomed out and colored Penman with all the villagers saying farewell to Mario, Goombario, and Shade by the portal. Drew comes out and wishes them a good journey, and another Sketch guy asks who the new king will be. Shade suggests the role of king should go to her little brother. The sketch guys agree and cheer. Drew is shocked and relieved. You say a last goodbye, and leave through the portal.
After coming out of the sketchbook, Mario, Goombario, and Shade find themselves back in the castle's supply closet. On the floor there’s a note with bad handwriting. “If you’re reading this, you’ve somehow escaped the sketchbook, but don’t think you have won just yet. Your princess is in another book. -Bowser” Your current partner suggests that the stone the Sketch King dropped could be the key to kind where they must go next, so everyone decides to go back to Toad Town (You get teleported to Toadsworth).
Back in Toad Town, Toadsworth tells them that the odd stone is actually a clay mold for a key. Although he himself could not ultilize it, he reminds Mario of "Dolan Steel", the blacksmith Mario had met before; he might be able to make a key out of it. Toadsworth tells you he lives right by the shop in a brown brick house.
Once you get there, the door is locked. Your partner then tells you to ask his neighbors if they know where he has gone. One of the toads that live next to him tells you he went to the store to buy mushrooms about 5 minutes ago.
When you enter the shop next to Dolan Steel’s house, there’s no one there but the shop owner. If you ask him about Dolan Steel, he’ll tell you that he was told the smith was headed to Merlon’s house to see how his day will be.
When you visit Merlon, he tells you Dolan Steel was just there, and he predicted that you would need his help. Dolan comes to Merlon daily to see how his day will be. “I sent him to the castle bridge 2 minutes ago!” he says; “He should be there waiting for you. Meanwhile, since you’re on this dangerous quest, I’ll offer you a free prediction.” You can answer yes or no, but ether choice will make you hear his prediction, regardless. Merlon’s prediction is: “You will enter a book and become a part of a fairytale. A brave young Yoshi knight will join you on a quest to save a princess from a giant monstrous dragon! Yes, yes! The beast is inside of a great castle where you will be headed!”
After talking to Merlon, you go back to the north part of town, where the castle is, and walk onto the bridge. In the middle of the bridge, there’s a yellow toad with a brown apron looking up at the sky and leaning on the wooden railings. If you try to talk with him, he won’t answer. He’s daydreaming, and oblivious to everything around him. You must simply whack him with your hammer, and he turns around and screams in horror. He has a grey beard and a dirty face. “Are you Dolan Steel?” your partner will ask. “Oh? Me? Oh-ho-ho... I indeed am.” he replies. Your partner starts talking. “That’s great! We were-“ the toad interrupts. “Yes of course! Come by anytime! I’ll cook anything for you! I am the famous chef, Dylan Meal, after all!” “DYLAN MEAL?!” your partner will shout in shock. “...b-but... we thought... y-you were... Dolan Steel...” Dylan laughs. “Dolan Steel? Ho-ho-ho! Well, he was just here!” Your partner asks where he went. “Oh. I believe he stumbled over the railing and fell into the ocean. Yeah! That’s it! Oh-ho-ho!” Dylan says before laughing. “WHAT?! You’ve got to be joking. Mario! We’ve got to rescue him! Down at the dock to the east, there should be rowboats that are free to use for everyone! Let’s go grab one!” (While your partner is saying this, Dylan walks away laughing)
When you go to the dock, there’s only one rowboat left to take, so you jump in and start rowing towards the castle bridge. You control this boat, and can collect coins and fish along the way. Different fish have different effects on you, and the efficiency also depend on the fish. The fishing rod can break, and buying a new one is expensive. On this mission, you can’t go away from the path and explore. Later though, this is possible.
When you get under the bridge, a cutscene triggers, where you and your partner spot a big pile of rocks in the way of the river. Goombario or Shade says you can’t go further, and that T. Smith must be close. When you get closer to the pile, you can see a pair of feet sticking out between a couple of large rocks. If you pull the stuck person out, it’s revealed to be none other than Luigi! After the hard pull, he gets launched to the back of your boat. “Hey, bro! There-a you are! You were taking so long, so I went to the castle to look for you not-a long ago, but when I was about to enter... I saw something terrifying, bro! It was so scary, I peed my pants! It was crazy, bro. It came from behind and grabbed-a my shoulder! A huge monster with a big brown mustache, a gray apron, and a mushroom-head! The scariest part was that he said my name, and right after, he asked where he could find Mario! Gulp! THAT’S-A YOU! Luckily, I got away and escaped into the river.” Luigi looks proud. “Did this ‘monster’ follow you to the railing?” your partner asks. “Oh yeah, it was super scary! The monster was really after me, bro!” Luigi replies, and he looks afraid. Your partner asks what happened afterwards. “All I can remember is that I was taken by the current, and a big splash came from-a behind!” he says. Your partner looks at you and says “Mario! This ‘monster’ sounds a lot like Dolan Steel! Could it really be him?” You take Luigi with you and row back to land.
Luigi thanks you for the help, and walks to his and Mario's home, realizing that the mail should have arrived, by now. You still have no clue where Dolan Steel has gone, and your partner is afraid that he might have drowned when he fell. They tell you to keep searching anyways though. At some point, you will most likely go to Toadsworth’s house, and that’s where Dolan Steel is. He’s talking with Toadsworth. “Oh! Master Mario! Dolan and I have been waiting for quite a while now!” Toadsworth says. “There ye are! Me been lookin’ for ye all over town! Did ye need me help?” Dolan will ask, and your partner will tell him that they’re glad he’s alive, and that you need help making a key. “A key? Thas easy! Juz gimmie tha mold, and let’s head to me house!” Dolan replies with a smile on his face.
The screen slowly fades to black for a few seconds, and then you see the outside of Dolan’s house. You hear metal clanking sounds, and a text bubble appears on the screen. “KAZOOOOW!!!” The screen fades to black for a few seconds again, and now you're inside of Dolan’s house. Dolan says “Done!” and hands over the key. “If ye ever need more help, juz come ask me! Me be happy to help ye again for free!”. Your partner then directs you to go back to Peach's Castle.
When you re-enter Peach's Castle, your partner reminds Mario that the next book is probably in a different location than the sketchbook, and they are correct; the next book is located in the castle's parlor behind another door, but it's guarded by enemies that your partner confirms are too strong to fight. 
You must use Shade so she can uses a crack in the wall to enter the parlor. Shade then simply opens the parlor door from the inside, crushing the two guards between the door and the wall. Mario rejoins with Shade and they go inside.
The Parlor is a complete mess, the couches and other objects were tipped over, but Mario finds a large locked book on the floor. Mario uses the key on this book, and, just like the last one, it opens, and the three friends get sucked into it. 
== Chapter 2 - Booktail & The Knights Of Dragoon ==
Mario, Goombario, and Shade landed in a town square of sorts. Mario and Goombario landed on their feet, but Shade tripped over when landing and fell on her face. She asks if falling from great heights will be a recurring event, on this adventure, to which Goombario infers that it will be.
The trio looked around and saw that they appeared to be in the middle of a town, but it looked nothing like Toad Town or Penman. Houses were made of flimsy materials and some were damaged or even destroyed & the inhabitants of the village were wearing ripped clothing and some were begging for coins and food on the side of the road. Mario also noticed a group of people wearing silver armor and helmets with red feathers on them. They also wielded swords, bows, and arrows. They looked to be guards of some kind, walking in sync patrolling the streets.
These guards quickly spot Mario and company, and believed they were intruders from a neighboring kingdom, and two of the three guards drew their swords and prepared to fight, but the third guard attempted to intervene, and said something to them in a unknown language to Shade, but Mario and Goombario recognized the language. 
This battle against the two guards is scripted, as you can only defeat one of the two guards before the third guard stops the battle.
The third guard intervenes and orders the other guards to stop fighting Mario and company, and the two guards reluctantly walk away.
The knight apologizes to Mario about the reckless behavior of the others, and takes off his helmet to reveal that he is actually a Yoshi. He introduces himself as “Yoshyr; A Honorary Knight Of Dragoon." Mario and his friends introduce themselves to him, and Yoshyr asks where they come from. Mario, who cannot reveal that this world is inside a book, lies and says that they are from a distant kingdom.
Yoshyr remarks that he was impressed by Mario’s skills in combat, and says that he might be able to help him with something, and requests that Mario should follow him to “The New Castle Dragoon”, to which Mario agrees. The now-overjoyed Yoshyr dashes over to a distant drawbridge.
The player is then given control of Mario and can optionally explore the city of Dragoon, and talk to the local inhabitants and learn a bit about how their town was “attacked by an evil beast”, but you must rejoin with Yoshyr at the drawbridge. The drawbridge lowers and Mario follows Yoshyr inside.
Mario then saw The New Castle Dragoon, and saw that it was in shambles. Parts of the walls were broken, banners hanging on the walls were almost completely burnt, there were almost no guards in sight besides Yoshyr. Mario walked through the castle doors to see a throne room, but like everything else in the kingdom, it was damaged and almost destroyed. There were two thrones, one large gold one, and a smaller pink one.
Sitting upon the golden throne was a crowed, slightly-overweight Toad, and firmly orders Yoshyr to explain who this “mustachioed menace” is. Yoshyr explains that his name is Mario and he brought him here because he was a proud and strong warrior. 
The King (called “King Nita The XVII”) does not believe this, but Mario quickly proved him wrong by showing off some of his jumping and hammer skills, which impresses Nita, Yoshyr, as well as the other knights, but they tried to hide this and called it pathetic.
King Nita believes that Mario would be able to help in the mission to defeat “Booktail” and save “Ama”. Mario is confused, and Yoshyr tells the king that he is from a distant kingdom and has not witnessed the battles of their kingdom, so King Nita tells Mario The Tale Of The Fall of Dragoon.
Many years ago, The Kingdom of Dragoon was once the most famous of all the kingdoms. Every building was made of the best materials, farms were overflowing with grown food, security and law enforcement were plentiful, and the Castle Of Dragoon was a sight to behold. However, one day an evil dragon appeared, and attacked the kingdom, This dragon announced itself as “Booktail” and was determined to burn the city to the ground, only leaving wood and trees to take for herself.
The people of Dragoon were forced to flee the kingdom, and Booktail now lives in the now - “Old Castle Dragoon”, renamed the “Dragon’s Keep” The remaining citizens who fled tried to construct a new kingdom, but it was nothing compared to the original Kingdom Of Dragoon. But this new location meant nothing to Booktail. She continued to attack the New Kingdom, and even managed to kidnap King Nita’s daughter; “Princess Ama” very recently. With now only 5 knights left, any hope to restore the Kingdom Of Dragoon has been lost.
Mario feels sorry for the loss of their kingdom, and decides to help defeat Booktail and try to become a knight. King Nita warns Mario that becoming a knight is not an easy task, but Goombario and Shade say that Mario is ready for anything. 
Yoshyr and Nita are confident that he will become a knight, and Yoshyr leads Mario and his friends to the basement of the castle; The Knights Training Room.
A few other Yoshi Knights are training, who tease Yoshyr for helping “the first street rat he could find”. Yoshyr ignores them.
Yoshyr brings Mario over to a training dummy, and tests your skills in combat. You must perfectly time your jump command once, and then a new sword attack, which requires you to hold the control stick left, then press let go of it when your opponent's guard is down.
After doing the sword command perfectly 3 times, Yoshyr awards Mario by giving him his own sword, but Mario does not accept it, saying that he always has a weapon of choice - his hammer. Yoshyr understands, but another knight grabs Mario’s hammer and throws it into a small fire to keep it alive.
Mario is shocked, but your partners accept the sword, replacing the hammer for this chapter.
You then must help your partners suit up by picking weapons and armor for them. Shade finds a mask and robe that perfectly fit her, as well as a matching staff, while Goombario finds a blue helmet and a wooden shield. 
After helping your partners, the king dubs Mario “Sir Spaghetti” (as per the knight’s request) and gifts Mario with a suit of armor. There are no boots on the armor, however.
Mario, his partners, Yoshyr, and the remaining knights of Dragoon leave their city to a cheering crowd, hoping Sir Spaghetti will help them save the princess.
You arrive on the “Dead-Dirt Battlefield”, the ruins of a battle from long ago. Yoshyr tells Mario and his partners that it will take more than a day to reach the Princess on foot, so they begin their trek.
The battlefield begins as a set road, but later has many splitting paths, and most of the journey across the battlefield has much dialogue. 
Yoshyr attempts to make conversation with the other knights, but the knights ignore him. 
Your partner then notices a skeleton from the battlefield come to life. Yoshyr tries to fight this skeleton, but only gets defeated, with the other Yoshi knights laughing at him.
Mario then fights the “Dry Knight”, which has 5 HP, but a Defense of 2, requiring you to use your sword to strike the Dry Knight when his shield is down. 
After defeating the Dry Knight, Mario helps Yoshyr up, and the other Yoshi knights tease Mario for helping “the freak”. Mario and his partners stand up for Yoshyr, with Shade even threatening to fight them. The knights ignore Shade and continue forward.
You are then given control of Mario, as you transverse the isolated battlefield, battling more Dry Knights.
The group then finds a road leading to the castle, which the knights follow without thinking. Yoshyr warns the other Yoshi knights that the route to the castle this simple is most certainly a trick, but they ignore him.
Your partners then notice some vines hanging off two trees off the beaten path, and find them quite suspicious, as no other vines or trees were growing around it. Mario then walks towards them, and the player must press B to swipe his sword at the vines, revealing a hidden magic forest behind the vines, a shortcut to the Dragon’s Keep. 
Yoshyr tries to alert the other Yoshi knights of this magic shortcut, but they could not even be seen, anymore, so the four friends decide to take the shortcut and meet the four Yoshi knights there.
Sometime later (now being sundown), Yoshyr thanks Mario for standing up for him, and Mario’s partners thank him back for trying to help them. 
Goombario notices it is getting late, and the four friends set up a campfire and tents.
Yoshyr asks Mario about where he came from as they eat dinner around the campfire, and Mario’s partners tell Yoshyr about his many adventures. 
Yoshur explains that the other knights believe he is weak, and how his parents were killed by the dragon that kidnapped the princess. Mario , Goombario, and Shade attempt to console Yoshyr by telling him the pains they have gone through as well; Princess Peach’s capture, Shade’s loss of her kingdom, and the destruction of Goomba Village’s gate.
Yoshyr always wanted to be a hero, but he never got the respect from it. Mario offers to give him that respect by joining his party, but Yoshyr declines, needing more time to think about the decision. 
Everyone begins to prepare for sleep, but one of Mario’s group must stay up to defend their campsite. Picking Mario, Goombario, Shade, or Yoshyr to keep watch has different outcomes.
* If Mario is chosen, Mario is quickly attacked by many Dry Knights. Mario must have perfect blocking and parrying timing to beat them. Initially, you must attack them out of battle with defending and parrying, but, if you fail to parry their attacks, you must fight them in-battle. You are required to defeat the first Dry Knight outside of battle. The final defeated Dry Knight will drop certain objects depending on how many Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle.
** If 1 or 2 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop a Super Shroom.
** If 3 or 4 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop a Maple Syrup
** If all 5 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop a Maple Super.
* If Goombario is chosen, Goombario begins to get bored. However, Goombario spots a shooting star in the sky. He wakes up Mario to show it to him. Mario and Goombario reminisce on their previous adventure, and Goombario knows that, even if this new adventure has just begun, he is excited to do it with Mario. Mario and Goombario then make a wish, and depending on what Goombario wishes for depends on the reward you get.
** If Goombario wishes for a Longer Life, a Life Shroom drops from the sky.
** If Goombario wishes for Wisdom, then the he sees a coupon fall onto the ground, advertising Merlee's power-boosting fortune tellings found inside the Old Castle Dragoon, offering one free boost in the future. Goombario is disappointed.
** If Goombario wishes for Fortune, then 100 Coins fall from the sky.
** If Goombario wishes for Friendship, then a Split Cake falls from the sky, a item that heals 5 HP to both Mario and a chosen partner.
* If Shade is chosen, then the player must chase, and later fight 2 Dark Knights with just Shade, and Shade is rewarded with the Mystic Fruit, a rare healing item.
* If Yoshyr is chosen, then it is near identical to if Mario is chosen, but all the Dark Knights now take three parrys to defeat out of battle instead of one. The rewards also change.
**If 1 or 2 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop a Shroom Casserole, a cooking item that heals 15 HP.
** If 3 or 4 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop Maple Cider, a cooking item that heals 15 FP.
** If all 5 Dry Knights were defeated outside of battle, the final Dry Knight will drop the Knight's Glory Badge, a badge that makes Mario, Goombario, Shade, and Yoshyr's attack and defense increase in the same way they do when in Chapter 2, but always. It costs 8 BP to use.
When morning arrives, then the four friends keep walking.
At the exit of the forest, your confronted by the "Leader" of the Mystic Woods, a Mystic Fuzzy, joined by several other Fuzzies, whom you must fight.
The party emerges from the magic forest, finding a decayed city, burned down. In the middle of the city was a nearly destroyed castle. Yoshyr recognizes this place as the Old Castle Dragoon. The group begins to look around for the other Yoshi Knights.
Mario and friends find no sign of them, but they do find that the castle's drawbridge was pulled up. Mario, Goombario, and Shade struggle and fail to lower the bridge. Yoshyr, however, is easily able to cross the gap with his flutter jump, and uses his sword in mid-air to cut through the drawbridge to get inside. Yoshyr then manages to lower the drawbridge from the inside. 
Mario and company are amazed, and Yoshyr remarks that he is credited by the King as the best of Dragoon's Knights, but none of the other Knights treat him as such. Shade points out how the other Knights barely even listen to him, and once again suggests that he joins their party. After a bit of contemplation, Yoshyr doesn't know how to answer; the other Knights had been the only family he had ever known. After some thought, Yoshyr gets the idea to impress his fellow knights by showing his skills to them, when they arrive. Yoshyr decides to temporarily join Mario's party to strengthen himself, and Yoshyr becomes a party member. 
Now with the drawbridge lowered, the quartet go inside, and find the castle's foyer be just as destroyed as the outside, but the group interestingly finds quite a lot of wood still intact, which leads to confusion among the group. Regardless, the group continues forward.
As you explore the castle's foyer, your partner begins to smell smoke, and they believe that it may be the buildup to the dragon's flames. Mario and company attempt to escape the castle, but Goombario sets off a booby trap, which triggers a trapdoor near the castle's exit, that Mario, Goombario, Shade, and Yoshyr all fall into.
The quartet land in a jail cell in the castle's dungeon. The party angrily glares at Goombario, but Goombario quickly defends himself by saying that they could have been burned if he didn't fall down, with Yoshyr responding that they are now trapped.
Then, the party hears screaming, noticing more figures falling down from the foyer, they quickly get out of the way, and find the four other Yoshi Knights land in the same jail cell. They notice Mario and company, and resume their selfish and cool-guy attitudes, saying that they only fell down the booby trap to make this mission harder. Yoshyr sees through their lie and scolds the knights for not listening to him about the shortcut back at the battlefield, only for the knights to point out that the shortcut barely made a difference, as they arrived at around the same time. 
Yoshyr and the knight's argument continues, only for Shade to break it up, telling everyone she can get the group out of the cell. 
Shade is able to escape the jail cell with her Slimmify powers, and defeats a Dry Bones who held the key to the jail cells. She returns with a key, and opens the door. Yoshyr then proudly states that Mario and his group are not weak like the knights thought, only for the knights to simply break through the jail bars with their swords, and simply tell Yoshyr to go home, angering him. Shade tells Yoshyr to ignore them, which he reluctantly does, and the group tries to escape the dungeon.
The quartet find the exit of the dungeon to be blocked by a fallen pillar. The knights are stumped about how to escape, and just sit around, and make Mario and company find a way out.
