# Chapter Select, [[S1E3 - Paper Mario - The Thousand-Year Door]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- Welcome to Chapter Select, where we bounce back and forth between a series of games exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *00:00* For s this first season of the show, we are covering the Paper Mario series. *00:05* My name is Logan Moore. *00:09* I botched that intro a little bit. *00:10* Uh, and we are on episode number three of our first season of this program here. *00:12* I am joined by Max Roberts once again, as always I gotta say. *00:17* Yeah, that's your you didn't even use your own tagline. *00:20* I know. *00:24* I'm trying to the problem is I'm looking at the show notes and I'm using the fancy like, oh, here's the beat by beat explain explainer of what the show is, and I just probably need to go off the top of my head a little bit more. *00:24* Um *00:35* And if you listen to our last episode, we said we would have a guest for this one. *00:36* Uh joining us for the third episode of this season is none other than Professor RPG himself, Scott White, is with us. *00:39* Hi Scott. *00:46* Thanks guys. *00:47* It's good to be here. *00:48* How are you guys doing? *00:49* I'm doing great. *00:50* I'm well. *00:52* I'm so excited. *00:53* This is this is the episode I've been waiting for this whole season *00:54* Yeah, so uh so Max and I were talking a little bit before this one. *00:58* Um so if you've listened to all the episodes so far in this season and you've done them in sequential order. *01:01* Uh so again, whole p whole idea of this show is we bounce back and forth between different games. *01:06* So if we're doing paper Mario right now, first episode was the original game, second episode was *01:11* The origami king, because that was the last entry in the series, and now we're going back to the second installment in the series chronologically, which is the third episode. *01:16* It's kind of confusing. *01:25* But anyway, we're doing uh Thousand Year Door today *01:26* And uh Max and I were talking before we recorded this. *01:28* And first two uh Paper Mario games, I think Max were and I were a little bit lukewarm on, so we were kind of talking to ourselves like *01:31* Why did we choose Paper Mario for the series again? *01:39* Uh and now we have played through Thousand Year Door and the Thousand Year Door, I guess I should say. *01:42* And uh it's been a good reminder of I think why we chose this series. *01:48* Um This game's very good. *01:53* It was that and Origami King was coming out when we were originally planning the show. *01:55* So that's the other thing too *01:59* But anyway, let's uh let's talk about the uh basic info in the history of the Thousand Year Door before we get too deep into our own thoughts on what we played. *02:01* Uh the game once again developed by Intelligent Systems, developer who has done *02:10* All of these games. *02:14* It released on the Nintendo GameCube. *02:16* It originally came out in July on July 22nd, 2004, in Japan. *02:17* It ended up releasing in on October 11th, 2004, in North America. *02:21* The game director was Ryota Kawade. *02:26* This is always the most complicated part. *02:29* The producer, Shigeru Mimoto, I do know that name. *02:31* And uh Ryo Yuichi Kitanishi *02:34* We'll go with that. *02:38* Is the other producer alongside Miyamoto? *02:39* The music was done by Yoshido Harano, Yuka Suji Sujioko, and Saki Haria Haruyama. *02:42* Metacritic average on this one was an 87 out of 100. *02:55* And uh yeah, I so um *02:59* This this is a little bit of a different one, because the last two games we were coming into somewhat blind. *03:03* Um I had not played all of Paper Mario before. *03:08* We neither of us had played Origami King Max. *03:11* Um but I know for a fact Max and I have played The Thousand Your Door and we like the game a lot. *03:14* I think this is the only game that you and I specifically have definitely played in the Paper Myers season. *03:20* Yeah. *03:25* Gotten all the way through. *03:25* Yes. *03:27* Scott, what is your history with this game, out of curiosity? *03:28* Um with this game it wasn't one like the Paper Mario series I didn't really jump on honestly until *03:32* Uh Super Paper Mario and the Wii. *03:40* That was the first Paper Mario game I played. *03:42* And then eventually, like on the Wii U and stuff, with the release of Paper Mario, I went back and played 64. *03:45* Last year I played this for the first time. *03:52* Um and so this was kind of a refresher as well. *03:55* And then I just got sad with everything post Super Paper Mario. *03:58* Um *04:03* Um it just didn't jive with me. *04:04* Even with Paper Mario super paper Mario, um way too much talking for my taste. *04:06* Like I really like the gameplay of it, but it just like *04:11* the dialogue trees just kept coming and I just wanted to get back to playing. *04:14* That's the my main takeaway I remember from that game. *04:17* Did so you didn't play origami king either? *04:20* No. *04:24* Yeah, Orgami Kemu was kind of the same thing. *04:24* A lot of talking in that game. *04:27* Like there was more actual gameplay in it, even though the gameplay in our estimation was *04:28* kind of wore out its welcome pretty quickly, but tons of talking. *04:32* Yeah. *04:36* Tons of talking in origami king as well. *04:37* Um like almost to like an unreal degree. *04:40* Um and I I feel like uh so yeah, let's just get right into talking about the Thousand Year Door then because *04:43* So yeah, I like this game a lot. *04:52* I guess just broadly. *04:54* Um I've always had like a fondness for this game. *04:56* Um this is a game that it felt very good to dive back into this after quite literally, probably *04:59* uh over fifteen years of having not played this game, um booting it back up and seeing the uh the intro screen and hearing all the music and like i it was j Rogueport was so familiar, getting into it again. *05:06* Like it was a very, very nostalgic experience and it felt *05:17* good in that sense alone. *05:21* Um but playing through it this second time really solidified that this is like probably one of my favorite games of all time. *05:23* Um I think it held hold this holds up incredibly well. *05:29* Um and we can get into uh *05:33* like a larger discussion on that point in a second, like how we think it held up held up, especially like because I know pi the original paper Mario we talked about, we didn't think it held up super well. *05:34* I think this one does quite a bit. *05:43* Um *05:45* But yeah, just in a general sense, I think this game is still like fantastic and I I I love it. *05:46* Um Max, what about yourself? *05:50* I I first got this game. *05:53* We bought it my parents bought it for me used *05:56* at a blockbuster, I wanna say. *06:00* And the disc was scratched and so we had to take it back. *06:03* And then my parents bought me a new copy. *06:07* Um thankfully, because this game is outrageously expensive these days, and it's still only on the GameCube, which is a whole other issue. *06:09* But I've actually played this game *06:18* Six, seven times. *06:20* I've played this game a lot. *06:22* I've I believe between all my different saves, I've probably clocked 200 plus hours of paper marrow thousand your door. *06:23* I like go around, I'm bouncing on the ground, I know where pretty much all the star pieces are. *06:30* I've done, you know, the pit of a hundred trials. *06:35* I've made all the recipes, the badge, like I've done I have done this game. *06:37* Uh top to bottom and and front to back. *06:41* And I I love it so so so so much. *06:44* Uh so I haven't played this game maybe two or three years, based off my save data. *06:46* Um *06:51* And this this time I named the file C S pod. *06:52* That was what I named it. *06:55* And my Yoshi is Big Yoshi. *06:56* Oh uh. *06:58* But two E's. *06:59* What about yourself, Scott? *07:01* So you said you played this for the first time last year. *07:03* This is one of those games where I I understand and I definitely see why so many people love these games, especially the earlier ones. *07:06* uh coming from a place where I didn't jump into these games until later, I don't have quite that nostalgia for it, but I think *07:15* There's a lot of things that are really well done. *07:25* Like I love the aesthetic that they rock here, kind of the paper aesthetic, um, turning into the boat and the air p uh paper airplane stuff like that. *07:27* I think that's really creative. *07:38* When I play it though, I find myself the gameplay itself, like the battles and stuff, don't do much for me. *07:40* It's like they're definitely better than where the series is at right now. *07:49* But it's like, I don't know. *07:54* I wish that there was just a little board bit more depth. *07:56* And I just find myself kind of wishing I'm enjoying this, but I kind of wish I was playing *07:59* Legend of the Seven Stars instead, because that's where I that's where my nostalgia lasts. *08:05* Um this is a fun game. *08:10* I love the writing, I love the side characters, I love *08:12* the kind of branching story you get with Luigi. *08:16* Um my gosh, it's so good. *08:20* It's one of my it's legit one of my favorite parts of this game. *08:23* But *08:26* I wouldn't put this anywhere near like my top ten and everything. *08:27* I get why people love this game. *08:30* I just kinda I I it I passed on it back when it first came out. *08:32* So going back to it, I'm look I'm not *08:37* looking at it from those nostalgia goggles as it were. *08:40* Yeah. *08:43* Um still good. *08:44* I get why people love it. *08:45* I would just go if I was in the mood for an Ar Mario RPG, I would just go seven stars as opposed to a paper mark. *08:47* scenario but still very good games. *08:54* I'm I'm curious how how did you actually play it? *08:56* Because I I played on my GameCube on like my CRT tube TV. *08:59* So I I played it as *09:04* Miyamoto