Rediscovering Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
I started playing the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake on Switch a few days after launch. The spring & summer months weren’t the best time for me to play the game but I’ve since picked it back up now in November. I’m happy to say that I am having a complete BLAST with it! TTYD is my favorite game in the entire Paper Mario series. This is only my second playthrough, and since it’s been twenty years since my last run on the GameCube, I don’t remember a lot of the details. This makes the game feel both familiar yet refreshingly new all over again — it’s a perfect blend of nostalgia and discovery.
Here were my stats for the Gamecube original:
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (GC)
•time: 48:48
•level 32
•star rank: superstar
•HP: 60
•FP: 45
•BP: 42
•recipes: 10/57
•badges: 53/85
•All party members maxed out (including Ms. Mouz!)
•Bonetail destroyed!!
I’m making things more interesting for myself by going for a specific build. I have absolutely no interest in Danger Mario run. But I do want to go through the game as a complete TANK!! So for this second playthrough, I’m concentrating on increasing Mario’s Attack and Defense stats.
I’m about 15 hours into the game now and my states are:
•HP: 20
•FP: 20
•BP: 24
I think 20 HP & FP is enough on this run. The rest of my skill points will go into BP.
The badges I plan to wear for this build that I’ve discovered so far are:
•Power Plus
•Power Plus P
•Damage Dodge
•Defend Plus (Saving for it)
So far, I have the Power Plus and Power Plus P badges equipped so that Mario and Partners do an additional +1 damage. I have Damage Dodge on Mario to reduce incoming damage by -1 when Guarding from an incoming attack. I’m currently saving up for Defend Plus, which gives Mario +1 additional Defense.
Other badges I’m looking at for this build:
•P-Down, D-Up
•P-Down, D-Up P
•P-Up, D-Down
•P-Up, D-Down P
I’m optimizing Mario and Partners’ Attack and Defense stats with some creative badge combinations. Right now, I’m experimenting with P-Up, D-Down badges while finding ways to offset the extra damage by boosting Defense. I’ll need to do some testing to see what works best! For tougher enemies where extra defense is needed, I’ll switch to P-Down, D-Up and funnel any extra BP into Attack-boosting badges. There’s a lot of room for interesting strategies here; especially considering that badges stack!
I’m also interested in the Flower Saver badge for its -1 FP cost reduction because I love to spam special moves with no shame.
Bonetail gave me A LOT of trouble my first go-round back on the Gamecube. I remember making several attempts before figuring out a winning strategy that worked for me, but I finally beat him all those moons ago in 2004. I can’t wait to see how the rematch goes this time around with my new build and set up!
I’m so glad to be out of this gaming rut and playing TTYD again for the first time in 20 years! I’m having an ABSOLUTE BLAST!