Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)

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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch
Release date	Template:Release
Language(s)	English (United States) French (France) French (Canada) German Spanish (Spain) Spanish (Latin America) Italian Dutch Japanese Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Korean
Genre	RPG
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Everyone PEGI: - Seven years and older CERO: - Twelve years and older ACB: - Parental Guidance USK: - All ages ClassInd: - General audience SMECCV: - All ages GRAC: - All ages GSRR: - Six years and older FPB: - Thirteen years and older Gmedia: - Seven years and older MRO: - Seven years and older
Mode(s)	Single player
Format	Nintendo Switch: Game Card Digital download
Input	Nintendo Switch: Joy-Con Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a Nintendo Switch remake of the 2004 Nintendo GameCube game of the same name, and the first remake in the Paper Mario series. It was first announced during the September 2023 Nintendo Direct, and released in most of the world on May 23, 2024, subsequently releasing in the United Arab Emirates two days later.

The title features visually enhanced and updated graphics along with new gameplay features. However, it remains faithful to the style of the original game: the characters still use their designs from the original release (for example, Princess Peach keeps her pre-Mario Party 4 dress design), rather than the updated designs used in the following Paper Mario games. Many voice clips from the original game are also reused, in spite of voice actor changes since the original game's release, including Charles Martinet, Jen Taylor, and Scott Burns, former voice actors of Mario, Peach, and Bowser respectively.

Changes from the original game

New content

Menus and Galleries

• A few new emails have been added, such as one from Professor Frankly informing Mario about the First Attack badge or one from the Toad Bros. Bazaar informing Mario when the Contact Lens have been restocked.
• A Notes tab has been added to the menu. This lists active Trouble Center requests and any of Merluvlee's predictions that are still relevant.
• A list of controls for the player's current controller can be found in the menu.
• Like in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, a concept art gallery, the Art Gallery, is available. It can be viewed from the menu, with more pieces unlocking throughout the game. The gallery includes concept art from the original game along with concept art specific to the remake. Art galleries are sorted by the story's chapters' locations and are unlocked after collecting every Star Piece from that chapter's locations and taking the chapter's Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door.
• An in-game music player, the Sound Gallery, is now available from the menu. Music tracks are sorted by the story's chapters' locations in which they play and are unlocked after collecting every Shine Sprite for that chapter and taking the chapter's Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door.
  • Equipping the Nostalgic Tunes badge allows the player to listen to the GameCube versions of the tracks in the Sound Gallery as they are unlocked. While the badge is equipped, tracks exclusive to the remake are disabled.

Characters

• A Purple Toad called the Battle Master can now be found around the world. When talked to, he allows Mario to practice his attacks, in a similar fashion to the Action Command Dojo and Battle Lab from previous games. During his battles, Mario fights cardboard Goombas called Goomboards.
• A Little Mouser named Ian Foomus now appears in the Trouble Center, offering advice to help with different Troubles.

New bosses

• Two new bosses have been added:
  • Prince Mush can now be challenged at the Glitz Pit. To unlock him, the player must complete Jolene's Trouble, "Help wanted!", and then wait some time to receive an email from her talking about new Exhibition Matches and that Mush is training. After waiting some more time, the player will receive another email, this time from Prince Mush himself, issuing a challenge. By heading back to the Glitz Pit and selecting Exhibition Match in any league, the player can challenge him to a fight. Mario will receive Prince Mush's Belt if he defeats him.
  • Whacka can now be found in the Pit of 100 Trials and can be defeated to receive the Gold Whacka Bump. In order for it to appear, the player needs to clear the Pit of 100 Trials once and defeat Bonetail and hit Whacka in Keelhaul Key enough times to make it disappear (it'll exclaim "Whacka-a-woooooooooooo..." when it disappears for the last time). After waiting around 30 minutes of in-game time, the player must then go back to Rogueport to receive an email called "RDM Extra Issue," which says a mystical creature has been seen deep in the pit, and then traverse to floor 100 of the Pit again. Returning to the Pit and fighting Whacka subsequent times yields a regular Whacka Bump, meaning the item can now be obtained infinitely, unlike the limited amount in the original.

Recipes

• The Hottest Dog recipe has been added and can be made by mixing a Hot Dog with Hot Sauce. This is in reference to the Businessman's Trouble. In the original Japanese text, he talked about combining his Hot Sauce with Mr. Hoggle's Hot Dogs, but this resulted in a Mistake if attempted in the original game. In the original English localization, he referred to combining a "Fat Dog" (a nonexistent item) with Hot Sauce to create a "Tongue-Blistering Fat Dog", which the remake respectively changes to "Hot Dog" and "Hottest Dog" in order to allude to the new recipe.

Badges

• The Nostalgic Tunes badge, resembling a Nintendo GameCube, can now be bought from the Lovely Howz of Badges for one coin. Equipping it will revert the music to the original soundtrack. The game still plays tracks exclusive to the remake, however.
• Mario is now awarded with a Gold Medal for obtaining all three trophies. It has the effect of visually turning him gold, and the effect will stack with the L Emblem and W Emblem.

Glitz Pit

• In the Glitz Pit, there is now an exhibition match option when reserving a match. Exhibition matches allow Mario to select and fight any Glitz Pit team that he is currently ranked above (whenever or not he has fought them previously), and these battles do not have any battle conditions, nor do they affect Mario's ranking. As a result, the player can now easily obtain Tattle entries for enemies exclusive to the Glitz Pit if they failed to do so earlier. After Mario's rank is reset after clearing Chapter 3, he must rank up to access exhibition matches again. However, Prince Mush can be fought regardless of rank.

Creepy Steeple

• The Creepy Steeple Boo can now be found in the storeroom after freeing the Boos trapped in the box under Creepy Steeple, where he will quiz Mario on various parts of the story. There are six quizzes in all, with the last quiz having 15 questions in total and only being available during the post-game.

Pit of 100 Trials

• Upon completion of the Pit of 100 Trials at least once, a Mover outside the entrance now provides fast-travel to the 50th floor for 300 coins.

Trophies

• Three trophy items have been added as rewards for Journal completion:
  • The Cooking Trophy for obtaining all recipes
  • The Badge Trophy for obtaining all badges.
  • The Tattle Trophy for completing the Tattle Log.

Tattles

• There are now ten more Tattle Log entries compared to the original game, bringing the total to 134. Amongst these include the Goomboard, the Fuzzy Horde in Shhwonk Fortress, the X-Naut horde in Lord Crump's second fight, and the two new bosses, Whacka and Prince Mush.
  • The second fights against Bowser, Doopliss, Beldam, and Marilyn and the second phase of the Shadow Queen now have separate Tattle Log entries. As a result, if they were Tattled in their first battles, their HP is not immediately shown in their rematches until they are Tattled again.

Gameplay changes

Menus and controls

• The player's play time for their save file now appears only on the file select screen and can no longer be seen in the game's menu.
• The player can now no longer scroll through their list of items and badges using the and buttons, as they are now used to scroll through the menu screens instead.
• Conversations can now no longer be sped up, nor can the player view previous messages in the conversation. Text can now only be sped up if an entire conversation has been seen before being played a second time.
• The Mailbox SP mail system has now been reworked to function similarly to the notifications system from Paper Mario: The Origami King, where alerts no longer affect the player's ability to navigate in-game. Pressing while the notification is on-screen now immediately opens the email.
• Like Paper Mario: The Origami King, the last saved point can now be accessed from the Game Over screen and the current scene can also be played again. This is now no longer limited to certain situations, with any scene in which the player was last in capable of being played again.
• When levelling up, the player now has to press a direction with the to select an option, rather than HP being the default.
• If the player is wearing an FP Plus or HP Plus, increasing their FP or HP respectively, when levelling up, the higher numbers for increasing FP or HP will now take into account the badges worn.
• The Nintendo Switch system keyboard is now used when prompted to name the Yoshi Kid instead of an in-game one. However, all other text input prompts, such as the ones for inputing Doopliss' name and the access code in X-Naut Fortress, still use an in-game keyboard.

Field

• On the field, Mario can now swing his Hammer forwards and backwards like in entries since Paper Mario: Sticker Star. In the original game, he could only swing his Hammer sideways, although it had the same gameplay effect.
• On the field, bushes can now no longer be interacted with when near them, but they can be crumpled with the Hammer for the same effect, as with Paper Mario: Color Splash. Incidentally, Bowser can still interact with bushes in the same manner as in the original game.
• On the field, both Mario's partners and NPCs will now react when hit with Mario's Hammer. NPCs will also now react when Bowser breathes fire on them during his intermissions.
• Like in later entries, there is now safeguarding on the edges of areas to prevent the player from accidentally falling off of ledges. If Mario approaches an edge, he will stop moving forward and teeter on the edge to give the player the ability to move back onto stable ground, only falling off if the player continues to move forward after the teeter animation begins.
• On the field, and have new functions. Pressing now opens up the Partner Ring, which Mario can use to switch between partners, while now makes a partner provide Partner Hints (whether or not they are active) to direct the player to their objective. The partner that gives the player the hint is usually Goombella, but it may vary depending on the situation or the area. In the original game, was only used to navigate menus.
• The Paper Plane mode now stays at a fixed distance from the ground until it has transcended the horizontal width of the activation panel.
• The player can now use the Hammer to locate flippable panels on the ground containing Star Pieces, although the Hammer still cannot flip them. In the original game, this is not possible with any Hammer, with the only way to locate panels being to use Spin Jumps.
• When using Koops's partner field ability, a green circle marker with an arrow now appears where Mario launched Koops, with the arrow indicating the direction Koops's shell will launch.
• Breaking large blocks using the Super Hammer or the Ultra Hammer now requires Mario to charge beyond the minimal amount.
• When Mario levels up, all party members are now fully revived instead of just the active one.
• When riding on the Yoshi Kid, Mario now has momentum based physics that apply when riding off edges, making traveling down them slower. The Yoshi Kid's flutter jump is also now more continuative from walking and thus slightly different from the original.
• The player can now talk to NPCs while riding on the Yoshi Kid, although Mario still dismounts off the Yoshi Kid to talk to them.
• If Mario is riding the Yoshi Kid as he falls on a jump pad, he will now stay on the Yoshi Kid after bouncing off, unlike in the original game.
• There is now a prompt to check interactable elements in the scenery or to talk to characters, hinting at what the player can do with them.

Warp Pipes

• Warp Pipes are now entered by pressing and a prompt appears above one to tell the player to do so. In the original game, entering Warp Pipes required tilting down on the and no hint appeared to do as such.
• Warp Pipes now have new hitboxes.
• When emerging from a Warp Pipe, Mario now automatically jumps out and forward.
• There is now a new Warp Pipe room, similar to the "One World, One Pipe" room in Musée Champignon from Paper Mario: The Origami King, replacing the original pair of Warp Pipe rooms across Rogueport Underground. When entering this room after taking a Crystal Star to the Thousand-Year Door, the Magical Map is now held up in a similar fashion, unlocking a pipe leading to a locale for that Crystal Star's chapter. There are now seven pipe slots instead of four, with a pipe leading from this room to Rogueport Plaza also able to be opened. The door leading to the room on the right side is also now hidden and requires Flurrie to reveal it.
  • Pipes 1, 2, and 6 lead to the second area of Petalburg, the outside of The Great Tree, and the fountain in Poshley Heights in the same spots as in the original game.
  • Pipe 3 leads to Glitzville, southeast of the juice shop.
  • Pipe 4 leads to the second area of Twilight Town.
  • Pipe 5 leads to the campsite of Keelhaul Key, instead of the jungle like in the original game.
  • Pipe 7 leads to the second area of Fahr Outpost.
• Several new Warp Pipes were added:
  • One was added behind the Last Stand P badge in Hooktail Castle that takes the player back up without having to backtrack.
  • One was added from Creepy Steeple's basement to the right-most house of Twilight Town to cut backtracking in Chapter 4. It can be unlocked by heading right from the room with the parrot.
  • One was added in the Palace of Shadow leading from the Depths room before the Shadow Queen south of the save block back to the entrance of the palace at the bottom middle of the entrance room. It appears after dying to the boss or clearing the game. If it does not appear, the player must restart the game and load the save. Mario's active partner will comment on the new pipe's appearance in the room.

Save and Recovery Blocks

• Just like Paper Mario: Color Splash onward, when hitting a Save Block, the game now no longer asks whether to save or not. This also applies when the game transitions to each character segment and when the game is completed.
• New Save Blocks have been added or relocated:
  • The one near the pedestal of The Thousand-Year Door is moved to the entrance of the Pit of 100 Trials.
  • The one in the first area of Boggly Woods is moved to the second area, allowing the player to save before the Three Shadows fight.
  • One appears in the third area of Twilight Trail, past the fallen tree.
  • The Save Block in Creepy Steeple's main room has been moved to the room with the spiral stairway.
  • One appears outside the derelict ship that houses a Black Chest in Pirate's Grotto.
  • One appears on Sublevel Two of the X-Naut Fortress, just east of the elevator doorway.
  • One appears in the Palace of Shadow in the round room, replacing the ? Block left of the Badge Block that originally contained only one coin.
• New recovery blocks have also been added:
  • One appears in the third floor of Hooktail Castle and costs 10 coins to use.
  • One appears at the entrance to the Pit of 100 Trials, next to the new Save Block.
  • One appears in a tall chamber in the Pirate's Grotto next to the Save Block.
  • One appears in the outdoor section of Riverside Station.
  • One appears at the easternmost part the Fire Bar section of the Palace of Shadow, costing 20 coins to use.
• The Save Block and recovery block in the Palace of Shadow's courtyard have switched spots, such that the recovery block is now on the west side of the canal and the Save Block is to the east of the canal.
• The cost to use the recovery block in the factory of X-Naut Fortress has now increased from 10 coins to 20, matching the cost of the one at the front entrance.

