Psychonaut
Senior Member
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>before (3+years ago)</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;"> The 90's. The age of the Super Nintendo. With unsurpassed graphics, franchises that were only paralleled by Sonic the Hedgehog were "Only For Nintendo" as the game's Box stated, and video gaming was taking it's first steps outside of 8-bit graphics and basic music composition. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was released in October, featuring superb graphics thanks to the Super Nintendo's "Super FX" microchip, and it seemed as though the only upgrade of power would be the Nintendo 64. However, 4 months before the release of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo and Square Enix released a fairly groundbreaking game. The collaboration between the two "superstar" companies brought about the game "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars". The ideaology of "SMRPG:LotSS" was simple: a RPG that included Super Mario themes, locales, and characters mixed with Square Enix' general talent for making well-known Role Playing Games and memorable fantasy characters. In short, it ended up being a success. The game in itself had capabilities that at that time were unheard of, with action commands in-battle and unique characters that could never have been thought of before.
Yoko Shimomura, who has also worked on musical scores for Legend of Mana for the Playstation, and Kingdom Hearts, a now blatantly famous Playstation 2 game. However, some songs in SMRPG come from different arrangements contributed by both Koji Kondo, who is possibly most famous for his work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the Super Mario series, and Nobuo Uematsu, who contributed songs including the battle theme for Culex, a special in-game boss, the famous Final Fantasy victory theme, and another theme for the "conversation" with Culex after victory against him. As most great game music has been, SMRPG's songs have been rewritten by fans and made into wonderful works that seem to differ from what the stereotype of Video Game music had been at the time. (search for Waltz of Pain, an "OverClocked Remix" of SMRPG's "Sad Song" for a good example of such) I, as a child, saw the music as repetitive to no extent, and bearing no value at all, but have grown to love the emotional value that has become linked to those notes, until of course it becomes repetitious again.
The music was astounding, as to be expected from Nintendo, and it surpassed many expectations for 16-bit standards. However, what is possibly the most memorable aspect of the game is it's sheer graphical power, reminiscent of the Donkey Kong Country series, and using a special additional microprocessor in the Super Nintendo named the "SA-1," (a graphics boost only used otherwise in Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3 in North American games). With SMRPG's placement, it would be one of the last truly memorable Super Nintendo games before the console update, and it was certainly capable of showing off what the Super Nintendo could do if it really tried. This added to it's success, giving players a chance to control Mario in the true, first, (top-down) 3D world.
Many people may have wondered if such a graphical creation would result in a noticeable lag in control, but this is not the case. In fact, the overworld controls are as tight as any other Super Mario platformer could have been, barring the ability to cut off your jump in midair. The ability to run, and most memorably at the time, to jump, was given to the player, and was implemented well into the game though the ability to dodge unwanted battles, and "action" that happened in certain "cutscenes". The control for battles was turn-based, and thus could have become seriously boring and uninteresting to many younger gamers, and audiences that were more accustomed to controlling how fast how strong their characters were. A medium was met in the form of Action Commands, which ranged from "Rotate the Control Pad" to "Repeatedly tap 'Y'" to use special moves such as Mario's Fire Attacks, and Peach's ability to "Mute" an opponent's Special attacks. Aside from Special Attacks that used "Flower Points" instead of Magic Points, the main attacks were generally mundane, but still contained timing that was unique and differed for each party member. For instance, pressing A as Mario Punched the opponent would result in Mario punching again, giving roughly 1.5 to 2 times as much damage as a regular attack would have accomplished with action commands successfully implemented.
This technique is carried over more than subtly in other Super Mario RPG games, such as Paper Mario's ability to use action commands for attacks such as hammers, and timing jumps to perform multiple attacks. (coincidentally, Paper Mario was also originally named Super Mario RPG 2 until complications were met with Square Enix legally) and the Mario and Luigi RPG games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. To say the least, "Super" Mario would not have had such a wonderful romp through Role-Playing grounds without the aide of this game's creative control-style.
