This review contains spoilers
The internet is a place of hyperboly, whether it be for excessive criticism or excessive praise. The latter is not often talked about, a personality being an "internet darling" or a piece of art being a "cult classic" is generally considered a good thing. I, however, read such qualifications as warning signs. I have often been dissapointed by games that I found to be oversold to me, my biggest example of this being Inscryption, which was supposed to blow my mind away but ended up feeling repetitive and looking like a hundred 4chan creepypastas melted into one.
I hoped that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door would not fall into the ranks of the "dissapointing cult classics." A game acclaimed by all but that had never gotten a chance outside of the failing Gamecube, whether that chance be a re-release or a proper sequel, time, forums and YouTube videos made a legend out of this game. So when the reveal happened, I was happy, but cautious: I did not want my expectations to make this game a lesser one. I tried to tune out the noise, expecting this game to be good, but not great. I am glad to report that this game surprised me with how unsurprisingly great it was.
Let's get the criticism out of the way first: the level design is linear to a fault, almost feeling like a 2.5D platformer at some points, making the required backtracking especially annoying. Simply put, there is not much exploration to do, you just walk one way or the other down the corridors between major locations (which can be more complex, whether they be towns or dungeons), the only distractions stopping you from making a B-line to your destination being enemies. No treasures to look for, rarely any NPCs... This would be acceptable if the game didn't ask you to go back and forth in these corridors over and over again. The game artificially stretches its length out this way, which is a disservice to itself. The Excess Express is litteraly a train, where all that happens is a character from point A will ask you to look for/speak to someone in point B, over and over again. Twilight Town makes you do the same trek you had to do to get to the dungeon there but the other way round, Keelhaul Key is a major offender...
Glitzville is a different kind of repetitive, as you aren't going up and down disguised corridors, just doing 20 fights in a row, most of which aren't very interesting. It's a cool concept, but again, it's stretched out way too thin.
The game is undeniably repetitive, and that could make a replay tedious, but it is genuinely the only bad thing I have to say about the game. The game has undeniable charm, with a setting you wouldn't expect from a Nintendo game, let alone a Mario-one. The main hub is Rogueport, perfectly named after just how vile the town is. In the first scene of Mario in the town, you can see Piantas (those adorable palm-tree people from Sunshine) beat up a rival gang member as part of their turf war. You get robbed immediatly, the streets are disgusting, with grafiti everywhere, many NPCs are not friendly when you talk to them... It's really unexpected and such a daring setting for a Mario game. Even in your sidekicks, that adorable baby Yoshi (which you can freely name) is a rough scrapper.
About the sidekicks, all are charming in their own way and pretty useful in combat (Vivian and baby yoshi excluded, sadly, as they are some of the best-written companions). My favourite was probably Bobbery, great in combat and in dialogue.
As for the plot, it's basic McGuffin chase, but punctuated by great dialogue, humour, and stakes that feel weirdly huge for a Mario game. It encapsulates all that Paper Mario should be: an occasion to use one of the most popular characters in all of media and do new, daring things with him, with a game more oriented to teenagers and adults, whether through game genre or writting.
The combat is basic, a dialed-down RPG with "action commands" to keep you on your toes, but that doesn't mean that it's simple. The game is not hard, sure (the final boss can however catch you off guard), but players used to more complex RPGs will undoubtedly try and be as efficient with their FP as possible, without losing health. Furthermore, guard and superguard are great for keeping you on your toes at all times, allowing you to respectively diminish damage taken and take no damage, damaging the opponent instead. This is a great introduction to turn-based RPGs if you were burned by those in the past. The action commands make it more accessibly fun, and you end up finding the rest of the fun a classic turn-based RPG can offer by yourself, in how you deal with your FP, HP, and items, as well as your special moves.
