Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Also known as: Paper Mario RPG (JP), Paper Mario: La Porte Millénaire (FR), Paper Mario: Die Legende vom Äonentor (DE), Paper Mario: La puerta milenaria (ES), Paper Mario: Il Portale Millenario (IT) Developers: Nintendo, Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: July 22, 2004 Released in US: October 1, 2004 Released in EU: November 12, 2004 Released in AU: November 18, 2004 This game has unused animations. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a notes page

The sequel to the hit Nintendo 64 role-playing game, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door takes everything that made the original so great and cranked it up to eleven. Featuring a spiced-up battle system, all-new worlds, and well-developed characters and humor, it quickly became a fan favorite - so much so that not only would all future Paper Mario games be compared to it, but Nintendo would cave in and release a remake of it on the Nintendo Switch in 2024.

To do: The speedrun community's Practice Codes and the Dialogue Tree website are invaluable resources. More unused models. More unused items. Textures that are painted on models but don't appear in-game. More on talk page. Collision maps often have texturing, revealing early map designs (source: JasperRLZ). Prerelease screenshots/video + e3 2004 demo + interview. Add GIFs/videos for unused characters' animations - this can be used to play them Unused enemy badge functionality? Character model oddities Unused post-processing effect Are these models unused?: MOBJ_Arrow, MOBJ_IceBlock? Might be worth analysing/listing the various dates that are contained within files. Some other oddities and obscure secrets in this video Possible oddity with Keelhaul Key NPCs (source: Supper Mario Broth) Heart character assignment oddity Unused battle stage Unused enemy behaviors Some dialogue lines are set in the code to have both the "shake" and "wave" effects, but this isn't apparent in-game because only one can be active at a time. Might be worth listing the lines affected? Test level/test enemy leftovers Mario rotation debug feature Note what stuff is present in the remake, and what is removed Early end-of-chapter transition screen graphics. Can be found in a\OFF_TEXTURE0-.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Notes

Early Graphics A look into the development process.

Unused Graphics Sorry, no 8-bit Peach for you.

Unused Items Items, badges, and key items.

Unused Text They won't shut up!

Unused Enemies Missing in action.

Unused Maps Not every place was meant to be visited.

Offscreen Objects Quite a lot goes on backstage where the audience can't see.

Unused Geometry Some cool stuff that nobody can see.

Oddities Why put a yellow block if you can't break it?

Regional Differences Looks like the localization team had a great sense of humor.

Demo Mode

The game has an unused mode which makes the game act like the demo version. A monthry.tpl file needs to be placed on the root of the game disc in order for the Title Screen and stage selection screen to not appear glitched. This file can be found in the demos included on the Interactive Multi-Game Demo Discs 19-22 and 35. Below is an Action Replay code that re-enables the behavior.

US	EUR
04304400 80252F8C	04310140 80256B54

Debug Mode

At the title screen, press X, B, R, B, Y, L. Press and hold Z to display the game's build date. A crash debug screen will also appear whenever the game, well, crashes, in which the crash report scrolls up screen over the course of about 10 seconds (and cannot be scrolled back down or seen again once it goes off screen). The mode does not appear to be functional in any of the demos, and the build date doesn't exist in the demos built before the Japanese version.

(Source: PistonMiner)

Build Date

To do: Check the filenames of the USA demos on every disc they appear on.

The build date can be found in the dol.

Version	Build Date
USA pre-final demo (filename: zz_PaperMario2_game.tgc, header name: 21 2004.06.21 MarioSt_MN7_NOA_20040619a.dpf) from USA multi-demo discs 17 and 18	None
Japan pre-final demo (filename: PaperMarioRPG.tgc) from Japanese multi-demo discs Jul. 2004, Aug. 2004 and Sep. 2004	None
Japan	Jun 17 2004 17:20:01
USA	Sep 9 2004 09:34:02
USA post-final demo (filename: zz_PaperMario2_game.tgc) from USA multi-demo discs 19-22, and 35	Sep 18 2004 17:37:16
Europe demo (filename: zz_PaperMario2_PALDEMO_20040924.tgc) from European multi-demo disc Nov. 2004	Sep 23 2004 13:32:41
Europe	Sep 26 2004 15:37:03

It isn't clear whether the USA or Japanese pre-final demo was built first, but there is something that could suggest the USA demo was built first: the function gcDvdCheckThread, during what looks like the reset process, is set to write "リセット処理開始", which roughly translates to "start reset processing", to the console using OSReport. This code and the string don't appear in any other version of the game.