Trouble Center

• The Newsletter... Trouble is now only available after clearing Chapter 7 instead of after Chapter 4.
• For the Try to find me! Trouble, Koopook is now found below the third floor in Hooktail Castle instead of on the fifth floor.
• For the Important thing! Trouble, Frankie's Wedding Ring is now on top of the wall beside Frankly's house (where it is in the Japanese GameCube version) instead of on the ground near Garf's house.
• The amount of coins rewarded for several Troubles have now been changed:
  • All Troubles that originally rewarded Mario with twenty coins (Need a key!, Safe delivery..., Competitor research!, Find this guy!, I can't speak!, and Roust these cads!) now reward him with thirty coins instead.
  • After completing the Life Mushroom! Trouble, the Puni elder now rewards Mario with fifty coins instead of sixty coins.

Skippable cutscenes

• Scenes that have already played out before can now be skipped with . These scenes include:
  • Zess T.'s cooking sequences after the player's first recipe.
  • Resting sequences, although only if the player has previously rested at a particular spot.
  • The beginning of a Glitz Pit match they player has already competed in that is not special (like a first time rematch).
  • Boss cutscenes if the player had a Game Over from that fight.
  • Powering up with Merlon and Chet Rippo.
  • The effect of a charm spell in a battle.
  • Sailing the Black Skull.
  • The Excess Express starting and stopping.
  • Entering and leaving the Palace of Shadow through the Thousand-Year Door.
  • Most of the Game Over screen.

By location

Rogueport

• Hitting cockroaches with Mario's hammer or jumping on them now awards one coin. In the original game, they were non-interactable.
• After the prologue fight, Lord Crump now appears on the right side of the crowd of X-Nauts instead of in the center of them.
• Flavio now has a new singing animation and doesn't stop singing when Mario approaches him.
• The garbage pail in Professor Frankly's house is now interactable from the beginning of the game.
• When Professor Frankly finishes his research on how to go to the Moon, Goombella now notifies Mario about this.

Pianta Parlor

• The minigame machines have now been changed from slot minigames to sliding minigames similar to the Spade Panel minigame from Super Mario Bros. 3.
• The player is now no longer required to beat certain high-scores from the minigames, as they now keep track of the player's own high-scores instead of the defaults.
• Pianta tokens are now no longer given or taken by Lahla at the Pianta Parlor.
• All but three of the Pianta token prices in the redeem shop have now been changed: Refund and Super Appear now costs 60 Piantas instead of 34, Power Jump and Power Smash now cost 80 Piantas instead of 34, FP Plus and HP Plus now cost 150 Piantas instead of 100, Multibounce now costs 100 Piantas instead of 50, HP Plus P now costs 160 Piantas instead of 200, Gold Bar x3 now costs 600 Piantas instead of 234, Power Rush and Power Rush P now cost 100 Piantas instead of 34, Hammer Throw now costs 120 Piantas instead of 50, Tornado Jump and Quake Hammer now cost 150 Piantas instead of 67, Jammin' Jelly and Ultra Mushroom now cost 80 Piantas instead of 67, and Money Money now costs 450 Piantas instead of 234.

Petal Meadows

• The pillars meant to contain the Sun Stone and the Moon Stone and the rock-covered Warp Pipe can now be interacted with as soon as Mario and Goombella arrive in Petal Meadows, with Goombella notifying Mario that the pillars look like something should be placed inside of their indentations and that the rock "kind of reminds me of a pipe."
• Higher hills have now replaced invisible walls in the background to prevent Mario and his partner from moving off-screen.

Petalburg

• A red Toad who was originally outside the shop is now inside it and gives advice about POW Blocks on the player's first visit.

Path to Shhwonk Fortress

• In the first area, there is now a large bush from which a Koopa Troopa emerges, initiating an ambush battle that serves as a tutorial for audience thrown items in battle and stage props falling on party members or enemies. If the player equips a badge that affects battle, either one from Dazzle or the Pretty Lucky badge found in a hidden block in the Rogueport Underground, the game will softlock after the tutorial.
• Inside the mini fortresses, the player now fights the Bald Clefts and Bristles by using the Hammer to knock them off their pedestals instead of interacting with the pedestals. The player can still interact with the pedestals, but doing so now only leads to Goombella hinting that Mario should hit the pedestals with his Hammer to fight the enemies.

Shhwonk Fortress

• Mario now receives his first email on the Mailbox SP immediately upon leaving the fortress instead of in Petalburg like in the original game. Goombella also now provides the player with a tutorial on how emails work instead of a tutorial text box.

Hooktail Castle

• The ceiling spikes now no longer kill Mario before the timer reaches 0.

The Great Tree

• Koops can now grab the Blue Key from the Jabbies early due to a glitch, which results in possible softlocks and glitched cutscenes.
• It is now possible to make bubbles with the hammer in the bubbles room.
• There is now always a panel that shows where to place the Punies instead of the panel only being in some locations. An indentation to indicate where Mario should stand to blow the Punies is now also added.
• The Puni Orb now falls off the trap pedestal once the cage is lowered on Mario and the Punies.

Glitzville

• The hot dog cutout standee next to the Hot Dog Stand can now be interacted with for photo ops.
• When chasing the jumping egg by the Hot Dog Stand, the camera now locks into place rather than continuing to track Mario.

Glitz Pit

• Mario now no longer goes down a rank if he loses a match unless he becomes the champion a second time and loses against Rawk Hawk in the rematch battle, where he'll then lose the champion status. Because Mario no longer deranks, exhibition matches are now the only way to fight the Wings of Night and the Destructors in Chapter 3.
• The hologram screen in the lobby is now functional as a menu, listing every fighter in the Glitz Pit.
• Battle conditions are now no longer given when battling Rawk Hawk. In the original game, Mario would always be given the condition of performing at least one Special Move, although fulfilling it or not would not affect the outcome of the battle.

Twilight Trail

• There is now a large movable stone that blocks the entryway to the shed.
• The first secret hole in the last area is now off center to make navigation easier.
• When encountering Doopliss subsequent times after failing to guess his name the first time, an option is now given to guess again or immediately run past him.
• In the Japanese version, the keyboard now no longer has the option to switch between hiragana and katakana when the player is prompted to guess Doopliss' name, instead only having a katakana keyboard.

Keelhaul Key

• There is now a switch at the top of a cliff that makes a jump pad appear as a shortcut for this area.
• The lost Wedding Ring now produces a sparkly effect over the bush containing it, making its hiding spot obvious.
• The Fuzzies in the third area now remain present after clearing Chapter 5, when, in the original game, they disappeared from this area after clearing the chapter.

Pirate's Grotto

• A new ambush enemy battle now occurs when the player reaches the eastern exit of the Bill Blaster corridor room after having obtained the Boat transformation.
• A Toad shopkeeper with orange spots on his cap is now found at the end and can also be found just outside the shore before the fight with Lord Crump.
• After completing Chapter 5, the barrels in the area where Mario rescued shipwrecked Toads now respawn, allowing the player to access the other areas of the Grotto instead of having to backtrack to the entrance.

Excess Express

• The note that Beldam leaves is now an inventory item called the Threatening Note.
• After clearing Chapter 6, when riding on the Excess Express, the player is now given the option to either stop at Riverside Station or travel directly to the destination point (Poshley Heights or Rogueport). In the original game, the player was forced to stop at Riverside Station first.

Poshley Heights

• After obtaining the Garnet Star, the player now no longer needs to exit the Poshley Sanctum to trigger the Peach intermission. It is instead triggered after the conversation with Pennington after emerging from the Warp Pipe from the painting.

X-Naut Fortress

• There are now four Security Keys and card terminals for Sublevel Three instead of three like in the original game. A new purple Security Key replaces the blue one originally there, with the latter now appearing in the restroom of Sublevel Four.
  • The Elite X-Naut battle in the restroom is now an ambush battle instead of a regular battle. It must be won to obtain the blue Security Key.
• and now operate the crane controls, while the original game used and .

Palace of Shadow

• The camera now pans over the edges of the first lake bridge, revealing items to the player.
• In the torch maze room, the torches on the left side can now be lit, requiring the player to backtrack several times for the puzzle to be solved.
• The doors inside the Tower now cannot be opened until the player inserts the Star Key into the slot at the top of the tower.
• The block the Ultra Hammer is required to smash is now more obviously hidden.

Pit of 100 Trials

• Should the player get a Game Over on any floor, they are now given the option to repeat that floor rather than being forced to start from the beginning.

Intermissions

• When Peach dances with her hologram, the player must now hold the indicated buttons instead of just pressing them.
• When pausing during Bowser intermissions that involve traversing a level, the player can now pause gameplay or retry the level. Selecting retry restarts the level on the next life.

Item changes

• The player can now hold fifteen items in their inventory by default instead of ten like in the original game. The Strange Sack item still increases the item capacity to twenty, however.
• The coin limit has now increased from 999 coins to 9,999 coins. In turn, Hooktail now makes a false offer to grant Mario 10,000 coins instead of 1,000, and the max number of coins per battle is now increased from 32 to 99.
• Charlieton now appears in Boggly Woods to sell his wares: Mushrooms, Honey Syrups, Fire Flowers, Sleepy Sheeps, POW Blocks and Mini Mr. Minis.
• There is now the option to use an item from the inventory or to immediately use a new item if picking up a new item when the inventory is full.
• Some badges' sell prices have now changed.
• In the Happy Lucky Lottery, the top prize badges Lucky Day and Power Plus are now switched.
• Item shops now show the quantity of the player's consumable items and their shop points when talking to a shopkeeper.
  • Multiple items can now be stored/withdrawn at once.
• Some of Charlieton's item prices in Rogueport have now increased.
• Some of Charlieton's items in the Pit of 100 Trials have changed: he now sells Ultra Mushrooms instead of Super Mushrooms and Jammin' Jelly instead of Maple Syrup.
• The First Attack badge now costs 0 BP to equip.
• Any Zess T.-made items the player obtains outside Zess T.'s kitchen, such as Trouble rewards, are now added to the Recipes list regardless of whether the player has already made them or not.
• To accommodate for the addition of the Pipe Room, the Shine Sprite and the FP Plus badge from the original rooms are now located behind a large yellow block and a large stone block respectively at the back of the Pipe Room.

Regular items

• The Life Mushroom now revives Mario on the field if he loses all of his HP in addition to doing so in battles.
• The locations of some regular items on the field have changed:
  • Glitz Pit: The Ice Storm item in the major league locker room is now hidden inside one of the western lockers instead of behind them.
  • Keelhaul Key: Keel Mangos can now be obtained during Chapter 5 rather than only being obtainable after its completion, like in the Japanese GameCube version. However, they cannot be used to trade for the Chuckola Cola.
  • Riverside Station: The Dried Mushroom in the maze room is now relocated from inside the bin on higher ground to inside the bin on the lowest ground near the jump pad.
• Regular items have been added on the field:
  • Glitz Pit: A Hot Dog, on top of a ladder in the back corridor.
  • Glitz Pit: A Power Punch, hidden inside one of the western lockers in the major league locker room.
  • Glitz Pit: A Dizzy Dial, hidden inside one of the western lockers in the minor league locker room.
  • Glitz Pit: Single coins, hidden inside three different lockers in the blue minor league locker room. They cannot be obtained after the player uses the toilet to leave the blue major league room.
  • Glitz Pit: A Life Mushroom, hidden inside one of the east lockers in the blue major league room. It cannot be obtained after the player uses the toilet to leave the blue major league room.
  • Twilight Town: A Fire Flower, from the lowest leftmost bush in the first scene.
  • Pirate's Grotto: A treasure chest containing a Super Mushroom, in the room with the Black Chest.
  • Riverside Station: An Ice Storm, hidden behind a blowable poster east of the entrance in the scene.
  • Riverside Station: In the maze area, a Super Mushroom is now inside the garbage bin on high ground, replacing the Dried Mushroom originally there.
  • Riverside Station: An Ice Storm, a Super Mushroom, a Spite Pouch, and a Thunder Rage, hidden behind blowable posters on the lower part of the Deck.
  • Poshley Sanctum: A Boo's Sheet, on the east side in the hidden area, at the highest level, on a Coin Block (breakable with a Spin Jump).
  • The Moon: An Ultra Mushroom, in a breakable rock in the northeast on the first screen right of the landing site.
  • The Moon: A Maple Syrup, in a breakable rock in the west on the second screen right of the landing site.
  • The Moon: A POW Block, in a breakable rock in the southwest on the screen with the X-Naut Fortress in the background.
  • The Moon: A Maple Syrup, now in a breakable rock in the east on the second screen left of the landing site, replacing a Ruin Powder originally there.
  • X-Naut Fortress: An Ultra Mushroom, in the scene to the right of sublevel 3 on the right high platform.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Shooting Star, at the eastern end of the first bridge room.
  • Palace of Shadow: A ? Block containing an Ice Storm, in the third (non-collapsed) corridor to Gloomtail's lair. Becomes unobtainable after activating the orrery in the tower.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Thunder Rage and a Mr. Softener, behind the platforms in both the left and right corners of the room.

? Blocks

• Riverside Station: In the Deck with the sunshine, a lone ? Block that was previously empty and only served to reach a hidden block was given a single coin.
• Palace of Shadow: The ? Block containing a Repel Cape is now on the ground instead of originally being in the air.
• New ? Blocks have been added.
  • Shhwonk Fortress: Two ? Block containing a Mushroom and a Fire Flower, to the leftmost and rightmost areas, respectively.
  • Twilight Trail: Two ? Blocks containing a Mushroom and a Super Mushroom, in the second area.
  • Riverside Station: A ? Block containing an Ice Storm, above a gear in the gear room.
  • Riverside Station: A ? Block containing a Maple Syrup, near the bottom of the room with the sunset, before the hidden door.
  • Poshley Sanctum: Two ? Blocks containing a Thunder Rage and a Mystery, in the first room.
  • Poshley Sanctum: A ? Block containing one coin below the Boo's Sheet.
  • Palace of Shadow: Three ? Blocks containing containing a Fire Flower, an Ultra Mushroom, and a Jammin' Jelly, in the antechamber of the Palace of Shadow.
• The items inside some ? Blocks have been changed from the original game.
  • X-Naut Fortress: An Ultra Mushroom replaces the Super Mushroom in the ? Block in the Level One trap room.
  • Palace of Shadow: A Mr. Softener replaces the Shooting Star in the ? Block in the first descending stairway room.
  • Palace of Shadow: An Ice Storm replaces the Jammin' Jelly in the ? Block right of the red ? Block.
  • Palace of Shadow: Three ? Blocks containing a Gradual Syrup, a Shooting Star, and a Mystery, replace the two blocks containing an Ultra Mushroom and Jammin' Jelly in the secret room east of Gloomtail's lair.
  • Palace of Shadow: A ? Block containing a Power Punch replaces the Life Mushroom in Gear Room One.

