Super Mario RPG (2023)

I definitely understand why this is such a culturally impactful game. The amount of soul and charm in the game are immense, I was smiling or laughing all throughout. The gameplay is a pretty great balance between simple and complicated, it might be a little too simple but I think that's fine. My only complaint is that I feel like the timing on some moves was a little weird, but it was very satisfying to get well timed attacks. The boss fights were all quite fun.

The game looks really pretty and the cutscenes are cool, but I do have slight problems. I think that Mario and Peach and to some extent Bowser just look really weird proportion wise, and because of that in cutscenes they just look off. My other complaint is that for a lot of areas that are like in a cave, only like the middle of the screen has the environemnt, and then the rest of the screen is just a black void. Similar to this, some rooms make it very obtuse where you have to actually go to get to the next screen, it only adds like 5-10 seconds, but the room transition locations are just not very good looking.

Story was nothing crazy but I didn't expect it to be, the characters that make up the story were great though. The one thing I will say is that I think the Smithy was not nearly as cool as a final boss that I thought he should have been, but all of the boss re-matches and the Culex fights make up for that. I think the game is a little short, especially if bought at the $60 starting price, I beat all the bosses and rematches in 12 hours, but I think for the $30 I got this game for, it was worth the price, and I had a really good time. High 8/10 for me.

Hope everyone has a great gaming weekend! I know I am, with Mario RPG, Mario Kart World, and Diablo 4. Very happy I'm using my Switch 2 a lot since release. There may not be many launch games, but I'm glad it's Mario Kart World, where I can play for hours at a time.

May your games be righteous!

I've tried playing the original SNES version of Super Mario RPG a few different times, but I always fell off. I found its battles too repetitive, its isomorphic platforming too difficult, and its prerendered assets (charming as they may be) a little tough to parse.

I had no problem at all finishing this remake. The battles are still repetitive and the platforming is still aggravating, but the expertly overhauled visuals, numerous quality-of-life improvements and "breezy" difficulty made up for those elements. Once streamlined down to a ten-hour experience, I could finally appreciate the charm, warmth and quirkiness that laid the groundwork for every Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi game that followed.

If there was way to not go through the desert again I missed it and the journey up to Nimbus Land was annoying. "Platforming" in this game can be challenging to due camera angles (basically the fact that game is presented from an isometric viewpoint) and the lack of depth to the environment. As I have I said my other updates, I play this game for cute worldbuilding so an annoying section every now and then is tolerable.

Wallow is so oblivious. He is also possibly the most humble creature ever borne. Right now the game sits somewhere between 3 or 4 stars. I know that it is designed to be approachable for any level of player, but I still think they could have done more to translate the cuteness of the story into the combat. The process of writing updates each time I play helps me understand my thoughts on it more. I used to not understand why people wouldn't just do a review, but I totally get it now.

Just defeated the bomb boss in the mines.

First thing I beat was the boss with 4 eyes that looks like a dog. Watching it swallow Wallow was funny, but I expected that it would have more effect on the battle. Going down the river rapids after the water shoots you out of the sewers honestly felt like a bad mario party minigame. It short and mildly fun I guess. The frog music puzzle was neat and the reward you get from the frog coin shop is powerful (80 hp to party). Finally added Geno to the party. The best part about that was seeing the Triple Attack cutscene. All of the cutscenes in this game are animated so beautifully without looking entirely unlike the live gameplay. I died three times to the bomb boss. The timing for not getting hit by the bombs was so much earlier than expected. It felt fully necessary to hit these too as I only had one revive and one health item to heal the entire party at once aaaaand 2 unblocked hits is KO. I am jumping past some encounters so maybe I should stop doing that so much. Mine cart was slightly more engaging than the river but like its just ehh.

Currently navigating through the Keru Sewers after defeating the first major boss.

The music that plays in bowser's castle feels off somehow but that might just be related to my TV. The timing for the actions commands was somewhat earlier than expected but pretty easy to nail. To be honest, they felt very necessary to beat the first boss which I died to once. The game describes fast travel as jumping which I think is cute. The whole aesthetic is adorable and I love how this game, the link's awakening reboot, and echoes of wisdom all share a similar style. Mario explaining the situation via transformation into various characters will never not be funny. Battle music is great and hopefully won't become annoying in the future. I hope the game can maintain this level of cuteness and balanced challenge.