(gcDvdCheckThread info: Zephiles)

Unused Music

• Demo Title

Internal Track Name: BGM_FILE_MENU1
File Name: sys_mmc1_32k.stm
This is used in demo versions of the game (for E3 and the Multi-Game Interactive Demo Disc demos) as the title screen. It's still in the retail game's disc, though.

• Riverside Station

Internal Track Name: BGM_STG6_EKI1
File Name: stg_eki1_32k.stm
eki is the three-letter abbreviation used for Riverside Station, so that's probably where this would have been used. In the final version, the inside of Riverside Station has no music at all, just ambient sounds. The Nintendo Switch remake added a brand new song instead for the outside and back portions of the Riverside Station.

Lost Tracks

A list of internal track names that reference files that are no longer on the disc or are undefined.

Internal Track Name	File Name	Notes
Boss Tracks
BGM_BOSS_STG4_FAKEMARIO1	None	Doopliss (in Fake Mario form) was supposed to have a unique track. It would eventually get a unique track in the Switch remake.
BGM_BOSS_STG5_SHIP1	btl_sif1_32k.stm	Intended for the second Lord Crump battle. It would eventually get a unique track in the Switch remake.
Event Tracks
BGM_EVT_HAPPY1	evt_hpy1_32k.stm	Happy event!
BGM_EVT_JIN1	evt_dim1_32k.stm	An event track for either Creepy Steeple or Twilight Town.
BGM_EVT_KUPPA2	Blank	A second event track for Bowser.
BGM_EVT_NOK1	evt_nok1_32k.stm	Meant for an event in Petalburg. This track is present in the Paper Mario 2 demo version.
BGM_EVT_REST1	evt_rst1_32k.stm	A longer track for resting?
BGM_EVT_STG2_MORI1	evt_fsg1_32k.stm	Event track for Boggly Woods in Chapter 2.
BGM_EVT_STG2_PUNI1	Blank	Lost Puni event track.
BGM_EVT_STG2_TAIJU1	evt_okk1_32k.stm	Event track for the Great Tree in Chapter 2.
BGM_EVT_STG3_URON1	evt_urn1_32k.stm	Event track for Glitzville in Chapter 3.
BGM_EVT_STG3_TOUGI1	evt_tug1_32k.stm	Event track for the Glitz Pit in Chapter 3.
BGM_EVT_STG4_FAKEMARIO1	evt_fmo1_32k.stm	Event track for Doopliss in Fake Mario form.
BGM_EVT_STG5_VS_3RD_ENEMY	evt_v3d1_32k.stm	Meant for the battle between Lord Crump and Cortez.
BGM_EVT_USU1	evt_usg1_32k.stm	Event track for Twilight Town.
Jingles
BGM_FF_ENV_MAP1	ff_map1_32k.stm	Jingle for the Magical Map?
BGM_FF_ENV_SHIP_APPEAR1	ff_s_apr1_32k.stm	A jingle for either Lord Crump or Cortez's ship appearing.
BGM_FF_ENV_SUCCESS2	Blank	A second "success" jingle.
BGM_FF_GET_PERA1	ff_get7_32k.stm	Jingle for acquiring Paper Powers.
BGM_FF_GET_IMPORTANT_ITEM1	Blank	Jingle for acquiring important items. Different from key items? File name was most likely either ff_get5_32k.stm or ff_get1_32k.stm.
BGM_FF_ENV_OPEN_DOOR1	ff_dor1_32k.stm	Most likely meant for the Thousand-Year Door opening.
BGM_FF_POWERDOWN1	Blank	Counterpart for the Power Up jingle. Very likely that this is the standard Super Mario Bros. "power down" sound.

Unused Characters

• Green Cheep-Cheep

File Name: c_puku
An unused Green Cheep-Cheep. Given the tie, this is either an early version of the blimp conductor or an entirely different, unused character.

• Spinia Partner

File Name: c_lp_hannya
An unused partner for Luigi. Two designs for this partner exist - a hamburger Spinia and a rainbow-colored Spania. The file for this partner was last modified April 21, 2004, whereas Luigi's other partners were last modified May 17, 2004.