Hidden Blocks

• New hidden blocks have been added:
  • Pirate's Grotto: A second support block east of the sluice gate controls, in the area with the Save and recovery blocks; used to create a two-block bridge with another hidden block for reaching an out of reach Shine Sprite.
  • Pirate's Grotto: One containing a Super Mushroom in the second lower stone platform near the Black Skull. This item becomes unobtainable after Cortez decides to help Mario and his friends fight the X-Nauts just after completing Chapter 5.
  • Riverside Station: One containing a Super Mushroom in the Records Room, at the end of the middle ledge on the right.
  • Rogueport Underground: Two on the top of Herb T.'s building: one containing a Power Plus P badge on the northeastern part of its roof and one containing an Ultra Mushroom on the northwestern corner of the roof.
  • Palace of Shadow: Two in the courtyard, at the tower's entryway: one containing a Jammin' Jelly on the left side of the tower's base and one containing an Ultra Mushroom on the right side of the tower's base.

Star Pieces

• Some Star Pieces were moved:
  • Rogueport: The one behind the pipe that leads to the Cheep Blimp was moved to the right, under a panel uncovered with a Spin Jump.
  • Creepy Steeple: The Star Piece in the back of the treasure room behind a hole to the north of the entrance was moved behind a barrel to the left.
  • Excess Express: The panel containing the Star Piece in cabin 004 was moved to the center.

Shine Sprites

• Some Shine Sprites were moved:
  • Pirate's Grotto: A Shine Sprite was moved since Mario can now hammer directly towards the player's position. In the next room, coins were added on the boat panel.

X-Naut Fortress crane game

• Upon returning to the X-Naut Fortress in the post-game, there are now four batches of items that randomly appear in the crane game. To make the next batch appear, the player must collect every item in the current batch, leave the X-Naut Fortress, and return to it.
  • The first batch contains a POW Block, Sleepy Sheep, Courage Shell, Mr. Softener, and five coins.
  • The second batch contains a Volt Mushroom, Dizzy Dial, Power Punch, Mini Mr. Mini, and five coins.
  • The third batch contains a Slow Mushroom, Super Mushroom, Maple Syrup, Gradual Syrup, and five coins.
  • The fourth batch contains a Ruin Powder, Stop Watch, Gold Bar, HP Drain, Spite Pouch, and four coins.

Text changes and localization

• The game has now been translated into Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, Canadian French, Latin American Spanish, and Korean. The original game was not available in these five languages since, at the time, Nintendo of Europe did not do Dutch localizations, Nintendo of America localized games into English only (not French or Spanish), and Nintendo of Hong Kong and Nintendo of Korea did not yet exist.
• Text is now vertically centered within text boxes. In the original game, text was aligned to the top of the box. Some text has also been reformatted due to the higher screen resolution now allowing for more text per line.
• Some additional portions of dialogue now incorporate icons on the right side, such as icons for Star Points and Professor Frankly.
• In the Italian version, chapters were called "Scena", or scenes; this is changed to "Capitolo", chapters. Additionally, the chapter numbers are now written with Arabic numerals rather than Roman numerals, and chapter 4's name is changed from "Per chi suona la campana" to "Per chi suina la campana" (both translate to "For Whom the Bell Tolls", but the latter contains a pun with "suona", tolls, and "suina", swine).

Title screen

• The game's logo in international regions has now been redesigned to more closely resemble the Japanese logo of the original game. Conversely, the Japanese logo is now primarily written in English, matching the design conventions of the series's Japanese logos from Super Paper Mario onward.
  • The title screen and the shot of the boat in the ocean now use a horizontal logo in international regions, similar to entries since Super Paper Mario.
  • By extension, the box art in international regions is now based on the Japanese box art of the original game.
• New files are now labeled as "From the beginning" rather than "New Game".

Names

• The Yoshi is now referred to as Yoshi Kid in areas such as the name of his theme in the soundtrack.
• The separate Latin American and Castilian Spanish translations mean some characters have different names between the two versions. For example, Swindell is named Fraudio in Latin American Spanish and Serrallonga in Castilian Spanish.
• Charlieton's Castilian Spanish name, Ahmed, has been changed to "M. Baucador" (a pun on embaucador, "trickster"), likely due to the negative implications behind giving a shady salesman character an Arabic name. His Italian name, Tel-arub, has also been changed to Rubicone.

In the Castilian Spanish localization, Rawk Hawk is now named "Halcomán" rather than "Hawk Hogan" (this also carries over to the new Latin American Spanish localization).

• Dupree's Castilian Spanish name has been changed from Afro to Rolfunk.
• Locations, and sub-locations thereof, now have their names shown on the bottom-right corner of the screen, such as "Rogueport Sublevel One" or "Creepy Steeple Sublevel Two". In the Japanese version, Levels are listed numerically.
  • Most of the rooms of the game are now named.
  • Some rooms in the Palace of Shadow have been given names:
    • Courtyard
    • Palace of Shadow Tower
    • Concealed Path (One, Two, Three, Four)
    • Gear Room (One, Two, Three)
    • Antechamber
    • Throne Room
    • Depths
    • Coffin Hall
  • Level numbers in the X-Naut Fortress are now spelled out instead of written numerically.
• Enemies originally written with abbreviations now have their full names displayed at all times.
• The names of the Blooper's L. Tentacle and R. Tentacle have been swapped to match their positions from the viewer's perspective rather than that of the Blooper, and are now referred to in full as the "Left Tentacle" and "Right Tentacle".
• Any Shroom-based recipe has been renamed to use "Mushroom" instead of "Shroom".
• In the original game, items in some translations had abbreviated names due to character constraints, such as the Red Key in German, which is written as Schl. (rot) instead of Schlüssel (rot). In the remake, the full names are written out.
• In the Italian version, the name of the University of Goom is changed to accommodate its rename in Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Grammar and style

• In the English version:
  • Most instances of excessive punctuation marks have been reduced and most heart and star icons in dialogue are no longer present.
  • All instances of two hyphens and semicolons, as well as some instances of commas and colons in dialogue, have been replaced with em dashes (—).
  • Every instance of "e-mail" has been changed to "email".
  • Several other words and phrases have had hyphens or commas removed or added.

Corrections

• Several translation errors, typos, and continuity errors from the original game have been fixed:
  • Kooskoos to Koopa Koot.
  • Mushville and Mushroom Town to Toad Town.
  • Goomstar Temple to Crystal Palace.
  • Bubu to Li'l Oinks.
  • The Spiny Eggs Sky-Blue Spinies come out of are now correctly referred to as such instead of as "pipes".
  • The Tattle for Paragloomba now correctly states it is a stronger version of a Paragoomba instead of a Parakoopa.
  • An instance of "Chomp Chomp" in the Tattle for Chain Chomp has been corrected.
  • The Tattle for Koopa Troopa now includes its stats information ("Max HP is 4, Attack is 2 and Defense is 1."), which was missing in the original game.
  • The Tattle for Red Spike Top now correctly states its Defense is 4 instead of 5 in all localizations.
  • The Tattle for Rawk Hawk now correctly states his Attack is 4 and his Defense is 0 instead of 3 and 1 respectively in all localizations.
  • Any instance of Yoshi Kid calling Mario by his actual name instead of Gonzales before the ending has now been corrected.
  • Ghost T.'s dialogue after completing his quest has now been updated to "The wood paneling's so great." as opposed to "The wallpaper's so great.", which was likely a translation error given his cabin, like all cabins on the train, has wood paneling and not wallpaper.
  • Peach's emails have now been slightly altered to better align with the actual story developments in her intermissions:
    • In her first email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts "may be aware" that Mario has the map rather than that they "are already aware" and she does not encourage Mario to collect the Crystal Stars, as she has already learned that Mario collected the first.
    • In her third email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts are seeking the Crystal Stars to claim the legendary treasure, as she had learned this from Grodus (she previously stated that she did not know what the Crystal Stars did).
    • In her fourth email, Peach now states that the X-Nauts plan to "unseal" the demon's spirit held behind the Thousand-Year Door rather than "revive" it.
  • The Iron Adonis Twins are now correctly referred to by this name in all dialogue in English. In the original game, certain instances of dialogue incorrectly refer to them by their descriptor "The Armored Harriers".
  • The Goomba Bros. are consistently titled "the Meteorite Hardheads"; in the original game, they were mistakenly titled "the Hoppin' Hardheads" when first introduced.
  • Little Mousers are now called by this name, rather than being called Squeeks like in the original game.
  • Gloomer is always referred to by his proper name instead of as "Freddy" when he is first met.
  • The "Special Final Issue!" section in the final regular RDM email is included in the English localization, which had been lost in translation in the original game.
  • Goombella's Tattle for the parrot in Creepy Steeple is now included ("That's Doopliss's parrot. Seems like he's been abandoned down here... Poor little guy..."). In the original game, this Tattle's text was only present in the game's code, with Goombella instead continuing to give the Tattle for the room if the player used Tattle on the parrot.
  • In the German and Spanish versions, the translation error where Toadette was incorrectly referred to using the name of Vanna T. from the first Paper Mario (which was likely due to the two characters sharing the same name in Japanese) has been corrected.

Descriptions

• The descriptions of many usable items and badges have been clarified or had false information removed.
  • In the original game, the descriptions of the Thunder Bolt and Thunder Rage falsely claimed that they could stun enemies. In the remake, this was fixed and changed to say that they deal 5 damage to enemies.
  • The description for the Shooting Star no longer says it can confuse enemies, with this being replaced with specifying how much damage it does.
  • The description for the Earth Quake now says it can also hit enemies on ceilings and that it does 5 damage.
  • The Hot Sauce's description now specifies what effect the item has when used.
  • The Cake Mix's description now says that it can be consumed to restore FP.
  • The Fright Mask's description has been changed to mention that the item does not always succeed.
  • Any instances of "your" or "allies" referring to an item's effect has been changed to "a party member," since they apply to either Mario and his partner.
  • The wording of "Wearing two or more of these badges requires more FP for the Attack power." has been changed to "Wearing two or more of these badges increases the Attack power, but the move will require more FP." to be more clear.
  • The Power Bounce now lists how many recorded bounces in a row Mario has.
  • Tornado Jump's description is more specific, saying "can deal additional damage to all midair enemies" rather than "can damage all midair enemies."
  • Hammer Throw's description now mentions that it can pierce Defense.
  • The new descriptions now specify when an effect is temporary.
  • The description for the Up Arrow now says it should be given to "somebody... super" rather than merely "somebody", giving a clearer hint toward its purpose (that it should be given to Merlon to allow him to upgrade partners from Super Rank to Ultra Rank).
  • Badges now have a longer description that appears in the Badge List.
• Yellow Blocks, Stone Blocks, and Metal Blocks are now written in title case rather than sentence case. The bigger versions are now called the Big Yellow Block and Big Stone Block.
• The ? Blocks that hold badges are now called Red ? Blocks.
• Any Shroom-based recipe has been renamed to use "Mushroom" instead of "Shroom".

