Yea, I'm probably not in the majority of this, but honestly, I just enjoyed Paper Mario 64 more. Sure, it wasn't by much, but for all the things Thousand Year Door did right, it also did quite a few things wrong too in comparison to Paper Mario 64
I'll start by mentioning what Thousand Year Door did better and that won't include the improved graphics and animation because... duh, why wouldn't they be considering it's on the Gamecube while the first game was on the Nintendo 64, a system severely limited in comparison.
Anyhow, here's my list of positives from Thousand Year Door.
#1: An even better and polished combat system.
For as good as Paper Mario 64's combat system was, Thousand Year Door fine tunes like a high powered race car, having even more player skill and play style come into the swing when it comes to the RPG mechanics. As far as I know, this was the first RPG game that actually gave the player a chance to counterattack, and I don't mean an RPG styled tactic, I mean as in the player using actual button timing and skill to actually counter an enemy's attack. Wow, now that what I call innovation! It could have used a bit more polish, but on the whole, it was a great idea introduced to the franchise
Imagine if every RPG game had Paper Mario's combat system. They'd make so many tedious, brutal and borderline broken styled ones actually decent to even possibly good. *cough cough Shining Force cough*
Sorry, couldn't resist. ^^; Anyway, moving on.
#2: A much more vast and polished item system
Stuff like this is why I can understand why so people praise Thousand Year Door as the best Mario RPG game of all time. The item system in this game is just amazing. Paper Mario 64's was great, but Thousand Year Door's blows even that one into the weeds. It's just amazing how improved it is with over 100 items to choose from compared to Paper Mario 64's having about 80-90. Amazing.
While it could be argued alot of the items aren't that good, I still applaud them giving the player more choice on what the want to carry in their inventory, especially stuff like gold bars that you can buy when you have too many coins and want to store them for later purchases. Heck, in that same store, you can even buy Ultra Shrooms and Jammin Jellies. Last, but not least, there's now an item where you can carry 20 items instead of 10 like in Paper Mario 64. Again, it's stuff like this why Thousand Year Door does earn alot of the praise it gets.
#3: A much better badge system as well.
I probably should have put all of these into one category, but honestly, considering how good each one is, they all deserve their own slot. While Paper Mario 64's badge system wasn't terrible, it was just... eh, how do I put it? Lacking. Yea, that's the word I'm looking for. One of the things I hated about the original Paper Mario is how you could only get certain badges at certain points and only one store had them unless you traded some for Star Pieces. It was just very confusing to say the least. In Thousand Year Door on the other hand now makes it so there are several ways to buy them, making them alot easier to figure out when it comes to getting the ones you want. Heck, there's even badges for your partner to use too. How cool is that?
On top of that, you can now get the same badge twice for certain moves to increase your attack power. Sure, it mean using more FP too, but I liked the system. It was a great way to customize your badges and maximize your performance.
#4: The game actually allows you to keep playing even after beating the final boss.
To me, this was something I can't help but appreciate because perhaps there was more the player wanted to do in the game, but decided to beat the final boss and such. In most games, when that happens, the player usually gets to a point of no return. Either that, or a long and tedious walk back from the final level, such as in the case of Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario 64. As much as I love those games, that part I did not like that one bit.
What makes it even better is the fact there's a secret boss like in Super Mario RPG that you can fight who's even tougher than the Shadow Queen. While not as brutal as Culex, Bonetail is still a good challenge nonetheless and I applaud the game for giving that extra detail.
#5: Improved sidequests
In Paper Mario 64, the side quest was merely finding all of Parakarry's letters. While it wasn't a bad system, it was again... lacking. Plus, the rewards weren't all that great anyway. Few great, some good, some not so good. In Thousand Year Door's however, there's alot more to do in terms of side missions. Plus, the rewards are pretty good too. Sure, some of them suck, but eh, more of them were rewarding than not, which is something I can appreciate this game for doing.
Hey, if we're going to do sidequests, at least have them be more incentive based to do so.
Well, anyway, that's what I found Thousand Year door did better compared to Paper Mario 64. Now to mention the stuff I did not like about this game in comparison to the original.
1: Much more tedious tasks in main quests.
Yea, I'm going to get this one out of the way first because this one was too blatantly obvious not to. For as great of a game as Thousand Year Door is, it had some TERRIBLE tasks it required you to do when it came to the main quest. For example, in Chapter 2 when in the Great Tree, to get through certain parts, you had to keep all the punies together that you rescued. If you had even one missing from the group when it came to progressing, guess what, you HAD to go all the way back and find them and THEN return to unlock the next part of the stage.
Ugh... Ok, it could have been worse I suppose, but seriously, what the heck? What, is Mario their baby sitter now? He has to watch them just and get them to follow him like a Pied Piper just so he can get the Crystal Star? Seriously, this was just ridiculously stupid. Not to mention even getting one of your partners in the game was a bit of a hassle in this stage too. To put it lightly, Chapter 2 was one of the worst chapters in the game. It was just not fun at all.
Chapter 4 was almost as bad, but thankfully it's alot shorter when it comes to its tedious crap, being merely backtracking. While annoying, it's doable. Plus, I did kinda like the whole Rumpelstiltskin type of plot where you had to find out the villain's name and then get to fight all of your comrades who absurdly bought Doopliss' act of being Mario. Eh, whatever, it is what it is.
