Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door Review: Mario’s Greatest RPG Made Even Greater

To say I was excited for this would be an understatement. I have made no secret that Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door is my favourite game of all time. I said so when I reviewed the first Paper Mario a few months back, and when I reviewed the Paper Mario inspired Bug Fables in 2020.

When I reviewed those, I never expected to review Thousand Year Door anytime soon. Mainly due to not having a good set-up to play it. So, it was always something I intended to get to but not for a long time.

Turns out, I didn’t have to wait long at all. Because Nintendo just released a full remake of the game on the Nintendo Switch. Which is following the remake of Super Mario RPG from last year.

This is truly a great time to be a Mario RPG fan. Especially since, while I was writing this review, Nintendo went ahead announced a new Mario and Luigi game is coming out in September. Man I’m eating good this year.

So yeah, I was excited for this. It’s my favourite game of all time, how could I not be. Given how great the Mario RPG remake was I was doubly excited for it. I had zero doubt in my mind that they would give Thousand Year Door the same love and care they gave that.

Which, spoiler alert they did. Thousand Year Door is my favourite game of all time, and this remake not only preserves everything that made it great it also improves on what few shortcomings it had. In short, they took my favourite game and made it better.

But first let me address a question some of you may have, is this a remake or a remaster? I can understand the confusion, especially considering the two terms have been muddied over the years. Thank you modern gaming industry for continuing to ruin something so simple.

But to answer the question, this is a remake. It was called a remake in the promotional material, and it better fits the description of a remake since everything here was built from scratch. Unlike a remaster which simply takes the original game and upscales the graphics.

That said, this is still Thousand Year Door. The remake is very faithful to the original and keeps everything you remember just with some tweaks. Including a big enhancement to the game’s visuals.

I went over this in my review of the first Paper Mario, but the Paper Mario series always presented itself as a playable diorama. Each section of the game looked like the kinds of paper displays you would make in school.

Thousand Year Door continued that idea from its predecessor, but with everything having much more detail due to it being on more powerful hardware. The remake takes things further.

The texture work is a big step up from the original. Not only having greater detail, but also amplifying the paper craft aesthetic the series is known for. Everything from the buildings to the ground you walk on all look like they’re crafted out of processed cellulose. Even the larger bosses look like folded paper models.

It really makes you feel like you’re in a living paper craft world. It isn’t to the same extent as Origami King where the paper aesthetic was baked into the mechanics and design of the game, but it is a step up from the original. Which is all boosted further by the new lighting engine.

It now has a more natural lighting system. Giving some locations a greater degree of atmosphere than they’ve ever had. It’s most noticeable in places like Boggly Woods or Twilight Town, where the darker lighting helps amplify the areas already weird vibe.

It looks a lot nicer, but there are some drawbacks. The remake isn’t quite as colourful as the original due to the more natural lighting. It is still a very colourful game, but they don’t pop nearly as much as they did in the original.

The game also has an overly glossy finish in a lot of the textures. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing it just looks a bit weird for something trying to look like a paper diorama brought to life. Who the hell uses glossy paper for those?

But I really don’t have many complaints in regard to how the environments in the game look. Even the issues I just mentioned are more nitpicks than anything else. I actually don’t mind the new lighting system or the dimmer colours, I think it adds to the atmosphere and the immersion.

The biggest visual improvement in the remake though is in the character sprites. Thich is saying a lot since the sprites in the original game were already pretty good. Having designs for a lot of the characters and enemies that added a unique spin on traditional Mario enemies and characters. While also having characters that were entirely its own.

The remake keeps those designs intact. Which, after years of the series using the same generic designs is breath of fresh air. I know that as a remake it doesn’t technically count as them returning to the old style of character design, but life is all about taking the small victories where you can.

So, all the characters are here as you remember them, only better. One minor thing I liked was that the sprites have a slight layered effect to them. This gives them more dimension almost like they’re cardboard figures, rather than the flat paper drawings they looked like before.

It helps them stand out from the rest of the series. I also like that it makes the characters appear more three dimensional while not sacrificing the series classic 2D sprites on 3D backgrounds look. It just wouldn’t be Paper Mario if it didn’t.

But the biggest improvement to the sprites are all the new animations. The original sprites were very expressive when it came to their designs but were limited in their poses. It made certain exchanges a bit awkward in terms of how they were visually presented.

The remake fixes this by giving each character new animations and expressions. And not just for the main cast either. Everyone from the main party members, to the most minor of NPCS have brand new sprites and animations when talking to them.

They didn’t even add that many, but the ones they did go a long way. They even added back sprites to the partners, which is something I never noticed they lacked before. The characters always had a ton of personality, but that was mainly due to the writing and dialogue. Now they have the visual presentation to match.

When it comes to the visual presentation, Thousand Year Door remake delivers. Not just due to the major overhaul to the textures, lighting, and new sprites, but even in the minor details. Such as the fact that some scenes every party member appears instead of just the one you had out at that time. It’s a small thing, but it helps make them feel more like a team.

It’s a great visual upgrade, but it comes at a cost. All the new visual effects affect the games frame rate. While the original ran at 60fps, the remake runs at 30fps. Half the frames of the original.

I can understand why some might be frustrated by this. This is a remake running on more powerful hardware, it’s not unfair to expect a similar frame rate to the original. That said this isn’t that much of an issue.

While it may run slower than the original, it does keep to a steady 30 throughout. I only noticed drops in cutscenes with a ton of sprites on screen and in some screen transitions. Neither of which were frequent enough to ruin the experience.

I know there are people out there who don’t have a very high tolerance for this stuff, but when I judge it next to all the visual enhancements it received, I can’t be too mad at it. If I have to sacrifice a higher frame rate for these visual upgrades, then so be it. Not like you need 60fps in a game like this anyway.

Visually the Thousand Year Door remake is a treat, and audio wise it’s just as impressive. Even the sound effects sound much crisper and clearer. For example, the badge that made your attacks sound like a cricket in the original now sound like a frog, which is always what it was supposed to do. It was renamed in the original western version because it sounded nothing like a frog.

The most notable change to the sound is actually with the voices. They didn’t add voice acting, but the vocal effects in dialogue have been changed to give each character a distinct sound. The Goombas sound like Goombas, Koopas make Koopa noises, and human characters like Peach and Luigi have their voice actors making the noises.

It's a minor addition you probably will stop noticing after a while, but it is a nice one to have. Like the new sprites it adds a lot to the characters personality. Plus, it reminds me of Banjo Kazooie, which is never a bad thing.

The sound design is excellent. There’s a great use of ambient sounds in certain scenes that add to the atmosphere, and the remake adds a new dynamic soundtrack that slightly changes the music depending on where you are. Adding more to the game’s immersion.

Speaking of music, the remake has a remixed soundtrack that is very well done. The original soundtrack was already great, and there is an option to have the original soundtrack play if you wish, but the remixes have a richer sound which makes them better. At least in my opinion.

The remake soundtrack also includes dynamic music that changes depending on where you are. In Rogueport alone you’ve got at least three different remixes depending on whether you’re in the square, a building, or on the docks. The dock version having a clear shanty motif.

That’s not all. The remake even adds a bunch of new music. Including new battle music for each chapter. It follows similar leitmotifs as the original battle music, but each track is given its own flavour to better match the area it plays in.