Character dialogue and story

• In the original game, when Mario enters the town square of Rogueport for the first time, Goombella states that she is merely a "Student at the University of Goom", while in the remake, she specifically states that she is a junior at the school.
• The line "To find the treasure of yore, take the seven Crystal Stars to the Thousand-Year Door" was said by Goombella in the original game, but in the remake, it is said by Professor Frankly instead.
• Professor Frankly no longer says "And you there! In front of the TV!" but instead "In front of the screen!" to account for the player possibly playing in handheld mode.
• A scene from both the original English and Japanese versions of the group of enemy Goombas encountered early in Rogueport Underground cat-calling Goombella (saying "Wassup, baby? Why don't you hang with us for a while? We play real nice!", and her defending herself saying "guys like you make me feel like TOTALLY BARFING!"), has been omitted. The dialogue now instead has the enemy Goombas insult Mario for being from the surface.
• When Swindell robs Mario of half of his coins, Goombella's dialogue is changed from Mario! You gotta wake up! That guy just stole half your coins! That is SO lame! Ugh! I HATE this town! to The guy bumps into you and just runs off like that... Unbelievable! Some people are so RUDE!. Therefore, the only indication that Swindell has actually stolen from Mario is the visual of the coin counter decreasing. This change was likely made to align with Goombella's Tattle for Swindell, which claims that he's never actually been stealing from anyone despite having the reputation of being a thief.
• In both the original English and Japanese versions, Goom Goom describing that the girl he wants would be younger than him ("Petite, younger than me, and pretty, not drop-dead hot") which university student Goombella ends up meeting, has been omitted. He now describes his criteria as "about my age, short like me, and Goomba-shaped".
• When the player talks to Goom Goom with Yoshi as the current partner for the Looking for a gal! Trouble, the Mini Yoshi now calls Goom Goom a bozo instead of a dork.
• Rather than Jerry being traumatized over seeing Luigi in a dress, he says that Luigi wore stilettoes and kept tripping over them and knocking people over, so he wants to prevent that from happening again.
• The Koopa Troopa obsessed with Princess Peach now tells Mario not to touch any of the one-of-a-kind collectables inside his house instead of talking about Hooktail and the rumors of treasure hidden within her castle.
• The legendary hero in the Black Chest Curse in Hooktail Castle that gives Mario Paper Mode originally insults him saying "You idiot! Press and hold ! Press and hold and be ashamed!", the line has been omitted.
• Koopook now refers to himself as The Hide-'n'-Seek Koopa instead of the The Hide 'n' Seek Koopa in his email to Mario.
• Certain dialogue was altered in the Chapter 5 intermission. When Peach is made invisible, TEC-XX states that her dress still being visible is a "tactical error"; unlike in the original game, he does not explicitly ask for Peach to remove her dress. Because of this, Peach does not object to being forced to undress, and instead does so by her own volition.
• Wonky's tale "Z Button" has been completely removed, pursuant to the removal of being able to view previous dialogue messages. As a result, Wonky has one less tale than in the original game.
• Many of Merluvlee's predictions have been modified slightly to change how she refers to the place. For example, Fahr Outpost goes from "the cold village" to "the snowy outpost" and "the train-refueling depot" to "a midpoint station where a beautiful train frequently stops." Minor corrections have also been made, such as referring to an "archway of roses" instead of a "rose hedge" in Poshley Heights, or the "chests and barrels" instead of the "chests and boxes" in Hooktail Castle's treasure room.
• In the Castilian Spanish localization, Rawk Hawk's line "¡Los aficionadillos deberían quedarse en casa jugando al 'Super Smash Bros. Melee'!" ("The weaklings should stay home playing Super Smash Bros. Melee!") is changed to "¡Los aficionadillos deberían quedarse en casa jugando al «Super Smash Bros.»!" ("The weaklings should stay home playing Super Smash Bros.!").
• Dupree and Cortez's dialogue in the English version now incorporates a larger variety of French and Spanish words and phrases, respectively, often accompanied with their English translations, rather than just a few simple untranslated words and phrases. For example, instead of "Sacre bleu!", Dupree now says "Je suis blessé—I am wounded!", and instead of "You are foolish, amigo! For I do not live!", Cortez says "Estúpido! You are foolish indeed! For I do not live!"
  • The French and Spanish words in their dialogue now have their proper accents, such as Cortez saying "You rattle my bones, Senor Peacock!" being corrected to "You rattle my bones, Señor Peacock!"
  • Dupree's stereotypical mock French spellings of English words are changed to their proper English spellings.
• Zip Toad's email is sent from "Zip Toad (Verified)" rather than "The Real Zip Toad", and the subject line is "What's up!" rather than "!".
• The Bob-ombs at Fahr Outpost no longer incorporate "Da" into their explosion catchphrases, possibly in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the time of the game's release.
• Grodus has a new line before reviving the Shadow Queen stating that the Crystal Stars will undo the seal placed on her coffin. His final line has been changed such that he is struck down by the Shadow Queen mid-sentence: "Or I will send you back to the depths—"
• Rather than Jerry being traumatized over seeing Luigi in a dress, he says that Luigi wore stilettos and kept tripping over them and knocking people over, so he wants to prevent that from happening again.

Airhead

• Uses of the term "airhead" in the original have been replaced.
  • Lord Crump's insult to Goombella in the prologue has been changed from "Oh come off it, you airhead!" to "Oh come off it! I know you're a nosy book nerd[...]".
  • In another example, the insult Bowser uses to address Kammy Koopa is changed from "AIRHEAD!!!" to "LUNKHEAD!" during his interlude after completing Chapter 1.

Goombella and Ms. Mowz

• When meeting Ms. Mowz in Chapter 1 in Hooktail Castle, Goombella originally saying "You little flirt!" and "What a flirt! Who acts so disgusting like that?" has been omitted. She now says "Stop that smooching!" and "There's no way you'd fall for all that flirting, right, Mario?".
• Goombella no longer calls Ms. Mowz a "floozy", likely due to to its sexual and gendered nature.
  • When encountered in Chapter 2 in The Great Tree, Goombella previously said "Who do you think you are, you total floozy?". She now says "This flirting is out of control!".
  • When using Tattle in the encounter room, Goombella previously said "Ms. Mowz was here before, but I think she took the next train to Floozyville". She now says "Ms. Mowz was here before, but I think she took the next train to Flirtsville".
  • When encountered in Chapter 3 in the Glitz Pit, Goombella previously said "Are you, like, the biggest floozy or what?". She now says "Are you trying to set a world record for flirting or what?".

Body weight

• Nearly all dialogue referring to body weight in the original has been rewritten.
  • The Black Chest Curse in Hooktail Castle that gives Mario Paper Mode originally said "Eat a sandwich, skinny!". It now says "You'll try to jump or move and you'll probably just wobble there!".
  • Bowser originally insulting his minion saying "I order you to do some sit-ups, Tubby", now says "I order you to do some sit-ups. And don't stop until even your hammer has abs!"
  • In the original, when Grubba expressed disbelief at his loss, he said, "Noooo... How'd this happen? How could a perfect bod like mine lose to such a chub?" In the remake, he instead says, "Noooo... How'd this happen? How could a perfect bod like mine lose to such a schlub?"
  • Issue 4 of Rogueport Today describes the Healthy Salad as "Perfect for your next gathering of herbivores," rather than "Great for dieters!"
  • After falling through the floor in the Palace of Shadow, Bowser now blames it on "Crummy ancient-tower construction" rather than suggesting he put on weight ("Have I put on weight?"). Kammy Koopa then refers to him as "His Impactfulness" rather than "His Chunkiness" in the original game.
  • When confronting Heff T. about the missing soup, he now says "Oh, I get it! Food gets stolen and you blame ME right away with no evidence. NOT NICE!!!" rather than "Oh, I get it! Food gets stolen and you blame the chubby guy! NOT NICE!!!"

Mental states

• Nearly all dialogue referring to mental states in the original has been rewritten. In particular, most instances of "lunatic", "psycho", "crazy", "insane", "nuts" and similar terms used as insults and/or intensifiers are replaced with non-mental alternatives.
  • Goombella's insults to Lord Crump and the X-Nauts in the prologue have been changed from "Like I'd go anywhere with smelly lunatics like you!" and "What a bunch of loons!" to "Like I'd go anywhere with smelly losers like you!" and "What a bunch of bozos!", respectively.
  • When the Magical Map is updated for the first time, Goombella asks "And what was with all those strange lights?" instead of "And what was with all those crazy lights?".
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle of Shhwonk Fortress has changed from "It looks pretty decent, but this place is actually insanely old, did you know that?" to "It looks pretty decent, but this place is actually suuuper old, did you know that?".
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle of The Great Tree has changed from "That's insane..." to "That's unbelievable...".
  • Inside The Great Tree during Chapter 2, Lord Crump's insult to the Puni elder has been changed from "What?!? Are you nuts?" to "What?! Are you for real?".
  • In Chapter 3, after Mario defeats Bowser, Grubba's commentary, "Hoo! That's our Gonzales! He don't even bat an eye when some nut ambushes him!" was changed to "Hoo! That's our Gonzales! He don't even bat an eye when some fool ambushes him!"
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle on the connecting passage between the bottom of Creepy Steeple's well and the steeple itself has changed from "This place is totally crazy." to "Sneaky, sneaky...".
  • Frankie calls Francesca a "dizzy dame" rather than a "crazy dame" before saying "I love you" 100 times; similarly, Don Pianta calls Francesca and Frankie "lovebirds" rather than "crazy kids" when the duo return to Rogueport before Chapter 6.
  • A sentence in Goombella's Tattle on the connecting passage between the moon and X-Naut Fortress has changed from "It's kind of crazy, actually." to "It's almost unbelievable, actually.".
  • The Yoshi Kid's reaction to Bonetail was changed from "Whoa! What a psycho!" to "Whoa! What a monster!".

Hooktail and Bonetail

• Hooktail is now consistently referred to with feminine pronouns. Up until the battle with Gloomtail in the original game, Hooktail is referred to with masculine or neutral pronouns. Additionally, she is no longer referred to as a "cad" during her battle, as by definition only men can be cads.
• When Hooktail offers to let Mario smell her feet after defeating her first phase, she no longer states that "People pay good money to do this. I'm being completely honest right now. Really."
• When Koopley emerges from Hooktail's gut, he states Hooktail used the smell of her feet to stun him when she swallowed him instead of simply stating Hooktail played a trick on him.
• Bonetail is now female in the English version as with other localizations.
• Hooktail's weakness is stated to be frogs instead of crickets, like in the original Japanese script. As a result, the Attack FX R badge found in Hooktail Castle, used as a weakness for Hooktail when equipped, has been replaced with Attack FX G, which now makes frog noises.
  • Due to the changes in names, Attack FX P can now be purchased from Charlieton for 120 coins and the sound of Mario's attack changes of Princess Peach giggling, and Attack FX R can be purchased from the Lovely Howz of Badges after Chapter 6 for 100 coins and it changes to the sound of Bowser growling.

Three Shadows

• The Shadow Sirens have been renamed to the "Three Shadows," a more accurate translation of their Japanese name, the Shadow Trio. Also, Vivian now accidentally refers to the group as the "Shadow Sisters" instead of "Shadow Beauties" in the original game. This is also a more accurate translation of the Japanese text. After this occurs, Beldam states "RELATION WITHHELD".
• Vivian's portrayal as a transgender woman is more overt, with the Japanese version adding in dialogue where she says 「体は　オトコのコだけど ココロは　カワイイ　オンナのコなの」 ("I have a boy's body, but my heart is a cute girl's!") Her party member description is changed from 「オンナのコのようで　ホントは　オトコのコ」 ("She looks like a girl, but she's really a boy,") to 「体は　オトコのコで　ココロは　オンナのコ」 ("She has a boy's body, but the heart of a girl.") This portrayal is also reflected in the remake's English localization, whereas the English release of the GameCube version omitted all references to the subject.
  • The Japanese script removes lines that refer to Vivian as male; for example, Beldam's line 「どこが　三姉妹だよ！あんた　オトコじゃないかい！」 ("Where do you see three sisters?! Aren't you a man?!") is replaced with 「三姉妹じゃなく　三人組だって　いつも　いってるじゃないかい！」 ("I always tell you we're a trio, not three sisters!") Goombella's Tattle about Vivian also removes any mention of her gender. This means that she is not stated to be transgender until the moment that she reveals it to Mario.

Trivia Quiz-Off

• The 65th Super Fun Quirk Quiz is renamed to the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off, matching the 64th Trivia Quiz-Off from Paper Mario. Likewise, the 66th Annual Quirk Quiz is renamed to the 66th Trivia Quiz-Off.
  • For the second question of the 65th Trivia Quiz-Off, the Thwomp now asks how much a Mushroom and Fire Flower cost total at Petalburg instead of a Mr. Softener and Fire Flower, matching the original script.

Other dialogue

• The unique messages from the plaques in the Palace of Shadow Tower has been changed in the English version. After all Tower Keys have been used, the messages are then shown on the screen, arranged in a poem: "The stars up in the heavens shone; Carrying the lore of the sky; Carrying secrets from on high; By skill and might, engraved in stone. Stones to rival the celestial spheres; The seven hewn by a fell hand; Feared far and wide across the land; Master of shadow, queen of fear."
  • The messages now appear on the top line of text on the plaques instead of being in the center line in the original game.
• Obtaining a new item now says "You got [item]", to avoid typos such as "You got a Super Boots".
• The "END OF CHAPTER" text that displays when collecting a Crystal Star has been replaced with "CLEARED!".
• In the Japanese script, Rawk Hawk's title has been changed from 「人間原子力はつでんしょ」 ("The Human Nuclear Reactor") to 「金色の　ぼうそうはつでんき」 ("The Golden Uncontrollable Generator"); this is likely due to nuclear power generation being a controversial topic in Japan after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Likewise in the English script, his title has been changed from "The Feral Nuclear Reactor" to "The Golden Grandstander".

Important Items

• Several Important Items have been renamed:
  • The Dubious Paper has been renamed to Dubious Documents.
  • The Orange Potion in the X-Naut Fortress has been renamed to Yellow Potion.
  • Card Keys have been renamed to Security Keys, each having a different symbol in their name.
  • Palace Keys obtained in the Palace of Shadow Tower are now called Tower Keys.
  • The Goldbob Guide has been renamed to Goldbob's Pass.
  • The Lottery Pick has been renamed to Lottery Ticket.
  • The two Elevator Keys in the X-Naut Fortress now have color distinguishers in their names.
• The Castle Keys are now distinguished by color, which is included in their names.
  • The Station Key obtained by a Toad NPC in Riverside Station has been renamed to Entrance Key.
• The Chuckola Cola is now magenta-colored in Japan, like all other regions.

Locations

• Some locations have now been given more descriptive names.
  • Rogueport Sewers has been renamed to Rogueport Underground.
  • The areas between Petalburg and Shhwonk Fortress are now collectively called Path to Shhwonk Fortress, instead of Petal Meadows.
  • The path between the Warp Pipe to Rogueport Underground and Fahr Outpost has been called Path to Fahr Outpost.
  • The tower inside the Palace of Shadow is called "Palace of Shadow Tower".

Trouble Center

• A few of the Trouble Center requests have been renamed or have different descriptions:
  • Troubles with title case names have been changed to sentence case.
  • "Price Adjustment" to "Competitor research!"
  • "Order me an item!" to "Help me restock!"
  • "Emergency Shroom!" to "Life Mushroom!"
  • "Play with me!" to "Come over and play!"
  • "I must have that book." to "I need my magazine."
  • "Get these ingredients!" had part of the description changed from "savages the tonsils" to "ravishes the senses," and the formatting on the list of ingredients is different.
  • Troubles that reward Pianta Parlor cards now say so in their description, when the reward went unmentioned in the original.
  • "Help wanted!" now specifies that Mario needs to talk to Jolene in the promoter's room, rather than just "in the Glitz Pit."
  • The description for "I need my magazine." now states where Toodles is in Poshley Heights.
• Ages for characters are now omitted in RDM e-mail messages in the English version.

