Paper Cast 2: Night & Day

**Paper Cast 2: Night and Day** is a crossover of the franchises of Loonarin-San and Prince Cast. Alternatively, it’s titled **Luno-Kun’s Adventure 2: Paper Panic.** The definining feature of this version is the inclusion of multiplayer, in which two players can take control of the main characters.

## Summary

Handy Hatterson has teamed up with Axrus-san to get his girl at the expense of both their worlds. Cast’s world is stuck in permanent day and Luno’s in endless night. The two heroes must work together and traverse both worlds, restore the day-night cycle, and re-rescue the princesses.

## Plot

### Prologue: Bonds Beyond Spacetime

After a stressful year of heroism, Cast decides to plan a family-and-friends vacation to the island of Meridai. Luno unwittingly had the same idea, as Meridai is on every planet that isn’t tidally locked, unbeknownst to both parties, who dock/land in alternate versions of Sunhigh Square, the island’s hub town. Sunhigh Square is famous for the Celestial Clock, a giant timepiece said to control day and night. As in every adventure, it was bound to be broken.

When it is, chronological madness happens. Cast is blown into the center of town. It was a beautiful morning when he came here, but all of a sudden, it’s high noon. In the time crash, Luno and the Moon Fairy were mysteriously teleported to the Mushroom World, and he and Cast are confused as to who the other is. Cast is perplexed on realization of not only Meridai being on both his and Luno’s worlds, but also it being constantly 12 o’ clock. The group decides to go to the Clock’s temple for answers.

In the cloudy temple, they find a barely-conscious Callicrates, the guardian of the Clock. Upon awakening, he explains the situation. Handy Hatterson and Axrus have turned back the clock on both sides to go back in time and fulfill their own desires. Both heroes were killed before they even met their princesses in these alternate timelines. In other words, Cast has lost everything, because of Handy. And that’s just the tip of the goal pole. Since Cast and Luno never rose to heroism, Axrus succeeded in starting WW3 and destroying society, while the Handhat Gang and Prince Roy continued to steal artifacts and lay waste to kingdoms. On top of that, due to the clock’s destruction, day and night can no longer coexist. Luno’s sun and Cast’s moon have switched places, leaving the former’s world in endless night and the latter’s in permanent day. Par for the course, with no cycle to maintain temperature, they have become a snowball world and a volcanic hellscape respectively. Everyone is miserable..

The good news is, the Celestial Clock has a failsafe. Its components were scattered across Meridai and the island under a mystical barrier protecting against the ripple effect. There are two main kinds of components. There are the Star Cogs, the clock’s common gears coming in all colors. Then there are the Time Jewels, the irreplaceable MacGuffins, one for each time of day. The latter are the power sources of the Clock. Without even one of the Jewels, the Clock cannot resume motion. However, they are all under the possession of the deadly duo’s subs across the island and between both worlds. That’s why Luno came to Cast’s world. They need to cooperate and learn from each other. They have no choice but to work together.

Their first task is to find a way to go back in time. The Jewels might have been destroyed by this time, so they have to be here before they were. Fortunately, Luno has heard of a space-time bracelet that can open rifts to anywhere and any when. He believes that if he came into the world, the bracelet would have found its way here too. Luno and his new friends decide to look for the bracelet. They’d eventually find it in a jewelry store, but the item is severely overpriced. Luckily, the store owner is nice enough to make a special offer for the heroes that they can afford; if Cast can find the bracelet’s seven missing beads, which were stolen by "seven brats", he can get it for 99% off. Cast and the gang scour Sunhigh Square, encountering six of the Handhat Kids, none of whom give up their bead without a fight. After defeating the first six kids, Hans comes out of hiding almost immediately, angered that his siblings were bested by the likes of his father’s mortal enemy, and battles him himself, only to be defeated as well. Hans gives up his bead, and soon enough, the gang returns to the jewelry store and can purchase the bracelet.

However, when they do so, they hear a scream in the distance. They go out to investigate, and spot the Handhat Kids flying and carrying a little girl away. Luno runs after them on instinct, only for Hans to use his psychic powers to blast Luno and the Moon fairy back to earth unconscious. While the kids are haughtily laughing, Cast takes this chance to simply shoot them down and catches the little girl just before she hits the ground.

Luno is woken up by Cast, who can't relax since his friends are in danger and decided that the break could wait until after this adventure was over. Luno sees the girl and finds her cute. She introduces herself as Zororene, the alternate daughter of Princess Edith, Cast’s girlfriend. She escaped from her father’s castle and came here for a way to save her mom from this reality. Cast let’s her into the team, provided she knows all about her dad and uncle’s evil forces and assuring her that he’ll do everything to give her the father she deserves. That gives Luno an idea, and he takes out the bracelet in order to see what it does. Using the bracelet causes everyone to teleport to Luno’s version of Sunhigh Square, where it is ironically midnight, and the path outside of town isn't blocked and they can get out. Cast, piecing together what just happened and now knowing what the bracelet can do, assumes that they might be able get past certain obstacles this way, and even fix the timelines with its power. He himself uses the bracelet to go back 4 years. Sure enough, among the night sky, they find shimmering pillars of light in all colors. Those are the beacons of the Jewels, begging to be saved. And so the team sets out toward the closest beacon, the red one.

### Chapter 1: Another Rabbit Hole

The red beacon is in an Alice-in-Wonderland themed region of Miradai, where it is always 6 o’ clock. The four heroes, including the Moon Fairy and Zororene, explore the Rosy Plains on their way to the red beacon. Along the way, they are stopped by a Gusty, who says that he was recently attacked by some Hatmen, and they stole his watch. He refuses to let them pass until they return his watch, and states that he last saw the Hatmen running off into the Bishops’ Garden. The heroes head off there, where they encounter some puzzles, and eventually reach Caucus Lake, with the Moon Fairy complaining that this is what they came all this way for.

