I do not mean to say that it is stupid in concept, since I like this game just fine and I find the writing charming.

What I find stupid about the boss is as follows:

Firstly, the degree to which the difficulty is increased in that battle is absurd. Fully, terribly absurd. It's so much harder than anything else I've fought up to this point (I'm level 27) that it catches one completely off-guard. I hate its shadow hands, particularly how it can summon them and attack with them in the same turn. If it can do that, what's the point in killing them? I suppose there is none. I'll keep that in mind for next time, and just concentrate on the boss.

Secondly, if you lose to the final boss (and it is imaginable that you might) you have to go through a long, long, LONG series of cutscenes to get back into the fight. I don't mean some reasonable "wah ha ha ha oh you fools" cutscenes either, the kind that take three minutes and then it's over. The actual batttle itself doesn't start until at least fifteen minutes after you enter the final area.

The final boss in The Thousand Year Door is stupid.

...that's turn based RPGs for you. And frankly, the first rule of turn based RPGs is to level up a ton near the end of the game and expect the worst.

No. I reject that. I've never had to go on a grindquest in order to do battle with a final boss, leastways not a grindquest that required me to behave differently than I had for the rest of the game.

Shit, I gained like six levels in this dungeon anyway. More, levels don't make you immediately stronger in this.

This is not typical of turn-based JRPGs. I've played my share. This is stupid.

My feelings exactly, The cutscene was so long that I didn't even bother to replay it after I lost the first time, I only needed one just ONE more attack to win, those stupid shadow hands attacked and I failed to dodge the last one and died.

So I punched a hole in the wall and just watched the ending on youtube.

Well, if I remember correctly, I died once to the end boss in TTYD.  I simply just went back and got a full assortment of the best items (life shrooms, max shrooms, etc) and then had no trouble the second time.  Half of winning in Paper Mario is using items well.

The more insulting part of that long-ass cutscene is that I know this game is made by the Fire Emblem guys.

Know what's great about all the Fire Emblems I've played?

You can skip the cutscenes.

I just popped this game in for the first time in like 2 years. I stopped playing it right before the last boss.

I couldn't even beat Bowser, and the boss after that is probably way harder.


How long would it take me to go back to town to get some life shrooms in my inventory?

Because I have a feeling that I will have to go back and stock up on them if i'm ever gonna beat it.

Frankly, after playing games like Final Fantasy Tactics or the like, complaining about one long unskippable cutscene is not that big of a deal.  FFTactics alone had 15+ minute cutscenes and dialogue sequences that weren't skippable.  And if you died, you had to go through them yet again.

Does that excuse Paper Mario?  No.  But again, if you really want to finish the game, just get better items and go do it.  One long cutscene isn't as bad as many other games.

I'm with OP... I don't remember what level I was when I reached the final boss the first time, I think maybe 25 or 26, but damn did I get my ass handed to me.

After a couple more miserable failures, I finally sucked it up and backtracked all the way back to the main hub area of Rogue Port, stocked up on mad items, and even went through the whole contest to beat Rawk Hawk from Chapter 3 again to help level up. When I returned, I think I was either level 29 or 30, and I still had a tough time with the Shadow Queen, but I managed to outlast her.

I really loved the adventure up until that point, and the reason I haven't gone back to it is that I dread having to go back and face her again... man, and I thought Smithy was bad!

Too hard? Damn, I thought it was WAY easy, like all the battles. Mmmm...

But, to be fair, I knew how it was done. I used power bounce and power plus badges, p-up and d down badges, the battle was over in just a few turns, like most the battles.