Big Baddies Breakdown: Kent C. Koopa (Paper Mario)

In Big Baddies Breakdown, Wolfman Jew analyzes all sorts of boss fights across the games industry. The catch: one boss per game. Many of these are brilliant, some of them poor. Several show technical polish, while others tell stories through their fights. But all are worthy of discussion.

Thanks to Cart Boy for edits.

Put yourself in the place of someone who’s playing Paper Mario, someone who’s just beaten Chapter 5. You’ve solved the mysteries of the Jade Jungle, begun shooting some of your partners to Ultra-Rank, and braved the sulfurous depths of Mt. Lavalava. You’re well past the halfway mark, and it’s time to move to Chapter 6. Maybe you’ve already found the Magical Seeds to get there; maybe you’re still looking for them. But no matter what, it’s time to eventually go to the north side of Toad Town. It’s got the entrance to the chapter, a helpful guide who can tell you where to find those seeds, even a great badge shop.

There’s one thing, though. Kolarado, a Koopa adventurer and snooty archeologist pastiche, is at the town’s east exit that connects to Pleasant Path. He was a big part of Chapter 5 as a useless tagalong sidekick, but that journey’s over. He should have already crossed the path back to his home in Koopa Village, annoying his wife (and maybe you want to walk there, too, to solve side quests for terrible pay and great treasures). But, no, he’s still in town. Apparently, there’s a one-man toll booth shaking down anyone wanting to get to Koopa Village. And that’s bad, since, well, that’s bad for the world, but it doesn’t really matter. Koopa Village was part of Chapter 1. It’s entirely optional, even if it has those sidequests and the radio giveaway and some great opportunities to meet the elusive Chuck Quizmo. But… maybe you wanna check it out.

Meeting Kent C. Koopa. All images in this article were taken by me off the Nintendo Switch Online version.

And what do you find there but a giant, nasty Koopa Troopa, a dead ringer for Hookbill the Koopa from Yoshi’s Island. His name’s Kent C. Koopa – he’s got those big glasses, see? – and he’s asking for a steep hundred coin price to just get by once. Now, you could pay. You could also cordially rebuff him, step back to Toad Town Tunnels, and use its barely secret warp pipe to get to Koopa Village. The Tunnels can be accessed after Chapter 1, and most players probably already explored them enough to find that pipe (it’s one of the earliest rooms in the sewer; you just need a required item from Chapter 2 to access it). Kolorado explicitly hints at its existence if you talk to him at this point. In fact, it’s more likely that you found the pipe, have avoided revisiting Pleasant Path at all, and simply didn’t notice or care about Kolorado.

This is the first thing about Kent C. Koopa: he is entirely, eminently optional. You don’t need to fight him, interact with him, or even know about him. He never shows up in the end credits – and everyone shows up in the end credits. You can just deposit the Magical Seeds and go to Chapter 6, take the warp pipe if you want to go to Koopa Village, or ignore the town at all. You could also pay the absurd price. Kolorado presumably pays up or finds the pipe on his own, as he’s home by the end of Chapter 7 whether you do the fight or not. There are other signposts that he exists: several of the Toad Town locals mention him between Chapters 5 and 6, one of those mentions comes from the town news bulletin, and a chapter earlier, he even writes a threatening message on the back of the bulletin. You can still ignore it all.

Optional bosses are a staple of RPGs, and the Paper Mario series has historically kept that going. Kent C. isn’t this game’s only one; there’s the Anti-Guy (and the Anti-Guy Squad), the Electro and Super Blooper, Buzzar, the members of the Toad Town dojo. He’s almost certainly the most optional of the lot, though. The game only encourages you into seeing him in the gentlest and subtlest way it can. You talk to NPCs, which is encouraged by how they give good clues and better flavor text. That’s just one value of having great writing. But even still, you have to go further out of your way to get to him.

And that’s probably tied to him being one of the toughest of the lot. With the exception of the dangerous but ultimately boring Anti Guy Squad, he’s the hardest fight in the game by my estimation. Half of that comes from his extreme and rather absurd strength. He’s got 70 HP, an attack that does 10 damage, and 6 defense. By contrast, three of the four major, required boss fights after him – Huff N. Puff, Crystal King, and the first Bowser fight – have respective spreads of 60-5-0, 70-6-2, and 50-6-1.

You can’t tell, but Mario has correctly used the Action Command to bring his Hammer swing to 6 damage, and it still does nothing. I don’t get into it here, but the Action Commands are a central part of Paper Mario – and using them is expected in this fight.