Miyamoto intended. *09:05* Um but you both I know how Logan played it, but I'm not sure how you played it, Scott. *09:07* I own the actual I own the physical GameCube version of this. *09:11* I picked this up *09:14* A few years ago before the price really started to skyrocket with. *09:15* Oh my gosh, you're so lucky. *09:18* A complete copy for about fifty or sixty bucks. *09:20* So fairly pricey for like a used GameCube game back then, but nowhere near what it is now. *09:23* Um and I played in my Wii. *09:28* I hooked it up via component cables to my my TV and looked very good. *09:30* And uh yeah, so that's how I played. *09:35* And you did the same thing, right, Logan? *09:38* Yeah, so I I I yeah, we physical original physical game, which I still have. *09:39* Um I got uh I could dude, it drove me nuts because I have *09:45* Wave bird controllers somewhere. *09:51* I don't know where they are. *09:53* Like it was so it hurt me so badly when I went home to my parents' place and I had I had to dig the wee stuff out. *09:54* And I was like, where are my wavebirds? *10:01* Did I take them with me when I left my parents' house a few years ago? *10:04* But like, then where would they be in my apartment? *10:07* And *10:10* Like I reached out to my old roommate, I was like, Hey, do you ever remember enough since you like using wavebirds when we would play Smash in our apartment? *10:11* He's like, No, I don't remember that *10:17* So I have no idea where those went. *10:18* Anyway, I still have other GameCube controllers. *10:20* Um I just had to get like an extender because I can't be huddled up next to a 65-inch screen and sitting two inches away from it. *10:23* Um *10:30* So I got some like extensions and I put the Wii behind my TV and I hooked it up with just a HTMI to come uh I don't know what is it composite I guess what those are? *10:31* If you if you had yellow component component do you yellow *10:41* Yeah, you yellow and components, the red, green, and blue. *10:45* I will say though, on the GameCube controller thing, the more recent releases of the GameCube controllers like they've done for the Smash Brothers games *10:50* Much longer cord. *10:58* Yeah, like a nine foot game. *10:59* Much longer cord. *11:01* Yeah, I have it I have I have my OG um the GameCube controllers I still use are the ones that were packed in with my original system because I had the *11:02* silver one. *11:11* That was the one that I got. *11:12* So I still have my ri those things like I dug my when I dug my uh ToolShock 3 out the other day, those things looked like they had been in a war. *11:13* Like I've got one sitting at my desk here. *11:23* This thing looks like it has been I don't know why I'm holding this up because no one will ever hear this, but like this thing looks like like it was in very bad shape when I dug this out at my parents' place. *11:25* Uh the game keep controllers look *11:33* Great still. *11:36* I don't know if it's like the plastic they use on those that just really keeps like dirt from sticking to them too much or something like that, but um *11:36* Yeah, I was like very surprised that I didn't have to clean them up too much. *11:44* GameCube controller is still my favorite controller ever. *11:47* A little real-time follow-up. *11:50* Paper Mario, Thousand Your Door. *11:53* Complete inbox copy currently as of recording $112 average price. *11:55* It's peak was $137 in August of last year. *12:01* It is wild out there right now. *12:05* Yeah, that's uh that's about probably accurate for inflation in some senses, I would assume. *12:08* Uh I don't know what this game cost when it released. *12:15* Would it have just been probably fifty bucks? *12:17* I think that's how much games were at the time. *12:19* So *12:21* So no, that would not be I guess games are not it wouldn't be twice the price it is now. *12:21* Anyway. *12:26* Speaking more to the specifically to the game itself. *12:26* There's a lot of different places we can start here *12:29* Obviously breaking down, you know, the riding this toward the gameplay. *12:32* Um let's talk about I guess let's talk about the gameplay first. *12:35* Um I think that is the thing that we can *12:39* probably give the most nuanced discussion on right away. *12:42* Especially coming off of for Max and myself, uh having played the original Paper Mario a couple weeks ago or two episodes ago, I guess if you're listening to all these. *12:45* Um *12:54* I guess in my estimation, the gameplay is very much. *12:55* Um I agree with what you said, Scott. *12:59* Like I think the gameplay is pretty basic and rudimentary in a lot of ways. *13:01* But the way they tweak it and upgrade it and make it a little bit more interesting over the original game, it does make it feel drastically better. *13:05* Like having played both of these now back to back and I *13:13* span of a couple months here. *13:15* Um like this game just like I was so glad that this game felt so much more enjoyable to play in the combat situations, even more so than Origami King, but that's a whole *13:17* It's a whole other thing. *13:28* Um so like yeah, but I guess comparison-wise, like I was very that was the one thing going into this. *13:30* I was like, is the gameplay gonna hold up though? *13:35* Because I really didn't like the original Paper Mario. *13:37* And I think it is enough of *13:39* They've tweaked the right things with this to where it feels a lot better to play compared to the OG game. *13:41* And there is a lot more depth in the systems. *13:46* Um however there are things I don't like as well, which we can get into in a second. *13:49* Um *13:54* But yeah, Max, what what did you think, especially coming off of us playing the original one as well? *13:55* If Paper Mario for the N64 was like the foundation *14:00* Um let's say it's the foundation for like an actual theater stage. *14:06* Thousand Your Door is the full-blown production. *14:09* The people are up top. *14:12* This game is just the natural evolution. *14:13* Best presentation of that original concept in Paper Mario. *14:17* Uh thank God partners are fully independent controllable now. *14:20* Instead of only being able to attack, you can use items, they can you can rotate who goes first. *14:25* There's way more control over like you have actual real choice um this time around. *14:30* It's so so good. *14:36* And I've *14:38* I've always been super into the badges and upgrading and pushing and just navigating how I can get the most out of it. *14:39* I remember telling Logan uh while we were playing through it this time. *14:47* He I asked him like what his stats were and i he you know he had health and FP were kinda up and uh his badge his BP was a little low. *14:51* I was like, what are you doing skipping the badges? *15:00* He's like, eh, I don't really feel them. *15:01* I'm like, badges all the way. *15:03* You can do 16 damage per per turn if you get it right. *15:04* He's like, what are you doing? *15:09* I just I've been tweaking and optimizing this game from the beginning. *15:10* I didn't have the right badges. *15:14* You 'cause when you told me what you use, I'm like, I don't know where the heck you even got those. *15:15* Minmaxing. *15:18* That's I s you gotta use the jump man, you gotta use like this pee up, D down, lower your defense a little bit. *15:20* Yeah, it's awesome. *15:27* Uh I just I really do find a lot of control, specifically in the in the battle system. *15:29* But the rest of the gameplay on a whole it's it's got some Metroidvania type or Zelda type things where you see *15:33* Oh, I wonder what this big ch treasure chest and rogue port is. *15:41* And like you don't get that till after the train and there's there's pipes on the ceilings and and the boat and the plane spots you until you get those powers. *15:44* Um the game really does open up more and more as you play and getting more power ups, which uh I've always appreciated in the game *15:53* Scott, what about yourself? *16:01* I I know you said you didn't care for the gameplay as much. *16:02* No, I I like the variety *16:05* and options that the badges provide. *16:08* I like that you can really kind of tailor if you want to be more of a jump focused or hammer focused or make Mario more of a tank. *16:11* I like that the badges are varied enough that they give you that ability. *16:18* abil that that option. *16:22* Yeah. *16:23* Um I appreciate the I I like the being able to *16:24* uh time your defense and kind of all those aspects that they pulled from previous Paper Mario and uh Super Paper Mario or Super Mario RPG. *16:30* I I I I like those elements. *16:39* Some of some of the platforming was a bit annoying just with the depth perception. *16:43* Uh got me a couple times. *16:50* But *16:52* I I I like the kind of Metroid elements. *16:53* I like, like you were saying, Max, the little teases that you get seeing things that you can't get right now or as you're progressing through the uh *16:56* Rogue port or the various areas, you'll see cracks in the wall, and then you eventually get um the bomb companion and you can blow up walls and *17:04* It's like, oh yeah, where did I see those? *17:13* The little paper peel, like the wall peeling. *17:16* And when you get flurry and you can blow it away. *17:18* That's there it's so clever little teases. *17:21* Mm-hmm. *17:24* So I I really I I like all that. *17:25* I wish I guess my biggest thing was I wish I could equip gear *17:28* on my party members outside of just outside of badges. *17:34* Like give me like a better hammer not necessarily tied to progression items. *17:39* Which is very much more a Metroid-esque design mentality as opposed to an RPG mentality in my in my opinion. *17:44* Yeah, yeah, yeah. *17:52* Um *17:53* But I like the badges. *17:54* I like that they did expand the badges and what you could do with them and just the customization you could make your Mario B. *17:55* I f I've I feel like you're you're you're describing what