Mario and company then find a torture room on the opposite side of the dungeon's exit, where they see a strange figure sleeping in a rotted potato sack. Mario rudely awakes her, but she sees the quartet as "customers", oddly rhyming with all of her words. 
The woman revealing herself to be Merlee, the changer of futures. Mario exclaims that he and Merlee have definitely met before, but Merlee has no such memory, confusing him. Merlee offers to alter the quartet's future by boosting certain outcomes in battle, but Mario declines. However, if the player received the coupon when making a wish with Goombario earlier in the chapter, you will temporarily get Merlee's foresighted boosts in-battle for free.
Mario asks what Merlee is doing here, and she explains that this castle is her home, as it was originally built by the "Tribe Of Ancients", and she was a descendant of this tribe. Yoshyr tells the group that she is correct; the "Tribe Of Ancients" shaped this world and many others, and built castles to oversee their worlds, with this castle in particular being built and owned by "Merloo". 
Mario questions if Merlee had any involvement with the dragon, and Merlee tells Mario she does not, and is waiting until the dragon flees. Yoshyr then questions why the dragon would flee, with Merlee simply saying that it is etched in stone. 
Mario then requests help in getting out of the dungeon, and Merlee is happy to help. She offers Mario with a pair of steel boots that she had found, rewarding the plumber with the "Knight's Boots", which give Mario a permanent attack boost to his jump attacks, as well as give him the ability to Ground Pound outside of battle. It also gives him a permanent special move in-battle; "Ground Pound", a ability that is much harder to time than the basic jump but can pierce through defense of enemies if timed perfectly. 
Mario uses the boots to get atop the fallen pillar, and Ground Pounds the pillar to destroy it. Before the party leaves the dungeon, Merlee asks if she can tag along with Mario's party, so she can witness her supposed prediction, which Mario accepts. 
The party arrives back in the foyer, and discover a large hoard of Dry Knights. After defeating them, the knights quickly find some stairs and rush up them, with Mario, Merlee, and his party following.
A large dungeon follows as the party treks up the castle, utilizing Shade's and Yoshyr's abilities. Along the way, the party finds the strange mural on the wall when approaching the highest tower of the castle. The mural shows a strange purple creature reach its hands towards a nest containing three eggs, while a strange flying beast flees. Merlee explains this as her proof for her prediction. Mario is interested in the purple creature in the mural, believing he has seen the creature before, eventually recognizing it as the Shadow Queen. He does not tell Yoshyr or Merlee of his previous encounter with the queen, as he realizes that the book is in is real, and set over a millenia ago.
The party continues forward, eventually finding the four Yoshi Knights, battered, burnt, and bruised. They tell Mario's party that they were attacked by the dragon. Yoshyr prepares to battle the beast, but the other knights still tease him. Yoshyr ignores them, and Merlee tends to the knights wounds while Mario and company go forward.
Mario, Goombario, Shade, and Yoshyr arrive in the highest room in the tallest tower of the castle, what was once the throne room. They see a very large dragon using scraps of wood to build a nest of sorts. The dragon spot the party and angrily charges at them. The dragon questions why more intruders have arrived. Yoshyr draws his sword and demands that the dragon release the princess. The dragon refuses, and introduces herself as Booktail, and confronts the party in battle.
Booktail has 30 HP, and the player can attack Booktail's head or feet, which share the 30 HP counter. Booktail's feet have one point of Defense, while her head has no points of defense. Despite the extra point of defense on Booktail's feet, it is best to bit her there with the new Ground Pound ability, as perfectly timing the attack will pierce through her defense. Attacking Booktail's head will do large damage, but she will attack you with much stronger attacks if you so do. Your partner advises not to attack Booktail's head that much if you get hit by one of these stronger attacks. 
When Booktail has 1 HP left, the battle will stop, and Booktail shows mercy, and says she will give the princess back to the party. She points towards a nearby key on the floor, and Mario brings it to Booktail. However, this is a trick, and the key turns out to be a key-shaped cake, which she eats, recovering 14 HP, and the battle continues. Her feet now have spikey scales, preventing you from jumping on them, which requires you to attack the head much more often.
When Booktail is defeated. Booktail eats more key-shaped cakes to heal itself up, and refuses to fight anymore. Booktail then notices that during the chaos of the fight, she had laid 3 eggs in her nest. Merlee and the other Yoshi Knights walk in, and the knights square up to fight, but Merlee stops them. Yoshyr begins to put the pieces together; Booktail meant no harm to Dragoon, she simply wanted some wood to build a nest. Shade questions the key-shaped cakes, which Booktail replies that her "guest" was cooking them, revealing a door behind him. 
The party goes inside, and sees none other than Princess Ama, working in a kitchen of sorts. She happily greets the party, and asks how her father is doing. Yoshyr is very confused, and Ama explains that Booktail kidnapped her simply because she needed some food to eat to support her children, and Booktail was even paying her. Mario questions why the cakes she was making were shaped like keys, and Ama tells him that Booktail didn't have any frame or sheets to bake the cakes with, all she had was a key mold, which she shows Mario. 
Booktail apologizes for the damage she has done to the kingdom, and vows she will fix up the town. 
Mario take a look at the eggs Booktail laid. The first was an eye-catching pink, the second was a rather gloomy purple, and the third was bone-white. Merlee questions why her predictions did not come true, but when Booktail questions what her predictions were, she stays silent. 
The Yoshi Knights scold Yoshyr for not beating the dragon, but Yoshyr finally fights back, defending himself, Booktail, and his friends. Booktail then threatens the other knights lives, and they finally fall in line, vowing to respect Yoshyr, from now on.
Mario asks Booktail if he could have the key mold, and Booktail accepts, now having no use for it, and Mario receives the key mold.
Mario then asks how they get the princess home, and Booktail simply responds to hop on her back, so Mario, Goombario, Shade, Yoshyr, Merlee, Princess Ama, and the four other Yoshi knights fly back to the New Castle Dragoon on Booktail's back.
=== Chapter 2 - Interlude ===
We then see Peach's new bedroom, as she paces around the room, wondering how Mario will find her. Peach then hears the familiar noise of her cell door being opened. Kamek waddles in, here to check on Peach. Kamek is still very annoyed that he has been demoted, and has created a deep hatred for The Mage.
Kamek begins to rant, while Peach gets an idea. Peach tells Kamek if he thinks he is better than The Mage, he should show her. Kamek says he would, but his magic wand, the only way to properly show his magic powers, is now in the hands of Bowser Junior.
Peach suggests getting Kamek's wand back from Junior, and Kamek begins to form a plan of his own. Kamek eyes one of the many cameras in Peach's room, and he then cackles, and tells Peach that it's downright comedic that she expected her plan to work. Peach rolls her eyes and motions Kamek to leave, which he does. 
However, once Kamek closes Peach's cell door, he secretly goes through with Peach's idea of retrieving his wand. 
You play as Kamek and must ask some of Bowser's minions where Bowser Junior's room is, which will lead to you to a locked door. Kamek then must go to the security room, which has a key to every room in the fortress. However, only Bowser and The Mage are allowed inside, and forbid Kamek from stepping foot inside.
Kamek then runs in to the Mage. She teases Kamek about his demotion, and even questions why Bowser would ever entrust a weakling like Kamek to be second-in-command in Bowser's Army. Kamek tells The Mage to say that to his face, but The Mage simply ignores him.
The Mage uses her staff to summon a basket of laundry, and orders Kamek to wash them. Before The Mage leaves, Kamek says;
"You know, your little act may be fooling everyone else, here, but I know what you're doing. You think I couldn't sense your intentions when we first met? I could stop your plans right here and now, but that's not my job."
The Mage begins to walk away.
"...right now, at least."
The Mage is angered, and comptemplates attacking Kamek, but suddenly gets an idea when thinking about who could possibly stop her, The Mage "thanks" Kamek for "her new plan of action". She then creates a strange, magic window to communicate with Bowser, and tells the King that she will be gone for an hour or two. Bowser annoyingly accepts, telling her to get back no later than promised. 
The Mage closes the magic window, and she then thanks Kamek once again, and then disappeared. Kamek knew The Mage was up to something, but did not know what.
While wondering what her plan could be, Kamek spots one of The Mage's cloaks in the laundry, and wears it to trick the security guard to get into the security room. He retrieves the key to Junior's room and unlocks the door.
Junior is summoning random things and moving things around while jumping on his bead. Kamek asks the Young Master for his wand, but Junior asks why. You then must go through a series of dialogue options to formulate a lie to retrieve the wand.
Kamek states that a powerful minion of his father will be forging him a new weapon. Junior asks who this minion is and you may choose between the choices of three of the Koopalings; Wendy, Larry, or Iggy. Junior then asks what this new weapon is, and you may choose between a ray gun, a boomerang, or a sword. Junior is exicted, but wants to know what this weapon can do, asking if it has fire, ice, or electric powers.
Junior is very excited for this new weapon to Junior is excited and glady gives Kamek his wand, back. Kamek then plans to call the chosen Koopaling to forge the new weapon to sell the lie, and to also make Junior happy.
Kamek returns to Peach's room, who was now sleeping. Kamek silently says to himself that he couldn't been seen with his wand, so he hides it under one of the room's dressers, hoping Peach won't find it. The door closes and Peach peacefully sleeps.
=== Post-Chapter 2 ===
After this, we then see the New Kingdom Of Dragoon, as Booktail lands in the center. King Nita dashes toward the dragon, only to see his daughter atop of it. They reunite, and King Nita congratulates Yoshyr and his friends for defeating and taming Booktail. Booktail restates her vows to help rebuild the kingdom, and Merlee decides to stay behind and help. 
As Mario, Goombario, and Shade saw their farewells to Yoshyr and the other knights, Yoshyr admits that he cannot go with the party. However, King Nita and Princess Ama insist that he goes with the party, even saying that any new foe the found in their king would not be a challenge for Yoshyr. Yoshyr is flattered, and decides to permanently join Mario's party. Mario also decides to leave the role of a knight to Yoshyr, and he leaves his armor and sword in the hands of King Nita, but keeps the Knight's Boots. 
The party of four are led to strange portal in the town, and they hop through, saying their goodbyes.
They arrive back in the castle's parlor, with Yoshyr questioning where they were. You are then teleported to Toadsworth. Toadsworth catches Yoshyr up on the current conflicts of the kingdom. Mario tells Toadsworth they have retrieved another key mold, and Toadsworth leads them to Dolan Steel, once again.
However, once again, he is not at home. This time, he is visiting with a "man in green", according to a sign on the door. Mario goes to his and Luigi's house and finds Luigi and Dolan chatting on the house's deck. Dolan takes quick notice of their new key mold, and takes it, and heads back home to begin to make a new key.
Before Mario can follow him, however, Parakarry arrives, who happily greets Mario, and drops off a letter. Luigi opens the letter and reads it.
"To the overall-clad hero:
We are writing to the house of Mario in need of a massive favor.
We are are the protectors of the mining town of Shimmersvale, and a threat has emerged from the deep caverns that took over the village. If undealt with, it could expand and conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and beyond.
We have heard stories of you; you've defeated countless foes and saved the world many a time, and you seem perfect for the job.
Please come to Shimmersvale, as soon as you can. Attached is a map to reach the village.
Sincerely -
The KToppa Bros.
Luigi questions which of the brothers the letter is referring to. Mario resumes it's for himself, but Luigi points out that he is having another big adventure without him, once again, and states that his time has finally come; he is going to find his way to Shimmersvale and have an adventure of his own. Mario shrugs it off, and heads back to Toad Town, as Luigi begins to pack and later drives away in his kart.
Back in Toad Town, Mario finds that Dolan Steel's door open, but empty. The group takes note of a strange figure in the sky, flying to a distant waterfall, whom they decide to follow.
Mario must go through the river via a boat, once again, but now he must go a different direction, to the base of a waterfall.
When Mario arrives at the base of the waterfall, he finds none other than The Mage, using her powers to carry an unconscious Dolan. The Mage introduces herself to Mario and his party, and tells them they may have done their fair share of damage to her plan, but she will not be defeated so easily. The Mage destroys an unfinished Key made by Dolan, and then threatens to destroy the key mold, reminding them it is the only way they could have a chance of reaching the princess. 
With no more options to turn to, Mario surrenders. His partners are shocked, but surrender as well. The Mage tells the plumber he is disappointed, believing that Mario would not give up so easily. Mario's partners rebuttal, saying that they have escaped 2 of her traps, before, and will escape or defeat anything she throws at them.
The Mage simply responds, "Even me?" and confronts the party to battle, saying that the winner will get the key mold.
The Mage states she will not use her full power for the fight, and she purposely uses many negative spells on herself to make the battle "fair".
The Mage, in this form, as 25 HP, and has a wide array of magic attacks. When the The Mage reaches under 10 HP, she begins to get angered, and begins to play unfair. When she is brought down to 1 HP, The Mage, furious, summons a large beam of fire, bringing Mario and his partner to 1 HP. The Mage then summons a giant magic beam to finish Mario off, but stops herself, ending the fight.
The Mage declares Mario the winner of the fight, because she cheated, and tells Mario that he is was not as weak as she originally thought, and tosses Mario the key mold. Mario is shocked that she is actually keeping her end of the deal, but The Mage responds;
"If there is one thing I have learned from my past friends and enemies, it's that being 'bad' doesn't mean you shouldn't be a bad friend."
Your partner notes how that does not fit with this situation, but The Mage interrupts and tells them to run along and have their fun, saying that it would be boring if she beat Mario, now. The Mage fordobingly says to "Continue to climb up the ladder to victory, but what comes up, must come down." The Mage lets out a maniacal cackle before disappearing. 
Mario and his party are confused, and Dolan Steel awakes. Dolan wonders what happened, and Mario gives him the key mold and sends him back to his house.
On the way back to Dolan's house, your partner notices a once-locked sewer lid is now open. Mario investigates further, and hops down, ending up in the Toad Town Tunnels, but it looked much different than it had, previously; it was covered in vines and moss, and someone was living in the tunnels.
Mario looks inside a room in the sewers, and finds the magic Merluvlee, looking at an empty, damaged display case of sorts. Merluvlee sees the group, and accuses them of stealing her "Ultra Necklace", a priceless family heirloom. Mario denies robbing her, and she apologizes, and she explains that, that morning, her necklace simply disappeared. Merluvlee tells that group that the necklace increased her link to magic, and it was irreplaceable, once supposedly owned by the Tribe Of Ancients. 
Despite losing it, however, she still has a link to magic, and offers the player to upgrade a partner for for free as a apology for accusing them, and the player can choose to upgrade Goombario, Shade, or Yoshyr to Super Rank.
The group thanks Merluvlee for the upgrade, and she tells them that she can get just enough magic strength to upgrade a partner again if she had 3 Power Moons, and request to bring any Power Moons they find to her. 
When the quartet walks out of the sewer, Yoshyr reveals that Merluvlee's "Ultra Necklace" was part of a best-selling brand of magic necklaces from his time, made of fake gems. Mario concludes that Merlee is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Arriving at Dolan's house, he tells the group he does not know what to make of The Mage, but gives the group a new key to another book made with the new mold.
As Mario walks to Peach's Castle, he begins to worry about if he will even win; Bowser was quite possibly the strongest he had been in quite a long time, and with the assistance of The Mage, he could most certainly defeat Mario in his current state.
His partners encourage him that they have won before, and they will win, again, giving Mario the encouragement to dash to Peach's Castle. 
The next book is located in the castle's guest bedroom, guarded by two Goombas with indestructible shields, requiring Yoshyr to use his Slash attack to defeat them. 
The guest bedroom is, like the other rooms, rather messy, with almost all the beds toppled over. But, under one bed is a locked paperback book. It appeared to be a series of comics.
Goombario notices and recognizes the book almost immediately, telling them the book stars "The Amazing Kooperman"; a super-powered Koopa Troopa. According to Goombario, he was an alien who escaped his planet as an infant, and came to this planet to be the superhero he was destined to be.
Goombario says he a very big fan of the series, even having a few previous issues with him. Shade points out this is a good thing, as he will know what will happen. Goombario notices that the locked book is a collection of issues, and remembers this is series of issues where Kooperman first meets and fights his arch nemesis, the vile Goomblord, calling it the peak of the original series.
Goombario keeps ahold of his Kooperman comics as a guide for what to do, next.
Mario uses the key mold to open the collection of comics, and Goombario happily dives through. Mario, Shade, and Yoshyr roll their eyes, and jump in after him.
== Chapter 3 - The Rise Of The Iron Hammer ==
Mario and Yoshyr land near Goombario atop a tall skyscraper during night time. Goombario reads through one of his own issues, knowing that this is where the comic begins. 
Mario and friends then see a strange yellow box above them, narrating, which reads;
"It's another peaceful evening in PETAL CITY. But, as we all know, peacefulness is never permanent in this fair city."
Mario looked over the edge of the roof they were on and he saw hustling, bustling metropolis, below him. The group is amazed, and Goombario and Yoshyr try to ask Shade what she thinks of the view, only to not see her atop the skyscraper. They hear faint screaming over the edge, and find, on the other edge of the building, Shade hanging from a very small ledge below them. Mario, Goombario, and Yoshyr attempt to help her, but she is too far below them. Shade eventually loses her grip and begins to fall. The party is horrified.
Suddenly, in a split second, Shade disappeared when a blinding beam of light shot through her. The beam of light went above the party and eventually slowed down, revealing a caped and masked Koopa Troopa to be the beam, with Shade in his hands. Mario and his party applaud the Koopa for the rescue. 
The Koopa Troopa dramatically tells them his name; being The Amazing Kooperman. Goombario is overjoyed to meet him. Shade thanks Kooperman for saving her, but is more interested in his powers.
Kooperman explains his superpower, the ability to travel or fly at the speed of light by curling into his shell and spinning very fast. He presents this power by grabbing the party, and shoving them into his shell, spinning, then flying at incredibly fast speeds, and flies them safely down to Petal City's center. Mario thanks Kooperman for the trip, and Kooperman is glad to help him. Kooperman flies up into the air to continue his daily flyover of the city.
Tha party asks Goombario what will happen next, and Goombario tells them that Kooperman will discover and fight many robotic drones, sent by someone, but Goombario cuts himself off before he reveals who. Goombario begins to not want to simply spoil the story to the party, so he tells them that they should only know what happens next in an emergency, which they reluctantly agree.
The player then gets to explore Petal City, and talk to many of the locals. Mario and company spot a a mansion atop a large mountain in the distance. A local tells the party that the mansion is owned by one "Evan Troopo", the richest man in Petal City. He had earned his riches via inheritance from his parents, who had been murdered.
Shade remakers how this person's past sounds similar to a certain hero she's heard of, but Goombario cuts her off.
Suddenly, sirens go off all around the city, and a voice is heard over the sirens via an intercom, telling the city's residents that they are under attack and should stay inside. All the cities dash into many of the buildings, but Mario decides to see what is causing the chaos, and walks through the empty streets to find many lasers and beams from the sky. 
Then, one of these beams falls down to the ground, revealing it to be Kooperman. He tells the party to leave him, but Mario does not back down. 
Then, multiple strange drones fly downwards towards Kooperman, shooting lasers at him. Mario attempts to jump on one, but they have spikes on top of them.
Then, Mario stops a large, stone mallet, nearby. He quickly grabs it, revealing it to be the Super Hammer, which permanently increases Mario's hammer attacks by 1, as well as adding a permanent FP move called "Super Hammer" to Mario's moveset. It also allows Mario to break stone blocks.
Mario uses this new hammer to attack a drone, and it quickly is destroyed. More quickly come, and grabs Shade and Yoshyr. Mario and Goombario must then fight these drones in battle.
After defeating them, Kooperman thanks you for the help, and flies off, strangely towards Evan Troopo's mansion. Your partners the notice Goombario is missing, and it turns out he was grabbed by another drone in the chaos. Mario tries to attack the drone as it flies away, but it is too late; Goombario is kidnapped, and the drone flies far away.
