[Average Reading Time: 9 Minutes]

I don't deserve to eat this well.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of those games that I was fortunate enough to grow up with back when it was out on the GameCube. It wouldn't be for some number of years down the road that I would actually beat it (kid me didn't really know how to strategize and couldn't beat the final boss), and since then I had always had an itch to return to it.

When this remake was announced late last year, my jaw hit the floor. I froze. Couldn't move for 40 minutes. Here it was, my #11 favorite game of all time getting a beautiful remake, and I would get to play it! For years, Paper Mario fans have been dying for this game to escape the GameCube, and I believe that with this remake, it escaped elegantly!

The first thing I want to mention are the visuals. This remake goes above and beyond with how characters are presented to you. Not only do they look stunning in HD, but they're so much more lively now! There are new animations for everyone, allowing for them to further express emotions and let their personalities shine through.

It's not just the main cast, either! Almost every NPC has new poses that they enter as they speak, giving a lot more life to their interactions. It was always a joy talking to NPC's I've interacted with in the original and seeing them bursting with life as they tell me about things like how they're crushing on their coworker or how them and their sisters are travelling the world. Absolute eye candy with the characters here!

Of course, the world itself got a major visual overhaul, as well. They strived to aim for the more paper craft inspired style of the newer Paper Mario games here. Personally, I always enjoyed the visual direction of the newer games, despite their varying levels of quality as games as a whole. Seeing The Thousand-Year Door adopt these visuals was a welcome treat for me.

If I had one minor nitpick about it, though, it would be just how reflective surfaces are. Most floors in the game are super shiny, like someone just waxed them before Mario and co. came in and started running around. For some areas it's fine, but it's a little jarring in others. For example, the first chapter starts in a grassy field. Despite this, Mario has a reflection in the grass as he runs through it. Once again, it's nothing deal-breaking by any means. It's just weird.

Along with the visuals, the music and sounds also got some reworks! All of the songs from the original game have been recomposed and are fully orchestrated. As someone who enjoys revisiting older titles using modifications to replace the original soundtracks with orchestral rearrangements (read more about those here if you're interested!), hearing these new takes on older tracks was a treat! Of course, music is subjective, and some tracks may sound better to you than others, but personally I had no real complaints about the new score here. They also add in completely new tracks to spice up cutscenes, which I enjoyed greatly.

It also helps that they went above and beyond with the music by giving each chapter its own remixes of various themes heard throughout the game! As soon as I realized this was happening, I just said to myself "Oh man, they're so smart this is SO GOOD!" This includes battle music as well as music used in specific cutscenes. It made visiting each chapter even more exciting for me, since it meant I would be hearing more new arrangements of these songs I knew so well growing up!

It's also worth noting that if you miss the original score, there is a badge you can acquire early in the game very easily that will allow you to listen to the original soundtrack as you play. Personally, I didn't use it, but it is there for those of you that would rather hear the original soundtrack. Thankfully, you'll be able to hear the new tracks made specifically for this remake with this badge equipped, so you won't have to worry about missing out on any of the new content with it on!

When it comes to the sound effects, a lot has changed here. A number of sounds from the original have been replaced, and while I'll miss them, I'm not going to lose sleep over them being gone. They did retain the sounds Charles Martinet recorded for the original release, which is welcome. Speaking of character voices, every NPC has one now! It basically amounts to being Banjo-Kazooie style grunts as text pops up, but I think it's a fun addition. Some of the sounds are a little weird, but for the most part I think it did a great job making the characters you meet feel more alive, allowing for me to get a better idea of how they sound when speaking in my head (Grubba will always be Foghorn Leghorn to me, though).

Along with cosmetic changes, a number of things were done to improve the quality of the gameplay experience as a whole. First off, you can collect up to 9,999 coins instead of 999 now, which is a massive game-changer since you won't be worrying as much about making sure you aren't sitting on too many coins at any time, especially when you invest in somebody's business venture.

They also added a dedicated party member wheel button. Players of the original will remember having to hit a d-pad button to bring up the party screen and then having to scroll over to the party member they want out on the field. It was simple, but far from snappy. What they added here is basically a party member quick select menu that's super easy to use. This simple addition improves the pacing a lot, especially when you enter later areas that have you swapping out party members often to solve puzzles.

Next, I want to bring up the changes they made to chapter shortcut pipes. In the original, you weren't able to access any chapter shortcuts until clearing chapter 3 at the earliest, and by the time you're at the endgame, you'll only have shortcuts to 4 out of the 7 major chapter locations in the game. All of this has changed in the remake. In the remake, you can access chapter shortcuts as early as after finishing chapter 1! Not only that, but there is now a shortcut to every major chapter location in the game. One pipe for each chapter up to chapter 7. This means no more having to run over to the blimp and taking that to access chapter 3's location, for example.

Also, all of these pipes are in one room and are properly labelled. This isn't even the best part. The best part is that now, you can access this room from a pipe that connects directly to the center square of Rogueport! Using shortcuts has never been simpler than it is here. This also helps immensely with a specific scenario in chapter 7 that now turns from a tedious nightmare into a simple task thanks to the addition of these pipes!

There is one last major quality of life change I want to mention. We need to talk about chapter 4's structure.

Chapter 4 of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is very infamous for the absurd amount of backtracking it asks of the player. You're constantly going from one end of the chapter to the other, over and over to progress the plot. Chapter 4's structure is easily one of the most complained about parts of that game, and it is a strong deterrent from those who think of replaying the game.

I am glad to say that they fixed chapter 4. At one point during the chapter, you gain access to a pipe that connects between both ends of the area. The way they did it makes perfect sense, too, as you unlock it at a point where there would be no major difference to how you approach the trip gameplay wise. My jaw dropped when I realized what they did, and I could not be happier about their decision here. One of the biggest issues with the original game is now completely gone, and now I can revisit this title without groaning about certain parts of it.

There are also some extra goodies hidden in here for explorative players. By finding all of the Shine Sprites (items that upgrade party members) in any given chapter, you unlock the ability to listen to the music from that chapter from the pause menu! You also get rewards for collecting all of the Star Pieces (items that can be traded for badges) in any chapter in the form of concept art! Playing this remake was the first time I went out of my way to collect all of the Star Pieces, and I am happy I did as the artwork you unlock is stunning, to say the least!

With all of these changes and additions out of the way, it's time to ask the real question: how does it play? When I realized this game would be running at half the framerate of the original back when we were getting more trailers, I was a little worried that it would have a strong negative effect on my muscle memory when it came to pulling off stylish moves and super guards.

Once the game started proper, I got into my first battle. My muscle memory kicked in. My super guards and stylish moves all went off perfectly. I was back.

Needless to say, my worries about the framerate were immediately put to rest. The game feels great to play as it is now! Of course, if this game gets an FPS boost on the Switch 2, that would be very welcome, but as it is now, it's more than playable, so if you were worried about the framerate, I can assure you that it's not a major issue that will hold you back!

As for how my playthrough went, I can say it went great! For this playthrough, I did something I never truly did before: I opted for a danger-focused build. I got a small taste of it back when I played Paper Mario: TTYD 64, a Paper Mario hack that you can read more about here. Since then, I wanted to see how well it would go if I focused a build solely around that, and boy, did it serve me well!

For those unaware, in the Paper Mario games, when Mario is at 5 HP, he enters a state that shows that he is in danger, prompting the player to consider healing him. However, there are badges that take advantage of this "danger" state. There's one that reduces the amount of damage you take while in this state, for example. There's also one that raises your evasion, causing enemies to miss their attacks more often.

There is one badge, however, that shines above the rest, known as Power Rush. This badge raises Mario's attack stat by 2 when he is in danger. Sounds pretty small on paper, right? Only 2 damage? Why is it a big deal? Well, there are two things about this badge that make it stand out. One is that it is relatively cheap to equip, only requiring one badge point. The other thing is that there is no limit on how many of this badge you can equip.

Let's do some math. There is a badge in this game that raises your attack stat by 1 at the cost of 6 badge points. If you instead equipped 6 Power Rush badges for the same point cost, you'd raise Mario's attack by 12! This is an absolute game changer, and a popular build for a reason. It's also helped by the fact that there's a character in the game that can reduce your max HP to be 5, allowing you to remain in a danger state permanently.

