• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Impressions of Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door (Or: the official thread)

Bebpo

Banned
I haven't posted in this thread yet, but I'm board + at work + really tired from very little sleep due to marathoning 25 hours of PM2 this past weekend (chapter 6 currently).

Anyhow as a big rpg buff, I gotta say I like PM2 very much but at the same time the game makes me hate it.

+Battle system is great
+Dungeon are really really good. If I start a dungeon at 2am, I'm not sleeping until 4-5am when I finish it. I haven't had as much fun in dungeons since Zelda.
+art is nice though the slowdown does suck and happens to often
+for once collecting is fun. Trying to find all the shines and star pieces and badges actually feels rewarding and it's usually fun looking for them. Feels like a Zelda game in this regard.

-PAPER BACKTRACKING TWO. My god, I don't think I've ever played an rpg with as much pointless running back and forth in my entire life and I play A LOT of rpgs >.< Running back and forth 2-6 times a chapter through entire levels is so fucking lame and is total padding IMO which doesn't seem necessary considering that the game is actually a very good length.

--So much dialouge. Now don't get me wrong. I like what they're actually saying, I just don't like the fact that everytime someone opens their mouth it results in 10+ bubbles of text. This is coming from a major Xenogears/Xenosaga fan. I don't mind people talking for 10 pages but it has to be interesting, not just "Go to the next town and buy a peach for us!" explained over 10 pages. The Liugi stories are an exception because they are long on purpose (ie mario falling asleep in them). But like my god the pre-chapter 6 scene at the room with the guy in bed jeezus, that was like 15 mins of talking.

--Pacing is crap crap crap. Like I said, I LOVE the dungeons and the battles. So it kinda irks me that going by my save data times, from when I get stage clear on one stage to when I get the actual dungeon with enemies of the next stage it's usually around 2 hours. TWO HOURS of talking to people and finding shit and backtracking before I can get an attack in. Seriously this just ticks me off because it feels like padding and I just find it boring.

So yea, I still need to finish it today or tomorrow. But so far it's about an 8/10 to me. It just bugs me that the fun parts make up a 9.5/10 game but the few annoyances are so in your face all the time that it seriously brings the game down a few points. The game reminds me of Star Ocean 3 in that they were both padded to hell when they didn't need it, and that both had strong points but tons of annoyances hurt them. But at least PM2 has a kickass battle system that's not broken.

PS. I think dungeon crawler (SMT3 style) Paper Mario would be an awesome game.
 

AniHawk

Member
Son of Godzilla said:
So about how long does this game take?

25-40 hours, depending whether or not you rush through the game. I played almost straight through and got to the end boss at the 28 hour mark. I left to go screw around a little, and beat it at the 35 hour mark.
 

mattx5

Member
Oh man I'm having a blast. I'm about to embark on Chapter 5, I have 20 HP, 20 FP and 24 BP. Been playing for about 17 hours so far.

Chapter 4 was short, but sweet. I've heard about
a secret boss in the Creepy Steeple. Atomic Boo?
Where can I fight him and how hard is he?

Before beginning Chapter 5, I wanted to do some sidequests, so I did a couple of Trouble Missions, including the one where I get
Ms.Mowz

Oh, and I'm so happy
Vivian
joined my group :D
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
I've got 3 books so far, funny stuff!

When you turn your guys into theri 8 bit sprites, access your party screen for added kicks!
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
7.

There's a hidden, roundabout method of getting them. I did it by accident, and was pleasantly surprised. Granted, all of the Mario RPGs have 'em, it seems, but doing it by accident still makes it fun.
 

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
I think I clocked in 38 hours when I completed the game... probably a little more, but I'm not sure.

Question/request time

1. Can someone get me a picture of
possessed Peach, with the witch outfit?
I saved before I thought of capturing a picture.

2. Where is
Atomic Boo
? I want to go battle it. Does it resemble
the giant ghosts from the other Mario games
?

3. What is the "alternate" way to
activate the 8-bit versions of yourself
that Mejilan alluded to?
 

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
I clocked in around 44+ hours, one of the slower players on the board, but more PM2 isn't a bad thing :)

I just beat the pit of 100 trials, and i think i'll finish the rest of the trouble center troubles before i stop. This whole game was a great experience.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Atomic Boo:

In the Creepy Steeple, if you hang out too long in the stained class main corridor, you get surrounded by all the itty Boos and get thrown out. If you let a bunch surround you, charge up your Hammer Spin, and whack enough of them, they cry out, morph into one, and attack. I don't know if your answer to the question that first Boo makes before it unleashes the mob will affect this sequence of events or not. And yes, Atomic Boo = Giant Boo.

8-Bit Sprites: In one of the rooms in the X-Naut Lunar Base (Sublevel 2?) you can Ultra Spin Jump through a loose panel in the ceiling to a walkway above. This walkway has a series of barred gratings that you can "thin yourself" through. One of them leads back to the room where you changed into an X-Naut costume as Peach, only you'll land on top one of the changing stalls. Jump into it, and if the drapes are closed when you jump into it, by the time you exit, you'll hear the classic SMB theme song and your crew will be 8-bit. Check out the rest of them in your party screen before leaving.
 
mejilan's right about atomic boo; I was wondering what people were talking about until I checked my tattle log; I thought atomic boo was a mandatory boss battle!

For those not looking elsewhere: if you miss a tattle, don't sweat it. Tattles you absolutely can't get anymore show up in Professor's Frankley's trash can.

Also; just tested the W+L idea, and it does work: equip Wario and Luigi badges simultaneously to dress like Waluigi.

Time to prep for the dungeon again...
 

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
Crazymoogle said:
mejilan's right about atomic boo; I was wondering what people were talking about until I checked my tattle log; I thought atomic boo was a mandatory boss battle!

For those not looking elsewhere: if you miss a tattle, don't sweat it. Tattles you absolutely can't get anymore show up in Professor's Frankley's trash can.

Also; just tested the W+L idea, and it does work: equip Wario and Luigi badges simultaneously to dress like Waluigi.

Time to prep for the dungeon again...

Damn, that's a pretty clever trick to get the waluigi clothes, i'm still wearing the wario clothes myself :D
 

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
About that 8-bit party thing...

I misread Mejilan's post... I thought he meant that there was ANOTHER method of getting the 8-bit party, other than "dropping in".

Bah. I need a giant image of ...that boss. I need to remember to copy my game save files before I battle the final bosses.
 

mattx5

Member
Crazymoogle said:
For those not looking elsewhere: if you miss a tattle, don't sweat it. Tattles you absolutely can't get anymore show up in Professor's Frankley's trash can.

So you mean if I didn't tattle a couple of the bosses, I'll be able to get them afterwards? (I'm only starting Ch 5, so I don't t know about Frankly's trash can).
 
Top Bottom