The party calls out for Kooperman for help, but there is no response; he was already long gone.
Mario had already lost sight of the drone that had kidnapped Goombario, and he is unsure of what to do next.
Shade wonders if there was any way to contact Kooperman, and a passerby tells them that Kooperman is roommates with Evan Troopo, so Mario and friends must find a way to cross the city's large lake to get to the mansion.
At the city's harbor, Mario and company find a formal, elderly Koopa Troopa, "Koopfred", who offers to give the group a ride to the island, as he is Evan Troopo's butler.
However, more strange drones arrive, and damage the butler's yacht. After the party defeats the drones, the ship needs repairing, and Yoshyr's second overworld ability, the Slash, is introduced. 
After repairing the boat, they begin the ride there, with the group hoping that Goombario is ok.
Elsewhere, we then see Goombario awake, strapped to some restraints, surrounded by darkness. A elderly voice is heard, and Goombario sees a Goomba with light brown skin and overgrown, gray eyebrows come out of the shadows.
Goombario recognizes him as Goomblord, and tells him that Mario is coming to save him.
Goomblord laughs, and tells Goombario that he had read the comic books he had brought with him, which completely altered Goomblord's plans. Goomblord was originally going to use his powerful drones to suck out all of Kooperman's powers, and transfer them into himself, giving him the power to rule Petal City.
But, after reading Goombario's comics, Goomblord learned that that plan would fail, and altered his plan; to send out hoards of drones upon Petal City to distract Kooperman, while other drones and minions tracked down Kooperman's secret base, where he could discover Kooperman's weakness.
Goombario asks where he comes in, and Goomblord simply responds that he is only there as a hostage to lure Kooperman to his base.
Goomblord diabolically laughs, and one of his minions; a Yellow Goomba with purple fangs, bites Goombario, making him so unconscious. 
Back with Mario, the boat arrives at Troopo Manor, and the butler asks the party to stay in the boat, and that he will get Kooperman.
He walks off, and Mario quickly grows impatient, worrying about Goombario. He and his party decides to leave the boat and enter Troopo Manor.
Throughout the manor, the party finds hidden switches that slowly light up a large painting of Evan Troopo in the manor's foyer. After flicking all three levers, the painting, suddenly changes into a painting of Kooperman. It also opens a strange room with a pole behind a fireplace.
Mario, Shade, and Yoshyr go down the pole, and find a very large cave, filled with vehicles, suits, and a large computer, all themed around Kooperman.
The party sneaks into the cave, and finds Kooperman and the butler talking about the kidnapping of Goombario. Kooperman rants that his mask is too sweaty, and takes it off to shockingly reveal that he is Evan Troopo. Mario and company are so shocked, they comes out of hiding.
Evan sighs, and tells them to never tell anyone about his alternate identity, which they swear to.
Mario explains his situation to Evan, and he is happy to help. He dawns a new Kooperman mask, and send Mario, Shade, Yoshyr, and his butler to the costume room to dress up to keep their own secret identities, while Kooperman tries to find Goomblord's secret base. 
The party later come out of the coutume room, as Kooperman has located Goomblord's base. Yoshyr, Shade, and Mario show off their new suits in transformation sequences.
Shade dawns a black coat, and red belt and mask, as well as a white mask on top of it, with a dead flower poking out of the mask. She wielded a comically large pencil, holding the eraser in front. Shade calls herself the "Sketchy Slayer".
Yoshyr's once-silver medieval armor transformed into much-shiner blue and white armor. His sword was now was a similar color to his outfit. Yoshyr called himself the "Medieval Meddler".
Finally, Mario simply pressed one of the buttons on his overalls, now a mechanical button, and a metallic body surrounded Mario's overalls, matching is normal color scheme He wore a helmet similar to his own hat, but how covering everything on his head but his eyes, still with his iconic "M". His partners dubbed Mario "The Iron Hammer".
Kooperman is impressed with the parties new powers, and they set off in one of Kooperman's jets to Goomblord's fortress, not knowing one of Goomblord's drones had snuck into Kooperman's base, just after they left, and many more followed.
While on the way, Kooperman talks with Mario and company, asking where they came from. They explain their mission to find and save Peach, and Kooperman smirks, egotistically remarking that his group is working very slowly. The group grows a bit annoyed of the hero.
When the gang arrives at the base, they strangely see Wendy, Larry, or Iggy (whichever Koopaling you chose to forge Junior's new weapon) can be seen, quietly venting that forging the weapon was an annoying task. When they spot Mario, they quickly face him in battle to get him out of the way of Bowser's plans. Whichever Koopaling is chosen, this fight will be relatively the same, the only difference being tha some of the attacks that each Koopaling are different; Larry tries to jump on you, Wendy uses her rings to trap Mario or his partner, and Iggy uses a tiny Chain Chomp as a flail. All of them range from having 20 to 30 HP, with Wendy being the highest in HP, and Iggy being the lowest.
After the Koopaling is defeated, he/she attempts the new weapon they forged for Junior against Mario, but, suddenly, a bright portal opens beneath them, and they, and the weapon fall through. The portal quickly closes, afterwards, much to the party's shock.
A dungeon through Goomblord's base follows, but they are stopped when they find a large prison cell, with an unconscious Goombario within it, lacking his iconic blue cap. They try to wake Goombario up, but they can't seem to do it. 
Suddenly, the party is ambushed by many of the yellow Goombas seen earlier, with Goomblord among them. The party struggles to fight back, and all eventually fall to the ground. Mario, however, just before one of these Goomba's bite him, throws his hammer towards the cell, making a large gap between the bars. Goomblord is angered, and knocks Mario out himself.
Later, Goombario awakes, and is confused of what has happened. However, he sees the gap in the bar caused by Mario throwing his hammer, and just barely manages to squeeze through. Goombario also sees Mario's hammer, theorizing that he had come to save him, but had been locked up. He explores the base, taking out weak minions, where he can. Throughout the base, you ca find Shade, Yoshyr, and Kooperman all locked up in different places, all requiring different passwords to open them, the password supposedly being "what the prisoner wants"; the passwords all relate to certain character's goal, that being "BRAVERY" for Shade, "RESPECT" for Yoshyr, and "WORSHIP" for Kooperman. When all four party members reunite, they fight another minion to get an elevator card, which they use to reach the base's roof.
On the roof, the group sees Mario, his strength being drained by the same type of machine that contained the partners. Goombario quickly tries to guess the password to free him, and easily figures out what Mario's goal is; "PEACH". Mario is released and given his hammer back, but only for Goomblord to appear on a large screen above them. He tells the party that he tricked them to go on a wild goose chase to find their friends, while his new, bigger drones completely destroyed Petal City. Kooperman quickly whistles loudly, causing his plane at the base of the fortress to rise up to them. The group hops in and flies back to the city.
The plane is shot down by the drones, and the gang sees Goomblord atop the skyscraper where the chapter started. They decide to split up; Shade, Yoshyr and Kooperman will destroy the drones, and Mario and Goombario will take down Goomblord. Kooperman protests, saying he wanted to fight him, but Goombario tells him that his people are more important than a silly villain, Kooperman has a realisation and agrees.
Mario and Goombario trek up the skyscraper, via the stairs, hopping between balconies, hitching a ride on some drones, until reaching the roof, fighting Goomblord. 
Goomblord is very weak, only having the same HP as a regular Goomba, so he uses a forefield and summons more drones to keep himself protected. The force field needs to be hit 20 times before breaking. 
After it is broken, Goomblord unleashes his secret weapon, pulling out a vial of a venomous mixture, and swolls it. Goomblord begins to turn purple and his defense spikes up, and you must use Goombario's Multibonk (whom you are required to increase the rank of, earlier in the game) to pierce his defense and rid Goomblord of his new Powers. After his powers fade, Mario let's Goombario finish Goomblord off.
Goombario quickly snatches his hat back from him, and all the drones attacking the city explode like fireworks. Goomblord glares at Goombario and Mario, and says that they haven't seen the last of him, before using some of his remaining drones to fly back to his base.
The crowd of Koopa Troopas cheers for their new heroes, and Kooperman humbly does not ask for any adoration, and points towards Mario, or, to everyone else, "The Iron Hammer".
=== Chapter 3 - Interlude ===
We see the previously chosen Koopaling fall from a portal in the ceiling, landing at their king's feet. Bowser is furious with the Koopaling for stepping outside the base, without permission, but they say that The Mage told them to go outside the base to forge a weapon for Bowser Junior. The Mage chimes in, saying she never made such an order. She cuts herself off as a realization dawns upon her face. She tells her king that she need to check on Peach, and leaves. Bowser angrily tells the Koopaling to scram and deliver the weapon to Bowser Junior, but realizes he may need to send his own minions to these books, if Mario was going through them. A smile dawns upon his face; he knows just the minion to outsmart Mario.
Meanwhile, a scared Peach awakes with a fright after The Mage slams a drawer shut within her room. She tries to interrogate the princess, asking if she had chatted with Bowser Junior. Peach says she hasn't, but The Mage does not believe her, she says she knows about her sneaky tricks, and she won't get away with it, this time.
Suddenly the door to the room opens; it was Kamek. Kamek tells The Mage to leave the princess' room, it was his job to guard her, not hers. The Mage angrily says that she is above Kamek, and he must do what she says. Before Kamek can rebuttal, Bowser comes into the room, angrily telling The Mage a minion needs to be sent within another book to stop Mario, and leaves no time for her to stay, nearly dragging her out the room, but not before he gives a cheery wave to Peach. She rolls her eyes.
Kamek apologizes for the sudden appearance of The Mage. Peach initially does not want to speak with Kamek, but gets interested, and asks who The Mage even is. Kamek simply tell her she is a connecting point; the opener to other worlds beyond our own; her identity is unknown. Peach sighs, but then asks why she even came to her. 
Just then, Peach notices a glowing light underneath her dresser. Kamek smiles and unveils it; his magic wand, telling him it's his ticket out of this horrible job. Kamek then realizes the wand is short on magic fuel. Kamek looks back at Peach, who looks saddened. He sighs and says;
"You wanna escape, too?"
Peach says yes, but asks if it's a trick. Kamek tells her he's essentially in the same boat as her, so Peach uses some of her hidden star power to charge up the wand. Kamek tells Peach that they shouldn't leave now; that would be far to suspicious; so Kamek decides to summon one thing from Peach's world here; something that could assist them, in the meantime. Peach knows just what to ask for; The Sneaky Parasol.
=== Post-Chapter 3 ===
The party, now in their normal attires, are seen within Kooperman's lair, being repaired by his butler, after Goomblord's attack. Evan Troopo tells the group that Goomblord likely won't try attacking Petal City, for a while, so he suggests joining the group. Goombario and friends happily accept, so Evan, in a flash of light, dons his superhero outfit. 
Kooperman then presses a switch on a computer, revealing a pile of treasure, flowing out of a secret compartment. Kooperman offers Mario one treasure from his hoard, as a reward for helping save the day. Mario digs through the pile, and, to his surprise, finds the next key mold. Kooperman, relieved that Mario picked something not very valuable, quickly locks backs up the hoard, leaving Mario with the next key mold. 
Kooperman then uses his lightning-fast speed to tear a rip in space-time, creating a portal, out of the book. The five friends jump through.
Appearing back in the castle, Mario knows what to do, next; he goes back to Toadsworth. The elderly Toad is shocked, when Mario arrives. He tells the group that a strange letter appeared, on his desk, and, shockingly, it was from Princess Peach. Mario reads the letter.
"Dear Mario,
Bowser has kept me held captive in...well, I don't really know where I am, but it's certainly not his crummy castle. 
I've meet a new ally, here, and he wants to escape as well, but we can't leave, just yet; it would cause another attack on the kingdom. 
I have a favor to ask of you, Mario. In my castle, I've kept my Sneaky Parasol locked up in a safe. It allows me to disguise myself among Bowser's minions. And, so we can easily escape, I ask that you get it out of the castle, and place it on this letter, by the end of the day. It will make its way back to me. The combination to the safe is kept private to the one who forged it; Dolan Steel.
I hope to see you soon. Yours truly;
Princess Toadstool, Peach."
The party is confused, especially how this letter simply appeared, here. But Mario has a strange feeling that it's not a trick; he has seen the safe, in the castle's basement, before. They decide to ask Dolan Steel about the combination.
After forging the next key, with the key mold, Mario questions Dolan about the combination to the safe, and he tells the party that he forgot. Mario facepalms, and decides to go back into the castle to get a better look at the safe.
In the castle's basement, there is a large metallic safe, untouched by the damage of the attack on the castle. The party begins to discuss very complicated ways to get the safe open, as Kooperman simply uses his lightspeed shell dash to cut the safe in two, revealing the blue, glowing parasol, inside. Mario grabs it, and heads back to Toadsworth.
Mario places the parasol back on the letter, as instructed, and, in a flash of light and smoke, it and the letter vanish. The gang is confused, but hopes that the Parasol will help Peach.
Heading back into the castle basement, Mario uses Kooperman's powers to tear a hole in a weak wall, revealing Toadsworth's home in the castle; a dim, wooden cellar, with the next book, atop his bed. They eye the title of the next book; "Clubbenstein". Shade shivers behind Mario; she was told this frightening story many times, as a little girl, and remarks that this may be the most dangerous book yet. Mario unlocks the book with the key, and, unlike the previous books, the book's pages barely glowed at all. The party of five jumps in.
== Chapter 4 - A Monster With A Heart Of Mold ==
The groups lands in an old-timey town; the world's colors are very muted, and it was a cloudy evening; a storm was definitely on it's way. The party spots a strange individual in a black cloak, pulling a wheelbarrow, covered up with a blanket. The party decide to see what this figure is up too.
They follow him to a bridge, where they meet with someone over a streetlight. The cloaked figure takes over their hood, revealing themself to be an elderly Clubba, with long white hair, large glasses, and a lab coat. He introduces himself to the figure as "Dr. Clubbenstein". 
The figure asks Clubbenstein if he has "got the goods". He nods, and hands the figure a sack of coins. The figure quickly hands the doctor back something, before dashing away into the dark of the night. Mario sees what he handed him, and he is shocked; it was the next key mold. 
He adds the key mold to his wheelbarrow, and gleefully says to himself that he finally has all the pieces he needs to complete his greatest invention, ever, and he dashes away to a large castle, atop a hill, pulling the wheelbarrow behind him.
The group agrees to head to his castle, and get the key mold from Dr. Clubbenstien, so they go searching in the town, Grimsville, for clues.
After some trekking, the party finds Clubbenstein Castle, and they traverse the base, eventually reaching the top, where they find a horrid sight; many household objects and cloth stitched together, lay restrained on a table, with two large lighting robs in it's forehead. The doctor appears, and the gang hides. The doctor laughs, and stuffs the key mold into the monster's chest, before stitching it up. To get a closer look, Mario disguises himself with a lab coat, and Goombario hiding within it, giving him the look of a hunchback.
Mario barges into the lab, like a zombie. Goombario, speaking for Mario, say that he is his new intern for the summer; Mar-Igor. Clubbenstien, although confused, gladly accepts the help, and you must do several odd jobs around the lab, before receiving your final task, as the storm rages, outside; to pull the lever to rise the creature on the table into the sky, and giving him life via a strike of lightning.
However, Mario refuses, and reveals himself. Clubbenstien angrily tells the party that he needs to make this monster so it can help him, and he forces the plumber aside and pulls the lever, himself, opening the castle ceiling as the table rises into the sky. And, after a large bolt of lightning strikes the creature, the doctor laughs, pulling the lever, lowering the table.
The monster atop the table stays static, and everything grows quiet. 
Suddenly, the monster comes to life, breaking from its shackles and jumping to it's feet. Doctor C cackles, shouting that it's alive, and thunder rumbles, outside. The monster speaks, and asks Doctor C what his purpose is. The doctor responds by saying that he is to be his friend, defending him from anyone who angers him, and slyly tells the beast about the party of five who just so rudely insulted him. 
The monster turns around, and roars at the group facing him, in combat. 
Clubbenstien's Monster is impossible to beat, during this fight. He has 70 HP, far too much for you to deal with, in this stage of the game, and you must flee from the fight.
The doctor laughs, and tells his monster that this town's citizens have gravely insulted him, for all of his life, and orders the beast to deal with them, and Doctor C hops atop his monster's back, and he jumps out the window, towards Grimsville, and the group races, after them.
You then must save the townspeople from the monster's rampage by leading them to safety, being forced to fight the monster, several times, during the process, slowly chipping his HP away, as it goes along.
After bringing all the townsfolk to safety, you must face Clubbenstien's Monster in combat, once again, but now with a much more reasonable amount of HP. 
After defeating the beast, Doctor C is thrown off his back, and the monster yells at his creator, saying that he realized that he is only using him to get what he wanted, and the monster runs off to find a real friend, charging away, and leaving some debris, blocking the group from following him.
Doctor C angrily tells the party that he has everything planned out, before they came and messed it all up, but Shade stops him from talking; sternly telling the doctor that all they did was try and figure out what he was even doing, he was the one who ignored the group's warnings to not bring the monster to life. 
Doctor C feels sorry for his actions and says he will take care of the monster, himself, but Shade, once again, sternly tells the doctor that they will tag along with him, and, against his will, Doctor Clubbenstien joins the party, allowing you to use his shrinking and growing potions to shrink and grow certain objects to solve puzzles, including the piece of debris, blocking your path.
After following the monster's rampage through Grimsville, the group arrives at his current location; the Grimsville town hall, currently hosting a costume contest, which the monster has easily blended into, just seen as a few Clubbas stacked up, in costume. 
Mario and friends get in costume to get into the party, with Mario and Goombario dressing up as Mari-gor, once again, Shade as a rich diva, Yoshyr as a medieval plague doctor, and Kooperman simply takes off his superhero outfit, going as Evan Troppo. Clubbenstien does not get in costume, stating his outfit is already crazy, enough.
The group sneaks into the party, and must try and find the monster, but they cannot seem to find him. Suddenly, a man in shadow appears on a nearby stage, stating that he has a winner for the Grimsville costume contest. A spotlight flashed behind the man, revealing Clubbenstien's Monster; the best costume, at the party. Mario recognizes this shadowy man's voice, angrily telling the man that the winner is not wearing a costume, he is a real monster. 
The man pompously laughs, and shouts; "Oh, bravo, Mario! What a frightening twist!", and a spotlight is cast upon him, revealing the man to be a Koopa with bushy blue hair, a blue shell, and tiny eyes; it's none other than Ludwig Von Koopa, the leader of the Koopalings. He was also in costume, wearing a white polo with a red scarf, and a black suit coat, over it. Some streaks of his blue hair were colored grey, and his wand now looked like a baton.
Ludwig thanks the Doctor for being such a bad friend to the monster, as now he has a new friend; one that treats him with respect. He casts a magic spell with his wand, making all the partygoers disappear, leaving just the party, himself, and Clubbenstien's Monster. Ludwig hops atop the monster's back, and orders him to attack the group. The monster grows hesitant, but fights, anyway.
Clubbenstien's Monster is now back up to 80 HP, but, after three turns, Ludwig begins to order the monster around with anger and selfishness. He realizes that Ludwig is just like his old master, and throws Ludwig off his back, and runs off, nearly crying. Ludwig is annoyed, but still prepared, and summs his magic wand to deal with Mario.
Ludwig has 55 HP, and he is able to cast out many magic attacks, his main drawback being that his strongest attacks take one turn to charge, sometimes leaving him vulnerable for attack. But, his attacks are brutal, being able to inflict many status effects on the team, as well as sometimes being able to attack, then charge up for his next attack, during the same turn. But, after he reaches 20 HP, Ludwig unleashes his strongest spell; "Symphony", summoning a orchestra to sometimes attack the group, with their instruments.
The characters are also all still in costume, which does not change much aside from their appearance. However, since Goombario is inside Mario's costume, he cannot battle, but Ludwig will be automatically tattled, once he is on his own.