could have been a true like Thousand Your Door sequel, like fully customizable equipment for your characters beyond just *18:02* whatever badges that eat into your own BP, so you have to make that choice of well, do I want Mario to have more attack power? *18:13* Do I want Goombella and all my other partners too? *18:20* And badges for partners applied. *18:22* partner wide. *18:25* It wasn't specific to I mean you could upgrade with shine sprites, um but that that was just giving them a new move and some more health and attack. *18:26* So *18:34* Well strangely like there's elements I think of what Scott's describing in the Origami King because you can get the different um *18:35* You can get the different uh items that do like different things for different situations. *18:42* Like, oh, there's a spiky enemy here. *18:46* I can't jump on them, but oh, I have *18:48* metal boots which will allow me to withstand a jump of this type and I can equip those and use those for this attack that will allow me to like so there's like small little things like that that they throw in origami king. *18:50* None of them are *19:01* But they're usable items, right? *19:02* They're one-offs. *19:03* Uh they they like wear uh like weapon durability. *19:04* Yeah. *19:08* Okay. *19:08* So it's like what they did with the stickers and whatnot in sticker star. *19:08* Like the idea of those kind of things being consumables *19:12* Urk me. *19:16* Yeah. *19:16* And it's one of the reasons why. *19:17* And one of the big things with the origami king, like I watched previews and kind of checked it out. *19:18* I never played it, but it's like *19:23* My biggest irk with that is like, yeah, the combat looked kind of interesting, but there's no without any sort of level system, there is no reason to get into combat. *19:25* Yep. *19:34* Yeah. *19:34* Which is like, why have it then? *19:35* Yeah, we had a whole discussion. *19:37* Oh my gosh, it's so that is different. *19:38* But this game, yeah, thankfully. *19:41* This game, there are levels and you get rewarded for combat. *19:43* Yes. *19:46* And so It feels good to grind sometimes. *19:46* I forgot what games were like like that. *19:49* I I feel like so many RPGs that come out nowadays like *19:51* They get it down to such a science that by the time you get to where you need to be, you're the level you need to be. *19:54* Um I feel like it's pretty rare where you have to grind in some games. *19:59* Like *20:03* Persona five maybe was the one, but I was going out of my way to do everything I could in that game. *20:03* And I I definitely skipped doing things and you did not and I felt that later on in persona and I I actually had to drop it to easy to beat the game. *20:08* I love grinding in RPGs. *20:18* Like that is my zen. *20:20* I will just grind for hours. *20:21* Like Bravely Default 2. *20:22* Like I can grind for hours. *20:24* Persona 5, like you mentioned. *20:26* I love grinding in that or *20:27* Finding ways to kind of farming like finding farm paths in RPGs. *20:29* I love like finding a okay if I go into this exit, it'll respawn the enemies in the previous room and I could loop them and it's like *20:34* Finding those little like grinding tricks like I miss it in uh the I mean this is getting a little tan tangential right now, but like I miss it in Pokemon the most. *20:41* Like I remember *20:52* when in the original games, like it wa it the full XP share thing you didn't used to apply to everybody on your team. *20:53* And you would have to either specifically find the XP share and give it to whoever you wanted to help try to level up or grind there. *20:59* Or you would have to do the classic *21:05* Go magikarp, you're the first out of my team, immediately withdraw them and throw out somebody else out. *21:07* And like that was like that was a hassle in some senses, but there was also like a ton of like you had like a ton of pride by the time you would get a Gyarados or something. *21:12* Like it was very *21:20* Intimate and enjoyable that you could do that in those games. *21:21* And that's the way that's a good thing. *21:24* Yes, exactly. *21:32* Um I guess before we move on from this, yeah, I think the Scott already kinda touched on it before, but like all the papercraft things you can do in this game, I think I think this game is my favorite mesh of *21:34* keeping like the storybook elements of because we've seen the the two total opposites now. *21:45* I feel like the original Paper Mario was like more of a storybook kind of like, oh this is like *21:50* A story reading, this is like you're in a book, you're that and that's why it's paper. *21:55* Um Gami King kind of goes in a completely different direction where it's like, no, this is just a paper world and everything is paper and it really leans into *21:59* Heavily into that stuff. *22:07* This is like a good happy medium where I feel like it combines the paper elements and the weird things you can do and origami king like you know *22:08* Turning sideways or turning into a paper airplane or a boat. *22:16* Like there's weird things like that in this game, but it still has that like storybook quality to it as well. *22:18* I don't know if that makes any sense. *22:22* Yeah, I think it does. *22:24* To me, it's it's instead of a storybook, it it is a stage, it's a it's a performance *22:25* It's a whole theater. *22:29* I mean, literally in the combat, you have an audience, which is actually a mechanic. *22:30* Like if you do stylish moves and they give you more star power like *22:34* Everything is involved in this game. *22:39* I don't think anything is really passive or that you just watch. *22:40* You're something is interacting with you at all times. *22:43* And that uh makes it rich. *22:47* It really *22:49* feels like the paper is a concept that's acknowledged, but you know, sometimes characters like bust through the background and like the paper, you know *22:50* you know, fans out or a a paper airplane or you can you turn sideways and you're as you know as thin as a sheet of paper. *22:59* Uh but it's never like, haha, we're paper, check us out, or here's a stapler, go fight it. *23:07* Like it's just paper is a material that is referenced here, but it is not the focus. *23:12* And I think that *23:17* helps it actually endure even what are we seventeen eighteen years later uh this game's style visually I think still holds up today. *23:18* Um yeah, I yeah, you put that way better than I I I was trying to. *23:28* Um the two other things I want to talk about with gameplay real quick. *23:33* Um the thing I dislike. *23:36* Oh no *23:37* The one thing I dislike about this, and it had kind of reared its head a couple times as I had played, but it really reared its head in the final boss battle, is the RNG elements. *23:38* of the game of the combat do kind of annoy me. *23:48* Um for I guess to further explain this, and again, it's just *23:52* This was my experience, so again, not that this exact thing is not probably gonna happen to everybody else, but I got to the final boss battle and the triple uh or the lottery thing that happens every now and then that you can *23:56* You can either get a reward or bingo from it. *24:09* Yeah. *24:12* Yeah. *24:12* Um is it a bingo or is it just a bingo. *24:13* It's what B I N G yeah yeah it does. *24:15* Um for the first I get to the final boss of the game. *24:19* I've never beat I've never beat the game before because the boss is so hard. *24:21* At the end at the end, I think *24:25* I get to the very end of the game. *24:26* I get a bingo, but it's the bad bingo. *24:28* It's the bad mushrooms, which knocks down half of literally everything you have. *24:31* Half your health, half your FP. *24:35* Half of your star power. *24:37* Why don't you just hit the why don't you just hit the restart button right there? *24:38* There's a safe spot right before the final Because I was already like I was like ten minutes into it. *24:41* That's a long there's so many cutscenes in in that final uh boss. *24:46* But you can skip through that pretty fast. *24:49* Yeah, maybe. *24:52* You totally should have uh that early in the fight, I wasn't. *24:53* It didn't happen like right away. *24:57* It was like it was like eight to ten turns in it happened. *24:58* Oh, had you done *25:01* the actual round of cutscenes where you could finally attack the shadow into it. *25:03* I was getting really close to it. *25:09* So okay, so all this stuff happened in the boss fight. *25:11* I lose half of everything. *25:14* I get uh the stage things, the stage hazards. *25:16* I hate those. *25:19* I hate those so much. *25:20* I got frozen twice in the final fight. *25:22* Like the things just sprayed me and I f got froze for like three or four turns in a row twice. *25:24* Uh so I've lost half my health and I've gotten froze and turned into an ice cube twice now. *25:29* Like *25:34* I I think the RNG stuff is it's okay because at least it applies it to both. *25:34* So sometimes you'll have a paint can fall out of the sky and *25:39* Hit a Goomba or something and do the final D a um piece of damage onto him and the like ends the thing and you're like, okay, well that was really convenient. *25:42* But like *25:49* Just it's the same thing with like people why people hate tripping and smash. *25:50* It's like you can't this all this is out of my control. *25:53* Like I'm not doing anything wrong in this boss fight, but I'm losing just because of the *25:56* that everything that is in is going against me this time. *26:01* So I do actually believe, and I I think I text this to you. *26:04* I do believe the ice is blockable. *26:09* I know the fire is. *26:11* If you notice something is about to fall, you can like that you can prevent it if you're paying attention. *26:13* And the little stage hazards do point where they're gonna go. *26:18* Um do I pay attention to those every time? *26:22* No, not at all. *26:25* Uh but it it is like *26:26* Defendable. *26:30* It's