Chapter 5 to me is one of the worst chapters as well when it comes to being tedious and irritating, if not THE WORST and not merely for just Mario's part of it. While some of his gameplay in this was annoying and tedious, what ruined this chapter to me was Peach's part. You thought her baking a cake was tedious and frustratingly aggravating in the previous game? HA! It's 100 times worse in this one. In this one, she has to make an invisible potion and if you botch it up even one iota, you have to do the whole damn thing again! UGH!
At least the Peach baking task in Paper Mario 64 was slightly forgiving when it came to doing it. Here? Forget about it! It has to be near perfect or the formula is screwed up and you have to start all over again. Seriously, whoever made that part of the game, you're despicable! It's why I use the Flavio glitch of it to skip it because I HATE that part of the game SO MUCH! Just thinking about it steams me to no end.
Anyway, back on topic. Chapter 6 is also a bit on the tedious side, but thankfully it's passable. At least it's short when it comes to its tedious crap. Chapter 7 on the other hand? Oh boy... yea, I swear I almost would have placed it as the worst had it not been for Chapter 5 and the fact the X-Naut fortress part of it is actually pretty good. Before it however? Yea, it's awful. You have to track down two Bob-ombs just to get to the moon, with the first one being easy and the second one being a pain in the butt. He goes EVERYWHERE and for no other reason than the devs deciding to be trolls for some odd reason.
Here's a tidbit for ya, devs. It's not funny to troll the players you make games for. STOP. DOING IT.
Lastly, Chapter 8 is... long, but at least engaging. For all of its faults, it is the final level of the game, and a pretty good one at that, so I can forgive it for being long and tedious at times. Plus, the payoff is worth it, so I don't mind it too much.
So yea, it's stuff like this why I don't like Thousand Year Door more than Paper Mario 64. I'm not going to say Paper Mario 64 wasn't tedious at times either, but it wasn't nearly as awful about it. It was more straight to the point when it comes to main quests and that's the way I want it. Main quests should never be so tedious that you're bored and annoyed by them.
#2: The new paper abilities.
I'm again probably not in the majority of this, but I seriously did not like them. They weren't bad, just unnecessary. I mean, why do we need to have abilities to fly, swim, turn paper thin and so on? Couldn't we just have partners to do that for us? The last game did for the most part and I thought it worked well. Ok, I do admit I didn't mind the one turning paper thin since it did in hand with the paper shtick, but that's all. As I said, the rest were unnecessary.
Not to mention getting these abilities were brought on by "curses". Yea, I'm just going to say it, I DID NOT like that part of it either. It was stupid and a waste of time. Plus, the beings who cursed you act like they did you a horrible thing, when in reality, it was helping advance through the game. Um... am I missing something here? What was the point of that? Was this just more trolling on part of the devs? I hope not, but at this point, I wouldn't put it past them.
As I said, the paper abilities weren't bad, but IMHO, they're just a silly gimmick and nothing more. We didn't need them to have fun in the game. It would have been just fine having Mario given comrades to help him do these things or granted abilities that didn't slow the pace of the game down as these paper abilities did more times than not.
#3: The plot was not nearly as engaging as Paper Mario 64's.
More than likely, I'm in the minority on this point, but honestly, I don't care. As good of a plot Thousand Year Door is, it was just not as interesting compared to Paper Mario 64's. Plus, the game spoils the mystery of the thousand year door's treasure halfway into the game by telling us what it is. Ugh, seriously, devs? You couldn't have kept it a surprise until at least after Chapter 6 when Peach's segments are over or no later than near the end of Chapter 8 when Mario finally heads down and Grodus shows what he's going to do with Peach? I just don't understand why they spoiled this so soon.
Sure, they kept the reason Peach was being kidnapped until then, but looking back on it, I should have put two and two together realizing Peach was needed for something concerning the Shadow Queen. Yea, it didn't ruin the plot twist entirely, but it sorta did in a way considering there was no more mystery to what was behind the Thousand Year Door. The players knew that it would have something to do with the final part of the game. It wasn't rocket science.
Also, while the X-Nauts were a pretty good group of villains, they seriously were underutilized. The game should have given them much more screentime since a few of the chapters, they barely even did anything, So what was the point of them being the main villains then?
Lastly, this game did a great disservice to Bowser character and plot wise. He was so menacing and interesting in Paper Mario 64. I really enjoyed how good of a villain he was in it. Here? He's just a comedic side show, nothing more. Yea, you get to fight him in the final level of the game, but honestly, I don't think it would have made a huge difference if he wasn't there considering he's not exactly that hard to beat. He's just an annoyance at the very worst, especially if you were still wounded from the previous battle.
I'm not against Bowser playing a part in the game, but his role compared to the original Paper Mario one was so laughable and pathetic that I just don't see why he was even in it. I mean, yea, his Mario type levels were sorta cool, but other than that, I wouldn't have been that upset if he was not in this game. He clearly was shoved to the background and was just there.
All and all, I still find this game to be really fantastic game and in some instances better than Paper Mario 64, but what made it not as good overall IMHO is as I said, much more tedious and aggravating levels, unnecessary gimmicks and just a less engaging plot.
If I was going to rate these in decimal form, I'd give Paper Mario 64 an 8.2 and this game an 8.0. It's a great game, but I'm sorry, it has quite a bit of flaws in comparison to the original, and it's for that reason why I don't like it as much.
If you don't agree with me on this, that's your right, but don't bother flaming me about it because as I said, this is my opinion.