Thousand Year Door is my favorite, but I love the first one too. It's okay as long as one of THOSE is your favorite.
There are chapters of both I could truly do without though. I don't like the Creepy Steeple or the Pikmin Boggly Woods in TTYD.. Nor do I like Dry Dry Ruins or Flower Fields in PM64... But in the end, The Glitz Pit alone is enough to make me love TTYD so much... Though I also love a mystery train!
*eye twitch* I need a new (good) Paper Mario game. It's not nostalgia blinding me either. Also, I need Paper Mario in Smash.
Actually, I really liked the ch4 of TTYD (tough yeah I kinda disliked the ch6 of the pm64). See, both are ch that uses backtracking alot but the TTYD one added something that made it FAR better than the ch6 in 64. In pm64, it could quickly become annoying because of how you start at A then go to B and go back to A to get to C to get to another point passing by A to return to C and... you get the point. It's not even like metroid prime where the backtracking is manageable it's just not fun and I still don't see why they did that (seriously even the item collectathon in Earthbound / Majora's mask was better than this).
But the ch4 of TTYD, not only you only backtrack between 2 points but there's actually a purpose behind it.
WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED TTYD THEN
DO NOT OPEN THE SPOILER!!! You'll thank me later but please play the game before doing this.
[collapse=Here's why this ch is far better than his counterpart]
First of all, the mood of this ch4 tries to be creepy. When you arrive, the most color you'll see is black because they tried to represent shadows which fits the mood. Not only the artstyle is as different and awesome as ever but the way you trigger stuff is... kinda weird. You go somewhere only to realize that the previous person you talked 30 seconds ago got transformed into a pig just that is quickly setting the mood. But here, this is where it begins to be interesting.
Throughout the way to creepy steeple, and to getting to the top of creepy steeple, you'll notice something that just doesn't feel right in this game: it really seems that this ch4 would suck at this point because for a "dungeon", it's really short and you don't have much to do here until you get to the boss. So, at this point, you probably tough that all went normally and that would be it after despite how this ch is so short right?
I really want your answer (in spoiler please), but be honest how did you react after the game prompted you to save? I saw some fakes in games but not as believable as this one (even dkc it said THE END? so you could have guessed seconds before). Really how did you feel after you got the ch ending screen and then having to save your game and seeing the screen locked on the top of the creepy steeple when you just beat Doopliss? For me, I literally tough my game was frozen and maybe you haven't got this but what would be your first reflex after thinking that your game is frozen? Trying to press buttons of course and...
OMG I cannot describe how WTF??? I was at this precise moment. There's NO WAY I would have expected that to happen and I tough that this ch would suck, it changed right there. The feeling you get is creepy as heck because you have the feeling that your identity was stolen (imagine someone somehow knew your credit card number how would you react?) It begins to a point where you're scared and even some panic here.
And that's why the backtracking here comes into play: The mood here is organised so that this feel is maintained for the longest period of time. Why? well if we go back to my credit card example, this is even worst that this situation just stays there longer because you have more chance to be stolen. Same here, heck you can't even leave the town so that you aren't safe but stuck there. The fact that you have to run away multiple times from Doopliss just enhance this feeling of creepy.
You partner even fight against you here! Really, I think it's clear what this ch was trying to do the whole time and if you think about it, one of the most creative thing of doing so.
Lots of people loved ch3 and I do too but just think about it the reason why it's so good is how creative that this ch is fun. You fight like 21 times which at first seems to get repetitive but the ch is made so that yes it is repetitive, but it doesn't FEEL like it. On the opposite, it seems to change every fight making this ch very fun because of its concentrated variety. The same logic applies for ch4 backtracking 3 times over like 5 screens every times sounds very boring but it's not because of how this ch tries constantly to remind you that you are followed and that you can't even leave. This is why it's my third best ch in the game (first is ch3 and second is ch5, very impressing that they managed to do a splendid ch mostly because of the text).
My opinion btw, but it's just that I see alot of people disliked this ch while it fixed the error his counterpart did.
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But I agree ch2... Well it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best either. Tought, I liked the artstyle here and THE F***KING BOSS THEME!!! So sad that it's short because this music is awesome only because of like 5-10 seconds it is that good. I think it's weakest ch of the game but by that, I mean great (the ch7 yes was snnoying but more than make up after the canon). So, the least ch is great and the best is amazing talk about a good game!