After defeating Ludwig, he remarks, although he lost, it was a wonderful show, and says, after that defeat, it's likely curtains for him. A glowing portal suddenly appears behind Ludwig, and trudges through it, beaten and disappointed, as it closes behind him.
The party finds Clubbenstien's Monster, crying in a corner. He angrily tells the group that he was only created just to be used, not to be love. But Doctor C assures the monster that this is not the case; working with Mario has shown him what being friends really means. The doctor asks if they can be friends, for real, this time, and monster hesitantly accepts.
The group of six, including C.J. (Clubbenstien's Monster's new name; "Clubbenstien Junior", abbreviated), begin the trek back to Clubbenstien Castle.
=== Chapter 4 - Interlude ===
Back in Peach's cell, Kamek walks in, and quickly closes her cell door, asking the princess if she got it. She nods, and holds up her letter, and the Sneaky Parasol; Kamek's inter-dimensional teleportation spell has worked. She asks what their next move, should be, and Kamek tells her she has an idea, although it's a but risky, and whispers the plan to Peach as the camera fade out.
We then see Kamek exit Peach's cell, as he must find his way to Bowser's private chambers.
He is interrupted by Bowser Junior, who happily thanks Kamek for getting her the new weapon, showing it off, being what you chose it to be in the Chapter 2 Interlude. He then tells him that he is on his way to see his father, as he has an assignment for him, and Kamek tags along.
In Bowser's new throne room, Bowser is reprimanding Ludwig for his defeat against Mario, leaving him another step closer to foiling his plans. The Mage stands besides him, and tells the Koopaling to buzz off, and Ludwig trudges away.
Junior and Peach walk in, and Bowser is happy to see them. He first tells Junior that, even though Larry/Iggy/Wendy went against his wishes to make his new weapon, they might as well put it to good use, telling the boy that he will be invading the next book, to stop Mario. Junior is ecstatic, and dashes away to ready his Clown Car.
Bowser then tells Kamek that he may as well also get some use out of him, ordering him to accompany Junior, on this mission. Kamek splutters and does not know what to say, before saying he must go inform Peach, but Bowser assures her that she will be fine. He tosses her Kamek's magic broomstick, and tells her to keep his boy safe; he can't afford another failure.
Junior appears again, now in his Clown Car and with his weapon. The Mage charges up a magic blast. Kamek closes his eyes, and a faint grin appears on his face; he had a plan. The Mage fires the beam, and Junior and Kamek disappear in a blast of purple smoke.
=== Post-Chapter 4 ===
The party is back in Dr. C's castle, fixing up CJ. Realizing it is just a piece of plastic, the doctor pulls out CJ's "heart", the key mold, and gives it to Mario.
After everybody is ready to return to Peach's Castle, Doctor C throws a Shrinking Potion at CJ, shrinking him down, and the doctor tells him that now, they can always be together, and CJ happily hops into Clubbenstien's lab coat pocket.
Doctor C then uses his smarts to create a machine that could create a portal to exit the book, as well as an "Exit Bookmark", allowing Mario to exit a book, from anywhere, in an emergency, and return in the same spot he left the book, upon returning.
After exiting the book, they see Toadsworth, sleeping in his room. He awakes with a jump, happy to see Mario. He tells the group that dealing with Bowser's minions has caused the number of minions in Bowser's castle to go increasingly down; some Toads are now found throughout the castle.
However, when the party goes to meet Dolan Steel, they see his house to be a complete wreck; a group of retreating Bob-ombs had noticed him and blown up his store; he couldn't make a key from the mold, with his house, in this state, and tags along with Mario to find a new location to set up his business.
Back in Peach's Castle, using Clubbenstien's shrinking potions in the basement reveals an abandoned room, in the castle, perfect for Dolan's work. There is also another book, in this room, but not the one that your current key mold opens.
After forging the key, Mario finds the next book within the castle's nursery for young Toads, completely wrecked and vandalized by Bowser's Minions, except for one book; a very short book, a nursery rhyme called "The Little Dayzee Went Up The Hill".
The party hopes that this book's short length will lead to less complications, than the previous books, and they open the book, but find, instead of a glow on the pages, they find it is just a regular pop-up book, pages unfolding to create an environment.
Doctor C then gets an idea; he throws a shrinking potion at the party, and they angrily ask him what he is trying to do, and he simply says he is getting them down to the books size. They shrink down, and, to their surprise, they find a much smaller portal at the book's beginning, one that they could not fit in, at normal size. The party jumps through.
== Chapter 5 - The Rhymes All Wrong! ==
When they land, the party finds themselves in what looks like a pop-up picture book, with environments folding up and down when entering buildings, all having a very similar at style to the very first Paper Mario game, and even Mario and Goombario use their sprites for said game, in this chapter.
Narration is then heard.
"A Little Dayzee went up the hill...
To fetch a pail of water..."
They see a house behind them, and a Crayzee walks out of the door, an empty bucket in hand. She is walking up a hill towards a well. The party decides not to interfere.
The narration continues.
"She hauled for hours, this little flower...
as water spilled from top.
But then she saw, as she withdraws...
made her up and stop!"
As the Dayzee was walking back home with a load of water, she spots something in the bucket. She pulls it out; it's the next key mold.
"Why, it's a mold! From the well, so old...
With some brass, she could make a key.
But that's not right. No! She fights!
as she spots a thief-to-be."
The Dayzee spots Mario and company, and charges at him, engaging in combat.
This Crayzee Dayzee is fairly weak, only having 15 HP, but the rhyming narration continues throughout the battle, whatever being narrated seemingly instantly happening. For example, when her HP gets low, the narration says....
"The girl was weak, she'd spring a leak.
If not for this sudden full heal."
...and she will be suddenly fully healed.
After defeating the Dayzee, she rips from the pages (She was tethered to the pages via a pull feature, keeping herlocked on a path from his house to the well. She speaks, apologizing for attacking; a strange individual had been messing will the narration of this simple nursery rhyme. She tries to hand the plumber the key mold, as an apology, before the narration starts back up.
"I'd lost control! I was on a roll!
But this did not mean a thing.
For, see, the mold, still book-tied and whole...
Grew pairs of arms, legs, and wings!"
The key mold suddenly grew a pair of arms, then legs, and finally wings, flying around, random and mindless. The narration speaks again;
"So what I write, either wrong or right...
will always come to be?
Well, in that case, then the mold states...
'Your party's down to three!'"
The key mold swoops down, and grabs three party members; Shade, Yoshyr, and Doctor Clubbenstien. and flies away, as the party screams in fear. The key mold flies away.
The remaining party; Mario, Goombario, and Kooperman theorize that this narration will only make their situation more complicated, and try to be careful, as they save their friends. The party asks if the Dayzee would like to tag along, but she has retreated into her house, stating that it's much safer, here. They shrug it off, and continue foreword.
Following the flying key mold through a colorful village of flowers; "Sunflowza", narration continues to appear, but Goombario get an idea; what if they wrote narration to change the story, themselves. So, whenever this mysterious narrator's text appeared, they damaged it, getting rid of a letter, and you must find a word that rhymes with the missing word to turn the narration in your favor. (Example: "It seems the group ?" a. is toast [Mario becomes a walking piece of toast] b. earns the most [You suddenly receive a paycheck from a passerby for 100 coins] c. made a roast [The party stops for a cookout, and the smell of cooking roast attracts the flying key mold, and you can attack him])
After this, you will fight the flying key mold in combat, but you cannot damage it, as the key mold would break, leaving their progression stopped.
Mario is attacked relentlessly by the key mold, until it slows down when the key mold hears a soothing song coming from far. It's so peaceful, in fact, that he lays down and goes to sleep, but leaving the captured partners, also asleep, in it's grasp.
The group sees the female Dayzee from before had sung the song. She tells the group that she is tired of going up and down her hill and getting water, and shyly asks if she can join the group, and they happily agree, and she happily introduces herself as "Stayzee, The Hayzee Dayzee", and she joins the group.
The key mold then wakes up, with Shade, Yoshyr, and Doctor C still asleep in it's clutches, and it retreats to a nearby farm ,and the remaining party tries to follow them, requiring you to use Stayzee's sleeping song to make certain guards and enemies fall asleep.
Once reaching the farm, they find a large herd of sheep, owned by a woman named "Mary". She tells the group that there is a fake sheep, in her herd, and asks the group to find them.
The fake sheep ends up being the littlest lamb, whose fur was white as snow, and you must fight it, again, now needing to target the hands holding your partners captive. They can be saved in any order. After saving a partner, the key mold runs away. Before you can give chase, Mary thanks the group, and reveals who she really is; being a member of the Tribe Of Ancients; Merlimbis; she had retired from her duties and decided to have a nice and slow life on a farm. She offers a necklace with shiny red pearls, the "Ultra Necklace" hoping it will be of use to them. Your partner remarks that Merlee stated she had lost a necklace just like this, and tells you that you should stop by the Toad Town Tunnels to give it to her.
This process is then repeated two more times, each with the skin of a certain nursery rhyme, the second being a tea parlor, needing to drink tea out of the pot with both a handle and a spout, and the third being the key mold sitting atop a wall, then falling down, and releasing the last party member. The narrator grows increasing annoyed;
"As I grew old as I saw the key mold
I did what I should've done, sooner;
I finally appeared, and another, right here!
It's Kamek and, well..."
In a flash of light, two figures appear in front of the key, whose limbs disappear as it falls to the ground. As the light fades, the group, to their shock, sees Kamek and, beside him, in his Clown Car...
"...BOWSER JUNIOR!"
Junior laughs, telling the party that he really threw the group for a loop with his narration, but it apparently wasn't enough. Junior grabs the key mold and stuffs it in his Clown Car. They sun fully sets, as the stars begins to glow above the group, and one twinkled the brightest of all.
Junior shows off his new weapon, complimenting the previously chosen Koopaling for doing such a great job on building it. He tells Kamek to freeze the party with a magic spell, and tosses Kamek his wand. Kamek, looking pale and silent, tried to, but only summoned a tiny ice cube.
Junior shrugs it off, saying his weapon is enough, and charges forward at the group.
Bowser Junior has 60 HP, while Kamek has 30 HP, however, after losing 10 HP, Kamek falls to the ground, seemingly exhausted, but Junior is the main threat. Kamek can barely damage you, only, at most, dealing 1 damage per attack. Junior also has an endless supply of Super Shrooms to heal himself.
Depending on the chosen weapon and element chosen in the Chapter 2 interlude, this fight will be very different;
* If Junior has a Ray Gun, he will be shoot rapid-fire blasts at the character in front, and Junior will play the defense, being very long-range.
* If Junior has a Boomerang, then he will charge up throws with his Clown Car's hand, and throw it for a defense-piercing attack, hitting both mario and his partner.
* If Junior has a Sword, then he will not use his Clown Car at all, instead staying on foot, removing the defense point that his Clown Car gives him, but his attacks are now far more powerful, being able to do lots of attacks and deal a lot of damage, but, he only has 30HP, without the Clown Car, making him a glass cannon.
Depending on the element chosen for the weapon, the status effect inflicted upon the targeted character when being hit by it will also be different;
* If the weapon has fire powers, then one will sometimes gain the "Burn" effect, when hit by it, taking one damage away from the target at the start of each turn.
* If the weapon has ice powers, then one will sometimes gain the "Frostbite" effect, when hit by it, making the target unable to move, not allowing you to do any attack that requires physical movement, such as jumping, but ranged attacks where one stays in place, such as using items or all of Dr. C's potion attacks, are still able to be used.
* If the weapon has electric powers, then one will sometimes gain the "Paralysis" effect, when hit by it, making the target unable to move, until the effect goes away.
After defeating Junior and Kamek, Junior's weapon cracks and shatters. Junior laughs, saying that he still has a backup plan. He uses his Clown Car to unleash a huge Bob-Omb, upon the party, but, in a flash of light, Junior and his Clown Car disappears, with Kamek appearing behind where he once was; he has cast a spell to make Junior leave the book. He then quickly fires a magic blast the bomb, defusing it.
Mario and friends are very confused, but Kamek smiles, and, in a rainfall of sparkles surrounding Kamek, Mario sees something shocking.
Princess Peach, holding both the Sneaky Parasol and Kamek's Wand, shyly says hi to Mario.
=== Chapter 5 - Interlude ===
The Mage is pacing in Bowser's throne room, pondering something. Suddenly, Junior appears next to her, in a flash of smoke. Junior is shocked. He tells the Mage that Kamek had betrayed her, sending him back here and keeping his wand for himself. The Mage clenches their fists; she presumes Peach put him up to this, and charges towards Peach's cell.
Meanwhile, "Peach" is pacing around, in her cell, worried. The Mage, instead of using the door, uses her magic to melt a hole, in the wall. She charges in, demanding that the princess reveal what she said to Kamek to turn on the Koopa Troop. She says that "Peach" didn't say anything; maybe Kamek was tired of being pushed around because of this "sub-par witch" and created a plan to leave on his own.
The Mage realizes what's going on, and uses a revealing spell. In a shimmer of sparkles, the disguise was gone, and Kamek appeared; he has swapped places with Peach, by each of them using the Sneaky Parasol on each other.
The Mage is shocked, ordering the Koopa Troop to enter high security. Kamek chuckles, and asks The Mage who she thinks she sent with Junior to Mario's location. The Mage realizes what she had done, she had let Peach escape, and put right in Mario's hand.
In response, after a brief pause, The Mage only cackles, telling the wizard that Mario can have the Princess; they don't need her, right now, and she will get back into Bowser's clutches, when they need her.
Kamek seemingly knows what The Mage is trying to do, and does not comment.
The Mage tells her that, while Bowser will not be happy that Peach is gone, they have a new prisoner to replace her. The Mage uses her powers to reinforce the walls of Peach's cell and patch up the hole; Kamek is being taken prisoner.
Kamek tells her that he knows her plan, and asks the Mage to pass a message onto Bowser, but the Mage closes and locks the cell door before he can respond. The screen cuts to black.
=== Post-Chapter 5 ===
Back at Stayzee's house, Peach explains to Mario her team-up with Kamek and their plan of escape, and now, Kamek was stuck, with no magic wand, as Peach has it. She had promised Kamek that she and Mario would save them, and asks the group if they can storm where Kamek is being held; the wand could pinpoint the location of it's owner; Kamek.
Mario hesitates, recalling how much trouble Kamek has caused him, in the past, but Peach assures the plumber that he is different, now, and will help him, so Mario agrees, and the group, now including Peach, exits the book.
Back in the castle's nursery, Toadsworth is reading one of the books, only, to his shock, to see his princess appear from within one of the books. After recovering from shock, they head back to Toad Town.
The locals are very happy to see the Princess, but she must assist Mario with their plan.
Peach tells Mario that wands are tied to their controllers, and they could use Kamek's wand to find him, save him, and use his magic to find and beat Bowser, although Mario questions what should be done with the remaining corrupted books, within Peach's Castle, but Peach remarks that, if they save Kamek, they could easily turn the books back to normal, so Mario agrees to help.
While back in Toad Town, you can give the Ultra Necklace to Merlee, increasing her magic, giving you the ability to upgrade your partners to Ultra Rank.
Peach uses her powers to activate the wand, and it begins to float in the air, being drawn to the inside of Peach's Castle; he was likely in another book. While here, you must forge your next key mold with Dolan, and find the book within his shop does not fit your current key, so you keep looking.
You then find the wand is being led to the castle's throne room, blocked by several Metal Blocks. With no way to get through, Mario recalls, after one of his previous adventures, he kept one of his old hammers on display, somewhere in the castle; one that could break the Metal Blocks, so the party goes looking for it. 
They find the room with the hammer on display, guarded by some Koopatrols, which need to be put to sleep using Stayzee to pass them. 
Within the room, Mario sees his old Ultra Hammer, untouched by the rampage. He tries to grab it, only for a Sledge Bro to jump in and swipe the hammer from the plumber, who uses it in battle. After defeating the Sledge Bro, he drops the Hammer, and Mario gain his "Ultra Hammer", which allows him to break Metal Blocks, and gives his Hammer more attack power. 
Using the Ultra Hammer, Mario breaks the metal blocks surrounding the throne room's entrance, and goes inside. 
Out of all the rooms, so far, the throne room is the most destroyed; the throne was upside down, the stained glass above the throne was destroyed, and the carpet was ripped, bunched up, and stained. 
Among it all, they see a large red book, the only thing on the cover being the signature of Bowser. Before they can unlock it, Peach dashes into the throne room, telling Mario that she is coming with him; her powers should come in handy for the rescue mission, and Peach joins your party as a temporary party member. 
Peach is separate from your other partners and cannot be controlled by the player, be she has a few moves, those being a weak whack with her parasol, healing powers, as well as temporary FP move that can be selected by Mario, allowing Peach and Mario to do a combo move; "Healing Hammer", allowing Mario's Hammer to have life-stealing powers.
Mario uses the key to unlock the book, revealing a dark, foggy gateway to appear on the pages. Mario, Goombario, Shade, Yoshyr, Kooperman, Dr. Clubbenstien, Stayzee, and Princess Peach, all jump through the book, ready to save Kamek and, just maybe, foil Bowser's plans, for good.
== Chapter 6 - Diary Of A Koopa King ==
The group lands in what looks like the firey, abandoned ruins of Toad Town, with Bowser's huge castle taking the place of Peach's. Peach is frightened, but is assured that this book is all just Bowser's imagination; it's not real, so they advance.
Heading inside Bowser's base, it matches how it looked in the Chapter Interludes, only now, you must fight enemies instead of avoiding them. 
Your first objective is to get an elevator key so you can access the castle's upper floors, so you hed down to the castle's basement, filled with assorted junk, and two figures in shadow, sorting the junk. Mario turns the lights on, and, to his shock, he finds two of the Koopalings, those being the two remaining Koopalings after choosing one in the Chapter 2 interlude. Realizing they could be promoted if they defeat Mario, the two Koopalings work together to take down Mario.
In this fight, the Koopalings will have the exact same stats as they would if you had fought them in Chapter 3, the challenge coming from having to deal with two Koopalings at once, but they are eventually knocked out, and Mario grabs the elevator key from one of them.
Going up the floors, you commence a daunting, battle-filled trial up the tower, needing to find more keys and elevator keys, as well as fight some powerful enemies.
You eventually reach a familiar floor to Peach; the same floor where she was held captive. The group finds her cell, but, to their shock, Kamek is trapped within. Peach cannot give Kamek the wand, now, the bars of the door being too thin, and Peach didn't know how the wand worked, so they decide to go look for the key to the cell, which Kamek tells the group that he knows where it is; he saw it when getting the key to Junior's room, previously.
However, suddenly, the party is ambushed, being knocked out by dozens of Koopatrols, and they are carried away to a nearby cell. However, one Koopatrol stays put, and tells Kamek that she will go get the key; Peach had used her Sneaky Parasol to hide amongst the Koopatrols.
You then must use the Sneaky Parasol to get from Kamek's cell to the castle's security room. If you get caught, you must restart back at Kamek's cell.
Once the player reaches the security room, Peach must face three Goombas in combat, alone, being the only time you actually control Peach in battle. 
After getting the keys for the cell doors, Peach sneaks back to Kamek's cell, which she unlocks. Kamek is happy she came back for him, and Peach says it's no trouble; he is her new friend. Kamek dawns his iconic blue robes and hat and joins Peach, indirectly unlocking the Koopa Wizard as a party member; he can use his magic wand to lift up and destroy Magic Blocks, which he can use to solve puzzles and uncover secrets.
With Kamek's help, the prison's security system malfunctions, and Mario and his friends are freed from their cells. Kamek remarks he is happy to work with Mario, and, since they are here, Kamek would very much like to find Bowser and the Mage, and teach them a thing or two, and Mario very much agrees. However, to avoid another kidnapping, Kamek uses his magic to make Peach exit the book, keeping her safe.
