I am writing this after recently beating this game, i have been interesting in playing Paper Mario 64 for a bit over a year but couldnt find time to play it that much as i was busy with other things. After giving it another try, i played through it in its entirety and holy ****, this is indeed an amazing game. Same old "BOWSER IS BAD" **** but done in a way more clever way. Instad of just kidnapping Peach, Bowser becomes what is basically a demigod by stealing the Star Rod from the seven Star Spirits, allowing him to grant his own wishes (which he obviously uses for evil). Instead of being just a dumb final boss, he is a genuinely threatening and intelligent supervillian, while Peach actually fights for her freedom in stealth missions between chapters with her star companion (sigh) Twink (what an awful name). The battle system is solid but a bit clunky compared to what ive seen of TTYD's, i would say more but i need to fit this into 5,000 characters. Badges make everything work, and being on your death bed is actually a good thing (you know, Mega Rush). Unlike most RPGs, you and enemies dont have thousands of HP and deal thousands of damage, the most you can normally do in this game is like 20 and the most they can do is like 15. I honestly prefer this. The story of this game unfolds in many great ways, Chapters 3 and 7 are my favourites, theyre amazingly written and very unique and fun, the others are great too, chapters 4 and 6 are my least favourite tho, but they arent terrible, theres just too much backtracking, and they have their good moments, but theyre forgettable. I love all the fleshed out and uniquely designed characters in this game, they all have real personalities and a lot of flair to them. Kooper and Parakarry are my favourite partners, theyre cute and unique and all that and Kooper is very useful near the end of the game. Chapter 3 "antagonist" Tubba Blubba is SO **** ADORABLE hes so cute and cuddly i love him so much, who cares if he eats ghosts? Bowser is the one who made him "evil", hes innocent... and my favourite character. All the other characters of this game are great; Goombario, Jr Troopa, Bombette, the Koopa Bros, Kolorado, Lady Bow, General Guy, Lava Pirahna, Lakilester, Monstar (incredibly ez boss fodder but i love its design), Crystal King, and Bowser himself, theyre all amazingly designed and have great personalities. This is probably the N64's best looking game, it even stands toe to toe to Rare's later N64 titles (even **** like Conker's Bad Fur Day), and it has aged incredibly well for a 26 year old N64 game. It would probably still look great even if it was a PS1 game (ok probably because i think affine texture mapping looks cool af). And it actually runs great too, solid 30fps throughout with occasional frame drops (altho i did play it on an emulator). The artstyle is sick, i honestly prefer it over the standardized Paper Mario artstyle debuted in TTYD. Looks so much more authentic and unique and there is a lot of great spritework, really makes everything stand out especially with the storybook gimmick. It makes even the most ferocious and intimidating characters look adorable, that may annoy some but i eat that **** up. The game's maps are really detailed and well done, the Shiver Region is probably my favourite (its Crystal Palace dungeon being a highlight). I love the creepy maze-like vibe of Forever Forest and the amount of detail put into Bowser's Castle, the way they utilize vertex colouring during the lava sections is so good. Toad Town is a great central hub and the Toad Town Sewers makes navigation around the game actually easy. My main complaints with this game are the difficulty, occasional boring moments and a lack of a post-game. A lot of the time battles are pretty eh, just spam Power Bounce and block and ****, and i end up overpreparing for boss battles; i brought a bunch of Whacka's Bumps and 3 Life Shrooms to Final Bowser, beat him in like 8 turns and only needed 1 Life Shroom, didnt need to heal either. But it doesnt bother me that much. In conclusion, this is the N64's deserving swansong, and an amazing game. I actually think that this is the system's greatest game, even better than like SM64 and OoT, i just honestly prefer that over them. All the great characters, the writing, the detail put into the maps, even the basic story, sure there isnt tons of worldbuilding but it is great. This was one of the last N64 games released, it only came out in October 2001 where i live, and by then the GameCube was already out in Japan. Im sad that i never got to experience this game earlier, i could on the Wii U VC (the Wii U was my first console, how traumatic), but never did. But even at 16, this "beginners RPG" is still a great experience, and so much others can agree. 10/10, a few tiny flaws but amazing game. I plan to play TTYD for the first time soon so this will most likely end up being overtaken soon.

A great introduction to the Paper Mario series with great worlds to explore and great gameplay with the battle mechanics. The sequel, Thousand-Year Door would go on to improve what this game and add more personality with its partners, but this is still a great game worth playing.

Extremely iconic and amazing video game. The music is perfect, the graphics are amazing and never get old. The graphics are never outdated. The biggest flaw is that it is too easy. It's not a challenging game at all believe me. This game has a storybook theme, they were not actually going for a paper theme yet but this game is rather instead themed on fairy tale style stories. This is perhaps the only video game in existence where Bowser is actually intimidating as a character. Usually Bowser is not very threatening, and he comes across rather goofy. But in this game Bowser is actually a serious threat who has an intelligent plan and is a competent villain for the only time in the series. This game is really memorable and does have a good story. It's fun to play and fun to replay again and again, over and over. Probably worth around $150 honestly IMO.