Paper Cast 2: Trouble in Toyland!
Paper Cast 2: Trouble in Toyland! is the future second installment in the Paper Cast series. The game is an RPG as the first Paper Cast, featuring both turn-based battles and puzzle and platforming-focused challenges on the overworld as well as collaborating with a party of friendly characters that subsequently join on the quest, known as partners. It is based on the operatta Babes in Toyland as well as its adaptations. As such, the game is part musical and has many songs.
The story has Prince Cast and Princess Edith travel to Toyland, the Childhood Kingdom, after news of Tom Piper and Mary Quite Contrary’s wedding. They soon find that Tom was kidnapped the night before, and they come into conflict with Queen Hecate, Edith’s evil aunt. Cast and Edith's quest has them collect the mysterious Play Souls before Hecate can, and find the Guardians of Childhood in order to prevent Hecate’s world conquest.
Plot
The game begins a month after Paper Cast 1. Cast’s beloved calls him up to her room in the castle. The way there is the tutorial, to refresh players on the upgrades he retained from his previous adventure. Once he gets to Edith’s room, she presents him and Bolt with a letter. It’s from Mother Goose herself, from Mother Goose Village in Toyland. Tomorrow is the wedding of Tom Piper and Mary Quite Contrary. Apparently, they want Cast and Edith, knowing their strength, to be security. Princess Edith can’t just abandon her royal duties, so she gives Bolt a charm which will make him look exactly like her to cover for her.
Prologue: A Missing Groom!?
The couple takes a wooden airplane (which Cast was TOTALLY not terrified on) to Mother Goose Village in Toyland, the trip on which the people sing their national anthem (“Toyland”). When Cast and Edith introduce themselves, they people explain that Tom and Mary are indeed engaged, but they never sent any invitations, to Cast and Edith's confusion. They stay for the wedding anyway. In truth, it was Queen Hecate, Edith’s ex-aunt, removed from the royal Phoenix family for using the Dark Arts, who forged the invitation. She blames society for taking her family away, and seeks to conquer it. While Edith and Cast stay in Mother Goose Village, they have no idea about Hecate’s existence in the mountain. Plus, the villagers are very open about everything, so they have no reason to be suspicious, and thus don’t investigate.
The miserly and villainous Barnaby, Hecate’s righthand, hires two crooks, overweight and sly Gonzorgo and silent and dimwitted Roderigo, whose bumbling nature don't make them any less of a threat. They plot to kidnap Tom, who unbeknownst to the village is the guardian of the knowledge of the Play Souls, powerful spirits of childhood beyond belief, and get their locations out of him, so she’d have the power to get revenge on Edith’s family, as well as deprive Mother Goose Village of their sources of income to force Mary to marry Barnaby (“We Won’t Be Happen Till We Get It”). Also on their to-do list is to murder Cast so Edith is too heartbroken to stand up to her aunt.
On the night of the guests' arrival, while most of the town, Edith and Cast included, goes to sleep, Tom and Mary are on a romantic late-night stroll. Gonzongo and Roderigo are hiding in the garden waiting to strike. Roderigo has two mallets in his coat; one smaller and one bigger. While Mary goes into her house and Tom stands outside her garden gazing blissfully unaware, Roderigo uses the bigger mallet to whack Tom on the head, rendering him unconscious. The crooks put him in a sack and make a rush for Hecate’s lair, and in doing so they leave the bigger Mallet behind. Once Tom is in Queen Hecate’s clutches, she interrogates him. His reason for marrying Mary was to forget about the Souls, you see. Relax and raise a family. The F-word inevitably enrages Hecate, and she uses Truth Spray on him. Once he’s done with, instead of throwing him into the sea like Barnaby demands, Gonzorgo and Roderigo sell Tom to a gypsy camp, in order to collect a double payment.
Gonzorgo and Roderigo return and tell Mary, Barnaby, Cast and Edith, and the citizens of Mother Goose Land that Tom drowned himself. They show Mary a forged letter in which Tom tells Mary he is abandoning her, and that she would be better off marrying Barnaby. Cast is especially suspicious, and begins to look around for a clue otherwise. He finds the Mallet in the bushes. The pieces of evidence on it are strands of Tom’s black hair, the smell of bacon and apple pie (Tom’s favorite foods), and a petal from the flower Mary gave him that night. With these evidences, he correctly accuses Gorzongo and Rodrigo of kidnapping Tom (“What Really Happened To Tom?”). Busted, Gorzongo and Rodrigo try to kill Cast on the spot. This is the first battle of the game. Cast now has three methods of attack: Jump, Wrench, and Mallet. Sylvester, Mother Goose’s wise-cracking goose, steps in and advises Cast on the enemies and their attacks.
In the aftermath of the battle, Gonzorgo and Roderigo flee, and the citizens of Mother Goose Village gather to discuss the events that transpired. Sylvester offers his insights and speculates about the possible involvement of a greater conspiracy, hinting at Hecate's sinister plot and the mysterious Play Souls. The mention of the Play Souls sparks curiosity and concern among the group, prompting them to delve deeper into the mystery surrounding Hecate's actions. Drawing from his experience, Cast figures that Hecate has subordinates across Toyland to guard and figure out the Play Souls’ secrets. Cast and Edith cannot return to the real world to get help either, they know the rules (“once you pass its borders, you can ne'er return again”) He then makes his decision: he and Edith must take the Play Souls from Hecate’s grasp (“The Trouble in Toyland"). Mother Goose advises Sylvester to help Cast and Edith on their quest, making him the first partner. Bo Peep comes along and sadly sings that her sheep have gone missing as well, depriving the village of its main anchor. Cast assures her that he’ll find her sheep as well (“Never Mind, Bo-Peep”).