So, did most people just not notice the amount of copy/pasted content in Super Mario Odyssey?

[SunBroDave]

(Note: Technically, I guess some of this could be considered "spoilers")

For the past few weeks, I've been trying to articulate just what it is about Super Mario Odyssey that's rubbing me the wrong way. Yes, I think that the overwhelming number and ease of collecting most moons dramatically lessens the feeling of reward when you get one Yes, I have numerous issues with the controls, ranging from Nintendo's baffling decision to double up functionality between buttons while at the same time locking certain actions behind motion controls, to the way certain common actions, like dropping from a ledge, can map to different buttons depending on the situation. However, what I've come to realize is my main problem with the game is just how much content is repeated across kingdoms.

In nearly every kingdom, you can expect to get a moon for each of the following scenarios:

- Catch the rabbit
- Catch the bird
- Catch the fish
- Race the Koopa (twice per kingdom)
- Wear the outfit (sometimes more than once per kingdom)
- Plant the seed (usually multiple per level)
- Play the song for toad
- Collect the moon shards (multiple scenarios per level)
- Collect the musical notes (multiple scenarios per level)
- Find Captain Toad
- Find the hat ghost
- Find the painting entrance
- Find Peach
- Find the thing with the binoculars
- Talk to the tourist
- Talk to the sphynx

And that's not to mention the amount of times the game recycles the same boss battles. I'm sure there are more examples that I'm forgetting.

When I'm constantly finding the same things in each kingdom, it really diminishes the sense of discovery that I was looking for from a sandbox Mario title. Quite frankly I'm a little surprised how AAA open worlds games can get crucified, by both the games press and people here on ResetEra, for having so much copy/pasted content, yet Mario is held up as not just the best game of the year for some, but the best reviewed game of all time on OpenCritic.

 

[Dekuman]

I noticed but there are about 900 moons, even if you repeat each of what you listed over all the worlds, its less than 10% of the total moons.

It's a nice predictable way for people to get moons to clear to the next level. Hardcore players will find the really tough ones and those give me the greatest pleasure even though I don't plan on getting all 900. Going to stop at 500.

 

[BringBackSonics]

Eh that is such a small number of the moons it barely moves the outrage needle

 

[Nights]

I mean, everyone loves SM64 and it has plenty of repeated content too. Same with Galaxy (Comets?) so I don't really see the problem. There's still plenty original things to do in all of the games I mentioned, so eh.

If you ask me Sunshine is the worst offender of this.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

The races are pretty different since they're on different levels.

They're all fun to do so I don't mind. Only bad challenges have been the volley ball and jump rope ones.

Even then, these are just an issue if you want to 100%. The final ending is at 500 stars so you're not really expected to

 

[Masterspeed]

BOTW had 900 Korok seeds and I'm pretty sure there was like 100+ "Shoot the apple off the tree" ones, yet it was still one of the best games I've ever played.

Games don't have to be 100% different with every world or area, sometimes we need to do things to learn how to complete them better.

 

[TheLastYoshi]

Wait... The thing with binoculars gives you a moon!?

 

[Jordan94]

Most of those moons can only be obtained in the post-game so I don't see the big deal

 

[Etrian Darkness]

I mean the race the koopa moons are my favourite. Working out the fastest routes from point x to y is hella fun. Wish there was more challenges like them actually.

Just because there's not 900 unique challenges doesn't stop it from being a good game.

 

[Deleted member 1413]

Wait... The thing with binoculars gives you a moon!?

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Yes, didn't find that out until yesterday after 800 moons, lol

 

[GreenMamba]

Maybe you'd have a point, but listing things like "Moon Shards" and "Musical Notes" you might as well be listing "grab Moons." It's like complaining that there's too much flag pole grabbing in SMB1.

 

[Rizific]

Yes I noticed. But are you just going to ignore the literal hundreds of other moons that aren't copy pasted?

 

[FelipeMGM]

yeah, but thats 16 moons

Some worlds have 80+, and its not like you need to get all of them. You can get to the 500 ending and never do any of these repeating ones

 

[Deleted member 2145]

of course people noticed, it's just not actually a negative thing. plus you can do as little or as much of the moon collecting as you want.