Doing this was an absolute thrill for me. I was facing some of the toughest enemies in the game and erasing them from existence with ease. This is easily the most powerful I have ever felt in any video game. I was able to do something I have never done before when playing this game, which is clear the Pit of 100 Trials, which is an optional dungeon with enemies tougher than anything you'll fight in the main game. I went in there with this build and emerged with barely a scratch on me. I felt so strong, and I loved it.

Now, as much as I love this build, I highly implore those who have not played this game before to not think about such things as they play. Enjoy the game casually and do what feels right to you. Tune your build your own way and save the special builds like this one for later runs. As powerful as they are, the game kind of becomes a joke if you do it, so you lose out on a ton of the impact that certain boss fights can have on you when they appear before you.

Overall, I loved my time with this remake. It was everything I imagined it would be and more. Personally, I feel that this remake completely replaces the original for me, thanks mostly to all of the quality of life features they've added to make the game snappier. I cannot recommend this game enough. Whether you're new to Paper Mario or a series veteran, you'll find plenty to love in this game!

I genuinely cant imagine a better remake for ttyd, from the tiniest of QOL changes like the partner wheel to all the knew graphics, character faces, and remastered sound track. i still have my orginal ttyd disc from when i was a kid, and i feel like a kid again. I know the game is a bit slower, but to be honest unless your a brain rotted ipad kid who cant sit still for 5 seconds it really doesn't matter. Hopefully the (so far) amazing reviews and feedback will keep paper mario afloat for future games, and praying we just go back to normal turned based combat (looking at you origami king)

This is gonna sound harsh, but it's because I care. Know that what I say comes from a place of love. I love Thousand-Year Door. It's one of my favorite GameCube games. If you look here, you'll see that I named the original release my Eastern RPG of the Year for 2004:
https://www.backloggd.com/u/jamz92/list/eastern-rpg-of-the-year/
That being said, what a shitshow of a remake.

The more I play of this game, the less I like it compared to the GameCube release. Everything is so much SLOWER than the original. At the time I am reviewing this, there's no way to speed up the text scroll speed like there is in the original. Given how chatty this game is, that's a real problem.

Levelling up is significantly slower. When you levelled up in the original, your HP and FP were instantly filled. Now, it ticks up slowly. It acts like you were at zero, even if you were full.

The game runs at 30 FPS, whereas the GameCube version ran at 60 FPS. I assumed that better tech specs meant better performance, but I guess not. The graphics are way too glossy for the tone the original was trying to convey. I HATE the remixed music. Thankfully you can turn it off with a badge that is cheap, but I would prefer to have it in the options. So we have a worse looking, worse sounding, worse performing game that wastes your time compared to the original that costs more than the GameCube game originally did. I say wait for a price drop, or better yet, emulate the original. Don't incentivize Nintendo to cut corners like this with their own history. I haven't seen such a botched remake out of this company since the Diamond and Pearl remakes on Switch.

Other than a few easily overlookable things, this is pretty much everything you could ask for in a remake of this game.

After well over a decade, it's about damn time we got a Paper Mario game that wasn't boring tripe with an identity crisis. Sure it's just a remake, but at least Intelligent Systems didn't screw it up and seems to understand why people love this game.

It is, for the most part, pretty much the same game with a lot of extra, subtle things that liven up everything. Characters have new animations for certain situations, there's a bunch of new music like themes for every partner, and characters make little Banjo Kazooie-esque noises when speaking. Only negative changes really are the 30fps (which really isn't that big of a deal) and not being able to skip through the text quickly. I'm pretty sure the latter might be because the game uses Origami King's engine which had the same text system. For the most part, it's a pretty faithful remake, about on par with the Super Mario RPG one.

Not much else to say. It's basically the definitive version of Thousand-Year Door. In other words, it's a better version of one of the greatest games of all time. Very much looking forward to seeing more and more people finally play this and understand why Paper Mario fans have been so frustrated for the past 15+ years.

I was worried that my expectations would too high going into this game given how much praise people give it. It's not perfect, there's some annoying backtracking and some unmemorable areas (mainly chapter 2 and 4), but damn if it's not one of the most fun RPG experiences i've had.

The combat is great, it can even get pretty strategic in the late game. The final boss felt super rewarding to finally take down. The dungeons throughout the game have some really creative platforming and puzzles that I loved going through. I think the final chapter may have my favorite RPG dungeon ever. The individual chapters were also very unique. I love their self-contained stories and mesmerizing environment.

The overarching story is a little weak for me, but it's made up for with some great partners and enemy characters as well as fantastic boss fights. The graphics and music are beautiful, too. Will remember this one for quite some time.

20 years… 20 years since Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door originally released on GameCube in 2004 and now here we are in 2024 with a remake on Switch… I can feel the bones creaking. Does the game stand the test of time though? And does the remake enhance or break anything along the way?

The original TTYD is one of my favourite games of all time, doing what I feel a lot of the GameCube library did, which was taking the foundation of a great N64 game and building something that reaches that next level on it. In this case, TTYD built on the great N64 Paper Mario (which had already used the foundations of Super Mario RPG and branched off in its own direction) and came out with something that still 20 years later, is heralded as the best Mario RPG.
I know the vocal crowd on TTYD have been annoying over the years, constantly dismissing the newer entries but even as someone who found a lot to love in The Origami King, coming back to TTYD made it pretty clear that the Paper Mario series did lose something around the Sticker Star era onwards. It had lost its soul.

Booting up TTYD you're instantly greeted with a boat travelling on the seas towards a place called Rogueport and it's near immediate to see the spark the series had lost a lot of. Rogueport is this grimy port city. Graffiti lines the walls of the buildings, the citizens are rough and jaded, and yeah, we all know about the noose that sits in the middle of the town. It's unlike any other place you'd find in a Mario game and that's what makes it special. This isn't the usual grassy plains or desert, it's a foreign feeling port town that oozes character from the moment you step into it.
And it's not long before the characters show off their uniqueness too. Early on you meet your first partner character in Goombella, a female Goomba, an archaeology student who is dressed with a hard hat and a ponytail who has a lot of sass about her. Immediately you get a feel for the character and you get so much more from her in a few seconds than you do from a generic Goomba. The Origami King and Color Splash still had charm to the characters in the writing but it's incredible how much more you get from just a silly costume on a Goomba.
Even in the first conversation with Goombella as she's telling you about Rogueport, you can see a couple of mobsters Pianta beat the crap out of a unique design guard character saying “da boss sends his regards”. Like the silly Pianta introduced in Sunshine, yeah they're dressed up in black suits and shades like they're the mafia, you just don't get that kind of thing in most Mario titles!

That's what I mean by TTYD having soul though and the game oozes with it. Chapter 2 takes place in a forest that looks like it was drawn on one of those black cards where you scratch it to reveal colour underneath and it's citizens are these gray little Pikmin like creatures called Punies. Chapter 4 is set in a place called Twilight Town and it's this beautiful dusk setting with the sky looking something like a crayon style drawing similar to Yoshi's Island’s art style and it's citizens are these little green humanoid creatures whose shading is black and they're all a little depressed because they rarely see daylight. It's just so cool seeing the diversity and creativity and uniqueness in this game because even after 20 years, it still stands out amongst other Mario titles.

Same goes for Mario's party members where you start off with the usual species, like Goombella the Goomba and Koops the Koopa, but then they start giving you characters like Flurrie, a ghost like former actress who refuses to go outside without her necklace, and Vivian, a shadow who’s been bullied by her sisters and struggling to find her place in the world (don't worry, I'll talk about the localisation changes when I get to what's changed/new in the remake). It's a game that freshens up the familiar stuff from Mario while doing tons of new things on top of that and that's a big part of why I love the Mario RPGs, they weren't afraid to do weird and wonderful stuff to stand out from all the other Mario games.