• Paper Mario Partners

All of the partners from Paper Mario are on the disc, though only Parakarry and Bow appear in-game. All of them have functional standing and talking animations, and Watt has an extra for her sparks. All of these were repurposed in Super Paper Mario as Catch Cards.

• 

  Goombario

• 

  Kooper

• 

  Bombette

• 

  Watt

• 

  Sushie

• 

  Lakilester

Character	File Name
Goombario	c_kurio
Kooper	c_kameki
Bombette	c_pinky
Watt	c_akarin
Sushie	c_opuku
Lakilester	c_pokopi

Unused Followers

There's an unused Craw follower that uses the same model as Gus, though it's unknown if it actually is Gus. Their follower ID is 12.

(Source: Zephiles)

Undefined Battle ID Behavior

Enemies in the field are assigned a Battle ID that defines which enemies you encounter when you get in a battle. All areas in the game, except the Glitz Pit, share the same Battle IDs; however, encounters differ based on the area you're in. For example, although Boggly Woods and Petal Meadows both have a Battle ID of 00 defined, you cannot touch a Cleft in Boggly Woods and have it direct you to a battle against Goombas.

An undefined Battle ID would be one that is out of range for the IDs used in an area. For example, Boggly Woods' highest used Battle ID is 07, so a Battle ID of 08 or greater would be undefined. Rather than the game crashing or freezing, there is this behavior where interacting with enemies simply doesn't get you into a battle.

Use the North American Action Replay code 04085504 3B0000?? to set the Battle ID.

(Source: Ralf (GC Forever))

Unused Status

Graphic File Name: battle_common
An unused status icon of a nervous/fearful/nauseous-looking face.

A status effect using this icon can be granted with the following North American Action Replay codes:

Status Modifier Enabler	Unused Status
34RR-1H8W-XD2D4 30X2-FFFU-B5C19 4DF2-T1WU-P5XXJ EVU6-N0FQ-Y917D 9RQQ-N348-HU6YF 2JJA-E4JE-ZBTP5 G3EV-5G1R-9MM2U QGR9-37KR-NC8U3	543D957C 00000000 4000xxxx 000125yy 4000xxxx 000126zz

yy = # of Rounds (01 to 63)
xxxx = Character ID (use 4620 for Mario and 4624 for Partner)
zz = Attack Mod (01 ... 7F = Attack Up, 80 ... FF = Attack Down)

To have a Thunder Rage inflict this status to see its battle message, splash and hear its sound effect, enter the following North American Action Replay code on a 1.0 ISO:
02366CDE 00006403
02366CE0 0000FE00

The status is an Attack Down status, a counterpart to the Attack Up status obtained when using Power Lift. zz controls the attack power of the character; if set to FE, the character's attack power would be 2 points weaker, whereas if set to 80, attacks would be so negative that no damage could be dealt. At this point in time, it is not known which values this status would use under normal circumstances.

(Source: Ralf (GC Forever))

Unused Glitz Pit Battle Conditions

Many, many different special conditions for battles in the Glitz Pit are present in code, but only a very small subset are used in the game. There are 70 conditions in total, of which only 15 are actually used. Many of the unused conditions are similar, but split to apply to either only Mario or only his partner. There are multiple duplicated strings in the game's script for some of the used conditions, suggesting some unused ones may have been present before later being overwritten. It is not clear how certain conditions were expected to function, such as ones relating to having to attack the audience, which cannot be freely performed in-game. All but one condition has a variable that can be configured, though many of the used conditions set this variable to 0. It's possible that multiple variants of those same conditions were also planned.