Super Mario RPG did not pit Mario into a new world alone obviously, and paired him with Princess Toadstool (not peach yet...) and Bowser as the "better" party members. But also introduced however, were two new characters that had a short life with the then Super Mario. Their names are Mallow and Geno.
*****Spoiler Alert*****
Mallow was introduced as a "young frog" who had been found one rainy day by a frog named Frogfucius and raised as his son. Later however, Mallow is revealed to be a Prince whose family resides in the clouds, and had not been heard of or seen since the day he was lost. Geno however is a Star Guardian, who chose to take the form of a child's doll, "Geno". His true name is said to actually be "♥♪!?," but is too hard to pronounce by the rest of the members, and takes the name of the doll "Geno". Mallow's attacks consisted of weather-inducing specials and weapons that include canes, cymbals, and punches, while Geno's attacks consist of Beams and special astral-themed attacks, while his weapons include such items as the "Hand Cannon" and "Star Gun". However, most noticable and more than likely most used, Bowser and Princess Toadstool were also capable of being in your party as well. Princess Toadstool's special's consisted mainly of healing and reviving, but also had status-inflicting specials and one large wide-range attack, while her regular attacks consisted of Paper Fans, Gloves to slap with, and most memorably, the Frying Pan. Bowser was obviously a straightforward fighter, and used a mix of Chain Chomps, Claws, and even Mario himself as weapons. His specials were fairly unused, and consisted of attacks like Terrorize, Poison Gas, and Bowser Crush. Mario himself had two main specials that updated as he leveled up, which were his trademark Jump attack, and a Fire Orb attack. His weapons consisted of punching gloves, turtle shells, and hammers. All of these attacks had action commands that the player could trigger at some point, but there was never a given time to press the attacking button, and the commands were only mentioned by Toad at the beginning of the game, which also has somewhat carried through into the Mario & Luigi series.
The most fan-mourned exclusion in this game is obviously Mario's lanky younger brother, Luigi, as a playable character, who was unseen beyond the Instruction Manu and the end credits. This has also been reflected in Paper Mario, featuring Luigi as a cameo until the recent Paper Mario game, "Super Paper Mario", though he was featured quite wholesomely in Mario & Luigi, Superstar Saga. But back on the subject of Mario (sorry Luigi).
A large majority of the "best" team formations included Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool. The only differences in player strategies were the items that became equippable to the characters, (boosting attack, defense, magic versions of both, and speed)which in the end included the highest attacking weapons, best armor, and could differ between certain accessories. The fittings of a real RPG were there and used, however to many players it felt lacking compared to other big titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. This did not stop the game from later acquiring a large fanbase, but it did hurt it's initial sales when reviewed (and later seen as a less than Final Fantasy game). The game did receive a wonderful acceptance from the then Super Mario fanbase, and has been included in multiple "top 100" game lists, despite it being up to par, or below par strategy-wise.
One reason for this may be the amazing amount of secret "easter eggs" that can be found in the game. There are cameos by both Link and Samus at certain points in the game, (if you look for them) and throughout the game you may stumble upon hidden boxes, revealing great items and weapons. In total, there were approximately 27 secret boxes that were scattered throughout the game, which added to the replayability by a slight amount. Collecting all of these boxes was bound to take some time (especially the one in the Mushroom Kingdom if you missed it in the game's start o.o) but in the end would give the player an immense amount of satisfaction in being able to say that they have completed it all in super mario rpg. Beyond secret boxes and cameos, smrpg even had a casino! Pretty gutsy of Nintendo, huh? Grate Guy's (a boss in-game, later the owner of said casino) Casino was a well-hidden secret that many players would have never guessed existed beyond the mention from Grate Guy's twin-like cohort, Knife Guy, who ironically also gave you the item which unlocked the casino after a requirement is fulfilled.
