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Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, begins with Princess Peach on holiday. After escaping the watchful eye of Toadsworth, she encounters a street vendor. They offer her a box that can only be opened by “one pure of heart”, so naturally she manages to open it immediately.
The next thing players see is the Mario Brothers’ House, where Parakerry has just delivered a letter. Princess Peach found a treasure map inside the box, which she sent to Mario alongside an invitation to join her in Rogueport. This is where the story ofPaper Mario: The Thousand-Year Doorbegins.
Arrival in Rogueport
One boat journey later, Mario arrives in Rogueport. A member of the ship’s crew takes the opportunity to warn Mario about Rogueport, which has a rather sordid reputation, but Mario disembarks all the same. This is where players are first given control of Mario. you’re able to move him around with the left stick, press A to jump, and press B to swing his trusty hammer. Be careful not to jump into the water, since the fish won’t hesitate to bite, causing Mario to lose 1 HP each time he falls into the water.
Talk to the Bob-omb just to the left of the dock to learn about Save Blocks, then head into town to trigger a cutscene. Some ruffian is threatening a Goomba, asking for information about the “Crystal Stars.” Head towards the Goomba and her assailants to get dragged into a fight. Fortunately, the fight with “Lord Crump”, as his minions call him, is more a tutorial than a proper fight. Use this as a chance to practice the Action Commands used for Mario’s Jump and Hammer Attacks.
Jump requires you to hit the A button just as Mario lands on his target, while Hammer requires you to pull the stick back and release it when the star lights up. Performing these action commands correctly will deal extra damage. Winning the fight earns you 9 “Star Points," which are similar to EXP in other RPGs.When you get 100 Star Points, your level will increase.
After the fight, Lord Crump calls in a horde of minions to attack Mario, but fortunately, he and the Goomba can escape as the minions pile on top of each other to attack him. Remember the wooden panel to the right of this area for later, since we don’t have the right ability to use it yet, and head up the stairs to escape.
A New Ally
Now that they’ve escaped Lord Crump and his minions, Mario finally learns the name of the Goomba: “Goombella.”
Goombella reveals that she came to Rogueport to seek out the same Legendary Treasure that Princess Peach mentioned in her letter, and Mario shows her the map. Their conversation is then interrupted by the arrival of Toadsworth.
It seems Toadsworth is entirely in the dark about Princess Peach’s discovery of the map, and has lost track of her. Toadsworth promptly thrusts the task of actually locating Princess Peach onto Mario, heading off to a nearby Inn to get some tea (Explaining how to restore HP in the process). Goombella suggests that Peach might’ve got bored of waiting and started the search, before suggesting we talk to one of her Professors who is researching the treasure.
With that, Goombella officially joins the party.A quick tutorial will play to explain Goombella’s ability.She can provide additional information about certain people and objects when you press the X button. When there isn’t a specific object or person nearby, she’ll instead provide information about your current location. Goombella aids Mario in combat with her Headbonk (a jumping attack) and by using her Tattle ability to display the enemy’s HP and weaknesses. After the tutorial on Goombella’s abilities, she’ll also explain how to ask for info on what to do next. Press ZL to ask her for info about what to do next, which can be a handy reminder if you get lost.
Exploring Rogueport
Make sure to talk to everyone you can when exploring, since they often have useful advice or information for you. Even if they don’t, they’ll usually have something amusing to say. Take the opportunity to rest at the Inn and heal the damage from that first fight, then head out the door on the left of the Inn (on the top floor), keep heading left, and jump onto the roof of the item shop. Heading down the slope of the roof away from the camera, near the far end of the roof, will allow you to nab a Star Piece.
Keep heading away from the camera to drop off the roof and into the alley behind the building, then head left and go through the red door to find a messy room. Walk behind the crate and toppled bin in the upper-left corner of the room to get another Star Piece. Now that you’ve grabbed a few Star Pieces, it’s worth taking a look at the Item Shop. Along with buying and selling items, you can also store items here if you want to save them for later without clogging up your inventory. You should probably stock up on some healing items and a fire flower or two for now since you have 100 coins to work with.
Finding Professor Frankly
Chatting with the Doogan on the right side of Rogueport Square will reveal that Professor Frankly lives on the east side of Rogueport, so head past him to continue the search.
The path to the west side of Rogueport is currently blocked by a Toad looking for her contact lens. Trying to head that way will inevitably lead to Mario treading on her contact lens, causing her to block the path into West Rogueport as punishment until you can replace it. A sign in the Item Shop shows that they are sold out right now, so we’ll have to return to this later.
When you enter the East Side of Rogueport you’ll get slammed into by a thief, who steals some of Mario’s coins before escaping. The first house here contains Merlon, the super magician,who can power up your partner in exchange for three shine sprites.The house to the right of Merlon’s is Professor Frankly’s house.
Professor Frankly explains that, while legends differ on what the treasure actually is, they all agree that you need the Crystal Stars to find the treasure. Goombella then adds that you need to “Hold the Magical Map aloft before the entrance to the Thousand-Year Door,” which will reveal the location of the Crystal Stars. The Thousand-Year Door can be found beneath Rogueport.
Optional Fight: Gus
While you don’t need to do this fight right now, you can challenge the guy collecting tolls to the right of Professor Frankly’s House to a fight. Success means you don’t have to pay the toll anymore when heading further into the East-Side, which isn’t necessary yet but will be handy later on.
