JRPGs are stupid. Can we all just admit that finally? Most of them are comprised of about 80% filler with very little actual gameplay, and there are so many overused tropes you could make a drinking game out of them. Most rely on their stories to justify a playthrough, so if there’s not much of a plot, you’re basically just doing a bunch of digital chores through a vacuous overworld and fighting the same enemies over and over again until you defeat the big enemy and allow yourself to quit. There’s no game genre that’s as consistently lacking in substance.

So why do I keep playing them? And why do I love so many of them?

When it comes to this genre, I often inadvertently compare every example to one of the first ones I ever played: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. I played this game when I was ten, so you’d think my love for it would come purely from nostalgia…and that’s a big part of it, but I do earnestly believe that this game has held up like Atlas. The story and characters are top-notch, and even the turn–basedbattling is consistently engaging. I’m glad I got to experience it when I was so young, but one drawback to that is how every RPG since has been a downgrade. Why, so many years later, have we yet to top this masterpiece? We can deny it all we want, but no RPG has ever come close to the charm, fun, and genuine heart of The Thousand-Year Door. This is a hill I will gladly die on.

With that being said, it frustrates me that Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, while a very good game in its own right, can’t even come close to surpassing a game from 2004. It shares many traits with that old 2.5D adventure, but loses out to it in nearly every single category. I expect this comparison to draw many a “they’re too different! it’s apples and oranges!” but no, it really isn’t. It’s absolutely fair to compare the two games, as they’re both globe-trotting role-playing games with turn-based battling, chapters, and an emphasis on story and characters. There are many games that fit these criteria, to be sure, but for some reason Dragon Quest XI in particular is what compelled me to draw these parallels. Perhaps it’s the lighthearted atmosphere, the bright yet tonally diverse world the game takes place in, or the simplistic battling system that brought to mind Paper Mario. Regardless, I just couldn’t help but draw a comparison between the two games at every turn.

Let’s start with the overworld, and like I said before, this is where RPGs usually falter. When it comes to a game like Final Fantasy X, for example, the meat of the game falls entirely under the story and combat. The overworld only exists to stitch these two parts of the game together and give context to the actions the characters are taking. In both TTYD and DQXI, the overworld is actually quite fun to explore. There are eccentric characters to interact with, quests to complete, and secrets to find. In my view, RPGs are at their very best when they encourage exploration, and I would actually give DQXI the edge in this category. You have a freely-controllable camera, which I’ve found to be an unfortunate rarity in post-PS1 JRPGs. The world is just bigger and less linear overall; however, it is perhaps more engaging to explore in TTYD simply because of the many movement options Mario has at his disposal. He can turn sideways and fit through cracks, roll into a tube and slide under walls, blow up a wall with Bobbery, hit a far-off object with Koops, hover over gaps with Yoshi…with all of these different abilities and partners, you can never be sure just how you’ll traverse the next area. In Dragon Quest XI, you’re really just walking or riding the whole way, with the occasional weird mount to change things up. That’s not to say that Paper Mario definitely does things better here, but there’s a clear difference in priorities; while Dragon Quest emphasizes scope, TTYD is more intricate in its level design. Both have merit, and neither is inherently better…but I have to admit I’m a sucker for big beautiful open areas. Dragon Quest XI gets the point here.

The battling is very similar in both games. You’ve got turn-based fighting with multiple party members and special attacks. The only real tangible difference is the action commands in TTYD. Action commands are a huge deal here because they give the player agency in every single fight they trigger—you don’t have to just sit there and watch as Mario gets slaughtered by an unavoidable devastating spell. You can block the attack, or for a riskier challenge, counter it. You can power up your jump and hammer attacks by pressing A at just the right moment. You can even wow the audience by pressing A at certain moments during attacks! Overall, it’s not much, but it’s a thousand times more input than you usually get in these kinds of fights, and I wish Dragon Quest had something similar to keep me busy and interested. It was easy to turn my brain off and mash the A button to get through turns while fighting weaker enemies. That’s no fun, is it? Oh, and the Switch version of Dragon Quest XI has an option for free-roaming during fights, which is completely pointless and mostly just distracting. Not sure what the purpose of that was, but it’s an option, I guess? Point goes to Paper Mario, though I will admit I like that Dragon Quest XI lets you use four party members at a time rather than just two. More is always merrier.