In conclusion, this game was a somewhat underknown, since there were better RPG and action games available for the SNES, and suffered a fairly late release in the system's life. However it is still the shining pinnacle of success to those who knew of it's influence on the latter Mario RPG games, and will personally always be a treasured keepsake from my collection.</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>after(editing right now)</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;"> The 90's. The age of the Super Nintendo. With unsurpassed graphics, franchises that were only paralleled by Sonic the Hedgehog were "Only For Nintendo" as the game's Box stated, and video gaming was taking it's first steps outside of 8-bit graphics and basic music composition. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was released in October, featuring superb graphics thanks to the Super Nintendo's "Super FX" microchip, and it seemed as though the only upgrade of power would be the Nintendo 64. However, 4 months before the release of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo and Square Enix released a fairly groundbreaking game. The collaboration between the two "superstar" companies brought about the game "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars". The ideology of "SMRPG:LotSS" was simple: a RPG that included Super Mario themes, locales, and characters mixed with Square Enix' general talent for making well-known Role Playing Games and memorable fantasy characters. In short, it ended up being a success. The game in itself had capabilities that at that time were unheard of, with action commands in-battle and unique characters that could never have been thought of before.
Yoko Shimomura, who has also worked on musical scores for Legend of Mana for the Playstation, and Kingdom Hearts, a now blatantly famous Playstation 2 game. However, some songs in SMRPG come from different arrangements contributed by both Koji Kondo, who is possibly most famous for his work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the Super Mario series, and Nobuo Uematsu, who contributed songs including the battle theme for Culex, a special in-game boss, the famous Final Fantasy victory theme, and another theme for the "conversation" with Culex after victory against him. As most great game music has been, SMRPG's songs have been rewritten by fans and made into wonderful works that seem to differ from what the stereotype of Video Game music had been at the time. (search for Waltz of Pain, an "OverClocked Remix" of SMRPG's "Sad Song" for a good example of such) As a child, I saw the music as repetitive to no extent, and bearing no value at all. Since then, I have grown to love the emotional value that has become linked to those notes, until of course it dawdles, and becomes repetitious once again.
The music was astounding, as to be expected from Nintendo, and it surpassed many expectations for 16-bit standards. However, what is possibly the most memorable aspect of the game is it's sheer graphical power, reminiscent of the Donkey Kong Country series, and using a special additional microprocessor in the Super Nintendo named the "SA-1," (a graphics boost whose use is shared only by Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3 in North American games). With SMRPG's placement, it would be one of the last truly memorable Super Nintendo games before the console update, and it was certainly capable of showing off what the Super Nintendo could do if it really tried. This added to it's success, giving players a chance to control Mario in the true, first, (top-down) 3D world.
Many people may have wondered if such a graphical creation would result in a noticeable lag in control, but this is not the case. In fact, the overworld controls are as tight as any other Super Mario platformer could have been, barring the ability to cut off your jump in midair. The ability to run, and most memorably at the time, to jump, was given to the player, and was implemented well into the game though the ability to dodge unwanted battles, and action that happened in certain cutscenes. The control for battles was turn-based, and thus could easily have become boring and uninteresting to many younger gamers, and audiences that were more accustomed to controlling how fast or how strong their characters were. A medium was met in the form of Action Commands, which ranged from "Rotate the Control Pad" to "Repeatedly tap 'Y'" to use special moves such as Mario's Fire Attacks, and Peach's ability to "Mute" an opponent's Special attacks. Aside from Special Attacks that used "Flower Points" instead of Magic Points, the main attacks were generally mundane, but still contained timing and variety that was unique and differed from each other party member. For instance, pressing A as Mario Punched the opponent would result in Mario punching again, giving roughly 1.5 to 2 times as much damage as a regular attack would have accomplished with action commands successfully implemented.
This technique is carried over more than subtly in other Super Mario RPG games, such as Paper Mario's ability to use action commands for attacks such as hammers, and timing jumps to perform multiple attacks. (more than coincidentally, Paper Mario was also originally named Super Mario RPG 2 until complications were met with Square Enix legally) and the Mario and Luigi RPG games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. To say the least, "Super" Mario would not have had such a wonderful romp through Role-Playing grounds without the aide of this game's creative control-style.