The original battle music was already really catchy, but like a lot of RPGs it did get repetitive hearing the same song over and over. Having a new battle theme for each chapter helps avoid that audial repetition. And honestly, I like some of the new battle music a lot more than the originals.

They really knocked it out of the park when it comes to the sound. The only complaint I could muster is the toggle for the original soundtrack isn’t in the menu, you need to equip a badge. Strange they did it this way, but you can get the badge very early on and it doesn’t cost anything, so not a big deal all things considered.

In terms of presentation, the remake delivers. Aside from the lower frame rate, the new audio and visual upgrades make for a much more pleasant experience. The originals presentation was already great, but the remake improves on things I didn’t think needed improving.

But that’s enough about the presentation. I think it was obvious that the remake was going to get at least that right. Especially with how well Super Mario RPG looked and sounded. But what about the gameplay and the writing. How does the remake handle those?

Pretty damn great. As I said this is a faithful remake that doesn’t try to reinvent the original in any significant. Everything you knew and loved from the original is here including the script.

TAside from some minor changes to dialogue, including a major change to a character I’ll cover later, this is the same script as was in the original. Which is great considering the writing is one of the best parts of Thousand Year Door.

The plot of the game is set up like a treasure hunt. It opens with Princess Peach finding a magical map that’s said to lead to the Crystal Stars. 7 mystical objects with the power to open the titular Thousand Year Door. A mysterious structure fond in the sunken ruins beneath the town of Rogueport that’s said to contain a great treasure.

She sends the map to Mario to invite him on the adventure, but when Mario arrives in town, Peach is nowhere to be found. I’ll give you one guess as to what happened to her. Thinking finding the Crystal Stars will lead him to Peach, Mario sets off to find them and hijinks ensue.

If you’ve read my previous Mario RPG reviews, or you’ve played the recent Super Mario RPG remake, the basic plot should sound familiar. It boils down to Mario going on a quest to find seven magical stars. That’s been the set-up for most of the Mario RPG’s I’ve looked at and would continue being a formula the series would continue to rely on.

Really, the only Mario RPG’s that didn’t follow it were the Mario and Luigi series. Those games got a bit wackier with their plots. But even they contained some kind of McGuffin hunt, it just wasn’t seven stars.

Thousand Year Door does put its own spin on the formula though. The idea of framing it as a treasure hunt gives it a more adventurous tone that is something unique to this game even now.

And as I have said in the past, Mario RPGs aren’t really focused on the plot. I mean its Mario, the main plot of the series always follows the save the princess from dragon storyline. The whole series story follows a formula, why would the RPGs be any different.

The main appeal of Mario RPG stories isn’t the plot. It’s the humour, charm, and the memorable moments you see throughout the adventure. And this is where Thousand Year Door shines.

Like its predecessor, Thousand Year Door is structured as a series of chapters where you visit a new location. With the moments between having you head back to Rogueport, where you can prepare for the next leg of the journey and learn a little bit more about the underlying mystery surrounding the Thousand Year Door itself.

This makes the downtime more interesting than in the first Paper Mario. In that game all you really did was talk to some NPCs to find the path to the next chapter. That’s still true here to an extent, but slowly learning more about the underlying mystery makes the breaks in the action more interesting.

Think of these sections as the lore dumps, you’d see in shonen anime. Only not as dense, confusing, and actually integrated well into the pace of the narrative. At least Thousand Year Door doesn’t feel like it wastes 20 minutes on what ends up being wiki fodder.

The overarching story is only meant to act as an end point. merely a goal to strive towards, but the twists the story takes do keep that overarching story interesting. The real bulk of the story though is in the individual chapters themselves.

The game is laid out in a very episodic way. Each chapter in the game serving as a mini story with its own self-contained narrative. And I use the term narrative deliberately, because Thousand Year Door in a way is a game all about narratives.

See, every chapter in Thousand Year Door is a pastiche/parody/homage to a certain kind of genre fiction. The game even lampshades this idea in the very first chapter, which has Mario trying to save a town from a massive Dragon that lives in a castle.

That’s about as traditional a story you can get. I mean the first JRPG was Dragon Quest which had this exact same premise just on a grander scale. It’s not even that far off from a traditional Mario story, it just lacks a princess to save.

But after the game eases you in with this traditional narrative, that’s when it starts getting weird. The next chapter has Mario visit a strange wood where he needs to help a bunch of Pikmin like creatures take back their tree from a rival tribe.

Another chapter has Mario enter a fighting arena and rise through the ranks while uncovering a greater mystery. The chapter acting as a parody of martial arts/wrestling stories, or a tournament arc in a shonen manga.

My favourite chapter is the 6th. This has Mario on a luxurious train ride to the Crystal Star and just has him getting involved in the passengers’ problems. It’s meant to be a take on old mystery novels like you’d see by Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, complete with a penguin detective. Though he less a Poirot and more a Clouseau.

Thousand Year Door does a great job of both poking fun of, but also making a genuine attempt at each of the genres it tackles. The best example of this would be chapter 5. It’s set up as a pirate adventure story, think Treasure Island or Pirates of the Caribbean, and it has all the hallmarks you’d expect of stories like that.

Visiting an exotic island for treasure, being shipwrecked, exploring vast jungles, solving puzzles and traps in an ancient pirate lair, it even features ghost pirates. With the boss of the chapter being a giant Spanish pirate skeleton.

It has everything you would want from a pirate story; it’s just done in a very tongue in cheek way. Take the main NPC of the chapter Flavio. He’s depicted as a foppish merchant who talks a big game of adventure but is just a giant cad. A coward who likes to talk a big game but never actually play.

He’s an obvious parody on the kind of adventurous ship captain you’d see in those old adventure novels. But rather than make him a complete joke, they actually give him an arc that has him finally stand up and be the hero he pretends at being at.

Instead of just making him an ineffectual throwaway gag character, they give him all the development you would expect from the hero of the adventure stories the chapter pokes fun at. A genuine attempt at the genre done in its own tongue in cheek way.

Like previous Mario RPG’s, Thousand Year Door never takes itself that seriously. It knows it doesn’t need to be anything more than a fun adventure and goes all out trying to be just that. This isn’t trying to be a thematically rich narrative. It’s simply a light-hearted adventure that wants to make you laugh, but that doesn’t mean it lacks substance.

For all the laughs and jokes it throws at you, it also shows a genuine love of the genre fiction it parodies. It’s a game all about different kinds of narratives. From old adventure stories to detective novel, to battle manga, to tribal war tales. It has it all and it treats them all with respect.

And when the game needs to get emotional it does. Very effectively might I add. There are parts of the game that will tug on your heartstrings. Bobbery’s backstory never fails to choke me up every time I reach it.

Normally I hate it when comedies do this, and make no mistake Thousand Year Door is a comedy, but it earns these moments because of how well written the characters are. They all have their own backstories and goals.

Koops wants to be brave, Vivian learns self-confidence, Flurrie yearns to feel the spotlight again, and Bobbery regains his love for adventure. Every partner you meet has their own reasons for going with Mario that are believable and easy to empathise with.

