Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)

Koopa con Carne

Koopa con Carne

call me Hot Lips, 'cause i'm a one-shot wonder
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Koopa con Carne
Yes, folks, this is true. The last announcement of the September 2023 Nintendo Direct is that TTYD is being remade for the Switch. The original gameplay is there, along with the beloved characters and expressive enemy designs, in squeaky-clean graphical fidelity!


Paper Mario is back!
 
I didn't expect it to happen, but it looks like I'm playing my first 2 RPG's this decade
 
I am still struggling to process that this is a real thing. It really just looks like a fan concept from five, ten years ago, and i mean that in the best possible way.

I think the new papery visual effects are done very tastefully to play off of the original's artstyle. Like, i love the skeleton-rigged character animation and how it makes the characters look layered and smoothly animated. Now you can see a sliver of an uncolored edge on each layer, a far more subdued way of presenting the characters as paper cutouts than slapping a bold white outline around them. Other effects like the reflective surfaces look great. I can't wait to see more assets uncompressed and in HD, and now i'm really curious what could be done with Super Paper Mario's artstyle in the off chance that's ever remastered.

I'm surprised they're adding big band elements to the music, but i'm cautiously optimistic. The first two games' soundtracks could really use some touching up. As long as enough of its character is left intact, it should be fine.

Also, it's so cool seeing all of the original character designs, and the photo of the Paper Mario 64 partners, again. The Super Mario Wiki was my introduction to these characters, so i think it's appropriate to gush about them all here.

I really hope that this and Super Mario RPG do well.
 
Since this is a remake, they are likely going to keep it unchanged, but I hope that the final boss for this game keeps the unique status of being Bowser-free.

For the uninitiated, every Mario RPG has Bowser's involvement: usually Bowser is the final boss (even in Partners in Time!) or part of the gauntlet, and if he's not, then he's put in an ally role to justify why he's not the final threat. And then there's Bowser's Inside Story where Bowser is BOTH the ally and one of the final bosses. However, The Thousand Year Door notably excludes Bowser entirely, which I think is great because I think RPGs could do with more non-Bowser final bosses without trying to make Bowser team up (to which there's one case in this game, at least the original, so this is better than nothing).

Thank you for reading.
 
Really looking forward to seeing what quality of life stuff is added.

I hope the Game Over retry mechanic from TOK returns, that way the amazing climactic and emotional cutscene before the final boss isn't soured for many people by forcing them to mash through it every time they die. Seriously that's one of my favorite sequences of all time but many hate it just because they had to see it over and over.

Also, I hope General White can be found in his house as soon as you're given the objective to find him. Don't spell it out, so the search can play out once for anyone playing blind, but players who know how that plays out can just cut right to the chase and avoid a long monotonous wild goose chase.

Another thing I'm interested in is added continuity. Already seeing some added callbacks to PM64 and even somewhat of a call-forward to SPM in Mario's house, as we now see the portrait of his 64 partners that was shown in SPM is in the house during TTYD. I'd love more of that. The M&L remakes added references to the other entries that weren't there originally, so I hope to see more stuff in that vein. I also hope we can visit and explore Mario's house this time.
 
The paper styling of the characters in this game is very clearly a touched-up version of the original version, unlike the two previous games which are more in line with the first Paper Mario game. I wonder if they are planning to use this style going forward. Certainly invites a lot of flexibility.

On the other hand, the environment of this game is very much in-line with the HD Paper Mario games, which I think is fine because they look fantastic, and didn't fix what isn't broken. So if you compare these Petal Meadows environments, you can see the more papery look in the HD version (bottom) as opposed to original version (top) that didn't depict much of it as papery, like the grass. Which I think it's appropriate, since this game is the first one that plays the papery aspect more ambitiously (Hooktail is the biggest showcase, I feel).

Petalmeadows.png
1600px-PMTTYD_NS_Petal_Meadows.png


Also, I think the game benefits immensely from a grander instrumental because it just fits the themes better. I was impressed by the battle theme as opposed to the original, so the new themes will certainly be a highlight because it's certain to improve from the original.

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Unrelated to the HD version, but for the game: There is something I find a bit curious. We know that the story of the game involves a big threat that is not Bowser, yet Bowser this time only features in the interludes until the end. I wonder if the developers didn't intend for Bowser to be in the story, but only included him because they were told to get the memo? Because in the major scheme of things, I believe he's only role in the main story is as a distraction before the final boss.

Thank you for reading.
 
actually no, because this is just a remake of a 20 year old game. almost everyone who wants this remake wants a new game in this style; im not really a ttyd fan but i still want a new game in this battle system than the weird gimmicky stuff they've been putting out.
 
Yeah but this definitely completely changed the playing field and raised the odds of that happening.

Before this was announced, I thought the chances of a true return to form PM game was the lowest it's ever been. But now I think the chances are higher than they've been since Sticker Star.
 
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