Super Mario RPG did not pit Mario into a new world alone obviously, and paired him with Princess Toadstool (not peach yet...) and Bowser as the "better" party members. But also introduced however, were two new characters that had a short life with the then Super Mario. Their names are Mallow and Geno.
*****Spoiler Alert*****
Mallow was introduced as a "young frog" who had been found one rainy day by a frog named Frogfucius and raised as his son. Later however, Mallow is revealed to be a Prince whose family resides in the clouds, and had not been heard of or seen since the day he was lost. Geno however, is a Star Guardian who chose to take the form of a child's doll, "Geno". His true name is said to actually be "♥♪!?," but is too hard to pronounce by the rest of the members (and the player, as well), and takes the name of the doll. Mallow's attacks consisted of weather-inducing specials and zany weapons that include canes, cymbals, and punches, while Geno's attacks consist of beams and special astral-themed attacks, while his weapons include such items as the "Hand Cannon" and "Star Gun" (most likely popular at the time with Mushroom Kingdom's youth). However, Bowser and Princess Toadstool were also capable of being in your party, and if you played the game, you probably used them over Geno or Mallow. Princess Toadstool's special's consisted mainly of healing and reviving, but also had status-inflicting specials and one large wide-range attack, while her regular attacks consisted of Paper Fans, Gloves to slap with, and most memorably, a Frying Pan. Bowser was fittingly a straightforward fighter, and used a mix of Chain Chomps, Claws, and even Mario himself as weapons. His specials were not of the highest quality, though were still interesting enough to use from time to time. They consisted of attacks like Terrorize, Poison Gas, and Bowser Crush. Mario himself had two main specials that upgraded as he leveled up, which were his trademark Jump attack, and a Fire Orb attack. His weapons consisted of punching gloves, turtle shells, and hammers, all long-time weapons of choice (remember Donkey Kong?). All of these attacks had action commands that the player could trigger at some point, but there was never a given time on-screen to press the attacking button, and the commands were only mentioned by Toad at the beginning of the game, which also has been carried through into the Mario & Luigi series.
The most fan-mourned exclusion in this game is Mario's lanky younger brother, Luigi, as a playable character, who was unseen beyond the Instruction Manu and the end credits. This has also been seen in Paper Mario, featuring Luigi as a cameo until the recent Paper Mario game, "Super Paper Mario", though he was featured quite wholesomely in Mario & Luigi, Superstar Saga. But back on the subject of Mario (sorry Luigi).
A large majority of the "best" team formations included Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool. The main differences in player strategies were the items that became equippable to the characters, (boosting attack, defense, magic versions of both, and speed)which in the end included the highest attacking weapons, best armor, and could differ between certain accessories. The fittings of a real RPG were there and used, though were toned down for the target audience. It therefore comes as no surprise that many players it felt lacking compared to other big titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. This did not stop the game from later acquiring a large fanbase, but it did hurt it's initial sales when reviewed since it was seen as less than a Final Fantasy game. The game did receive a wonderful acceptance from the then Super Mario fanbase, and has been included in multiple published "top 100" game lists, despite its relative lack of depth when compared to many other RPG games.
One reason for this may be the amazing amount of secret easter eggs that can be found in the game. There are cameos by both Link and Samus at certain points in the game, and throughout, there are hidden boxes you may stumble upon, which reveal great items and weapons. In total, there were approximately 27 secret boxes scattered throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, which added to the replayability by a slight amount. Collecting all of these boxes was bound to take some time, but in the end would give the player an immense amount of satisfaction in being able to say that they have completed it all in Super Mario RPG. Beyond secret boxes and cameos, SMRPG even had a casino, which at the time was pretty gutsy of Nintendo. Grate Guy's Casino (run by foe-turned gambling advocate, Grate Guy) was a well-hidden secret that many players would have never knew existed beyond the mention from Grate Guy's twin-like cohort, Knife Guy, who Nintendo chose to hide the item with. The item, and conversely the casino, were unlocked after a requirement is fulfilled in-game.
