The original TTYD means A LOT to me. I've counted over 240 hours played across that game on my original GameCube save files but I know that number is bigger because I would constantly delete save files to start and complete new playthroughs after the four slots filled up (being poor and stuck with one GameCube memory card sucked)

The point is, this whole game is special to me and I have replayed it consistently since I first played it at like 4 years old. In my opinion, it's a perfect video game. Of course, that's with nostalgia goggles on because on my most recent playthrough a few years ago, I noticed some flaws like the backtracking especially. However, I still hold true that the GameCube original is probably Mario's most unique and creative game ever. It's so unlike a Mario game and that's why it's so special. The story is bizarre and kind of dark, the characters are a joy to watch, the world feels so lived in, the writing is excellent (especially for a Nintendo game), the game looks great, and the gameplay especially is so addicting and deep.

So yeah, this remake had a lot to live up to. And did it live up to the original's legacy?

Yeah, I'd say so.

Please keep in mind my next few points are from the POV of someone who has played this game a disgusting amount. These points probably won't matter at all to someone who is new to the game. Firstly, I'll get the negatives out of the way and the biggest one especially which is the 30 fps. Yeah, it sucks and it is a downgrade from the original. It was never a dealbreaker and I did get used to it, but it was noticeable. I suppose it makes sense that the game is 30 fps though because this remake looks INSANE. It is unreal just how beautiful this looks. Every environment in this remake looks like how I envisioned it as a kid. The lighting, updated textures, added character expressions (seriously these add so much more life to these characters), added paper aesthetic that doesn't go overboard like the recent Paper Mario games, etc all look amazing and true to the original game's art style. I'm not a huge fan of the reflections because they spam these everywhere and in areas where it wouldn't make sense (seriously Rougeport is way too shiny), but they do look nice.

Another thing I thought would be a negative would be the redone soundtrack. I wasn't feeling it at first but it did grow on me a lot by the end of the game. However, I still prefer the synth-heavy and digital-sounding ways of the original soundtrack a bit more. Again, this soundtrack is still great and the added new tracks for the most part also sound fantastic and fit pretty well with the game.

One thing I'm not a fan of is the sluggishness of everything. Text boxes are so slow to get through and they made it so you have to read it once before you can spam out of them. I get why, but as someone who reads faster than this text pops up, I wish it went faster. The added character voices do sound great though. Menus take longer to go through, battle menus also take forever to go through, healing takes forever for the animations to play, and my god I hate getting bingos because it takes an ENTERNITY for it to finish especially if you get a shine sprite bingo. It's so frustrating and I don't even know if the 30 fps is affecting any of this or if the menus just feel that slow but it never feels fun. Again, it might be because I'm just used to the snapiness and muscle memory from the original, but yeah.

I'm also a HUGE fan of the QOL improvements they made here. The fast travel pipes underneath Rougeport are the biggest change here and it doesn't outright fix the backtracking issues of the original, but it does help a ton. Plus, there are a lot of shortcuts that become available in chapters that are heavy on backtracking like chapters 4 and 5. There are a lot of smaller changes present that would take too long to list here, but they're all for the most part very welcome and add a lot of polish to the game. Also, I am a big fan of the script change for Vivian. It's nice to have a trans character, especially in a Nintendo game.

Another thing I wish to mention is how this game is WAY easier than the original. Some changes to the mechanics of the games and other things like the retry button make it so this version is way easier. There's nothing wrong with that. The original could be unforgiving at times, but I dunno, I kind of liked that? It's a bit of a shame, but I understand why Nintendo made the changes they did.

Anyways, I could keep going, but I think you get the idea. I have a lot of small nitpicks with the game, but that's all they are, just nitpicks. I do have some kind of big problems like the 30 fps and the slowness, but it's never enough to affect my enjoyment of this paper adventure. It's an extremely faithful remake which is great because the Original Paper Mario TTYD is still a fantastic game. Please give this remake a chance if you're even the slightest bit interested.

Overall, this is the definitive way to experience this classic and I'm so happy people who never had the chance to are able to finally give it a shot.

The remake was the perfect excuse to revisit this game again and I am so glad about it because oh man, it's so much fun.

It doesn't change an awful lot but it DOES fix most of the backtracking which is great to see because they can be absolutely diabolical with that at times. Doing the General White part again and thinking about how I didn't have the luxury of having a warp pipe hub connected between previous chapters playing through the original as a kid as I realized just what it was they make you sit through had me in tears. Games really don't affectionately hate their players like that anymore and.. maybe that's for the best.
All of the characters mumble speak now aswell (usually with character-specific noises you're already quite used to) and it adds a surprising amount of fun to the game, genuinely don't think I could do without it now. There's some additional content aswell, but I'm more than happy with just the regular playthrough - so I can't exactly vouch for that. I'm sure there's a few more challenging superbosses out there, so that's bound to be great for anyone looking for a challenge.

Only thing I'm a bit disappointed with is that the game balancing in terms of badges hasn't changed an awful lot, which is a shame because they're pretty lopsided. Power Bounce got nerfed in a brutal way by making the fourth jump a grand total of one frame (good luck with that lmao) which is an odd way to go about it but definitely a valid change considering how ridiculous that was, but even then the difference between jump and hammer badges is still steep. Ofcourse, it's a kid's game so I'm willing to be pretty lenient with it not having to be optimal by any means in this regard - but considering you can jump in pretty much every Mario game and the Hammer is more uniquely a thing for the series' turn-based games, it'd be great to not feel like I'm actively holding myself back by investing in it, and with this balancing issue being pretty well-known with the original being out for about 20 years now (god I feel old) I was hoping to see something along those lines, atleast. Didn't stop me from continuing to hold myself back though (mostly because it is a pretty easy game for advanced players, naturally) so it's not too much of an issue. Would've definitely made the game even more fun for me though!

But even without that, this game is such a blast. Gorgeous music, a unique style with a ton of charm, humor that's still as fun as ever and SUCH a fun and active gameplay system. Always a relief to play a childhood favorite again after so many years and immediately realizing that it's every bit as fun as it ever was.

The best I can say of this game is that it keeps the original game's battle mechanics faithfully intact, with a few tasteful additions and tweaks to make it more approachable to new players while not sacrificing the expression/skill cap for challenge runners. That alone was enough to give this game high marks and keep me engaged the whole way through.

Visually the new coat of paint is very nice, and there are some pretty good traversal QoL updates, but the story segments still take up a bit more of the game's total runtime than I would like (especially given the lack of ability to quick-scroll through the mostly unchanged text, handily my biggest gripe with the game), so I probably won't be doing full replays any more frequently than the original. I'll probably explore around its challenge running potential like I've done with the original, though, and I'm sure I'll do a Pit of 100 trials challenge run at some point in the near future.