To sum it all up, the game is a treat to experience, the presentation, music-wise or visually, is a treat and stinks of polish and creativity, the dialogues are hilarious, the plot does the job, the characters will stick with you for a long time after you're done with the game and the combat will make even the most sceptic of turn-based RPGs understand why so many people enjoy them, and no amount of linear corridors can change my mind on how great this game is.
I hoped that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door would not fall into the ranks of the "dissapointing cult classics." A game acclaimed by all but that had never gotten a chance outside of the failing Gamecube, whether that chance be a re-release or a proper sequel, time, forums and YouTube videos made a legend out of this game. So when the reveal happened, I was happy, but cautious: I did not want my expectations to make this game a lesser one. I tried to tune out the noise, expecting this game to be good, but not great. I am glad to report that this game surprised me with how unsurprisingly great it was.
Let's get the criticism out of the way first: the level design is linear to a fault, almost feeling like a 2.5D platformer at some points, making the required backtracking especially annoying. Simply put, there is not much exploration to do, you just walk one way or the other down the corridors between major locations (which can be more complex, whether they be towns or dungeons), the only distractions stopping you from making a B-line to your destination being enemies. No treasures to look for, rarely any NPCs... This would be acceptable if the game didn't ask you to go back and forth in these corridors over and over again. The game artificially stretches its length out this way, which is a disservice to itself. The Excess Express is litteraly a train, where all that happens is a character from point A will ask you to look for/speak to someone in point B, over and over again. Twilight Town makes you do the same trek you had to do to get to the dungeon there but the other way round, Keelhaul Key is a major offender...
Glitzville is a different kind of repetitive, as you aren't going up and down disguised corridors, just doing 20 fights in a row, most of which aren't very interesting. It's a cool concept, but again, it's stretched out way too thin.
The game is undeniably repetitive, and that could make a replay tedious, but it is genuinely the only bad thing I have to say about the game. The game has undeniable charm, with a setting you wouldn't expect from a Nintendo game, let alone a Mario-one. The main hub is Rogueport, perfectly named after just how vile the town is. In the first scene of Mario in the town, you can see Piantas (those adorable palm-tree people from Sunshine) beat up a rival gang member as part of their turf war. You get robbed immediatly, the streets are disgusting, with grafiti everywhere, many NPCs are not friendly when you talk to them... It's really unexpected and such a daring setting for a Mario game. Even in your sidekicks, that adorable baby Yoshi (which you can freely name) is a rough scrapper.
About the sidekicks, all are charming in their own way and pretty useful in combat (Vivian and baby yoshi excluded, sadly, as they are some of the best-written companions). My favourite was probably Bobbery, great in combat and in dialogue.
As for the plot, it's basic McGuffin chase, but punctuated by great dialogue, humour, and stakes that feel weirdly huge for a Mario game. It encapsulates all that Paper Mario should be: an occasion to use one of the most popular characters in all of media and do new, daring things with him, with a game more oriented to teenagers and adults, whether through game genre or writting.
The combat is basic, a dialed-down RPG with "action commands" to keep you on your toes, but that doesn't mean that it's simple. The game is not hard, sure (the final boss can however catch you off guard), but players used to more complex RPGs will undoubtedly try and be as efficient with their FP as possible, without losing health. Furthermore, guard and superguard are great for keeping you on your toes at all times, allowing you to respectively diminish damage taken and take no damage, damaging the opponent instead. This is a great introduction to turn-based RPGs if you were burned by those in the past. The action commands make it more accessibly fun, and you end up finding the rest of the fun a classic turn-based RPG can offer by yourself, in how you deal with your FP, HP, and items, as well as your special moves.
To sum it all up, the game is a treat to experience, the presentation, music-wise or visually, is a treat and stinks of polish and creativity, the dialogues are hilarious, the plot does the job, the characters will stick with you for a long time after you're done with the game and the combat will make even the most sceptic of turn-based RPGs understand why so many people enjoy them, and no amount of linear corridors can change my mind on how great this game is.