Moving onto the writing, TTYD is a wonderfully self aware and charmingly written game. I mentioned the Pianta mobsters earlier but you've also got stuff like chests who curse Mario by giving him new abilities like turning into a paper plane and as you find each chest, Mario is more and more done with the schtick to the point you kinda feel bad for the last chest because his whole curse speil has been ruined. There's this whole tournament arc where you meet a big yellow bird calling himself the Rawk Hawk (I dare you to say that fast three times haha) and he's so clearly based off Hulk Hogan it's hilarious.
There's also the end of chapter stuff where the game gives you Peach sections as you see what's happening to her while she's held captive by the game’s villains called the X-Nauts. She ends talking to a computer called Tec who comes across all creepy at first, claiming it's fallen in love with Peach but somehow it still manages to become a pretty heartfelt and emotional experience as Peach teaches Tec what love is and the two form a bond as they help each other.
And there's small playable Bowser sections where he's always a step behind in the hunt for the crystal stars and is constantly being frustrated by that. It's also cool they gave him a few 2D platforming levels to play too as a little throwback to the original Super Mario Bros.

The battle system is also held in high regard with this game and for good reason too! Building off the turned based system in Paper Mario 64, the battle system here sees the usual timed button presses for extra damage and defence along with partners helping Mario out in battle with their own unique movesets (like Goombella can analyse enemies to show their HP, Koops is great for hitting multiple enemies on the ground in his shell). Battles take place on a stage where props can fall down and you can appeal to the crowd by doing stylish manoeuvres during attacks through timed button presses that will help build up your special gauge quicker. It's a really fun way to use the paper/pop up story book aesthetic for battles. When you add in the badge system as well that allows you to customise Mario’s moveset as well as grant him special skills like being able to jump on spiky enemies, you can find a lot to experiment with here. It's a proper turned based RPG system here where levelling up will allow you to increase HP, FP (for special/unique attacks) or BP (for badges) and it gives you a reason to participate in the overworld encounters which you can gain and advantage in by attacking an enemy with your hammer or jumping on them.

All that to say that TTYD is a brilliant experience at its core but what does this Switch remake change or do different? Well the most notable thing is they somehow made the already great looking GameCube game look even better. Characters have defined layering that better highlights the paper aesthetic and the new lighting system brings in detailed shadows and reflections, giving a shine to every location. This has unfortunately come at the cost of reducing the game’s framerate from 60fps to 30fps which does slightly change the button timings on attacks but honestly, it didn't cause me any issues once I got used to it and personally, while I would prefer 60fps, I find a stable 30fps to be fine for an RPG. I did experience some minor dips in some scenes where tons of characters appear on screen but otherwise it's a solid experience and I think the graphical update is worth it, especially when you see the two versions side by side.
Backtracking has been cut back in many areas with additional warp pipes along with a main hub with warp pipes to every world now being in one place.
Game overs now give you an option to restart from the last area you were in before you lost instead of your last save which is nice and saves a lot of time.
As alluded to earlier, a portion of dialogue relating to Vivian has been changed to more closely represent what was in the original Japanese script that was altered in the original GameCube release. Vivian now has dialogue saying that it took her while to realise that she wasn't her sister's brother but in fact their sister and that made their bullying worse, confirming that she is a trans character which I'm grateful that they went and fixed this in the localisation this time. Representation is important and Vivian’s storyline of finding a place where she belonged away from the bullying she received was always something I'm sure many trans people could relate to and having it confirmed in the localisation now will only make her more relatable to a lot of people.
The soundtrack has been fully re-done with an in-game badge being obtainable if you'd prefer the original GameCube soundtrack. You'd be missing out though because they added unique variations on the battle theme FOR EVERY AREA and it's incredible. Some themes now have vocal harmonies in them that are gorgeous and I had completely forgotten how the final dungeon had mixed elements of the Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario World underground themes and it made me smile every time I caught the transition. The updated soundtrack is incredible in every regard and it manages to still tap into that GameCube vibe even with the updated instruments.
There's other minor additions with some post game bosses that I didn't seek out but otherwise this is a fairly faithful remake and one where it's pretty easy to miss a lot of the changes and tweaks because they fit in so effortlessly.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remains the pinnacle of Mario RPGs in my opinion. It oozes charm and character through witty writing and fun character designs in a beautiful world full of unique and imaginative locations. A battle system that lets you experiment with a simple badge system that allows you to tweak your Mario build and a beautiful face lift makes this RPG still stand tall after 20 years and hopefully revisiting it will inspire (and Nintendo relaxing their rules) the dev team at Intelligent Systems to make another Paper Mario that is full of the charm and soul that Thousand-Year Door has.

The Thousand-Year Door defies belief twice over. First, that a Mario adventure with this amount of creative liberty was ever allowed to exist in the first place; and second, after over a decade where Nintendo seemed eager to bury this era as deeply as possible, that they BROUGHT IT BACK.

I will admit upfront that the first three Paper Mario games have been some of the most influential in my life - on my taste, my art style, even the types of stories I want to tell. But ironically, despite the remake's many improvements, the differences in graphics and music were enough to finally clear the haze of reverence from my brain, and for the first time I could actually fully see and internalize a lot of the common complaints about this game. Ok, yeah, the level design loves tunneling you through corridors, even in comparison to the first Paper Mario's more frequently wide-open and organic spaces. Yes, some segments can be kind of a slog if the story isn't grabbing you (or in my case, if you already know everything that happens and just want to get to your favorite parts). Put this next to Origami King or even Color Splash, and the amount of delight you'd have in exploring and solving puzzles in the actual overworld in the latter two is night and day with TTYD.

But I still think these complaints pale in comparison to this game's positives: a project made with a startling amount of heart, sincerity, creativity, depth, passion- and yes, a heaping of very bizarre humor. It might feel a little cringe to praise the emotional storytelling of a Mario game, and I know there are plenty of games out there that hit the heartstrings more deftly, and you may argue that a Mario product doesn't need all this, but- the fact that it's Super Mario is the POINT. When you grow up with something like TTYD or SPM and say "Wait, a Mario game can be THIS? You can just have a Bob-omb read a letter from his dead wife that says 'time, like love, is a tide?' And later that Bob-omb becomes dear friends with a soul-eating ancient pirate who is seemingly composed of the piled-up and recombined bones of his long-dead crew?" then you come to the conclusion that rules for storytelling exist to be broken. No franchise, no matter how silly, should be off-limits for expressing the sincerest thoughts and wildest ideas of those working on it. It's an officially-endorsed fanfic full of OCs and their very human flaws and motivations and struggles, and that's wonderful. There are character arcs. There are enough mini-stories in this larger story that something, at least something, will resonate with YOU personally. It's a game that feels like it had very little limitations placed upon it when it was being made, and it makes you want to take off your own self-imposed limitations too.

The most gratifying part about the remake is that it was crafted with the amount of care and love that its fans have long thought this game deserved. Even the most minor of characters have new expressions and animations, and the difference this makes to certain key story moments make the original scenes seem rather lifeless and silly by comparison, no matter how cool they might have seemed in our imaginations. The sound designers and composers at Intelligent have learned a lot in recent Paper Mario games about integrating music into the overall impact and humor of the experience, and TTYD is now brimming with not only new remixes but entirely new songs that punctuate the drama and humor of the plot. Add in some new quality-of-life changes, unlockable concept art that is absolutely mind-blowing for longtime fans to see after two decades, and a bit of brand-new content, and the remake creates a definitive experience that makes me feel like I can put the original away in a place of honor and maybe never take it back out again.

As someone who likes every Paper Mario game (....well, except for a certain handheld entry) for its own reasons, I feel a peace now as a fan that I haven't experienced in a very long time. I don't want to argue about which Paper Mario game is the best (and my favorite is SPM, so I know I'm losing anyway). I just want a new generation to appreciate this game for their own sake, and for it to mean something to them as it has to me. I'm seeing that happen, and it's beautiful.

In conclusion, they put kazoos in the background music when Flavio is following you around, and I NEED MORE THAN FIVE STARS TO GIVE

A basically perfect remake of one of my favorite games of all time. I think this hit especially hard right now, because my first time playing the GameCube version was right before I moved away for college, and here I’m playing this again right before I move across the country. That’s obviously irrelevant to the quality of the game, it’s just a coincidence, but this is one of those strong associations that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to divorce from the game. I think the levity and comfiness of TTYD was extremely necessary for me right now too.

Completion Criteria: All Requests + Put of 100 trials

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, has always been a game I praised as one of the best of the genre, if not one of the greatest of all time. So to play it once more and have it dawn on me that this one is one of those games I have been looking back on with nostalgia-tinted glasses hurts just a little bit. I by no means hate the game and I still think it does a lot very well but I can't ignore the flaws that maybe younger me did.