They’ll obviously be characters you’ll relate to more than others. My personal favourites being Koops and Bobbery, the latter for his tragic backstory and the former for being a bit of a klutz who still steps up when the need arises. Meanwhile I didn’t quite get as invested with Flurrie or Vivian, but I know that other players will. Especially with Vivian.

The partners are all fully realised characters. The game doesn’t spend a whole lot of time focusing on them outside their introductory chapters, but they still end up feeling like they’ve grown by the time you reach the end.

Although the game’s emotional moments do make the parts where they poke fun of melodramatic tropes all the funnier. You know those scenes where they think a character is dead, but then they turn out to be alive? Don’t you just hate how sappy those moments are.

Well, Thousand Year Door loves making fun of that. There are numerous scenes that are played as a serious death scene, only for it to turn out to be a case of mistaken identity, or the character was just a sleep. It’s pretty funny in how anti-climactic they are

The game does this a lot where it’ll play what would be a serious scene in other games as a comedic moment, but that only makes the emotional moments more impactful since they feel sincere and honest. The game knows when to go for the gags and when to let a moment just be a moment

The whole script has this charm to it that makes it really hard to dislike. From its humorous takes on genre fiction, to its superb character work. And when I say character work I’m not just talking about the main characters. I’m talking about the minor NPC’s and the world itself.

Each location you visit has its own distinct look and feel that has a character all its own. And nothing exemplifies this more than the main hub area, Rogueport.

You remember Toad Town? The hub town in the first game. It was a charming little hub area where everyone was friendly and happy and got along, and everyone knew Mario because he was the hero who saved the day all the time.

Yeah, Rogueport is the bizarro version of that. Rogueport is a run-down port town where crime is rampant, everyone is on edge, shady, and/or trying to rip everybody off, and where Mario might as well be a complete stranger.

While Toad Town felt like a safe space, Rogueport has a sense of danger about it that never goes away. I mean the first thing you see when entering the town is a noose. That implies there were once hangings in this town, or do they still perform them? Good lord that’s dark if true.

It’s a town where everything is dingy and dirty, with dark back alleys laden with trash, and in the GameCube version there was an actual murder scene. No really, there was a chalk outline of a Toad in one of the back-alley houses that implied someone was murdered there. The remake removed that unfortunately, but the fact it existed in a Mario game will never cease being weird.

There is a nice part of town with flowers and a game centre, but the only reason it’s like that is because it’s got the funding of a Pianta Mafioso group. There is a Pianta mafia syndicate in this game, who were also involved in a gang fight you see when you first entire town. Is this a Mario game or Grand Theft Auto?

Rogueport is not a nice place. Even the NPCs are a lot more stand offish. That nice part of town I mentioned is blocked off for the first few chapters of the game. The first game did something similar with debris that got cleared up as the game progressed, but in Thousand Year Door, the way to the west side of town is blocked by a pissed off Toad chef.

You see her in the opening looking for her contact lens. If you approach her, you step on it and that sets her off. She then won’t let you through until you buy her a new one. Even when you do that, she doesn’t let you forget about it every time you visit her shop.

That’s not all, the first time you enter the east side of town you get mugged. You just get randomly robbed out of the blue like a nobody. That’s because Mario is a complete nobody in Rogueport.

In Toad Town everyone was nice and friendly towards him because he was the hero who always saved the day, but those deeds are mostly unknown in Rogueport. Some have heard of him, but only as part of rumour and legends.

Mario might as well be a complete rando here. There’s even a running gag where people keep getting Mario’s name wrong. To the point where that bumbling Penguin detective calls you Luigi. The absolute disrespect Mario get is pretty damn funny.

Rogueport is not what you would expect from a Mario game, which was kind of the style at the time. The GameCube era was when Nintendo got experimental with their IP’s. This is the same era that gave us Wind Waker and Metroid Prime after all.

Just look at the other Mario games that were coming out at the time. You had Sunshine giving him a water pack, and Luigi got his own spin off game where he fought ghosts with vacuum, Mario Pinball Land was birthed into existence for reasons only God knows.

Point is, this was a weird time for Mario and Rogueport is the perfect encapsulation of that. It’s also a perfect encapsulation of why this era is so beloved by fans. I grew up with the GameCube, so I love it when Nintendo gets weird with its franchises.

Rogueport is so alien as a Mario setting, but it still works. It has a charm and character that’s all its own. Compared to how safe later Mario RPG’s felt, Thousand Year Door has this underlying weirdness that makes it unique in the Mario canon.

Rogueport is definitely the standout, but every other town has character all their own too. Even Petalburg, the most normal town of the bunch, has a cosy charm to it. Probably because every other town is weird as hell.

But it isn’t just that every town has a unique look and feel, they also have a story to them. Rogueport’s backstory of originally being an ancient kingdom that fell to disaster is conveyed through the opening cutscene, but it’s told by exploring the ruins beneath the town.

The Glitz Pit is a combat arena with a history of champions, but also a seedy side with corrupt higher ups taking advantage of the talent. So basically like every fighting/wrestling organisation.

Twilight Town is an eerie village stricken with a curse that turns the townsfolks into pigs due to a creepy old house atop a spooky hill. It’s like something out of a dark fairy tale or a Tim Burton movie.

Thousand Year Doors world is rich with stories both big and small. Even the most minor of NPC’s have their own stories to tell.

For example, in the Glitz Pit there’s a Toad who welcomes you into the arena. Nothing special, a lot of RPGs have these kinds of background characters. But there’s also a second female Toad who is smitten by him simply because he’s a professional at his job.

Now you may think this is little more than a gag. Except, if you keep talking to them as the chapter progresses their relationship develops to the point where they eventually start dating.

These two are completely random NPCs with no bearing on the plot at all. You can completely ignore them and miss very little, and yet, they have their own story. They have personalities, wants and desires of their own. They’re just throwaway characters, but Thousand Year Door made them feel real. Well at least as real as mushroom people can be.

The game is filled with NPCs like this. There’s a family in Rogueport that’s falling apart, and you see them slowly reconnect. There’s a kid obsessed with Nintendo games, to the point that by the end he’s playing Thousand Year Door itself. That raises a lot of questions. Maybe it’s like in Spaceballs where they watch the movie while making it.

There’s a female Toad who sits by the train station because she’s obsessed with romantic movies, and then there’s the passengers on said train you meet in chapter 6. All of whom have their own quirky personalities. There’s even a ghost passenger who will kill you if you read his diary. So many weird and wonderful characters to meet.

Let’s be honest, talking to NPCs is usually a weak spot in any RPG game. Most of the time you just get exposition or instructions of where to go next. It’s usually not very exciting, barring the occasional weirdo you run into.

But in Thousand Year Door I look forward to talking to the NPCs. In fact, I’ll go out of my way to talk to them multiple times. Not just to see the witty and often hilarious dialogue, but also because I get invested in their stories and want to see what happens next.

Imagine that a game that actually gets you invested in the NPC characters. Well, that’s what Thousand Year Door does. They don’t feel like random bystanders designed to give information; they feel like real people with actual histories and personalities.

One of the more interesting NPCs is a minstrel you can find on one of the Rogueport rooftops. If you pay him he’ll give you a rundown on some of the games lore. Telling you it like an old legend, a tale handed down from generation to generation.

It’s a much more natural way to convey this stuff to the player. It makes finding this stuff out far more interesting than, say, finding random letters or documents that conveniently have everything you need to know about what’s going on.

