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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Developer(s)Intelligent Systems
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Platform(s)Nintendo Gamecube
ReleaseJapan July 22, 2004
North America October 12, 2004
Europe November 12, 2004
Genre(s)Role-playing game
Mode(s)Single player

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (ペーパーマリオRPG, Pēpā Mario Ārupījī, Paper Mario RPG) is a role-playing video game published by Nintendo and developed by Intelligent Systems and released exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube video game console in 2004. It is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 video game Paper Mario, and is the fourth in the series of Mario role-playing games. The Thousand-Year Door follows the artistic style of its predecessor with a unique 2D-characters-in-a-3D-world look, but uses improved graphics.

Storyline

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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door opens with a short introduction about a prosperous seaside town that was destroyed by a cataclysm and then sank into the depths of the earth. After the site of the town was completely purged of all evidence of its existence, a new town, called Rogueport, was built there. A legend about a mysterious treasure then soon spread through the town. Princess Peach, who was traveling, visits the town and meets a merchant. The merchant gives her a small box, which is said to hold a map leading to a great treasure. The box also has a magical lock which will only open for one with a pure and noble heart. Peach is of course granted with the heart to open the box, and she now becomes in possession of the magical treasure map. Thrilled with this map, she sends it to Mario accompanied by a letter telling him to meet her in Rogueport to join her for a treasure hunt.

Mario sets sail for Rogueport and after arriving at the docks, does not find Peach. He soon after encounters a goomba girl named Goombella being harrassed by a mysterious figure named Crump, whom he helps her escape from. In talking with her afterwards, he learns that Peach had talked with her about a mysterious map she had found and that she had seen Peach leave with a mysterious group. Upon showing Goombella the map, she asks him to take it to her acheology professor, Frankly. The two meet with Frankly and he identifies the map as a magical map that reveals the location of seven items known as the Crystal Stars, which are the key to unlocking a magical door located in the ruins beneath Rogueport known as the Thousand-Year Door, behind which the legendary treasure of Rougeport is believed to lie. The three then enter the sewers and approach the door with the map; the door then imparts the location of the first Crystal Star on the map. After the first Crystal Star is recovered, the location of the second will be revealed on the map, an so on until all of the Crystal Stars are recovered. As it is believed that Peach may have set off in search of the Crystal Stars herself, Mario's only hope of finding her is to pursue the Crystal Stars, hoping that he will encounter her along the way.

Unknown to Mario, Princess Peach has actually been kidnapped by a group known as the X-Nauts, led by Sir Grodus, who had heard that she was in possesion of the map, and kidnapped her only to find that the map was gone. Despite this, Grodus refuses to release her, claiming that he needs her for an undisclosed purpose. During her confinement in the X-Nauts' fortress, Peach encounters a computer called TEC. Though a computer, TEC seems to have an affection for Peach and gradually provides her with information about the X-Nauts' plot and allows her to send e-mail messages to Mario. It is eventually revealed that the "treasure" hidden behind the Thousand-Year Door is actually a demon known as the Shadow Queen. Nearly one thousand years ago, this demon descended upon the prosperous city which lay where Rogueport now lies and destroyed it. She afterwards forged the seven Crystal Stars and used their power to dominate the land. However, her reign was crushed when four heroes managed to steal the Crystal Stars and used them to imprison her inside of her own palace, which she had constructed on the ruins of the prosperous city. They afterwards hid the Crystal Stars in remote locations across the land to prevent them from being found, but knowing that they might one day be needed again created a magical map which could lead its bearer to their locations. Grodus seeks to recover the Crystal Stars and resurrect the demon, whose power he desires to use to conquer the world. Unkown to him, however, the seal placed on the demon's palace would only last for a thousand years, and that this time limit had nearly expired.

Throughout his travels, Mario eventually succeeds in finding all seven of the Crystal Stars and uses their power to open the Thousand-Year Door, intending to enter the Shadow Queen's palace and destroy her. Upon reaching the entrance to her chamber, he encounters Grodus with Peach as his hostage and does battle with him. Upon defeat, Grodus manages to escape with Peach into a corridor leading to the area where the Shadow Queen is imprisoned. He summons her and and offers Peach as a new body for her to inhabit, as her old body had been destroyed during her confrontation with the four heroes. Upon possessing Peach, the demon begins to spread darkness across the skies, signaling her return to domination of the world. Grodus orders her to destroy Mario, but taking a dislike to being ordered, strkes Grodus with bolts of black lightning and destroys him, and afterwards confronts Mario. During the ensuing battle, the demon reveals herself to be too powerful for Mario to defeat. Just as it looks as though Mario has lost, the seven Crystal Stars become animated and fly to different location across the region. Upon encountering the Crystal Stars, the inhabitants of each region are able to use the Crystal Stars as a medium through which they see the battle between Mario and the Shadow Queen which will decide the fate of the world, and begin to cheer for Mario's victory. The people's wishes impart Mario with increased power and give him the strength he needs to defeat the Shadow Queen and rescue the princess.