I generally liked my experience playing Super Mario RPG. Keep in mind that i did play 3-4h of the snes version on the SNES classic and that i have no nostalgia associated to this game.

I found the experience very... fine. The games is a master class in creativity (in terms of mario games anyway), the combat, exploration and the like are nothing special and are easy enough for newcomers and children to grasp. The game also changes a couple things to make it more streamlined and waste less time which was welcome. Some of the other reviews say talk about outdated conventions and the like and I completely disagree. The game took me 13h hours to complete, keep in mind i was dicking around a lot. By the end, i was happy to have finished it and i really don't think that I'll be going back to it for the after game content or to get all of the other treasure chests anytime soon. I have to applaud the game though for having no grinding at all.

Being used to the Paper mario and Mario & Luigi series, the writing disappointed me. It shares the same taste in humour, but executes it slightly worse. I also found the writing a lot less witty than what i heared about the game and turns out Nintendo did change it while making the remake. The music is full of bops but some sound effects like the level up music really got on my nerves halfway through.

I can't really put my finger on it, but the art style was authentic to the original while feeling a lot more bland. It felt cheap and gave out balan wonderworld vibes, as did the cutscenes. Frankly, the SNES verion has a lot more charm. I would still recommend this version over the SNES for the quality of life improvements, but that's about it. For 60 USD, the game is definitely overpriced and i would get it on discount or used. I personally got it for 25$.

In conclusion, yeah this game is just ok. I'd recommend it to children, people with nostalgia for the original or people who want to get into RPGs. If you want to play a mario RPG, you could do a lot worse, but also a lot better.

I played about halfway through the SNES original and was impressed that it still played well despite it’s age and outdated graphics. I gave up at some point after getting stuck on a particularly hard boss fight and not caring enough to continue, but I still enjoyed the game and knew at some point I would come back to the game.

As a big fan of the first 3 Paper Marios and Mario & Luigi games, playing a remastered version of the game that paved the way for those games was a blast. The remastered addresses any criticisms you may have about the original. Aside from the obvious improvements to the graphics two major additions make the game much easier (which in my opinion is a good thing) in the form of autosaves and allowing any party member (aside from Mario) to swap out during the battle. Hardcore players might want to utilize the original save points and keep their team in the battle no matter what and they can choose not to utilize these new features, so hardcore and casual players should be pleased.

As for the actual game it’s a fun turn-based RPG with witty dialogue and good atmosphere. It’s worth a try for fans of the original and for new players who enjoy a light hearted RPG.

I started playing Super Mario RPG on the SNES in 1998 or so, renting it from a local game store. I got around 60% of the way through before returning it at the end of the rental, but it left a lasting impression - the music, the graphics, the story.

I found the game again around 2006/7 when I dusted off my old SNES and started playing it again. I got around 70% of the way through before abandoning it due to other pursuits, but again it was a treat to go through as far as I could.

I started playing it again in 2017 when I got the Min-SNES - playing it during brief moments of downtime when on call as a resident physician in the on site hospital call room. Got to around 80% completion but got stuck and never completed it, again due other stuff coming up.

Over the last 2 weeks while on vacation, I decided to finally see this game from start to finish. I set it to the new "easy mode" as I have very limited time now with a young family and wanted to complete this in under 10 hours.

In 2023, I have finally completed this game - the remastered version - and I am very happy to say it remains one of my all time favourite games and was well worth the effort and wait.

Yes, it is super easy and shallow compared to many RPG's. Yes, it is very short. But the story, writing, characters, graphics, music (that music, still humming it days later!), and weird history of the development of this game far more than make up for it. It is well worth a play through and I can't wait for my son to experience it in the future.

A lovely game with great spirit that by the time I was watching credits I was very glad to be done with it. It's full of heart and such incredible designs, but it's a good thing this a real snack of a game otherwise I'm not too sure my patience would have kept up with it.