not totally like tripping and smash you can't stop. *26:30* You can soften the blow here. *26:35* Uh not to justify. *26:37* This could be even more annoying though when it comes to like *26:38* Uh the pit of a hundred trials, like let's say you get really, really far into that, and then it's just all of a sudden like RNG's not in your favor. *26:41* You've lost half of everything. *26:49* You're you're you're on fire now, you're an ice cube, whatever. *26:50* Like *26:53* Like those aspects, so again, for the most part, and I I don't think the game's like super hard by any means, um, but there are elements of it where I'm like, man, why is this so randomized? *26:54* I am not a fan of that *27:04* So that's my one-off tangent on that. *27:06* The other one thing I did want to talk about, um, bosses. *27:09* Because there's a ton of good bosses in this game, I think, and I think they're all largely *27:11* Fun to take on. *27:15* Um different, unique from one another as well. *27:16* Um characters in a Mario game? *27:19* Are you what? *27:22* What is this? *27:23* Yeah. *27:24* Uh bosses, and I guess maybe we could talk a little bit. *27:24* Yeah. *27:28* Talk a little bit more uh about partners too, because I didn't feel like we talked a lot about them. *27:29* Um speaking bosses though, yeah, I I don't know if there's anything specific you want to throw in here, Max, but all of them are so different. *27:34* I I like that there's um *27:40* I I feel like there's a better suited partner for a lot of the bosses in this game. *27:43* Um, which kind of encourages you to swap out a lot more. *27:48* Um I I feel like in the original Paper Mario I just was kind of fine with sticking with *27:53* one or two people, but in this game I feel like the bosses and the different matchups led to me swapping pretty routinely through everybody except for the ghost lady. *27:58* What is her name? *28:09* Flurry. *28:10* Yeah. *28:11* Madame Flurry. *28:11* Flurry is like the only one I didn't really use in the game. *28:12* Everybody else I feel like was really helpful in some way, shape, or form uh over the course of the game, especially with the different boss fights. *28:16* But yeah, I don't know. *28:24* What what do you think about all of the bosses and the partners and stuff like that, Scott? *28:25* I I enjoy him. *28:31* Um I agree. *28:32* I didn't really use Man and Flurry. *28:33* I liked Coop. *28:35* uh coops. *28:36* I enjoyed his uh with like going through rows of enemies. *28:37* I liked how different um mobs of enemies you fought were definitely more conducive to fight with *28:41* certain uh partners I I appreciated that kind of not necessarily forcing you but nudging you to really try out and um *28:49* Play with all of your partners. *28:59* I did really enjoy that. *29:01* I love Miss Miles. *29:02* I thought she was a really cute character and Admiral Bombury. *29:03* Um the b uh the Yoshi. *29:06* Um I I enjoyed them. *29:10* I I think they were a an interesting cast of characters, definitely more fleshed out f uh over the ones in the previous game. *29:11* Um but yeah, I enjoyed him. *29:18* What did you name your Yoshi real quick, Scott? *29:21* Vital question. *29:24* Yosh dog. *29:25* Yoshdog? *29:27* Just Yosh. *29:28* That's not bad. *29:29* Yosh dog would've fit considering the Koopa who calls you dog uh and then like let's put the whole thing. *29:30* Yeah, it's something *29:37* With the K. *29:38* Um, I called mine Dino. *29:39* I don't know why. *29:40* I was just like, all right, Flintstones, sure. *29:41* It's cause rocking the Flintstones. *29:43* No. *29:45* And then Max already said you called yours Big Yosh, right? *29:45* Mm-hmm. *29:48* How to channel the uh the donkey. *29:48* for for this one. *29:51* Thank you for calling Barnes and Noble. *29:52* This is Mary. *29:53* How can I help you? *29:54* Hey, how do you get the big Yoshi? *29:55* Okay. *29:58* Um is that a stuffed animal or Yeah, I mean he's he's sitting there *29:58* Okay. *30:05* Need the bigger at least. *30:07* You know? *30:08* Okay. *30:09* And um is there a specific brand that that's under or is it just *30:10* Big Yoshi. *30:15* I so I mentioned it and for paper mark sixty-four, I felt like each of the partners in that game *30:18* were just some excuse of an ability to navigate somewhere else. *30:25* That's all they really I thought provided. *30:29* They were pretty shallow beyond that. *30:31* And in this game, each character does provide some sort of an ability, which is great, but *30:33* They're actually I think all fairly useful in combat in different situations and scenarios. *30:38* I mean literally you can't progress uh making your way to the top of the wrestling ring without *30:43* the Yoshi, which fits in narratively, builds its character, and then also pushes that forward. *30:49* And you know, Flurry, she helps the the punies and *30:55* Uh Bobbery, you've gotta reunite him with his love of the sea after his his the passing of his wife. *30:59* Like each character has a very fleshed-out story, even Miss Mao's. *31:06* who um not until I was in my my teen years did I realize she was an unlockable character. *31:09* Uh which I think's always super cool when you can something can be missed uh like that. *31:15* So it *31:21* They were all fleshed out and the bosses Man, they're so good. *31:22* I've always loved um Hooktail, Gloomtail, and Bone Tail. *31:27* Like the sibling setup there. *31:31* It's just a really *31:33* It's really rich and uh Bedlam and Mer uh Maryland. *31:35* Dupless. *31:40* I mean Dupless is probably one of just the funniest bosses in the you *31:40* You can't you literally cannot spell his name until you get the letter. *31:45* It's just very aware of itself and I think they have a lot of fun with it. *31:49* Arguably the weakest is the smorgs. *31:54* Smor smorgs. *31:56* Like they just show up and then they make a giant tentacle monster that you have to fight. *31:58* There wasn't really any setup for them. *32:03* Um *32:06* But that level's still so good because I love a a good mis you know, a mystery, train mystery. *32:07* So um Yeah. *32:12* That was probably the weakest. *32:14* Boss, I think. *32:16* And Bowser really isn't a boss. *32:17* You fight him twice and It's so good though. *32:19* Like I I *32:22* I I remembered it was coming like in the glitz pit, I think. *32:24* Because I was trying to remember, like, I got like halfway into the glitz pit. *32:28* I'm like, what is so good about *32:31* This, like, why do I like this so much? *32:33* I forget. *32:34* And then it is Bowser showing up and be like, no, I'm here to fight now. *32:35* It's like his entire story throughout the game. *32:38* We can talk more about this story stuff here. *32:41* Actually, we may as well. *32:42* That was gonna be the next thing I was gonna bring up, but *32:44* His entire story in this game, like I love how just there's all these like different things happening throughout the course of the game. *32:46* I mean you got Peach's story with her in tech, you've got Bowser just being one step behind Mario throughout the entire game. *32:52* Uh and then everything with Luigi as well off to the side and the Waffle Kingdom and you can find all his partners and they all think he's an idiot. *32:59* Um *33:07* It's there's so many good plots outside of just the A A plot in this game. *33:08* Um, and I really enjoyed that. *33:14* Um speaking more to the story, I guess, specifically, there is so there's a lot I would like to talk about with this actually. *33:16* Um not just a lot of the things I mention *33:24* A second ago, all the different side tangents, which we you guys can discuss a little bit more if you'd like to as well. *33:27* But um I I I just think the general story arc in this game is *33:32* much more enticing than the last one in some senses because they kinda keep some things hidden and like the original paper mark is pretty straightforward, like Bowser has a star rod and you just have to become in powerful enough to go beat him because you can't. *33:37* This is like what is this door? *33:51* Why why do these people want in this? *33:54* Who is this who are these ex naughts people? *33:56* Why are they like there's like a lot of different things going on? *33:58* Um *34:01* Every the best thing about the story though is that every location is so memorable in its own right. *34:02* And they do a great job of not only *34:09* threading it all back into the mainline narrative, but making every uh one-off story at each of these locations really, really interesting and compelling. *34:11* Um and there's just a great array of it too, like *34:20* Um like the the opening stuff with Hooktail I'd say is the most straightforward and basic. *34:24* That and the punies stuff I'd say is the most like okay, this is just a one-off story, but like the glitz fits is totally unique to this day. *34:29* Like I I can't think of anything else like that. *34:36* in a game that is just like, alright, let's just subvert everything you're not exploring or this time is just very combat focused and mystery focused. *34:38* Um that's really great. *34:46* The train is excellent. *34:48* Everything with Bombery and just *34:49* the levity there mixed with the like sadness of him and his wife. *34:52* Like they do a really great job of playing with all those different comments. *34:56* Flavio goes above and beyond everything. *34:59* Yeah. *35:02* He's amazing. *35:02* Yes. *35:03* Um just yeah, every location in this game is uh stellar. *35:04* You go to the moon? *35:09* Yes. *35:11* The one part that's bad is you have to go get in the cannon. *35:13* You have to run around every single location in the game in order to do that first. *35:16* But uh *35:21* But yes, you go to the moon and I forgot the uh the gravity. *35:22* I was like, why am I moving so slow? *35:26* Um but you're on the moon, so um *35:28* Yeah, I I'd say the only storyline I didn't care for as much in