Super Mario RPG was one of my first and favourite video games growing up. It is unique in that, despite using the colourful world of the Mushroom Kingdom invented by Nintendo, it was developed by the Final Fantasy writing team. It therefore feels like a family-friendly installment of a series that usually tackles post-apocalyptic themes.
The game starts with Mario on a routine mission to save Princess Toadstool, in later games known as Peach. Things go awry when a giant sword falls through the sky, skewering Bowser's Keep and sending the relevant characters in different directions. We later learn that this was the work of a villain named Smithy, who shattered a place called Star Road on the way. Unless the damage is repaired, the wishes made by the citizens of Mushroom Kingdom cannot be granted. Mario takes it on himself to collect the seven missing pieces of Star Road and confront the evil Smithy.
My mom credits Super Mario RPG as highly influential in my learning to read. I'd been struggling at school, but the text-heavy game required me to improve if I wanted to play. With that motivation, I rose to the occasion and my grades got better as a happy side effect.
I don't quite know what made the game so enthralling. I liked getting context on how the Mushroom Kingdom would function if the nonsensical Mario side-scrollers were literally true. Of course, Mario has a sort of celebrity status, which would be inevitable after saving the princess so many times. The sense of danger from the kidnappings have lost their novelty, with even the perpetrator Bowser coming across as going through the motions of a tradition rather than attempting anything actually sinister.
As I've said in my Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion reviews, I've never liked the trope of an "all evil" race. Unexpectedly, Super Mario RPG subverts this. While having the usual enemies, we also see them interact with Bowser as members of the Koopa Troop, and we get to visit Monstrotown, a civilization of friendly monsters. One of Mallows spells even reveals the inner thought of enemies, which are usually lighthearted.
I liked the teamup of Mario and Bowser for the sake of a greater good, and I liked Princess Toadstool becoming an active member of the team instead of just being a source of motivation. I also liked the two characters exclusive to the game, Geno and Mallow.
Apparently the first Paper Mario game was supposed to be a direct sequel to The Legend of the Seven Stars, but the Final Fantasy team took issue with them making a direct continuation of their work. So instead, the newer series became more of a spiritual successor. While good in their own right, none of them quite captured the feeling.
Whatever conditions brought the two creative teams together never repeated, leaving only one installment of the would-be Super Mario RPG series. Occasionally, Nintendo would make references or allusions, such as having trophies in Super Smash Bros of Geno and Mallow, but that's as far as they would go. A sequel was completely out of the question.
Until recently! Kind-of sort-of. A remake was made for the Switch, which is the closest thing by far that we've ever gotten to a coninuation. This allowed me to revisit the game as an adult to see if it still held up.
I appreciated that they didn't go crazy with making changes. It looks like a cleaner version of the original, even maintaining the slightly wonky proportions.
I was really interested in how I would take Mallow, my favourite character of the original. He's a cloud person that was adopted and raised by the Frog Sage (previously known as "Frogfucious") and therefore believes himself to be a tadpole. He has a tendency to cry, which causes rainstorms as a side effect of him being a cloud.
Audiences are often uncharitable to characters prone to tears, or who grapple with fear. As a child I found him relatable, and I wondered if that would be different in this stage of life. But I still liked him quite a lot.
I'm a little surprised I wasn't as much of a fan of Geno, the sentient puppet possessed by a star. He had a design similar to other characters that I really liked at the time, like Snufkin from Moomintroll.
The remake added an autosave feature. Interestingly, they didn't get rid of the save boxes. I think that was wise, since outside of their function, they contributed to the atmosphere of the game.
Each team combination gets a unique attack that you can use after filling a gauge that increases throughout fights.
A lot of names changed. As mentioned previously, "Frogfucious" became "Frog Sage". A little boring but I guess they wanted to get away from referencing the religious figure Confucious. Annoyingly, Princess Toadstool became Peach, which I've never been a fan of. Yardovich became Speardovich, which is just a more accurate translation. Mack the Knife became Claymorton.
There is post-game content, which I haven't bothered with much. Mostly rematches against bosses. I tried my hand against Bellome, Jinx, and Booster and I think I beat a couple of them. It's kind of dry. They introduce this stuff in a bit of an annoying way too. Instead of exploring the world post-Smithy, they revert time to before the final saga, but with the endgame content available. I find it more satisfying to do that kind of thing in an environment where your accomplishment is acknowledged. The way they did it feels like your hard work went to nothing. Granted, it would be difficult to write a continuation of the story after Geno returns to Star Road and Mario's rivalry with Bowser is reestablished.
Overall, it was mostly just polishing up graphics and modernizing the gameplay a bit. I found the remake just as enjoyable as the original, and I liked it about as much as an adult as I did as a kid. Still one of my all time favourites, and even if the Final Fantasy team doesn't want to partner with Nintendo, they should consider trying their hand at more family-friendly games again, because they have a surprising talent for it.
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