Lets start positive. I remember the game for it's vivid cast and intimate setting in Rogueport and those things are certainly there. Exploring the nooks and crannys of the small town is just a pleasant experience. Characters have character and they are some characters that look like regular NPCs still get a spotlight throughout the game. The majority of NPCs, with some notable exceptions played for humor, are well designed and memorable, utilizing the baseline of standard design and jazzed up. It really digs home how underdeveloped characters are in some of the later games. The music (the original) is great. Some are pleasant, some are eary, some get you head moving. Overall wonderful and will promptly be added to my playlists. The locals utilized overall in the chapters are very much hits with a few misses and the game still holds my favourite chapter in the franchise, being Chapter 4.

The gameplay I did not really coin until this playthrough as to why it's so good and ironically opposed to typical Nintendo ideologies is it's simple and restrained. Each option seems tight with no dressing. Jump hits flying, ground for spiky enemies. Item weapons and therefore item management matter. Each Partner has a niche (Yoshi hit well in the air with repeated attacks but Flurrie hits once, doing well against higher defence options). The badge system. Allows you to flex to cater to you're preferred type of offense/defensive strategy.

All sounds good so far. And let me preface that it is still very good...but there are some noticeable issues I can't overlook now. The first being the gameplay it's slow. All my memories of this game are falsities because every enjoyable moment I had was with the Unsimplifier on which doubles command speeds. this seems harmless but I was not really enjoying myself up until I could get that and the fact I can't enjoy the game without making it harder is a yellow flag that can't be ignored. I genuinely thought they might have forgotten to tune the speeds from 60fps it was so slow-feeling.
The next is a spot I threw away from my experience but the backtracking is actually genuinely bad. I'm sorry to the opinions I discarded who said this, believing they hated going back to rogueport. No, the requests in this game are really bad. 75% of them feel like "go to X area and talk to someone, go to Y area and talk to someone, go back to X area and talk to someone. If this was the original game, I would have done what I expect younger me did and completely ignored them and forgot they exist. But I am not young me anymore and I have become a stern believe in anything in the game should be good if you left it in. The gall of a game to tell you to go through a 100 floors of battles in which 70 floors are trivial, and then tell you to do it again. Sorry Mario. Unacceptable.

I think looking back, some of the areas really aren't as interesting as I once remembered. Hooktail and Glitz Pit which I had fond memories of as a kid have not aged to my liking and while I still do like the train, I used to hold in a little bit higher esteem. I was looking forward to the desert only to remember that it's not in this game and the cold area I didn't care for is actually this game and not PM64. I will have to take another look at that and see what else I have my memories crossed for (Spin dash).

Still heavy heavy recomendation, but I have to consider where in my rankings this actually sits after replaying it and comparing it to my imaginary pedestal.

booting up this remake for the first time felt like being a little kid during christmas again. paper mario the thousand year door is a game i have a very long history with. it was one of 3 console games that were in a set of the first home console games i ever owned alongside super mario sunshine and luigi's mansion which i got for my 4th birthday. afterwards, the thousand year door was my favorite game of all time for my whole life up until my late teens. in that time, i've played this game front to back upwards of 20 times with a few 100% runs sprinkled in there as well.
needless to say, i have a lot of history with this game and it's very special to me, so a remake like this is something i was going to keep my eye on, even as someone who's usually disappointed when a remake actually comes out. this time is different though. it feels like it harkens back to the super nintendo and playstation 1 days of when remakes actually cared about the art direction and intent of the originals, with the art direction finding a beautiful middle ground between the originals texture and sprite work and the papercraft aesthetics that were only hinted before on the gamecube but brought to life on the wii u and switch, and with that middle ground sitting very firmly closer to the original gamecube side. npcs are actually expressive this time around as well, making the world feel just a bit more vibrant and alive and i couldn't be happier. other than some indoor locations not having the best lighting and some screen rotations that were seamless in the original going to black screens instead i have absolutely no complaints about this game visually, especially when there's already 60 fps patches. audio wise might be a different story, though.
the music in this remake is redone, given a more "origami king" esque jazz band flare to it which i don't feel fits the game well at all. the soundtrack definitely leans into the more "boingy" sounding ost ttyd and super had and the redone ost is definitely better than the poor showings we got in trailers, but i still prefer the original soundtrack. there is a badge that restores the original soundtrack, but i've yet to test to see how it reacts to the new songs added for the remake and to be honest i'd really like to hear them this time around so someone else will have to let me know about that eventually lol.
even with its few minor flaws ttyd for the switch is a truly a masterful remake of a classic, and i can't wait to reexperience this cornerstone of my history with video games with this loving remake going forward. the new localization that makes things more accurate to the original while keeping much of the 2004 localization in tact alone makes me prefer this version until someone inevitably patches it back in to the original, but even beyond that they took a world near and dear to my heart and miraculously brought it back to life again more vibrant than ever and that is always going to be deeply special to me. this game is still a very entry level jrpg and the remake doesn't change that so i definitely can't recommend it to everybody, but to anyone who loves the mario series at all or wants to get into rpgs with baby steps this game, and especially this new version, is a must.

[This review contains spoilers!]

Recently I was discussing with some friends what was the best remake ever made, and I genuinely struggled to think of an answer as to what would be my pick. However, that has now become the easiest question in the world for me: the best remake ever made is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for the Nintendo Switch. It’s hard to understate how hyped I was for this game ever since its first announcement, having watched its reveal trailer for over 200 times in the span of a month. It was one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, finally being brought back seemingly in the most faithful way possible.

And after finishing it 100% I can confirm that it was indeed brought back in the most faithful way possible. Even more so than the recent Super Mario RPG remake! It didn’t change a single character design, any gameplay element, any story beat, NOTHING! Everything was kept intact, just like it was in the original, even characters that had their designs altered in the years that followed. Not only did they keep everything intact, but they also managed the unthinkable feat of enhancing the charm of a game that already overflowed with charm, thanks to the improved presentation, with every single character (be it main or NPCs) having new animations when they speak and the cutscenes having a much more robust camerawork.

Speaking of presentation, the game looks stunningly gorgeous! The new dynamic lighting brings all the areas of the game to life in a way that’s a real treat to the eyes, be it the vibrant areas such as Petal Meadows or Glitzville, or the more moody locations, such as the predominantly pale Boggly Woods or the frigid Fahr Outpost. I always wondered how TTYD would look with the papercraft aesthetic of recent games in the series and, as expected, they’ve realized it flawlessly here. Some people complained about how every ground is overly shiny and reflective, but it doesn’t bother me at all.

As for the new quality of life changes, they remedied the biggest issue most people had with this game: the backtracking. While I myself never found it egregious, the changes they made surely make the game even more enjoyable, such as the new fast travel pipes in Rogueport to help with the side quests and the infamous General White hunt, and the pipe from Twilight Town to Creepy Steeple to alleviate the back and forth between both areas. There are other smaller tweaks scattered across the whole game that help to trim down the fat to improve the pace of the game even further.

The new UI looks CLEAN, too! It feels surreal to see a modernized version of the badge inventory in 2024, how I missed it so much... The badges are what truly make the battle system of the first two games so special, since you can make your own playstyle with them, offering huge variety for repeated playthroughs. And speaking of battles and UI, that’s one of the few complaints I have about this remake: navigating the menus during battles does feel a tad clunkier than in the original game. The battles themselves also play out slower, with more waiting time between each turn and changes like everything coming to a stop when the audience wants to throw something. I feel they also tweaked the stage hazards to disrupt the enemies much more often than Mario, which makes the game a bit easier.

That sluggish feeling is also present with the textboxes, since you can no longer speed through dialogue by mashing a button, unless it’s a dialogue you’ve read already, which, like, what’s the point then? That does impact a bit on the replayability of the game, but it’s such a minor blemish on a remake that I can say with 100% confidence makes the original nearly obsolete. It pains my heart to write that sentence given how TTYD is one of my favorite games ever, but that’s how phenomenal this remake is.