Mario and his group burst into the throne room, and spot Bowser, sitting on his throne with intimidation; he's been expecting them. Bowser spots Kamek, and asks him to reconsider before he endures the same fate as his nemesis. Kamek firmly tells him the only way he would rejoin Bowser's side is if he let The Mage go; what she is doing will not benefit Bowser. Bowser laughs; The Mage is completely loyal to him, and has actually been able to defeat Mario, unlike Kamek. 
Bowser gets up off his throne. He chuckles, and says he's been wanting a fight, anyway, and who better to face then the only person who has ever stood in his way, his sworn nemesis; Mario. Bowser unleashes a terrifying roar, but Mario is unphased. He pulls out his Hammer, and puts one foot forward, ready to face off against his sworn nemesis.
Bowser serves as one of the game's most difficult required bosses, having 85 HP, and nearly a dozen attacks. This fight, in concept, is very similar to the final boss of Paper Mario 64, with the Koopa King retaining many attacks from said fight, such as a poisonous bite, flame breath, and a stomp attack that leads to Bowser stealing one of your attack options, if unguarded. He is also able to summon a few minions, and jump to the background, where he chows down on a large drumstick, and if you don't defeat all of the summoned enemies within 3 turns, then Bowser will finish the drumstick, healing 15 HP.
You are required to use Kamek, in this fight (apart from the first turn, where you are given the chance to tattle Bowser with Goombario), where he and Bowser will talk in between attacks. They will speak of The Mage and how, once again, Bowser is being played like a fiddle to a bigger threat.
After defeating Bowser, he falls down, going unconscious. Although the king was not fully defeated, they decide to keep going forward.
To the group's shock, they see, though a large bay window, in the next room, the new world Bowser is hoping to make real; a lava-filled wasteland, with minions patrolling as far as the eye could see.
The Mage appears behind the group, remarking how beautiful her creation is. The group is shocked to see her, but The Mage offers her thanks for defeating Bowser; she was just going to get rid of him, by herself. 
She finally explains her true plan to the group; to rule the world that Bowser he created for them, and fuse all book worlds into one, so The Mage could truly rule all worlds. But, even her power isn't enough. She needs someone with a heart so pure, it could tap into her magic, and make her unstoppable.
With a flick of The Mage's wand, Mario sees an unfortunate sight; Peach appears, trapped within the Mage's clutches. Mario is angered, so he tries going in for an attack, but the Mage knocks him away.
The Mage cackles, saying that Mario and his band of misfits has done enough; it's time for them to say their goodbyes to the Mushroom Kingdom, and banishes the party of seven from the book. She grabs the unconscious Bowser with her powers, and remarks she has plans for both of them. with screeching cackle, she unleashes a brainwashing spell onto the castle making all of Bowser's minions obey her.
=== Chapter 6 - Interlude ===
This is the only interlude where you cannot control anybody.
Bowser awakes, in his throne room, stomping the floor and roaring with anger; his enemies had beat him, once again. He spots The Mage entering the throne room. He notes that she has Peach in hand, congratulating her for getting Peach back. The Mage says that no thanks are necessary; Peach is for her.
Bowser is confused, until The Mage uses a strange spell on Bowser making him fall asleep. She calls in some minions, and The Mage tells them to find Bowser a cell; one where he couldn't escape. Due to being brainwashed; they do as she says.
After the minions leave, The Mage Uses her magic to drain Peach's Heart powers into her wand, and her wand grows a shining pink. With this power, The Mage closes up the book, locking it, once more. She remarks that, with enough power, she could most definitely fuse this book with the real world, now. But, she realizes that Mario would surely stop her if he found out, so she decides to distract him, and blasts a powerful spell out of the book, before saying that "That'll keep the little whelp busy!" before letting out a menacing cackle.
=== Post-Chapter 6 ===
The party awakes, now outside Peach's Castle. Kamek realizes that The Mage must have blasted them out, and tells Mario to get right back in the diary to stop The Mage.
However, inside the throne room, the diary is now magically sealed; not even Kamek could use his magic to open the book. All hope seems lost, until, in a flash of light, something appears in Mario's hand; it was another key mold. 
They take it to Dolan Steel, and find it is the key to unlock the book in his room, within the castle. Kamek remarks this book might be a trap, but Mario marks it's their only chance to get back into Bowser's diary, so Kamek reluctantly accepts to go in. They open the book in Dolan Steel's workshop, and read the title; "Bumpteo and Bombulet". Kamek gags; this is a love story, but the party drags Kamek in the book, before he can run away.
== Chapter 7 - The Bob-omb And Her Bumpty ==
The party finds themselves in a medieval town, but much more modern than Yoshyr's home. The group spots two large households, opposite of each other, one made up of Bumptys, and the other made up of Bob-ombs. The two houses seemed completely divided, with no one daring to cross the center of the town into the other house's territory. Except for Mario, who had incidentally landed right on the border of the two sides. 
A nearby Bumpty and Bob-omb both approach Mario, and demand to know what house he belongs to; "Bumptague" or "Bombulet". Whatever choice to pick leads to a very different opening to the chapter.
If you choose "Bumptague":
The Bumpty is happy to hear that he is part of the "better household". The Bob-Omb is angered, and runs off. 
You explore the Bumptague side of the town, before running into a black Bumpty with a formal outfit and wearing a strange mask, hiding his facial features. He apologizes for running into Mario, and tells the group that they're quite strange-looking Bumptagues, but disregards it. He quickly says goodbye, remarking he'll be late for "the party".
You see, to Mario's shock, the Bumpty sneak across the border, entering Bobulet territory. You try to follow him, but are stopped, so you must sneak into Bumptulet territory with Shade, and find some masks so the gang can cross.
Once they do, the gang reaches the Bombulet household where they see the Bumpty go inside, whom they follow.
If you choose "Bombulet";
The Bomb quickly pushes the group fully into Bumptulet territory, saying that they'll be late to the "party". Confused, the group explores the Bombulet area of the town, until finding where this "party" is being held, at the Bombulet household. 
The party has not begun, just yet, so Mario tries to sneak in, climbing up the household using Yoshyr and Kooperman's abilities, before looking through an open window, and spotting a purple Bob-Omb, doing her hair.
The Bob-Omb's mother enters her room, and persuades her to not go to the party; she is betrothed to "Prince Pumpus", after all. Her daughter, Bombulet, tells her mother that she cannot tell her what to do, and the thought of marrying Prince Rumpus is disgusting to her, and she dashes away, going to the party.
Her mother sighs, and begins to clean up Bombulet's room. While Mario watches her put things away, he sees, to his shock, one of Bombulet's hairbrushes is the final key mold. The plumber tries to jump in and grab it, only to fall off the ledge of the household after being shocked by some guards, below. After defeating the guards, the group decides to go into the party and ask Bombulet for the key mold. (From this point onward, this will happen no matter what choice you picked).
Within the party, you spot the Bumpty, who introduced himself if you previously chose Bombulet, revealing his name "Bumpteo". He tells Mario he snuck out of his home in the Bumptague area to get into this party. When Mario asks why, he is interrupted by a bearded, old Bob-Omb. He coms down some regal stairs, and announces her daughter's presence to the party; the beautiful Bomblulet.
The purple Bob-Omb with eyelashes and a dress paces down the stairs, as she sits down and enjoys the party. Bumpteo tells the group that he has a major crush on her. Unfortunately, she is destined to be married to a snobby prince from a nearby kingdom. Bumpteo states he most definitely deserves Bombulet's love over him.
Shade asks why Bumpteo needed to sneak into the party, and Bombeo remarks that the Bumptagues and Bombulets have been in a fued for generations, and there was no way he would be able to get into this party without a disguise, let alone talk to the daughter of the most powerful Bombulet.
But now, he had a chance, he dashes over to Bombulet and begins to talk to her. Mario spots another Bob-Omb figure watching Bumpteo with suspicion. 
He approaches him, and tells Mario that he is pretty sure that Bombeo is not a Bombulet, and goes to investigate. Mario tries to stop him, but he cannot, and he no choice but to take off his mask and reveal himself, stating he, in fact, in a Bumptague. The Bob-omb is furious, revealing that he is the cousin of Bombulet, the terrifying Tybomb, whom you must fight.
After beating him, Bombulet's father notices the commotion, and is shocked to see Mario had defeated her own nephew. Bumpteo backs Mario up, saying he was "looking at him funny". He realize Bumpteo is also a Bumptague, and orders some guards to kick Mario and Bumpteo out of the party, which they do.
Now stuck from getting back into the party, the group sets their sights on trying to get back into Bombulet's bedroom to get that key mold, and Bumpteo joins you, becoming a party member; he has the ability to do a belly slide, allowing him to fit through thin gaps, which you must do to unlock a gate to the back of the palace.
In the back, the group spots a balcony, where, to their shock, Bombulet is seen. She begins to ask, seemingly to no onee,"Bumpteo, Bumpteo. Where forth art thou, Bumpteo?". After some monologuing from the Bob-Omb, Bumpteo jumps out of hiding, saying that he is right here. This shocks Bombulet, and she falls off the balcony, but Bumpteo manages to catch her, as romance sparks between the two.
Suddenly, more guards attack, shocked that Bumpteo made it back into Bombulet territory, and they restrain him. Bombulet then fights alongside Mario to take these guards out. 
After defeating them, the two forbidden lovers are completely star-struck, and state that they shall be wed in the morning, much to the group's shock. Bumpteo then asks for a favor; in order to privately hold a wedding, Mario must find the only officiator in town; Iglence, who lived in the outskirts of town. Bumpteo joins Mario's side, and you are tasked with finding Iglence, before sunrise.
While looking, Tybomb ambushes the group, hearing of their plans to wed the forbidden lovers, and hereby banishes Bumpteo from the kingdom. Mario tries to fight, but Bumpteo accepts it, but as he is being led away by Tybomb, he winks at Mario; he had a plan.
Back in Bombuliet's room, Bombuliet states that he will give Mario her key mold if he can get Bumpteo back together with her, which Mario agrees. The two wonder where Bumpteo is, and what his plan is.
Suddenly, a man arrives at the palace; it was Iglence. He tells the group he has been in contact with Bumpteo, and he has a plan for him and Bombuliet to reunite and run away together, but he needs Mario's help. Iglence explains that the first phase of the plan involves Bombuliet "faking her own explosion", and being taken to a tomb to heal, where Bumpteo would sneak in, reunite with her, and they would run away, none the wiser.
However, there's just one problem; how were they going to fake a fatal Bob-Omb explosion? 
Iglence explains that Mario would need to sneak into the Bumptague palace and find a faceless bomb in Bumpteo's room, so you must sneak back across the border in the dead of night, and enter the Bumptague Palace.
As you traverse your way up the palace, you find Bumpteo's room is locked from the inside; he had likely sunck out his window, the night before.
While looking for the key, you find a pair of very valuable red and gold boots simply being used as a doorstop. Mario takes them, thinking they'll be better in his hands; unlocking the "Doorstoppers", but Mario decides to call them the "Ultra Boots"; which increase the attack power of Mario's jump, and allows Mario to do the Spring Jump, where, after preforming a Ground Pound, if the player presses Jump after Mario hits the ground, Mario will get charge up and bounce back into the air, going much higher than his normal jump height.
With this new ability, Mario is able to Spring Jump from the room below Bumpteo's room up to his room, where Mario finds a small bomb, among other weapons, taking it back to the Bombulet Palace.
Back at the palace, the gang stages Bombuliet exploding using the small bomb. Bombuliet's family, including Tybomb, are horrified.
The family brings her to a tomb, just as expected, but Bombuliet's fiance, Prince Pumpus, walks in, his face hidden in a cloak. He is angered and speaks in a caveman-like voice. Mario, watching this from afar, questions Pumpus' identity.
Later, Bumpteo sneaks into the tomb, and wakes up Bombuliet to escape. but Prince Pumpus charges in for a surprise attack.
Mario also jumps in, confronting the prince. However, Prince Pumpus recognizes Mario, but begins to have a sudden strange pain, before it fades, and the Prince, almost robotically says;
"MARIO...STOP...MARIO."
Pumpus swipes the key mold from the plumber, and takes off his hood, revealing an all-too familiar face; it was Morton Koopa Jr., another member of the Koopalings. He seemed to be under a brainwashing spell, and trying to fight it. Mario realizes this, and tries to fight Morton to get him out of his trance, in the hopes that he will help them.
Morton has 65 HP. Although less HP than the previous Chapter Boss, he is incredibly powerful, with nearly all of his physical attacks piercing your defense.
He will use his mallet and "BAD POTIONS" he stole from Iglence, which poison you, if unblocked. To defeat Morton, you must use your Spring Jump (Also being a permanent FP move, in battle) to jump on his hammer when he uses it as a shield to block your jumps. This will eventually break the hammer, making Morton's attacks much less powerful.
After defeating Morton, he falls to the ground, but, suddenly, he gets back on his feet, and delivers a message to Mario.
"MISTAKE...COMING HERE...MUSHROOM...KINGDOM...MAGE'S NOW."
Morton then crushes the final key mold in his hands, and then goes unconscious, before a magic portal transports his body elsewhere.
The gang is horrified and confused, and Mario immediately decides to head back to Peach's Castle, and stop whatever The Mage is planning.
Before he can, however, Bumpteo and Bombuliet assure the group that, after what they have done, the least the couple can do is help the plumber take down the foe, plus, it will make a wonderful honeymoon.
The gang, all together, Mario, Goombario, Shade, Yoshyr, Kooperman, Dr. Clubbenstien, Stayzee, Kamek, Bumpteo, and Bombuliet head back to town, find a portal, and jump through it, exiting the book.
=== Chapter 7 - Interlude ===
Jumping awake, Bowser is seen, finding himself in a jail cell. Bowser realizes that Mage had betrayed her, just as Kamek warned him, but Bowser won't admit that he was wrong. He ponders what the Mage is doing with Peach, but someone else in the cell says that she is right here.
To the Koopa King's surprise, Peach is trapped with her. Peach reluctantly explains that The Mage has sucked out Peach's Heart Power to increase her magic, and fuse Bowser's Diary, now sculpted as The Mage's World, with the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser stomps his foot in rage; he was so close to finally trouncing Mario and steal the Princess for himself, and now The Mage has betrayed him, and all of his minions were under her control. And, even worse, his right-hand man had left him behind.
Bowser begins to recall many recent conversations he had with Kamek, before he turned on him, realizing that he was insulting and pushing away his sole caretaker, for his entire life. 
He of course, doesn't verbally admit his vulnerability, but Peach understands, saying that the "big scary Koopa King can cry, after all." Bowser ignores her, and the two enemies form an uneasy alliance to escape. Bowser uses his sheer strength to break threw the wall holding them captive. 
At a fork in the road, Bowser advances forward while Peach stays back in her tell.
You will play as Bowser, and you'll have to use Bowser's flame breath to quickly dispose of enemies before they can ring alarms and take Bowser back to his cell.
Bowser then discovers something shocking; his own son, Bowser Junior, locked up in his bedroom. He's overjoyed to see his father, and explains that The Mage had taken over and brainwashed all of the minions; including the Koopalings. Bowser quickly busts him out and tells his son that everything will turn out fine; they'll kick the Mage out of his castle, and kidnap Peach and make a quick runaway. But Junior informs Bowser that it won't be that simple, motioning him to a window. Bowser looks outside, and sees Toad Town in a wreck; the same wreck outside his castle, in his diary, but there was no imperfections or sketches; this was all real.
Suddenly, the Mage brusts in, Peach in her clutches. She tells Bowser that Bowser's Diary is already fused with The Mushroom Kingdom, and when Mario will finish up with Morton, he'll show up here, and be ambushed by all of Bowser's Minions. Bowser hesitates, and looks at Peach. He realizes the stakes at hand; he has to do it. He facepalms, and tells Peach that if she ever tells anyone about this, her kidnappings will be doubled. 
Bowser smashes through the wall of Junior's room and makes a mad dash through Toad Town. Dozens of his own minions charge at him, use their weapons, but nothing stopped him. He fought, and fought, and fought, just so Mario would be able to trounce the Mage and kidnap Peach, when this was all over.
Peach is impressed by Bowser good deed, but the Mage puts Peach under a sleeping spell, and says she will come back for Bowser, when he is tired out.
The Mage retreats to the top of her lair, where she is using her magic to tear open a rift in space.
=== Post-Chapter 7 ===
Mario and his group escape from the book, but are not in the basement of the castle, they find themselves in none other than Goomba Village, in the house of Goombario's family. 
Mario sees most of the Mushroom Kingdom denizens have used Goombario's house for shelter, and Mario soon sees why; in the distance, he sees that Peach's Castle has been transformed into a large, floating base, towering over Toad Town. It was not Bowser's work, it was the Mage's. Toadsworth explains that, while he was in the book, The Mage had successfully fused Bowser's diary with this world, and was now using Peach's Magic and her oddly powerful magic to open a tear in space-time to do who-knows-what.
Mario eyes the rift, high in the sky. He knew that this would be his hardest challenge yet, but is reassured by his friends that they have his back.
To their shock, however, the Toads and Mario see a beaten and bruised Bowser walk into Goomba Village. Mario prepares to fight him, but assures him that he didn't do any of this, it was all the Mage. The two form an uneasy alliance in the hopes that they can save Peach, so Bowser can kidnap her, again.
That evening, the Toads of The Mushroom Kingdom and Bowser gather around at Goompapa's dinner table, devising a plan of action to get back Peach and her castle. The plan is set; the Toads will engage on foot and take care of the small fry, Bowser would lead the group and deal with the heavy hitters, while Mario and his friends would charge into the Mage's Castle and stop her.
However, they realize they are very short on soldiers, but Mario remembers all the friends they have met on their adventure, asking Toadsworth if he has the books, from Peach's Castle. He does; he had grabbed them just as he escaped. Mario and friends head inside all 6 books, to find some people to help.
In Penman, Shade explains the situation to Drew and the other Sketch Guys, and they all offer to help, as thanks for Mario helping to defeat the Sketch King. However, Cil appears, telling Shade that she is the only one who will get to defeat her, and joins the fight, to everyone's shock.
In the newly reformed Dragoon City, King Nita glady offers the assistance of the other Yoshi Knights, who have matured since their last meeting. Yoshyr then asks if Booktail would like to assist, and she immediately accepts; apparently her eggs have been stolen, and an interdimensional witch is a perfect culprit. Merlee, after learning Booktail is coming, decides to stay back.
In Goomblord's Base, the evil Goomblord is preparing his latest, greatest scheme, while Kooperman and Goombario sneak in, quickly swiping a controller for Goomblord's drones, leading them through a portal, out of the book. Goomblord is shocked and angered at the duo as they fly off, but Goombario shouts back that he "won't need them for a few arcs". Goomblord is confused.
In Clubbenstien Castle, it seems no one from Grimsville wanted to assist Dr. C. Although he's disappointed, he knows that he can create his own help. He goes into his castle's basement and begins work on repairing his Robo-Koopas, and making many more. Afterwards, He brews together a golden potion, and the tiny CJ grows to a giant when he drinks it, breaking through the ceiling of the castle. 
In the nursery rhyme, Merlimbis offers the help of her herd of sheep. Stayzee is confused; how could a few sheep help them? But, with a snap of the fingers, Merlimbis' sheep grows large horns and get bigger and bulkier. Stayzee retracts her previous statement.
Finally, Bumpteo tells Tybomb and his guards that there's another tyrant on the loose that could danger Bombluiet's life. Tybomb reuses to help a Bumptague, like himself, but after Bombluiet asks, he reluctantly offers the help of the armies of his household. 
While his friends recruited soldiers, Mario stayed in Goomba Village, only to spot Parakarry above, asking him if he has any mail, in the hopes he received a letter from Luigi, but has gotten no response. Mario worries for his brother: did he even know of The Mage's takeover? Mario tries to shrug it off, but still worries, as he sleeps.
