I feel bad for not giving this game a 10/10 like most people have, but I would say that TTYD both lived up to its immense hype and slightly disappointed me at the same time.

So, as someone who grew up on Mario games, and someone who considers himself a fan of Mario RPGs, TTYD has always been a huge blind spot to me. Nintendo's refusal to rerelease GameCube games, plus the near-mythical status that TTYD has developed over the years, has made the game possibly my most-wanted game of all time. So needless to say, the announcement of the remake blew my mind. This is the kind of dream game that almost doesn't seem possible. People have been wanting Paper Mario to return to its roots for two decades, despite how unlikely that would ever be, and for that to happen with a full fledged remake of its most popular game? It's one of those rare instances where it seems like a billion dollar corporation actually cares about what its fans want. For that alone, I think it's vital that this game sells well just to send Nintendo a message that this is what we want.

Anyway, about the game itself, every single thing people praise about this game is 100% deserved. I would say without any hesitation that this game has my favourite cast of characters, settings, and world in any Mario game. It's so edgy to an extent that you'd never expect for this franchise, but it's so charming at the same time. The characters are all memorable and well-designed and they fit right in with the Mario universe; the fact that none of these characters have never been brought back outside of this game in a Mario Kart or Mario Party is criminal. And the story scenarios for each chapter are all so memorable and unlike anything you'd see in another Mario game. I think TTYD hits the perfect sweet spot of being incredibly unique while still feeling distinctly "Mario", if that makes sense. I'd contrast this with Super Paper Mario, which went crazy with its story, but at the same time it felt so detached from Mario that you could basically replace the four main characters with OCs and it would not make any difference. So yeah, in regards to its world, TTYD is peak.

Then there's the battle system, which I believe is without a doubt the best battle system in any Mario RPG. I mean yeah, it has experience points, which already puts it above SOME games, but of all the Mario RPGs, TTYD's battle system is probably the most complex, with the most factors at play, but everything is perfectly calculated with every element balancing each other out. Each of the partners fill different niches in battle making them all useful, special attacks are fun ways to turn battles in your favor when you're out of items, stylish moves are exhilarating to pull off, and superguarding is a fun risk-reward element, but the star of the show for me is the badges. There are so many badges that enhance so many different aspects to the point where the level of customization this game offers is insane. You can replay this game endlessly and it will never get old because using different badge combos will give you completely different experiences every time. So yeah, it regards to its combat, TTYD is peak.

Those aspects seem to be what everyone loves about TTYD, so if that's all you wanted to hear, I'm happy I could validate that for you and you are free to click off the review. But... and here's the inevitable "but"... I find this game to be extremely boring to actually play. Let me clarify. It's the overworld design. It's downright abysmal. I don't know why Intelligent Systems chose to design every world like a left-to-right hallway, but it is so boring and shallow that it puts a huge damper on my experience with the game. In addition, this game does NOT respect the player's time. Even with the remake's improvements made to the backtracking, there is still so much backtracking and blatant filler that is required to progress the story (all of which are conveniently presented with unskippable cutscenes) which, combined with the linear hallway design of the world, just makes the whole experience of story progression a monotonous slog. For the record, I don't hate backtracking in general. Metroid is probably my favourite video game franchise after all. It's one thing for TTYD have all this backtracking on its own, but remember that all you're doing here is walking from left to right, which just multiplies the tedium exponentially.

There are 8 chapters in this game and I think I only really enjoyed 3 of them... and one of them was chapter 4, which I would've hated if I played the GameCube version. Chapter 3 seems to be most people's favourite chapter in the game, but despite it not suffering from the game's typical hallway syndrome, it is probably my least favourite chapter. It might be the highlight of the game as far as far as story goes, but as far as gameplay goes it's the most boring and repetitive thing ever. It mostly consists of 20 regular enemy battles which last under one minute each, but they graciously decided to add over one minute of unskippable cutscenes before and after each battle, all of which are nearly identical every time. How is that fun? Then there's chapter 5, which most people seem to like, but the majority of the chapter is just walking all the way from one side of the map to the other side over and over for no good reason. How is THAT fun? There's just so many moments where it feels like the game is actively wasting my time that I'm shocked most people seem to be able to ignore (or not even notice?) this. All of this stuff is in the remake and I hated it. But the remake apparently fixed the most egregious cases of filler, in chapters 4 and 7, so now I have to ask: how were people able to ignore this in the ORIGINAL? How is this not a huge problem? In short, sometimes TTYD feels like the best Mario RPG ever, but other times it feels like a long hallway sim.

Basically, to sum it up, it's awesome that Nintendo has begun loosening up on what types of games the funny red plumber can feature in, and hopefully it leads to even more insane games in the future. Paper Mario needs to return to this style of game in the future. The creative worlds and characters make the game unforgettable, and it feels great to have a complex battle system that has an incentive to engage with it. But please Intelligent Systems... if you're gonna make another TTYD-style Paper Mario game, use Origami King's overworld design. I'm begging you. Use the z-axis. PLEASE.

I never played the original so I can not say if this is a better or worse experience from the original. I played Super and Origami King but only those two (which I enjoyed). I definitely understand why this game is so beloved, its fresh take on the Mario world and has an interesting world. I find the game-play great as the mini-games make the turn based combat more engaging. I am glad to finally experience the game as the cast are just wonderful; I really wish I could see more from them.
I do have some personal issues though, primarily the game has too much backtracking. It is not a damning amount but geez does it get frustrating when some areas are just built around going constantly back and forth. While I like combat I wish the mini-games were more diverse. These two issues are not that bad and the game is still greatly worth playing but it is enough of an issue that I feel the need to point out. I think if you remove the charm of the party members I prefer the stories of Super and OK more buuut the party members in this game are so charming I highly recommend it.