I recommend reading up on the lore too. It actually recontextualises some parts of the story in very interesting ways. But I won’t give away any details here, you have to find this stuff out on your own. That’s part of the fun.

Thousand Year Door is a game all about stories. About the big adventures, to the small dramas. Even something like background information is told via gossip, and what is gossip but a story told in secret.

Even Luigi gets in on the action. While Mario is going off on his own adventure, Luigi is going on one of his own. You never see it, but he will talk about it if you talk to him. He’s more than willing t tell what he’s been up to, which often involves him overexaggerating his accomplishments.

The Luigi segments are a small part of the game, but it’s one of the best. Seeing Luigi talk about what a great adventurer he is, then talking to his partners and finding out he’s just a screw up who they’re only following either to get him back or exploit him is hilarious. This is such a fan favourite moment that people have been asking for a Paper Luigi game for years. One day we’ll get it, one day.

Speaking of other characters and their adventures, in between the main chapters you’ll get some brief interludes with Peach and Bowser. Which act similarly to the Peach interludes from the first game.

Peach’s interludes are a little more involved with the main plot and see her messing around in the X-nauts base. The X-nauts being the new villain faction that kidnapped her. The main bulk of these segments involve her interactions with the X-Nauts computer, TEC, who ends up falling in love with Peach at first sight and wants to know more about it.

It does start out as a little creepy, but as it goes on it becomes genuinely sweet. Which may have been intentional. Peach starts out as being weirded out by TEC, but gradually grows to like him.

 like how they handled TEC. His wanting to know more about love could come across as corny, but they handled it in a smart way. His need comes down to being designed as perfect computer, with concepts like love not being part of his programming. He wants to know about largely from an academic perspective, but then gradually understands the emotional side of it.

It makes perfect sense for a robot/computer character. While TEC is clearly inspired by Hal-9000 from 2001, his story more resembles Data’s from Star Trek. In that it’s a machine trying to understand human emotion.

I have to admit I have a thing for these kinds of stories. Data was my favourite character in Next Generation, and one of my favourite animated movies is The Iron Giant. So, Tec’s story had a lot of appeal to me.

Bowser’s interludes are a little less complicated. Bowser’s entire schtick in this game is trying to get involved in the plot, but he ends up being a stage or two behind. He does show up in the main story, but only as an inconsequential boss fight and he’s treated more as a nuisance than a serious threat.

Bowser is little more than comedic relief in this game. It’s pretty funny seeing the main villain of the last game being reduced to a bum in the sequel. His sequences are some of the best comedic moments of the game.

I could go on folks, but I think you get the idea. The writing here is superb, it’s funny, heartfelt, handles a surprising number of different genres really well, and has so many little touches that are easy to miss but go a long way if you pay attention to them.

To me that’s what makes Thousand Year Door so memorable. It isn’t just the overarching narrative or the individual chapters stories, as good as both are, it’s those little touches and details they threw in just because they could. That’s what separates a product from a true labour of love.

But, for all the praise I have heaped upon the writing, nothing is perfect. If I could point to one major gripe I have with it, it would be the villains are a little weak. I mentioned the X-Nauts earlier, but I should probably go into more detail on them. Essentially, they’re a space faring group who use science and technology in their evil plans. So, evil astronauts basically, hence the Nauts in the name.

Now I normally like these sorts of villains. Taking technology-based enemies and putting them in a more fantastical, magic based setting has always been an interesting dynamic to me. My favourite arc in Dragon Ball is the Android Saga just to give you an idea of my tastes.

And the X-Nauts aren’t a bad take on this. I like their design and they have some uniquely weird weapons, but I don’t find them all that funny or entertaining. Compared to Bowser and his minions from the first game, who were brimming with personality, these guys fall a little flat.

Another issue is they aren’t as big a presence in the game as they should be. Bowser worked in Paper Mario because he was a constant threat. They set him up as the big bad early on, and every boss you fought was tied to him in some way.

The X-Nauts aren’t nearly as constant a threat, only appearing in about half the chapters. Even then only playing a major role in 3 of them. Though the reoccurring rival character, Baron Crump, is a member of them.

I like Crump as an annoying enemy that consistently gets in your way, I just wish they did more with him. Look at Koopa Jr from the first game. You fought him at the end of every chapter and each time he had a new ability that changed how you fought him.

That’s what they should have done with Crump. It would have given the X-Nauts a larger presence in the story. Instead, you only fight him 4 times, and one of those is the opening tutorial.

Then there’s the main leader of the group, Grodus. To be blunt, he’s boring. He’s not all that funny or quirky or really anything that would make him stand out. He’s just the bad guy you need to beat. I like his design, but he’s very forgettable as a villain. Bowser he is not.

The only members of the X-nauts I thought were entertaining were the shadow sisters. They’re that weird subset of villains that come of as comical and as a legitimate threat at the same time, which is a hard thing to get right. It also helps that the leader, Beldam, is one of those villains that’s fun to hate for what a huge bitch she is.

Though I will say that, while the main villains were a little weak, the individual chapter villains were a lot better. They all had quirky personalities that were a lot more memorable. Chapter 4’s villain is especially great. So much so that they wound up making them a reoccurring character throughout the game.

Chapter 3’s villain was great too. I won’t spoil it here, since it is a twist, but it serves as a fitting antagonist for a chapter all about the wrestling/fighting business. If you know you know.

But I’ve rambled on long enough about the writing. Bottom line, it’s awesome, despite the main villains being somewhat underwhelming. Easily some of the best writing of any Mario RPG. But I think it’s time we change gears and talk about the actual gameplay.

What’s strange about Thousand Year Door is how safe it feels as a sequel. The more recent Paper Mario games have always tried to experiment and try different things. Granted those experiments didn’t always work out, but the point stands that Paper Mario doesn’t rest on its laurels. It’s always shaking things up.

By comparison, the modus operandi of Thousand Year Door seemed to have been to just take everything that worked in the previous game and make it better. It’s strange going back to it and seeing them build on what came before it instead of going in a wild new direction.

Which is what every good sequel should do. While it’s always important to experiment and try new things with franchises, sometimes sticking to what you know and perfecting it is just what the doctor ordered. A good sequel doesn’t break the mould, it builds on the foundation on its predecessor.

To me the tell-tale sign of a perfect sequel is one that improves upon the original so much it becomes almost impossible to go back to it. Which is exactly how it feels playing Thousand Year Door.

If you played the first game, jumping into Thousand Year Door shouldn’t be a problem. That same kind of exploration, turn based combat, and of course the excellent badge system is all here. Only everything is done so much better.

Exploring the world is still a lot of fun. It has a unique mix of traditional RPG dungeon crawling and Mario style platforming. The platforming obviously isn’t as elaborate as a traditional Mario game, but it helps keep the game feeling distinctly like a Mario game. While also adding a fun twist to classic RPG exploration.

The world has a ton of secrets and hidden items to find. A lot of which will require you to go off the beaten path to find, making it feel rewarding to explore every nook and cranny.

Some of which you won’t be able to get, or even reach on your first run through. Mario will unlock new abilities and partners throughout the adventure that will let him explore areas he couldn’t reach before.

