Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door | The Completionist

when it comes to video games no franchise has managed to impact so many genres quite like Super Mario the original Mario games set the standard for 2d platformers and Mario Kart pretty much created the kart racing genre and of course super mario RPG seriously shook up the RPG genre and rocked the boat in particular with its reaction based battle system and it's humorous story elements that would later lead to the creation of the Paper Mario series and from what I've heard it was the second Paper Mario game where the series really hit its peak we'll see if that holds true when I finally complete Paper Mario the thousand-year door hey everyone and welcome back to a brand new episode of the completionist when it comes to the Paper Mario franchise I've only played two of them on one end I've got people Mario 64 which I absolutely adored from last year and then I recently played Paper Mario Color Splash for the Wii U which I was obsessed with despite all the criticisms that everyone had so right now today on the show we're gonna complete the ultimate fan favorite that everyone's been telling me to play today we're gonna complete Paper Mario the thousand-year door let's begin yes [Music] after critics and fans adored Mario's RPG debut with Super Mario RPG back in 1996 Nintendo decided to give their iconic plumber another RPG outing in the Nintendo 64 game Paper Mario and with the success of Paper Mario it was only natural that Nintendo would want to make a sequel and so development on Paper Mario 2 began the game was revealed in 2003 and it looked like a sequel all right so the questions began was this game going to be a great sequel or just a repeat of the original Paper Mario what was this game going to do that its predecessors didn't and most importantly was this game going to be as genre-defining as the other Mario RPGs but finally in 2004 the game was released as Paper Mario the thousand-year door and fans loved it but I do fear one thing about completing this game this is an RPG that means the game is going to be massive normally I love games that are diverse and expansive and the idea of a mario RPG having those qualities is something that excites me but when it comes to completing games that means I'm gonna have to sync a huge amount of time into this game and with every RPG comes the addition of side quests from what I can gather this game has a few different objectives that count as completion criteria first I'll of course be clearing the main game and all destroy driven objectives I'll beat all the bosses clear all the areas and save the world you know typical mario stuff ii like any RPG i'll need to complete the game side quests most of these will be most likely to be some sort of out-of-the-way fetch quest or side challenge but if it means making some random civilian in the game happy then i'll make in my completionist duty next i'll have to fill out this game's bestiary or tattle log in other words i'll need to document each enemy that I fight in the game by tattling on them after some quick research it looks like I'll have to tattle over a hundred and twenty characters including bosses and rare enemies oh boy fortunately once I've tattled on an enemy it's health bar will permanently be displayed underneath it so I will at least be able to track of which enemies I've tattled on and which ones I haven't lastly I'll need to fill out two other item logs that consist of Mario collecting and obtaining items one of these logs is the badge log which means I'll have to locate every single badge in the game the other is a cookbook and I'll have to fill this out by randomly cooking certain items together to see if they make anything new in other words I'll need to keep track of every item I get in the game as item management will be crucial in ensuring that I don't spend extra hours getting random items I may need for one cookbook entry oh yeah it's an RPG all right but at least it's also still a Mario game which will hopefully mean it'll be somewhat fair and not too much of a nightmare well I'm ready to see whether this game belongs in a museum or in a pile of scrap well I guess it is a game based on paper so technically it would be more fitting to be in a pilot you know what never mind you get what I'm trying to say [Music] Paper Mario the thousand-year door maybe a sequel but it's a game with an identity that's entirely its own while the overall presentation of the game is very similar to that of its predecessor the thousand-year door is far from the lazy sequel it could have been the game starts off with Princess Peach trapping to the land of rogue port where she discovers a mysterious treasure map after sending the map to Paper Mario he too sets off to rogue ports but by the time he gets there Peach has been kidnapped surprise surprise but Mario does encounter a Goomba named goombella who is defending herself against a group of henchmen known as the ex knots Mario saves her and goombella takes Mario to the town's professor professor frankly who reveals that the treasure map will allow access to rogue ports greatest treasure which is located in the thousand-year door so now the race is on for Mario and goombella to find the thousand-year door before the ex knots due and rescue Princess Peach alright so right off the bat the plot of this game seems like your standard collect the 7 things to get the one big thing type of story but as the plot progressed I was surprised and delighted and more often than I thought I would be for starters Bowser's not the main enemy of this game in fact the game makes fun of that aspect by turning Bowser into the games of B plots the game is also split into different chapters and each one has its own theme but when I say theme I don't just mean his aesthetics and appearance I mean that it's chapters have their own self-contained stories with their own self-contained gimmicks but some of their own self-contained characters it's almost like the game has its own cinematic universe where each character has his or her own time to shine and the last chapter of the game is like the Avengers but the chapters also have specific mechanics to them - in one chapter you're commanding 100 creatures called pew knees around and then another you're solving mysteries on the train I admit that being able to identify each chapter based on their gimmick is pretty fun but I do kinda wish that some of these ideas reappeared for some sort of climactic puzzle or challenge toward the end of the game even the music for this game is all over the place the game doesn't really have one specific genre of music the underground sewers of rogue port have this ominous electronic vibe to it while places later on like the pedal Meadows have this upbeat and peppy v to them but when you do reach a new location or start a boss fight the music is quite fitting much like other Paper Mario games this game is very funny the characters will sometimes make fun of other RPG tropes and some of the random NPCs and background characters have some hilarious exchanges for dialogue the games forth while braking jokes and meta humor almost always struck a chord with me especially when I'd be getting a new ability for the third or fourth time and the characters would then acknowledge how repetitive it was getting it is clear that this game was the foundation pushing forward for the entire Paper Mario franchise in terms of the game's visuals the game