Deep within a dark cavern, we see Luigi, locked up in a cage. Luigi rants to himself for falling for such a sneaky trick, and whoever captured him wasn't even looking for Mario, anyways.
Four dark silhouettes can be seen, they tell the hero in green that after Mario deals with the Mage, he'll surely go to Shimmersvale to find his brother, only to get captured, himself. Luigi tells these figures that Mario is smarter than that, but the figures ignore him as they walk away. Luigi hopes that Mario is doing alright, wherever he is...
The next morning, Goombario's yard is overflowing with Toads, Sketch Guys, Yoshi Knights, Drones, Robo-Koopas, Sheep, and Bombulet Soldiers, led by Toadsworth, Cil, Booktail, Koopfred, CJ, Merlimbis, and Tybomb, respectively. Mario believes this army will be enough to deal with The Mage's foot soldiers, while Mario and his friends storm The Mage's base. However, Bowser demands he joins the plumber, on the front lines, wishing to clobber the Mage into the ground and save his son and the Koopalings, offering the use of his Koopa Clown Car to get to the base, which they accept.
The army begins to forward march towards Toad Town, with Bowser and Mario leading the charge in the Clown Car, ready for the final showdown to save the Mushroom Kingdom, and just about everywhere else.
== Chapter 8 - I Have Something Left ==
Bowser's Clown Car flies into Toad Town, with the army dashing in on foot, now being destroyed and infested with Bowser's brainwashed troops. An airship glides down out of the clouds and shot at the Clown Car. To Bowser's shock, he sees his own son piloting the airship, now also brainwashed. Enraged, Bowser leaps out of the Clown Car and lands on the airship to get his son back. Unfortunately, Mario doesn't know how to fly the Clown Car, causing it to crash into Toad Town. 
The group approaches the entrance to the Mage's Castle, only to be stopped by Lemmy and Roy, the last of the Koopalings. Like Morton, their eyes were red and they were acting much differently. The two quickly challenge Mario, leading to a boss fight against the duo.
After beating them, Lemmy and Roy return to normal. Mario catches them up, and they are shocked to hear that the rest of the Koopalings and Bowser Jr. had been brainwashed. They decide to round up the Koopalings in an attempt to "un-brainwash" them, and Mario and his group steps inside The Mage's Castle.
The Mage's Castle takes the form of Peach's Castle, but has been defaced and is crawling with enemies. Upon going inside, a trapdoor opens and Mario falls into the basement. You must defeat tough enemies originating from all previous Book Worlds and solve puzzles to go up each floor. You must face Sketch Knights and Yoshi Knights to escape from the basement, hordes of Goombas and Clubbas to unlock the way to the second floor, and finally an Amayzee Dayzee and some Bombulet Soldiers to reach the third floor. 
Upon reaching the roof of Peach's Castle, you find a floating magic fortress above it, with a magic beam spewing out of the top of it. Mario is unable to reach it, but quickly notices an airship passing by, which the group quickly jumps on. They traverse the ship to find the pilot, only to see it is Bowser Jr, still brainwashed; Koopatrols has tied up Bowser after he failed to save his son.
Mario then must face Bowser Jr in a much more difficult battle, than the Chapter 5 boss. He lacks the chosen weapon from said boss, but uses various other tools like hammers, boxing gloves, and his Magic Paintbrush to attack.
After beating Bowser Jr, he returns to normal, wondering what had happened. He quickly frees his father and is told of the Mage's true intentions. With that in mind, he orders the Koopatrols to fly the airship up to the Mage's Floating Fortress.
Unfortunately, the airship can't reach the top of the lair, due to it being protected by a magic shield. Bowser and Junior drops Mario off at the bottom of the lair before they return to ground level to un-brainwash Bowser's minions.
You then must traverse the Mage's Lair, using each of your partners in puzzles and battles related to them, until you finally reach the top.
Upon entering the roof of the lair, Mario and his partners can see the stars above them. They see The Mage using an unconscious Peach's powers to power up this beam. Kamek demands The Mage explain what she's even doing; she's already achieved her goal of fusing her ruined world with the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mage laughs, and tells the group that this is just the beginning; she's not just going to fuse this world with her ideal world...she plans to fuse all Book Worlds with it.
In an instant, she makes the six books appear before her; Shade, Yoshyr, Kooperman, Clubbenstien, Stayzee, and Bumpteo and Bombuliet's worlds. She zaps the books with her wand, causing all of Mario's partners, apart from Goombario and Kamek, to feel immense pain, until they grow the same red eyes as the brainwashed minions.
Back on ground level, all the Sketch Guys, Yoshi Knights, Drones, Robo-Koopas, Sheep, and Bombulet Soldiers gain the same red eyes: The Mage had brainwashed every single person originating from the Book Worlds.
The Mage explains to the remaining trio that once these six worlds are fused with this one, the Toads and all the people from the Mushroom Kingdom will also be under her control, but Mario won't let that happen, drawing his hammer with Goombario and Kamek standing by his side, ready to face off against this evil witch.
The Mage begins the fight by using Mario's brainwashed partners against him, using their attacks on Mario. Upon attacking the Mage, you find that all attacks do nothing to her. Mario is left defenseless, and The Mage prepares to finish Mario off...
"HEY, GRANNY! If anyone's gonna take Mario down, it's gonna be ME!"
Bowser appears, standing on the plumber's side. She questions how he got past the magical barrier, and Bowser says he "had a bit of help", and we see all seven Koopalings on one of Bowser's airships; they had used their magic to break through the barrier.
The Mage explodes in anger, telling the Koopa King that nothing has changed.
"When I appeared to you once again, I thought you were different. You seemed smarter, stronger...but now I can see that nothing has changed...I've heard of what you've done, since we've parted, Bowser...you've just been a pawn in other's schemes...a vessel to allow true evil to take form."
Bowser is confused, asking The Mage how she knows about his past. The Mage chuckles.
"...You really haven't figured it out, yet? Well, this'll be a treat..."
The Mage throws off her cloak. Mario, Goombario, and Bowser are shocked. Her yellow wrinkled skin, her dark purple robes, the big blue glasses...it was Kammy Koopa.
Mario and Goombario are speechless, but Bowser immediately speaks up. He asks where Kammy has been, which she is enraged from hearing.
"...all this time later, and you're still an idiot. You must remember that day...that palace. We battled Mario, and you failed, once again. After that...I had had enough. You never respected me. You made fun of me, yet I still obeyed you at every turn...so I left...and I found this."
She reveals her magic wand - and it's a golden staff with a shining star atop it...the Star Rod.
"Remember when we first stole this little thing? Oh, that was a fun day. But you lost, even with the power of the stars on your size...But I am not going to let this power go to waste."
Kamek finally speaks up. He says that none of this power is hers; it's all the work of the Star Rod.
Kammy nods, agreeing with him, but asks Bowser whose side he's taking; will he side with Kamek and lose against her, or join Kammy's side and rule the worlds with her.
After a moment, Bowser walks over to Kammy, only to breathe a blast of fire at her, causing her to drop the Star Rod.
"I might be as smart as you, but even I know how this'll turn out. If Mario could beat me while I had that stupid magic rod, then I can, too!"
The partners are freed from their brainwashing and return to Mario's side. Kammy grabs the Star Rod, and grows in fury, telling the group that they won't stop her from her wishes coming true.
Mario, Goombario, Shade, Yoshyr, Kooperman, Dr. Clubbenstien, Stayzee, Kamek, Bumpteo, Bombuliet, and Bowser step forward, ready for their final battle against Kammy Koopa. 
Kammy Koopa has 120 HP, using the Star Rod to unleash powerful spells reminiscent of the Star Spirit attacks from the original Paper Mario. Kammy will shield herself from different angles and use different defense tactics, requiring you to swap between all of your partners to damage her. Bowser also joins you during the fight, either stomping or using his fire breath to attack Kammy, every other turn. Kammy can also brainwash Mario, his currently selected partner, or even Bowser. You must defeat them to return them to normal.
Kammy speaks to each of Mario's partners, as you switch them out.
Goombario:
"Goomba! I remember you...I squashed your papa's gate, didn't I? Well, let's make it fair...how about I squish YOU?!"
"No way! I know the Star Spirits are watching over us, and we'll win the day! If some puny Star Kid can beat ya, then I can, too!"
Shade:
"Aw, I remember you...you're that poor girl who lost her best friend in that silly sketchbook. What's wrong, you little scribble? Gonna cry?"
"No! I won't back down, now! Every Sketch Guy down there is counting on me! C'mon, Mario! Let's give her what for!"
Yoshyr:
"Such a timid warrior...perhaps if you flee now, I'll let you live..."
"I didn't come all this way to be told off by an old witch. I might be scared...but it's my duty to fight for my kingdom...the Mushroom Kingdom!"
Kooperman:
"I know why you wear that mask, Evan...it's to hide your fears, isn't it? You're scared of being loved, you push others away, when they try to get close. Pathetic boy.
"H-how do you know my name?...No, it doesn't matter. I might be scared...but I'm ready to be a part of a family, again...this family."
Dr. Clubbenstien:
"Face it, doctor. No one in that town will ever like you. They all think you're crazy."
"You're probably right...but I don't care. If I do this, then that'll show them that I'm not just a mad scientist...I'm a hero."
Stayzee:
"Oh, you sweet girl...you're scared, aren't you? Why did you even come along with these fools?"
"...Because that's what friends do! They stay by their side to help them fight big bullies like YOU!"
Bumpteo:
"Such a foolish Bumpty. How do you expect the Bombulets to react, when they see you with one of their own?"
"I will teach them. Stop whatever feud caused our houses to be at each other's throats. I will never give up. We will always be together."
Bombuliet:
"Throwing your whole life away for a cute boy...seems a bit...immature, if you ask me..."
"Immature? You are the immature one, witch! Love triumphs all...even a beam splitting the sky."
Kamek:
"Tell me, Kamek. What's your plan? Are you going to rejoin your Koopa King? After he treated you so harshly?"
"...yes. I can see it in his eyes. He still cares. Are you ready, Lord Bowser?"
After beating Kammy Koopa, she explodes in a blast of stars, leaving the Star Rod on the ground. Mario picks it up, but Bowser quickly snatches it from him, saying he'll undo this mess - he's used the Star Rod, before. He fire a glowing blast of light at the beam splitting the sky, causing a bright light to engulf the group.
The sky and world returns to normal, and Bowser's minions are rid of their brainwashing. Bowser leads his airship down to ground level as The Mage's Lair disappears. Peach awakes and thanks Mario and his friends for everything he's done, giving special thanks to Kamek. Peach even thanks Bowser for help, much to his shock. Bowser reluctantly accepts it, but asks Kamek for a second chance - he doesn't want them to fall apart the same way he fell out with Kammy. After some hesitation, Kamek rejoins his king's side, making the Koopa Troop overjoyed. 
Much like the original Paper Mario games, the game's credits roll alongside a parade, showing many of characters on parade floats simulating locations, on their adventures.
After the credits roll, we silently see Mario take a photo with his partners, then saying goodbye to each of them, returning to the Book Worlds, and Goombario and Kamek returning to their homes, leaving only Peach by Mario's side. The two silently watch the night sky, ending their adventure.
== Post-Game ==
After opening your file after defeating the final boss, Mario will awake in his house to hear knocking on his door. He answers, only to see all eight of his partners. They tell him that Peach is willing to keep the Book Worlds open for a little longer, and Kamek states that Bowser and Junior are taking a well-deserved vacation, so he won't mind if he slipped away, making Mario pleased that he gets to spend some more time with his friends. The group tells Mario that there's still plenty of conflicts throughout the Mushroom Kingdom and the Book Worlds, not to mention the disappearance of Luigi. The group has a lot to do, but they get right to it.
In the Post-Game, the Mushroom Kingdom is returned to normal; Dolan returns to his newly repaired home, the town is free of brainwashing, and Peach's Castle lacks any enemies or damage, being completely repaired and bustling with Toads. Peach and Toadsworth can be found in her bedroom, who will congratulate Mario and incentivizes him to help his friends and find Luigi.
The road to Shimmersvale is also unlocked, allowing you to head down the trail and reach the town, which is abandoned and in ruins.
Inside the Shimmersvale Caves, you'll find the entrance to the Pit Of 100 Trials, a 100 floor dungeon. Much like Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, each floor contains one battle, with a badge being given to you, every ten floors, as well as giving you a chance to leave the Pit. On floors 30, 50, and 90, you can pay a Dark Koopa some money to give you a Save Block, but it won't be cheap; the Save Block increasing in price, the further you descend into the pit.
The enemies you must fight on each floor are listed below. Every 10 floors has a different theme and music, each one replicating the style of one of the Book Worlds. Each floor ending in a 9 (excluding floor 99) is a miniboss floor against a tough selection of enemies, or a "phantom" version of a boss fought previously. The enemy listed first is the enemy encountered, in the overworld.
# Goomba (x3)
# Spiked Goomba, Goomba (x2)
# Paragoomba (x2), Spiked Goomba
# Koopa Troopa (x2)
# Paratroopa, Paragoomba (x2)
# Cheep Cheep, Green Cheep Cheep, Blooper
# Bob-omb (x3)
# Shy Guy (x4)
# Hammer Bro, Boomerang Bro, Fire Bro, Ice Bro
# Break Floor - Badge: Fungus Expert: Makes every Mushroom-based item heals 3 Extra HP, along with the item's regular benefits. (2 BP)
# Sketch Guy (x2)
# Spiked Sketch Guy, Sketch Guy
# Balloon Sketch Guy (x2)
# Sketch Guy, Spiked Sketch Guy, Balloon Sketch Guy
# Sketch Knight
# Sketch Knight (x2)
# Spiked Sketch Guy, Sketch Knight
# Sketch Knight (x3)
# Phantom Cil
# Break Floor - Badge: Defend Your Friend: When Mario's in Danger, his partner gains +2 Defense. (3 BP)
# Dry Bones (x2)
# Dry Goomba (x3)
# Dry Knight
# Boo (x3)
# Fuzzy (x3)
# Forest Fuzzy, Fuzzy (x2)
# Dry Knight, Forest Fuzzy
# Yoshi Knight
# Phantom Mystic Fuzzy
# Break Floor - Badge: Porta-Sword: Allows Mario to use a sword instead of his hammer. (4 BP)
# Hard Hat Goomba (x3)
# Drone
# Spiked Drone (x2)
# Gloomba, Paragloomba, Spiked Gloomba
# Hyper Goomba, Hyper Paragoomba
# Spiked Hyper Goomba
# Vampoomba (x3)
# Winged Vampoomba, Spiked Vampooba
# Phantom Larry/Phantom Iggy/Phantom Wendy (Whichever the player fought in Chapter 3)
# Break Floor - Badge: Feeling Super: Mario turns into his alter ego - The Iron Hammer! He uses rocket boots to hover, allowing him to dodge grounded attacks and use his hammer on any enemy, even ones in the air! (6 BP)
# Clubba (x3)
# Foam Chomp
# Robo-Koopa (x2)
# Zombie Clubba
# Werewolf Clubba
# Axe Clubba
# Plumber Clubba
# Zombie Clubba, Werewolf Clubba, Axe Clubba, Plumber Clubba
# Phantom Clubbenstien's Monster
# Break Floor - Badge: Quick Change: Lets you switch partners without using up a turn. (4 BP)
# Crayzee Dayzee
# Stingby (x3)
# Piranha Plant, Stingby (x2)
# Tanoomba (x3)
# Crayzee Dayzee (x2)
# Piranha Plant, Tanoomba, Stingby
# Lakitu, Spiny (x2)
# Crayzee Dayzee, Stingby, Tanoomba, Piranha Plant, Lakitu
# Amyzee Dayzee (Cannot run away from the battle)
# Break Floor - Badge: Pretty Petal: Decreases the cost of all FP-reducing moves by 2. (4 BP)
# Whomp
# Chain Chomp (x2)
# Spike Top (x3)
# Mechakoopa (x4)
# Red Magikoopa, Green Magikoopa, White Magikoopa, Yellow Magikoopa
# Goomba (x9)
# Spike (x3)
# Sledge Bro (x2)
# Phantom Larry, Phantom Iggy/Phantom Larry, Phantom Wendy/Phantom Iggy, Phantom Wendy (Whichever duo the player fought in Chapter 6)
# Break Floor - Badge: Fright Face: Gives Mario the face of a monster! Enemies are so threatened by it that their attack and defense lowers by 1! (4 BP)
# Bombulet Soldier (x2)
# Bumptague Soldier (x2)
# Bumpty Thief (x3)
# Bob-omb Thief (x3)
# Thug Goomba (x5)
# Bumptague Soldier, Bombulet Soldier
# Bumptague Soldier (x2) Bumpty Thief (x2)
# Bombulet Soldier (x2), Bob-omb Thief (x2)
# Phantom Tybomb
# Break Floor - Badge: Game Not-Over: Unlocks a new move - Mario plays dead, and enemies will stop targeting him, though he won't be able to act until he cancels out the attack.
# Brainwashed Sketch Guy (x5)
# Brainwashed Yoshi Knight (x2)
# Brainwashed Vampoomba (x3)
# Brainwashed Robo-Koopa (x4)
# Brainwashed Dayzee (x3)
# Brainwashed Sledge Bro (x2)
# Brainwashed Bombulet Soldier (x2), Brainwashed Bumptague Soldier (x2)
# Brainwashed Partner (x3) (Randomly picks three of the eight brainwashed partners)
# Phantom Bowser
# Break Floor - Badge: Anger's Power: Increases Mario's attack power by 4...but you can't control him. (6 BP)
# Golden Goomba (x2)
# Gold-Shelled Koopa Troopa (x2)
# Golden Bob-omb (x2)
# Golden Cheep Cheep (x5)
# Golden Hammer Bro
# Golden Mechakoopa (x5)
# Golden Chain Chomp
# Golden Magikoopa
# Rainbow-Shelled Koopa Troopa
When you reach the 100th floor, Mario is shocked to find Luigi locked up. Luigi is overjoyed to see Mario, but a group of familiar faces break up the reunion - it's the Koopa Bros. They were the ones that sent the letter to the brother's house; to lure them in for a trap. They were disappointed that they ended capturing the "green Mario", but used him as bait to lure the real Mario to them. They engage in battle, with the party.
The Koopa Bros. serve as the hardest boss in the game, the four of them having more HP combined than the likes of Kammy Koopa. They can use various attacks to attack separately or together, and you must use all the skills you've learned to beat them and save Luigi, who gives you a treasure he found in the mines; the Right On! Badge, which automatically performs Action Commands for you for the cost of 0 BP.
= Partners =
Paper Mario - Tales Of The Turning Pages has 8 partners, and each have their own unique abilities, both in the overworld, and in battle. This section of the article will go over their abilities, upgrades, and more. 
(Acronym meanings; SR = Super Rank, UR = Ultra Rank, AT = Attack, DEF = Defense, AC = Action Command, Max = Maximum Damage, Min = Minimum Damage)
To upgrade partners, the player must collect 3 Power Moons, a collectible similar to that of the Shine Sprites from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. When 3 or more Power Moons have been collected, and they are shown to Merluvlee, found in the Toad Town Tunnels, then the player can choose a partner to upgrade. When the player collects the "Ultra Necklace" in Chapter 5, the ability to upgrade partners to Ultra Rank is unlocked. 
Upon finishing a Partner Request, the designated partner will reach Master Rank, unlocking their fifth and final attack, although none of their stats will increase, like with Super or Ultra Rank. 
All attack values shown increase by one with each rank unless said otherwise. 
==Goombario==
An old friend of Mario who once tagged along with him to save the Star Haven. Now. he's back, and ready for more action! True to his name, Goombario serves as a very similar fighter to Mario, having a very similar base move to the plumber, but also having a few tricks of his own. He is best used against recurring enemies, thanks to his ability to research an enemy and find their sweet spot, dealing more damage. His HP begins at 5 and increases by 10 both when reaching Super and Ultra Rank, making his maximum HP 25.