From beginning to end I just loved seeing all these original characters they were constantly throwing at me, as well as the usual Mario RPG-esque fantastic writing and lines. Bowser is the MVP of this game in terms of story, he got the most giggles out of me and really just found most of his lines super charming.

The biggest crime the game makes is by being TOO faithful of a remake. The overworld movement is terrible, and any time the game asks you to do platforming is like pulling teeth (the worst examples are the beanstalks and the platforming challenges within Bowser's Castle). Even the additions to modernise it feel a bit compromised. There are absolutely beautifully rendered cutscenes, but so many of them are lacking in sound effects and just feel hollow or like something is missing?

Most of the game is rendered with a lot of very pretty effects. I was constantly shocked at the type of things it was able to put out. From cloth physics on curtains to some really nice looking reflections in areas. All the while it runs at 60fps as a baseline, which is very very impressive. There are some dips here and there, but none that I felt were impactful at all. It definitely ran more consistently than the Link's Awakening remake.

The Mario RPG combat still holds up because just this method of doing turn based combat is good and fun. However, this is an incredibly basic version of it especially compared to how inventive the actual Mario & Luigi RPG games got, and it can definitely feel like a slog when you're going through the maze-like dungeons mowing through enemy after enemy. The balance of the game is very strange too. I never had a wipe the entire game or really anything close. It was just a cakewalk the whole way through and even the final boss I was barely paying attention to it and just smoked it. I also ended the game with 3,000 coins and frog coins falling out of my pockets. What exactly was I meant to do with any of these? None of this stuff feeling important was partially what led to me feeling like OK I am ready for this game to just be over. I'm sure there's difficult crazy bosses in the post-game but I'm just not really interested in that. I wish it kept me more invested in the actual video game but such is life.

I definitely would have preferred a bigger swing in terms of creativity in what a remake of this game could look like, but I understand how impressive and cool it is that the pitch they went for was 100% totally and utterly faithful. Not super interesting to me, but it is nice to have finally played Mario RPG. Bring these funky designs back! The enemy designs are incredible! Where have all these designs been in future Mario games! Bring back Geno!

I have recently finished playing through the Super Mario RPG and I liked it. While not groundbreaking or anything, especially in the year 2024, it's still a very unique and original experience that never feels boring. While I personally don't think that Super Mario RPG is an amazing game, it's this uniqueness that has made it stand out and stick with people for over two decades, and I can see why so many people love this game.

Super Mario RPG was originally developed by Square Enix in 1996 for the SNES. This version is a 2023 remake of the game developed by ArtePiazza for the Switch, and while I've technically owned this game since 2014, this was actually my first time actually playing the game, making me the only person in the american continent without nostalgic feelings towards this game.

The game's development started when Nintendo went to Square Enix asking to make a Mario-themed RPG, and both parties decided to fully design the game as an entry-level JRPG that would sell well in the western market. As such, it features a lot of unique choices that you wouldn't normally see in games of the same genre in the 90s.

Overall, the game does feel like an introductory RPG that everyone can play no matter their experience with the genre. This is done by going against some of the regular RPG conventions with stuff like designing the overworld map with platforming in mind, as to appeal to Mario fans, and the timed button press system working as a way to ease people into full turn-based RPG combat. It's also a really short and easy game which helps immensely with accesibility. All of these things may seem like a downside at first, however it ends up helping the game have its own identity and makes it stand out.

I love how unique the game is. Everything it does is original and fun. The game is designed in such a way that it always has just one new idea, one new gameplay mechanic to face, one new setting to visit, one new character to introduce. It keeps throwing new stuff at you at every point of the game, making every second of gameplay feel fresh and interesting. And once it's done? The game's over, and there wasn't a single second where you were bored. It's perfectly paced.

The story is the best example of this, as it always keeps moving forward no matter what. There's minimal backtracking in this game, because your party is always in the right place at the right time to keep the adventure going, and it really helps this game feel like a true Mario game.

While the overall design is great, the gameplay itself, however, is not very good. One of the downsides of Super Mario RPG being an introductory RPG is that while none of the aspects that make it up are bad, some of them can feel underutilized, and bring down the rest of the game along with them.

