Why I Prefer PM64 to TTYD

I actually started writing this last year yet got caught up with things, like my accounts being deleted. I guess if there’s a month to post it in, now is the time.

I’m not excited for Paper Mario these days.

I adored this series when I was younger, but it’s a shell of its former self. Sticker Star, Color Splash and Origami King are varying degrees of disappointing, and it seems like the only quality product we’ll get is a rehash of a 2004 game. This is a real low point for the franchise, and I’m sad to say I don’t think it’ll recover any time soon.

I can’t help but be annoyed that so many fans are getting blindly hyped for this remake. It’s like they’re expecting it to be this magic bullet that’ll make the series great again, all because it brings them back to their childhood when the games used to be good. The petty side of me wants this remake to suck to see these fans’ blind hype demolished. But the reasonable side of me hopes this remake is better than the original, so new players have a solid representation of the older title. Too many remasters and remakes (more so the former) really ruin the experience, so let’s not add another one to the pile.

However, I’m not focused on the remake for this topic. Let’s talk about the original game.

Paper Mario is right up there with Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy as my introduction to the RPG genre. I have spent countless hours playing the first two games growing up, and even nowadays, I revisit them often. I could treat the first three games as their own separate series from the later content.

The second game, The Thousand-Year Door (TTYD), is often said to be the best Paper Mario title. People go so far as to call it one of the greatest video games of all time. While I don’t know if I could call it that excellent, I consider it a good game without question. One of my favourites of the GCN’s library. So many memories with this game, from getting stuck in Chapter 2 for years to it being the first time I ever used a Memory Card.

Yet despite having played TTYD first, I’ve always preferred the first Paper Mario game; since it’s just called Paper Mario, I’ll refer to it as PM64. I first tried it on emulation (which was painfully slow), then I got it on an authentic N64 around 2012-ish. I mostly play the Wii Virtual Console version now, which has more lag but is ultimately faster.

After having played both games close together recently, I can better explain why I prefer PM64.

And I do believe all my complaints will relate to this remake, as it doesn’t seem as if it can fix any of this; you can’t without undoing some structural stuff.

Before continuing, know that I love both games. This is like comparing an A- to an A+. You might think I hate TTYD by the end of this, but I don’t.

ALL THE MUSICAL CHOPS GO TO PM64

I am not a fan of TTYD’s music. While the sound quality is superior, the variety is dreadful. Listen to your favourite tunes in the game and tell me that the instruments and vibe aren’t monotonous.

If you asked me to tell you the difference between the Cortez and Smorg boss themes, I’d struggle. Most of the boss songs come off as lame and repetitive. Rawk Hawk’s and Macho Grubba’s themes stand out because they go for something different. Even the field themes are less memorable this time around. Petal Meadows and the Rogueport songs are stand-outs, but Twilight Town, Keelhaul Key and Fahr Outpost are boring. There are noticeably more atmospheric songs here, which isn’t a bad thing. But most of the songs don’t have melodies that stick in my mind.

Most TTYD tunes have this “bouncy” feel. By the end of the game, it’s gone from monotonous to distracting since the tone gets so much darker. Meanwhile, the music still has this silly, loose feel.

In contrast, PM64’s soundtrack is one of my favourites. It has TTYD beat in terms of diversity.

Compare the boss themes. Goomba King is goofy, the Koopa Bros. have a bombastic theme, Tutankoopa’s theme is Asian-influenced, General Guy sports a military-esque anthem with playful instruments, and Crystal King has a quiet yet harsh piece you’d expect from ice levels. Not every theme is a banger; Lava Piranha’s song is fairly easy to forget. However, the variety is so great here.

Field themes are consistently better. Rogueport’s song is good, but Toad Town’s melody changes when you enter certain areas. Toad Town also receives two different songs, one reserved for Chapter 4’s events; nothing similar happens in TTYD. Within this one little city, diversity is everywhere.

Gusty Gulch’s theme is a bop compared to the dull Riverside Station music. By the end, Bowser’s Castle gains more instruments the higher you climb. When they whip out the electric guitar, that’s when things get serious. Crystal Palace is the epitome of an atmospheric theme that is memorable. Whereas Twilight Town’s tune makes me fall asleep, this peaceful yet unsettling song keeps me awake.

PM64 has superior music, and it’s not even a contest in my mind. TTYD’s soundtrack is still not bad, I want to stress that. I like many of its tunes. But when you put them next to each other, PM64 blows it out of the water.