The other big new addition is the brand new soundtrack. While the recent Mario RPG remake opted to re-record its songs as faithfully as possible to the original game, the Paper Mario TTYD rearranged the entire soundtrack in the style of Origami King, with a bigger emphasis on live instruments and a more rock-oriented sound. Not only that, but they basically TRIPLED the length of the soundtrack, with a bunch of new songs added to each chapter to further enhance the impact of many scenes or areas, like variations of the main battle theme, new themes for bosses that used to share the same theme as another, each partner now having their own theme, new songs for several cutscenes in the game, etc.

Since the game’s release, the reception to that soundtrack has been sorta positive, but I’ve seen a bunch of mixed comments as well. As for me, I love it. Yeah, as someone who has played the original countless times there’s some songs I feel the OG versions are better, but there’s many that I feel are on par or even an improvement. They all feature additional sections at the point they’d originally loop, so it’s evident the arrangers put a lot of care and effort into injecting more life into all these songs. That can be said about the whole game, really: it’s a beautiful labor of love of the developers for this game that’s clearly as treasured by fans as it is by themselves.

My favorite new arrangement is the one for Fahr Outpost. The original song is this very experimental synth track, kinda alien, kinda erratic, but the new arrangement transforms that weirdness into this moody and atmospheric piece, almost foreboding in a way, with a new section added at 0:44 that gives me chills everytime I listen to it, which fits perfectly thematically with this small isolated village covered by snow for socially recluse Bob-ombs that want to bury their war past. Fahr Outpost was never a particularly memorable area from the game, but this new arrangement for its theme transformed it into one of my favorite areas. When I first got there in the remake I just stood motionless for some minutes, mesmerized by this song, contemplating it.

My only small complaints regarding the soundtrack are related to the new compositions they made for this remake. They’re all solid songs, but some can feel a bit out of place in the segments they play, and they mostly go for new melodies instead of taking inspiration from songs from the original game, so they give this “Origami King scrapped track” vibe. A big example would be the new theme they made for the Atomic Boo fight, which is a banger yeah, but it just feels like a Origami King boss battle track, without any TTYD-ness injected into it. This game is also chock-full of references to Paper Mario 64 and I gotta admit I was expecting some remixes from it after seeing the main title theme get a new arrangement, but no, that’s literally the only remix from that game in this remake.

Now something new that was clearly inspired by the N64 game are the credits. In the original TTYD they were honestly kinda bland, being simply some screenshots accompanied by the silhouette of the characters walking around in the background. Not even the song stood out. I kinda wish they’d make a new credits sequence like the parade from Paper Mario 64, but knew it was unlikely... BUT! Turns out I was wrong! Because they did EXACTLY THAT! It was a treat to see a bunch of fun interactions between the lovely cast of this game, to the sound of a new medley inspired by the songs of each chapter. That got more than a few tears of happiness from my eyes, gotta admit :’)

There’s very little brand new content in the remake, but what is there is INCREDIBLE, such as the two new bosses. Both of them feel like the devs trying to explore new grounds with the combat system of the game, introducing fun and unique mechanics like attacks that drain your FP, having to alternate between jump and hammer attacks based on the stance of the enemy, using stage hazards to their advantage... It almost feels like a tease of what we can expect from a next game in the series that’ll finally bring it back to its roots, which has been a dream of mine for some years. And on that end...

Paper Mario TTYD being remade means much more than simply that, because the Paper Mario series became something completely different after the release of this game, with several interviews confirming that it wouldn’t return to the RPG format, how they couldn’t create unique characters or modify pre-existing ones anymore, and yet, here we are! The game that is the complete antithesis of everything the Mario brand stood for for over a decade now got a remake that didn’t sanitize a single thing about it, with an intense marketing campaign focusing on those aspects that make it such an unique game in the Mario canon and that were completely absent from recent games.

One could say “but it’s just because it’s a remake! that doesn’t mean the mandates are over!”, but you gotta remember even the Mario & Luigi remakes for the 3DS had some elements sanitized, even though they’re considerably less bolder than TTYD, so I do believe there has been a change of mindset inside Nintendo when it comes to allowing the Mario brand to be more creative once again. Mario Wonder and the Peach game are also proof of that, with both of them trying a bunch of new things, especially when it comes to character designs.

The credits of this remake even say “...AND YOU!” in the Special Thanks section, so they’re listening. They know what the fans have been yearning for all these years. The fact they chose this game to be the final announcement of a Nintendo Direct shows how much they’re aware how important this game is, not just to fans, but to the Mario franchise as a whole. And more than ever it fills me with hope to see a brand new Paper Mario game in the same vein as the first two, with the same marvelous combat system and no more restraints when it comes to creative characters, locales and dialogue.

I imagine if Paper Mario indeed follows that route, it won’t have the technical limitations of the first two games, such as the segmented areas with loading zones between each screen, it’ll probably be a more expansive world like in The Origami King, which is completely fine by me, since the exploration of that game is a blast. That will make this remake feel even more special, because we got to see the classic Paper Mario format modernized in 2024. Yes I know this is a weird tangent that might not even make sense for some people, but it is extremely fascinating to me.

With all that said, the Paper Mario TTYD remake is a dream come true that not even the most optimistic side of me could have ever dreamed of. I genuinely felt emotional many times playing this game, in awe that I was playing a modern version of one of the games that’s most dear to my heart. I know they thanked us in the credits of the game, but if there’s anyone who should say thank you it's me. Thank you SO MUCH for remaking a masterpiece into a new masterpiece, Intelligent Systems <3

For as huge of a fan as I am of the Mario franchise, I feel like one major subsection of it has eluded me all these years, that being all of the RPGs. I didn't actually sit down and finish a Mario RPG until, kinda fittingly, Mario RPG's remake last year and I blame this in part on just how inaccessible Nintendo has often made these games on modern consoles (though they have been doing better recently). So, despite hearing several people go on and on about just how great Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was I was kinda just resigned to never playing it and not getting the appeal. That being said, Nintendo being as unpredictable as ever worked a miracle for the fans who thought their voices would never be heard and remade the one game they had been asking for all these years. And because of this miracle remake I can now finally see why everyone praises this game up and down, at least for the most part.

I think the most standout part of Thousand Year Door to me was just how interesting and different it's world was from anything seen in any other Mario game. Instead of taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom like 90% of Mario games do, Thousand Year Door takes place on a completely separate continent complete with its own locations, inhabitants, atmosphere, and history. It's through this entirely different setting that the game really shines, introducing new races of creatures and putting spins on familiar ones to make characters that stand out and leading you to explore several different locations that are far more interesting than the familiar archetypes that other Mario games so often fall into. The game is just so commendably creative with its worldbuilding, and I was always excited to move on in the story and see what kind of new ideas it would throw at me next.

Thousand Year Door's story is another really strong part of the experience. Plot-wise it's pretty standard, Mario has to rescue Peach and collect 7 crystal stars while he's at it to unlock the titular Thousand Year Door and the treasure hidden behind it, but despite the plot being generic the journey to it is far from. Throughout the course of the story you'll find yourself in several fun and interesting scenarios like uncovering a conspiracy in a floating city while you try to become the world's greatest wrestler at the same time, or solving family drama within the Pianta mafia just to name a few. There's also several heartfelt character moments that come from the companion characters that join you along the way and how they develop. While not all of these characters were super compelling to me, the ones that were I found myself becoming really endeared to and I enjoyed having them present in my party just to see more of them. While most of the story centers around Mario's journey the game does pause from his story after ever chapter to let you see what's going on with two other characters being Peach and Bowser. While in any other Mario game Peach would just be kidnapped and we wouldn't see her until the end when Mario rescues her, Thousand Year Door takes a different approach to her character allowing us to see her circumstances while kidnapped by the villainous group of the game, the X-Nauts. While being held hostage by the group Peach comes into contact with the supercomputer TEC who asks her to teach him about the concept of love seeing as he knows nothing about it, these sections are short and sweet and often involve Peach doing some menial task for TEC but they all build to a climactic conclusion by the end of the game that actually really impressed me in terms of the feelings it stirred in me. Then there's the Bowser sections which were just really fun and enjoyable in their own right. Bowser's presence in the game's story is minimal and yet that's what makes it so great. Seeing as he is for once not the one behind Peach's kidnapping and not the one to set Mario on his grand quest Bowser is playing catch up the entire game, seemingly always one step behind the events of the story and hilariously clueless to the serious events that are unfolding. It's in this state that he kind of works really well as a comic relief, never really being a super big threat but trying so hard to be one in a place where he's just out of his depth. All three of the game's stories start coming together by the end of the game and without spoiling anything, the finale is a really interesting and climactic ending to the whole expereience. Through the game's engaging characters, sharp writing, and fun and outlandish ideas Paper Mario The Thosaund Year Door tells a great story that I will not soon forget.