definitely has a paper crafting aesthetic I mean the game is called Paper Mario but unlike later Paper Mario games like sticker star or Color Splash the visual appearance isn't anything more than just when the pearance the game doesn't really rely on the fact that the world is made out of paper the characters never really acknowledge that are not completely 3d the paper is just a visual style sure you'll get one or two abilities that are paper related such as being able to turn into a paper airplane or being able to order self into a paper tube but aside from those things the game's main visuals just use the paper aesthetic as an excuse to make some pretty interesting looking worlds when I first entered rogue pork I admittedly thought it looked kind of bland for a hub world but the more I explored the area the more I realized that I actually appreciated rogue ports grayish color scheme when compared to later locations in the game the gray hues in the dollish color scheme give the place a much darker tone which i think is what the designers were going for I mean come on there's a place for people to be hanged right in the middle of a town and that's when I realized that this game has a lot of dark and grim visuals which is not something that I usually associate with something as colorful and vibrant as Mario there's a town where the lighting is always in a twilight tone and all the characters feel lost and hopeless one of the first areas of the game is hook tails castle which is just filled with skeletons of dead Koopa warriors at times certain places just kind of feel depressing and now other times there are bright sunshiny places that feel much more fitting for something like Mario know two areas in this game look the same the game also tries to do a few different things with its storytelling the game has a fun way of giving you just enough information about the main villains and Princess Peach and Bowser that you're just curious to see how all this information will eventually come together the game's generic plot of Princess Peach getting kidnapped was just a way for this game to kick-start its more ambitious stories we're talking about stories with character arcs and foreshadowing the game lured me in and I kept questioning ooh what's gonna happen next now I can finally understand why this game has a cult following so for those of you that have been begging me to play this game there you have it we're doing it finally but I still don't really think it's the best mario RPG story and I think that Color Splash have the better jokes yeah I said it Color Splash is a funnier game with that game lacking story in made-up foreign humor I am partial to paper and fun sometimes okay have you played that game though summons are like an acid trip and they're awesome don't deny it fight me in the street someone don't find me I don't want to fight you [Music] the gameplay of thousand-year door is heavily based off of paper mario 64 but there are plenty of modifications and enhancements to help things flow more smoothly one of the most defining parts of any RPG is how you battle against enemies Mario RPGs have pretty much set the standard for properly timed button presses that lead to extra damage and thousand-year door furthers that idea by making battles more prominent and interactive first and foremost Mario battles alongside his partners much like he did in the original Paper Mario however this time his partners have their own HP gauges and the order in which Mario and his partner can attack can be swapped if the partner faints the battle can still continue but if Mario faints it's game over secondly tying into the game's quirky sense of humor each battle now takes place on what appears to be a stage Mario can appeal to the crowd by performing stylish moves in order to earn more rewards but if Mario performs poorly sometimes members of the audience will throw items at you and sometimes the stage will have minor malfunctions to it such as lights dropping from the ceiling or background drops falling over thirdly there's now a bingo wheel that can go off if Mario's attack patterns are consistent the bingo will can provide a variety of different effects such as refilling all of Mario stats back to 100% or making Mario and all of his partners drop down to low amounts of Health Mario and his team are able to defend themselves against enemy attacks if you press the a button at the right time however new to the Paper Mario series is the idea of countering where a properly time to be press can allow Mario to negate all damage dealt toward himself and sometimes deal a bit of damage toward the enemy in the process Mario and each of his teammates can also perform different attacks based on a few different variables Mario's basic attack consists of jumping on enemies and whacking them with his hammer but with just a few flower points Mario can perform an even more powerful attack such as a multi jump move or spinning hammer attack each partner has a distinct attacking style to embellish her head on enemies while coops will spin into them of course the best partner in the game is Yoshi to name in this game I got a black Yoshi and I named him trogdor because nobody messes with the burn inator he could eat everybody and spit them back out regardless of what they are Piranha Plants big spiky characters lost characters no problem trogdor eats everyone and lastly Mario can also attack using the crystal stars that he's collected on his adventure these attacks have their own star meter at the top of the screen but this Meanor can't be replenished with items instead Mario must continue to appeal to the audience if you want to keep using crystal star it acts only Mario can level up after a battle and that only happens once he reaches 100 star points from there Mario can choose to boost one of three stats health points flower points or his badge points which can determine how many badges he and his partners can equip and when Mario levels up enough times the audience will be upgraded to bigger and bigger venues I guess the point is more and more audience members will appear for each battle which means they can be easier for Mario to replenish his star meter the other way to upgrade characters is through badges which can increase the attack and defense stats of Mario and his partners while they may not all be entirely useful they are necessary to have in order to fill out the game's badge walk some badges can be obtained easily such as by randomly finding them in treasure chests throughout the game however other badges can only be purchased in certain shops or from certain characters at random points in the game and some shops and characters randomly restock their supplies throughout the game so you have to constantly check back to see if they have the badge that you're looking for and if they do you just have to hope that you have enough coins in order to buy it and this can be real tedious wait I don't even plan on using the damn thing some badges can also be purchased with star pieces star pieces are little shards that you can find throughout the game and they can only be exchanged with some random guy in the rogue port sewers so between finding shine sprites badges and star pieces to exchange for badges you better explore every nook and cranny this game has to offer god damn it but some items aren't found in the main adventure some items can only be Tavia side-quests and that's where the trouble center comes in the trouble center is a