Chapter 2 of 64 is where the game's kid gloves came off, and taught you to respect what your opponent was dishing back. TTYD's philosophy doesn't really feel the same, though.
We'll start with the world design of the Chapter as whole. Boggly Woods nails that keenly-uncomfortable "untouched by human hands" sixth sense, being a place that feels unpleasant to walk around in for indescribable reasons. Even in the Great Tree, with the blatantly out-of-place X-Naut Army to shake things up, the X-Nauts fight entirely separately from the wildlife. It's funny, how no formation has both Pale Piranhas/Piders and X-Nauts/Yuxes. With that said, the whole motif does mean the chapter can feel like a drag at times, especially when wandering around backtracking from time to time. It's a little like an intentional version of Wet-Dry World in that regard.
The first half of the Chapter is the introduction to TTYD's keenest flaw: that backtracking. We have to go all the way to Flurrie's house, find out we need the necklace, go all the way back to get it from Beldam, go all the way forth to return it to Flurrie, and then all the way back to use Flurrie in the Tree. It's only a few screens here, but since the healing before the Shadow Sirens is as the wrong side of the path and Flurrie's house respawns enemies for no discernable reason, it settles the tone in entirely the wrong way. The Shadow Sirens also make for poor villain material- yeah, Beldam giving Peach the map pretty clearly indicates she's a Villain to keep a close eye on, but her entire (considerable) screentime is devoted to watching her beat Vivian's emotions down, in what isn't even a creative series of abusive tendencies. The game has well and truly made its point that Beldam is not a good sister to Vivian, and it does have a plan for this point, but the game didn't need every single weapon Beldam had to bear. The Shadow Sirens make a decent fight, although perhaps a little underpowered. Despite the healing starvation, I've never felt threatened by them.
The meat of the chapter is the second half, the Great Tree. Punio steps forward with Mario to set everyone free, and although him turning into one of many Punies means he does kinda go out on a whimper in the Chapter itself, the story does provide two interesting perspectives on the subject of when to take a stand and when to stand down. Punio ran away from the Great Tree to get help- Punio says he knows how the Great Tree was endangered, although once he arrives, it turns out he left a bit before the true stakes got established. This is a decision that got vindicated: The Punies were powerless against the X-Nauts, and they absolutely needed Punio to find someone. Flurrie alone might've been enough, but with the extra firepower of Mario, the X-Nauts were roundly harmless. But Mario couldn't have got through the Great Tree alone. The Punies needed to lend a hand, using their teamwork on ancient artifacts designed with them in mind, fighting off the Jabbies that are too small for Mario's Hammer, and crawling into small spaces Mario cannot fit through. And with Puniper stubbornly insisting that Mario do all the work alone, Mario could not have saved the day. Sometimes, it's the right play to wait until you find a tool with enough power to make a dent your opponents will recognise. But once you find that tool, you throw everything you've got to make sure that tool can actually succeed, or else you've just sabotaged your own lifeline.
We only get a taste of the X-Naut's power here- Crump is a bit of a terrible villain, and his plans often succeed in spite of his contributions. But the science of the Yuxes, the potions the X-Nauts carry, booby traps, time bombs... the X-Nauts can and totally will throw whatever they can at the wall to give Mario a bloody nose. We're going to have to get up close and personal with them if we want the treasure to stay out of their hands, and we are going to have a tough time doing it. With that said, with both Crump and Beldam being comedic villains (for a given degree of comedy with Beldam, since her shtick is abuse), we're never going to have a cold and calculated battle of wits on our hands. This is probably intentional- as much as the X-Nauts are not Mario villains, this is still a Mario game, and so our technologically capable villains ripping off bits and pieces from the most sinister villains shown on PG-13 TV read from the Saturday Morning Bad Guy playbook rather than one where they can lean in to this power. There's a reason most Mario games don't use villains like these.
Mechanically, Chapter 2 is kinda... not quite as toothy as 64? Monty Mole, Pokey, and Bandit really had some teeth to it, and Cleft was terrifying to bump into in a dark alley. Here in Boggly Woods, though? We've got Earth Tremor, we've got Superguards, and with the right power setup, we can trivialise these enemies pretty good. Maybe buffing the strength of Star Power was a bit too overkill... playing to the Audience can really get you some benefits. It's going to be interesting, though, seeing how they change their tactics to be able to circumvent this power they've casually given out later on.
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