Paper Mario: The Origami King bug can block players from beating the game

By Don Reisinger July 23, 2020

A strange Paper Mario: The Origami King bug has surfaced that prevents players from accessing a key area to complete the game.

Across Nintendo’s official forums, Twitter, and Reddit, Paper Mario: The Origami King players say the bug they’ve discovered locks them out of a critical location called Spring of Rainbows. And while it takes a specific set of actions to trigger the issue and prevent players from beating the game, they say they’ve yet to find a suitable way to overcome it.

The bug appears to be centered on the game’s Shangri-Spa area, where players need to collect stamps on a Stamp Card after visiting four different springs to gain access to the Spring of Rainbows area. According to several players, there’s a bouncer at the Spring of Rainbows that takes the card and doesn’t give it back. So when players leave the area, they can’t regain access and have no way of beating the game.

The only workaround, they said, has been to go back to a previous save. If they saved after leaving the Spring of Rainbows, they’re out of luck and can’t regain access to the area. Worse yet, they’re allowed to go back to the Shangri-Spa area but can’t collect a new Stamp Card to hand to the gatekeeper.

For now, players are advising each other not to leave the Spring of Rainbows or to create a new save file before entering the area so they can easily get back without retracing their steps.

Nintendo hasn’t responded to the apparent bug and whether it will update the game to address the issue. Nintendo also hasn’t responded to a Digital Trends request for comment on the matter.

Paper Mario: The Origami King launched last week. The game, which is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, tells the tale of Mario and partner Olivia, who need to repair their world after it was destroyed by an origami-obsessed group called the Folded Soldiers.

Since its launch, there haven’t been any other reports about widespread — and game-breaking — bugs. But this one is nasty. So don’t leave Spring of Rainbows.

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Don Reisinger is a freelance technology, video game, and entertainment journalist. He has been writing about the world of…

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