crowphoenix said:
Could you go a little more in depth about what made it better? I'm considering picking it up.
Hmm... that's hard, actually. I mean, both games were very, very good. However, I loved and finished Paper Mario (about 30 hours), while in TTYD, I didn't finish it... I quit midway. It was funny, I mostly liked it, the graphical style was great... but for some reason, it just didn't grab me like the first game did. I'm not quite sure if I can say why, though. I will admit that when I think of how to describe the first Paper Mario, it sounds kind of like "like the second game, but without some things", which should mean that the second game is better, but... I don't know, I guess that despite that I just liked the settings of the first game better. But really, they're both fantastic.
What was great about the first one, though... well, it was original. The 'Paper' thing is quite clever, and that was the first game with it. The plot was also amusing... it brought back the old "Bowser kidnapped the princess!" plot again, but made it quite funny with the great writing. I liked the plot better than the second game -- the X guys or whatever just weren't as funny as Bowser... same goes for the segments with the Princess, they were a bit more substantial (though still not long) in the first game. There were no Bowser segments, though. Even so, I'd give the better plot to the first game. Bowser just works better as the main villain than some random new characters and their computer. I think the fact that the main plot wasn't as engaging was a big part of why I liked the first game more... sure it's "Rescue the Princess" again, but so is the second game, and it's funnier and more series-appropriate in the first one. The part at the beginning where Bowser beats Mario was just awesome...
I also liked the characters (other party members, etc) in the game a lot. The second game certainly had its moments too, but I thought the first one was even better. I think the first one had somewhat better pacing, too. Slightly less script (just as funny writing, but a bit less... TTYD had a huge amount of text. That's not bad -- I like games with lots of text -- but the first game had it pretty much perfect.), and better pacing between chapters... and I definitely thought that the segments with the princess were a lot better in the first game. Bowser's segments were just too short to make much impact (though the 'Bowser in world 1-1' section was awesome).
Gameplay was similar, but without the 'crowd' aspect. I didn't mind, because I never really got into the whole crowd thing... you can do things to please the crowd and such ('Stylish' moves), but I never really got used to doing that, I think, and it didn't really seem worth it mostly. Paper Mario's battles were great as they were, with the same great timing aspects adding a lot of fun. The graphics are fantastic, some of the N64's best. It does a really good job of looking like a Mario world, but with paper characters... I was totally hooked with the game, and played it through until completion in under a month. In TTYD, in comparison, I just got bored repeatedly midway, and quit for long periods of time before finally just stopping. For instance, the chapter in the fighting arena area... sure it was really funny at first -- Mario's natural nickname is "The Great Gonzalez"?
-- but it just dragged on and on with minimal change before finally ending... the first game never felt like it was dragging like that. Sure, TTYD pretty much had more of everything, but the first one came together better overall. Really everyone with any interest in the games should play both, though. They're both great. I should play both of them again, it's been a while.