ID	Conditions in code	Text in-game
0	Succeeds automatically
1	Do not jump n times	Don't use your jump!
2	Jump n times
3	Do not hammer n times	Don't use your hammer!
4	Hammer n times
5	Do not use special moves n times	Don't use special moves!
6	Use special moves n times	Don't use special moves!
7	Do not let Mario take n damage
8	Have Mario take n damage
9	Do not let partners take n damage
0A	Have partners take n damage
0B	Do not take n damage total	Win before taking 20 HP of damage!
0C	Take n damage total
0D	Do not let Mario take n hits
0E	Have Mario take n hits
0F	Do not let partners take n hits
10	Have partners take n hits
11	Do not take n hits in total
12	Take n hits in total	Take damage from your opponent three times! Take damage from your opponent at least five times!
13	Mario must win battle with at least n HP (fails if Mario dies)
14	Mario must win battle with less than n HP (fails if Mario dies)	Win after your HP drops to 5!
15	Must get a Power Bounce combo of least n
16	Mario must use fewer than n items
17	Mario must use at least n items
18	Partners must use fewer than n items
19	Partners must use at least n items
1A	Use fewer than n items	Don't use items! Don't use any items!
1B	Use at least n items
1C	Mario must not swap partners n times
1D	Mario must swap partners n times
1E	Partners must not swap partners n times
1F	Partners must swap partners n times
20	Must not swap partners n times	Don't change partners!
21	Must swap partners n times
22	Mario must not attack audience n times
23	Mario must attack audience n times
24	Partners must not attack audience n times
25	Partners must attack audience n times
26	Mario must not appeal n times
27	Mario must appeal n times
28	Partners must not appeal n times
29	Partners must appeal n times
2A	Must not appeal n times
2B	Must appeal n times	Appeal to the crowd at least once. Appeal to the crowd at least three times!
2C	Mario must not spend n FP
2D	Mario must spend n FP
2E	Partners must not spend n FP
2F	Partners must spend n FP
30	Must not spend n FP	Don't use any FP!
31	Must spend n FP
32	Mario must not use n moves (jump/hammer/SP + Charge/Defend/Dip actions)	Only let your partner attack!
33	Mario must use n moves
34	Partner must not use n moves (partner moves + Charge/Defend/Dip actions)	Don't ever let your partner attack!
35	Partner must use n moves
36	Same as 0x30
37	Same as 0x31
38	Party must not use n moves
39	Party must use n moves
3A	Must take more than n turns
3B	Must not take more than n turns	Defeat your opponent in five turns or less!
3C	Wait n turns before Mario actions (jump/hammer/SP/item/switch/Charge/SuperCharge/Run)
3D	Wait n turns before Partner actions (move/item/switch/Charge/SuperCharge/Run)
3E	Wait n turns before Party actions (0x3c + 0x3d conditions combined)
3F	Wait n turns before Mario attacks (jump/hammer/SP attack/item attack)
40	Wait n turns before partner attacks (partner attack/item attack)
41	Wait n turns before party attacks (0x3f + 0x40 conditions combined)	Don't attack in the first three turns!
42	Mario can only jump or Defend
43	Mario can only hammer or Defend

(Source: jdaster64/ttyd-utils)

Unused Animations

To do: There are LOTS more where these came from. You can use this tool to view them. Replace animated PNGs with GIFs

Bosses

Lord Crump

c_kanbu_ibt contains quite a few unused animations for Lord Crump, including but not limited to him giving the X-Naut salute, rubbing his hands together menacingly, and adjusting a horn on his headgear. The horn adjustment and salute animations would go on to be used in the game's remake.

ID: 28	ID: 36

ID: 38	ID: 48

Doopliss

The player has no means to poison enemies, outside of confusing them and having them poison other enemies. Bosses are an exception in that they cannot damage other bosses when confused. However, with cheats it's possible to poison bosses. While most enemies and bosses share their poison animation with dizzy or another status effect, Doopliss' poison animation is unique.

ID: 16

Side Characters

Flavio

Flavio has an unused animation of looking through a spyglass. He has both an idle and talking variant.

ID: 6	ID: 7

Peach

Peach has a unique running animation that goes unused, where she lifts her dress to run.

ID: 81

NPCs

To do: Replace video with GIF. The walking animation is used in the credits, so only a rip of the sprinting animation is needed.

Grifty

Grifty has an unused animation for walking (ID: 2) as well as sprinting (ID: 3). In the game, Grifty can be found on a rooftop in Rogueport and will tell Mario tales for some coins, but is never seen moving at all, leaving these animations of mobility unused.

Unused Partner Attacks

Koops, Flurrie, and Ms. Mowz have descriptions for unused attacks. It seems Koops may have been planned to learn Kooper's Fire Shell technique at one point. Flurrie and Ms. Mowz's unused attacks, meanwhile, appear entirely new.