Similar to Goombella, he now has a Tattle Log, allowing you to look at every single tattled enemy's stats, now being far more specific, with notes explaining enemy weakness and gimmicks, what status effects certain enemies can be inflicted by, as well as a description of the enemy's attacks. To completely tattle an enemy, you must first tattle it, then witness and perfectly block all of the enemy's attacks. Once both of these conditions have been met, the enemy will be marked with a golden star in the Tattle Log, and Goombario will find the enemy's pressure point, when attacking them, and always gains an additional point of attack power whenever attacking the completely tattled enemy.
===Overworld Ability - Tattle===
If you press the ZR Button when Goombario is out, he will describe the area you are in, and will sometimes give you a hint, when you are stuck. If this ability is used in the vicinity of a NPC, then Goombario will instead talk about them.
===In Battle===
Attack Name 	Cost	Description 	Damage
Headbonk 	0 FP	Headbonks an enemy with timing very similar to Mario's jump; press A right before landing on the enemy to bounce back up and headbonk them again. 	1 damage per headbonk.
Tattle 	0 FP	Unlike previous iterations of this move, you do not select a specific target to tattle. Instead, a dot moves around the screen, moving in a line passing over all enemies on the field, and you need to press A when the dot is over the enemy you want to tattle. If you succeed, then the selected enemy will be added to the bestiary.	N/A
Multibonk (SR) 	3 FP	Goombario continuously headbonks an enemy, with the move's Action Command being exactly as Headbonk, but, the more times you headbonk an enemy, the faster Goombario goes up and down, making the move harder to time. Goombario will automatically end the attack when he has headbonked the enemy 20 times. 	First headbonk does the same damage as "Headbonk", before the damage decreases by 1 , with every additional headbonk until every headbonk only deals 1 damage. It continues to damage as such until the attack ends.
Bite (UR) 	5 FP	Goombario walks up the closet grounded enemy and tries to bite them. The player must hit three of the face buttons within a small time frame to bite the enemy three times. The third bite also has a 50% chance to lower the defense of the enemy by 1. This attack pierces through enemy defense. 	1 damage ber bite (3, if done perfectly)
Spike Helmet (MR)	6 FP	Goombario swaps out his cap for a blue Spike Helmet for three turns. This ups Goombario's Attack by 3 when using Headbonk and/or Multibonk, as well as dealing damage to foes who attack him from above. After attacking once, the Spike Helmet breaks, returning Goombario to normal 	N/A
== Shade ==
Being the leader of the Penman Village, she knows how to manage a team, and she's much more powerful then she looks. She relies on slow chip damage, with capabilities of both spread and focused damage. She can also easily stay on the front lines whenever Mario is weak, as she can easily gain the "Dodgy" Effect, making a 50% chance of all attacks be dodged. She begins with 10HP, and it increases by 10 for both Super and Ultra Rank, making her maximum HP 30.
===Overworld Ability - Slimmify===
Holding ZR in the overworld when Shade is out allows her to turn 90°, becoming flat as paper, making her able to go through thin cracks and crevices in walls and rocks. When going threw these crevices, she is controlled independently by the player until she rejoins with Mario.
===In Battle===
Attack Name 	Cost 	Description 	Damage
Tackle 	0 FP 	Shade will jump onto an enemy and a cartoonish dust cloud appears, and you must start continuously pressing A to deal damage. If you press A before the dust cloud appears, Shade trips up, and no damage is done. 	3 if properly timed, none if not.
Slimmify 	3 FP 	Shade spins around, and if the player presses A when she is perfectly flat, it will give her the "Dodgy" Effect for 3 turns, but only for one turn in you fail. 	N/A
Slurp (SR) 	4 FP 	Shade pulls out a straw and sucks up the life of the enemy closest to her on the ground. Hold A to deal damage and fill up a bar. If you overfill the bar, you fail the attack. However much HP is taken from the target during this attack is given to Shade to heal her if the bar is not overfilled.	Max is 4, Min is 0 if you overfill the bar.
Dizzy Tackle (UR) 	6 FP 	Has the same action command as Tackle, but it now damages all grounded enemies. Can also cause dizziness to enemies. 	Max is 3 each, Min is 0 each +50% Dizzy for each
Black Paint Blast (MR)	10 FP	Shade uses Cil's Black Bendy Straw to fire blank paint on all enemies. You must alternate between mashing various face buttons to continue firing black paint, dealing small, but rapid damage to all enimes. 	2 damage 6 times to all enemies, if timed perfectly
== Yoshyr ==
A knight from the age of fairy tales. He's a well-trained Yoshi who is both good at defending and attacking, but often gets too cocky and messes up attacks. Yoshyr serves as the party's tank, having very defensive capabilities and attacks that hit hard, but are some of the hardest attacks to time. He begins with 10 HP and 1 point of DEF, and gains 10 HP when reaching Super Rank, and 15 HP when reaching Ultra Rank, making his base stats at Ultra Rank 35 HP and 1 DEF.
=== Overworld Abilities - Flutter Jump ===
If the player presses the ZR Button, Mario will hop on Yoshyr's back. Moving while on Yoshyr is slightly faster than moving normally. If the player presses the jump button while on Yoshyr, he will do a Flutter Jump, maintaining the momentum of whatever direction Yoshyr was previously moving. You must press the ZR Button again to get off Yoshyr.
=== In Battle ===
Attack Name 	Cost	Description 	Damage
Slash 	0 FP	Yoshyr attacks an enemy with a quick slash of his sword. Before attacking, you must hold the Control Stick leftwards until releasing it when the target enemy's guard is down (represented often by the enemy crouching to defend itself, and getting up for just a moment, which is the proper time to strike). If you attack while the enemy is crouching/defending, it will do little to no damage, but will do big damage if properly timed. 	3 when attacked, unblocked, and 1 when attacked, blocked.
Gulp 	2 FP	Yoshyr will attack the closest enemy on the ground by licking and gulping them down. You then press three randomly selected buttons between the four face buttons, which are all shown to you before pressing them to chew on the target 3 times. You then must press another randomly selected face button to spit the target out with force, but you can only see the button that needs to pressed for a split second. If this final action command is done, Yoshyr spits out the enemy at the next grounded enemy behind them (if there is one), dealing one damage to them. This attack pierces through defense for the enemy that is gulped.	Max is 4 to main target, 1 to enemy behind, Min is 1 damage to Yoshyr if AC is failed.
Armor Polish (SR)	4 FP	Yoshyr pulls out a sponge and polishes up his armor, which increase his defense by 2 for 2 turns. 	NA
Egg Throw (UR) 	6 FP	Yoshyr begins to lay an egg, and the player must continuously press A to make the egg bigger. When the egg is laid, Yoshyr prepares to throw it, and curved cursor appears, showing the trajectory of the egg when it is thrown. The cursor moves up and down more quickly if the egg is bigger, but rather slowly if the egg is smaller. When the egg is thrown, it will only hit one enemy before breaking if the egg is small, but will hit and go through two enemies before breaking on contact of a third enemy if the egg is as big as it can be. 	Max is 5 each, 3 for third enemy hit, min is 1 for the only enemy hit.
Pin Down (MR) 	9 FP	Yoshyr unleashes a war cry and the four other Yoshi Knights arrive. They hold down the targeted enemy as Yoshyr relentlessly attacks it via mashing A. 	10 to closest grounded enemy.
== Kooperman ==
Just your average orphaned Koopa Troopa by day, and a speedy superhero by night. He is the partner with the most power at his disposal. If you're just looking to deal big damage, he's your guy. However, he has a big weakness; whenever attacked from the side, he will always fall over, and cannot get back on his feet, until the next turn, making him both unable to attack, and vulnerable for attack. This will also cancel out his given point of defense. But, getting him to Ultra Rank will decrease Kopperman's chances of being knocked over when hit from the side by 50%.
Kooperman starts with 15HP and 1 DF, only gaining 5 HP, with each rank increase, making his base HP and Defense at Ultra Rank 25 and 1, respectively.
=== Overworld Ability - Lightspeed Shell ===
Holding down the ZR button will make Kooperman jump in front of Mario, retract into his shell, and begin to spin in place, building up energy. You can aim the direction where Kooperman will be launched with the Left Stick, the available directions being left, upper-left, up, upper-right, and right. Letting go of the button will have Mario whack Kooperman with his hammer, and will launch in the designated direction. 
Depending on how long the ZR button is held, the speed and distance Kooperman will be launched will vary. There are three power levels; one after holding down the button for one second, two for three seconds, and three for five.
=== In Battle ===
Attack Name 	Cost 	Description 	Damage
Strike 	0 FP 	Hold the joystick to the left, and release when the stars light up to attack the closest grounded enemy with a charged shell spin, launched forward by Mario's hammer. Has a small chance of inflicting the targeted enemy with the "Dizzy" effect. 	3 if timed right, 2 if timed wrong + 10% Dizzy.
Power Strike 	4 FP 	Exact same action command as Strike, but now the attack damages all grounded enemies, on the field. Has a higher chance of inflicting the "Dizzy" effect than "Strike". 	3 each if timed right, 2 each if timed wrong + 25% Dizzy.
Force Field (SR)	3 FP 	Kooperman spins around Mario in his shell, making the player have to spin the one of the two control sticks either clockwise or counterclockwise. If done correctly, a holographic shell appears around Mario, defending him from all attacks, until it is hit a certain number of times. It lasts for 3 hits if timed right, but only for 1 hit, if timed wrong.	N/A
Laser Eyes (UR) 	8 FP 	You must alternate between mashing ZL and ZR as Kooperman's eyes become a dark red. If the meter is completely charged, Kooperman will fire laser beams from his eyes, dealing piercing damage to the selected enemy. 	7 damage to selected enemy.
Super Shell (MR)	10 FP	Kooperman flies into the air and begins to spin his shell, and then charges forward, in slow motion. You control Kooperman on the y axis, aiming for different enemies on different altitude levels, as he flies forward. This attacks pierces through enemy defenses. 	8 for each enemy, if hit in the dead-center, but only 2 if hit anywhere else.
== Dr. Clubbenstien ==
A mad scientist with a monster in his pocket. He is purely a support character, with almost all of his attacks prioritizing status effects over attack power. He begins with 20 HP, and gains 5 with each rank increase, making his base HP total at Ultra Rank being 30.
=== Overworld Ability - Shrinking Potion + Growth Potion ===
Quickly pressing and releasing the ZR Button will have the doctor toss a pink potion in front of him. If it makes contact with a shrinkable object, it will shrink down to a tiny size. 
Holding the ZR Button will cause the doctor to throw a orange potion instead, which, if it makes contact with a growable object, will cause it to grow to a larger size. 
If you use a shrinking potion on an object that has already been turned large (and vice versa), it will simply revert the object back to it's normal size.
=== In Battle ===
Attack Name 	Cost 	Description 	Damage
Analyze 	0 FP 	Clubbenstien pulls out a notepad and jots down some findings, as he eyes the selected enemy. The next turn, he'll tell Mario the enemy's weakness, said weakness usually being a status effect. If you use this weakness on the enemy, it's defense points will be ignored, as you attack. This weakness is entirely random, no matter the enemy, although most bosses have no weaknesses. 	N/A
Shrinking Potion 	3 FP 	After pressing A to aim a curved line for your throw, Clubbenstien throws a purple potion in the same arc that was aimed. If an enemy is hit by it, they will take mild damage and gain the "Mini" effect, lowering their defense and attack power. 	2 + 100% Mini if direct contact with enemy, 1 + 50% Mini each if in contact with two or more enemies.
Growth Potion (SR) 	6 FP 	You must mash a randomly selected face button five times to brew an orange potion, which Mario drinks. He grows to a large size, giving the plumber 2 extra attack and defense points for one turn. 	N/A
Healing Potion (UR) 	5 FP 	In a Quick-Time event, you must quickly brew a healing potion. First, you must pick what status effect the potion will cure; having the choice between three random effects. Then, you will pick how much HP potion will heal; +3 HP, +5 HP, or -5 HP, represented by a small heart, a big heart, and a very similar-looking big heart, but with Xs for eyes, respectively. Finally, you will select who will receive the potion, picking from anyone in the group, including any partner. If timed right, the selected character will drink the potion, and be cured of what was selected. If any event takes more than 2 seconds to complete, the potion will blow up in Clubbenstien's face, dealing 5 damage to him, ending the attack.	N/A
Monster Rampage (MR)	10 FP	Clubbenstien's Monster jumps out of the doctor's pocket as the doctor beings to brew tons of his growth potion. You must mash all four face buttons in a random rotation in a short amount of time. If done correctly, the doctor finishes brewing a bucket of his growth potion, which he pours onto Clubbenstien's monster, which grows to a ginormous size. The monster charges at the enemies, going back and forth before tiring out, being able to hit all enemies, and sometimes even Mario and Clubbestien, the damage output being completely random. After it stops, the doctor throws a shrinking potion at the monster, before it shrinks down and goes back into his pocket. This attack pierces through all defenses. 	0-10 for each enemy + Mario and Clubbenstien (Random)
== Stayzee ==
This Not-So-Crayzee Dayzee is the star of a nursery rhyme. Although a bit shy, she's ready to help Mario and friends on their quest! While the previous partner supported Mario via status increases and decreases, Stayzee is more focused on supporting Mario by setting the plumber up for a powerful attack with her powers, most notably being her ability to make enemies fall asleep. Being the shy type, she will never want to physically fight the enemies, also having very low HP. She starts with only 10 HP, and only gains 5 with each rank increase, having 20 HP, at Ultra Rank.
=== Overworld Ability - Lullaby ===
Pressing the ZR Button will cause Stayzee to sing a slow lullaby, as a music note moves from her mouth and moves forward. If this note comes into contact with an enemy, then they will briefly fall asleep, which will make them stop moving. If you engage the enemy in combat after doing this, then the enemy will be asleep for one turn, in battle. This ability can also be used on certain NPCs.
=== In Battle ===
Attack Name 	Cost	Desprition 	Damage
Petal Pluck 	0 FP	Stazee plucks off some of her petals, timing A presses with plucking them off. After pulling them off. She then throws the petals at the targeted enemy, doing mild damage and giving them the small chance of falling asleep from the petal's scent. 	1 damage three times + 10% Asleep, each hit.
Lullaby 	4 FP	Stayzee sings her lullaby, with a string of button commands appear, in the song's rhythm, you then must repeat the button commands to sing the song, again. If done correctly, then the chosen enemy on the field will have a high chance of falling asleep. 	90% Asleep to the chosen enemy
Healing Sprout (SR)	5 FP	Stayzee plants a sprout, in between her and Mario. You must pick if you wish to plant a small, normal, or large sprout; each sprout takes a different amount of time to bloom, and has different healing properties; the small sprout heals 3 FP to Mario, after 3 turns, the normal spout heals 5 FP, after 5 turns, and the large sprout heals 10 FP, after seven turns. This sprout continues to grow from battle to battle; it does not disappear after the battle ends.	N/A
Super Lullaby (UR) 	6 FP	Identical to "Lullaby", but targets all enemies. You also now must repeat back the button imputs at double the speed of "Lullaby". 	90% "Asleep" to all enimes.
Nightmare (MR) 	7 FP	Stayzee sings a dark opera, as the lighting fades. Has a more complicated version of the Action Command of "Lullaby", now needing to repeat back 7 button inputs instead of 4. If done correctly, then all enemies that are already asleep will have nightmares dealing high defense-piercing damage, but wakes the enemies up. Best used in combination with "Super Lullaby". If Mario is asleep, then this attack will also wake him up and damage him. 	6 to all "Asleep" enemies + removes "Asleep" from enemies with the status
== Kamek ==
One of Bowser's own minions has had enough of his king pushing him to the side, so the world-renowned Koopa Wizard joins Mario to stop his former king and uncover the true identity of the mysterious mage that took his place. Kamek is very powerful, having some incredibly brutal attacks, with his only drawback being that most of his most powerful attacks will take a huge toll on your FP. 
His HP begins at 20 and gains 5 HP with each extra rank, making his base HP at Ultra Rank being 30. Also, when reaching Ultra Rank, you will gain an additional point of attack power on all of Kamek's attacks, with the exception of his base move, in addition to the standard boost in attack that comes with ranking a partner up.
=== Overworld Ability - Magic Block ===
Holding the ZR Button will cause Kamek to use his magic wand to summon a yellow block; the same kind that can be broken with Mario's hammer, which has a multitude of purposes. When the block is summoned, all movement is locked, and moving the Left Control Stick will instead make the block move its position on both the x and z axis. After picking a spot, letting go of the ZR Button will cause the block to be released, and it will fall. If it lands on an enemy or certain objects, like a big switch, it can smash down on the ground, breaking apart and creating a shock wave which can stun enemies or trigger switched out of Mario's reach.
However, if it lands on an area involving moving block puzzles, it will land, and stay on the ground, functioning as a regular breakable block, and also can be pushed around for a block-pushing puzzle.
=== Attacks ===
Attack Name 	Cost 	Description 	Damage
Wand Whack 	0 FP 	Kamek walks up to the closest grounded enemy and hits them multiple times with his Wand. The Action command is very similar to the AC of the "Flip-Flop" from Paper Mario: Sticker Star, where you must press A at the peak of the buildup of the hit to maximize the damage. Kamek does this whack five times, in succession. When Kamek increases in rank, instead of the damage, the number of whacks done increases by one. 	1 damage for each hit, 7, total.
Magic Block 	5 FP 	Kamek waves his wand, as you must wave your control stick left to right, right to left. You do this continuously until you decide to fire the attack at the targeted enemy with the A Button. Depending on how long and how fast you wave the Control Stick, the block you fire at the enemies will be of different quality; Waving for 3 seconds makes you fire a Block, for 5 seconds, a Stone Block, and for 9.5 seconds, a Metal Block, each of which deal progressively more damage. The block will automatically be destroyed if you do not fire after 10 seconds, causing no damage. The Stone and Metal Blocks pierce through enemy defense, while the regular Block does not. 	Block: 3
Stone Block: 5
Metal Block: 8
Broomstick (SR) 	7 FP 	Kamek spins his wand, and you must copy Kamek's rotation, with the direction of the spin, and the changing of the Control Stick that must be spun. If you are accurate enough with your spins, Kamek will summon his Flying Broomstick. He gets on, making him airborne. This causes grounded attacks, such as a Koopa Troopa's Shell Toss, to always miss, if targeted at him. After using this attack, "Wand Whack" can now be targeted at any enemy on the field, instead of just the closest grounded enemy. 	N/A
Transform (UR) 	10 FP	Kamek flies into the air and showers the enemies with colorful magic dust, turning all enemies into lowly Goombas. However, beating these transformed enemies will yield no Items, Coins, or Star Points. Kamek must be on his Broomstick, to use this attack. 	N/A
Forbidden Spell (MR)	12 FP	Kamek charges his wand with Dark Magic, and you must perfectly input 10 button presses within 5 seconds. The selected buttons are random, and the attack will only deal damage if the AC is done perfectly. If done correctly. Kamek fires a beam of Dark Magic at all enemies on the field, dealing massive damage and will always give all enemies the "Stone" Effect, making them unable to do anything, but becoming completely immune to all damage. If Kamek does this attack while on his Broomstick, you only need to input 8 button presses, as Kamek will draw magic from the Broomstick, for the attack, but will lose the Broomstick after the attack ends. This attack pierces through enemy defense, and, unlike other attacks that hit all enemies on the field, this attack can even hit enemies that otherwise wouldn't be able to be hit, such as an enemy with the "invisible" effect.	10 to all enemies (+ 100% Stone).
== Bumpteo ==
This suave, debonair Bumpty is the prince of the Bumptague household. With his love of the gorgeous Bombuliet, his determination to win battles is nearly endless. Bumpteo serves as a ground-based sweeper, being able to easily do low damage on most grounded enemies, and also serves as a great dealer of status effects. His HP begins at 30 and he is the only party member whose HP does not increase at all, with each rank up, remaining at 30.