retrospect, and partially because they don't do a lot to wrap it up in an interesting manner, is everything with tech. *35:32* I thought that that would come back in a larger way, because I had kind of forgotten how that *35:41* ends and it's just little nope, like for taking peach and shutting you down now and uh Alright, that's about it. *35:45* I'll d I'll I'll boot one last boot of energy to get you off the moon, Mario, and I'm kind of a *35:52* Side character. *35:57* But then he's actually alive. *35:59* Yeah, I mean you can't go back to the moon and how would he survive an explosion, but yeah. *36:01* Yeah. *36:07* It doesn't really make a lot of sense and uh *36:08* Yeah, they just kind of throw a one-offline there in there at the end of the game about it. *36:11* We can talk more about the writing in a second, but yeah. *36:15* Anything broad you guys want to say about the story or the the things that happen in this game. *36:17* Scott, anything you want to say about this? *36:22* Um Real quick, does anyone did it whenever I play this *36:25* Does anyone else get strong robotnick vibes from Lord Crump? *36:30* Yes. *36:34* Whenever I see him, I think Robotnik from Sun. *36:35* Yeah. *36:39* For sure. *36:40* Like especially when he gets in his Magnus von Grapple, his robots, his devious plans. *36:40* Um *36:47* But no, I think the story there like you said, there's so many plot threads that you can explore and find out about if you want. *36:48* That don't necessarily add to the central story that you're you're *36:56* embarking on with Mario, but it's just cool okay, you talk to you talk to Luigi. *37:02* You get to hear all about the crazy stuff that's going on with Princess Eclair and the Waffle Kingdom and *37:08* Uh where is this game? *37:15* Where I know where is Paper Luigi Waffle Kingdom something? *37:17* Oh my gosh. *37:23* But no, li with all the different locations and the visual art styles, the kind of almost inverted look that Bogley Woods has and then the Colosseums of Glitz Pit and kind of the dingy nature of Rogueport. *37:24* Like each and like the bright vibrant of Petalberg, you each location you visit has such its own personality to it, which I so incredibly appreciate. *37:38* And it was always. *37:50* one of the the highlights of this game to find out where you're going next, what the new uh world will be, or what the new land will be. *37:53* Yeah. *38:02* Um and what you'll in what crazy cast of characters you'll you'll find there. *38:02* I really just appreciate how I think truly connected the whole world feels. *38:07* Everything *38:13* m builds together and connects. *38:15* You get emails from characters. *38:17* Um there's a newsletter for Rogue Port that actually flushes out just some like funny side story stuff. *38:20* Apparently Toadsworth and Zest T are hooking up, like all sorts of stuff. *38:26* Just filled in this the world feels very alive and very rich. *38:30* There's a um *38:34* There's like a mob, you know, two different rival gangs in Rogue Port, and they actually serve part of the story. *38:37* It just feels very rich and connected, and everyone *38:44* built. *38:49* And then also kind of Logan was talking about this, you know, the what's behind the door. *38:50* Is it a treasure? *38:54* Is it something bad, evil? *38:55* Uh even that builds, I think, in a r super satisfying way. *38:58* Even from the very opening, if you let the storybook part play out in the beginning of the game and it leads into that cutscene of Peach getting the map. *39:01* That's Bedlam in the little hood cloak thing. *39:09* And they're kind of reveal at the end that they've been serving the Shadow Queen like they're they work for her the whole time. *39:12* They're not um *39:19* Gordas' servants, they've they have their own plan and his whole plot to like summon this this evil shadow princess. *39:21* It's like all of it melds together and builds, I think, very naturally. *39:29* And and Gordas is creepy *39:33* You know, he's like this weird computer thing. *39:35* He there's a line on I wrote down it says Mario I loathe you. *39:37* I was like that's like evil *39:40* Is it Gordas or Grotus? *39:43* Gor I wrote Gordis in my notes. *39:44* I could have had that. *39:46* Grotus. *39:47* G-R-O-K-U-S. *39:48* Then I wrote that I definitely wrote it down, Ron. *39:50* Dyslexia for the win. *39:52* But it's still they're just so creepy and satisfying, but then the rest of the ex nauts are incompetent and goofy, uh, which I think balances out. *39:55* It's just *40:04* Everything you do, I and it it all builds and you can you can even buy Luigi's books. *40:06* You can *40:13* Yeah. *40:14* Super Luigi one through five. *40:15* Oh. *40:18* I th I think the I think the thing that makes the story that much better though is that *40:18* Um we we so we were talking after we finished I'm pretty sure we talked about this in the first episode, Max, um about the original paper Mario, about how it like, you know, tried to lean into like a funnier tone and more lighthearted tone, but it it like *40:23* A lot of what they were doing in that first game didn't really land and we're like, when did the series become known for being like so funny? *40:36* And if thousand percent this game, like I think *40:42* I think the writing goes way more off the walls in Super Paper Mario, and we'll talk about that eventually. *40:45* Um, but this is really where they nailed the tone of what this series is going to be for everything moving forward, because *40:50* By comparison to the first game, I the first game feels ten times more serious. *40:59* Like this game, uh I mean, there are sections of the game where uh what's the professor's name? *41:05* Um Frankly. *41:10* Yeah, like Frankly is like talking to you, the player. *41:12* Like they're breaking the fourth wall in certain situations and things like that. *41:14* Like there are *41:17* Yes, the the best thank you. *41:20* I would need to mention that. *41:23* That is the best running gag in like maybe any video game ever. *41:24* Um it's so it is so it's so good how it builds up throughout the game too. *41:28* Like you keep coming *41:33* Like it respects the player's intelligence and it doesn't keep trying to just make it like, oh, Mario's dumb. *41:35* He got tricked again. *41:40* It's like no. *41:41* Like Mario doesn't talk in the game too. *41:42* Like they do a great job of making, you know, Mario Mario, but they *41:44* Uh Mario kind of serves the the purpose of the player. *41:47* Like um they they people talk to Mario like they would talk to you like they're talking to you as the player basically. *41:51* basically. *41:57* And I think that's a really cool dynamic with how they work with that. *41:58* And the bot and the box and the curses and stuff like that is perhaps like one of the best examples of that throughout the whole game. *42:00* Um that gag is *42:07* Excellent. *42:09* Um from beginning to end. *42:10* All the three or f three or four or five times it happens. *42:12* But yeah, the writing in this game I I think is just *42:15* uh constantly engaging, but it doesn't overstay its welcome too, uh, compared to Orgami King, which we talked about previously as well. *42:18* Um too much writing in that game *42:26* They're throwing everything out there and some of it's landing, some of it's not. *42:30* Like this is just very uh to the point, succinct, funny, what it needs to be, and that brings to the last thing I want to say about the story is that the pacing in the game is so *42:33* remarkable. *42:44* Like within the first hour of playing this game, you get to Rogue Port, you talk to the the you learn all the backstory of everything that's been going on, you run around the town, you get a lay of the land, and then you are in *42:45* You are going to Hooktails Castle, like right away. *42:57* Like it is it does not waste its time with whereas the other games we've played so far, it takes probably a good like *43:00* I don't know, ninety minutes to two hours to really ramp up into those. *43:08* I'd say the original game it takes maybe two two and a half hours for you to get to like the uh Ninja Turtle people's place, I feel like. *43:11* I forget what they're I forget what they're called. *43:20* The Koopas. *43:22* Um yeah, it take it takes like this game respects your time. *43:23* And like I beat this game incredibly quickly, way more quickly than you guys did, and that was not really my intention, but *43:28* It just it does not really ever stop. *43:35* Like every time you finish something up, it perfectly leads into the next thing and you want to immediately go do that. *43:39* And uh none of the areas overstay their welcome, none of them are too long. *43:44* Um again with origami king, I know we were getting into some areas where it's like, holy crap, I've been in this one spot for five hours. *43:48* What is the next area gonna roll around? *43:54* Like every one of these places is maybe *43:56* Two two and a half hours max and they give you other things to do in between which take up time like you mentioned like I don't know like *43:59* Dealing with pianta pianta mobsters or something like that. *44:06* Like they do other things to fill out the time, but they make sure you're never in one spot for too long and they're constantly *44:10* Putting something new putting something new out there for you to latch onto and have fun with. *44:18* Um and that is like I think maybe perhaps *44:22* the biggest achievement of like the story and th maybe the game itself, honestly. *44:26* Like I just think the way that it all interacts with one another is remarkable. *44:30* I don't know if you guys want to say anything else on that or not. *44:35* I I wrote down one of the first notes I took was you are within combat in five minutes. *44:38* And the tutorials are entirely skippable. *44:44* So it respects people's time who have played the game before or are coming hot off of um the first game. *44:47* I mean, theoretically