Finally we get to the gameplay which is where the few gripes I have with the game lie. The strongest part of the gameplay I'd say would be the actual battle system, it's very well crafted and uses all the tropes of a traditional turn based system well and in unique ways to make battles just really fun to engage in. The action commands connected to the attacks are a great way to keep the player engaged while in the midst of turn based combat and while I never fully got the hang of the Guard and Superguards they're fun to go for as well and pulling one off with the right timing feels very satisfying. My only problem with this system is just how much is left up to pure RNG sometimes. There were several times during tense fights that the game decided to just do something to screw me over like having a shy guy get up and drop a light on my party causing damafe or having the stage lights fall and burn or freeze my party out of nowhere, while this also happens inversely to enemy parties as well it's just an element that doesn't feel completely fair at times and can really screw you over if you're not expecting it, which by merit of it being random you never will be. Outside of the battles you explore the overworld and this is the part of the gameplay I had the most problems with. While running around back and forth on an overworld is something common to all RPGs there are several things that make it feel just kinda boring in Thousand Year. For one Mario moves at what feels like a snails pace, having no run button and only moving across the screen at a light trot traversing screens in this game is just not that fun. There are however, light puzzles spread around the world and things that can only be accessed with Mario's abilities and these do a bit to make this whole process a little more interesting. The dungeons in the game are also really fun, placing you in different environments with lots of puzzles to solve and unique enemies to fight all of which is capped off with a pretty fun boss fight to get the crystal star of that location. And then there's the backtracking which is easily my biggest problem with the game. After you obtain a crytal star at the end of each chapter you have to go back to the Rougeport underground and traverse all the way back to the Thousand Year Door for it to be revealead where to got for the next crystal star. While not absolutely abhorrent, the trek back to the door every time to start a new chapter just feels a bit like padding to me and I can't help but wonder if there was no better way to do this. Overall though I did have a lot of fun with the game's battles and dungeons and while the slightly boring to traverse overworld and unnecessary backtracking drag it down a little bit they weren't enough to ruin the whole gameplay experience.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is an endearing classic of a game and one that absolutely deserved the remake treatment it got after being ignored for so long. Having finally played the game I can deffinitly see why people hold this game in such high regard. While my issues with a few of it's aspects hold it back from masterpiece status in my eyes, I'm really happy for those who got to enjoy it for those who do love this game and I sincerely hope Nintendo will take a page out of this game's book for whatever they do next with the Paper Mario series.

Finally, finally after so many years of wanting to play it and coming very close to purchasing a 300 dollar gamecube copy out of desperation I finally get to experience the game people have been swooning over since I can remember. I finally get to have so many questions answered. Is it one of the best games ever? Does it lord over the trilogy as the highest peak, is it better than my beloved Super Paper Mario?

As a new thing I wanted to try, I kept a little journal of my thoughts per chapter and had the idea to review each part episodically with a closing statement on my final thoughts on the game. This was a terrible idea as I write way too much, and feel too bad erasing huge chunks of my work. So without further ado: one of the longest reviews I've ever had to write and edit for everyone's darling Thousand Year Door.




☆Chapter 1☆
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This first chapter is a really good depiction of what to expect from ttyd and starts off very strongly with multiple genre-breaking gags to subvert the very conventional story setup with Hooktail. The toad kid talking about various Nintendo games, the game show thwomp that replaces the position of a miniboss. A chest that gives you a powerup but still dresses it as a curse which is deifnitley the best running joke in the game. Hooktail herself being defeated in a few turns because your hammer is making frog sounds. Its undiluted Paper Mario essence at its finest. Petalburg is a really soft and charming place but Koops is probably the least utilized companion, I immediately switched back to Goombella after the chapter was over because I love her and comparatively Koops seems to get kind of sidelined both gameplay-wise and in terms of an active story role. In contrast to her precdessor Goombario, Goombella to me seems like the primary party member along with Vivian; shes sassy and smart and supportive and kind of steals the show in my eyes. After chapter 1 ends we get our first actual star power that isnt ol' reliable shit fuck Sweet Treat and then its on to:


☆Chapter 2☆
---------------------------

BOGGLY WOODS!! I've seen this area plently of times before in screenshots, but the way it looks completely floored me in the remake. The black and white trees contrasting beautifully with the oil spill colored vines on the floor, its all shiny and pretty like black lacquer. The music playing in the background sings ethereal and calm. A stand out area for me of the whole game, plus it has PUNIES!! Oh, I love them so much. Leading 101 of them through the Great Tree had me smiling so wide. They get trapped in little bubbles! They learn the power of union! Every interaction I had with the sage puni and the puni siblings reinforced them as my favorite non-recruitable characters.
Flurrie is the companion that joins in this chapter and I like her a lot. She has a very large and caring presence which fits in line with her past stage life. She also likes squishy, silly punies so we have a lot in common. Unfortunately I never did use her much outside of mandatory puzzles, but its okay because Koops got used way less.


☆Chapter 3☆
---------------------------

Glitzville! The Glitz Pit! I have a feeling this is a lot of people's favorite chapter and for obvious reasons. The unconventional story structure is very cool with there being no random fights at all, instead duking it out in a wrestling arena for a shot at championship. After each fight you get a break and here it hit me just how much dialogue there was in the game because all conversations in the area change completely after almost every match. Theres a lot of events in-between fights to give the player a break and I appreciated that because I get tired of fighting pretty fast. Unravelling the conspiracy of the Glitz Pit and sneaking around was so much fun. I love old fashioned wrestling so this chapter was very charming for me. After saving his egg from becoming a hot dog or something Yoshi Kid is born, Mario is his dad and Glitzville his country. I was really happy being introduced to this guy, I think its because the process of meeting him and his connection with Mario is very different than the rest of the party who get together by chance. I feel really attached to this guy and I feel bad riding him because he is so small, but I must because Mario is so fucking slow. Jolene is also really cool- the little tidbits of information about Prince Mush throughout the game made their reunion really sweet. This area is very, very good and stands out a lot for being so different than what one would expect.


☆Chapter 4☆
---------------------------

Twilight Town, like Boggly Woods, is also incredibly gorgeous and uses its color and textures well. The design on the big moon and the palette of the woods is so pretty, mesmerizing. Everyones turning into pigs. That's Mario's least favorite animal so he goes off into the forest to help stop it. I only knew this as the Vivian chapter and I was really excited to meet her, so the chapter end fakeout got me. I thought my game crashed and I was actually gonna reboot it before I hit A on accident- which is when shadow Mario gets up and the actual premise of this segment is revealed. Im so happy I didnt know about this part because nearly every other major occurance in ttyd has been spoiled for me throughout the years, it was nice being shocked for once. The way they constantly change and subvert their own formula is so incredibly clever to me, nothing else really holds a candle to the constant creativity these chapters show. Anyway- we meet Vivian who is looking for a bomb in the bushes. I wish we could have shown her more kindness than some basic decency, but she tags along to help Mario anyways. Doopliss wants his name back so you have to treck back (again) to Creepy Steeple. I hate Creepy Steeple. Getting there is hard, leaving is hard, I know theres a pipe but I didnt find it till later. Creepy Steeple is nothing but dark and annoying and I got stuck in a room for 20 minutes because there was like, no way for the player to see the hole in the wall going into the parrot room. I guess the implication was that light is supposed to be shining out from under the gap but how was I going to know- Mario was 10 yards away and stuck behind some bars. Obtain letter P, return to Doopliss and say hes Doopliss. Go back, again, to your favorite place Creepy Steeple and walk alll the way up back to his room AGAIN. Though I dont like this dungeon, this guy is my favorite antagonist- and how could he not be with such a fashionable hat. The Doopliss fight with all your companions working against you and Vivian's story beats are really cool, and then she officially joins the party! I had her by my side for most of the game- shes very powerful fully upgraded and has a lot of relation to the main events so it felt right to have her out.