Move descriptions

• Some move descriptions have been changed:
  • "Spin-Jump" has been changed to "Spin Jump" whenever used.
  • Super Hammer and Ultra Hammer was changed from "Strike an enemy, knocking it into the enemy behind it." to "Strike an enemy, knocking it into all enemies positioned behind it."
  • Rally Wink was changed from "Wink at Mario to give him the courage for an extra attack." to "Wink at Mario to give him the courage for an extra action."
  • Shell Toss was changed from "Throw a shell at one enemy on the ground." to "Ram Koops's shell into an enemy on the ground while he hides inside it."
  • Power Shell was changed from "Throw a shell at all enemies on the ground." to "Ram Koops's shell through all enemies on the ground while he hides inside it."
  • Shell Slam was changed to say "piercing their Defense" instead of "piercing their defenses."
  • Gulp was changed from "Inhale an enemy and spit it out at another enemy." to "Inhale an enemy and spit it out at another enemy on the ground."
  • Veil was changed from "Hide in the shadows with Mario to avoid attacks." to "Hide in the shadows with Mario to avoid attacks for one turn."
  • Bomb Squad was changed from "Throw three time bombs that will explode one turn later." to "Throw three time bombs at foes that will explode when the next turn ends."
  • Love Slap was changed to capitalize "defense."

Graphical changes

General

• The entire game has a higher screen resolution and a more detailed look, using a more realistic crafted style similar to entries starting from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onward. For example, characters have a thicker paper texture more similar to cardstock, which resembles—but is not identical to—the white outlines seen on characters in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and Paper Mario: The Origami King. 3D objects such as pigs have visible construction seams on them, more objects are 3D models, and surface textures are generally more reflective. To go alongside these changes, dynamic lighting is now present extensively in many areas. As another example, the Crystal Stars have a more realistic shiny texture than the original game.
• The game now runs at 30 frames per second, which is half of the 60 frames per second that the original game runs at.
• The curtains now open to reveal the title screen, which does not happen in the original game. They also now remain closed when accessing the file select screen.
• Menus now have a 3-D, cardboard-cutout appearance rather than being flat like in the original game
• Mario's front-facing head now uses its appearance from Paper Mario: The Origami King, rather than its appearance from the original game and all subsequent entries up to Color Splash.
• Mario no longer salutes when speaking to other characters. Two new animations replace the salute, with both appearing in different contexts; he may either give a thumbs-up, or hold his hands out with his palms facing upward.
• Characters are generally more expressive, having new animations for additional expressions and movements. Some examples include the more shocked expressions from participants during the kitchen mystery on the Excess Express, the Rogueport merchant's cloak billowing when Princess Peach opens the chest containing the Magical Map, and enemies laughing at Mario and partners when hit with ceiling debris during battles.
  • Mario shrugs his shoulders when unable to push heavy objects or missing in the crane game in the X-Naut Fortress.
• More characters can be seen from behind, such as Mario's partners, unlike in the original, where they are shown in a frontal profile regardless of the camera angle.
• Due to the widescreen resolution, the HUD elements, transitions, and some interiors have been redesigned to accommodate the extra horizontal space. Framing in several cutscenes and some background scenery has also been readjusted to go alongside these changes.
• The character artwork in transitions is now shaded. The transitions themselves also go by much faster compared to the original game.
• More visual aids for points of interest have been implemented, such as a sign that displays an icon with tacked papers above the door to the Trouble Center building, and the pipe leading to Petal Meadows now resting on a grassy platform.
• Ghostly characters possess a unique speech bubble when they speak. The bubble appears to be in an indigo-blue colorization with swirly and asymmetrical textures. This is used for Boos, Ghost T., and Cortez (prior to him stating that he isn't a ghost).
• Areas with a dotted background, such as the backgrounds surrounding partners when they join Mario's party and the area where the black chest face resides are now fully 3D environments, rather than static backgrounds. These areas also differ in color, with the background surrounding a partner joining Mario's party now being pink instead of white and the background of the area where the black chest faces reside being slightly lighter in color than it was in the original game.
• In the primers for each partner's field abilities, the player must actually press the indicated buttons as part of the tutorial.
• When a black chest face curses Mario, he gets struck by lightning, while in the original, the screen flashes white while Mario is cursed.
• After Mario has been cursed by a black chest, the black chest face is now shown smiling in the background instead of the face remaining static like in the original game.
• The effect of the entire screen segmenting and rippling outwards from the Magical Map after a new Crystal Star location is recorded is no longer present.
• When in paper boat mode, a screen indication appears when a player can "Unboat" themselves.
• Pa-Patch's eyepatch now always appears over his left eye, while in the original, it would appear on the right eye if he was facing right.
• Bowser now has a rainbow effect instead of flashing yellow when becoming gigantic in his levels.
• A loading icon appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen when loading scenes depicting miniature icons of the Crystal Stars arranged in a ring similar to the Big Paint Star ring used in the loading icon for Paper Mario: Color Splash and the streamer ring for Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• Goombella's Tattles now show a picture of the Tattled enemy on a blue-white grid background rather than a picture of the enemy on a torn-out page of a book. The HP, Attack, Defense, and encounter location(s) of each Tattled enemy are also now visually shown on a calendar alongside the photo for the entirety of the Tattle.
• The transitions when going through Warp Pipes now depict the paper rotating before traveling into the pipe.
• Whenever Mario enters or exists a house, more individual pieces of the house are shown to fold in or out than in the original game.
• After dying, the screen fades into the Game Over screen through a silhouette of Mario's face, rather than simply fading to black.
• The Peekaboo badge has a slightly different design, with yellow lines in its pattern instead of dark green.
• Star Pieces no longer have a flashing animation.
• Star Points no longer have a spinning animation.
• If Mario is wearing the L Emblem and/or the W Emblem when Doopliss copies him, the copy of Mario will reflect his appearance. The dialogue of the Twilight Town residents will also change to accompany this.
• Buckets can now be entered by both Mario and companions.
• Items out of blocks no longer bounce all over the place, instead jumping out vertically and ending up at Mario's feet.
• The chapter medals are now 3D instead of flat, and the chapter text has a new animation.
• Mario takes three times as long to fall asleep when idle.
• The Point Swap item is now colored light red and orange to match with the HP and FP HUD bars instead of green and red in the original game.
• Silhouettes of Mario and his partners appear when they're behind something, such as them being outside the windows in Hooktail Castle.
• When Mario stands on top of a plane panel or boat panel, the panel flashes instead of being constantly lit up like in the original game and a prompt with the button to press to activate it appears.
• Some walls, including the ones in the X-Naut Fortress, are now reflective.
• Paragoombas now show their defeated animation in mid-air, instead of falling to the ground before disappearing.
• The Mailbox SP icon is no longer present in the mail section of Gear.
• The Shine Sprite icon is now shaded.

By locations

Rogueport

• The pictures on the wall in Frankly's house are more detailed, with one of them depicting him standing in front of the K64.
• Admiral Bobbery now falls asleep during Luigi's stories like the rest of Mario's partners.
• Trash and puddles of water, which can be splashed with the Hammer, appear around Rogueport. Scraps of paper can also now be seen floating in the wind throughout Rogueport.
• The noose of the Rogueport gallows now slightly sways in the wind and moves when Mario jumps into it from underneath.
• The picture of the Koopa Troopa wearing a cowboy hat on the wanted posters throughout Rogueport has been redrawn and is now more clearly visible and detailed.
• When transitioning from the center of Rogueport to the back alley, the camera now briefly fades to black as the camera rotates before fading back in in the back alley rather than showing the full 180° turn through the environment like in the original game.
• Graffiti in Rogueport's back alley was changed, with the large circled "N" designs being changed to two circled diagonal lines.
• Don Pianta, when lying down in the Chapter 5 interlude, is paper-flat, as with King K and Bandy Andy in Chapter 3.
• Flies in the Bandit house behind Podley's Place were removed.
• The player can now see through the windows of Merlon's house, showing the purple background. The Shine Sprite symbol above Merlon's door also now has a purple background.
• A picture of Professor Frankly now appears above the door to his residence to make its location clearer to the player.
• The door to the Trouble Center now has a piece of paper tacked on to it in addition to a new sign with an icon of tacked on papers above it to help make its location clearer to the player.
• Signs were edited or added to the doors in east Rogueport.
• When Swindell robs half of Mario's coins, the decreasing coin counter now appears on screen during the robbery instead of after Mario and Goombella's conversation like in the original game.
• Zess T.'s residence now has a lamp hanging from the ceiling, although the room's overall lighting is darker than in the original game. Mario can also interact with several items in her residence, such as the ceiling lamp, the utensils on the counter, and the utensils hanging on the wall, by either jumping into them or hitting them with the Hammer.
• When going upstairs at Rogueport Inn, the camera shifts upwards only when the player reaches the top, not hiding Mario any longer.
• In west Rogueport, in the top floor of the green house, the potted plant is bigger and a chandelier was added, while in the pink house, a potted plant was added and the Koopa Troopa is facing the opposite direction. The fountain is more papery and spins around at the top.
• At the train station, a billboard was added in place of a railroad crossing bar and the bench was moved next to it from its original position on the far right of the station.
• The Cheep Blimp now has red stars on the boarding section.
• The House Key now has a square-shaped handle.
• The Hot Dog now has yellow sauce to distinguish it from the Hottest Dog.
• The Hot Sauce has been redesigned to now depict a hot pepper icon with yellow labels instead of green ones.
• The stem on the Courage Meal is no longer present.
• The Spaghetti now shares a similar design to the Spicy Pasta.

Pianta Parlor

• The upper set of "Pianta" boards seen in the background of the Paper Airplane minigame at the Pianta Parlor have been moved downwards from the logo next to the other set of boards.
• Lahla now wears cat ears in the Japanese version like in all other regions, rather than bunny ears like the original in that region.
• The machine that sells coins is holding two bucket of coins instead of one and the coins are now blue. It's also closed when not operating and has a picture of a coin on the front.
• Lahla no longer appears next to Mario to give him coins on finishing a minigame or to take his coins upon leaving.
• In the alley to Don Pianta's house one barrel was removed and one was placed on top of the remaining three.

Rogueport Underground

• The panels revealed by Punio for the secret passage no longer disappear but instead remain barely visible on the ground.

Thousand-Year Door

• Rogueport Underground, Shhwonk Fortress, the Excess Express, Riverside Station, and the Palace of Shadow (represented by the Thousand-Year Door) are now added to the map.
  • In the Palace of Shadow's case, the Thousand-Year Door radiates with energy until the game is completed.
• The Thousand-Year Door and the pedestal now display colored silhouettes representing the Crystal Stars the player has brought to the latter. In the original game, star outlines would appear on the Thousand-Year Door once the player breaks its seal with every Crystal Star.

Petal Meadows

• All Candy Pops, not just the large one, now blink, and blink more frequently, instead of just staring.
• Instead of going underground, the Candy Pop that spawns a Horsetail after being hit with the Hammer ten times wobbles and shuts its eyes.
• When hit by the Hammer, raised blades of grass are now smashed down.
• The background hills are now visibly covered with pine trees instead of small, green ovals like in the original game.
• There are fewer hills in the far background behind Mario heading towards Hooktail Castle than there are in the original game.
• The sky has fewer clouds in the air than there are in the original game.

Petalburg

• General White now has more saddened-looking expressions and sighs in speech bubbles when not being talked to.
• The bridges have raised railings so Mario can't fall into the water unless he jumps over them.
• The bush near the rightmost house in the first screen of town is now passable instead of being an obstacle between the two houses.
• More items of Princess Peach were added to the house of the Koopa Troopa obsessed with her. He also becomes upset if the player hammers his belongings.
• The wooden fence on the south border of town can now be jumped over.
• The pictures in Kroop's, Toce T.'s, and Koops's houses are now more detailed. In Kroop's house, the pictures now show a younger Kroop and his late wife. Meanwhile, in Toce T.'s house, the pictures now show a blue Toad and a house. Finally, in Koops's house, the three pictures now show Hooktail Castle, a Candy Pop, and Koopley respectively. If the player returns to Koops's house after beating Hooktail, the picture of Koopley is replaced with a picture of Koops and Koopley together.
• The Petalburg Inn now has a lamp hanging from the ceiling. Moreover, the three pictures inside the inn are more detailed and now depict a Candy Pop, a red Toad, and a house respectively.
• The Sun Stone and the Moon Stone now have more simple textures. Both also no longer have different sprites when placed on the rock pedestals, instead using their item sprites when being placed.

Shhwonk Fortress

• Mario and his partner now look around in surprise at the start of the 65th Trivia Quiz Off and victorious upon winning.
• The Gold Fuzzy now jumps out of the Fuzzy Horde, making it visible throughout the fight.

Trivia Quiz-Offs

• Mario and his partners stand taller on the quiz booth so they're more visible instead of being covered by the front part of the booth.
• When they appear inside the quiz booth, Mario and his partner briefly look around in confusion instead of immediately standing still like in the original game.
• When the Thwomp asks if Mario and his partner are sure about the answer, Mario assumes a thinking pose.
• The winning celebration shot now shows Mario and his partner celebrating instead of immediately concentrating on the Thwomp.
• The camera now transitions to behind the Thwomp while showing Mario and his partner continuing to celebrate before dramatically zooming into the Thowmp's face and transitioning out of the quiz arena.

Hooktail Castle

• The castle has more of a papery look from the outside than a scribbled one.
• The sunlight in the entrance room is brighter through the windows, meaning the player can no longer see the sky and clouds through them.
• There is now a layer of fog under the bridge.
• The cobwebs are more prominent throughout the castle.
• The up and down arrow blocks are made out of construction paper instead of looking like solid blocks, with the smaller blocks being completely made out of paper and the larger blocks having paper around the edges and the triangle arrow. The ball and chain in the castle also has a more paper-like appearance compared to its design in the original game, with the ball also having a shinier appearance in the sunlight.
• The spikes in the room before the Up Arrow are 3-D rather than 2-D like in the original game.
• The animation of the bridge appearing on a higher floor in the castle is different, with the paper covering the bridge being ripped away with jagged tears that leave behind damage on the bridge rather than the bridge appearing through clean tears of paper that leave no lasting damage on the bridge.
• In the room where Mario meets Ms. Mowz for the first time, a second green vase was added and an extra crate holding cannonballs was added to the right side of the room.
• The arches at the top of the castle are wider and are the same color as the castle walls instead of being gold like in the original game.
• Individual tree-covered hills are now visible in the background beneath the bridge leading to Hooktail's lair.
• As Mario progresses up the tower, the sky and environment get darker around him.
• Giant clouds cover the windows of Hooktail's lair before her fight, meaning that the player can't see into her lair. In the original game, the windows were uncovered and, despite Hooktail already being present inside her lair, she couldn't be seen until Mario entered the room.