In conclusion, this game was a somewhat under known title, since there were more memorable RPG and action games available for the SNES, and suffered a fairly late release in the system's life. However it is still the shining pinnacle of success to those who knew of it's influence on the latter Mario RPG games, and will personally always be a treasured keepsake from my collection.</div>
for those who are interested on how i used to write/how i write. DISCUSS, LOL
Yoko Shimomura, who has also worked on musical scores for Legend of Mana for the Playstation, and Kingdom Hearts, a now blatantly famous Playstation 2 game. However, some songs in SMRPG come from different arrangements contributed by both Koji Kondo, who is possibly most famous for his work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the Super Mario series, and Nobuo Uematsu, who contributed songs including the battle theme for Culex, a special in-game boss, the famous Final Fantasy victory theme, and another theme for the "conversation" with Culex after victory against him. As most great game music has been, SMRPG's songs have been rewritten by fans and made into wonderful works that seem to differ from what the stereotype of Video Game music had been at the time. (search for Waltz of Pain, an "OverClocked Remix" of SMRPG's "Sad Song" for a good example of such) I, as a child, saw the music as repetitive to no extent, and bearing no value at all, but have grown to love the emotional value that has become linked to those notes, until of course it becomes repetitious again.
The music was astounding, as to be expected from Nintendo, and it surpassed many expectations for 16-bit standards. However, what is possibly the most memorable aspect of the game is it's sheer graphical power, reminiscent of the Donkey Kong Country series, and using a special additional microprocessor in the Super Nintendo named the "SA-1," (a graphics boost only used otherwise in Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3 in North American games). With SMRPG's placement, it would be one of the last truly memorable Super Nintendo games before the console update, and it was certainly capable of showing off what the Super Nintendo could do if it really tried. This added to it's success, giving players a chance to control Mario in the true, first, (top-down) 3D world.
Many people may have wondered if such a graphical creation would result in a noticeable lag in control, but this is not the case. In fact, the overworld controls are as tight as any other Super Mario platformer could have been, barring the ability to cut off your jump in midair. The ability to run, and most memorably at the time, to jump, was given to the player, and was implemented well into the game though the ability to dodge unwanted battles, and "action" that happened in certain "cutscenes". The control for battles was turn-based, and thus could have become seriously boring and uninteresting to many younger gamers, and audiences that were more accustomed to controlling how fast how strong their characters were. A medium was met in the form of Action Commands, which ranged from "Rotate the Control Pad" to "Repeatedly tap 'Y'" to use special moves such as Mario's Fire Attacks, and Peach's ability to "Mute" an opponent's Special attacks. Aside from Special Attacks that used "Flower Points" instead of Magic Points, the main attacks were generally mundane, but still contained timing that was unique and differed for each party member. For instance, pressing A as Mario Punched the opponent would result in Mario punching again, giving roughly 1.5 to 2 times as much damage as a regular attack would have accomplished with action commands successfully implemented.
This technique is carried over more than subtly in other Super Mario RPG games, such as Paper Mario's ability to use action commands for attacks such as hammers, and timing jumps to perform multiple attacks. (coincidentally, Paper Mario was also originally named Super Mario RPG 2 until complications were met with Square Enix legally) and the Mario and Luigi RPG games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. To say the least, "Super" Mario would not have had such a wonderful romp through Role-Playing grounds without the aide of this game's creative control-style.
Super Mario RPG did not pit Mario into a new world alone obviously, and paired him with Princess Toadstool (not peach yet...) and Bowser as the "better" party members. But also introduced however, were two new characters that had a short life with the then Super Mario. Their names are Mallow and Geno.