PM64 RESPECTS THE PLAYER’S TIME

TTYD’s pacing is atrocious. Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star are worse in this regard, but this element bothers me every time I replay TTYD.

I’ll start with the good. TTYD has a better prologue than PM64. Mario has immediate access to Action Commands, just like in Super Mario RPG. As a result, the beginning is so much snappier, which makes replaying it much more enjoyable. With PM64, I’m always waiting until Mario runs into Twink for the real adventure to begin.

Everything else? What the hell happened? It’s clear the developers wanted to pad this game out as much as possible. TTYD has more padding than a mental ward.

Everything in TTYD is slower than PM64, plain and simple. Skipping through text? Now you have to mash B instead of holding it, and it still takes longer. Getting from place to place? Because TTYD has the larger map, you can connect the dots. Mario’s speed isn’t too different from PM64, but he loses the Spin Dash. It is impossible to make Mario faster without relying on the baby Yoshi partner. However, I don’t like using Yoshi as a partner, and you always have to jump off of him to move properly in these maps. Not to mention, you only get the partner halfway through Chapter 3, so the first three chapters of the game (prologue included) are a slog.

I wouldn’t complain so much if the game didn’t have a fetish for backtracking. Every RPG has backtracking, just like every RPG necessitates grinding to an extent. Let me be clear: returning to old locations isn’t automatically bad. Many people don’t mention this when they criticise TTYD.

TTYD’s problem is redundant backtracking. It loves redundant backtracking as much as I love grimy toes.

Chapter 4 is a good example for many reasons. Firstly, the idea of not being able to say this guy’s name correctly because of a missing letter seems silly. The joke makes no sense. DooPliss, RumPel and ラんペル are still pronounced as Doopliss, Rumpel and Ranperu. You may consider this nitpicking, but since it’s the core reason we’re backtracking, it is important.

You must travel between Creepy Steeple and Twilight Town a minimum of five times. Go to CS first to fight Doopliss, then to TT to find Vivian. After that, run back to CS to get the letter “p/ン”, then turn around to TT so you can see Doopliss again. Tell him his name, and he flees. Then travel back to CS for the final fight of the chapter. This is a linear chapter, and the dark aesthetic is lovely, but it’s not something you want to stare at forever.

Let me tell you what. If they let the player use the technically correct names above, we could’ve cut two whole trips. Because Mario needs to have Vivian before completing the chapter, they should’ve set the first Doopliss name game after unlocking her. New players would still need to reach the Steeple to find the letter and get his real name (along with earning more EXP, making their adventure easier), but we returning players would speed this up from our experience.

That’s one example. If I listed them all, I’d be writing a college essay. You know about things like certain Trouble Centre missions and the General White quest at the beginning of Chapter 7.

Allow me to explain why PM64 respects the player’s time, and why I love it.

First of all, Mario is faster by default. Normally I understand why games limit your speed initially, for a sense of progression. But where Yoshi fails is that Mario has to be tied to that partner to gain any speed. Here, just press Z and you’re off. If you get the Speedy Spin badge, then that’s even better. It’s one of those movement options that’s just satisfying to perform, like the movement abilities you get in Kingdom Hearts II. When the simple act of moving is fun, suddenly everything feels better about traversing these fields.

Secondly, the 2000 game doesn’t punish you for knowing things early. It restricts you in areas to keep the game balanced. But whenever puzzles appear, you can get by with pre-knowledge and don’t have to endure long sequences again.

Chapter 4 in this game is similar to TTYD’s. The Toy Box makes you backtrack extensively to return items to Toad Town. But amazingly, you only have to visit Toad Town twice: once to get the Toy Train and once to have Tayce T. bake some cake. Remember the paper code that Russ T. has to decipher? If you don’t mind playing a guessing game or you’re experienced, you can hit the coloured blocks in the correct order and move on.

If this were TTYD, you’d have to go to Russ T., he would’ve triggered a flag, and only then could you hit the blocks. Think I’m lying? In Chapter 6 of that game, Bub wants you to get an autograph from the train conductor. Despite giving you a decent hint, you must talk to him multiple times before the game triggers the flag that lets the chapter continue. If you ignore that arbitrary requirement and talk to the engineer after the first hint, you’re punished with wasted time.

Another example would be Chapter 6 within PM64. This is usually the least favourite chapter of the game, in part due to its backtracking. However, I think its complaints stem more from the dreary atmosphere which gets tiresome.