Boggly Woods

• The picture of Mario's face during the Three Shadows' introduction has been redrawn and is now more closely based on Mario's left-facing sprite from the first Paper Mario.
• The vine patterns on the ground in Boggly Woods now have an iridescent sheen rather than the gradient of colors used in the original game. The sky also has a golden hue and glow compared to its beige gradient from the original game.
• Flowers now fly out from the circular flower patches if Mario runs through them or hits them with his Hammer in addition to if he jumps within them, wheras they would only appear if he jumped within the circular flower patches in the original game.
• The first triangular flower pattern is flipped.
• The pavement underneath the panel in Flurrie's house that contains the Star Piece is now correctly black like all other Star Piece panels.
• Mario averts his eyes when Flurrie grabs the Necklace.
• The flower pots in Flurrie's house are moved from near the stairs to near the door.
• Flowers now appear even by walking or using the hammer, instead of just by jumping.
• The trees in the room with the plane panel to Flurrie's House are more vibrant and visible instead of all black and have white patterns on them.
• Petals now fall from the trees all over the screen.

The Great Tree

• Like Hooktail Castle, The Great Tree has more of a papery look from the outside than a scribbled one.
• The Puni Orb pedestal has an indentation in the shape of the orb to place it in instead of a rectangular indentation.
• An indicator of how many Punies are needed to activate the trap pedestal was added.
• One Jabbi entering the small hive room brings the Blue Key with it, instead of entering empty handed, as a clue to what players have to do.
• In the maze room, an arrow pointing down towards Pungent's Shop was added.
• In the fight with the Punies, their antenna become glowing red when they attack, similar to Pikmin using an Ultra-Spicy Spray.
• After the fights with the Jabbies, the pieces of the destroyed Jabbi hives appear broken on the ground instead of disappearing, sirens included.
• The locks to the cells containing the Punies are color coded to the cells instead of being generic locks.
• The Puni counter is now positioned on the upper-left corner of the screen instead of the lower-left, colored yellow instead of white, and now flashes when Mario is separated from the Punies.
• Lily pads now move when Mario and his partner stand on them.
• The water in the background of the roots of The Great Tree is now more ribbon-like and animated.

Glitzville

• The Hot Dog Stand now has pictures of hotdogs on its attached signs and actual hotdogs visibly on display. The player can also see steam emerging from the area where the hotdogs are being cooked. A second, red wire is also now connected to the ice cream cone outside the stand. The truck also looks like a fake truck instead of being an actual truck like in the original game.
• The balloons throughout the area now wave in the wind and look drawn on instead of being actual balloons.
• Flashing lights now appear around the posters of the fighters.
• Words were added to Rawk Hawk's poster as well as to the poster of Shellshock and the additional poster of Rawk Hawk in the background.
• The Storage Key found in the phone booth is now colored gold with an inverse triangular shape.

Glitz Pit

• The Glitz Pit match conditions now show up onscreen throughout the entire duration of the battle and now indicate whether they have been met or not.
• Crowds now appear in minor league matches.
• When drained, King K and Bandy Andy no longer have flies hovering over their bodies.
• The text in the Wrestling Magazine has been replaced with a more stylized interpretation resembling text.
• The Storage Key found behind one of the posters in the lobby is is now colored blue with an inverse triangular shape.
• The Champ's Belt sprite is now modeled with a three-dimensional appearance.
• The photo on the Dubious Documents now depicts the Gold Star and is no longer attached with a paperclip. Another sprite for the documents is also now seen.
• The audience now reacts with fear when Bowser enters the ring.

Twilight Town

• The Superbombomb now has a sprite in its broken state.

Creepy Steeple

• The environment graphics of the areas now have a distinct painted style in contrast to the rest of the areas in the game.
• The white Steeple Key now shares the same design as the purple one.
• The Letter "p"'s design is now a coral-colored "p" from the Seurat font, rather than the classic Paper Mario series typeface.

Keehaul Key

• While Frankie says "I love you" 100 times to Francesca, Mario and his partner fall asleep while Frankie becomes gradually tired.
• The Gate Handle has a red handle instead of a brown one.
• When Flavio gives Mario the Chuckola Cola, he now pulls out the Skull Gem by mistake before pulling out the cola.
• The Wedding Ring is now rendered in a small variation whenever it is on the field.

Pirate's Grotto

• The Grotto Key now features the Skull Gem as its handle shape instead of a normal oval-shaped handle.

Excess Express

• The Galley Pot is now gold-colored instead of silver.
• The Gold Ring no longer has a red gem on it.

Riverside Station

• The Station Key used to enter the station is now colored tan instead of green to be distinguished from the second Station Key.
• The Elevator Key now has a red gem instead of an orange one.

Fahr Outpost

• When jumping on General White during both Chapter 7 and in the Delivery, please! Trouble, he gets more crumpled with every jump.

The Moon

• While traversing the Moon's surface, there is vignetting on the edges of the screen, which was not present in the original game.

X-Naut Fortress

• TEC-XX now has a red eye in all regions rather than only in Japan.
• The elevator is no longer all white but its interiors can be seen.
• The light above the door to TEC is now a bar light like the other X-Nauts doors, instead of a generic light.
• Mario's 8-bit sprites when he comes out of the shower in X-Naut Fortress sport a slightly different design compared to the original game.
• The Security Keys have different symbol on them, their graphics have changed, and their reader pedestal now have the symbols as well.
• Pursuant to the Orange Potion's rename, it is now colored yellow instead of orange.

Palace of Shadow

• When surrounded by Dry Bones in the room in which the Dark Bones is fought, a dark portal is now created that Mario and his partner can sink into and get a Game Over.
• The Star Key now has a shiny, metallic texture instead of a rocky one.
• The three Palace Keys are now colored purple, gray, and pink. In the original game, they are all gray. They also now all sport a crown-shaped handle with a diamond gem on it.
• The Tower Keys now have a star shape to be distinguishable from the Palace Keys.
• The Palace of Shadow Tower now has glistening star patterns on the ground. The eight doors now have yellow star patterns above them that change to blue when the player obtains Tower Keys from their rooms. An animation has been added when the player passes through a wall in the "Stone Have Power of Stars" room.
• The Shadow Queen's design has earned minor, lucid changes; her star-filled body and hair are coated in a darker purplish hue with her crown now bearing a shiny, glossy light reflection.
• The dark flames from the Coffin Hall's candles now have glowing white tips instead of having an all-dark purple coloration.

Intermissions

• The order of the heads appearing before and between chapter and intermission is now Peach, Bowser and Mario, to better show who the player is going to control next.
• The screen used by Grodus to talk to his minions is now projected by his chair instead of just standing in midair.
• The toilet seat in Peach's bathroom is down instead of up, and the mirror now has a reflection.
• When Peach dances with her hologram, a spotlight now appears over her.
• During the Bowser intermission levels, a list of controls for Bowser is now displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• At the end of the Bowser stages, fireworks are fired in all versions; this was only present in the Japanese version of the original game.
  • The castle also looks more similar to the one in Super Mario Bros..
• In the Chapter 5 intermission, when Peach goes back to drink the potion to turn visible again, she changes back into her clothes just before drinking the potion, instead of after hearing the instructions.

Battles

• Mario and partners no longer walk in place when selecting to attack, instead they have a fighting stance.
• Mario no longer drops coins when running away from regular battles.
• After winning a battle, the enemy's dropped coins appear in a smaller area, more circular, rather than spread out.
• There is an option on the bottom right corner of the screen known as "Tattle Check" that is accessed with . Tattle Check allows the player to view Tattle entries for enemies in the current battle that have been previously Tattled, and does not waste the player's turn doing so.
• Getting hit by enemy projectiles in the field no longer initiates a battle, instead damaging Mario on the spot like in entries since Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Likewise, getting hit by enemy projectiles while equipped with the Bump Attack badge does not defeat enemies, either. This doesn't take into account Last Stand or P Down, D Up badges or Chill Out.
• A fainted party member gets 1 HP back after a fight is won, or when Mario runs away.
• It is easier to jump on a Pider or Arantula for a First Strike.
• In some FP-costing attacks, the player can see the FP drained from the FP meter just before doing the attack.
• Opening the Special Menu in a battle before the player has enough SP to perform an attack shows it is unable to be performed, even if they gain SP with the menu open, until they close and re-open it.
• Enemies now initiate their turn after any Star Power accumulation from the player's turn is finished. In the original game, the enemies' turn begins during this.
• Falling scenery in battles now pierces defense.
• Mario and his partner can now Guard and Super Guard at any point during an enemy's turn.
• The frame window for Power Bounce and Multibonk is changed to make it harder to make big combos with them. The frames to hit it now is 7, 7, 6, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, etc. Even Simplifier does not change the frame perfect 4th hit window which is hard-locked to 1.
• It is now possible to skip the cutscene before a boss fight after losing once and returning to the boss room.
• If the player performs Earth Tremor while their partner is afflicted with the Sleep status effect, or additionally in the case of Koops, he is flipped, a Shy Guy stage hand carries the partner off the stage for the duration of the attack.
• Like the first Paper Mario, Frost Piranhas can use an ice breath attack to freeze Mario’s party.
• The Buzzy Beetle family is now immune to explosions even when flipped upside-down.
• During the second fight with Doopliss, badges that affect Mario's partner function as normal, unlike in the original where they are disabled.
• Dark Bristles can no longer be hit by a First Strike with the Super or Ultra Hammer.
• Power Lift now requires 4 panels matched for each point of attack or defense increase, down from 5 in the original.
• Attacks that deal no damage now display "0" for the damage; in the original game, only a small star graphic was shown.
• Current HP numbers for Tattled enemies are now center-aligned beneath their health bars instead of being aligned to the right.
• Upon the start of non-First Strike battles, enemies that enter the stage now steel themselves for battle.
• Upon the start of non-First Strike battles, the entire backdrop of the stage now has either fold-in or popup animations rather than only specific parts of the backdrop having these animations in the original game.
• The player can no longer hold A for a faster battle ending theme.
• Dark Craws now clench their fist and no longer have splayed fingers for their sprites.
• The way Doopliss and Mario's transformations are undone is different from the original game.
• Black Shy Guy stagehands now adjust the stage nozzles during battles.
• When using an attack that has no effect, such as a fire-element attack on Clefts, an icon with that element crossed out now appears over the enemy instead.
• Ms. Mowz now walks backwards after performing Love Slap rather than walking forward in the original game.
• At the end of boss fights, the winning hit goes into slow-motion and the screen flashes white.
• At the end of boss fights, coins are now shown to rain down on Mario and his partner.

Text

• There is a "GUARD" or "SUPERGUARD" text pop-up that appears when the player successfully performs a Guard or Superguard. The original game displayed the standard "NICE" or "GREAT" text instead.
• The message for the Star Points earned after winning a battle is now shortened to "Got Star Points!" ("Got a Star Point!" when earning a single Star Point) with the amount earned separated in its own graphic to the right of the Star Points. In the original game, the message reads, "You got [X] Star Point(s)!"
• The "Excellent" rating is now yellow colored rather than gold and silver.
• The Allergic status effect's description has been changed from "Status hasn't changed!" to "Can't be affected by status changes!", which more accurately describes its effect.
• Enemy tattles now list the first place they were tattled on rather than their natural habitats.

Specific Battles

Blooper

• During the fight, the water in the background is animated instead of standing still.
• Upon its defeat, the Blooper's shaking causes visible splashing water and its eyes are now crossed from dizziness.

Magnus Von Grapple

• A tell for using Guard or Superguard for its tantrum attack is added, with the robot stopping stomping briefly and doing a jump to deal damage.

Hooktail

• When Hooktail uses her fire breath attack, Mario and his partner are now completely engulfed in the flames instead of appearing as black outlines in the fire.
• The last part of the battle is fought in front of the seats instead of in the middle of them. Because of this, the camera is pulled back further, meaning that the walls surrounding the stage are now visible during the battle. The clock on the left wall is also now visible during the battle instead of only being visible after the battle ends.
• When Hooktail is defeated, her tail can now still be seen extending onto the stage instead of her body being completely absent from the stage like in the original game.

Doopliss

• He can now damage Mario during the battle that occurs in the shed area of Twilight Trail (but Mario still cannot damage him).
• If he is KO'd during the second battle (before Vivian joins mid-fight), he uses a Life Mushroom to revive himself.

Shadow Queen

• Her lightning spells are no longer black and pink; they are now red when striking Grodus, and yellow in battle.
• Her strongest attack no longer makes the area darken as a sphere of purple energy now manifests from her body instead. The waves produced afterwards now glow purple instead of appearing all black.
• Her breath attacks now glow and have more curving patterns.
• Her defeat is very different from the original game, slowly disintegrating instead of exploding.

Battle rewards

• Bosses now award the player coins after being defeated.
  • Blooper, Atomic Boo, Smorg, Gloomtail, Sir Grodus, and Bowser with Kammy Koopa reward 50.
  • Hooktail, Magnus Von Grapple, Macho Grubba, Doopliss (both fights in Creepy Steeple), Cortez, Magnus Von Grapple 2.0, and Whacka reward 100.
  • The Shadow Queen rewards 200.
  • Bonetail rewards 999.
• The player earns coins for winning battles in the Pit of 100 Trials.
• Shadow Queen: The battle no longer rewards the player with a single Star Point.