☆Chapter 5☆
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Chapter 5.... was..... uh........ Keelhaul Key... aw fuck I have to open the game and check.


Chapter 5 is the premiere of the unforgettable and culturally significant Keelhaul Key, which I remember clearly. I dont know how to properly describe this, but I noticed that ttyd has a very fluid way of managing its world. Everything seems to intersect and even random npc characters will remark on the latest happenings in Mario's adventure. Flavio looked very unique so I knew he would be a part in the story at some point, but I noticed here that the bob-omb at the counter had a progressing train of dialouge which converged with the mature toad lady character in Glitzville. Everything in this game is so alive and so smart, anyways... meeting with Bobbery had me getting misty eyed. Ttyd has no problem moving between really silly moments and touching story beats, which is something a lot of games that replicate Paper Mario struggle with. Keelhaul Key itself is a fun misadventure I suppose... I hated the backtracking though, god there is so much backtracking in this game, its insane. I fought so many fuzzies.... Pirate's Bay was not much better at all. I didnt really like this area, slow and dense. Cortez and the X-Naut showoff were the best things to come out of the chapter.


☆Chapter 6☆
---------------------------

The Excess Express...much like Glitzville in chapter 3, this segment subverts the typical story structure except it removes virtually all battles. Instead, Mario and co. take on detective work aboard an ongoing train and then platform a little in Poshley Heights with no final boss to defeat. I love this chapter. The atmosphere is immaculate. Getting to know all the passengers over the course of 3 days and solving their troubles turned it into a different sort of game for a bit. It was a very smart decision to not have any random encounters for the majority of the chapter because the mood of the Excess Express is very impressionable. Walking through the train at dusk and seeing the remaining sun shining through the windows, with that song playing in the background... its one of those Nintendo moments that I'm sure imprinted itself heavily on the people who played this as kids. The detective side of the chapter is very fun, and I enjoy how much it encourages you to interact with the people on the train as it builds your relationship to them in a unique way that isnt purely focused on rescuing them. Arriving at Poshley Heights, the area isnt that huge or noteworthy because the focus is on the train- but the Sanctum that holds the crystal star was near mythical. I just assumed we would have to fight Beldam and her sister and her not-sister Doopliss, but after their departure instead it leads you on into a mirror image of the Sanctum. Entering, its all light blues and soft light with the saddest most evocative piece of compositional music playing in the background. It was a very unexpected moment, I think I audibly said 'woah'. I dont know if it was intentional how strangely moving the Inner Sanctum was, but climbing up the sides of the building with the pretty lights and taking in that song was so peaceful and nice. Such a fitting end for a mostly nonconfrontational chapter.


☆Chapter 7☆
---------------------------

By this point, after completing every bulliten quest avaliable to me I had already figured out that backtracking was ttyd's best friend forever but I didnt think they would seriously make me go back and forth between Fahr Outpost and every other area I've been to so much. It would be comical if they hadnt made me to go Hooktail Castle 3 separate times, so I was feeling very bitter at this point when I had to walk around for no reason. Fahr Outpost itself is a military base which instills dread and isnt a lot to be remarked on, which is kind of a shame because Paper Mario's snow areas are very pretty. Getting shot to the moon also would have surprised me but I spoiled myself the day before looking on a wiki page for how to make ruin powder. The moon... is very slow. The encounters on the moon arent that fun but you're not expected to be there for long. The X-Naut building... also is not very fun. The keycard shenanigans were tedious and I resigned myself to looking at a guide to figure out where they were. Just a lot of little time wasters here... and a lot platforming. More on that and TEC later but I absolutely hate this game's jump when its used for platforming, its short and heavy and shitty and clearly wasnt made for precise-ish movements.
Fighting that robot was okay. Walking through the halls with the all the lights shut off after TEC's final message was what I'll remember most from the moon, though.


☆Chapter 8☆
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The Palace of Shadows is another area in the remake that I had to stop and take in because it really does look absolutely beautiful and grand. The trek through the palace is very long and kind of arduous with the many puzzles and no item shops. The star tower near the end of the chapter made use of riddles and was very fun to figure out, though once again Koops was left unused in a location that utilized nearly every other companion (sorry, man). The small miniboss fight with Beldam and her new family left me a little dissapointed because Vivian didnt really have a lot to say, and I was hoping punching her sister in the hat would have given her some closure. Moving on to the next room, the fight with Grodus is really exciting but you get a sense of how powerless and kind of incompetent Peach is here. In Paper Mario n64 she's trapped on a floating castle, so theres not much she can do. Here though, shes just sleeping and weak and isnt shown even trying to break the force field bubble shes in. Im assuming Grodus gave her a concussion or something but when she gets possessed by the Shadow Queen she's not even bound, just collapsed on the floor though after the fight Goombella says shes not even hurt so why're you nappin lady?? Im getting a bit ahead of myself though, because as Grodus threatens to end Peach as a means to get Mario to stop hitting him over the head with a hammer, BOWSER appears and crushes that guy with his mighty and toned koopa body. This fight was a fun reprieve from the harshness of the rest of the palace though its unlikely you would die even if you took a few hits fighting Grodus.

Going into the basement to fight the final boss, I noticed a huge issue. There was not a pipe leading back to Rougeport in sight. I didnt have any healing items at all, but I really didnt want to make the 40 minute dash to town and back so I opted to rely on Sweet Feast instead and went into battle. The Shadow Queen is a very threatening figure compared to what Mario games had seen up until that point. The cutscene where her hands are creeping up the sides of the various buildings above ground probably would of made me cry when I was younger. Her spirit design channels a sense of fear and otherworldliness that I really enjoy. She also mentions slaves? Which means that, at the very least, the concept of slavery exists in the Super Mario world officially. Phase one of her boss fight wasnt too rough for me, I got a soft stomp on her so I managed to widdle her down pretty fast. I was mostly worried, when she invoked her spirit form, that I was going to have to do some stupid shit like from that point on she could only be damaged by Supernova, but mercifully that was not the case. As Mario is left struggling and the crystal stars fly off, the upcoming cutscene had me absolutely bawling. Im always very touched when stories end with every friend you've ever met coming together to believe in you and rally you on. Its so sad and heartwarming every time.... even Peach gathers her last bit of strength to give to Mario though she didnt seem to have any passed out on the floor moments prior. I was feeling absolutely pumped- the danger of complete global annihilation felt so real and I was completely into it, no way I was going to let anything happen to these people!! I was in tears, Punio believes in me!! I CANT let him down!

I died!

She had like 30 health left and I fucking died. It became impossible to recover the amount of health I was losing with only Sweet Treat/Feast and I had no items at all. A lot of people say that this is baby's first rpg- and I know theres probably a badge combination that makes things easier, but what the hell. The Shadow Queen is one of the hardest bosses I think I've ever fought. And I was really, really pissed because that emotional buildup was something else and it just completely evaporates upon dying. It doesnt feel half as special or urgent when you've already seen it before... also "try again"? I thought it'd just restart that phase but it put me back to entering the room which is pointless.
I buckled down to spend the next hour of my life trying to remember how to leave the building for items but then, and only after I had reloaded the game, did a pipe appear that lead to Rougeport. Why it isnt just there from the get go is beyond me, but I just got more pissed cause if I had access to that earlier that really sweet emotional moment wouldnt of been trounced for me.
Despite having healing items this fight was still incredibly hard and I barely beat it with both companion and Mario at 10 hp. The final moments of ttyd are bittersweet as we have to say goodbye to Rougeport and Mario fails to deliver TEC's final message to Peach because they both seemingly forgot. Though I didnt want this one to end so soon, the credits roll. The book closes, and that was The Thousand Year Door! Before I close with my general thoughts, I have something written for the Peach & Bowser intermissions:


☆Extra☆
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Peach and TEC initially felt to me like a demo reel for Blumiere and Tippi, but as time went on I felt really endeared toward the computer. TEC never tries to win Peach over or actively seduce her, which would be uncomfortable since shes stuck in a room with them. TEC is curious about their newfound feelings and this leads them to a sort of solace as they resolve to get her off the space station. I really like the solemn acceptance TEC goes through, never wanting Peach to stay or enter a relationship with it, settling into peace with the feelings it has found. Peach, on the other hand, despite having a role and doing things somehow feels like she doesnt have a scrap of autonomy in anything that goes down. Her email information doesnt really help at all except for the final message she sends. Out of a very creative game, these segments are probably the most typical things we see.