Even though Chapter 6 has a lot of backtracking, the six paths from the centre hub are all short, often maxing out at three rooms. On a first playthrough, it will take long, but on a later playthrough, you will know to get the berries on the first go to save time. If this were TTYD, those shortcuts wouldn’t exist, and the paths would be lengthier.

I respect the first game a lot more for gracing me with my knowledge of events instead of punishing me.

What about the change to upgrading partners?

In TTYD, you have to collect three Shines, then bring them to Rogueport so Merlon can work his magic. While I’m not against the need to have three Shines, needing to go to Rogueport is another padding trick. The earliest time you can get three is at the top of Hooktail’s Castle. If you want to upgrade Goombella or Koops as early as possible, you have to undo all your progress and climb back up later. My stupid ass did this as a child, and I’m not the only one.

There is no defence for a system like this. It doesn’t balance difficulty or pacing, as that’s already done with the Shine requirement. On top of that, getting your partners to Ultra Rank is more tedious than in the first game. After Chapter 5, you must return to Hooktail’s Castle, go deep to find an Up Arrow, and bring it to Merlon.

PM64 handles this better. See a Super Block, hit it, then upgrade your partner. The game spaces them far enough, so you don’t need to worry about partners being overpowered. Many of them are hidden in Toad Town’s underground, in areas the average player might not explore. You can also bump partners to Ultra Rank within Chapter 5 and automatically after receiving an item.

TTYD’s upgrade system is also more convoluted because you’re locked in more chapters. For half of Chapter 4 and all of Chapters 5 and 6, you cannot return to Rogueport. So, if you have more than three Shines—and you will if you go for them all since there are only 42—sit your ass down and wait.

Lastly, the shortcut pipe system in TTYD is trifling. There are only four of them, and they only take you to Petalburg, The Great Tree, Keelhaul Key and Poshley Heights. They’re grouped in twos, and you need strong weapons to access the rooms. Let’s say you want to shortcut to Petalburg after Chapter 2. You won’t obtain the Super Hammer until Chapter 3, which is needed to access the first set of shortcuts. It slows things down for no reason.

In PM64, only the first three pipes are grouped together. You can access them all immediately after Chapter 2. Then you get additional pipes for Boo’s Mansion and Yoshi’s Island, which you can immediately access after those chapters.

One might argue that TTYD didn’t need shortcuts considering that most areas are reached via pipes. But getting to the cities is still a long walk that a shortcut can cut down on. Imagine if in PM64, you needed to backtrack through Dry Dry Desert in order to reach Dry Dry Outpost despite having beaten Chapter 2.

Oh, and backtracking to Glitzville is tedious. You have no choice but to use the blimp, which means you need to watch the same slow boarding cutscene every time. This is bad enough with General White’s shenanigans, but it gets even worse with one of the Trouble Centre missions. That Jolene one where you go to Glitzville, back to Rogueport, then go to Glitzville again is a complete waste of time and only grants you 30 coins. I love you, Jolene, but sincerely go fuck yourself.

I cannot stand TTYD on this front. I’m not a speedrunner, believe it or not. But that doesn’t mean I want a slower game speed or can’t recognise bad pacing. TTYD’s pacing is terrible, and it’s sad since TTYD is already a long enough game as is. It didn’t need padding in the slightest.

THERE IS LESS RANDOMNESS IN PM64’S BATTLES

Now I’m comparing the battle systems. While TTYD is mostly an improvement due to more strategies, items and special abilities, the randomness pisses me off.

What is with the Japanese and loving luck elements in their video games? Who finds it entertaining to have a Boo make the boss invincible while the player is in a life-or-death situation? What’s with the BINGO mechanic that can drop all your stats if you’re unlucky? This system blows. I don’t mind things like the back of the stage falling because that can be appropriately guarded. But even then, imagine dying because you had 1 HP and no Life Shroom.

Confusingly, the more you level up, the greater the random effects come. You can be burnt, the stage can be covered in fog, and since the audience grows, more threats appear. On that note, audience members can throw you items. Some are good, and some are trash meant to deal damage. I wouldn’t have an issue with that if not for the fact that some characters block the item from view, like the Bulky Bob-ombs. So I have to risk taking the hit or scaring away a good item.

PM64 flat-out doesn’t have any of this, so points to it. TTYD has the superior battle system on the whole, but it’d be nearly perfect without this one element.

COMPARING THE CHAPTERS, PM64 WINS

A very subjective point, as you’d expect, but TTYD is very similar to the first game regarding certain locations. Often they sync within the same chapters, which I’m sure is referential, but it comes across a tad lazy. However, I’m just going to state which chapters I find better in PM64. And to be fair to TTYD, I’ll express when it surpasses the original in my opinion.