little building on the eastern side of Rogue port where different NPCs throughout the game can file requests call troubles that can grant Mario some sort of special reward most of these troubles are simple as they simply require Mario to have a certain items that can be exchanged for some sort of other items but some of these troubles can turn into huge fetch quests and other troubles will have you returned to a very specific and inconvenient location in the game just to get a couple of coins or some other lame reward in addition to the badge log there's also the game's tattle log which essentially is this game's form of bestiary goombella x' main gimmick as a fighter is that she's knowledgeable so she can give you information on every opponent in the game and in order to complete the game you have to use her to have ability on every single enemy in the game that means that you'll be using her Tatem ability more than a hundred times beyond that some ADIZ will also only show up during specific circumstances and if you don't get their information on the first turn they may flee immediately afterward a tattled enemy always has its health meter permanently displayed so in addition to keeping track of each enemy's you haven't have entitled you'll also be able to know how long it will take to defeat the enemies you re encounter and then there's the cookbook which consists of recipes that need to be cooked by a toad named zesty zest zesty zesty zesty I get it you got me but maybe you figured that you could just progressively fill out the recipe log as you played the game like you could with the badge log or catalogue right know zesty can only cook most of these recipes after she receives a cookbook that you obtain in the middle of the game and some of these recipes require items that you can only get after completing specific troubles from the trouble center so I'm just running around like a madman now we're going back to doing fetch quests I have to do this trouble to get this item so I can cook it into another item so I can mark it down for this recipe log when does it end if the battles in this game weren't so engaging this game would be so much more tedious sure it's easy to evade and flee from enemies and battles but when I'm doing all these fetch quests to fill out all these logs I have to admit I kind of got tired of battling this is a fun battle system and this is still a fun game but when I'm spending so many hours just trying to get one item or tattle one enemy or find one star peace battling just starts to feel like it drags on because the game is relying on me to press buttons at the right time to do more damage I sometimes do feel like I could just button mash my way through the game but it's just not that easy so the point is if you're serious about completing Paper Mario at the thousand-year door you better be dead and serious brother you better burn this game into your mind you better live and breathe this game you better know where every item is and where every enemy is you better know every joke this game has about the throat you you have better seek limp seas on this game every time you close your eyes and if you want to complete this game you better be goddamn ready in the cream it always rises okay whoa whoa whoa is that why so many people are obsessed with this game is it because all those people who try to complete this game got this game so burned into their mind they can't see anything else I'm I'm so sorry I feel your pain and I think I now understand you open this game sick so we're good [Music] so one massive story and dozens of hours later we've reached the end of our game and what do you get pick take a guess not very much as you play the game and collect crystal stars they'll show up on the main menu the wood is can I think all of them and being the game rewards you with nothing no special menu no special postcard nothing sure in the other Paper Mario games you were just set back to your last save point and in this game you're actually able to continue after you beat the final boss but there's no great big reward on top of that completing all 30 troubles and the trouble center doesn't get you anything either sure you get some nice rewards for doing the troubles in general but nothing happens when you complete all of them finding all the shine sprites in the game doesn't do anything either yes you're able to upgrade all of your partners and having all of your partners become even stronger is a benefit all of its own but once you've upgraded all of your partners that's it you have no reason to visit the upgrade wizards house ever again and guess what happens when you find all of the star pieces nothing and guess what happens when you fill out the badge log the tab along and the recipe log you guessed it absolutely nothing you can show that you completed everything but you don't get a single goddamn thing for doing it all I guess this game is more about the journey than it is the destination but I seriously wish that something would have happened maybe a gold emblem on the main menu or a special badge that turns Mario into golden paper just something you can't make me put all these hours into finding and battling enemies just to not reward me at all it's even more hurtful because Nintendo usually showers a player with rewards in their games but here in one of their most critically acclaimed games of all time it just gives you nothing that's just that's a more flat reward than this game's entire aesthetic while I completed Paper Mario the thousand-year door there were seven deaths 42 shine sprites obtained 100 star pieces located a hundred 24 and entered into the tattle on 85 pages collected 57 recipes created 35 hours of total playtime and dozens upon dozens of enemies slaughtered by the wrath of the mighty nananananana the paper people paper mario the thousand-year door was a fun and hilarious game with tons of great ideas and characters the chapter specific gimmicks were fun the locations and themes were exciting and the story was excellent I just wish that the game actually rewarded the player for doing all the tedious side quests and item logging exploring every nook and cranny turned out to be a bit worthless in the end but if I were to tell you that I hated this game I'd be flat-out lying this game definitely deserves its cult following and I can definitely see why Paper Mario fans are so split on where the French I should go nowadays Paper Mario the thousand-year door is an excellent time through and through excellent story great gameplay fun and comedic you myrrh all over the place as a completionist however that's kind of where that journey ends you're gonna put about 30 to 40 maybe even 50 hours to get all the way to the end and realize that completing it might not be worth the entire trek with that said this is still an incredible game and definitely the strongest in the series so with that of my guys I give this game my completionist rating of finish it that's all time here for today guys so please as always let me know to the buffets episodes somewhere on the internet if you liked what you saw hit that like button leave a comment down below for future suggestions here on the show if you're brand new here hit that subscribe button click the bell to get all notifications I promise I won't spam you we do new videos every Wednesday and Saturday guys I've been drawing the completionist and I'll see you next week front of the brand new episode bye bye so long gay em cars day