Stage hazards

• Stage hazards (including the fog) can now affect only one side. The fog now also floats over a higher area.
• When an attack, stage hazard or audience member causes the effect of an item to a battle member, the icon of that item appears briefly in the animation to better indicate the change (i.e. Boo's Sheet when a Boo becomes invisible).
• When a stage hazard hits Mario or his partner, the enemy has a new animation mocking them.

Cutscenes

Intro

• The storybook intro sequence is now animated. If all four save files currently are empty, the intro also now comes after the title screen after starting a new save file rather than before it..
• During the scene where Peach buys the treasure chest containing the Magical Map from the Rogueport merchant, the text now has to be advanced manually instead of auto-advancing like it did in the original game.
• In the opening shot of Mario's house, Parakarry has his arms raised to the mailbox as he delivers Peach's letter, as opposed to the mailbox just rattling with him next to it.
• The Mario Bros.' House has a group picture of Mario's partners from the first Paper Mario, and during the ending cutscene, the group picture of Mario's partners from The Thousand-Year Door, as a call-forward to Super Paper Mario featuring said pictures. The map inside the house has also been changed to the world map from Paper Mario, and the exterior of the bedroom was sectioned to match its design from that game.
• When Peach's letter is being read in the opening cutscene, it is now displayed over a black background before cutting to the first view of Rogueport, where the letter itself no longer becomes visible at the bottom of the screen.
• On the logo screen, the camera now pulls back and down from the Sun, which is itself much higher in the sky, and the boat transporting Mario to Rogueport is much closer to the camera. The boat also no longer stops in the center of the screen until the player presses the A button, instead continuing across the screen and auto-advancing to the next scene.
• When Mario opens his eyes to see Rogueport in front of him for the first time, the transition from the black screen is in an elliptical shape instead of a barn-door wipe.

Rogueport

• In the prologue, after escaping from Lord Crump and the X-Nauts, Mario and Goombella now turn around to acknowledge the fight between Tony/Vinny and Gus/Garf.
• Just before the start of Chapter 5, the X-Naut reporting the infiltration is no longer standing behind a wall but behind the barrels behind the ship.
• The whole party is visible while riding the Cheep Blimp instead of just Mario.

Thousand-Year Door

• All of Mario's partners are now present each time he holds the Magical Map before the Thousand-Year Door.
• The Magical Map now starts off in a sepia tone, with each location filling in with color as its corresponding Crystal Star is located by holding it aloft before the Thousand-Year Door. New details that are added to the map also now unfold like a pop-up book. The corresponding Crystal Star now appears next to its location on the map in a bright white flash, no longer continuously sparkles, and is immediately stationary on the map instead of appearing from a star-shaped sparkle, continuously sparkling, and spinning in 3-D briefly in front of its location on the map before becoming stationary.
• The order of the stars being lit up on the Door is different.

Petal Meadows

• When exiting the pipe to Petal Meadows, Goombella no longer stays on the pipe but jumps down. The camera now also stops zooming in further away from her and Mario.
• Mario and Goombella now look directly upwards when Hooktail flies overhead.
• Hooktail is now seen flying towards her castle from behind as the camera moves down to ground level rather than from the side as the camera pans horizontally like in the original game.

Hooktail Castle

• In the cutscene prior to her battle with Mario, Hooktail now emerges from the shadows into the light. The sunlight streaming through the windows into her lair is also much brighter than it is in the original game.

Bowser's Castle

• In Bowser's Castle's, the candles on the chandeliers and the torches by the door are now lit.

Boggly Woods

• Flurrie's cutscene is different, as it pans up from below and she sends the rose petals surrounding her towards Mario with a kiss. The cutscene is also one of the few pre-rendered cutscenes in the game.

The Great Tree

• The cutscene where the X-Naut gets knocked down by Ms. Mowz happens when the player enter the room, instead of before entering the room with the cells holding the Punies.
• The Puni Elder grows much bigger in her confrontation with Lord Crump.
• The Crystal Star appears appears in front of Mario at the front of the room instead of behind him in front of the Puni Orb pillar. In turn, Lord Crump steals the Crystal Star from the front of the room instead of from behind the Puni Orb pillar.
• Lord Crump's remote is black with a yellow button instead of white with a red button.
• If the timer runs out while talking to Lord Crump all characters freak out just before the bomb goes off.
• The yellow horns on Magnus von Grapple's dome are visible in the cutscene prior to its battle with Mario.
• Instead of walking into Mario and his partner to start the battle, Magnus von Grapple now jumps into them.
• Beldam now holds the wanted poster of Mario that was previously unused in the original game.

Creepy Steeple

• Doopliss is now seen rocking in his chair upon his introduction at the Creepy Steeple.
• Before the fight with Doopliss at the top of Creepy Steeple, the bell now rings.

Keehaul Key

• In the beginning cutscene of Chapter 5, when the S.S. Flavion is surrounded by Embers, the Embers now attack the ship by pushing it, causing Four-Eyes and Admiral Bobbery to be thrown overboard, followed by the ship being turned over on its side. In the original game, Four-Eyes abandons ship and the S.S. Flavion eventually sinks.

Excess Express

• When reading Ghost T.'s diary, the scene now has a black-and-white grain filter applied on it and now fades to black slowly rather than spinning around.
• The magenta Smorgs are now not visible in the cutscene before the battle.
• When the Excess Express arrives at Riverside Station, Doopliss (in his Zip Toad disguise) is now shown being tied up in ropes before breaking free.

Fahr Outpost

• The Moon is now seen when Mario and his party are launched from the cannon in Fahr Outpost.

X-Naut Fortress

• TEC now no longer scans the whole fortress before focusing on Peach in the first Peach intermission, possibly to avoid spoiling the facility's location (in the original, one shot showed stars and the Moon's surface).
• In Princess Peach's post-Chapter 3 intermission, the conversation between Sir Grodus and the disguised Peach now plays out as a cutscene, whereas, in the original game, Peach had to walk up to Grodus to talk to him.
• The entire post-Chapter 7 ending sequence in the X-Naut Fortress is significantly modified:
  • During TEC's last speech to Mario, his dialogue now gradually begins to tremble (at first just the ellipses, and then the entirety of the text).
  • Rather than the standard X-Naut Fortress music, the cutscene is now at first silent. When TEC mentions that he will cease to function, a somber arrangement of Peach's theme now begins playing. This somber arrangement now continues to play as Mario makes his way to the teleporter room.
  • The line "TEC system failure reported," has now been removed. Instead, when TEC shuts down, the red hazard lights now immediately turn on with an accompanying sound effect.
  • The elevators now no longer say "Choose your destination" after TEC shuts down, instead simply showing the floor prompt with no dialogue attached.
  • After Mario takes the teleporter, the lights in the fortress now shut down, followed by an alarm, signaling the fortress's impending destruction.
  • TEC's line "Peach...Goodbye..." is now no longer displayed in a text box, and instead appears in the center of the screen. The somber arrangement of Peach's theme now plays one last time over this scene, instead of ambient sound effects as in the original game.

Palace of Shadow

• When the flames of the candles change color, the color of the rug now changes to blue instead of remaining red like in the original game.
• Hand-like shadows now cover the world when the Shadow Queen awakens instead of regular shadows, in a similar vein to the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment from the Disney film Fantasia.
• The speech bubbles that appear to cheer on Mario and co. now look different. The one from Pennington is now all written in one bubble, rather than requiring several.
• In all regions, the bad ending shown when Mario accepts the Shadow Queen's offer now reflects the Japanese version of the original game. Mario now takes on the appearance of Doopliss's copy (retaining the Emblems he has equipped), rather than simply having an angry expression. Additionally, the music now fades out and the ending text in this scene now takes up the whole screen, rather than being confined to a text box.
• Several characters are now added to most areas during the scene where they encourage Mario through the Crystal Stars in his battle with the Shadow Queen:
  • Rogueport: Flavio, Don Pianta, Frankie, Francesca, Zess T., Mousimilian, Charlieton, Podley, Ishnail, Gus, Goose, Plenn T., Swindell, Vinny, Tony, and Goomther, plus Luigi and Toadsworth.
  • The Great Tree: Jabble (only if he was recruited during Chapter 2).
  • Glitzville: Prince Mush, Koopinator, Sir Swoop, Hoggle, Podler, Bandy Andy, and the Businessman. An error from the original game is also corrected, where Shellshock appeared in this cutscene speaking like King K. In the remake, King K himself appears in Shellshock's place.
  • Twilight Town: The shopkeepers.
  • Keelhaul Key: The Traveling Sisters Three and Dupree.
  • Poshley Heights: The Excess Express conductor, Excess Express engineer, Excess Express waitress, and Chef Shimi.
  • Fahr Outpost: General White.
• Mario now goes first to check on Peach after the Shadow Queen is defeated instead of his partner.
• After the final battle, Frankly is now shown having just entered the Palace of Shadow instead of simply being in one of the palace's rooms in his cutscene.

Ending

• In the epilogue after the final boss, a curtain now no longer descends before showing Flurrie in the "Paper Mario" stage play.
• Instead of the camera zooming towards Mario in the ending cutscene, a snapshot of the scene is now shown, which then transitions into an illustration of a page in the storybook seen in the opening cutscene. The storybook then closes and the desk lamp the book was next to shuts off, like in the ending of Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

Audio changes

Music arrangement

• The game's music has been rearranged with new instrumentation and a similar style to later entries in the Paper Mario series. Furthermore, several songs are extended with new melodies. The original soundtrack can still be played via equipping the Nostalgic Tunes badge.
  • Several areas now have more dynamic music. Each level of Rogueport Underground now has its own variant of the standard theme music, as does the X-Naut Fortress.
  • Similar to Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, the main battle theme now changes to different arrangements specific to each area. Also like in the final areas of both games, the field theme now continues playing during battles in the Palace of Shadow (except inside the Tower).
  • Similar to Paper Mario: Color Splash and Paper Mario: The Origami King, each battle theme now has its own unique victory theme to go along with it. However, the unique version of the victory theme that plays when Mario's current partner has run out of HP has been removed and does not play even with the Nostalgic Tunes badge equipped.
  • Like the first Paper Mario, as well as all games since Paper Mario: Sticker Star, each battle theme's intro now changes depending on whether the player or the enemy gets the first strike.
  • Like in Paper Mario: The Origami King, each battle theme now changes to a quieter "thinking" variant if no action is made for some time.
  • The regular battle theme now begins with the opening Ground Theme motif from Super Mario Bros..
  • Bowser's theme now incorporates parts of "Bowser's Castle" from Paper Mario: The Origami King.
  • The track that plays in the room where the Thousand-Year Door dwells now has variations in which different instruments join each time a Crystal Star has been collected, similar to the world map in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Toad Town in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
  • When Peach waltzes with TEC, there are now various different versions of the music that can play. If Peach messes up her steps and performs worse, the music becomes off-key, and eventually a metronome is added to make the rhythm easier to follow.

New music tracks

• New music tracks have been added.
  • When Parakarry delivers the Magical Map to the Mario Bros.' House and when talking to Lady Bow in the post-game, an arrangement of the title theme from Paper Mario can now be heard.
  • As Luigi reads Princess Peach's letter at the beginning of the game, an arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls" from Super Mario 64 now plays instead of the theme of the Mario Bros.' House continuing to play over the letter.
  • A new ambient theme now plays while lingering on the chapter introduction screen.
  • All of the partners, as well as several other characters, such as Kroop, Koopie Koo, Goldbob, and Flavio, now have their own themes that play when they are being focused on.
  • New battle themes have now been given to several of the game's bosses, with certain bosses that originally shared themes, such as Magnus von Grapple 2.0, Gloomtail and Bonetail, receiving new renditions of their original themes and Atomic Boo receiving its own unique theme. Bowser's first battle in the Glitz Pit now also uses a new theme instead of his overworld theme.
  • The Peach intermissions now have more unique music, such as a "stealth" theme when she is sneaking around in the Chapter 3 and Chapter 5 intermissions and a "tense" theme in certain moments that had no music in the original.
  • When Mario enters a shop in Rogueport or Podley's Place, two new themes now play respectively instead of a quieter version of the Rogueport theme.
  • When Koops reads what he thinks is his father's letter, a new music theme now plays.
  • When leveling up, there's now a new jingle every 10 levels corresponding to Mario's Rank improving.
• After the Peach and Bowser intermissions at the end of Chapter 1, a new victory theme now plays while Koops announces his intentions to continue traveling with Mario instead of the standard Petalburg theme.
  • The terminals in the Glitz Pit that resemble the Game Boy Advance now make the sound of an actual GBA turning on when activated.
  • Music now plays when Mario and his partner lose to the Iron Clefts in the Glitz Pit.
  • When Mario is reduced to a shadow during Chapter 4, three new, eerie ambient tracks now play in place of the standard Twilight Town, Twilight Trail and Creepy Steeple themes.
  • When reading Ghost T.'s diary, a new horror track now plays alongside it.
  • The intro portion of Doopliss's theme music now plays when he removes his Zip Toad disguise.
  • A new track now plays when exploring the back entrance and underground portions of Riverside Station. In the original game, the Riverside Station theme played in the former and no music played in the latter.
  • The ending montage with Goombella now features each partner's new theme rather than the standard music of each location.
  • The credits theme has now been replaced with an entirely new one incorporating leitmotifs from various tracks throughout the game.

Music

• As the boat carrying Mario to Rogueport for the first time no longer stops in the center of the logo screen until the player presses the A button, with the scene auto-advancing instead, the music that plays if the player remains on the logo screen without pressing the A button is no longer present.
• The theme for Mario receiving an email is much more simplified and no longer includes part of the epilogue theme (from when a Koopaling castle is beaten) from Super Mario World.
• The eerie howling sound that periodically played in Creepy Steeple and the choir voices in the Palace of Shadow are both no longer present.
• Lord Crump's theme now plays when he is talked to during the post-Chapter 5 Bowser segment and in the epilogue scene with the X-Nauts. In the original game, his theme only played during two cutscenes in Chapter 2.
• Pennington's theme plays when he confronts Bowser in Poshley Sanctum.
• Princess Peach's theme no longer plays when Mario explores the western rooms of Sublevel Four of the X-Naut Fortress.
• The second theme of the Palace of Shadow now plays in the corridors leading to Gloomtail's lair even if the orrery in the Palace of Shadow Tower has not yet been activated.
• The Chapter 8 introduction theme is replaced by continuing the current theme for the Thousand-Year Door room.
• There is no music after Grodus escapes from his battle.