you have people who *44:54* uh you know were very excited for this game when it came out and they they already knew kind of the core of it. *44:56* There were some new mechanics to learn like um the super guard where if you timed B, which was a tighter window, you would actually do damage back. *45:01* Um, which is awesome. *45:09* It gives you agency over how Maybe I should have watched the tutorial because I never did that once in the whole game. *45:10* Oh yeah, no, it's um *45:16* A has a wider window and you guard and it takes less damage, but if you do it with B and it's like a contact, they actually are physically hitting you, not like a lightning bolt, um you will do damage back. *45:17* instead. *45:29* And there's actually a badge at the bottom of a pit of a hundred trials with Bone Tail that increases that damage output. *45:29* Uh which makes that incentive. *45:37* It's great. *45:39* Anyway, the game is snappy and quick and lets you play it. *45:40* It doesn't hold your hand. *45:44* And there's also none of the uh this final boss *45:46* uh hubbabaloo of like now you've gotta use my magic little star power like ten times in a row. *45:49* Yes. *45:57* Same k like it is very much you are in control from beginning to end. *45:57* Uh you get to choose *46:02* Really frankly, the only thing that they kind of stop you from doing is stacking troubles, aka side quest, uh, and doing multiple at once. *46:03* So you can only do one trouble at a time. *46:12* So if you've got three troubles in Pedalberg, you have to do one trouble at a time, which gets a little uh cumbersome. *46:14* You're trying to optimize your trips and stuff, and it just *46:22* That's not not super fun uh in general. *46:25* I mean it just makes side quests take longer than I think they should *46:29* Uh this game out of all of them has such it has the perfect balance between gameplay and story out of all of them, I think. *46:33* I think it really balances *46:44* your experience almost perfectly I would say. *46:48* Um after this you have *46:52* the super narrative heavy, lighter on gameplay, super paper Mario, and then you get the weird gameplay stuff of sticker star, which then transitions into *46:55* Um Color Splash, which I never played, so I can't actually comment on that one. *47:07* And then like you guys said with origami king, like this one nails the balance between *47:12* getting you into the action pretty quick for new players or old players it l gives you the opportunity to choose if you want to do the tutorials or not. *47:19* Um it doesn't hold your hand to uh an extreme degree. *47:28* And there's as much or as little kind of side fluff dialogue as you want there to be. *47:33* Just with your exploration, you're talking to NPCs. *47:40* uh which I really appreciate. *47:44* I think it really nails that. *47:48* Yeah. *47:49* There's so much more you can do in this game that the game gives you to do as well. *47:49* And *47:53* You don't have to do a lot of it. *47:54* Like I honestly in this playthrough I kind of beeline through just the main path and I didn't, you know, try to get a lot of recipes or try to do some of the side quests, but um *47:56* No, it's it totally respects your time and allows you to yeah play it like you want like Scott said. *48:05* Let's talk about the aesthetic of the game, the music and the visuals and all that stuff. *48:10* Um *48:15* I'm always a sucker for music and soundtracks, um, and uh very much like I said about this game before with it being *48:17* One of my favorites ever. *48:26* I think this game has one of my favorite soundtracks ever, if I'm being honest. *48:27* Um, there are so many just excellent, excellent uh songs in this game. *48:30* Um from the main roadport theme to the I mean I like the underground roadport theme quite a bit. *48:35* Um everything with the great boggly tree is like way out there and I totally dig everything they do with them the score in that area. *48:40* Like even like it's funny because there's like songs this is one of those lingering things I would say I've remained aware of over the years with the game because I listened to like *48:49* game music a lot while I work. *48:59* So even though I haven't played this game in a really long time, I've remembered a lot of the songs from it. *49:01* Um and it's weird how like understated some of the music is in the game. *49:07* Like one of the songs I think about a lot that I think is one of the best uh pieces of music in the game is the dusk track from when you're on the train. *49:12* Um that track is exceptional, and it's really not in the game that much. *49:19* Um I I just think they they they do such high quality musical work for this game and it constantly they don't rely on a lot of the same themes. *49:25* Um like I think *49:35* The main battle theme is really one of the only like refraining things that you hear a lot other than you know Rogue Port being the main central hub. *49:38* Um like they mix up the catalog of music you are hearing so frequently in the game *49:46* Um, and I I think that's that gives it just that more again, leading back to the pacing, like everything feels fresher. *49:52* Everything's like you constantly feel like *49:58* Just like it it is a fresh experience and is pushing you forward and it just everything about it um remains exciting, I guess, even when it comes to the music. *50:01* Um *50:10* And yeah, and all the tracks really help build out all those different areas that you're traveling to in the game as well. *50:11* I think that I think it does a marvelous job of adding ambiance to many of those locations that you go to. *50:16* Max, what about yourself? *50:24* I wrote down Moonbase Slaps. *50:26* Yeah, Moonbase is. *50:32* Oh my gosh. *50:33* Holy smokes. *50:34* So good. *50:35* I also *50:36* The music's great. *50:37* When you mentioned the battle theme just now, it popped in my head. *50:38* And I'm like I'm over here popping my head to, you know. *50:41* It's just *50:45* It's one of those games that has, I think, a lot of earworms, and the music does mirror the environments that you're going in. *50:46* You know, visually, uh, Scott, you talked about, you know, Paddleberg is bright and *50:51* Um, you know, Glitz Pit is so glamorous and shiny and it's got these Coliseums and the train is very moody and it shifts time of day, which *50:56* Doesn't really happen in this game. *51:05* Uh there's no real time clock at all, except if you're trying to win the lottery. *51:07* Um *51:12* It's in the what about when they like the uh the newsletters they'll email you and say like oh I actually want discounts in these locations, but only for this amount of time. *51:13* I d I don't know. *51:23* I wanted to test that because *51:24* It could use it theoretically could be using the GameCube's clock to like that would be wild. *51:27* Um I almost did it, but I realized I read the newsletter too late, unless it starts when you read it, but that's I don't know *51:33* Anyway, it the music really kind of envelops each environment and I think a creative way and even character themes. *51:41* Professor Frankly, it's just *51:48* It has just enough kind of zany like wackiness to it that shows that maybe the professor's not all there. *51:50* Um he kind of fits in with EGAT, I think, in my mind, especially with the glasses. *51:57* It's it's so much fun. *52:02* And I the meme bass is awesome. *52:04* I also like how the music softens when you go inside a building or something. *52:07* It almost kind of reminds me of *52:11* swimming underwater in banjo or or Donkey Kong where the music kind of shifts to that underwater vibe. *52:13* It it just softens just enough ca as if you've left the hustle and bustle of wherever you are and *52:19* But you're still in that world and an environment and I I thoroughly enjoy it. *52:26* It just has such a solid attention to detail and the sound effects also just really *52:30* Time everything up. *52:37* You can uh when you're blocking enemies, like those daisies, you know. *52:39* I know the note, I need to hit the A button. *52:43* It's uh it's just *52:46* The world is so ver it's so very rich and I think it sounds wonderful. *52:48* I don't uh obviously I was listening to it through the speakers and whatever TV I had, but I'm I'm sure it sounds *52:52* equally as good coming through, you know, di a digital. *52:59* A sound bar. *53:01* Yeah, you know, it just it seems uh it's a very lively game and it's one of the few soundtracks I definitely have downloaded and actually like into my music library so I can listen to it. *53:03* Yeah. *53:13* Um the only thing I really have to add to everything you guys have said is uh vinyl con vinyl collection when. *53:14* Um *53:23* Um Nintendo, when are you just gonna acknowledge vinyl exists or streaming services exists? *53:23* Right. *53:28* We can't do this. *53:29* As soon as my uh *53:30* As soon as my persona five vinyl gets here I become a vinyl collector. *53:31* I've put off collecting vinyl for a very long time and then the I am eight bait persona stuff I was like, oh no, I have to do this don't I? *53:35* And this is gonna be a bad, bad thing that I'm about to do. *53:41* I had pre-ordered the collector's vinyl uh collection for Final Fantasy VII remake. *53:45* So you get one which is the remake soundtrack. *53:54* And then another it has a lot of the collection from the original game. *53:57* So that's on my wall. *54:00* I don't have a player or anything, but I also pre-ordered the the bundle for Persona 5 Royal. *54:01* And I was like, man, when that comes, I really *54:06* Really need that, but that's why I have a wedding registry. *54:09* So I'm just gonna put a record player on that. *54:11* Perfect. *54:14* Very smart. *54:14* That's what I'll do. *54:14* I need to get married as well, apparently. *54:16* This is my a life hack *54:18* At the time, girlfriend now wife, she bought me my record player, which started the whole collection thing. *54:20* Um