Super Mario RPG (2023)

I never had a super nes so i never got to play this when I was young.

We picked up a switch 2 for my 5 yo son for Christmas and I managed to snag a cheap copy of mario rpg. We played through together with me handling the controls but him making a lot of decisions. I didn’t realize how short this is so it ended up being a great way to teach him about RPGs without him getting bored or frustrated. He is very mario pilled at the moment having recently finished Mario Odyssey. He loved rpg and would ask if we could play another section every night.

The updated game has a charming presentation, easy controls and some fun battle mechanics. I could do without the platforming sections as square cant make mario jump feel good. The puzzles were fun while the sidequests mostly failed to live up to my expectations but were skippable when they didnt seem interesting or if the minigame controls were frustrating. We played on easy and beat it in about 14 hours. Ill consider a hard run down the road on my own.

I think I said that in my last update that the game was between a 3 and a 4. The last few hours of the game pushed it solidly to a 3. I was loving all the cute moments and they just stopped appearing in the last 2 dungeon areas. The ending failed to capitalize on the strongest aspects of the game.

Driving Force: Cute Character interactions. The combat system and the overworld platforming aren't terrible but they are not things that will inspire you to boot up this game.

Style and Presentation: Very adorable toy chest character design (chubby Mario). I honestly wish they had a added a greater variety of character animations. I feel like the plot explanation via transformation was incredibly funny and think they could have done to implement this into combat. I have to of course mention how beautiful all the cutscenes look. Best part about adding a new character to the party was getting the new triple attacks. The menus well designed and easy to use. It is sort of odd that you can't use items from the pause menu.

Gameplay Loop: Mario and friends are directed to the likely location of the next star. Platforming and turn based combat challenges are performed to reach the destination and then finally obtain the star in that region. In the best sections of the game, there are many moments of humor between party member and the world. The main problem with this game is these moments are not often enough and the different gameplay aspects often feel as though they are occurring in different world entirely.

I would still recommend this game if you like Paper Mario. Paper Mario does more to inject the humor of the story into combat and the platforming elements are a lot less janky than this game. The original Super Mario RPG served as a fantastic template for that game and feel like the remake could have taken some elements from it. I had my fun with this game and don't let the negative of my review keep you from enjoying this pint sized Mario adventure.

It’s a decent game, but having never played the original I didn’t get any nostalgia bonus and ultimately didn’t find it all that engaging.

It’s funny (by game standards at least) and it has a lot of heart, though there isn’t much depth to either the gameplay or the story. I also found the 3D graphics of the remake to be quite charmless.

It would make a terrific first RPG for kids or people new to the genre though.

This was my first outing with Super Mario RPG, and Mario RPG's in general. I've had the Mario and Luigi games in my backlog forever now, and I'm going to play them in the future, especially after my experience with this game. Overall, I had fun with Super Mario RPG. I was debating between a 3-4/5, so realistically I'd give this game a 3.5/5 (not a bad score in my books btw).

Story: Pretty basic. I like the side stories being told here, but otherwise a standard Mario story thrown into an RPG world. The secret boss is really the only creative part of this story that takes it for a loop. About what I was expecting from a Mario RPG story.

Characters: I love the characters in this game. Mallow and Geno are great additions (I want to see them in more material now, I get it!), and Bowser is hilariously written and fun to see in this game. Peach and Mario are pretty one note and copy pasted from the original universe. I like how Mario is portrayed as a Godly hero throughout the lands here, and Peach is fun to have along on the adventure. The 5 party members are great and bounce well off of one another. I really like the short side stories and goals for Mallow and Geno in particular. Great characters. The side characters here are also entertaining and loveable. I enjoyed Frog Sage, Booster, and of course my main man Jonathan Jones. Booster is just Wario with a helping of childlike wonder so I love that. Jonathan Jones reminds me of Meta Knight from Kirby, and I love his design, fight, and personality.

Gameplay: The turn based combat is fun, but can get repetitive at times. Once you unlock all of the characters spells, you pretty much have no room for variation. The characters serve a single purpose in combat for the most part, which is fine for this game. I wasn't expecting a super in depth combat system like other RPJs and JRPGs, and I do really like the action commands. Boss battles were fun and none of them felt repetitive. My main complaint with this game is in it's platforming and moving outside of battle. I hated it. Mario is so weighty to control, it feels like he weights 55 tons. His jumps are awkward and hard to get the hang of. People might say that the "platforming" isn't the main focus of the game, and while they're correct in that it's not a main focus, it does have a great influence on the gameplay. Some of the courses are BRUTAL in the movement department. Whether that be due to enemy placement, the jumps/platforms, or a combination of both, the movement in this game didn't jive with me. The most apparent parts where the bad movement stuck out to me was in the sunken ship, bean valley, Bowser's castle, and the factory. I feel like this is going to be glossed over and looked at with rolling eyes, but I genuinely did not enjoy the way Mario moved in this game. Maybe I'm putting too much stock into how Mario moves in his traditional games, but I feel like the movement and jumping could have been implemented better.

Oh yeah, soundtrack is pretty good here too. Elegy, Booster tower, Booster's theme, Star Hill Theme, Culex's theme, conversation with culex, nimbus land theme, and the ending theme were my favorites. Andddddd that's pretty much it! A nice addition to add to my "played" collection. Probably won't revisit this one anytime soon, but really want to get started on the Mario and Luigi series to see how the formula developed here translates. Bye bye!

I grew up on Mario RPG, on SNES. And this is a faithful remake of the original game. It’s a charming little RPG that has some cool characters, bosses, etc., and even post-game content added. I absolutely love this game and highly recommend it.

The reason this isn’t 5/5 is the cost. It’s just not worth the $60 it cost. It’s an incredibly short, quick game, even with post-game content. And so, despite my love for it, I’m just not sure it’s worth the cost for that.