The game with the better soundtrack was not difficult to determine. TTYD has better music. This is true not just of its quality, but quantity as well—every sunny outdoor area in DQXI features the same grating, chirping song that better befits yard work than adventuring. The standard battle music is awful. The town music is serviceable, but nothing all that pleasing to listen to either. It might seem like I’m scratching the surface here, but I have already covered about 90% of the game’s soundtrack. I’ve heard the composer of the Dragon Quest games is very difficult to work with, and if that’s the case…what’s the point? Drop him and hire someone with talent. The games deserve it! Meanwhile TTYD has an enchanting soundtrack with diverse themes, atmospheres, and instruments. Even if it was just an average, middling soundtrack, however, it would still beat out DQXI’s, which they seemingly did not even bother with.

Graphics usually aren’t too important in an RPG, but it’s always fair to bring it up when both games in question get it so, so right. They’re both excellent in different ways, however; while TTYD is of course stylized with its 2D animations and storybook aesthetic, Dragon Quest XI is just a graphical feast that takes advantage of each system’s hardware. I do have to give TTYD the edge here, as its visuals are just so delightfully timeless that they look literally no worse than they did fifteen years ago. Dragon Quest XI is beautiful, especially with the lighting turned up juuuuuust enough…but it’s also a game with the kind of graphics that probably won’t age well in a decade’s time. This is mitigated by the charming Akira Toriyama art style, which might help its appeal in the long run, but you can’t deny that TTYD hasn’t even come close to looking dated after fifteen long years of age. If there’s any game that gives us a glimpse at the damage time might wreak on DQXI, it’s the game’s closest relative, Dragon Quest VIII. That game looks great, but it’s still very clearly a PS2 game. TTYD gets the point here, but that’s not a knock at DQXI—really it’s just a testament to the timelessness of Paper Mario’s aesthetic. It will still be a treat for the eyes in 3019.

The final and most important category is the story and characters, and boy is there a lot to talk about here. It’s clear to me that—spoiler alert—TTYD wins again here, but it’s rather hard to pin down just why. Dragon Quest XI has an incredibly generic story that only gets more generic as it goes along. The villain is a stock evil warlock who wants to plunge the world into darkness, and the hero is the chosen one who was destined to defeat him. There are a few dramatic moments, but nothing that truly subverts the expectations we’ve come to have from these kinds of stories. Naturally, the real charm of DQXI’s story comes from its individual characters and chapters, something Paper Mario also excels in. You’ll travel to a new town and become enveloped in its local politics and drama, solving whatever big problems presents itself, and move on to the next one after getting what you need. Both games follow this structure, but with TTYD, I felt that the stories were much more developed. The game is comprised of eight chapters, and most of them are fairly isolated in their relevance to the overall quest. You’ll become a fighter in an MMA ring. You’ll solve a murder mystery on a train. You’ll become Captain Olimar. Whenever Mario and his friends begin a new story, you really get into it—to the point where you’ll forget all about the Crystal Stars or Grodus until the chapter ends, almost always with a satisfying conclusion, and you’re reminded of the bigger picture. Never do you feel like you’re just wasting time with these characters, because their problems become yours.

While Dragon Quest XI also does this, none of its mini-plots are as engaging as the ones from TTYD, and this is likely because it just seems afraid to fully embrace any of them. They’re all over long before you have a chance to grow attached to any of their one-off characters, and most of them don’t have particularly interesting personalities anyway. There’s a village of people who speak in haiku, but I legitimately cannot tell you the name of a single person who lives there. There’s an underwater city of mermaids who speak exclusively in rhyme, but I’ve already forgotten why we were ever there in the first place. There are more towns, more setpieces, and more subplots than in Paper Mario, and possibly as a result of that, every single one is rushed and unsatisfying. They might provide a brief distraction from the main quest, but never do they feel like a priority like they so effortlessly did in Paper Mario. As I ventured through the dreary, dusk-soaked Twilight Town, I became invested in the crimes and charlatanry of Doopliss. I can’t even tell you the name of the villain from Gallopolis. Was there one? I don’t remember.