 

[808s & Villainy]

Wow, a whole dozen or so repeated challenges out of 900?! Nintendo really cut some corners with this one!
This sounds like another "How come Nintendo gets a pass?" thread. Expecting every single challenge to be completely unique is somewhere between naive and absurd. It's not a big deal. Every game has them.

 

[flare]

Wait... The thing with binoculars gives you a moon!?

Click to shrink...

This is me right now. I had no idea.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

People who bash open world games for fetch quests and then turn around and herd sheep with a straight face in Odyssey are just the most precious.

 

[RecRoulette]

I noticed and loved getting those easy moons in every kingdom. No complaints here.

 

[Deleted member 19218]

I am blown away by the variety of getting moons. I currently have 608 moons so I can definitely say they are not all copy and pasted.

Some seem quite unique such as looking at a goomba picture, memorising it and recreating it. That was so fun I hope it is copy and pasted into a different world.

 

[Bigg]

There's so much content and so much of it is completely optional (even if you want to get the final final level) that I really didn't mind some of the repeated content.

Also, stuff like the moon shard challenges and the musical note challenges vary wildly per level, I never really felt like they were rehashes at all. Every Mario 64 level had the 100 coin and 8 red coin stars yet no one seems bothered by those, it's the same thing.

 

[Carassius Auratus]

How many top-rated games don't feature any repeated content whatsoever?

 

[Deleted member 5535]

Wait... The thing with binoculars gives you a moon!?

Click to shrink...

Yeah man, what the fuck. I had no idea

 

[Common Knowledge]

"Repeating of content" isn't inherently a bad thing and I wish that wasn't such a common sentiment among gamers. Most of those things listed, while the core objectives are the same, are different enough across the different kingdoms that they provide unique takes on the same concept. I could do without some of them, sure, like the rabbit-chasing (that goes for any Mario game, really), but with things like the Koopa races, the platforming challenges and shortcut approaches each one provides are completely different that reducing it to "oh, I'm just racing against Koopas again" is doing it a disservice.

 

['3y Kingdom]

A lot of that repeated content is actually differentiated, though. Different note patterns, bird flight paths, race course layouts, paths to Captain Toad, etc. The same framework, but different realization.

Now, if you want to complain about repeated content in this game, look no further than all the butt-pound moons that are often within a few feet of the start. Those are pretty lame.

 

[Deleted member 4093]

Zelda, Mario and Metroid always tend to do this differently. You must never played a Nintendo game.

Theres also a thousand other AAA games that already copy each either. Yall just now clicking with this?

 

[bcatwilly]

Plenty of people have ignored a ton of flaws with Mario Odyssey, as myself and my 3 boys who are Mario fanatics were very disappointed in it. Super Mario Galaxy was so much better, and Breath of the Wild was how to do things right with a new turn in a game series. Honestly I had more fun playing Super Lucky's Tale, which was more like Mario of old in some ways in terms of the more classic platforming aspects.

 

[VariantX]

there are 900+ moons, its okay to have some repeats here and there.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

I mean, you just described like every video game ever. Very few games don't repeat content over and over. A great game, like Super Mario Odyssey, is able to make this repeated content enjoyable for a long period of time.

 

[Feep]

Most of these are actually fairly "unique" content, as others have noted. Each Koopa race is unique and gives you an opportunity to really master particular elements of Mario's moveset to traverse a unique stretch of a level. You could say the entire game is repetitive because you have to do a bunch of jumps and stuff. Finding Captain Toad is another silly example: he always occupies interestingly hidden or difficult-to-get-to areas. He's a reward for exploration.

Some of these *are* a bit tedious...the dog one, wearing outfits, binoculars...but they're quite minimal and barely affect my enjoyment at all.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

How many top-rated games don't feature any repeated content whatsoever?

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INSIDE

 

[SunBroDave]

I mean, you just described like every video game ever. Very few games don't repeat content over and over.

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Sure, but when the goal of Mario Odyssey is to collect moons literally for the sake of collecting moons, the repeated objectives stick out much more.

 

[Carassius Auratus]

INSIDE

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That's a big list. You got me.

 

[Bjones]

Have you ever played a Mario game? It's always the same things but in different very creative ways.