The 6 Defense is the most notable. Paper Mario’s enjoyably cut down mechanics lack more complicated calculations; attacks simply do a certain number of points, the number comes from the current power of Mario’s Boots or Hammer or partner, and defense simply subtracts from those points. Grinding – which is aggressively discouraged anyway – doesn’t make Mario’s attacks stronger. And, as it just so happens, Kent C. only appears after Mario gets his strongest Hammer, whose full attack power… is 6. Only a few enemies have a defense that can negate Mario’s full strength, and they all tend to have odd gimmicks based around that defense.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to overcome this, and Mario’s Jump and Hammer attacks are just an avenue for using them. Badges, which Mario equips to give him additional powers or attributes, heavily augment his attacks. Ice Power and Fire Shield keep his feet safe from fire in different ways. Quake Hammer lets him shake the screen. The various Charges let him boost his next attack. Zap Tap hurts enemies who touch him. It costs Badge Points to equip Badges and Flower Points to execute many of the powers they give, and unless you play super conservatively – by not using FP or choosing to improve Mario’s other stats when you get the chance – you’re going to use them a lot.

In Kent C. Koopa’s case, a good Badge might be D-Down Jump or Pound, which give Mario an attack that completely ignores defense for two measly FP. Anyone good at hitting the action commands would get a lot out of Damage Dodge, which shaves an extra point of damage for every hit you block (and for those who aren’t, Dodge Master makes them easier). And if you’re confident enough to try tanking him, then you could buy a ton of healing items and artificially increase your stats with the HP and FP Plus Badges. Those ones are everywhere.

Here’s one setup I used when getting the screenshots.

And so are Badges in general; you can buy them or find them or earn them. Most of the ones I mentioned can be bought at Rowf’s shop, literally one area away from Kent C. You can trade the even more common Star Pieces to Merlow for others; many of his are the most useful in the game, and he’s close by at Shooting Star Summit. But you aren’t given any of them, other than Power Jump in an early tutorial. If you aren’t actively exploring – or at least buying whatever Badges you can afford from Rowf – you’re out of luck. And of course, whatever you find is meaningless unless you bother to use the system.

So Kent C. is powerful, and he demands you exploit a major mechanic to the fullest. But that’s only half the problem. The other half comes from how he toys with one of Paper Mario’s most important tactics: knocking an enemy on their back. From the moment you face normal Koopa Troopas in your first trip to Pleasant Path, you’re faced with an enemy that can nullify most of your power simply by having a defense of 1. Fortunately, you and your partner can jump on them, which knocks them on their shells, removes their defense, and keeps them from moving. It’s part of this rule that goes all the way back to the original Super Mario Bros. that attacks are also interactions that influence enemy behavior. This trope holds fast in Paper Mario for almost every foe with a shell, of which there are many, and it’s a cornerstone for the deep but streamlined gameplay.

You can indeed knock Kent C. Koopa on his shell. It doesn’t help much. He takes two turns to be knocked down, ensuring the jumper can’t do bonus damage. It wouldn’t help much anyway, though, since his stomach still has a defense of 3 and would block the damage from a second jump. He also gets up immediately and still performs an attack – potentially a powerful spin that hobbles your partner – while other Koopas have to spend at least one turn just standing back up. Of course, it’d be unsatisfying to keep him down forever, but it also means knocking him down isn’t a full solution. Mario or a party member has to flip him just so the other one can get through some of his defense, but that stops you from having a separate turn to easily heal or setup or regroup in any way. The fight forces you, repeatedly, to plan in advance for moments you can spare that may never even come, almost like a battle in Paper Mario’s sibling series Fire Emblem.

The boss does have some secret weaknesses, though, particularly when it comes to putting him to sleep. Certain enemies are more likely than others to fall victim to Paper Mario’s various status effects, and Kent C. zonks out easier than most. A Sleepy Sheep item, the Sleep Stomp Badge, and the Lullaby Star Power all have a decent (if not guaranteed) chance of working on him. Also, while he still has some defense after falling over, one area – his tail, which can only be hit when he’s down – is totally vulnerable. It’s just easy to miss. And if you’re looking carefully, you can learn about putting him to sleep from one NPC in Koopa Village. Specifically, this guy:

And that detail about the tail? You can learn about it from this guy:

You don’t have to use status effects, though. You could simply build a Badge collection that emphasizes high defense or offense and just try to power through it. You can use Watt, whose regular attack ignores defense. Other party members, like Parakarry or Bow, can do high damage to his tail after Mario knocks the boss down. And Chapter 6 is past the point in which you can start really experimenting with the game’s robust cooking system; you may be able to concoct more potent healing or status items.

