I am admittedly in a moral gray area here. I have definitely beaten Super Mario RPG before, but did so on an emulator, and almost certainly abused save states to get through battles like Culex and Jinx, but I honestly can't remember. So I've decided to dub this as Volume 120 of What I'm Playing, rather than Volume 1 of What I'm Replaying.
Super Mario RPG is a very interesting capsule in time. It comes at the tale end of the Super Nintendo's relevant lifespan, and features some very interesting attempts at new technical achievements on the system, as well as a very early example of Nintendo being willing to license their IP to other developers, launching a wave of fresh creativity using Nintendo IP. The game features 3-D, isometric environments with pre-rendered character models similar, if a bit uglier than, those seen in Donkey Kong Country. Making these characters exist in 3-D, however, is a significantly more challenging job than the 2D sidescrolling of DKC.
The game looks ugly today, but at the time it was really revolutionary. It looks a bit like the characters are toys on a stage, which is seemingly intentional, given the claymation box art. It's jarring when the stage just...ends...and has a weird background outside of it.
Yikes
With that being said, there's a lot of cool graphical stuff going on. They created dozens of 3D models for enemy characters with several unique battle animations each. Each playable character has several magic spells that use the SNES hardware really nicely. Each playable character can equip many different weapons, each with its own battle animation. They definitely did a ton of work on this game, and the love they gave to it shows today, especially in comparison to the battle animations of its peers.
The story is a tropey JRPG tale featuring Mario, but that's kind of what you're signing up for. What really sets the story apart is the writing, which is sharp and funny throughout, with an excellent translation by JRPG fan cult hero Ted Woolsey. The game features two new characters, Geno and Mallow, as well as time honored Mario characters like Peach and Toadstool. The "get Geno in Smash movement is well deserved", but I actually would prefer that Mallow be added before Geno. Sure, Geno is way cooler, but Mallow is adorable, has a great story arc with peaks and valleys, and would lend himself to some interesting combat mechanics in Smash. So let me be the first (probably not) to suggest that Mallow is actually the better choice for everyone's favorite Nintendo-centric fighter.
The battle mechanics are really revolutionary, featuring some timing elements included in battles to introduce more skill and tactics than your typical JRPG of the era. You can press a button at the right to time increase the damage you're dealing, but also press a different button during enemy attacks to reduce incoming damage. This makes battle a more lively affair than you'll normally see from this era, but it's not without its faults. Timing the attacks is in general simple and monotonous, and you'll rarely miss a button press, making the "action" a bit too predictable and lacking energy. Knowing when to press the defense attack during enemy attacks can be really frustrating, as there's no feedback given to you for when you press the button too early or too late. I'm still not even sure if you can defend against magic attacks, or what counts as magic attacks, or if I'm just totally failing on my timing during those attacks, but I'm fairly confident that you can only mitigate physical attacks, which is pretty lame. The battle system included in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga improves on the basic concept here by leaps and bounds, but this game deserves credit for forging a new JRPG concept that has been mimicked a ton since its inception.
The game's length is absolutely delightful for those who want to play an RPG, but don't want to get sucked into another 40 hour campaign. This one can be comfortably beaten in 20 hours by an amateur, so it's a bit more luxurious than your typical RPG experience.
The music, composed by Yoko Shimomura of Street Fighter II and Kingdom Hearts fame, is flat out excellent. It has a silly nature that is fitting for the tone of the game, but is also capable of going for sinister or heroic as the story dictates.
On the whole, I was a bit disappointed by the battle mechanics in particular, and felt like a better introduction for people looking to get into Mario RPGs would definitely be Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. But this is an excellent game still, and despite a few cracks showing through the ages, is definitely worth a playthrough, particularly given the relatively low investment of time necessary to complete it. I'll give it a 9.2/10.
Up next on on the home console edition of What I'm Playing is a game I've already teased, so stay tuned!
-TRO