*****Spoiler Alert*****
Mallow was introduced as a "young frog" who had been found one rainy day by a frog named Frogfucius and raised as his son. Later however, Mallow is revealed to be a Prince whose family resides in the clouds, and had not been heard of or seen since the day he was lost. Geno however is a Star Guardian, who chose to take the form of a child's doll, "Geno". His true name is said to actually be "♥♪!?," but is too hard to pronounce by the rest of the members, and takes the name of the doll "Geno". Mallow's attacks consisted of weather-inducing specials and weapons that include canes, cymbals, and punches, while Geno's attacks consist of Beams and special astral-themed attacks, while his weapons include such items as the "Hand Cannon" and "Star Gun". However, most noticable and more than likely most used, Bowser and Princess Toadstool were also capable of being in your party as well. Princess Toadstool's special's consisted mainly of healing and reviving, but also had status-inflicting specials and one large wide-range attack, while her regular attacks consisted of Paper Fans, Gloves to slap with, and most memorably, the Frying Pan. Bowser was obviously a straightforward fighter, and used a mix of Chain Chomps, Claws, and even Mario himself as weapons. His specials were fairly unused, and consisted of attacks like Terrorize, Poison Gas, and Bowser Crush. Mario himself had two main specials that updated as he leveled up, which were his trademark Jump attack, and a Fire Orb attack. His weapons consisted of punching gloves, turtle shells, and hammers. All of these attacks had action commands that the player could trigger at some point, but there was never a given time to press the attacking button, and the commands were only mentioned by Toad at the beginning of the game, which also has somewhat carried through into the Mario & Luigi series.
The most fan-mourned exclusion in this game is obviously Mario's lanky younger brother, Luigi, as a playable character, who was unseen beyond the Instruction Manu and the end credits. This has also been reflected in Paper Mario, featuring Luigi as a cameo until the recent Paper Mario game, "Super Paper Mario", though he was featured quite wholesomely in Mario & Luigi, Superstar Saga. But back on the subject of Mario (sorry Luigi).
A large majority of the "best" team formations included Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool. The only differences in player strategies were the items that became equippable to the characters, (boosting attack, defense, magic versions of both, and speed)which in the end included the highest attacking weapons, best armor, and could differ between certain accessories. The fittings of a real RPG were there and used, however to many players it felt lacking compared to other big titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. This did not stop the game from later acquiring a large fanbase, but it did hurt it's initial sales when reviewed (and later seen as a less than Final Fantasy game). The game did receive a wonderful acceptance from the then Super Mario fanbase, and has been included in multiple "top 100" game lists, despite it being up to par, or below par strategy-wise.
One reason for this may be the amazing amount of secret "easter eggs" that can be found in the game. There are cameos by both Link and Samus at certain points in the game, (if you look for them) and throughout the game you may stumble upon hidden boxes, revealing great items and weapons. In total, there were approximately 27 secret boxes that were scattered throughout the game, which added to the replayability by a slight amount. Collecting all of these boxes was bound to take some time (especially the one in the Mushroom Kingdom if you missed it in the game's start o.o) but in the end would give the player an immense amount of satisfaction in being able to say that they have completed it all in super mario rpg. Beyond secret boxes and cameos, smrpg even had a casino! Pretty gutsy of Nintendo, huh? Grate Guy's (a boss in-game, later the owner of said casino) Casino was a well-hidden secret that many players would have never guessed existed beyond the mention from Grate Guy's twin-like cohort, Knife Guy, who ironically also gave you the item which unlocked the casino after a requirement is fulfilled.
In conclusion, this game was a somewhat underknown, since there were better RPG and action games available for the SNES, and suffered a fairly late release in the system's life. However it is still the shining pinnacle of success to those who knew of it's influence on the latter Mario RPG games, and will personally always be a treasured keepsake from my collection.</div>
<div class='spoiler_toggle'>after(editing right now)</div><div class="spoiler" style="display:none;"> The 90's. The age of the Super Nintendo. With unsurpassed graphics, franchises that were only paralleled by Sonic the Hedgehog were "Only For Nintendo" as the game's Box stated, and video gaming was taking it's first steps outside of 8-bit graphics and basic music composition. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was released in October, featuring superb graphics thanks to the Super Nintendo's "Super FX" microchip, and it seemed as though the only upgrade of power would be the Nintendo 64. However, 4 months before the release of the Nintendo 64, Nintendo and Square Enix released a fairly groundbreaking game. The collaboration between the two "superstar" companies brought about the game "Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars". The ideology of "SMRPG:LotSS" was simple: a RPG that included Super Mario themes, locales, and characters mixed with Square Enix' general talent for making well-known Role Playing Games and memorable fantasy characters. In short, it ended up being a success. The game in itself had capabilities that at that time were unheard of, with action commands in-battle and unique characters that could never have been thought of before.