That’s what’s so fun about the Kent C. Koopa fight: it connects to so many different aspects of the game, because you have to use at least some of them to win. It twists a mechanical trope, but it also plays it straight. It demands a lot of any player willing to fight him, but it also has no interest in forcing them to do so. It has fun gimmicks on its own, too, like how using the Spin Smash attack while he’s on his back makes him drop some of his ill-gotten coins. And it comes together only late in the game, after you’ve more than proven yourself. It’d be tremendously challenging for a new player, an inexperienced player, to try this fight without having gained levels, obtained badges, consumed items, and used the Star Powers you get at the end of each chapter. But anyone who’s gotten past Chapter 5 knows way more than the basics, and if they want to show that off, this four-eyed highway robber’s right there.

I think his being so optional allows a level of experimentation and exploration a normal boss fight wouldn’t. The required bosses in Paper Mario are often tough, to be sure. But they’re definitely more accessible by design, as most required fights probably should be. And their weaknesses tend to involve things Mario’s already been learning about for their chapter, which is also appropriate. Narratively, it’s satisfying when the party member you pick up in one chapter is useful (or required) for that chapter’s boss. It’s great when Bombette or Bow or Lakilester get to both confront a villain who’s affected them personally and be that villain’s secret weakness. But that does also limit how a game like this – a Japanese RPG based around character switching and equipping abilities – can design a boss. And that’s why it’s helpful to have optional bosses that push the system.

As with badges, your strategy may depend on using items. A few good ones – like the Repel Gel or Stone Cap – can give Mario a few turns of protection.

His being so fully optional and unnecessary is also helpful for being yet another bit of weird, totally optional content in the world of Paper Mario. This is a game just filled with odd details. Missable radio giveaways! Luigi’s secret diary! Koopa Koot’s dramatic backstory! The candy cane poles that sprout health! The entire game is just packed with odd secrets and tricks and hints towards greater mysteries than cannot and will never be answered. But that’s also one of the great pleasures of many role-playing games – and one of the great pleasures of Mario games. Both love providing (and challenging) players with harder, more dangerous gameplay. Both love adding odd, creative details that make the world feel more complete. And a weird boss that most people would never meet – even Nintendo’s own strategy guide didn’t bother to mention how to encounter him – fits right in there.

If you decide to go through with this – the preparation, the purchasing, the battle, the strategy – what do you earn? Not much, really. There’s no reward for beating Kent C. Koopa, no special badge or shower of coins. The experience points he gives you aren’t worthless, but they’re nothing special. And no one talks a word of what happened. It’s an incredibly odd thing.

But really, that’s true of a lot of the optional bosses. To be sure, two of the three Bloopers grant you access to some very important places (you fight them independently in three locations, only one of which is required during the plot, but the order in which you fight them is strict). And Anti Guy gives you Power Plus, though you can also bribe him to go away. But Buzzer drops just a few experience points. Tearing through the Toad Town Dojo leaves you with only a diploma to impress some NPCs; you don’t even get a single experience point. Paper Mario largely ignores the assumption that going after these hard and at times game breaking enemies should be worth much more than the satisfaction of having fought them.

Satisfying it is, though. When I replayed Paper Mario most recently, in December, I made sure to go through every one of those bonus bosses (as is tradition for me, though this was the first and possibly only time I tried the Anti Guy Squad). It’s really cool seeing this game’s combat engine just firing on all cylinders as you cycle through regular attacks and special attacks and Star Spirit magic, all the while constantly switching partners to do various jobs. The required bosses do that, too, particularly once they start throwing out wilder abilities. But it’s constant when fighting Kent C. Koopa, who’s delightfully bullish and casually tricky. He’s not impossible – when I redid the fight to grab the pictures, I got him down to 6 HP on nothing but Sleep Stomp, Power Smash, and Bow’s Fan Slap – but he demands a high level of familiarity with the system.

I’m not going to advocate that everyone try the optional fights, especially those who have challenges with the mechanics. For whatever it’s worth, while I can do the offensive action commands, judging on this latest playthrough my ability to do the defensive ones appears to have largely gone with age. And if you decided to try any, I’d suggest to start with the Bloopers – who, realistically, you’ll probably end up fighting anyway (especially since one guards that pipe to Koopa Village). But Kent C. Koopa is very cool. He’s perfect for what an optional boss can be, despite being so optional that you’ll likely never see him. And if anyone wants to try, well… you know where he is. At least, if you read the signs.