Charming New Roguelike Evokes Classic Paper Mario Feel

Paper Animal Adventure perfectly marries traditional RPG features with contemporary touches, presenting players with a warm-hearted narrative and exciting, tile-centric, real-time battles. This game draws a lot from classics like Paper Mario, inviting players to dive into a vibrant universe with charming characters that boast unique abilities, all while uncovering a plethora of hidden secrets. It’s packed with various modes like Casual and Tournament that encourage exploration, strategic combat, deep character personalization, and achievements waiting to be unlocked.

The folks over at Cuddling Raccoons Studio, along with Top Hat Studios, Inc., have given us our first peek at their delightful dungeon-crawler RPG, Paper Animal Adventure, via an official trailer. Slated for an early-access release in Q2 of 2025, this title will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. This exciting roguelike promises engaging combat mechanics and an irresistibly cute aesthetic, sure to captivate fans.

Recently, a trend has emerged wherein games with a retro feel are winning the hearts of many, blending nostalgia with modern gameplay elements. Titles like Animal Well, Signalis, and Octopath Traveler have successfully combined vintage charm with contemporary gameplay. Along the same lines, Paper Animal Adventure is poised to offer a similar experience, serving up a classic RPG feel with an unexpectedly cozy storyline.

In Paper Animal Adventure, players step into the shoes of up to six adorable characters, each endowed with distinct skills and traits. They’re on an adventurous quest to locate a missing king, navigating a beautifully crafted world brimming with mysteries and adversaries while enjoying the progression typical of roguelikes. This world is procedurally generated, laying out vital information that aids players as they gather items for health and energy restoration, either by combining or cooking them. Players can adapt their characters to their playing style by upgrading equipment and skills, while collectible stickers add passive abilities for each party member. With various achievements to unlock, players will be motivated to thoroughly explore all aspects of Paper Animal Adventure.

The adventure doesn’t end with finding the missing king. Players will engage in strategic battles on a tiled field against both regular enemies and formidable bosses. Additionally, there’s an opportunity to retreat to camp to invest experience points into boosting stats or cook meals to replenish health and infuse status enhancements. Besides the Classic Mode, the game introduces a relaxing Casual Mode and a competitive Tournament Mode that lets players battle for top scores with predetermined world seeds against online opponents. The Kickstarter campaign offers enticing stretch goals, such as local co-op and content expansion packs, showing that Paper Animal Adventure distinguishes itself among other retro-style RPGs.

Fans have a soft spot for these nostalgic gems reminiscent of late ‘90s and early 2000s games. Paper Animal Adventure appears to be a delightful treat for enthusiasts of Paper Mario and the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. Anyone intrigued should keep their eyes peeled for further updates as we edge closer to its early access release in 2025.

The Nintendo Switch, which launched in 2017, stands as a versatile console, usable as a handheld device or docked for television play. In 2019, it was followed by the Switch Lite, a solely handheld version, and later received an OLED model in 2021.