Finally, I get the hype, Paper Mario TTYD is an awesome JRPG with a lot of charm. It has a pretty simple premise: collect seven McGuffins spread throughout the world and open an ancient door with them. With each one you get one new location, and they all feel pretty diverse, not only esthetically but also gameplay-wise, which makes this game incredibly diverse. Not every area is great but thanks to the constant change you'll never feel like the game is getting boring. As for the combat, this game has a fun twist on the JRPG formula, as it has you playing as Mario plus just one more companion, all of them with unique abilities, which makes things feel a bit more challenging but also fresh. The game functions on a sort of rock-paper-scissors style, with some attacks being easy to land but only affecting the enemies on the floor, while others can hit them on the air and on the floor but have harder mechanics to master. Couple that with fire and ice damage, special objects and the participation of the public and you have a simple combat style that's also pretty unique and fun. The game has some things that didn't click with me though. After finding each star piece you get to play as Peach and Bowser, and while Peach's story is really cute I found Bowser to be completely unnecessary for the plot, it feels like he's here because he has to but he doesn't contribute anything besides some comic relief and some dull platforming segments. But the thing I was more disappointed with were the party members story-wise. They all have unique personalities and, like everything in this game, they're charming as hell, but their importance to the story is just seen during their introductory chapter and then they just become a voice substitute for the mute Mario. I know that the game is already somewhat long but I would have loved to see at least a few of them have a character arc, specially best girl Vivian who has a really interesting story regarding her sisters and her being a trans woman. Either way I really enjoyed this game, it's another great RPG in a year chock-full of great RPGs, but this one may be the most charming out there.

This game was mind-blowing. I never got to play the original so I don’t have any comments on what the remake improved, but honestly every moment of playing this was fantastic. Going through each world blind was very rewarding as it made me appreciate the art and sound design that much more. Especially getting to see who the next partner was, and getting to learn how to use the next new ability. It’s kind of difficult to put into words what this game did well as it was near perfect across the board. So much charm, so many creative ideas, the storyline was so well written. I did have a few minor nitpicks on the “troubles” or side quests in the game being sort of fetch-questy, but it’s minute enough that it didn’t detract from the overall experience. One of the greatest JRPG’s I have ever played and definitely worth a play through!

Very well rounded RPG game that I would recommend to anyone, even if they don't play RPG's normally.
I played the GameCube original on emulator probably 6 or 7 years ago, and I enjoyed the game then for its fun combat and characters, but it wasn't until this 100% playthrough of the Switch remake that I realized how polished and fleshed out nearly every element of this game is.
The Switch remake's graphical upgrade is huge. The original still looks alright now, but quite flat in comparison to the detailed backgrounds and the smarter lighting of the Switch remake. In either case, the game does a great job at making actually small scenes feel much larger, particularly in the towns. The paper styling is also used quite well.
The original soundtrack still goes hard 20 years later, but I think the Switch's soundtrack tops the original for most tracks. The upgrade to a modern Nintendo soundtrack made much of the game more bombastic and grand, particularly in the battle themes. The few cases in which the original still shines are the remade tracks which bury the melody behind layers of instruments. For example, the X-Nauts Base theme has nice intstruments in the Switch version, but since you can't hear its iconic electronic melody well, the track doesn't stand out well on the Switch's soundtrack. Overall though, the new soundtrack mostly sounds better, especially given all the new tracks for more specific scenarios and how dynamic and adaptive the soundtrack is.
I do miss 60FPS. Once you get deeper into the game, you adjust to the lower framerate, but I did immediately notice 30FPS when I first launched the game from the Switch menu, and I wasn't even attempting to pay attention to the framerate.

The text felt quite slow in the Switch version when compared to the snappiness of the GameCube. I imagine this would make repeat playthroughs more tedious. At least the unique babbling noises when each character speaks are fun.