You get boots and hammer upgrades like in the original, but these have some added utility like being able to jump to high ledge with the final boot upgrade. Much more fun than just getting a ground pound, though you still get that.

The best abilities are the new paper related ones. Mario can find the black treasure chests that “curse” him and let him turn into a few paper forms. He can turn into an airplane, a boat, turn thin or roll up into a tube.

The former are context sensitive and used to cross gaps or sail over water, while the latter can be used to slip into gaps Mario can’t normally. They play into the paper gimmick in a fun way without going too far like the later games do.

This also marks the first time the paper craft idea was implemented into the gameplay. in fact this was the first Paper Mario game to carry the Paper Mario title in Japan. With the original being named Mario Story. So, in a weird way this is the first Paper Mario game.

These new abilities open the game up in the latter half. You’ll see things in the game you can’t quite reach, but when you get the right ability to nab them it feels really satisfying.

That’s another reason why Rogueport is so great. Every time you come back to it there’s always something new to find. Other towns aren’t quite as elaborate, but there are still hidden collectables you will need to backtrack to get.

Speaking of which, I should probably address the elephant in the room. While Thousand Year Door is a favourite among many gamers, including me, there is one thing that everyone agrees sucks to high heaven. The backtracking.

Thousand Year Doors backtracking is notoriously bad. There are multiple instances where you either backpedal to a previous area, or run back and forth across a single map. These moments grind the game to a screeching halt.

There’s a particularly infamous moment where you need to backtrack through the entire game to find one NPC, only for him in the area you started. They do this twice by the way, once as part of the story and again as a side mission. It’s played as a joke but it’s not funny, it’s just annoying.

The backtracking has always been the worst part of the game. I don’t mind backtracking for secrets and collectables, that’s something optional you do on your own time, but when it’s mandatory? that’s when it becomes infuriating.

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that you still have to deal with the backtracking, the good news is the remake actually makes strides to fix a lot of the major issues with it. It doesn’t completely fix it, but it’s still a massive improvement over the original release.

Firstly, they added in a warp room that takes you to all of the major towns in the game. Technically the original version had a fast travel system like this. Except there the warp pipes were split across multiple rooms and weren’t clearly marked. Making it a pain in the ass to use.

But the remake puts all of them in one location, properly labels them, and has a convenient warp pipe taking you directly to it in town. Before you had to dig around the underground to get to it, now you just jump into a pipe and, bam, your right there.

This helps so much. It makes the backtracking much more comfortable than it was before. To the point where I actually did all of the side missions. Usually, I ignore these because the backtracking is such a nightmare. Now I had no issues doing them.

That’s not the only fix though. Chapter 4 is widely considered the worst chapter when it comes to the backtracking. The whole chapter is based around moving from the main town to a haunted mansion five times. Five times going to and from the same locations.

And this is not a short trek either, it takes a few minutes to get between the two places even if you skip all the battles. This made the chapter incredibly tedious. If it weren’t for the amazing villain, it would be my least favourite in the game.

The remake, however, adds a new warp pipe that lets you bypass the last two trips. Granted you do still need to do it three times, but those trips are different enough that I don’t mind doing them. It was those last two trips where it felt like they were pushing it.

I usually dread chapter 4, but now I can just enjoy it for the fun story and atmosphere. It went from one of my least favourites, to maybe my second favourite in the game. This one change pretty much justifies the remakes existence.

Now there are still moments of running back and forth. Chapters 2, 5 and 6 are especially bad at this, but these aren’t too bad to deal with. By the time you get to chapter 5 and 6 you already have Yoshi who boosts your movement speed. It doesn’t take long to get anywhere by that point.

So the backtracking is still a little annoying, but no longer the major issue it was before. It actually makes backtracking for the secrets fun, and I never thought I’d say that about this game.

Thousand Year Doors level design is a bit more elaborate than its predecessor. The puzzle solving is roughly the same, but the level design is a bit larger with more verticality and side rooms to find.

Like a lot of RPGs, you can find items and equipment hidden around to aid you on your adventure. But in Thousand Year Door there are two special collectibles to look out for. Shine Sprites and Star Pieces.

The Shine Sprites serve a similar purpose as the Super Blocks from the first game. These level up your partner, with each partner having two ranks. Unlike the Super Blocks, you don’t get the upgrade right away. You need to visit Merlon in Rogueport who will upgrade partners for three Shine Sprites per rank.

Most of these aren’t that difficult to find. A lot are just out in the open and just require you to hit them, while others are a bit more hidden or require completing a brief platforming challenge or minor puzzle to get.

The Star Shards are a little trickier to find. For these you’ll need to scour every nook and cranny and check behind everything you find if you want to get them all. They work exactly like they did in the first game, being able to trade them in to a certain NPC in exchange for some rare badges.

In the original version I never bother trying to get all of these. While you can get some really good badges, including the Quick-Change badge which is so good it breaks the game, I usually have enough Star Pieces in normal play to get what I wanted. And there isn’t a reward for getting them all, so after I get what I want I ignore them.

The remake though, that gives you a reason to go after them all. By collecting every Star Piece in a chapter you can unlock images in a brand new art gallery. Most of the images are concept art for the remake, but some are concept art from the original release.

As a huge fan of this game this was awesome to see. I loved seeing some of the early designs for the characters. I wish there was more of the original concept art, but what we got is still cool.

The Shrine Sprites also give you something for finding them all, a sound gallery. Not much to say here. it lets you listen to the game’s music, even the different variations of it. Since I like the music already this is a nice bonus.

Both the art gallery and the music player are excellent additions. Not just because of what they offer, but also because they give a greater incentive to go after the collectibles. It’s nothing major, but at least it’s some kind of reward for bothering to go after everything.

Thousand Year Door also keeps the Mario RPG tradition of having enemies in the overworld. No random battles here, if you want to battle you just touch the enemy. I always prefer this to random battles since I’ve grown to despise the concept in recent years because of what a pace breaker it is.

Sometimes I just want to get somewhere, but no I have to fight a bunch of random jobbers first. It’s so tedious. Having the enemy on the overworld is a much better system. Makes it easy to avoid combat when you don’t feel like fighting.

Thousand Year Door even has a badge that lets you kill weaker enemies by hitting them in the overworld. Normally doing so lets you get extra damage in at the start of the fight, with this badge you can skip them outright. Very useful when backtracking, and it doesn’t cost anything either.

And I think this should segway nicely into the battle system. Which is easily the best part of the game, at least as far as gameplay is concerned. This is one of the most creative and unique battle systems I’ve ever seen in an RPG.

The fundamentals are identical to the first game. Mario has two forms of attacks, either jumping on enemies or using his hammer. Both attacks do roughly the same amount of damage, I think there’s only a single point difference between them.

Which is good since there are going to be times where you don’t have a choice in what attack to use. If an enemy is spikey or on fire you’ll need to use the hammer, otherwise you’ll take damage. Conversely, the hammer can only attack grounded foes, so any in the air will require you to jump.

You start out with the standard jump and hammer attacks, but you’ll unlock new attacks as you progress. Either through equipping badges or through the boot and hammer upgrades. Yeah, they don’t just boost your attack power this time, you get new attacks as well.

These other attacks have different effects that can really help you out. Like the Hammer Throw allowing you to hammer enemies in the air, or the soft bounce weakening enemy defences, or the piercing blow which ignores defence.