The battle system is probably the worst part of the game, because it doesn't feel complete. Battles against regular enemies are extremely easy, you just have to use AoE attacks and they're dead before you know it; and on the other hand battles against bosses feel like endurance tests, like you're just there to push the button that deals the most damage with two characters and heal up with the other one. It feels like there's something missing, a secret system that would've made the battles unique and it just isn't there.

The game does feature a weakness system, but it feels superfluous in most battles, and the timed button press system just never clicked with me like it did while playing other games like the Mario & Luigi franchise, like something was off about the timing and I couldn't get the hang of it.

After you've finished the game, the remake does introduce a few extra postgame boss battles and all of these feature a more modern approach to their design, with new mechanics and special objectives you have to fulfill in order to beat them. While these fights are interesting and a nice change of pace, they're very different to what the game has you accustomed to, so they end up feeling extremely out of place and harder than they should be.

It's the same for every new addition the game has over the original: They all feel out of place. The developers over at ArtePiazza did try their best to keep things as close to the original as possible, so the new additions are few and far between and don't interrupt your experience that much. Keeping the remake similar to the original is done masterfully, especially when it comes to the presentation of the game, and it gives the game a sort of retro charm, however it also makes you notice the outdated design choices even more.

IN CONCLUSION: From the moment it was conceived, Super Mario RPG was never intended to be the best RPG ever made, but rather an accessible one. While the 2023 remake of the game does try to modernize a few things, it also does its best to stay as faithful to the original as possible. An in the end, you end up with a game that, while fun and enjoyable, feels very outdated in the current gaming landscape. It's a great experience if you're interested in it, but nothing you should go out of your way to play. 7/10

While I've been a long time enjoyer of Mario RPGs since I first played Paper Mario all the way back in the Nintendo 64 days, I somehow have gotten this far into my life without ever playing THE Super Mario RPG. In my brain, I filed it with all of Square's other RPGs of the SNES era, games that I like but find daunting to play. But no... Super Mario RPG (Or at least this remake) is a brief, all killer-no filler adventure.

RPGs nowadays feel like they're in a constant battle to be bigger, grander, more deep and complex. But there is also a virtue in keeping things simple. Super Mario RPG doesn't have many systems for you to keep track of. Its battle system is extremely straightforward, and the game never gets difficult. I only had to intentionally grind once, for maybe 5 minutes. This game is about something much simpler than keeping track of stats and building your characters. It's about making you feel good and making you smile, and it's very good at it.

There are a few strengths that stood out to me. First and foremost has to be the pace. Super Mario RPG never lingers too long on any one location or story beat, and as a result nothing ever gets old. You'd think some areas would end up feeling underdeveloped as a result, but because the game is so simple, this is actually a brilliant way to keep the moment-to-moment feeling good. Another core pillar of the game is its dialogue. This is something the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series do well, but I found this game to be particularly delightful. I especially loved Bowser's dialogue, as well as the lovable and silly Mallow.

Also, I knew I was going to like the music because it's composed by Yoko Shimomura. But WOW, this soundtrack is incredible! I liked both the original and new arrangements, and really appreciated the option to switch between them. Before I played the game, I was a little put off by how much of a one-to-one adaptation this is, but I ended up really liking the visuals. So much of the original game's charm is reliant on the funny sprite animations of the SNES, and they managed a way to keep them in spirit while adding the occasional rendered cutscene to spice things up. I also really appreciated the sensible addition of modern conveniences, such as autosave.

I can't think of much reason to fault Super Mario RPG. This is probably the best entry-level RPG I've played in a long while, and I found myself thinking that I wish there were more of these short, less demanding RPGs. Obviously, if what you're looking for is a grand adventure that challenges you, this is not it. But there's already plenty of those. Instead, I found this to be an excellent palette cleanser game; a delightful and short little romp whose primary goal is to make you feel good every time you pick it up.

