To start off, I want to mention that my first ever RPG was in fact Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. So some opinions stated may be because I compare the old to new, so I'm sorry for that.

The story sets off a few years after Paper Mario left off at. Peach finds a treasure map that leads her to Rogueport. She then sends Mario the map she has found and ends up kidnapped... I seriously forgot what happened in the beginning. Anyways, Mario heads over to try to save her. With the help of Professor Frankly, you traverse to many locations to retrieve the Crystal Stars which help lead you to the next. Once all seven are found, the Thousand Year Door will open... Because the Professor says it can only happen every ten years. Lucky me. Many antagonists are met along the way. The most notable one are X-Nauts, Lord Crump who be the general, and Sir Grodus that wishes to use the power held behind the Thousand Year Door to destroy the world.

The base line follows the same as the first Paper Mario but with minor tweaks. One notable one how combat is dealt with. Like before, you have your badges and two types of attacks (jump and hammer). The additions to this is the audience that you'll see every battle and your party member actually having health to fight. So what do I think on this? Well... The audience... Sure there are positives but overall I hate it. Sure it's good for quickly filling up your star meter (gonna call it that), but it ruins the atmosphere. Like seriously, I don't want some punk cheering me on when I'm doing a puzzle and I get attacked by a common foe. The only time it works out is mainly in the boss battles and that arena area. Other then that, I feel like I'm taken away from the level and placed instead in this stage for people... How used can you be, Mario.

A good think I can note is the changes made to the puzzles and anywhere not-in-battle. Basically you gain these curses which revolve you being paper and using it to interact with the environment. An example of this is going through a barred gate simply by turning Mario the other way (impossible, I know). With this added, it helps the game become not just a typical move, fight, proceed game. Now, the outside elements can be added to make not-being-in-battle more enjoyable for the player.

The characters in the game are simply awesome. It's a big improvement, especially the background stories with the party members you meet. Although, some characters I do dislike because they're not as useful as I would want them to, but it's a plus from useless characters like Sushi... Well for me at least. Since the characters are more thought out for battle situation, I did found myself using a wide variety of characters during boss battles... Except Goombella.

As for level design, most of it was unmemorable. Although they did a good job with the area designs, I had no real intention to go back. Not to mention there was no point to go back while the first Paper Mario had a letter delivery service (which was fun). Not saying that it was pointless to go back because if do want to get the star pieces, then by all means. But I found that most star pieces were more in the open in this one... Or easy to obtain. Was it harder in the first one? I guess so since the major required super jump or ultra hammer to obtain them from under the floor. Fine, you win. But that's not pointing out the fact that star pieces weren't as useful as it was back then, I mean, most of the badges you could buy were pointless and not appealing. I bought maybe a happy heart and the peekaboo but never used them. I didn't have enough badge points due to the fact I went all glass cannon.

As for the ending... Well I'll just say it wasn't anything good, surprising, or interesting. But they did put you back at Rougeport for you to finish anything you missed... But that means you cannot have your save at the last battle... Then again, the last battle wasn't anything good either. Just a bunch of bull you had to somehow guess when to defend. Sigh, oh well... I finished it because I had to get more heart in order to endure the pain.

Alright, so I know I've said a lot of bad things on every point here, but the good points surpassed them by a lot. The game is fun and is worth a playthrough. If you haven't played the first one... Well your opinion will differ greatly (not knowing how it began) but I guess that's life.

8.5/10