 

[DecoReturns]

Plenty of people have ignored a ton of flaws with Mario Odyssey, as myself and my 3 boys who are Mario fanatics were very disappointed in it. Super Mario Galaxy was so much better, and Breath of the Wild was how to do things right with a new turn in a game series. Honestly I had more fun playing Super Lucky's Tale, which was more like Mario of old in some ways in terms of the more classic platforming aspects.

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I wouldn't call most of the complaints faults. More like people being dissapointed that Odyessy isn't the type of Mario game they like.
Big reason Nintnedo themselves separates the sandbox and linear entries when describing them.

 

[鬼作.]

I mean, everyone loves SM64 and it has plenty of repeated content too. Same with Galaxy (Comets?) so I don't really see the problem.

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The ratio of worthless to worthwhile Stars/Moons is so much worse in Odyssey.

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

That's a big list. You got me.

Click to shrink...

Then you should have asked for a big list.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

Sure, but when the goal of Mario Odyssey is to collect moons literally for the sake of collecting moons, the repeated objectives stick out much more.

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They didn't stick out to me any more than the repeated objectives in a game like Skryim, something I'm playing right now and having a blast with.

 

[Deleted member 11976]

Consider that not all players will see each instance of a repeated pattern in every world unless they're completionists.

 

[Raijinto]

I hate how you sign off there. You have a point, a really loose one that is easily explained why people aren't too fussed by this, but a point nonetheless. Then you just blow it (for me at least) with the good ol' "why Nintendo get free passes????".

People have already explained it well enough above so that's that I guess.

 

[Carassius Auratus]

Then you should have asked for a big list.

Click to shrink...

Oooh sassy.

You're right, game is trash. My bad. Most people are completely wrong and wasted their time collecting pointless stuff.

 

[The Unsent]

That's still a lot of different stuff. :)

And yet it still has more variety than most games, with the amount of baddies you can capture.

 

[SunBroDave]

They didn't stick out to me any more than the repeated objectives in a game like Skryim, something I'm playing right now and having a blast with.

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I'm not sure I follow. In Skyrim they (try to, anyway) give unique narrative context to everything you do and quest you take. The specific actions your taking - go here and kill this thing - are never the reward in and of themselves. In Mario though, they are.

 

[Orioto]

It's certainly not a coincidence that BotW and Mario Odyssey have that same philosophy of crazy load of content with lots of small patterns repeating everywhere. I don't know if they'll stick with that, probably not. Cause people will grow tired of the formula.

 

['3y Kingdom]

INSIDE

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Even in that game you repeat basic puzzles two or three times per "section." And those aren't exactly Witness-level mind-benders.

 

[OutofMana]

You can kind of breakdown every Mario game that way. While I enjoyed what I played I kind of wish there were more memorable boss fights. The Broodals didn't really do much for me.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I noticed, I griped (especially in regards to the first post game are being full of them when I was expecting something more from said location) but in the end it's a relatively minor issue in the grand scheme of the game's content.

 

[Deleted member 3017]

I'm not sure I follow. In Skyrim they (try to, anyway) give unique narrative context to everything you do and quest you take. The specific actions your taking - go here and kill this thing - are never the reward in and of itself. In Mario though, it is.

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Sure, a game like Skyrim dresses up the same handful of activities with some narrative, but that doesn't actually change anything for me, personally.

Skyrim's "hook" with its repeated objectives is the story and world immersion.
Mario's "hook" with its repeated objectives the joy of sandbox play and movement.

They're both repeating the same content over and over. They're just dressing it up differently.

That's not to say this isn't an issue at all, but for most players, it's not going to be a dealbreaker.

 

[Deleted member 24118]

Why is The Last of Us just shooting things and walking to checkpoints over and over?
Why is Super Mario Bros. just grabbing poles over and over?

 

[Interficium]

Same thing with Zelda and open world tropes like towers that Ubisoft gets crucified for.

"Yeah, but it's Nintendo!"

 

[Poutine Runner 2049]

You're right, game is trash. My bad. Most people are completely wrong and wasted their time collecting pointless stuff.

Click to shrink...

Its alright no ones gonna hurt you.

Mario Odyssey is good but not as great as Galaxy 1+2 or 3D World.