However, a nearby giant tarantula mistakes her for a butterfly and lunges at her to eat her. This followed by the tarantula being eaten by more giant animals; a giant frog eats the tarantula, a giant fish eats the frog, a giant Inksquirt eats the fish, and finally, a mysterious, hawk-like creature called the Matryhawk eats the Inksquirt. The heroes then battle the animals inside each other, like a nesting doll, until only the tarantula is left. After the tarantula is defeated, it spits out the Moon Fairy and scurries off.

The heroes then find several Hatmen next to the pond, grateful that Matryhawk is gone. They are noticed by Luno, Cast, and the others, and quickly run off, leaving the watch behind, which is then returned to the aforementioned Gusty. After expressing his gratitude to the heroes, he introduces himself as Gustavo, and joins the party as thanks for returning his watch. With his ability, they reach Scarlight Hill, guarded by killer Lun-Buns. The team is not strong enough, so they have to sneak by in the daylight. At the top, they find the Queen-chesspiece-shaped Scarlight Tower, where the source of the red beacon lies. At the top, they fight Gripocles, one of Handy Hatterson’s high-ranking generals, obsessed with tea. After defeating the boss, the team recovers the Sunrise Ruby, which flies back to the clock.

Trapped in her castle in the Phoenix Kingdom, Queen Edith is distraught over her daughter fleeing. She was locked in her room until the princess is found again. She decides to play some music to calm herself down. After succeeding, she overhears her abusive husband having an argument with the head of the security, the latter arguing that he’s supposed to be keeping bad guys out, not good girls in. He won’t have any disagreement, to the point of scratching him. Such anger! Edith isnt sure that he is a good king.

Meanwhile, Handy Hatterson and Princess Sunny hear that Griopocles has been defeated, and that Cast and Luno have secured the Sunrise Ruby. He knows that the heroes are still a long way from his castle, but is angry nonetheless. To cool his anger, he and Princess Sunny go outside and take a walk through the Handhat Kingdom. He decides that maybe Lun-Buns are too simple-minded to serve as efficient guards, before being criticized by a captured King Lun-Bun, who believes that *his* subjects are efficient guards for what they're used to. Handy Hatterson then threatens King Lun-Bun to make him shut up.

Back to the team. With special phone-like magic, Callicrates tells the gang that life is coming back to Sunrise Square. He advises them to come back to gear up before heading for the tangerine beacon. They do so, and begin their journey to the Morning Amber.

### Chapter 2: No River Too Dry

The beacon leads the gang to an area where it is always early in the morning, containing Meridai's world-famous Tangerine River, named for its inexplicably orange coloration, . The river has been infested by Findoras and Hangars, who are apparently outcompeting the native sea-life in the river.

## Characters

### Protagonists

* Luno
* Prince Cast

### Party Members

* Moon Fairy
* Zororene
* The Transport Trio

### Antagonists

* Handy Hatterson

## Gameplay

The gameplay and battle system is similar to Paper Mario, with some key distinctions.

### Battle System

#### Action Commands

In this installment, Action Commands are evaluated based on how well they are performed. The better an Action Command is performed, the more damage an attack does. The levels of such, from worst to best, are as follows: (TBA)

#### Stats

**HP** - Health Points, amount of remaining health a character has. Every time a character is hit, their health goes down. If it hits zero, they will faint. If all the players faint, game over.

**FP** - Flower Points, the equivalent of magic in other RPGs. Each special attack uses up a certain amount of FP.

**POW** - Power, how strong the fighter is. POW determines how much damage they can inflict.

**DEF** - Defense, how much damage the character can block from an enemy hit. A higher DEF stat means less damage is taken.

**SPD** - Speed, how fast the character is. In any given battle, the fastest fighter gets to attack first. The turn then continues, allowing fighters with subsequently lower speed to attack until the fighter with the slowest attacked. The fighter with the most speed then gets to attack again, and the cycle continues until a fight is over.

**LUCK** - The higher this stat is, the better chance of good things happening to the character, like doing bonus damage or the audience throwing healing items. The name is different for each character, attributing to their defining physical feature. For example, Luno's is named BEANIE.

The audience works similar to that of The Thousand Year Door. At the start of the game, the audience consists of a shabby theatre with a maximum of 25 members, but as the player progresses, the theater upgrades an can hold more members.

### Overworld

For the majority of the game, the players control Cast and friends as they travel through various locations in Meridai. The game is divided into chapters like a storybook, with each chapter generally being set in a different area. Many of these areas contain NPCs and/or enemies. Some NPCs can provide Mario and his party with services.

On their way, Cast and his friends will need to use their complementary skills to progress. All the main characters can jump to reach higher ground, traverse gaps, or reach blocks floating above their head. Early on, Cast has a pistol he can use to hit objects from afar. Luno’s Moonerang can bring items closer to the team. Throughout the game, the players will obtain special items that upgrade their weapons and meet new characters which will use their new abilities.

The main gimmick of this game is the switching between the Mushroom World and Luno’s world. The spacetime bracelet serves the function of switching. While there are some similarities, the two versions of Meridai will greatly differ from each other, which the players will need to exploit to progress.

At the end of each chapter, an interlude occurs in which the main player takes control of Princess Edith. Edith does not have access to Cast’s abilities, party members, or inventory.

## Locations

Sunhigh Square

Rosy Plains

Bishops’ Garden

Caucus Lake

Scarlight Hill

Scarlight Tower