The best attacks though are the ones that can hit multiple enemies at once. These are great for crowd control, which becomes a necessity when they start throwing larger groups at you.

But these alternate attacks cost FP, or Flower Points, which is a limited resource shared by Mario and his partner. This can run out quickly if you aren’t careful, so there’s an element of resource management to consider.

 This same resource management applies to the items. You have a limited inventory, starting at 15 but you can upgrade it to 20 through side activities. 15 is more than you got in the original though, there you only got 10 to begin with.

Still that’s not a lot. You’ll want to think carefully about what items you want. Healing items for HP and FP are a must, but you may also want to bring attack items to deal with specific enemies. Especially if you don’t have any attacks that can deal with them.

This is why you’ll want to cook your items. Doing so can buff them and give them different effects. You can even combine certain items to use both their effects at the same time.

There’s a lot of different recipes to try out, but the main thing you’ll want are items that do two things at once. Why have five health restoring items and five FP regenerating items when you can have five items that do both. That way you can free up space in the inventory for other stuff.

This fixes an issue with RPG’s where you have so many items by the end that it trivialises a lot of the end game. I think we all get to the point in RPG’s where we have 99 potions and just spam them between battles to always stay at full health.

That’s why I prefer RPGs with limited inventories, since they force you to engage with its systems more. Not only figuring out what items to take, but saving those items for when you absolutely need them.

Thousand Year Door is an easy game, these are meant to be entry level RPGs, but the limited resources do add a strategic element that keeps things from getting brainless. Which is something it has over a lot of traditional games in the genre. Like the best entry level games, it brings you up to its level not dumb itself down to yours.

Attacking enemies uses the tried and tested action commands. Doing these properly will increase the damage of the attack, but you can also use these defensively to mitigate the damage of enemy attacks.

Aside from basic attacks you also have powerful special moves that can help turn the tide. These have varying effects but each are incredibly powerful. With the catch being you need to build up a separate meter in order to use them.

You can also guard, swap partners out, or appeal to gain more special meter. Each of which will cost you a turn, so if you need to swap partners you’ll have to sacrifice one of your moves to do so. Unless you have the Quick Change badge which let’s you swap out without losing a turn. I told you it was broken.

That pretty much covers the basics. As I said, all the fundamentals from the original are here and accounted for, so a lot of the things I praised about the original stand. The different attacks and enemy types add depth, the resource management adds a strategy element, and the action commands are still fun to use.

Basically, if you liked the battle system in the first game you’re going to like it here. But then we get to the features. While the fundamentals are identical to the original, all the new things they’ve added make for a much more fun and refined experience.

Let’s start with the action commands. The first game only had a handful of these, but in Thousand Year Door they added a lot more. You have some that involve pressing a series of buttons in a sequence, mashing the trigger buttons, pressing a random button at the correct time and more.

They’re a lot more varied this time around, which keeps things from feeling repetitive, but there is some commonality between them as well. Basically, certain attack types use a similar type of command. Jumping will always have you press the button right before you land on an enemy for example.

Although, even similar commands can have different indicators that can change the timing. Though the similar motions mean learning the timing isn’t too difficult, you still need to pay attention to get them right consistently.

Even special moves now have action commands. Though they are a bit more elaborate, acting almost like a mini game. While this does mean you can’t just pick them and see results like in the first game, they’ve been made more powerful to compensate.

Despite the added variety, it never gets to the point where you have too many different commands to memorise. It adds just enough to keep things interesting, but not too much that it becomes convoluted.

Aside from the new commands, the action command system is largely the same as it was in the first. However, there are two major additions to it that greatly affect how you approach combat. Super Guard, and Stylish Moves.

The Super Guard is a more advanced version of the regular guard. As if the name didn’t make that obvious. Unlike the regular guard which mitigates some damage taken, the Super Guard negates it entirely and even does counter damage if the enemy makes contact. The only catch being that the timing is a lot stricter.

The remake does make the timing a bit more lenient, but it’s still tricky to do consistently. Especially with all the different attacks enemies throw at you. Some of which you can’t Super Guard at all.

Super Guard isn’t required. You can beat the game just fine with only the regular guard, but the Super Guard adds an extra layer of skill to the combat that feels rewarding once you master it. Thousand Year Door is very popular for its challenge runs, and most of those are only possible through the Super Guard.

Then there are the Stylish Moves, which are a little bit more fun in my opinion. These are additional flourishes you can add on to your attacks. By pressing the A button at the right time, the characters will show off with poses or acrobatic tricks to give your attacks a flashier look.

The timing for these changes depending on the attack, and some will even have more than one Stylish Move to learn. There’s no indicator for when you need to press the button. The only way to figure them out is through trial and error.

It’s not too hard to learn these. Just pay attention to the animations and you should have a general idea of when to press the button. If you do struggle though, the remake added a new NPC that lets you practice your moves, and they provide a visual indicator of when you can perform a Stylish Move. It’s a nice addition for beginners to help learn the timing.

But you may be wondering, why even bother? Well besides showing off, and who doesn’t love that, the Stylish Moves are tied into how you build meter for special moves. Which is itself tied into the biggest change the battle system received, being framed as a stage show.

Paper Mario’s battle system was styled after a stage play. It was a unique way of presenting battles though it was purely aesthetic. Thousand Year Door’s battle system, however, takes that concept to its logical conclusion and ties it into the mechanics.

For starters, the background props can be knocked down and hit your opponents. It doesn’t do much damage, and it is a little random in when it happens, but it’s a nice bonus for nailing attacks.

It’s not just the backdrops either. Even stuff like the spotlights, lighting fixtures, and pyrotechnics can be used to damage enemies. The latter can even be used to inflict status ailments. Be forewarned though, all of this can affect you too. It isn’t a weapon to be used, it’s a random mechanic that can either aid you or screw you over.

I noticed that the remake tends to favour you a lot more. I didn’t get hit by the negative stuff all that much, but the enemies did. I got hit more by the water that drips down from the ceiling, and that heals you from status ailments. By the way, where does that water come from? Is the stage just leaky or something. Never understood that.

I suppose this is as good a time to mention, but the Thousand Year Door remake is noticeably easier than the original. The RNG for stage hazards tends to favour the player more, and there’s even an option to continue from the current scene if you lose instead of going back to a previous save.

I mean you can still do that, but why would you when the other option is available. Thousand Year Door was already an easy game, and the remake makes it even more so.

However, it’s easier in subtle ways. Super Mario RPG remake also made things easier but did so in more overt ways that affected my overall enjoyment of the game. I still really liked that game, but I did lament that it was far easier than it should have been.

I didn’t have the same feeling with this remake. Yes, Thousand Year Door remake is easier, but not to an extent that it breaks what challenge it did have. The RNG may favour you, but it can still screw you over from time to time. It’s not like you can depend on it.

And to be honest I prefer it this way. I hate it when I lose based on random factors I can’t control. If you’re going to have RNG I’d rather it favours me, so I don’t feel cheated.

While the interactable stage elements are a nice addition, they’re more of a bonus than a major mechanic. The major mechanic with the stage gimmick is the audience. I mean you can’t have a show without an audience.

Alright, this is where the special move meter comes into play. Like the first game, this will build as you successfully land attack. But here, how it builds up is dependent on how the audience cheers you on.