Yoko Shimomura, who has also worked on musical scores for Legend of Mana for the Playstation, and Kingdom Hearts, a now blatantly famous Playstation 2 game. However, some songs in SMRPG come from different arrangements contributed by both Koji Kondo, who is possibly most famous for his work on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and the Super Mario series, and Nobuo Uematsu, who contributed songs including the battle theme for Culex, a special in-game boss, the famous Final Fantasy victory theme, and another theme for the "conversation" with Culex after victory against him. As most great game music has been, SMRPG's songs have been rewritten by fans and made into wonderful works that seem to differ from what the stereotype of Video Game music had been at the time. (search for Waltz of Pain, an "OverClocked Remix" of SMRPG's "Sad Song" for a good example of such) As a child, I saw the music as repetitive to no extent, and bearing no value at all. Since then, I have grown to love the emotional value that has become linked to those notes, until of course it dawdles, and becomes repetitious once again.
The music was astounding, as to be expected from Nintendo, and it surpassed many expectations for 16-bit standards. However, what is possibly the most memorable aspect of the game is it's sheer graphical power, reminiscent of the Donkey Kong Country series, and using a special additional microprocessor in the Super Nintendo named the "SA-1," (a graphics boost whose use is shared only by Kirby Super Star and Kirby's Dream Land 3 in North American games). With SMRPG's placement, it would be one of the last truly memorable Super Nintendo games before the console update, and it was certainly capable of showing off what the Super Nintendo could do if it really tried. This added to it's success, giving players a chance to control Mario in the true, first, (top-down) 3D world.
Many people may have wondered if such a graphical creation would result in a noticeable lag in control, but this is not the case. In fact, the overworld controls are as tight as any other Super Mario platformer could have been, barring the ability to cut off your jump in midair. The ability to run, and most memorably at the time, to jump, was given to the player, and was implemented well into the game though the ability to dodge unwanted battles, and action that happened in certain cutscenes. The control for battles was turn-based, and thus could easily have become boring and uninteresting to many younger gamers, and audiences that were more accustomed to controlling how fast or how strong their characters were. A medium was met in the form of Action Commands, which ranged from "Rotate the Control Pad" to "Repeatedly tap 'Y'" to use special moves such as Mario's Fire Attacks, and Peach's ability to "Mute" an opponent's Special attacks. Aside from Special Attacks that used "Flower Points" instead of Magic Points, the main attacks were generally mundane, but still contained timing and variety that was unique and differed from each other party member. For instance, pressing A as Mario Punched the opponent would result in Mario punching again, giving roughly 1.5 to 2 times as much damage as a regular attack would have accomplished with action commands successfully implemented.
This technique is carried over more than subtly in other Super Mario RPG games, such as Paper Mario's ability to use action commands for attacks such as hammers, and timing jumps to perform multiple attacks. (more than coincidentally, Paper Mario was also originally named Super Mario RPG 2 until complications were met with Square Enix legally) and the Mario and Luigi RPG games for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. To say the least, "Super" Mario would not have had such a wonderful romp through Role-Playing grounds without the aide of this game's creative control-style.
Super Mario RPG did not pit Mario into a new world alone obviously, and paired him with Princess Toadstool (not peach yet...) and Bowser as the "better" party members. But also introduced however, were two new characters that had a short life with the then Super Mario. Their names are Mallow and Geno.