• Koops

msg_pnk_koura_ippatsu

てきを　ホノオのコウラで　こうげきする

Attack an enemy with a flaming shell.

• Flurrie

msg_pwd_dengeki

かみなりを　すべてのてきに　おとす おまけに　『ビリビリ』させることがある

Drop lightning on all enemies. As a bonus, you might become electrified.

• Ms. Mowz

msg_pch_shiraberu

ぶたいセットの　ウラに　アイテムなどが かくされていないか　しらべる

Check behind the stage for hidden items.

• Unused Gulp Variations

If Yoshi uses Gulp on a Pokey or Poison Pokey that has lost all of its body segments, there is a 50% chance that he'll eat them instead of spitting them back out. Although this very specific variation of Gulp is used, there are some variations that are unused. Including a variation where Yoshi eats an enemy and plays an extra animation that implies whatever he ate blew up, a variation where Yoshi swallows an enemy and spits out a fireball, which does fire damage to enemies that are hit by it, and a variation where Yoshi eats only part of an enemy, such as a Pokey or Poison Pokey's body segment.

(Source: Triple Pain P)

Unused Star Power

The game references a handful of unused special attacks:

• Hirahira Mekuuru (Hirahira means "flutter", Mekuru means "to turn over; to turn pages of a book")
• Rakkii Booru (Lucky Ball)
• Deka Mario (Dekai means "huge")
• Haato Shuuto (Heart Shoot)
• Kagenui (Shadow-stitching, a legendary ninja immobilization technique. Given what shadow-stitching looks like, this Star Power may be an early version of Supernova.)

Unused Behavior

No Boots or Hammer

To do: See if the "only one hammer per map load" is from removing the hammer while in a map instead of entering without a hammer. Behavior was tested using the speedrun practice codes.

A battle without the Hammer command.

Internally, the boots and hammers are treated as important things like keys and other story items. Unlike normal story items, the boots and hammers are invisible in the important things menu. Collecting an upgraded piece of equipment does not replace or remove Mario's now-weaker equipment from his important things. If cheats are used to remove all boots and hammers from Mario's inventory, including the starting Boots and Hammer, unused behavior can be seen.

• When having no boots, jumping in the overworld is still possible. In battle, the Jump command is grayed out and says "No foe to jump on!" even if there are valid targets.
• When having no hammer, hammering in the overworld is possible only once per map load. Doing so causes Mario to stand idle while an invisible hammer makes particles in front of him. In battle, the Hammer command is gone entirely, something that is never encountered in normal gameplay. If a map is loaded while Mario does not have his starting Hammer, the game will automatically add it back to his inventory. If a (Big) Yellow/Stone Block is tattled while not having a hammer, Goombella will say the following unused line:

obj_hlp_block_y_0 and obj_hlp_block_s_0

You can't break this block without a hammer.

• When not having any boots or hammers, First Strikes with these moves are still possible. When not having a hammer in-battle, the hammer appears as the normal Hammer. Without any power-increasing badges, successful Action Commands makes the attack do no damage, while a failed command deals 99 damage.
• The Mario tab of the pause menu shows what boots, hammer, and paper curses Mario has by displaying icons in speech bubbles around him. If Mario does not have boots and/or a hammer, then the corresponding icon and speech bubble is gone entirely.

These behaviors seem to be leftovers from Paper Mario, where the game is started without a hammer. That game also has unused no-boots behavior that mostly matches the unused behavior seen in The Thousand-Year Door.

(Source: Disable (text). Special thanks to the TTYD speedrun community.)

Multiple Partners in Battle

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Why is Flurrie not selectible when using Veil? Can Veil only target grounded actors?

If cheats are used to swap Vivian out for a different party member before the Impostor Mario fight in chapter 4, the battle will start with Mario and the chosen partner. Vivian will eventually enter the battle as part of the story, causing Mario, the first partner, and Vivian to all be in battle at once. This does give the player three actions per turn. Having two partners active in battle allows unused properties of some moves to be seen.

• Goombella's Rally Wink, Flurrie's Dodgy Fog, and Ms. Mowz's Smooch can be used on the other party member instead of Mario and function properly.
• Vivian's Veil can target other party members, except for Flurrie. Regardless of who is chosen, Vivian will always pull Mario into the shadows. The real interesting part of Veil is that if Mario and Vivian are hiding and it is still the player's turn from a second party member being active, then an unused animated icon will appear showing that Mario is in the shadows. Interestingly, the remake included demonstration art of all partner moves viewable in the pause menu, and the art for Veil uses a similar icon to show Mario in the shadows.