The Bowser intermissions also kind of only exist to jusitify his appearance in the ending, he really didnt have to be here but it was pretty funny and I'd rather be watching him get up to shenanigans than spend 30 minutes failing to make a potion with Peach


And thats it! All my thoughts on The Thousand Year Door. So the question remains: is this one of the best games ever? Does it really beat my favorite entry in the series, Super Paper Mario?
For starters, I can really understand why so many people are so fond of this game. It is incredibly special in both its gameplay aspects and its continually evolving creativity, it is a game that was created out of pure love for everything Paper Mario is and you can clearly tell by how often they remember and cherish their previous installment and continue to evolve from it.
Theres a few things I really dont like about this game, though. For one, I was constantly lost. Someone of my age really shouldnt have problems getting around in a Mario game but if Goombella didnt tell me exactly what was up I never knew what to do or where to go. Instruction and direction felt incredibly vauge at times, depth perception and lighting were definitely contributing factors to the aimlessness I felt. Speaking of depth perception, this game likes to pretend that its a platformer quite a bit when its clearly not made for that at all. The jumping feels bad and it loses all momentum when you let go of the c-stick. The mechanical room and the x-naut fortress are two areas that just suck so much because of this when it really didnt need to be included. Also, I said this before but ttyd loves making you go back to really inconvenient places again and again, almost every bulletin quest is like this and after the 20th visit back to Hooktail, it gets very tiring.
With all that though, I still really enjoyed my first experience playing ttyd in this new and improved form. I wanted to keep seeing more, even if it was doing something tedious and repetitive. It made me laugh and smile and cry... but not as much as spm so I still love that one the most. Its a very special game with a very special place in a lot of people's hearts, and I'm very glad it got the remake it deserved.
And now... I rest, wistfully stroking my copy of spm, feeling in my chest the sad truth that it will never be gifted the same attention.

One of the best Mario RPGs now in full HD and widescreen! This was a really faithful remake and I thoroughly enjoyed replaying TTYD again.

I've never had too much of an issue with the backtracking, but I noticed that they did make some changes to reduce the amount. I've played the original a number of times, and this is the definitive way to experience TTYD for new players!

The new OST was great, and the graphics are stunning. I wish we got to keep 60 FPS, but the downgrade didn't have as big of an impact as I thought it would. Superguards and general quick inputs still feel snappy and responsive!

This remake makes me miss the classic Paper Mario formula that much more, and I wish Alpha Dream was still making Mario & Luigi as well. Intelligent Systems did a phenominal job on this remake and capturing the magic of the original!

Also, the localization was updated and now trans vivian is canon outside Japan!!

Finally, I’ve played the most praised game of all time that’s been on my to-do-list since the day I turned one-and-a-half. I can absolutely see how this is considered peak Paper Mario - which isn’t a particularly high bar - but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s “peak RPG”. It’s a great game, but it never really scratched that RPG itch if you know what I’m saying. It’s also true that the Persona franchise has placed that itch in an impossible to reach spot, so I don’t fully blame this game for being less than I expected.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that this game sells well, because this series is in dire need of a course correction and they’ve given us the means to show them how much we want it. The rebellion HAS BEGUN!

Beyond the enhanced textures and increased geometry, there are numerous new expressive animations for every character, neatly nuanced cinematic camera shots for cutscenes and implementations of either new themes or variations of older ones to give every single moment a fresh coat of paint.

While the game is running 30 fps in contrary to the original, reactionbased inputs have been doubled up to make everything actually easier than it ever was, as such I find the original has some merit in more difficulty, being snappier through transitions in battle and still retaining a more retro flavoured simplicity in its presentation.

Despite this even as someone who played and will play thousand year door probably a billion more times down the road, this remake has so much care and attention to the minour detail which on the whole made for a such a fulfilling experience that I'd feel guilty not to favour it as the definitive edition.

stopped by for what i thought would be a quick and breezy non-judgemental nostalgia trip but left with a bit more to chew on than expected. while i didn’t return a contrarian loser i did wonder if my disgusting grubby inner child was gaslighting my current self, at least just a bit.

i don’t wanna go hater mode so i’ll get the gripes done quickly: ttyd still rocks in a whole bunch of ways, but just as you obviously buy penthouse for the fat titties you also obviously play jrpgs for their writing, characters, art, music, and so on. beyond that, playing with fresh eyes did reveal a few interlopers: the padding, fetch quests, and battle corridor level design all worked in tandem to burst just a few bubbles re: my goodfunhappytime memories.

this isn’t really a huge admonishment and i never found anything so offensive as to sour my overall view, mostly it was just a good reminder that despite its unique traits and my own nostalgia, ttyd is still a regular console jrpg that does regular console jrpg shit. whatever, it’s fine. i’m happy to take the good with the dull. good vibes only from here.

same thing everyone says, i know, yet absolutely nothing but praise for the script. it’s all so consistently clean and sharp and funny and just generally excellent conventional writing with cross-generational appeal. lots of particular beats and cadences that evoked the wit, style and efficiency of so many classic no-frills good-feel works—things like the simpsons, golden boy, toy story—that made me long for a time when media writing wasn’t tainted by referential self-conscious joss whedon ass affectations. just straight up good shit.

not much to say about combat that hasn’t been said by a million others. simple but just about as crisp as i remembered, and the series’ use of small integers has always felt refreshing. it’s surely slower and easier overall but whatever, i’m indifferent, not gonna grind an axe about it.

art upgrade obviously gets a few dozen thumbs up all around for better fulfilling the papercraft vibe that the gc version could never quite manage so convincingly. one of the few aesthetics where i’d actually crave high fidelity, enough so to go digital foundry mode and start soyfacing for a full fat 4k paper mario experience.

i assume the updated soundtrack is a bit more contentious but i mostly liked it tbh, the new compositions didn’t always hit but in isolation were largely fun and very lush to boot, even if they’re not nearly as tight and clean as the original mixes. per-area battle music was probably the best addition, having the one battle theme play at all points in the original really did contribute to some whiplash given the tonal shifts between each area.

i wouldn’t say ttyd is bigger than the sum of its parts or anything, but considering how moment-to-moment gameplay slightly drags the overall experience i’m still chuffed to see something otherwise very well-rounded. good lil memory lane type beat, nice to relive the period where intelligent systems could actually push some ip boundaries and weren’t so constrained by demands to up the toad quota thousandfold, no doubt due to woke.

First time ever getting 100%. The original is one of the best games ever made, with an incredible battle system, wonderful, charming characters, and a seemingly never-ending stream of creative locations and setpieces. Some of my nitpicks with this remake (30fps, a couple very minor movement changes, the damn text boxes not letting you mash through them which is by far the most annoying of these) are balanced out by some of the genuinely great changes they made as well. The art direction manages to be incredibly faithful to the original while also looking even better to my eye, and I actually really like the laminated floor look they went for too. New music is by and large very good and occasionally great, the very subtle but hugely important adjustments to level design to reduce backtracking are a godsend, and while there isn't much in the way of all new material here, what they have added in that respect is phenomenal.

It just did my heart good seeing this remake have every bit of the same care and love put into it that the original clearly did. Do yourself a favor and play one of the best RPGs of all time.

This was already one of my favorite games of all time and I honestly would've been happy if this was just some lazy port like Mario 3D all stars, but DAMN. You can tell they put in the work, from new character animations to a ton of little QoL improvements. This game just makes me happy. It's one of those very few games I've 100% more than once. I could write an essay about everything cool about it, but I just recommend playing it.

As an adult, I no longer sink the same time into games I did as a kid. But with this, I want to SAVOR the experience. No rushing, talking to every single NPC, etc. Even though I can probably beat this game in under 20 or so hours, I was over 5 hours in before even starting chapter 2, just losing myself in the experience all over again. This game is special.

If you happen to play it and don't get what the fuss is all about, that's okay. It may not be for you. I would just say give it a fair chance and enjoy