=== Overworld Ability - Belly Slide ===
Holding and releasing the ZR Button will cause Bumpteo to charge up and launch forward while sliding on his belly. He can use this ability to slide under tall blockades, attack enemies, and when the attack is done on ice, he will slide much faster and further, being used for puzzles where you must set up rotation pads, and launch Bumpteo from a certain spot to get him from Point A to Point B.
=== Attacks ===
Attack Name 	Cost	Description 	Damage
Belly Slide 	0 FP	Hold the Control Stick left until Bumpteo is fully charged up, and, when released, he'll charge forward with a belly slide, attacking all grounded enemies with low damage. 	2 for all grounded enemies.
Swipe 'n Slice	3 FP	Bumpteo pulls out a dagger and approaches the chosen enemy. He threatens the enemy with the weapon, and, if they have an item that said enemy typically drops, they will have a 75% chance of handing it over to Bumpteo, allowing you to use the item. If the enemy either does not have an item or they do not hand their item over, Bumpteo goes in for a quick slice, where you must quickly press the A Button within half a second. 	5 (If enemy is attacked)
Monologue (SR)	5 FP	Bumpteo speaks to the chosen enemy, delivering a beautiful monologue about peace, morality, and the little bit of good in everyone. After the monologue, the chozen enemy may attack another enemy on their turn, then run away. This attack does not work on boss enemies, but it has a much better chance of working if the enemy has been fully Tattled by Goombario. 	N/A + 65% Chosen Enemy will attack other enemies and flee (85% if enemy is tattled)
Item Swap (UR)	6 FP	After pressing the A Button at the right time, Bumpteo swaps out an enemy's item or badge with a Poison Mushroom. They will use this item, on their next turn, poisoning them. This attack can only target enemies holding badges or items, and you will receive the stolen item, upon the battle's completion. 	N/A
Play Dead (MR)	7 FP	Bombuliet joins Bumpteo, where they drink some "poison", and the two lay down to the ground, "dead". The chosen enemy will go towards them to see what has happened to the duo, leading to the opportunity to choose one of the duo to unleash a sneak attack; Press A will have Bumpteo does many sudden low-damage slashes with his dagger, and Pressing B will have Bombuliet unleash a sudden defense-piercing explosion. Both Bumpteo and Bombuliet mist be alive for this attack to be used.	1x10 (Bumpteo), 8 + 25% Burn (Bombuliet)
== Bombuliet ==
Don't let that gorgeous hair or the polished purple coat fool you, this Bob-Omb is a spunky, reckless one. She is the princess of the Bobulet Household and a great partner to her precious Bumpteo. She is great at dealing with heavy hitters, as her moves are expensive in FP, but hit very hard, her only downside being her short fuse; she can only withstand exploding so much, as constant exploding can even bring her down. She begins at 15 HP, gaining only 5 HP with each Rank Up, having 25 HP, at Ultra Rank. Bombuliet's damage to herself is also lowered, with each rank up, starting at 4 and decreasing by one with each rank.
=== Overworld Ability - Bomb ===
Much like past Bob-Omb partners, Mario simply throws a lit Bombuliet forward, where, after slowly walking forward for a moment, she'll explode. This can destroy cracked walls and other objects. However, when doing this attack in the overworld, Bombuliet will be hurt, and she'll take small damage.
=== Attacks ===
Attack Name 	Cost	Description 	Damage
False Love 	0 FP	Bombuilet skips and "trips", and the chosen enemy catches her. The enemy is charmed by her, and Bombuilet attacks them with a Fan, while they are infatuated. You press A whenever the enemy is infatuated to attack. If you attack when they snap out of it, the enemy will throw Bombuliet away, ending the attack. With each rank up, the amount of times you can hit the enemy is increased. 	1 Damage (Can be done 3 times)
Bomb 	4 FP	You must mash the A Button to charge up Bombuliet as she approaches an enemy. If maxed out, Bombuliet will explode, dealing big defense-piercing damage. However, this attack will also damage Bombuliet, regardless of her current defense. If the chosen enemy is next to other enemies, then they will be dealt a quarter of the damage from the main target. This attack also has a small chance to burn the target. 	6 + 50% Burn (+3 To Bombuliet), 8 + 100% Burn (If charged with "Wind Up")
Wind Up (SR) 	5 FP	Mario winds up Bombuliet's crank, where you must keep a constant rotation with a Control Stick without going too fast or too slow. When this is done, Bombuliet is ready to go, and her fuse lights; the next time an enemy attacks her, she will immediately use "Bomb", during the enemy's turn, not counting towards Bombuliet's turn. If she is not attacked, then she will automatically use "Bomb", on her next turn. Either way, the attack of "Bomb" is increased, when using this method, and no damage will be dealt to Bombuliet, after the attack.	N/A
Last Resort (UR)	8 FP	Has an identical Action Command to "Bomb", but damages all enemies on the field for even bigger damage. However, Bombuliet's HP drops to 0 after using the attack, regardless if the Action Command was done or not. It is best used when Bombuliet is at low HP. 	10 to all enemies.
Play Dead (MR) 	7 FP	Bumpteo joins Bombuliet, where they drink some "poison", and the two lay down to the ground, "dead". The chosen enemy will go towards them to see what has happened to the duo, leading to the opportunity to choose one of the duo to unleash a sneak attack; Press A will have Bumpteo does many sudden low-damage slashes with his dagger, and Pressing B will have Bombuliet unleash a sudden defense-piercing explosion. Both Bumpteo and Bombuliet mist be alive for this attack to be used. 	1x10 (Bumpteo), 8 + 25% Burn (Bombuliet)
= Areas =
== Mushroom Kingdom ==
The hub world of the game.
=== Toad Town ===
The biggest town in the Mushroom Kingdom. There's various businesses and residents in this town. It's a great place to relax and prepare for your next adventure.
==== Dolan's Forge ====
Dolan lives here, and you must come here for him to use the Key Molds to make keys that open up the Book Worlds. This building is destroyed after Chapter 4, causing Dolan to relocate to the Furnace Room in Peach's Castle, but it reverts to normal after Chapter 8.
==== Request Board ====
Found at the center of Town, the Request Board is unlocked after completing Chapter 1. Run by Toadette, the board receive a multitude of optional side quests from various characters. You are also immediately shown what reward you will receive, upon viewing the request. Once accepting a request, you must find the NPC who posted it there, indicated by a "!" mark above them, after accepting. 
Each Town in the game has its own Request Board, each giving you requests for characters in the Book World it's found in, but all requests can be accepted at any board. A few new requests are unlocked, after each Chapter.
==== Toad Town Inn ====
Inns allows the party to sleep for the night and restore their health. Inns are divided between Tier One, Two, and Three, indicated by the number of stars on the sign in front of the Inn. Tier One Inns cost 5 coins and only heal Mario and his partner's HP, Tier Two Inns cost 15 Coins and heal all HP and FP, and Tier Three Inns cost 30 Coins, healing all HP and FP, and slightly increasing all the Bond Meters between Mario and his partners*.
*only increases Bond Meters once per real-life day
The Toad Town Inn is unique in that it is three Tiers of Inn in one; you can choose which tier to purchase, and your stats will be healed accordingly. All other Inns are specifically one Tier.
All Inns also give you a free item upon waking up, found on a table next to the bed you slept in. Each Inn offers a different item. At the Toad Town Inn, you receive a Mushroom if selecting Tier One or Two, but a Honey Shroom, if you select Tier Three.
==== Shroom Grocery ====
The main item shop of the game, run by twin siblings Bui. T and Zell. T; Bui lets you buy things, and Zell lets you sell things. Item Shops sell six items which alternate every real-life day. The selectable items you can purchase increases, after each chapter.
All stores share a point system, where you get one Shop Point for every item you purchase, allowing you to get a free item or badge upon every 10th item purchased.
==== Badge Emporium ====
An abandoned museum unlocked in a Request. This building displays all the badges you've collected. Anytime you present a new badge to the museum owner, the cranky old Pin. T, she will create a duplicate for display in the museum. 
The badges are divided among five different exhibits; "Attack" (Badges that grant you the use of new moves; Power Bounce, D-Down Pound, etc.), "Stats" (Badges that increase or decrease a stat of Mario or his partner; HP Plus, Defense Plus, etc.), "Tactical" (Badges that alter effects or add an extra effect to Mario or his partner or their moves; Spike Shield, Double Dip, etc.), "Flair" (Badges that offer purely cosmetic effects; Attack FX B, Speedy Spin, etc.), and "Extra" (Badges that don't fit into the previously listed categories).
Trophies are also available to view here, offering flavor text for many characters and objects, throughout the game. Much like in Paper Mario: The Origami King, Trophies are found in ? Blocks and as rewards for completing optional puzzles and Requests. You can view concept art, as you gather more Trophies.
There's also a gift shop run by Pin. T's even crankier husband, Broo. T. He sells six different badges per day, and his available stock will increase after each Chapter. You can also sell badges to him, and even gain a 1.5x multiplier in coinage if the sold badge was not originally purchased from the store.
==== Tag-Team Dojo ====
The old Dojo once found in Toad Town suddenly disappeared one day, so a new one was constructed in its place, run by a strange cloaked Toad, dubbed "The Apprentice". He specializes in training duos to bring out their true potential as a team.
Here, you can do some Training, letting Mario or one of his partners attack a training Dummy with any attack you wish without costing you any FP, which allows the player to get familiar with the Action Commands of attacks so they don't mess them up later. You can even try out all available Team-Up Attacks without needing to fill up Bond Meter.
You can also battle in "Tag-Team Matches", where Mario and one partner go up against another duo also studying at the Dojo. Each battle requires you to use one specific partner, not allowing you to switch out. If you beat the team, you'll not only earn a decent amount of Coins, but Mario and the selected partner will immediately have their Bond Meter maxed out, while losing will lower the pair's Bond Meter considerably. 
There is a new duo to battle after each Chapter, each requiring you to work with one of the game's eight partners. You are able to refight the duos after beating them, but winning will cause the pair's Bond Meter to increase much less, only about a third of the meter.
==== Merlon's House ====
Merlon lives here, and, for the cost of 15 coins, he will gaze into his crystal ball and see your future, in which he will give you a tip on where to go next.
==== Toad Town Tunnels ====
An open sewer pipe leads down to the dark, damp sewers underneath Toad Town. Merluvlee lives here, who can upgrade your partner's ranks.
==== Russ. T's House ====
The Toad Scholar, Russ. T, has designs in mind for an amazing invention, and, after Dr. Clubbenstien joins your party, he will get the help to invent it; that being the Memory Headset; a device that can scan the user's memories and can place then in a Virtual Space of said memories, essentially allowing them to view their past. This allows you to refight any mini boss or boss enemy in the game. 
Your current stats and items from the overworld are carried over when batting these enemies, but all used items are returned to the player, upon a battle's completion. Beating a boss rewards you with Coins and unlocks a harder version of the boss to fight, now sporting a more sinister color palette. Beating these harder bosses awards you with rare badges and items, from Russ. T.
==== Toad Town Docks ====
Here, you can rent out a rowboat to travel along the river going under the bridge to Peach's Castle, as well as playing a rowboat minigame, to see how many coins you can collect, on the way.
==== Rainbow Falls ====
A picturesque waterfall at the end of a river. A common tourist attraction, in the Mushroom Kingdom.
If you go down the river fully, you will reach the Rainbow Falls. Here, you fight The Mage in between Chapters 2 and 3.
=== Mario Bros. House ===
Mario and Luigi live here; it's where all their mail is delivered. While Mario's off adventuring, Luigi is usually found watching the house.
At Mario's House, you have access to a bed, which acts identically to Tier One Inn, but with the perk of not costing any Coins. There is also a chalkboard in the front room which tracks your progress and game completion percentage. 
There are also several details and souvenirs found around the house, referencing some of Mario's past adventures, including; 
* A photo of some of your old friends! You travelled all the way to a castle in the sky with them!
* A photo of some of your friends! They helped you gather strange crystals to find a legendary treasure!
* It's a model of strange, multicolored butterfly hanging from the ceiling. It's modelled after one of your friends! Although, you doubt she looks like this, anymore...
* It's an album full of stickers of varying sizes and types. There's some shiny stickers stuck on the cover.
* It's a card with Bowser's flying castle on it! It fell out of the sky at the end of one of your more colorful adventures.
* It's a bit of yellow paper folded into an origami crane. You got as a souvenir from a festival.
There is also an open space on the wall for photos in Mario's bedroom. A total of ten framed photos can appear here, each corresponding with the player overcoming a certain threshold;
* Defeat The Final Boss - Mario, Goombario, Shade, Yoshyr, Kooperman, Stayzee, Kamek, Bumpteo, and Bombuliet share a group photo in the castle ballroom, taken just before the group departs to their respective homes. 
* Complete all of the Sketchy Book World's Requests - Shade and Cil, now uncorrupted, dance together as Drew and many other Sketch Guys also dance in joy around them.
* Complete all of the Fantasy Book World's Requests - Princess Ama is seen bring crowned Queen, as Yoshyr stands by her as her own bodyguard. King Nita sits atop Booktail with a huge smile.
* Complete all of the Comic Book World's Requests - Kooperman is seen taking off his mask at a large conference of sorts, revealing his secret identity to the world. The audience around him is shocked. Koopfred is seen facepalming, behind him.
* Complete all of the Spooky Book World's Requests - CJ is seen playing the piano in front of many Grimsville residents. Dr. Clubbenstien and some of his Robo Koopas are seen backing him up by playing guitars as the crowd cheers.
* Complete all of the Rhyming Book World's Requests - Stayzee holding a bucket of milk from a cow, tending to many other animals on Merlimbis' Farm. She waves to some friendly Stingbys flying over her.
* Complete all of the Romantic Book World's Requests - Bombuliet sits happily on a golden throne, Tybomb and Bumpteo are seen shaking hands to call of their rivalry, and the feud between their families.
* Complete all eight Partner Requests - Peach, Bowser's minions, and dozens of Toads are seen tossing Mario into the air whilst Mario looks joyful. Bowser, Bowser Jr, and Kamek are seen looking away from the camera with their arm crossed, although Kamek does look over at Peach, giving her a small wave.
* Complete the Pit Of 100 Trials - Luigi is showered with Coins by the Shimmersvale residents for defeating the monster that took over. Luigi is overjoyed.
* Complete the Badge Emporium - Broo. T and Pin. T cut a ribbon in front of the completed museum, officially opening it to the public.
Most notably in Mario's mailbox, which will receive a multitude of letters, throughout the game, such as invitations to brawl at the Dojo, or to inform you of new stock at stores.
=== Goomba Village ===
A small settlement housed by a family of six Goombas, one of which being your friend Goombario!
The road to Goomba Village is found beyond Toad Town's entrance gate, but you cannot pass it due to the town being on lockdown. But, after completing Chapter 7, you are immediately sent here. It is nearly identical to it's Paper Mario iteration, simply containing Goompapa's house and a Tier Three Inn. The Given Item is a Goomnut.
=== Shimmersvale ===
A mining town on the outskirts of Mushroom Kingdom territory. Gold is mined here and then minted into golden coins. Luigi went here to save the town from some kind of monster.
You can only access Shimmersvale after completing Chapter 8, being an optional area with tough challenges. An open cave is found on the outskirts of town, leading to the Pit of 100 Trials. Upon completing the Pit, the town is restored. 
The following businesses can be found here;
* Inn (Tier Three)
** Given Item - Gold Bar
* Request Board
==== Mushroom Mint ====
A large factory where gold mined from the Shimmersvale Caves are turned into Coins. There is a gift shop available here, selling valuable items and badges for very expensive prices.
==== Pit Of 100 Trials ====
Only unlocked after completing Chapter 8, you gain access to a 100-floor dungeon, each floor containing a single enemy to fight. Beating the enemy unlocks access to the next floor. If you die, you go all the way back to the beginning. Every 10 floors is a break floor, giving you an exclusive badge or rare item, as a reward. You can also take a pipe to leave the dungeon, on every 10th floor. You also have the rare chance of finding salesmen Toads on every 10th floor, who will sell you items, but for very outlandish prices.
=== Peach's Castle ===
What was once a beautiful sight and the shining jewel of the Mushroom Kingdom has now been taken over by Bowser. Several magical books are scattered throughout the castle; they lead to strange new worlds.
The home of the beautiful Princess Peach. Now that The Mage's plans have been thwarted, the castle is back to the beautiful palace it once was.
==== Ground Floor ====
* Entrance Hall: Has four doors and stairs leading up to the second floor, in the middle.
** Parlor: The farthest door on the left. Can only be accessed with the help of Shade. Contains the book that leads to the Fantasy Book World.
** Basement Stairs: The nearest door on the left. Door is initially blocked by a large rock which can only be moved by Kooperman. Leads to stairs that lead down to the basement.
** Kitchen: The nearest door on the right. Tayce. T is trapped in this room, and will cook up items for you, if you bring them to her.
** Storage Room: The furthest door on the right. The only accessible room during the Prologue. Contains the book that leads to the Sketchy Book World.
==== Second Floor ====
* Hallway: A circular hallway that jets off on the left and right sides. Stairs to the third floor are found on the southernmost portion of the hall.
** Left Hallway:
*** Guest Bedroom: Blocked by Shielded Goombas which must be beaten by Yoshyr. Contains the book that leads to the Comic Book World.
** Right Hallway: 
*** Nursery: Blocked by a shrinkable boulder that can only be removed by Dr. Clubbenstien. Contains the book that leads to the Rhyming Book World.
==== Basement ====
* Basement Hallway: 
** Old Bedroom: Nearest room to the stairs. Contains the book that leads to the Spooky Book World.
** Vault Room: Furthest room to the stairs. Contains the Safe housing the Sneaky Parasol.
** Furnace Room: Only room on the left side of the hallway. Blocked by a shrinkable boulder that can only be removed by Dr. Clubbenstien. Dolan temporarily relocates here after Chapter 4. Contains the book that leads to the Romantic Book World.
==== Third Floor ====
* Ball Room: Able to be accessed as early as after Chapter 2, but contains powerful enemies you cannot fight until after Chapter 5. Leads to three other rooms.
** Peach's Bedroom: Door on the eastern wall. Where Peach is found after completing Chapter 8.
** Gallery: Door on the Western wall. Houses many paintings and exhibits, including Mario's Ultra Hammer, which you must find before Chapter 6.
** Throne Room: Large door on the northern wall. Blocked by Metal Blocks that can only be broken by Mario's Ultra Hammer. Contains the book that leads to Bowser's Book World.
== Sketchy Book World ==
=== Penman ===
A small village hidden on the outskirts of Twohunderedpagesforallagesia. Shade, Drew, and many other Sketch Guys live here.
The following buildings are found in Penman:
* Inn (Tier Two)
** Given Item - Pencil Bites
* Item Shop
=== Scribble Street ===
A curvy, bumpy road up a huge hill. It leads right to Sketch Castle.
==== Sketch Castle ====
The colorful palace is the biggest building in Twohunderedpagesforallagesia. Cil is the rightful ruler of the kingdom, but the Sketch King took over.
== Fantasy Book World ==
=== Dragoon Settlement ===
A temporary home for the Kingdom Of Dragoon's citizens. A large stretch of land separates this village from the kingdom capitol.
The following buildings are found in Dragoon Settlement:
* Inn (Tier One)
** Given Item - Dried Shroom
* Item Shop
=== Dead-Dirt Battlefield ===
A desolate field filled with the bones of previous knights. A big battle once took place, here.
=== Mystic Woods ===
A shortcut through the forest that leads right to the Dragoon Capital. It's infested with Fuzzies.
=== Dragoon Capital ===
An abandoned city 
Category:Paper Mario Games
Category:Paper Mario (series)
Category:Mario (series)
Category:Mario Games
Category:Nintendo Switch Games
Category:Mario Spin-offs