File Name: icon.tpl

(Source: Zephiles)

Unused Badge Stacking Effects

Some effects of stacking multiple copies of one type of badge go unused due to limited amounts of the badge existing.

• Power Bounce increases the base attack power of the move by 1 while doubling the FP cost per badge equipped. This behavior is similar to other stackable badges that grant new moves. Only one is found in Hooktail Castle. The remake updated the description to mention this stacking effect despite not adding a copy.
• Double Pain multiplies the damage Mario takes by (1 + the number of Double Pain badges equipped). Only one is sold by Charlieton in Rogueport. The remake updated the description to mention this stacking effect despite not adding a copy.
• Ice Power further increases Mario's damage to fire enemies and fire defense by 1 per badge. Only one is found in Keelhaul Key.
• Simplifier further makes Action Commands easier while giving less star power if a third copy is equipped. The first copy is sold in the Rogueport badge shop from the beginning, and the second is sold after chapter 6.
• Unsimplifier further makes Action Commands harder while giving more star power if a third copy is equipped. The first copy is sold in the Rogueport badge shop from the beginning, and the second is sold after chapter 6.

(Source: Super Mario Files)

Unused Enemy Held Item Behavior

One of the upgrades The Thousand-Year Door made over Paper Mario is that enemies can now hold and use items and badges in battle. A surprising amount of functional behavior goes unused because enemies never hold specific items and badges.

For items, enemies are only allowed to hold a specific list of 32 items. Items in bold are never held normally: Thunder Bolt, Thunder Rage, Shooting Star, Ice Storm, Fire Flower, Earth Quake, Boo's Sheet, Volt Shroom, Repel Cape, Ruin Powder, Sleepy Sheep, POW Block, Stopwatch, Dizzy Dial, Power Punch, Courage Shell, HP Drain (item), Mini Mr. Mini, Mr. Softener, Mushroom, Super Shroom, Ultra Shroom, Dired Shroom, Tasty Tonic, Honey Syrup, Maple Syrup, Jammin' Jelly, Slow Shroom, Gradual Syrup, Hot Dog, and the unused Cake item.

• Regarding the Tasty Tonic, enemies do have unused behavior to use it to cure statuses. Enemies actually think that the Tasty Tonic cures some slightly different statuses than it actually does. The only differences are that enemies think it cannot cure Allergic when it can, and that it can cure Electrified when it cannot. Enemies thinking Electrified can be cured seems to be a leftover of Watt's electric attacks that inflict Paralysis from Paper Mario, as both Electrified and Paralysis use an electric icon.
• Regarding FP-restoring items, enemies will only use them if they are not at maximum FP and they have more than 0 maximum FP. Flower Fuzzies are the only enemy that have a non-0 FP value (they have a maximum of 3), so they are the only enemy that will be targeted by FP-restoring items.
• Regarding the Hot Dog and Cake, enemies do not have behavior to use them.

One final note with items: some enemies define held item chances for Spite Pouch even though it is a forbidden held item, likely by mistake. The enemies that try to hold Spite Pouches are Gloomba, Paragloomba, Spiky Gloomba, Dark Paratroopa, Dull Bones, Dry Bones, Lakitu, Dark Lakitu, Dark Craw, Spunia, and Flower Fuzzy. This was fixed in the remake; enemies can hold and use them there.

For badges, enemies are allowed to hold any badge in the game. Enemies normally only hold the following badges and their partner variants: HP Plus, Power Plus, Defend Plus, Damage Dodge, Happy Heart, Pretty Lucky, P-Up, D-Down, P-Down, D-Up, Power Rush, Mega Rush, Last Stand, Close Call.

• Regarding Damage Dodge, enemies do not get any effect from holding it.
• Regarding badges that activate when the user's HP is 5 or less, they only take effect on enemies when they have 1 HP left.

Modifying the game to make enemies hold any badge reveals that a lot of them function!