Prologue is better in TTYD. As I said, it’s the only damn time this game wants to go faster than PM64.

Chapter 1 is slightly better in TTYD. Koops as a character has a lot more to offer than Kooper, what with his dad being missing and his girlfriend situation. I think Hooktail’s Castle also has more creative puzzles due to Koops’ abilities, and the progression feels more interesting with the detour to the underground fortress with the Fuzzies. That said, I prefer the Koopa Bros. to Hooktail, both in their characters and their theme.

Also, am I the only one who finds it strange that you get two partners in PM64’s Chapter 1? I think Kooper is the better partner than Bombette gameplay-wise, but still, why introduce both of them in one chapter? I guess PM64 didn’t want to introduce partners too late, and they already settled on having eight of them.

Chapter 2 is way better in PM64. TTYD’s second chapter is ass. I hate the Punis, every room in the Great Tree looks the same, and the way to defeat the Jabbies isn’t as clear as it should be (or even how to get into the secret entrance). I know many hate Mt Rugged and especially Dry Dry Desert in PM64, but we’ve gotta agree to disagree. I love both of these settings and the way you progress them; Parakarry’s mail issue is a good motivator for exploring the whole area, and Dry Dry Desert is only optionally tedious. You can just go in a straight line, and you’ll reach Dry Dry Outpost.

Past that, Dry Dry Ruins is better than The Great Tree. I prefer the latter musically, but the former isn’t nearly as easy to get lost in. Even if it were, there aren’t 101 Punis to piss you off every time.

When comparing Tutankoopa to Magnus von Grapple, Grapple might be the better fight. I find it odd how the fights in PM64 have the boss get stunned for a period, as it makes them easier. But the fights are similar in difficulty, and both do a good job. Grapple gets points for Lord Crump also being a recurring antagonist.

Chapter 3 is better in TTYD. Now this is where TTYD wins by a landslide. As much as I like Bow and the events of Forever Forest and Gusty Gulch, Glitzville is special. You’d think the constant combat would get annoying, but no, it doesn’t. And since it is constant battles, the game has a lot less filler during this chapter. The mystery is engaging, the characters are interesting, I want to fuck Jolene and her brother, and it has some of the strongest boss music in the game.

On that note, I consider Macho Grubba a better fight than Blubba’s heart. The latter gets the job done, and I like that it encourages taking advantage of Bow. But Grubba has the advantage of the chapter’s stronger story, along with an epic boss theme and transformation. Plus, I love the lore of Grubba actually using the Crystal Star power for fighting. It’s not quite the Power Lift that Mario receives, but being able to attack twice while increasing power is just the type of heel technique I’d expect from him.

Chapter 4 is better in PM64. Twilight Town sucks balls, plain and simple. I’ll give TTYD credit for it standing out compared to all locations, as well as having Vivian become a party member. That was a surprising twist to me as a kid. It is better story-wise than PM64’s Chapter 4.

However, it suffers so badly in the level design and structure that I don’t care. I’ll hang out in Shy Guy’s Toy Box any day. I also prefer General Guy as a final fight, what with having to deal with his Shy Guy army first, though Doopliss isn’t bad either.

Chapter 5 is slightly better in PM64. Is it unpopular to dislike Keelhaul Key? I always tried to love this place, as I love tropical environments in real life. But it just never clicked with me. I hate the beginning with the constant backtracking, and while the dungeon is alright, it’s oddly forgettable. I don’t even like the Cortez fight all that much. The best part to me is the final fight with Lord Crump, as not only is it hilarious to see his reaction to the Black Skull, but he is (again) tied to the main villains.

In PM64, I’ll also admit that I’m not big on Lavalava Island. The Yoshi search isn’t that engaging to me. However, I find that once we round all the little bastards and start exploring the deeper jungle, then things get a lot more fun. Lava Piranha isn’t a memorable character, but the boss is notable for having two phases. Kolorado also makes me laugh more than Flavio, though points to that asshole for saving us in the end.

Chapter 6 is better in PM64. Another controversial take, but I’ve expressed how I like Flower Fields. Even pushing aside the backtracking I’m fine with, the plant characters don’t annoy me here. Laklilester is a shit partner, but he’s a cool dude, and his girlfriend is one cute Lakitu if I say so myself… Oh, and Huff N. Puff is way better than Smorg. You know your fight is iconic when kids remember you being their roadblock for years. And truth be told, I think Huff N. Puff is a fair fight. Challenging but fair.