Sound effects

• Sound effects are of a higher quantity and more characters have voice acting.
  • In place of the sounds of message balloons appearing and disappearing, characters are now given unique talking sounds during dialogue, similar to the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series from Sticker Star onward. Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and several Toad NPCs (including Toadsworth and Toadette) for example, have talking sounds similar to their voices. Yoshi Kid and Kammy Koopa use talking sounds similar to Yoshi and Kamek's current voices, respectively.
    • NPCs of other species use vocal effects from other games in which they appear. For example, Koopa Troopas (including Koops), Thwomps, and Bob-ombs (including Admiral Bobbery) speak with the vocal effects used for them since Super Mario 64. Piantas' vocal effects are taken from those in Super Mario Sunshine, and Boos' vocal effects are taken from those in New Super Mario Bros.
    • Characters of the same species can have variants in their speaking pitch. For example, Francesca speaks in a higher pitch than other Piantas, and Admiral Bobbery speaks in a lower pitch than most Bob-ombs.
  • Audience members now use voice clips of their respective species. Consequently, the audience's screams when leaving the theater in panic or when attacked by certain bosses are a lot quieter and barely audible.
  • Mario's hammer now makes different sounds when hitting different surfaces, such as grass or paved paths. Objects reacting to Mario's hammer also now create unique sounds, such as a crystalline chime from hitting the trees in Boggly Woods.
  • When the Boos escape the box in Creepy Steeple, they can now be heard laughing.
  • Chain Chomps now use their signature barking sound when they lunge at Mario on the overworld. Likewise, the "talking" Red Chomp of Chomp Country now uses a portion of said bark as its talking sound.
  • Atomic Boo uses King Boo's voice samples for its sound effects.
  • Flavio's "singing" during Chapter 5 is now audible (performed by a kazoo).
  • Princess Peach's scream when being possessed by the Shadow Queen is now audible.
  • Mario now makes no vocal sounds while he is a shadow during Chapter 4.
  • Mario now whistles in his sleep, similar to Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• The sounds of the waves around Rogueport when reading Peach's letter in the intro are no longer present.
• There is now a sound effect when the player presses A to start a chapter.
• When Mario stands on top of a plane panel or boat panel, a sound effect reminiscent of Magic Circles from Paper Mario: The Origami King can now be heard.
• There is now a sound effect when Mario uses Paper Mode to squeeze between two walls.
• The sound effect when enemies are defeated is now reminiscent of the one heard in Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Paper Mario: Color Splash.
• The healing sound effect is now the same as the one from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onwards.
• The sounds the coins make when collected are now the same sound from Super Mario 3D Land, just like in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• The spiked damage sound effect is now the same as the one from Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• There is now a creaking sound effect when Mario hits the noose on the gallows in Rogueport from underneath.
• The Ground Theme and the Family Computer Disk System startup jingle are now reused from the original console, rather than being rearranged like the original game.
• When Peach is undressed during the Chapter 5 intermission, the sound of bare feet on tile can now be heard as she walks. In the original game, a quieter shuffling sound effect was used instead.
• The Excess Express's chime is now a variant of its theme.
• Certain enemies and bosses, such as Bowser, Boos and Atomic Boo now make vocal sounds when they take damage in battle, similar to Magikoopas and the Koopalings in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.

Miscellaneous

General

• A settings page is now available in the menu list, allowing the ability to adjust the rumble and brightness settings and to exit to the title screen.
• The game's European and Japanese age ratings have been raised to PEGI 7 and CERO B, up from PEGI 3 and CERO A, respectively.

Title screen

• Only Mario is present on the title screen when the game is started for the first time. Mario's partners will each be added to the title screen when they join him, including Vivian, Admiral Bobbery, and Ms. Mowz, who were not present on the title screen of the original game. The characters and the hills on the background are also now animated.
  • After Goombella joins the party, the curtains open earlier on the title screen.
  • Peach, Bowser, and Kammy Koopa appear on the title screen after clearing their intermissions in Chapter 1.
  • Purchasing and reading all of the Super Luigi books now results in Luigi appearing on the far left of the title screen.
  • Confetti gets launched over the title screen after completing the game.
• Like in Paper Mario: The Origami King, any button can be used to start the game, whereas, in the original, only was used.

Save Files

• Save files can no longer be named, much like entries from Paper Mario: Sticker Star onward.
• On the file select screen, the player now uses to copy files and to erase them. File 1 and 4's colors have also been swapped, with 1 being blue and 4 being yellow.
• Save files now depict Mario (including his alternate colors) and his current partner on the right of them and the date and time the game was last saved below it.
• Completing the game results in a medal appearing on the top left of the save file.

Credits

• The credits have been overhauled to now be modeled after a curtain call of a stage play, with the carousel of character silhouettes being replaced with the characters walking on the battle stage alongside various skits that occur during it. The credits now end with a wide group shot of the major characters and the audience.
  • Parakarry is the first character to appear in the credits rather than Luigi, who is an audience member instead.
• Copyright information is not present at the end of the credits.

Controls

Overworld

• — Move
• — Bring up Partner Ring
• — Bring up stats
• — Get a hint from partner
• — Turn into Paper Mode
• — Select / Jump
• — Cancel / Hammer
• — Use partner ability
• — Turn into airplane or boat
• — Pause, skip cutscenes (if already seen)
• — Shortcut to partner menu
• — Shortcut to items menu
• — Shortcut to badges menu
• — Shortcut to journal menu

Battle

• — Move cursor / Action Commands
• — Select / Action Commands / Guard
• — Cancel / Action Commands / Superguard
• — Tattle Check
• — Attack audience member / Action Commands
• — Change attack order / Action Commands
• / — Action Commands

Bowser intermissions

• — Move
• — Jump
  • + — Ground Pound
• — Fire Breath

Promotion

The battle stage diorama from the European My Nintendo Store

By pre-ordering the game through the My Nintendo Store in Europe, customers would receive Mario, Goombella, and Yoshi Kid keychains. A bundle containing the game and a buildable diorama of the battle stage including several enemies and characters from the game was also made available on the store.

In Australia, an A5 magnet sheet and a set of foldable Mario paper planes were included as pre-order bonuses for the game from EB Games and JB Hi-Fi, respectively.

In GameStop Canada, a slipcover for the Nintendo Switch case depicting the original GameCube cover is included as a pre-order bonus.

Prior to the game's release, Nintendo of Europe e-mailed a survey about the role-playing games of the Super Mario franchise to a select number of newsletter subscribers. The survey asks participants to state their opinions on topics such as the gameplay and characters of the Paper Mario series, the Mario & Luigi series, and Super Mario RPG. A different survey was temporarily released by Nintendo of America via the Qualtrics website, which asked participants about their general gaming experience as well as featuring questions specifically on the subject of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door for Nintendo Switch.

On May 26, 2024, Nintendo of America issued a printable paper airplane template with a design featuring elements from the game. As well, they published a video tutorial wherein John "ThePaperAirplaneGuy" Collins, holder of the Guinness World Records title for the farthest flying paper airplane from 2012 to 2022, explains how to fold the template. On May 30, 2024, Nintendo of America promoted the game with yet another paper plane–related product in the form of a Snapchat Lens that folds a user's photograph into an AR paper plane in a fashion reminiscent of the game's Plane Mode.

Descriptions

North American Nintendo eShop

Join Mario on an epic paper-adventure to collect the Crystal Stars before the X-Nauts do!

The nefarious X-Nauts are after the treasure behind the Thousand-Year Door! With a map from Princess Peach, and the help of a few locals, Mario journeys through a colorful world made of paper to find them first. To prevail in this quest, you’ll have to level up Mario and his friends, master timing-based attacks and badges to impress the audience on the stage of combat, and make use of all the abilities that come with being cursed—er, conveniently made of paper—like folding into a plane to cross big gaps or turning sideways to slip through narrow openings.

Leaf through a storybook world with charming characters in every fold

Surprises abound in this deep and engaging tale, where everyone’s got something to say and it’s often not what you’d expect. Mario will meet all kinds of interesting folks on his journey, like the upbeat and studious Goombella and the shy but determined Koops. Some of these characters will need your help with their own quests, or even join your party. Others, like Peach and Bowser, have stories of their own that you’ll play between Mario’s chapters!

A classic turns the page, bringing fresh visuals and updated features

Twenty years after the original game on the Nintendo GameCube™ system, this version for the Nintendo Switch™ system has revamped graphics, and a suite of additional changes that make the game easier than ever to enjoy.

Pre-release and unused content

Various badges that also went unused in the original game have graphics in this game, complete with a few having names. These include Mega Jump, Mega Quake, Mega Smash, Triple Dip, Triple Dip P, Lucky Day P, Pity Flower P, and unused alternate designs for Damage Dodge and Damage Dodge P.

Staff

Main article: List of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) staff

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch).

• 

  Mario

• 

  Goombella

• 

  Yoshi Kid

• 

  Sir Grodus

• 

  Princess Peach

• 

  Bowser

• 

  Group artwork

References to other media

For the original game's, see Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door § References to other games.

• Super Mario Bros.: The regular battle theme begins with an arrangement of the Ground Theme motif from this game.
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System: The colors of the button icons correspond to those of the Japanese and PAL controller buttons.
• Super Mario 64: An arrangement of "Inside the Castle Walls" from the game plays when Luigi reads Princess Peach's letter at the beginning of the game. The Thwomp from Shhwonk Fortress and Bob-omb NPCs' vocal effects are taken from the game.
• Paper Mario: The world map from this game appears on a wall in the Mario Bros.' House. An arranged version of this game's title screen theme plays when Parakarry delivers the Magical Map to the Mario Bros.' House, and when talking to Lady Bow in Poshley Heights. Kooper is an incorrect answer in one of The Creepy Steeple Boo’s quizzes.
• Game Boy Advance: The terminals in the Glitz Pit that resemble the Game Boy Advance from the original game now make the sound of the actual system turning on when activated.
• Nintendo GameCube: The Nostalgic Tunes badge resembles the titular console, and its description mentions the console itself.
• Super Mario Sunshine: Toadsworth and the Piantas' vocal effects are sampled from their voice clips from this game.
• Mario Party 5 / Super Mario Party: Paragoombas' vocal effect is sampled from one of the sound effects used for Goomba in these games.
• Super Mario Strikers: Hammer Bros.' vocal effect is sampled from one of Hammer Bro's voice clips from this game.
• New Super Mario Bros.: Boo's voice clips are taken from this game.
• Super Paper Mario: The Mario Bros.' House now has the pictures of Mario's partners from Paper Mario and The Thousand-Year Door as seen in this game. Garson is an incorrect answer in one of The Creepy Steeple Boo’s quizzes.
• Mario Party 8: Blooey's vocal effect is taken from one of Blooper's voice clips from this game.
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Kammy Koopa's vocal effect is sampled from one of Kamek's voice clips from this game.
• Paper Mario: The Origami King: Bowser's leitmotif from this game has been incorporated into his rearranged theme in this game.

References in other games

For the original game's, see Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door § References in later games.

• Super Mario Run: An event based on the game was released from May 23, 2024 to June 27, 2024, featuring nine missions with three completed missions allowing for the acquisition of statues modeled after Paper Mario with a hammer, Goombella, and Koops. The icons representing the missions are based on Star Points.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ペーパーマリオＲＰＧ[?] Pēpā Mario Āru Pī Jī	Paper Mario RPG This naming method is similar to Super Mario RPG and the Japanese name of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Chinese (simplified)	纸片马力欧RPG[?] Zhǐpiàn Mǎlì'ōu RPG	Paper Mario RPG
Chinese (traditional)	紙片瑪利歐RPG Zhǐpiàn Mǎlì'ōu RPG	Paper Mario RPG
Dutch	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
French (NOA)	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
French (NOE)	Paper Mario: La Porte Millénaire[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Door
German	Paper Mario: Die Legende vom Äonentor[?]	Paper Mario: The Legend of the Aeon Gate
Italian	Paper Mario: Il Portale Millenario[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Portal
Korean	페이퍼 마리오 1000년의 문[?] Peipeo Malio Cheon-nyeon-ui Mun	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Portuguese	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
Spanish (NOA)	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[?]	-
Spanish (NOE)	Paper Mario: La Puerta Milenaria[?]	Paper Mario: The Millennium Door

Trivia

• This is the second Super Mario game after Super Mario Odyssey to receive a B rating by the CERO in Japan.
• Despite being released in 2024, the copyright text on the bottom of the title screen and some promotional material only says 2004 for unknown reasons.
• Just like in the original game, the intro to the title theme has a different melody if the system language is set to Japanese. The Nostalgic Tunes badge also accounts for this difference.

External links

Nintendo of America Inc. / Nintendo of Canada, Ltd.

• Official North American game page
• Official Canadian (French) game page
• Official Mexican/Latin American game page
• Official Brazilian game page

Nintendo Co., Ltd.

• Official Japanese game page
• Official Singaporean game page
• Official Malaysian game page
• Official Filipino game page
• Official Thai game page

Nintendo (Hong Kong) Ltd.

• Official Taiwanese game page
• Official Hong Kong game page

Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd.

• Official Korean game page

Nintendo of Europe AG

• Official United Kingdom game page
• Official Belgium (Dutch) game page
• Official Belgium (French) game page
• Official German game page
• Official España game page
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Nintendo Australia Pty. Limited

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Bergsala AB

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CD Media S.E.

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ConQuest Entertainment A.S.

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TorGaming Ltd

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