I finished off Hooktail’s castle in Paper Mario: TTYD tonight, and it consisted mostly of switch puzzles where I had to use Koops to trigger them from a distance. And I also got ‘cursed’ again, this time with the ability to turn myself sideways so I can fit between vertical bars, which lets me into a few more areas.

Hooktail himself was a bit of a challenge the first time I met him, and I just barely defeated him, only to run into a second stage of the battle where he healed himself up to half, and by that time I was spent. There was a hint about defeating him easily that implied ‘cricket’ was important, and then I realized that I’d picked up a badge along the way that says it changed Mario’s attack sound. I equipped it, and sure enough, his attacks now sounded like crickets, and Hooktail was much easier to beat the second time around as he took more damage and dished out less. I got the Crystal Star and gained a new ability, though I haven’t tried it out yet.

This ended the first chapter and I also got to play short segments as Peach, now kidnapped by some “X-Nauts” and being watched by a computer that wants to learn about love, and as Bowser, now heading off after us since he’s the only one allowed to kidnap Peach, of course.