I definitely should have been like you two though and bought records *54:27* even when I didn't have a record player, I still regret not snagging a first edition of The Last of Us vinyl, mostly because of that Ali Moss art that they had on it. *54:30* Oh yeah. *54:39* Um *54:40* I would gosh. *54:41* I mean Nintendo actually does, when they do put out a collector's edition, more often than not, they do include a C D *54:42* Which is sort of close. *54:50* Um I have a lot of CDs. *54:51* I would love CD collector. *54:53* I don't have them on me, but I used to have a lot of them. *54:55* Yeah, if they brought this back somehow, which maybe we should talk about that too, but just if they did, I would really want them to *54:57* honor the soundtrack in some way. *55:05* It is just a gem. *55:07* Well, I s okay, so you set that up perfectly, because that was kind of the next thing I did want to talk about is, you know *55:09* Uh we've got to write down here Legacy. *55:14* Um I think this game's legacy is kind of well written, but I think *55:17* Like it we're living in an age of remakes and remasters, and I hear people clamoring for a remaster of this game more than a lot of games, honestly, because this game is really trapped on *55:23* The GameCube. *55:35* Like I the fact that we had to all dig out some weird pieces of hardware to kinda not weird necessarily, but we had to do some digging. *55:36* I mean I didn't have to do any digging, but I did. *55:43* I don't know. *55:47* I don't know how Scott, was your Wii hooked up before this or did you ha have to go? *55:47* It was not. *55:51* Yeah, that's it was not. *55:52* It is now though, because there's been GameCube games I want to go back and read. *55:53* You visit like twin snakes or big things. *55:56* Oh my gosh, twin snakes is so good. *55:58* Um so I yeah, I *56:01* I guess just Nintendo win, like I am in the camps, like there's a couple different camps of Nintendo fans who scream really loudly. *56:04* One of them's like the Mother 3 group. *56:11* I feel like the group screaming for a remaster of this is another group slash I think that group also crosses over with just the dear god please make another good Paper Mario game like this. *56:13* I actually *56:23* I I think that's the game's legacy, to be honest. *56:25* Is like it's been seventeen years now since this game released *56:27* And this when people talk about Paper Mario, they are still talking about this. *56:33* They're talking about this and they're talking about the original game. *56:37* And everything that happens in the series. *56:40* There's been more games in this series un different from these first two than there have been *56:42* uh games l in this format. *56:48* And I don't un yeah, this game's legacy is that this is it, and they haven't done anything else like this in almost twenty years. *56:51* And people just keep clamoring to know when they're gonna do something else like this. *56:58* And I like what's weird to me is like revisiting it, I I feel like there is still so much room to grow with this. *57:01* Not only *57:08* Um like this it very much feels like a half step up of the original game, but I still feel like there is more room for them to explore with the gameplay elements and you know *57:09* the story and the partners and how those can interact. *57:18* Like similar things to like what Scott mentioned before, like maybe throwing in some items there and how you can upgrade characters and things like that. *57:20* Like there's more for them to do with a game of this style. *57:27* But for one reason or another, like this is the last game that is extremely specifically like this. *57:31* Um *57:39* if you don't count like the m Mario and Luigi games. *57:41* Yeah, I brought that up um I want to say on our origami king episode. *57:44* Yeah. *57:48* It's *57:49* Th those games of like they took a lot of the same like they took a lot of this paper Mario magic and I It's like they didn't like want to compete with themselves anymore, so they're like, alright, we can do more *57:50* We can like do more interesting gameplay things and come up with more interesting ideas like with this weird paper offshoot thing and let's keep the RPG stuff tied to this series. *58:01* It's like they but Isn't that what they said? *58:10* That like I don't think they said when people *58:13* I had thought I read an interview or something that they viewed Mario and Luigi as like their art Mario RPG series. *58:16* Yes. *58:23* Maybe as *58:23* Paper Mario was had and shied away from that to do kind of what Paper Mario did. *58:25* Yeah, I think they you're bringing this all back in my head because I know I I'm sure I wrote a story about it at some point. *58:32* Yeah, I think they said it was like more of an experimental thing for them. *58:37* And like everyone's the and now with Alpha Dream gone, I just *58:40* They've they they know. *58:46* They're very aware of it. *58:48* I mean, part of the origami king campaign, like advertising and marketing, and promotion was all *58:49* Hey, look, we have like part partners are back. *58:56* Part partners. *58:59* Um They're they're aware. *59:01* Nintendo is aware. *59:03* I really think it's just a shame, not just for Thousand Year Doors' sake, but *59:04* The entire GameCube library is trapped on the GameCube except for Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. *59:09* And Sunshine. *59:16* And Sunshine now. *59:17* And now Sunshine. *59:17* Great point. *59:19* Um *59:20* Luigi's Mansion ever Luigi's Mansion's on 3DS. *59:21* Yeah. *59:25* You know? *59:26* So like they have saved. *59:26* Pikmin is on Wii, uh Pikmin one and two. *59:28* And Metro ever got saved, notably Metroid Prime. *59:31* But you know Tales of Symphonia, that's on PS2. *59:34* So maybe maybe more of the GameCube is issued. *59:38* I don't think Resident Evil 4 has ever come anywhere else though. *59:40* It's unfortunately not. *59:43* Real tight. *59:45* Can you imagine if they put that on like *59:46* the Oculus like did kind of like a complete remake of it, but put it in like VR. *59:48* I I'm That'd be crazy that that'd be too crazy. *59:53* It would be. *59:57* But *59:58* I d so I mean, you get what I'm talking about though. *59:59* There are a lot of GameCube gems that are tra and it never got a digital store or virtual con I mean p virtual con what's that? *01:00:02* It's been so long. *01:00:11* It's *01:00:12* It's a real shame and I don't know, man. *01:00:13* I don't know what's holding this up. *01:00:16* Well, I mean Nintendo specifically has shown *01:00:18* I mean the past few years though it has been a bit of a different scenario because I was gonna say Nintendo's become very much more remaster happy, but a lot of that is just very specific to the Wii U and they're like, alright, this thing sold like 12 million units, we gotta save all these good games. *01:00:21* that came from this system because there was a lot of good games. *01:00:36* So they have been very remaster happy, but it's mainly been in regards to salvaging the good games they put on a console *01:00:39* From Wii U games. *01:00:47* Yeah, that no because no one bought those games. *01:00:48* So now they're like, oh, you're telling me we can sell 35 million copies of Mario Kart again if we bring it over to this new system? *01:00:50* Sure, okay, let's do that. *01:00:56* Um so like it makes t way more sense for them to like bring those games over compared to like, hey somebody go dig out the code of that GameCube game we worked on fifteen years ago and let's do something with that. *01:00:57* Um but they should and I hope *01:01:08* I just, yeah. *01:01:11* I mean to me this is I mean and this is a I like where this falls in our season too. *01:01:13* Um *01:01:19* I like that we are kind of done with the RPG side of these games now, Max, in the front half of the season with uh this third episode. *01:01:19* And the back half is very much gonna be *01:01:30* Okay. *01:01:32* I mean we've played Origami King, but what do they do from this point on? *01:01:33* Um and obviously we've dabbled with those games and we know that answer to a degree, but *01:01:38* Seriously, it's been fifteen years of them not going back to a game of this format, and it's like this is what this is what everybody wants and is just never has been that again. *01:01:43* It is baffling. *01:01:53* Nintendo's gonna Nintendo *01:01:54* Yeah. *01:01:57* Yeah, really on if uh to put it pretty bluntly, yeah, that's kinda they're good at Nintendo. *01:01:58* It I am *01:02:05* Maybe this is just a fool's hope, but the GameCube is twenty this year. *01:02:07* It is the twentieth anniversary of the GameCube, which makes me feel cold. *01:02:10* They didn't even acknowledge Zelda's birthday on Zelda's birthday. *01:02:15* I think you're what's a Metroid game. *01:02:19* Like I know, I get it. *01:02:21* Um *01:02:22* But I am hopeful they will remember it. *01:02:23* I mean for Pete's sake. *01:02:26* They have not only kept the GameCube controller compatible since *01:02:28* the GameCube. *01:02:33* The GameCube controller has a better lifespan than the GameCube itself. *01:02:34* Um heck, you st you were talking about how they're practically indestructible and like they look good after all this time. *01:02:39* and they make new ones to this day, um and not just third party ones. *01:02:45* I just they have this treasure trove of games, including Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. *01:02:50* And I r I'm not saying port it to the switch, but you know Let us port it. *01:02:57* There's uh it's uh they gotta fix something. *01:03:05* I'm not an I'm not a switch port beggar, but I I *01:03:08* Absolutely for this one. *01:03:11* This is the this is the big one that I uh will beg for. *01:03:13* Um The thing I did think about, and I still think about this a lot, this is totally just *01:03:17* one off crazy slogan idea. *01:03:22* But whenever I think of new games coming out, like um