Gus is a dangerous foe who is immune to Jump attacks thanks to his spear. If you want to beat him this early, you’ll need to rely on Mario’s Hammer and buy some Fire Flowers so Goombella can actually attack him. Gus also serves as a tutorial on running away from fights, offering information on how to do so if Mario’s health drops low enough during the fight.
Despite this, Gus is entirely beatable right now, as long as you make good use of Guard and/or pack some Mushrooms to top up the party’s health. Beating Gus earns you 22 Star Points and makes him run away, leaving the path east open. Remember to heal up at the Inn after this fight, since Mario and Goombella are probably low on HP.
The Thousand-Year Door
Professor Frankly opens a path to the sewers beneath the city,so it’s time to track down the Thousand-Year Door.Professor Frankly offers a tutorial on Action Commands here, which includes the tutorial on Guard. By pressing A just before an enemy attack lands, you can reduce the damage. He will also explain the Superguard, which requires you to press B right before an enemy attack hits. This requires more precise timing than the normal Guard but cancels the enemy’s attack and counterattacks. This makes it a powerful but risky alternative to the normal Guard.
After you’ve finished practicing, it’s time to head into the sewers. To the left is a path leading to Merluvee, a Fortune Teller who can give you advice and help you locate collectibles in exchange for coins. Near their house you’re able to also find a Star Piece, hidden behind a column. Head right from the sewer entrance to meet a Trio of Goombas. This is a great time to try out Goombella’s tattle ability, while also learning about the downsides to certain attacks. Jump is ineffective against spikey enemies (Trying to use it on spikey enemies will hurt Mario) while flying enemies can’t be hit with the Hammer.
After the fight, hop up the steps on the other side and use the moving platform to reach a pipe leading to Rogueport Sublevel 2. Fight your way past the Goombas and head down to the lower section of this area to find two large blocks. Break them with the hammer to reveal a pipe leading to Rogueport Sublevel 3. A new type of enemy appears here, Spinia, which attacks by spin dashing towards you. These enemies can easily get the First Strike against you if you aren’t careful, butjumping at the right time allows Mario to land on them and snag the First Strike himself.
Hit the switch on the right side of this area to peel back part of the wall and reveal some stairs, then drop off the platform with the Paper Plane icon on it to get to the Black Key. Head up the stairs again and through the door at the top to find a mysterious chest. This talking chest is incredibly suspicious, but let’s use that key we found and open it up anyway.
Sure enough, the chest contains a rather nasty spirit who places a curse on Mario. This awful, terrible, horrifying curse allows Mario to turn into a paper airplane by pressing Y in certain areas. More specifically, this can be used on airplane panels, like the one we dropped off earlier to get the key. Head back to the airplane panel from earlier and use Mario’s new “curse” to reach the door on the far left of the room. This room contains the Thousand-Year Door and allows you to record the location of a Crystal Star on the Magical Map. It also grants Mario a new special move “Sweet Treat.”
The Journey Begins
After returning to Professor Frankly’s house, he determines that the first Crystal Star can be found in Petal Meadows. He also reveals that he met Princess Peach and told her he thought Petal Meadows was suspicious since its name came up repeatedly during his research. After leaving Frankly’s House, the Professor will provide a tutorial on “Special Moves.” These use the Star Power Gauge and have a variety of effects. Sweet Treat, for example, uses one unit of Power and allows the party to recover their HP and FP. The Star Power Gauge is restored by exciting the audience watching your fight (that stage isn’t just for show, who knew?)
Performing attacks will excite the audience, who will fill up some of the Star Power Gauge in return. Continuing to excite the audience will cause more people to come and watch the fight, which will increase the rate at which the Star Power Gauge gets refilled. He also gives you a Power Smash badge, along with a quick tutorial on how to use badges. Badges provide additional abilities to Mario, but many of them cost FP (Flower Points) to use. The amount of Badges you may equip at once is determined by your BP (Badge Points), with each Badge costing a certain amount of BP to equip.
Just when we thought the tutorials were over, a Toad dressed in purple offers to teach Mario more about combat. This “Battle Master” can teach you about battles in great detail, so have a look through the info they have to offer if you want to learn more about fighting. There’s a ton to cover here, butStylish Moves are something you should pay particularly close attention toif you want to generate lots of Star Power.
Once you’re done learning from the Battle Master, head back into the Sewer to continue the story. A new merchant, Dazzle, has appeared near Merluvee’s house to trade your Star Pieces for badges. They sell some really useful badges, so be sure to check back here whenever you’ve collected some Star Pieces. Head to the right from the Sewer Entrance and use the airplane panel to fly across to the door on the far right. Smack the Tentacle sticking out of the water with Mario’s hammer to pick a fight with Blooper. Use Goombella’s Tattle ability to learn how to knock Blooper down (damage both tentacles) and then it’s time to fight.
you’re able to use a Fire Flower to immediately defeat both tentacles and knock Blooper down, or attack them normally, and then use Mario’s new Power Smash badge to do a ton of damage once it falls down. Despite its size, Blooper isn’t actually that dangerous. Defeating Blooper will reveal some platforms you can use to cross the water.
Enter the pipe on the far side of the water to travel to Petal Meadows and finish the Prologue.
Enemy List - Prologue
The images above show each enemy typefound in the Prologue of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, with their stats displayed.
