Paper Mario Producer Says He’s “Not Opposed To The Fans’ Opinions”

The new Paper Mario for the Switch was originally rumoured to be returning the series to form. It gave some members of the Nintendo community high hopes the next entry would perhaps embrace the series’ traditional RPG roots. Obviously, it didn’t really happen.

With this in mind – during a recent interview with Eurogamer Germany (as translated by Nintendo Everything), series’ producer Kensuke Tanabe took the opportunity to explain how the “same” systems requested by fans time and time again wouldn’t allow the development team to deliver new gameplay experiences or surprise players.

His own philosophy (adopted from Shigeru Miyamoto) is to develop “innovative and unique” gameplay. Here’s exactly what he had to say:

“The game development philosophy I’ve adopted from Mr. Miyamoto is developing innovative and unique gameplay systems. I’m not opposed to the fans’ opinions. However, I view my game development philosophy as separate from that. If we used the same gameplay system wanted by the fans again and again, we wouldn’t be able to surprise them or deliver new gameplay experiences. We always try our best to exceed expectations in surprising ways. At the same time, there’s no guarantee that we’ll always succeed in doing that – so it’s a real challenge.”

In a separate response, Tanabe said the team wasn’t entirely sure about the direction of the series moving forward, but reiterated how he would like to continue developing Paper Mario games that are both innovative and unique.

What would you like to see from future Paper Mario games? Would you rather see a more traditional RPG experience or something different every time? Tell us in the comments.