• Double Pain, Lucky Day, Lucky Start, Happy Flower, Pity Flower, Zap Tap, Return Postage, and Feeling Fine work as expected. Happy Flower, Pity Flower, and Gradual FP from Lucky Start would only be useful to Flower Fuzzies, though.
• All or Nothing increases enemy attack power by 1 with no downsides to them.
• HP Drain (badge) and FP Drain decrease enemy attack power by 1, but they do not get the recovery effect after attacking.
• Ice Power and Spike Shield work as expected, but need a bit of explaining to fully convey their effects.
  • Ice Power for Mario increases his damage to fire enemies and fire defense by 1, allows him to jump on fire enemies, and makes him immune to the Burn status. Enemies holding Ice Power gain all of these effects. Attacking an enemy holding Ice Power with Fire Drive deals 1 less damage and does not inflict Burn. Enemies holding Ice Power will also not get burned on physical contact with fire enemies and do get 1 extra attack power. An example of this is that a confused Swoopula holding Ice Power can successfully attack a Phantom Ember.
  • Spike Shield for enemies allows them to make physical contact with spiky enemies without getting countered. For example, a confused Goomba holding Spike Shield can safely headbonk a Spiky Goomba.

(Source: Super Mario Files (Held Item List+Behavior, Tasty Tonic Behavior, Normal Held Badge List))

(Enemy Ice Power and Spike Shield Behavior: Original TCRF research)

Unused Status Effect Variables

Some status effects use a variable to determine the strength of the effect, even though all ways the effect gets inflicted will set it to the same value.

• Poison damage per turn can vary, but all ways of inflicting use one damage.
• Huge attack increase can vary, but all ways of inflicting increase attack by two.
• Tiny attack decrease can vary, but all ways of inflicting decrease attack by two.
• Gradual HP and FP regeneration can vary, but all ways of inflicting only recover by two.

(Source: Super Mario Files)

Test E-Mail

msg_mail_test in global.txt:

Japanese	English	French
デザイナー マリオストーリー２の ３Ｄマップしゅにんで おもなさくひんは マリオストーリー　 かなりのゲームずきで ゲームをしていないと 気がすまない 『かわで』と『かわべ』が ややこしい	Designer Paper Mario and Paper Mario 2 3-D Level Designer. Big gamer. Gets restless when not gaming. Can't tell difference between Brett and Bert.	Voilà un test de mail et à quoi ça doit ressembler pour que tout le monde le sache. Je tiens à remercier Hélène pour le super boulot qu'elle a fait. Michaël
Translation
Designer Worked on 3D maps for Paper Mario 2. Biggest project was Paper Mario. Big gamer. Gets restless when not gaming. Can't tell difference between Kawade and Kawabe.		This is a mail test and what it has to look like so that everyone knows. I would like to thank Hélène for the amazing work she did. Michaël

German	Spanish	Italian
Designer Verantwortlich für die 3D-Karten bei Paper Mario 2, Hauptwerk: Paper Mario. Mag Spiele ziemlich gerne. Wenn er nicht spielt, fühlt er sich nicht gut. "Am Fluss" und "Flussufer" sind etwas kompliziert.	Soy el diseñador del entorno tridimensional de este juego. Entre mis obras anteriores destaca el trabajo realizado en la entrega anterior. Cuando no estoy con los videojuegos, siento que me falta algo. Será que juego demasiado. Kawade	Sono il disegnatore delle mappe in 3D di questo gioco. Il lavoro è stato duro, però la storia mi ha davvero appassionato. Non riesco a far passare un giorno senza che mi venga voglia di giocarci un po’! Divertitevi anche voi! Kawade
Translation
Designer Responsible for the 3D maps in Paper Mario 2, biggest project: Paper Mario. Likes games a lot. When he doesn't play, he doesn't feel well. "At the river" and "riverside" are a little complicated.	I’m the designer of the 3D environments in this game. Among my previous works is the work I did for the previous entry. When I'm not with video games, I feel like I'm missing something I’ll play them so much. Kawade	I’m the designer of the 3D maps in this game. The work was hard, but the story really gripped me. Not a day goes by without me feeling like playing it a little! You have fun, too! Kawade

In the French version, "Michaël" is Michaël Hugot and "Hélène" is Hélène Guillemain, both credited as the French localisation team.

(Source: The Mushroom Kingdom)

Internal Project Name

The game is referred to as "mariost" (presumably short for Mario Story) in various places in the code.