Unlike some of the more recentPaper Mariogames, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is practically bursting with all kinds of colorful characters. Mario cannot help but bump into a bunch of them as part of his quest, but there are others who can wind up getting missed or just plain forgotten after the initial meeting.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Every Companion, Ranked
Mario puts together a very talented crew in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but some are more capable than the others.
This should be avoided, though, since many of them, especially the ones below, are actually rather worth knowing. Some can be a big help to Mario; others can challenge him; and some just make for an entertaining encounter. In all cases, these NPCs really are worth meeting.
Tough Guy, Big Heart
It’s easy to think of the Trouble Center on Rogueport’s east side as just a notice board, but there is, in fact, someone in there curating all of it. His name is Goose, and he’s there to make sure things stay on the up and up, well, as much as they can be, anyway.
To meet the Craw who runs the Trouble Center, go behind the building and have Flurry blow at it to reveal a secret rear entrance. Goose will explain that he does his best to keep the shadier requests off the board and asks Mario not to tell anyone who’s really running things there.
An Angry Chef is a Passionate Chef
Zess T. is an NPC whom Mario will inevitably run afoul of pretty early in his adventure. He’ll inadvertently break the cook’s contact lens, and she’ll stubbornly refuse to let him enter Rogueport’s west side until he procures her a new one. Getting her the new lens marks the end of the necessary interactions, but players would do well not to let it end there.
Paper Mario TTYD: Recipes That’ll Really Hit The Spot
Cooking in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is entirely optional, but skipping it means missing out on the game’s best items.
See, Zess T. is just as talented a chef as Tayce T. from Paper Mario, perhaps even more so, and she’ll cook up plenty of powerful items for Mario despite still kinda being cross with him. Make sure to visit her often.
8The Gamer Toad
Have you ever heard of a game called “Fire Emblem”?
There is a Toad kid in Petalburg who just so happens to be an avid gamer. His tastes are a little bit dated nowadays, but the kid absolutely knows a good game when he sees one, making it with Mario’s while to check back every so often and see what he’s been playing lately.
This Toad seems to favor RPGs in particular, as two of his favorites includeFire Emblemfor the Game Boy Advance and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. How exactly he got his hands on the latter game is anybody’s guess.
7Prince Mush
The former champ’s still got it!
In the original Paper Mario, Prince Mush shows up at the end of Chapter Three and is then only referenced one more time in an email from Jolene. In the message, she says that he’s training to make a comeback in the Glitz Pit, but is never actually seen again.
Paper Mario TTYD: The Most Can’t-Miss Trouble Center Missions
Completing the Trouble Center yields no special reward, but perhaps the prizes for these missions are reward enough.
In the remake, though, not only can Mario find Mush in the Glitz Pit hallways and talk to him, but he can also take on the former champ in an exhibition match. It’s absolutely not an easy fight, though; Prince Mush is still very much in his fighting prime.
His story doesn’t end where you think it does.
Over the course of the story, players get to see TEC-XX grow from a computer analyzing a system anomaly into a full-fledged character in his own right. His story takes a tragic turn in the later chapters, but the situation is not necessarily as bleak as it should be.
After the Shadow Queen is defeated, the world is restored to a curious, if not impossible, state thanks to the power of the Crystal Stars. Not to give too much away, but let’s just say that locations that should be destroyed aren’t, and some characters that should be long gone somehow endure.
Mario’s brother’s got his own, very long, story to tell.
Feeling a bit discontent at being left home again while Mario goes off on another globetrotting quest to save Princess Peach, Luigi jumps at the chance to go out on his own whenyet another letter seeking the Mario Bros.' helparrives from the Waffle Kingdom. He stops back in Rogueport from time to time and is all too eager to tell Mario about his adventures.
Luigi, it seems, is not so good at saving the world, however. He makes it sound like he’s been taking care of business, but his partners tell a very different, much less heroic tale. He might not actually be all that helpful, it seems.
4The Crows
These birds have the juiciest gossip.
If one wants to know what the buzz isin Twilight Town, asking its residents won’t actually get them very far. They can be a bit secretive and don’t actually say anything that interesting most of the time. No, talking to them isn’t the way to go. To get the real scoop, Mario’s gotta listen in on the crows’ conversations.
The crows work hard to keep up the image that they’re just dumb birds doing bird things, so no one watches what they say around them. This gives the birds plenty to chat about while hanging around in the trees all day. Of course, they aren’t too careful either, so it’s easy to eavesdrop on the eavesdroppers.
Investing with this Ratooey absolutely pays off!
Usually, the best thing to do when someone comes asking for money to fund their get-rich-quick scheme is to politely suggest that they hit the road. However, this Ratooey’s proposal is one that Mario should actually listen to.
Found by the Rogueport docks, Lumpy spends the early chapters gathering funds for an expedition to find oil. He’s certain it will pay off and asks Mario to invest 100 to 300 coins. If Mario does, Lumpy will return in Chapter Six and pay triple his investment! He really did know what he was doing, eh?
Lady Bow is still out there living the high life.
Bow joined Mario’s party in the first Paper Mario for two reasons. The first was to put a stop to Tubba Blubba and save the Boos living near his house. The second was that she was bored and wanted to see more of the world. She did eventually go back to the mansion, but it seems the travel bug got her again.
After the conclusion of the main story, Bow and the ever-faithful Bootler can be found near Poshley Sanctum in Poshley Heights. She apparently just wanted to go on another journey and make it a proper vacation, much to Bootler and the other Boos’ dismay.
All it wanted was some peace and quiet.
Meeting Whacka is always great for Mario since he can get a few powerful healing items for free, but it kind of stinks for the poor mole-like creature since it means getting a fresh set of head injuries. This time around, he can be found in the jungle of Keelhaul Key and again at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials.
The first encounter nets Mario some Whacka Bumps like usual, but he should be careful at their second meeting. Whackas are generally peaceful creatures, but they can be absolute monsters to those who push them too far. Watch out.
Review: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a near-legendary RPG these days, but does it still hold up after all this time?