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 780,678

Keywords: Paper Mario, paper Mario review, paper Mario gameplay, Mario, Mario (Video Game Series), gameplay, review, the Completionist, completionist, Jirard Khalil, video game review, game reviews, Mario review, Paper Mario: the thousand year door, thousand year door, thousand year door review, paper Mario the thousand year door, paper Mario the thousand year door review

Id: 45KdSL2Pfx8

Length: 22min 46sec (1366 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/malascus]

Nice, TTYD is one of my favorite games of all time.

It's really, really great.

[u/DuneSpoon]

It's easy to see why this is such a fan favorite game, with the dark story, humorous writing, solid battle and badge system, and fun story.

I think Color Splash got criticism due to using consumables in most battles and it seems most gamers are hoarders of items (in-game).

[u/MalionX]

I love this game but it really isn't a completion sort of game. Just beat it and do all the stuff that makes you happy. And make yourself look like Waluigi.

[u/InfectedBananas]

Honestly only 7 deaths when doing everything including the pit is really impressive

[u/distophic]

TROGDOR!

[u/ChubbyNomNoms]

I'm a little confused as to what his critique of the music was. All the music fits every different area. If it doesn't fit together, isn't that indicative of the fact that each area of the game is diverse and interesting in its own right? I don't know.

[u/trainercatlady]

So is The Completionist officially on Saturdays now?