*****Spoiler Alert*****
Mallow was introduced as a "young frog" who had been found one rainy day by a frog named Frogfucius and raised as his son. Later however, Mallow is revealed to be a Prince whose family resides in the clouds, and had not been heard of or seen since the day he was lost. Geno however, is a Star Guardian who chose to take the form of a child's doll, "Geno". His true name is said to actually be "♥♪!?," but is too hard to pronounce by the rest of the members (and the player, as well), and takes the name of the doll. Mallow's attacks consisted of weather-inducing specials and zany weapons that include canes, cymbals, and punches, while Geno's attacks consist of beams and special astral-themed attacks, while his weapons include such items as the "Hand Cannon" and "Star Gun" (most likely popular at the time with Mushroom Kingdom's youth). However, Bowser and Princess Toadstool were also capable of being in your party, and if you played the game, you probably used them over Geno or Mallow. Princess Toadstool's special's consisted mainly of healing and reviving, but also had status-inflicting specials and one large wide-range attack, while her regular attacks consisted of Paper Fans, Gloves to slap with, and most memorably, a Frying Pan. Bowser was fittingly a straightforward fighter, and used a mix of Chain Chomps, Claws, and even Mario himself as weapons. His specials were not of the highest quality, though were still interesting enough to use from time to time. They consisted of attacks like Terrorize, Poison Gas, and Bowser Crush. Mario himself had two main specials that upgraded as he leveled up, which were his trademark Jump attack, and a Fire Orb attack. His weapons consisted of punching gloves, turtle shells, and hammers, all long-time weapons of choice (remember Donkey Kong?). All of these attacks had action commands that the player could trigger at some point, but there was never a given time on-screen to press the attacking button, and the commands were only mentioned by Toad at the beginning of the game, which also has been carried through into the Mario & Luigi series.
The most fan-mourned exclusion in this game is Mario's lanky younger brother, Luigi, as a playable character, who was unseen beyond the Instruction Manu and the end credits. This has also been seen in Paper Mario, featuring Luigi as a cameo until the recent Paper Mario game, "Super Paper Mario", though he was featured quite wholesomely in Mario & Luigi, Superstar Saga. But back on the subject of Mario (sorry Luigi).
A large majority of the "best" team formations included Mario, Bowser, and Toadstool. The main differences in player strategies were the items that became equippable to the characters, (boosting attack, defense, magic versions of both, and speed)which in the end included the highest attacking weapons, best armor, and could differ between certain accessories. The fittings of a real RPG were there and used, though were toned down for the target audience. It therefore comes as no surprise that many players it felt lacking compared to other big titles like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. This did not stop the game from later acquiring a large fanbase, but it did hurt it's initial sales when reviewed since it was seen as less than a Final Fantasy game. The game did receive a wonderful acceptance from the then Super Mario fanbase, and has been included in multiple published "top 100" game lists, despite its relative lack of depth when compared to many other RPG games.
One reason for this may be the amazing amount of secret easter eggs that can be found in the game. There are cameos by both Link and Samus at certain points in the game, and throughout, there are hidden boxes you may stumble upon, which reveal great items and weapons. In total, there were approximately 27 secret boxes scattered throughout the Mushroom Kingdom, which added to the replayability by a slight amount. Collecting all of these boxes was bound to take some time, but in the end would give the player an immense amount of satisfaction in being able to say that they have completed it all in Super Mario RPG. Beyond secret boxes and cameos, SMRPG even had a casino, which at the time was pretty gutsy of Nintendo. Grate Guy's Casino (run by foe-turned gambling advocate, Grate Guy) was a well-hidden secret that many players would have never knew existed beyond the mention from Grate Guy's twin-like cohort, Knife Guy, who Nintendo chose to hide the item with. The item, and conversely the casino, were unlocked after a requirement is fulfilled in-game.
In conclusion, this game was a somewhat under known title, since there were more memorable RPG and action games available for the SNES, and suffered a fairly late release in the system's life. However it is still the shining pinnacle of success to those who knew of it's influence on the latter Mario RPG games, and will personally always be a treasured keepsake from my collection.</div>
for those who are interested on how i used to write/how i write. DISCUSS, LOL
