I never knew about at least half of these. I heard & seen Pro Mode, Master Quest, & some of Dark Star. But I have seen some pictures of TTYD 64. Ever heard of the Super Mario World ROM Hack: TSRPR?
Imagine making a PM mod and making the playable character a Toad. Absolute brainrot behaviour. Black Pit ist great but all the spelling mistakes ruin what could have been an excellent mod
Black Pit is incredible! If you've just started out and you're having a hard time, the game gets a LOT easier once you unlock star powers, since they're permanent, even in the roguelike pit. I love that the achievements are given a purpose because they let you unlock new star powers.
i never played Paper Mario 64 before. Should i beat the original game before using any mod or it's better with some enhancement mods? if so, which one is recommended to not go far away from the original intent?
its actually be best to beat the original paper mario 64 first, so you can get a good feel for it. afterwards I'd highly recommend trying Dark Star edition, its essentially Master Quest, but far more Fair in terms of player freedom, as well as having a side-story involving the anti-gang+Dark Temple from ch. 4 through 8. you'll still need savestates and some cooking guides for Dark Star edition tho.
With so many of the mods increasing the difficulty you're probably best having at least one playthrough of the original game first. A lot of the smaller mods, like Cooking Princess or mods made for a Game Jam you could probably jump into blind, but you'd likely get more appreciation out of any Paper Mario mod once you're familiar with the original game. 'Cause as far as I know there isn't a Paper Mario mod that's just the vanilla game with QOL features. As for the second part, "Pro Mode" is probably the most like the original Paper Mario. It's harder but that's only because there's a bigger risk/reward with guarding. Enemies do double damage but defensive options are also double as effective. TTYD-64 is probably the next candidate. Story is the same, excluding the new side areas, maps are the same as the original game. However, because of the combat update and new badges, battles will feel much more like Thousand Year Door than the original game. But many people would consider that just an upgrade, so depending on your taste that may not be an issue. It's also the only mod with an easy mode, so if you're really struggling you can just adjust the difficulty.
I actually completed the story in Black Pit (yes, it has an ending), took me 21 streams (~70hr), mostly grinding the Roguelike Pit for cash, and there's still more I could do in it!
I've played Dark Star Edition and the more recently released TTYD64 and can recommend both. Dark Star is extremely difficult, however, so I'd only recommend it to those willing to study each boss fight and figure out how to use their tools effectively. TTYD64 on the other hand has multiple difficulty settings. I wouldn't say its hard modes are entirely satisfying since it just enhances enemy stats by +50% and +100% respectively but it lets people enjoy a very different run of the original game without getting frustrated. It's definitely the best (finished) showcase right now of how far PM64 modding has come
Please stop that hating on backtracking. I always loved if games made me revisit older areas to unlock certain things I could not unlock before once I got a new abilities/companions. In fact those moments when I finally get an ability to reach something I could not reach before feel great to me. For me, the games are super non-creative when I can run through levels and do everything in them on my first run.
With Mario Builder 64 and all these, I wish Nintendo would embrace the modding scene more, just like the vast majority of other gaming companies! =/ That being said, mods and emulation are awesome! =D
It's a bit unfortunate that there was no mention of Dark Star Edition and that well... literally 4 out of 6 mods were by ElDexter. Don't get me wrong he makes good stuff and black pit / ttyd64 deserve to be on here but the all bosses mod? Aight then. You even mentioned cooking princess which is a mod from the first modding jam the community held but no other jam mods were included despite there being some really good ones like Back in Bowser, Cake Chaos, Tatanga's Nebula, Legendary Starship and Koopamancer's Fury to name a few. I do appreciate there being any sort of spotlight on the topic for sure, but I suppose a little more diversity in terms of creators would've been cool :)
I reccommend Dark Star Edition it takes inspirarion of Master Quest but is more duable and you get these curse badges to increase enemy hp and attack and as well more star points to grind from. And it also incorporates the dark star to the game as well. And is prob more interesting than master quest jr imo.
overall aside from some unique surprise fights, Dark Star Edition really is just a more fair version of Master Quest, alongside its side story w/the Anti-gang from chs 4-8. its deff one of my favorites. esp the pit boss in DSE, who is in fact, refightable whenever you want. its the most unique boss by far. (I tested it myself by doing the DSE pit a 2nd time and was pleasantly surprised you can refight the pit boss whenever you wanted to) curse badges most deff reward you with knowing the game+bosses. take the 3 dark koopas in toad town sewers(guarding the pipes) for example, where you can use all curses for some free 100 star points(assuming merlee's used) for the first two. then make the curses at least purple to beat the 3rd dark koopa as it has spiked gloomba in the formation to gain the most star points possible from the 3 fights. it deff needs Savestates like mosta da hard mods, buts DSE's pretty fun and has nice lore(esp from the Dev's log)
To anyone using TWL Patcher, can I ask which filters you use? Someone told me I should be using bilinear scaling and I just don't know what that means!