like when I was when I was playing this game and I was like, okay, what if they did bring it back? *01:03:24* I was like, oh it'd be really cool because it'd like have a cheap *01:03:31* achievements with it. *01:03:34* I was like, wait, no Logan, no, it wouldn't because Nintendo. *01:03:35* Uh like I still wish they would do that. *01:03:38* Um, and that's a thing I've cried about for literally *01:03:41* Ever since we had our old pat podcast max, that was always the one refraining thing I would say is Nintendo, please give me like an achievement system or something so that when I replay these games they feel fresh and I feel like I'm checking off new boxes I haven't checked off before. *01:03:44* Because yeah, like to bring this back to because the gameplay experience here was still pretty good. *01:03:57* Um if they bring it back, it would be a great convenience to like have it on Switch, but like *01:04:02* This is like probably my favorite game I've played this year. *01:04:08* Um just looking at everything I've played, like it held up super well and I didn't have any issues with it. *01:04:11* Um so it's really about convenience factor for them to bring it back more than anything. *01:04:17* Anywho, uh anything else you guys want to throw in before we kinda start wrapping up here about Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door and what you thought about it and all that good stuff. *01:04:22* It's it's good. *01:04:32* It's fun. *01:04:33* I like you said, more people need to play it. *01:04:34* Like if they release us on Switch, a brand new generation would play it. *01:04:36* Yeah. *01:04:41* And then a gen a brand new generation would come up and say, please make another game like this. *01:04:42* Right. *01:04:47* That that's probably why they don't want to remake it. *01:04:48* A thousand year door too. *01:04:55* I mean it tr I feel like it trends like five, six, seven times a year on Twitter you see like Breemaster a thousand year door. *01:04:57* Like it makes some noise every now and then to bring this one back. *01:05:04* And now it's because like with Mario and Luigi's devs totally out, like closed down, they don't have a Mario RPG kind of franchise. *01:05:09* to really pull from unless I get someone else to make a Mario and Luigi game. *01:05:19* Maybe with uh Origami King done and out maybe we will. *01:05:24* Get a more RPG focused paper Mario, who knows? *01:05:30* I think that's way too much of a pipe dream, but you never know, I guess. *01:05:33* at this point. *01:05:39* Nintendo's gonna do whatever Nintendo wants to do. *01:05:39* But I would I would like a a port. *01:05:42* Please. *01:05:45* Please. *01:05:45* I this I I think playing this again, uh, for God knows the whatever number time, uh still solidifies this as a top. *01:05:47* game for me. *01:05:58* It really truly I think will always hold a spot near and dear. *01:05:59* And I I do feel confident in saying that it's not just rose-tinted glasses and like fondness of childhood. *01:06:03* I really genuinely think this game holds up today on uh at the very least being fun to play and enjoyable and whether you walk away *01:06:09* loving it like I do or or maybe being a a bit cooler like Scott, the game holds up and I think that is an an incredible testament to its design and build, its art direction. *01:06:19* Like this game *01:06:31* Will last and look good and play well for the rest of its life. *01:06:33* It's now well, you know, there are things that could obviously be tweaked and things like that. *01:06:38* You know, it's a it's almost an 18-year-old game. *01:06:43* But it really has good solid bones and it built off a solid foundation, like I said at the top of the show with sixty-four. *01:06:46* And *01:06:54* W now we kinda have this like immortalized idealistic version of what a Mario RPG could be on some level. *01:06:54* Um *01:07:02* You know, I mean there was Mario and Luigi and then there was Super Mario RPG on the NES, but you know, this is kind of the golden child of the franchise, and I think that still holds here in 2021. *01:07:03* Uh and it bums me out, especially after playing Origami King, that they haven't come back to that. *01:07:15* And maybe maybe I'm missing out on that. *01:07:19* I mean I me I haven't played Bowser's Inside Story, which everyone says is the best. *01:07:22* Uh Mario and the Ouija game. *01:07:26* I'm I'm a big fan of Partners in Time. *01:07:27* I think it carries a lot of the same spirit, but it really is a shame that this hasn't really come back from Nintendo. *01:07:29* And there are other people who've tried to emulate this style of game. *01:07:36* And I uh *01:07:39* I don't really Bug Fables? *01:07:40* Was that what that one game was called a couple years ago? *01:07:43* Mm-hmm. *01:07:45* Yeah. *01:07:45* That came out last year, I want to say. *01:07:46* Yeah, I believe last year or the year before, yeah. *01:07:48* you know, there is a desire for this game and I don't know if that desire necessarily equates to, you know, profit and demand and all that stuff, but *01:07:51* uh I think it it it definitely holds up and I'm that makes me feel good that I'm not totally crazy. *01:08:00* I mean I guess if Nintendo I mean speaking specifically to the profit point like if Nintendo is going to keep this franchise going into the future like *01:08:07* I feel like it would do better if they made ga the games of this style, rather than kind of making them like a grab bag where you don't really know what you're gonna get necessarily. *01:08:15* Like all the games have like RPG elements, but like *01:08:26* You never know exactly what that's gonna be like. *01:08:29* Uh I I feel like buying a Paper Mario game every game after this is like, what am I gonna get in this one? *01:08:32* I don't know. *01:08:37* Like we'll see, I guess. *01:08:38* Um *01:08:40* Next one's gonna be a dating sim. *01:08:40* There you go. *01:08:43* Had a bull had a full paper Mario. *01:08:44* There you go. *01:08:47* That's not a bad idea, Scott. *01:08:47* Uh they actually probably could do a good dating site, to be honest. *01:08:50* Because the writing is hardly takes on a whole new meaning. *01:08:53* You wanted partners, well they're back *01:08:57* I I just thought of a very filthy joke that I won't say to degrade our uh listeners' ears. *01:09:01* Anyway, uh thank you for listening to episode three of Chapter Select again. *01:09:07* Uh this is only our third episode and a sixth episode first season. *01:09:13* Uh I'm gonna say six episodes. *01:09:18* I we've talked about a seventh, but I don't know. *01:09:20* Anyway, um *01:09:22* Come on, I'm not sure. *01:09:24* No, we're not doing paper jam. *01:09:26* We are uh halfway into this season. *01:09:28* If you are listening uh to us on a an episode by episode basis, I did want to specifically say at the end of this episode *01:09:30* Um that plans for the back half of this season are not nailed down specifically. *01:09:37* So the next set three episodes are going to be Paper Mario Color Splash, and then after that it will be Super Paper Mario, and then the we will be *01:09:44* Closing out with Paper Mario Sticker Star and we are currently finalizing Vlans to do all three of those and we're trying to get the schedule finalized for those and we're hoping that those episodes *01:09:51* Um don't arrive too much later than this one, but there will probably be a gap between this one going up and the rest of them *01:10:04* going out. *01:10:12* Um so just throwing that out there if you are l listening to this episode in the feed and you're like, where's the other three? *01:10:13* We're still working on them. *01:10:18* We're gonna get them out. *01:10:19* Um and it won't be super long, but we don't have specific *01:10:20* Release times nailed down on those just yet. *01:10:24* So stay tuned to us on Twitter. *01:10:26* You can follow Max and myself. *01:10:28* I am at More Man Twelve. *01:10:29* Max is at *01:10:31* I just you're not at Max the White. *01:10:32* What are you at again? *01:10:34* Oh Max Roberts 143? *01:10:38* Is that it? *01:10:39* Yeah. *01:10:40* Is that it? *01:10:40* Okay, there you go. *01:10:40* Max Roberts 143. *01:10:41* Old habits die hard. *01:10:43* Uh and then Scott, uh where can we find you on the internet? *01:10:44* Uh you can find me on Twitter at SolidSnake120. *01:10:48* You can find me occasionally writing things over at irrationalpassions. *01:10:52* com, and you can catch me on my RPG podcast, RPG *01:10:56* University with new episodes every other Thursday, including one where I sit down with the creator of Diablo, David Brevik, to talk about this very game. *01:10:59* That is very cool. *01:11:08* I didn't know you did that. *01:11:09* Yeah. *01:11:11* Did that last year. *01:11:12* Turns out David Brevik, big fan of Thousand Year Door. *01:11:13* Diablo, Thousand Year Door, they go hand in hand. *01:11:16* Right. *01:11:20* Oh yeah. *01:11:21* Big similarities. *01:11:22* If you want to hear Scott talk more about uh Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, you can go check out that episode. *01:11:24* You've got a ton of *01:11:28* cool people that are ro uh rolling through on RPG University though. *01:11:29* So uh subscribe to that show. *01:11:32* Be sure to listen to that. *01:11:33* Scott does his great work with that show. *01:11:34* Um *01:11:36* And yeah, be sure to check out all of Irrational Passion's other stuff too. *01:11:38* A lot of cool people over there, a lot of good friends between the three of us that work over there with you, Scott. *01:11:41* So uh be sure to check out all their work. *01:11:47* Otherwise, uh again, thank you for listening to episode three of Chapter Select. *01:11:49* We will be back in the future to finish our playthrough of Paper Mario. *01:11:53* Uh until next time. *01:11:57* Have a good day, evening, morning, whatever you might be doing, and we will see you back here soon. *01:11:59* Bye-bye. *01:12:03* Adios *01:12:04*