Today I'm going to compare an old video game and a less-old video game. Not because anything really needs to be said about them, but because I played them both and couldn't help analyzing them in my head. And since I have a blog, I'm making that your problem.
The very-old game is Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES, 1996). I played the hell out of it when I was a kid, and I have replayed it multiple times during my adult life. The less-old game is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GameCube, 2004). I had never played any of the Paper Mario games, but this one got a remake on the Switch so I played that. (Incidentally, SMRPG also got a recent Switch remake, but I haven't tried it because I still have an old cartridge and my childhood SNES.)
The reason I couldn't help comparing these two games while recently playing the latter is because it was pitched to me as a spiritual successor to the former, and thus it was suggested that liking SMRPG made it probable that I would also like TTYD. They're both RPGs (well, maybe), they're both full of colorful characters and wacky antics, and so forth. SMRPG was Mario's first foray into RPGs and TTYD inherits some of that DNA.
There's a general comparison to be made that applies across pretty much all subjects, so we'll start there and then apply it to various facets of the games. Here's the two games in a nutshell: Super Mario RPG has a strong core with some flourishes on the side; The Thousand Year Door is more like a large collection of small bits.
The Story
SMRPG has a strong narrative theme: the status quo has been disrupted and must be set right. Not just in terms of the world-saving stakes, but as a core theme throughout. Lots of lives have been disrupted by the inciting incident, and you help them each on your way to your larger goal of fixing the world. The core characters—Mario, Peach, and Bowser—had a status quo of kidnappings and rescues that was disrupted mid-cycle and we get to watch them cope with it by joining forces to return to that status quo. (It even shows at the meta level: the events that form the premise of all Mario's platformers gets disrupted so now he has to do his first RPG about it.) Yes, unrelated things happen along the way, but there's a certain consistency at the core.
TTYD is more like a collection of vignettes with some stakes in the background. You go to a series of self-contained locales with distinct themes and no connective tissue. Your magic map says "go to spooky zone next" and you hop in the pipe to spooky zone and clear the spooky dungeon and then your magic map tells you the next zone. Each of these is sectioned off as a "chapter" that feels very compartmentalized, siloed off from everything else. The reason for even doing all this stuff in the first place keeps changing (from "treasure hunt" to "find the princess" to "save the world") without really affecting what you were going to be doing anyway.
The Characters
SMRPG has a core cast of five characters: the classic trio plus two new friends, Mallow and Geno. You've got all five in your party by the time you reach the halfway point of the game, so you have plenty of time to get to know each of them. They all have their own personalities that you get to see as they interact with Mario, NPCs, and even each other. They all have their own ties and investments in the core story. I'm not saying they have incredible depth (it's still a Mario game) but they're fully individualized and they have time to develop.
TTYD has something like 8-ish companions for Mario: one for each chapter, plus a bonus one I got in my playthrough. Each one has a defining quirk and initial conflict when you meet them, then they get absorbed into your party and kind of stop existing. They don't really interact, and dialogue with NPCs is just the same lines performed by whoever you happen to have out at the time. This makes them functionally interchangeable as characters, defined primarily by their gameplay mechanics (see below). Goombella is a bit of an exception since her Tattle ability gives her lots of extra dialogue to get to know her, and Vivian stands out for having an actual multi-chapter story. But they're the exceptions.
The Gameplay
SMRPG has consistent core gameplay—or more like two cores, since the game is a direct hybrid of RPGs and platformers. In combat, you have a pretty traditional setup (attack, magic, item, defend), with the twist that instead of crits you can press the button again to boost your damage/effect. A handful of spells use different action commands, but most spells and all basic attacks and defense use the same core mechanic. Outside of combat, you have light platforming elements. Mario is known for his jumping, and uses that to get around a lot. There are several minigames, and some of them have unique mechanics (like the Yoshi race), but others build on the core platforming element (the second half of Midas River, or the hill on the way to Marrymore). So like I said earlier, a core with some flourishes.
TTYD has an incredible number of mechanics. In combat, every attack has its own unique control inputs. Multiply that by the number of characters, plus also your Star Specials, and it's a truly staggering number of mechanics to learn. And that's to say nothing of customizing your build using Badges! Outside of combat, I wouldn't call TTYD a platformer, as jumping serves only to climb stairs. Instead it's a little like old-school Pokemon, where basically you just walk around but then you unlock certain abilities to let you access new areas. So like if Pokemon had 15+ HM moves—one per partner and a few for Mario. Having so many means each is used only a few times; basically they each get used in the first dungeon where you get them, then unlock one item in Rogueport, then get used so infrequently thereafter that I often forgot I had them. Also TTYD has the equivalent of two different types of Korok Seeds to collect, because everything needs collectibles now I guess.
The TLDR
So yeah, it really is "core with flourishes" versus "pile of small bits" all the way down. So I guess if you know which of those styles you like better, you know which game you're likely to enjoy more. Personally, I like Super Mario RPG more than The Thousand Year Door because I like that core-with-flourishes model better than having a million things that are mostly forgettable or interchangeable. Maybe you're the opposite, which is fine. And to be clear, I did still have fun with TTYD. (Shout out to my girls, Goombella and Vivian.) But I probably won't replay it, and I'm glad I played a library copy instead of buying it.
P. S. — Odds & Ends
Both games keep Mario basically mute, never putting his dialogue on screen. SMRPG has him explain things via shapeshifting pantomime, while TTYD uses a simple "I'm explaining now" hand gesture. The former was charming and fun, the latter was admittedly more efficient.
Holy hell, TTYD spent a lot of time on tutorials. I almost walked away before Hooktail's castle because I was spending so much time on tutorials for mechanics that hadn't really created any interesting gameplay yet. I stuck it out and it got better, but oof.
Both games let you take a shower, which is probably one of the most bizarrely specific similarities in the games. In SMRPG, you walk into a separate room that you don't see the inside of, and the shower happens behind closed doors with no details. In TTYD, Peach takes a shower behind a small curtain, and the game makes sure to show you that she's naked and lets you know when she's toweling off, which seemed weirdly horny (at least by Mario Game standards). It's also not the only time the game makes sure you know Peach is naked.
Relatedly, in TTYD, things get a bit harem-y. Nearly every woman except Peach kisses Mario at least once, and two different women (again, not Peach) are on the verge of love confessions toward him by the end.
TTYD door did EarthBound's friends-along-the-way final boss powerup thing. EB's was better.
When I finally looked up whether there was a way to increase my inventory limit in TTYD, I discovered I needed to hit Floor 50 in the pit. I had already been in the pit and stopped at 40 for no particular reason. I always do this. I missed Hestu in BOTH Zelda Switch games. Why am I like this?
SMRPG has you traveling around to collect seven important stars, so it gave me a chuckle when I realized I'd be doing the same thing in TTYD.
Am I the only one who thought that one X-Naut lieutenant guy looked like Dr. Robotnik?
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