Yes, you build special meter by playing to the crowd. Even the option to simply build meter is now appealing directly to the audience. This is also why Stylish Moves are tied into the special meter. Doing them makes the audience cheer you on more, and lets you build meter at a faster rate.

Because you can’t just beat the enemy, you’ve also got to do it in style. This is why I love the stage gimmick. It would be easy to just make it look like a stage and call it a day, but no they actually built the idea of a stage show into the gameplay itself.

It’s set on a stage, so it makes sense to incorporate the audience into the combat. Which they did by rewarding the player for being flashy and putting on a show. A good entertainer always knows how to play to the crowd, and the battle system wants to make you feel like an entertainer.

This is what separates a good gimmick from a bad one. A good gimmick will take the idea behind it and go all out with it. Doing everything it possibly can with the concept to the point where it doesn’t feel like a gimmick at all but a natural part of the game’s systems.

The stage gimmick was always something I was drawn to as a kid. Back then it was just because of how unique and different it was to any other RPG I’ve seen. Now I appreciate it for just how far it went with the idea.

Believe it or not, I’m not finished talking about the audience. Sometimes an audience member will throw things onto the stage. It can be something useful like an item or it can be some trash or a rock to damage you.

There are specific triggers for this, but I have no idea what they are. It might as well be random for when it happens. Though there are some patterns with this that are easy to notice.

Friendly characters like Punis, Toads and the rare Luigi will only throw good things, whereas enemies will always throw bad items. The X-Nauts will even throw multiple rocks at the stage if there’s a group of them.

If you see an enemy with a bad item, you can go into the crowd and get rid of them. Just press the X button and you can toss their ass out. You can do this with friendly characters too though, so don’t try to jump the gun. Not that you will though. The remake adds in a small pause and pans down slightly when someone is about to throw something. Giving you more than enough time to react.

I’m conflicted on this change. On the one hand I like that there’s a clearer indicator for when someone is throwing something. The original wasn’t as clear so I would either miss it or react right away and end up hitting a friendly character by mistake.

On the other hand, the pause does interrupt the flow of combat. it’s only for a second or two, but those seconds eventually add up. It just comes across as a little clunky. I don’t mind this change overall, but I can’t say I like it either.

And I’m still not done talking about the audience. Aside from throwing things, certain types of audience members have different behaviours. Daisies will put the audience around them to sleep, Punis will run away if stuff from the rafters falls onto the audience, and Shy Guys can run backstage and drop something down on the battlefield.

There are even certain boss fights that integrate the audience into the battle. You see what I mean when I said the game goes all out with its concepts. Everything you could think of in how to integrate and audience into a battle system they implement here, and it works so seamlessly with the core mechanics that it never feels gimmicky or obtrusive.

Oh and did I mention the stage itself actually levels up. When you reach certain thresholds, you’ll increase your performance rank, and the stage will get bigger. Increasing the audience size and adding more elaborate hazards.

There are 4 different levels to this. Though you likely won’t see the fourth level until the post-game. You could grind for it but why on earth would you want to do that? Grinding sucks.

The last new mechanic is the roulette wheel. This will show up on occasion, and by getting a match you gain benefits like full heal, full FP, full special meter, or all of the above. Or on occasion you can get a poison mushroom and royally screw yourself.

This can come in handy, if you can actually get a match. It is possible to time it right but it’s hard to get down. I think I only got it three times in my entire playthrough. Of all the new mechanics this one is the weakest. The benefits are great, but too infrequent to matter.

That covers all the battle system mechanics. While the foundations established in the first Paper Mario were solid, Thousand Year Door’s additions are so creative and implemented so seamlessly that the original battle system feels incomplete by comparison. Almost like it was a beta.

The same could also be said for the partners. Mario doesn’t battle the enemies on his own after all. His partners are also there willing to lend a hand. While Paper Mario treated the partners as an accessory to Mario, basically just a set of alternate attacks, Thousand Year Door fleshes them out in a significant way.

For one they each have their own health pools and can actually be damaged by enemies. With there also being more attacks that affect both Mario and the partner.

This also means there’s an extra benefit to having partners going first. Since the person in front gets attacked more frequently, that means they can serve as a shield for those in the back. If you want to keep Mario healthy without wasting an item, just pop him behind and let his partner take all the hits.

Some partners do have more health than others. So there are some that are better at tanking hits. Although that Quick Change badge I mentioned earlier kind of negates the idea of having a tank. Since it lets you swap partners freely it makes it so it’s like having one gigantic health pool on the side. Why have one character out to tank hits, when you can just swap a character out right before they bite the dust.

Besides having different health pools, there are other traits to consider. Some partners do more damage than others or have attacks that pierce defence. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but there are two partners in particular that stood out as the best. At least for me.

The first Vivian. She’s a shadow ghost that starts out as an antagonist, but after suffering abuse from her sisters and Mario offering her kindness, she switches sides. Vivian is a fan favourite character, not just for her backstory but also her identity.

For those unaware, in the original Japanese release Vivian was a trans character. Well, more an Otokonoko which is a feminine presenting male in Japan. They aren’t exactly trans, but they’re close enough. So much so that many other translations made Vivian a trans character outright.

Except in the English release. It was changed in that version to her simply having self-esteem issues regarding her looks. This was 2005 keep in mind, we weren’t comfortable discussing trans issues at the time.

But it’s 2024, and now we are. Well, more than we were back then anyway. So for the remake, Vivian's identity is presented as was initially intended. It’s nice seeing this finally make it into a proper English release.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Vivian is a very powerful character. Her main attack is decent enough, but its main strength is in inflicting the burn status which does damage overtime.

She can also use Veil to protect Mario from powerful attacks and nuke the entire screen with Fiery Jinx. Which also burns and pierces defence, making it the best attack for dealing with crowds.

The only downsides to Vivian are her Infatuation attack being useless, Veil causing you to skip a turn, and her overworld ability being underutilised and not too fun to use. Still, she’s a very strong character and is one of the easiest to get high damage out of.

But the best character in the game by far is the Yoshi. He doesn’t have an official name; he’s called Kid Yoshi in most official sources, but his in game name comes from you. You find him first as an egg, and name him yourself when he hatches. He even comes in different colours depending on how long that takes. That’s neat.

Yoshi doesn’t have much of an arc. He just fills the young hot head role in the party. But in terms of gameplay, holy hell is he busted. His overworld ability is the best in the game. it boosts your movement speed which makes it much faster getting around, and thanks to the new partner ring that lets you swap partners quickly you can whip him out much faster than before.

Suffice to say I abused the hell out of this, but I also kept him out in combat too. Yoshi has the best damage output in the game. His Ground Pound doesn’t do much damage per hit but hits four-six times in a row. Give him an attack boost and he can do some serious damage.

His other attacks are great too. Gulp pierces enemy defence and hits two enemies at once, his Mini Egg not only damages enemies but shrinks them to lower their attack, and his Stampede attacks every enemy on screen. He doesn’t have any bad attacks.

His only real weakness is he’s not very effective against spiked enemies or ones with high defence, but the former can be dealt with by Mario and the latter can be circumvented via attack boosting moves or items. So, he doesn’t really have any downsides. Just a great character overall.