A story couldn’t even exist without characters, and both games do have a good selection of them…but again, I think Paper Mario wins out here. Dragon Quest XI does have a great cast of party members, but the NPCs are mostly bland and forgettable. There’s the spoiled but well-meaning Prince Faris, the lovestruck mermaid Michelle, and a little girl conjured from a demon’s illusions named Dora. Noah is a guy who hears lots of rumors. DQXI doesn’t have a lame cast of characters by any means, but I was hoping for some more memorable weirdoes to join the proceedings at some point. The NPCs are unfortunately just too stock and too underutilized to have much of an impression, and the villains of the game are completely lacking in motivation, with the notable exception of one whose story actually almost brought me to tears. While TTYD also has pretty generic main villains, the individual chapter antagonists are excellent. Doopliss, Grubba, Rawk Hawk, Cortez, and the Shadow Sirens are all compelling and charming characters in their own right, and they add a lot of personality to the chapters that they appear in. DQXI simply couldn’t reach these heights with even its most eccentric antagonists.

Also…Dragon Quest XI completely rips off the best chapter from The Thousand-Year Door. Like, it’s not even arguable. The story in Octagonia is identical to “Of Glitz and Glory”, and I wish I were exaggerating even a little bit. It’s one thing for TTYD to never receive any credit for its accomplishments by Nintendo or anyone else other than dedicated fans, but I think it’s pretty distasteful for modern RPGs to start robbing its corpse. You’ll never hear any game developers admit they were inspired by the early Paper Marios, but that won’t stop them from stealing entire storylines from it, no sir!

In the end, that’s one point for Dragon Quest and four for Paper Mario (five if you count story and characters as two different things. I do not.). I’d been looking forward to Dragon Quest XI for a long time, and for the most part, I actually wasn’t disappointed. It’s a really good game, man! Don’t be fooled by my harsh critiques of it in this comparison, because that’s all it is—a comparison. Hamburgers might taste like trash compared to pepperoni pizza, but hamburgers are still pretty darn great! It’s just discouraging that no other JRPG seems to have any idea what made The Thousand-Year Door so special, and I was hoping that this game would finally be the one to top it. Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have had my hopes so high, but why shouldn’t I hope for a better game in 2019 than one released in 2004? Why hasn’t the genre evolved in such a long time, with so many new releases coming and going?

I will admit that there is a possibility my judgment is clouded since yes, I did play Paper Mario at the magical age of ten, when everything is full of mystery and wonder. But I stand by my opinions presented here. I’ve revisited the game many times throughout my life, and it never shows its age. I’m beginning to doubt that it ever will. It’s always just as charismatic, fun, and gorgeous as it was when I first picked it up as a wee fifth grader. Dragon Quest XI is a great time as long as you’re not expecting something innovative, but I just can’t help but wonder when we’ll reach the heights once reached in 2004. Maybe we never will, and I’ll just have to come to accept that. Maybe it’s time to grow up and admit that my love for TTYD is borne purely of circumstance, and in truth, any game could have taken its place in my heart given the right timing and availability. Then again, you don’t see me singing the praises of Jimmy Neutron: Attack of the Twonkies for GameCube fifteen years later, do you?

I’m gonna keep playing JRPGs despite my best instincts, and I’ll let you guys know if I ever find one that comes close to touching TTYD. Until then, Nintendo, put that damn game on modern hardware and start giving it the reverence it deserves. It’s every bit as much of a masterpiece as Ocarina of Time and Super Metroid, and it deserves to be heralded like they are.