I love the aesthetics of the Express Excess, and I like the passengers. Oddly, I had a number of fantasises with both the waitress and the conductor when I was younger. But past that, I really don’t like the stuff with Pennington. I don’t find it funny, and I think it’s simple a downgraded version of the mystery angle from Chapter 3. Despite receiving the “sticky threat” at the beginning of the chapter, I don’t feel any stakes during Chapter 6. And our only combat point, Riverside Station, is just okay. I love the sunset, but that’s it.

Chapter 7 is barely better in PM64. This is the hardest by far, as both of these chapters are fantastic. I simply prefer the ice elements over the space elements, I find the music better, I find Crystal King a better fight than Magnus von Grapple 2.0, and I like Shiver City more than Fahr Outpost. There’s also the brief murder plot here, which is better than TTYD’s Pennington stuff because of how short it is.

Ooh, and for some reason, I just can’t get enough of Starborn Valley. It’s a small village with no major purpose outside of exposition, but it stands out as the only one-off town in this game. Plus, the music, I can’t stress enough.

But don’t be fooled, Chapter 7 in TTYD is good. Aside from General White’s toying with us, I think this chapter does everything else well. It’s cool you have to bring out Bobbery to get the mayor to respond, something hinted at by how reserved they are in general. I love the scene with Mario shooting out of the giant wine bottle (that shit is 100% a bottle, not a cannon). X-Naut Fortress is a very important place because of Peach’s story, and as a dungeon, it’s harder. Plus, while I think Grapple 2.0 could’ve been better, the boss has greater story relevance than Crystal King.

Chapter 8 is slightly better in PM64. I much prefer Bowser’s Castle to the Palace of Shadow. In fact, I find the latter quite dull. In terms of level design, it’s probably better, but it’s a visual bore. I find the best part to be that weird underground city, the one where you fight the Shadow Sirens for the second time. But outside of that, meh. Plus, Gloomtail is a lazy boss, and there are some major story problems I will address in the final section.

Meanwhile, Bowser’s Castle is more standard, but it feels a lot more engaging at the same time. The way we get there is sweet, seeing the lava go from flowing to cool is nice, that weird dark dungeon shakes things up nicely, and that music is building the entire time. I think the callbacks are better in this chapter, like having a final fight with Jr Troopa. He was a constant threat throughout the entire game, whereas the Shadow Sirens only fought Mario once.

Comparing Shadow Queen versus Bowser, Shadow Queen is appropriately the harder fight. However, Bowser has the story advantage of being the villain Mario strived to defeat the entire game. Both have some ups and downs, but they equal out in my opinion.

Of the nine segments in both games, I prefer six of them in PM64 and three of them in TTYD. To be fair, four of them were very close together. While TTYD has higher highs, I think its lows are much lower than the bad points of PM64 (backtracking being the most obvious example). PM64 is overall the more consistent experience.

PM64 HAS SOME BETTER STORY ELEMENTS

TTYD has the better story, I agree with most people there. It’s more original, more interesting, and the game has superior comedy. However, there are certain elements that are better done in PM64.

Firstly, the world has a sense of connection in PM64, whereas everything is so disconnected in TTYD. I get it. One is the Mushroom Kingdom, and the other is a random place with several new lands. While TTYD’s approach is perfectly valid, the first game’s connected world sits better with me. Look at how most the cities are directly connected to Toad Town via a path; northeast brings you to Shooting Star Summit, southeast gets you to Mt Rugged, and east takes you to Forever Forest. Meanwhile, most places in TTYD are accessed via a pipe or a big door underground. Not a lot of variety.

Secondly, Bowser and Kammy feel like afterthoughts in TTYD. You could wipe them from the game, and nothing changes. The only thing they do is buy Grodus time to escape with Peach at the end, which is lazy writing.

More than that, I don’t like how their personalities changed. You can’t take them remotely seriously when every scene is meant for laughs. I appreciate that they’re meant to be comic relief, but it falls flat for one reason. The X-Nauts and Lord Crump are already goofy villains, and doubly so with the English localisation. We don’t need another set of goofy bad guys running around. Bowser would adapt this sillier personality ever since for all the RPGs. Super Mario RPG technically started it, but Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and TTYD cemented it. While he often has the funniest writing in these games, I would like to see him as a threat every now and then.