As for the actual gameplay loop and story, phenomenal. Action commands make turn-based combat not just more engaging, but also more risky and skill based. Sometimes in battle you must decide whether to go for a more risky action command (such as a super guard) or make a slower play that may use more resources. Strategy mixed with execution is more satisfying than either one isolated.
Badges are one of my favorite forms of creating character loadouts, and TTYD has PLENTY of badges. Simply by swapping badges, you can completely alter the way you play battles. You can play defensively with lucky badges or with defense upgrades. You can play offensively with Mario or the partner, with the hammer or the jump, using danger/peril or at safer health. There are tons of other small badges that give slight buffs to other aspects such as FP usage or health drops.
When you're not battling, you're progressing through a basic but still enjoyable JRPG story. As I said previously, the worldbuilding is quite effective despite towns being small. I think the excellent characters are what fill the world with life. All of the partners have fun, distinct, and loveable personalities. The dialogue remains funny and witty throughout the entire game, with clever gags thrown at the player even just before the final boss. I love that TTYD gives generic Mario enemies and characters distinct designs and backstories that make the characters feel like more than goomba or a toad. A shy koopa with a hoodie, jeans, and white sneakers goes very hard compared to just a regular koopa. Aside from the partners, the other main story characters such as Peach, Bowser, Lord Crump, Grodus, TEC, etc. all carry that same humor of the game.

I'm gonna cut off writing here. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door now might be my favorite RPG. All aspects of the game are polished and the Switch remake fixed most of the annoying backtracking. If you own a Switch and want to play a game, this is a very good game. If you own a PC and want to play a classic game, the GameCube original is also very good and fun on Dolphin emulator. Hopefully Nintendo makes another Paper Mario game in this style.

This is my first time EVER playing a Paper Mario game, and holy shit what an introduction. This game is genuinely incredible. The characters are great, the story is great, the actual gameplay loop and partner system is really engaging, and like 95% of the time the game genuinely never misses.

TTYD was really engaging for me. Badges opened up a lot of customization (I basically only invested in badges during my run), the dialogue is genuinely hilarious, and the cast of characters feel so alive and varied. There are very few poorly written characters, and there are so many smaller characters with a lot of personality. The overall story was somewhat simple, but the chapter stories could be really cool at times (chapter 3 comes to mind, for example). The visuals are beautiful, the paper aesthetic is used really creatively and really helps the game feel like part of a storybook.

When the game isn’t good though, man it’s disappointing. Since this isn’t marked as a spoiler I won’t specify, but one of the chapters genuinely feels like half of it was cut and it ends in a total dud. It’s not bad as-in unfun, it just feels like nothing. When TTYD fails, it's never explicitly bad, just kinda feels disappointing. According to a friend (AKA don’t quote me on this), the game was actually kind of rushed, and it shows due to some areas feeling like there was something missing or feeling like there should've been a little more to an area or whatnot. The game also tends to feel backtrack heavy, where you have to walk around a ton through areas you’ve already been, and it can get tedious. But that’s kind of my biggest issue.

Absolutely worth checking out and, from what I can gather, the best way to experience TTYD.

They put lots of love into this one, and only made a few baffling downgrades: 30 FPS, no dialogue skip for most text, and having to wait for star power to get absorbed before one's turn advances. The upsides? Banjo-Kazooie-mumble-voices for everyone! More sprites for everyone! More dialogue for everyone! Extra enemies?? QoL in the Glitz Pit. Vivian is canonically trans and experiences gender euphoria on screen. Even faster partner switching (it was already quite fast on GCN). Ooo pretty gwafix. Redone OST is mostly great, and when it's not, switching to the GCN OST is a snap. This is a perfectly valid way to play one of the top-two best Mario JRPGs out there. I'd say it's expensive, but so is the GCN one. Something about Dolphins. Basically, TTYD is a cute, funny adventure game with fun combat and creative settings and scenarios. I love my DeviantArt OC ensemble cast. It's a comfy game, and I played it when I was nine, and I thought the game was over after I beat Hooktail, and it blew my nine-year-old mind that there was more game afterward. Yoshi is the cutest.