Not that the other partners are bad. A lot of them are good for one or two specific traits. Goombella has her Tattle that gives information on enemies, Koops has higher defence, Bobbery does the most damage etc.

So while Yoshi and Vivian are the best, the others have their own qualities that make them worth trying out. I always used Bobbery as a kid because I loved his backstory and character so much. So, feel free to experiment you might find uses for characters I didn’t.

The only two partners I didn’t find that useful were Ms Mowz and Flurrie. The former for her low health and damage output, though she does pierce defence and heal Mario which are nice, and Flurrie for being primarily a tank in a game where the Quick Change badge renders tanks irrelevant.

As you can see, the battle system is fantastic. It’s one of my favourite battle systems in any RPG. Other RPG’s might offer a little more challenge or complexity with their battle systems, but they aren’t as creative and fun as this one is.

To me if you want the perfect beginner friendly battle system in an RPG, Thousand Year Door is it. Because it offers the complexity you would expect from the best in the genre, but it’s done in a way that’s easy to understand for newcomers. While having a charm that’s all its own.

It never gets stale either thanks to having strong enemy variety and how fast battles go by. Which is good because you’ll be doing a lot of battling to get Star Points. These act as Experience Points do in other RPG’s, get enough and you’ll level up.

Only it’s simplified so you only need 100 of them. Which makes it easier to predict when you’ll reach the next level. I really hate it when RPG’s need thousands of points to level up. It’s like you need to do advanced mathematics just to keep track of it all.

Thousand Year Door doesn’t require any grinding thankfully. Nor is it encouraged since there is a balance curve with Star Points. The higher level you are the less points you get from weaker enemies. To the point where you’ll get one measly point from them at high enough levels.

It’s a good way to prevent being over levelled, but also makes the fights pointless. This is why you want that First Attack badge since it lets you skip worthless battles.

Whenever Mario levels up he can choose to boost his HP, FP or his BP. The former two are self-explanatory, but the latter is tied to how you equip the badges.

Badges act your equipment in this game. By equipping them you can gain new attacks or attributes for Mario or his partners, with each badge having a certain cost. If you don’t have enough BP, you can’t equip the badge.

There’s a lot of different options and builds you can make. I focused more on getting buffs like Power Up and Defence Up badges, and badges that decreased FP cost for moves. A bit boring perhaps, but it was effective.

I didn’t use many different attack badges, mainly because the attacks you get from hammer and boot upgrades were more than sufficient. Although there were badges that had attacks that hit multiple enemies at once that I found very useful.

But again, that’s just how I played. The best part about the badge system is how open it is. If you want to focus on having a bunch of different attacks, it’s just as viable a strategy as what I did.

The only downside really is you can’t have everything. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. One of the things I love about the badge system is that forces you to make some tough choices in what badges you want.

Since you never have enough BP for everything, you’ll need to decide what you want to prioritise. Do I equip more attacks that have a lower cost or save up for a badge that boosts defence? Do I have badges that lower the FP of moves or use badges that raise FP since those cost a little less. There isn’t a wrong decision in this, it’s all up to how you play.

This system was also in the first game, but there it had a major flaw. The BP was capped at 30 which really didn’t give you enough room to experiment with it. It was way too restrictive.

In Thousand Year Door the cap has been raised to 99. Giving you far more room to try out different badges. Mind you this is assuming you focus entirely on BP, which is totally possible. BP only runs are a very popular challenge run for the game.

But doing so does come at a cost of your HP and FP. Which can make the later sections of the game a lot more difficult. There are badges that can help mitigate the risk, or even play into it for massive benefits, but that requires using up some of your BP.

You can’t get anything for free in Thousand Year Door. You always have to make some kind of sacrifice and I love that. It really makes you engage with its systems by forcing these kinds of hard choices.

You could just go for a balanced run and level up everything equally, but then you wouldn’t be able to fully deep dive into the badge system. My own advice for this would be to level up HP and FP twice, then go all in on BP. That’s what I did, and I found it to be a challenging, but balanced experience.

The badge system is designed in a way where very powerful badges are extremely costly. Stuff like Power-Up costs 6 BP, and that Quick Change badge costs 7. So, it’s possible to get some very powerful builds, but you still have limitations. You can never become too overpowered. At least casually.

Bottom line, the customisation is fantastic. The system offers a lot of depth with what you can make, while forcing hard choices that make you think carefully on what you want.

If you haven’t gathered by this incredibly long and glowing review, I love Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. The gameplay, writing, characters, presentation, it’s all phenomenal. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, that back tracking still sucks, but it’s a great experience I can recommend to anyone.

And the remake is now the definitive way to play it. The lower framerate is disappointing, but the updated visuals and music, on top of the quality-of-life improvements more than make up for that.

In terms of content though, it’s pretty much identical to the original. Not much new was added here. Though they did add two new bosses, both of which were great. Very challenging and serving as cute references for long-time fans of the series.

It took me a little over 60 hours to finish, but that was with me doing all of the optional content like the Trouble Centre and the Pit of 100 Trials. If you don’t do those and focus on the main story it’s a little over 30 hours. It’s a decently long game that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

I would recommend doing the optional content. They add more to the story and you get some good rewards out of it. Completing the Troubles, essentially the games side quests, is also the only way to get Ms Mowz as a partner. Granted she is the weakest partner, but the team doesn’t feel complete without her.

I do wish you could do more than one Trouble at a time. For all the QOL improvements you’d think that would be one of them. Would have really saved time.

So I think by this point it should be very obvious that Thousand Year Door is a good game. I just spent the last 10,000+ words explaining why, but what exactly makes it my favourite game ever?

Well it’s for a very simple reason, it represents everything I love about videogames. That’s it. I love games with imaginative worlds, creative art-styles, unique and interesting mechanics, strong customisation systems, and I love games that have tons of fun little details.

These are all the things that make me love videogames as a medium, and Thousand Year Door was the game where I started to notice that.  I think every fan of a certain medium, whether it’s comics, manga, movies, tv shows, games what have you, has that one piece of media that just clicked with them.

Where everything that made them a fan of those mediums to begin with became crystal clear. Thousand Year Door was that game for me. This was the moment where I went from a casual enjoyer, to a full blown fan of the artform.

I have played many games since then. Some better than Thousand Year Door in certain aspects. Yoshi’s Woolly World has a more creative art style, Bravely Default has better customisation, and Ace Attorney has the best writing, except for Spirit of Justice that one sucks.

But Thousand Year Door is the perfect encapsulation of those elements. Combine that with the fact that it made me the lifelong videogame fan I am today, and it is, has and will always remain my favourite game of all time.

This was an absolute beast of a review to write. I did not anticipate it to be anywhere near this long. If you actually read all that then all I can say is thank you very much. But if you skipped to the end for the TLDR version here you go.

The Thousand Year Door remake is a fantastic update to the original classic. The new graphical overhaul makes the art style pop like never before, and the quality-of-life improvements make it a much better version to play. I highly recommend it for newcomers looking to play it for the first time, and to veterans looking to re-experience it. Worth a buy.

I’m not going to get all excited and say, “Paper Mario is back!” due to this because we don’t know that. For all I know the next game could go in an even wilder new direction. But while I can’t say Paper Mario is back, Thousand Year Door certainly is, and that’s enough for me.