PM64 strikes a better balance. Bowser is still silly, like having a diary between Chapters 1 and 2. However, he becomes more competent now that he has the Star Rod. Sure, many of us laugh at the pre-Chapter 4 segment where he has Peach tell him Mario’s weaknesses; the players often pick the beneficial items. But my man had a solid plan, and if you pick those bad guys like I tend to, then it all works out.

Kammy Koopa also comes off as smart, essentially being an adviser to Bowser. My only lament is that she appears far less in PM64, and when she appears, she is often isolated from Bowser. I’ll give TTYD credit for letting the two interact more as a duo, and therefore bounce off each other better, but they turned a notch too ridiculous for my liking.

Additionally, while a small touch, it has to deal with the connection element mentioned above. I like how Bowser has personal connections to each villain. In TTYD, Grodus and Beldam are the main antagonists, yet they don’t have any affiliation with any of the chapter bosses outside of Crump. This isn’t a bad thing in the slightest, as not everything needs to connect. I’m fine with how TTYD handles this, but I still appreciate the connection element of the first game.

Finally, there’s the ending. The ending of TTYD is bad.

TTYD lazily copies the same formula as the first game. You begin the final boss, they eventually become invincible, a cutscene happens, then they’re magically vulnerable. Reusing tropes isn’t instantly bad as long as there’s a good twist on it, but this is the exact same system (which Super Paper Mario would also recycle). In fact, it’s worse in TTYD because there’s no logic to anything.

The Crystal Stars magically float to their original locations. Why? When was it established that they moved on their own? And furthermore, the proper Crystal Star (the white/baby blue one the X-Nauts had) goes to Fahr Outpost; it’s supposed to go to Rogueport, as that’s where it originally was hidden. Characters also use them like microphones to talk to Mario. How can they use them to talk to him? All these people’s cheers along with Peach’s attitude weaken the Shadow Queen. Power of friendship bullshit?

The writers pulled this out their ass. It may be heartwarming to revisit every place, but it gets dumb when you think about it for more than a few seconds.

In PM64, the story makes sense. It’s stated that the stars gain their powers from people’s wishes, and Twink had been with Peach the entire adventure. So you can assume his strength has been slowly growing. Peach thinks to use it as a battle strategy at the last moment, and it happens to work. Admittedly, it could’ve been better built up, but at least there is foreshadowing. And combining with the Star Spirits to strip Bowser of his invincibility makes sense.

TTYD could have done a better job of wrapping up its story. Beldam never suffers any consequences for her actions. She’s the game’s antagonist, orchestrating everything. She is this game’s version of Dimentio from Super Paper Mario. Yet whereas Dimentio rightfully dies, by the end of TTYD, Vivian just hangs with her abusive sisters like nothing ever happened. It's said that Beldam and Marilyn became nicer, but that doesn’t change how I feel. If Darth Vader became a fully nice guy by the time he died, it wouldn’t negate everything he did.

CONCLUSION

TTYD does many things better than PM64. It has a better badge system, a better battle system with more flexibility, and there is more content. It goes without saying that the game’s presentation has stood the test of time. Just compare it to later PM games, and you notice the animation is so much more fluid. I think the original looks superior to the remake they’re pumping out with those garish white outlines and overdone lighting.

I love the characters. Grodus is a fine scheming villain, Vivian and Jolene make me feel very special, and this is one of Peach’s strongest portrayals. The partners this time around talk way more than they did in PM64, where they usually had nothing to say after their chapter, and that assists the narrative. Even regarding the moves the partners can do, they’re all upgrades to the original members, like Koops’ more controllable shell. This is a good RPG—the last solid RPG to come out of this franchise, which is sad considering it came out almost 20 years ago.

However, while we can debate which is the better game, and many things are in TTYD’s favour, there is no question which title I prefer. And that is PM64. It wastes far less of my time, it has superior music, and the game’s story has elements I appreciate more than TTYD’s. At the end of the day, I have way more fun revisiting this N64 game over its GCN brother.

The only moment I dread in the first title is the prologue, but the game gets consistently better from that point. In contrast, TTYD has many places where I want to quit playing. Chapter 2’s tree, Chapter 4 entirely, Chapter 5’s beginning, Chapter 6, General White, etc. The game made so many frustrating changes, such as complicating the partner upgrade system.

I love both titles, but one is superior in my eyes, and that game is PM64.

If you prefer TTYD, I’d love to hear why. Maybe you don’t have the same issues I do, or they’re not that big of a deal to you. And if you prefer the first game like I do, that’s great as well.