Since Nintendo and Squaresoft (now known as Square Enix) collaborated on Super Mario RPG for the SNES, Nintendo fans wanted to experience it again with a possible sequel. Instead, Nintendo would team up with Fire Emblem and Advance Wars developer Intelligent Systems to come up with its flat, storybook cousin, Paper Mario, for the Nintendo 64.
The game showed off Mario in a new cartoon design, with expressive party members wearing outfits and unique abilities, two-party combat, and tested 2.5D programming on hardware limitations. Until 2004, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door showed what a true sequel to Super Mario RPG could be through the power of the Nintendo Gamecube, attention to detail, and story.
Since its remake is set to release on May 23rd, let’s learn why Paper Mario TTYD became a Nintendo classic.
Paper Mario TTYD’s Three-Character Story
When you start the game, you are greeted with a storybook intro. We learned Princess Peach has traveled to Rogueport, a town full of crime and home to the poor and middle class. Legend has it that there is a legendary treasure underneath it. Her chancellor, Toadsworth, took her there for a holiday.
Peach grew so bored and annoyed around him that she wandered into Rougeport Town Central. Her curiosity gets the best of her after she buys a legendary map from a street merchant. She sends it to Mario, requesting him to come over. He takes a ship to Rogueport only to get himself into trouble by saving the Goomba University student, Goombella, from the mysterious Lord Crump and his mysterious X-nauts.
Goombella later learns about the map Mario has and suggests finding Professor Frankly to discover what it is. Before the party finds his house, Toadsworth spots Mario and informs him that Peach is missing. Afterward, Frankly confirms that the map is the same legendary map for Rogueport’s underground treasure.
Meanwhile, Kammy Koopa called Bowser to his Castle Keep. to inform him about Mario hunting down the Crystal Stars at Rougeport. However, she bears terrible news. Princess Peach has been captured by “a bold fool”. Enraged, Bowser flies off in his clown car to find the princess he’s only allowed to kidnap.
Now, with the stage set, let’s go over Paper Mario’s RPG gameplay.
Paper Mario TTYD’s Combat
Unlike Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario’s combat system is not fully turn-based. You can switch between partners and positions to change your party’s attack order during battle. They also require timing your hits for extra damage and for an ability’s effect to take place.
Every partner has different abilities and attacks to use against enemies that Mario may not be able to use. Take Goombella’s Tattle ability. When you analyze enemies successfully, Goombella will give battle hints as commentary and reveal the enemy’s health. Or Koops’s shell spin can attack multiple enemies per round.
Mario has his unique move set adapted from Super Mario RPG. He has his iconic jump to stomp on enemies. Mario will need to use his hammer to defeat certain enemies. Take the enemies with spikes. Mario will take damage if he attempts to jump on them. Using his hammer or a party member who can’t get hurt by spikes will bypass their defenses.
Defending is given a boost with a chance to block enemy blows or stay open and counter them with parry. Parrying is like an attack. You time when the enemy lands a hit on you and press A to prevent lethal damage. It doesn’t work great with elemental attack, though.
You can upgrade abilities by wearing Badges. Badges will offer Mario stat buffs and new moves. They do consume Badge Points or BP, so pick them out wisely. You can find Badges around the world map and in stores.
Items are always here to stay in an RPG. you have Mushrooms of various kinds that can heal you or cause different effects on the battle. Other Mario power-ups will attack your opponents with stat debuffs and elemental attacks.
For tough battles, you can let Mario escape, but it’s not for free. You rapidly tap A until the meter is full or near full. If you can’t, you stay in the fight.
The hardest mechanic to master in Paper Mario TTYD is the audience interaction. The audience will react to how well Mario and his partners do in battle. Some will get hostile if they find the fight boring or want to assist enemies. They will throw trash and item debuffs at you.
You can time your defense or quickly push the B button to hit the audience member off their seat. If Mario’s team shows signs of struggle, an audience member will throw an item at them. If you are doing a great job, they will offer you coins. After executing attacks, you can show your Stylish Moves.
Back then, players rarely knew anything about this mechanic until the Paper Mario TTYD community shared it on game forums. If you land each one precisely, you will gain Star Power. Star Power will allow you to use the Crystal Star abilities.
Paper Mario TTYD’s Interactable Overworld
Paper Mario uses its paper aesthetic in every way possible. You have cardboard for most of the environments, locations have various hues of color from natural forest to synthetic gothic noir, and the characters that inhabit these areas make them feel alive.
The coolest detail in Thousand-Year Door compared to its predecessor is spotting secrets through odd flaps and cracks. These will indicate the player to use their party members’ abilities or Mario’s Paper Folding Curses and Hammer.
Mario will gather Folding Curses by encountering Folding Demon Box. When you free these demons, Mario is granted a folding ability to use on the Folding Panels you see on the ground. He will use his entire body to become the shape the panel allows him to be. My favorite has to be the Boat, so I don’t get my butt chomp from a blowfish named Nibbles in the water.
The funniest party member to use is Goombella. Remember when I said she gives hints as comments if you use her Tattle ability? You can use Goombella on NPCs and locations for information you may or may not want to know. She’s one of the reasons why the game’s writing is very memorable.
The Funky Dialogue of Paper Mario TTYD
Intelligent Systems’ writing on Thousand-Year Door is outrageous and makes its story memorable. There are thousands of lines to read from this game to either laugh at, cry over, or feel disturbed. I won’t list all of them so you can enjoy these lines throughout your playthrough.
As I said previously, Goombella’s Tattle ability will let you hear information about the location you are in or the NPC you are nearby. Here’s her commentary about the two Boo sisters:
“That’s Peeka, a Boo who works at Westside Goods. She’s so pretty…for a Boo. I think her sister Lahla, the Boo who works at the Pianta Parlor.”
“That’s Lahla, a Boo cutie. She works at the desk at Pianta Parlor. Her sister Lahla, the Boo who works in the shop. I hear they both used to be models.”
Bowser’s dialogue follows second with his narcissistic humor. Even his minions have something to say about his unhealthy Princess Peach obsession:
“So, the other day I saw Lord Bowser gazing longingly at a photo of Princess Peach.”
“Uh, you may want to put a cork in it, dude…”
“Hoo! I tell you, the look on his face when he mooning over that thing…huh? YAAAAAAAAAACK! Lord Bowser!”
“Well, I’m dying to hear the rest of your hilarious story, Mr. Comedian. Do share!”
Does Paper Mario TTYD Remake Deserve Its Hype?
Like its grandfather, Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door needed one. Nintendo made a port of it for a limited time they did with the 3-D Super Mario Collection. That would have dropped the quality and left loyal Nintendo fans disappointed.
A remake of this Gamecube classic made sense since ports will have the game’s resolution stuck on 4:3. Seeing Thousand-Year Door resurrected from the ground up made Nintendo and RPG fans cheer as much as they were happy to see Super Mario RPG get remastered into HD and New Game Plus.
It’s a marvel of what Nintendo went through to cooperate with other game developers to show how fun their games were through creativity and innovation. Intelligent Systems successfully pushed Mario’s boundaries outside of platforming while still preserving most of his sources. What a way to celebrate TTYD’s 20th anniversary!
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is available for pre-order on the Nintendo Store for both digital and physical copies!
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