The original Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was one of my favorite games on the SNES growing up. I have no idea how many times I played it through or explored its many side quests and mini-games in the post-game but it certainly feels like a lot. I remember booting it up at friends' houses and trying to plan together how to beat one of the harder end game bosses or just showing this or that secret off that we'd uncovered. When I heard they were remaking this classic, which I haven't played since those days over two decades ago, I was pretty excited, despite not really knowing what to expect given the many different things that "remake" has come to mean. What it ended up meaning here is a game that is pretty faithful to the original, primarily acting as a ground-up redo of mostly the exact same game, choosing where possible to add rather than change aspects of the original. I think whether I was aware of it going in or not, I would've wanted something that took greater departures than this did, though I still enjoyed it for what it is.

So first, what kind of remake is this? As I said, it's the type that seeks to respect the original pretty hard while seeking to add some new elements where it can. Combat, story, exploration, the core parts of the game, are all very familiar with maps and mechanics overlaying almost perfectly with the original while implementing things like better graphics and smoother load times and animations. On the story side, there are a few added cutscenes that while not spectacular by today's standards, do add something to the already-capable in-engine theatrics of the original. Combat adds a new gauge that fills up the more you time your attacks and defenses perfectly. Once it fills, you can unleash a super move that depends on your party make-up, kind of like a triple tech from Chrono Trigger. The original was a fairly easy game so just this one extra tool, even if it's more rarely used, does make the game even easier. Just playing through the story, even without intentionally leveling, you'll likely not have many real problems if you have much experience with turn-based RPGs at all. However, thankfully, the other main thing that was added was a number of post-game "rematches" with several of bosses in a (significantly) powered-up state. Truthfully, most of these fights are more puzzle fights than challenges for your levels, gear, and strategy, but it was nice having actually rather difficult fights in this otherwise quite easy game.

I think this style worked fairly well for me. I can't be sure how much of the script was exactly the same, but I definitely felt like I was finally able to play a classic game from my childhood again and everything was really recognizable and constantly hitting on that nostalgia factor. However, while I enjoyed that experience, I did find myself wanting a bit more from the experience. I'm not sure what it might have looked like, but I never found myself super engaged with the game. Perhaps a "hard mode" would've been good. I didn't find a lack of challenge in the game when I was a kid, but I was a kid who didn't have 20 more years of gaming experience behind me either. There are actually a lot of bosses and enemies with some clever mechanics that are fun to fight but they fall so quickly that it's hard to really even appreciate it. I think a harder difficulty would've been a good way to maintain the original's charm for the nostalgia trip while offering something more for someone like me and not changing the core game for those who don't wan it.

I'm not really sure how I'd recommend this game for someone who never played the original. The nostalgia was a big part of my own enjoyment, but I will also say that the original was also a very well-made JRPG for its time and it does some things well that even JRPGs today and since have struggled with. Even if I wouldn't give it 5 stars, this is not at all a game where I excuse poor design simply because it's "from a different time." The gameplay is smooth and the characters, world, and exploration are all very fun and inspire the usual good feelings of exploring an RPG's universe, finding new gear and completing various side quests and mini-games that flesh out the world's inhabitants while pursuing your main quest. But while the humor honestly still lands pretty well, it very much feels like a "kid's game" in other ways and I'm not sure how that'd work for first-time players. I would however strongly recommend this for parents wanting to give their kids a classic JRPG experience when they might not otherwise be ready for a bigger game. The story and mechanics are very approachable with basic reading comprehension (and hey, growing up, games like this were a big incentive for me learning to read better!) and the gameplay is pretty fun if you're not going to be disappointed by the ease of everything. The game is also quite short for an RPG, clocking in at about 10-12 hours, took me about 20 to do all the side content and post-game so it's approachable from a time-commitment angle as well.

For me, I'm not sure if I'd want to use the phrase "let down" but I do feel odd that playing a very faithful version of one of my childhood favorite games (that would be an easy 5-star game at the time (assuming of course 7 stars wasn't an option, har har)) feels like a comfortable 4-star game in this mostly duplicated state. But I suppose it should be unsurprising that that "childhood" qualifier is so important and I think there's always a struggle like this when reviewing a game after replaying it for the first time in a very long time. All in all, I was still quite glad I got to revisit such a classic and that it's made available with touched-up graphics and mechanics for later generations.