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Gameplay

Unique elements

The Thousand-Year Door has some unique elements which owe to its very singular visual style. The graphics consist of a mixture of three dimensional environments and two dimensional characters, who look as if they are made of paper. At different points in the game, Mario is "cursed" with abilities that enable special moves in the overworld, all of which are based on the paper theme. These include:

  • Becoming a paper airplane and flying for short distances.
  • Turning sideways to become as thin as a piece of paper and slip through cracks.
  • Rolling into a tube to duck under low-hanging objects.
  • Folding into a boat to cross water.

A variety of other visual effects in the world also play on this theme. Illusory objects that conceal secret items or switches can be blown away by a gust of wind, as they are actually pieces of paper with the object drawn on them stuck onto the page of the game world. Some switches cause changes in the world in ways that match the paper theme, such as a bridge appearing by way of a flipbook-like animation or stone stairs being folded out from a single piece of stone-colored paper.

Another feature this game includes is the ablilty for the player to control Bowser in certain parts of the game. These segments have the player control Bowser in a true side-scrolling environment (reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros. levels, with a remix of the Super Mario Bros. theme music). The only Power-up of these minigames is a cut of ham, which increases Bowser's size. Several of these can be collected until Bowser becomes gargantuan and invincible.

Battle system

Battles in The Thousand-Year Door borrow heavily from the original Paper Mario, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Super Mario RPG. The turn-based system, in which players select an attack, defense, or item from a menu, is augmented by timed button presses that, when performed correctly, can result in substantial attack or defense bonuses. In contrast to both Paper Mario and Superstar Saga, battles in The Thousand-Year Door happen on a stage in front of an audience. As the characters perform more advanced attacks, the audience grows, and Star Power is awarded based on the size of the audience. Having Star Power in turn lets the player perform special moves. However, when the player fails to execute a timed button press in time, some of the audience members may run away. The size of the auditorium in which battles take place is affected by the fame ranking, which increases every ten levels up until Level 30. The player begins with a fame ranking of "Rising Star" (50 seats), then "B-List Star" (100 seats), then "A-List Star" (150 seats) and finally "Superstar" (200 seats).

In The Thousand-Year Door, Mario's party members now each have their own Heart Points and they may receive any attack that Mario can receive. When a partner's Heart Points are reduced to 0, the partner becomes inactive for the rest of that battle and later battles until at least one of its Heart Points are restored. If Mario's Heart Points are reduced to 0, however, the game ends even if partners are still available. Flower Points are shared between Mario and his party members.

Defeating enemies awards various numbers of Star Points to Mario; for every 100 Star Points, Mario is able to level up, choosing between three character statistic enhancements. Selecting Health (HP) adds the specified number of points to Mario's maximum Heart Points, allowing him to last longer in battle; opting for Flower Points (FP) gives Mario and his partners additional ability to perform special moves; and finally selecting Badge Points (BP) increases the number of badges Mario can equip at any given time. In The Thousand-Year Door, Mario's maximum level is 99, as opposed to 27. Also, there is no limit to Heart Points, Flower Points, and Badge Points as in the original Paper Mario.

Eventually, individual enemies may give him no Star Points; however, Mario will gain at least one Star Point after winning a battle.

Badges

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door retains the "Badge" system introduced in Paper Mario. Equipping a Badge can do various things; some Badges provide boosts in offense and defense, some provide additional attacks, some increase the player's character statistics, and others only cause aesthetic changes to the game. There are many Badges in the game, and each one has a unique power. Each Badge (besides the ones that only have aesthetic effects, such as the Attack FX Badge series, or detrimental badges like Double Pain) takes a certain number of Badge Points, or BP, to equip; as noted above, players can increase Mario's total BP when he levels up. There are also "P" Badges, which have the same name as their standard counterparts but with a "P" tacked to the end (e.g. "Pretty Lucky P") which affect Mario's partners rather than himself. In The Thousand-year Door, Badges can be bought and sold at certain shops, a change from Paper Mario.

Trivia

  • Bow (along with Bootler, her butler) and Parakarry, partners from the original Paper Mario, make an appearance (non-playable) in this game.
  • Graphically updated, yet disassembled sprites of all the partners from Paper Mario are found in the ROM, but do not make any appearances.
  • In the X-Naut base, Mario can drop into the changing room through the ceiling transforming him into an 8-bit Super Mario Bros. version and the music changing to the Super Mario Bros. theme music. Partners also become 8-bit as well. This wears off by leaving the room. An easter egg like this has appeared in every home-console based Mario RPG to date.
  • The game has many in-jokes and references regarding Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem series, older titles in the Mario series, and other games that exist on Nintendo consoles and handhelds.
  • The game also breaks the fourth wall several times, by referring to the Mario series and occasionally having characters speak at the player (which most of the times leaves Mario's partners confused).
  • In the Japanese version, Vivian is male, despite his feminine appearance. However, in all other versions of the game, Vivian is a female.
  • Every single female who joins Mario's group at one point gives him a kiss.

See also

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