|
It's not as pronounced today, but back during the 90s, SquareSoft (now Square Enix) and Nintendo were strong business partners, with Nintendo providing them a platform and sometimes publishing their games, and Square in return pumping out one quality release after another, even outside of their flagship Final Fantasy series; their output on the Super Nintendo was one of the most prolific and diverse to ever exist. And then, in 1996, Super Mario RPG, a new entry in the Mario series that combines its platforming elements with RPG gameplay, was released in Japan and North American to critical acclaim but underwhelming sales, likely a result of being released so late in the system's lifespan.
Either way, the game was fondly-remembered by fans, but when Square switched sides to Sony's new Playstation in the next generation, the relationship between the companies soured and remained this way for a long time. Worse yet, Square retained ownership of any original characters in the game, meaning fan-favorite Geno only made a single cameo appearance in a different game. Thankfully, things have improved again, and not only did the original SNES version get a digital release on the Wii and Wii U as well as the SNES Classic, but decades later we also finally received a full-on remake, and there was much rejoicing. While Square is no longer directly involved besides receiving the usual royalties for their characters, one of their own business partners, Arte Piazza, developed the game, themselves known for creating faithful remasters of the Dragon Quest games for DS and 3DS.
Short history lesson aside, Super Mario RPG is notable for being the first Mario game to feature an elaborate plot, starting deceptively similar to the platform games, with Princess Peach being kidnapped by Bowser and Mario heading out to his castle to save her. However, after seemingly saving the day, a giant sword jams right into the castle, sending the plumber, princess and turtle flying. As it turns out, the Smithy Gang, a bunch of anthropomorphic weapons, have destroyed the Star Road, which prevents the world's wishes from coming true, and they intend on taking over the world. Naturally, it's up to Mario and his friends to prevent that from happening.
The plot really isn't anything to write home about - but the game lovingly describes, subverts, averts and plays with standard RPG tropes, such as Mario's status as a silent protagonist forcing him to relay information via exaggerated pantomime, or poking fun at the fact that the other party members walk into Mario when a cutscene is seemingly over. It works great as a self-parody of Square's otherwise serious output. The other part that rounds out the package is the excellent writing. It can be somewhat hard to appreciate nowadays, as the characters are all well-established by now, but this game is where many of the character traits that became the standard were established. Bowser having a hidden soft side and being willing to be a good guy when the situation calls for it? Check. Peach being playful and possessing powerful magic? Check. Also helping are the original characters introduced here, especially the two party members Mallow and Geno, the former of which has an almost game-spanning character arc, and the latter being a fav-favorite who even managed to get into Smash Bros. by way of a Mii costume before this remake was announced.
When speaking of the writing, it should also be mentioned that the original SNES translation, done by the great Ted Woolsey, was mostly retained, which is good because it was fantastic, even despite its flaws. Said flaws mostly stemmed from Woolsey being unfamiliar with the Mario series (and evidently not being given a glossary for consistency either), which has been entirely fixed - the NokNok Shell is now correctly called the Koopa Shell, the Big and Little Boo's names have been switched around, and the Drain spells (which don't actually drain anything) were also given names that are closer to the Japanese ones. Other names were also updated, perhaps most notably Princess Toadstool being changed to Peach, as well as some unlocalized names, such as the Mukumuku enemy now being called Tropher. Long story short, it combines the best elements of both worlds to create a consistently engaging script that won't offend returning players. Perhaps more notably for international players, this is the first time the game was translated into languages other than English, enabling German, French, Dutch and others to finally play the game in their native language for the first time, and judging from the Spanish and Dutch translations, they did a fine job.
As previously mentioned, the gameplay combines both platforming and RPG elements. The otherworld is explored in an isometric view, with Mario being able to jump and hit blocks like in his source games, even finding the occasional super star to become invincible and defeat enemies instantly. The areas also contain various puzzles, such as finding the right path, a hidden switch and so on - it's nothing monumentally difficult, but it does help keep the moment-to-moment gameplay from becoming stale.
Combat is initiated by touching an enemy in the overworld, another uncommon feature for a 90s RPG. Battles are a turn-based affair, although instead of inputting all actions at the start of a given round, the characters all take action immediately once their turn comes around, which was once again unusual for the time - it's not unlike the Persona series in that regard, albeit at much lower depth. You can either attack physically with one of the many weapons you can find, use an item or a character skill, which came in various forms, such as Mario's trademark jump, healing spells, inflicting status effects on enemies or just dealing lots of damage - while a total of five characters join your team, only three can be active in battle at a time, although they can be switched out at will, something that wasn't possible in the SNES version.
The biggest game changer in combat, and one thing that made the game stand out amongst the competition, was the addition of so-called "Timed Hits". All physical attacks and special moves have a special button input that will strengthen the move used - which can be as simple as pushing a button at the right time, rotating the joystick or holding a button down for a specified amount of time. Similarly, enemy attacks can be weakened or outright nullified by pushing the button at the right time, with the input window for complete avoidance being a bit tight. Unlike the original version, the game helps you with these timed hits by giving an indicator of when to push each button, although this prompt will disappear once you do it successfully several times. Also new to this version is that it tells you when an attack is unblockable and perfectly timed physical attacks now hit all enemies with splash damage.
The characters themselves fill in for the various RPG archetypes at the time. Mario is the jack of all trades, possessing balanced stats and both physical and magical attacks, Mallow is the mage with elemental spells and limited healing, Geno is the red mage with both good offense and strong attacks (albeit tricky to master ones) but low defense, Bowser is the fighter, being extremely strong, but also slow and packing mainly moves that inflict status effects, while Peach is the healer, with weak offense and defense, but high speed and the most potent healing spells in the game, being able to top up the whole party and revive allies, at the cost of only sporting one rather unimpressive offensive skill. While each party member has their own HP, the FP pool, which is used for special moves, is shared amongst them all. This is a bit of an unorthodox decision, but it does force you to use skills a bit more strategically, as FP can only be increased by finding items that do so, they never increase on their own.
A new addition to the game is the fact that you can now build chains by doing the action commands correctly, which gives you several benefits and also slowly fills out a gauge, which allows you to perform a powerful team attack by expending it. These can either deal damage, buff your party, or completely no-sell any incoming attacks once. The type of attack is dependent on your team setup, so it's worth it to experiment a little. Also new is the ability to encounter strong enemies, basically buffed versions of regular enemies that are much stronger and can actually do serious harm if not defeated quickly - but in return they drop an elusive Frog Coin, making them that much easier to obtain now.
Your equipment can be upgraded by either finding it through exploration or by purchasing stuff at shops. In another change from the original, the item limit was reworked - instead of having a strict limit of 29 items total, some of them being needed for optional quests, it instead allows you to stack items up to a point. Most things, such as HP-restoring mushrooms can be stacked up to nine, while other items only go up to six or three, but it does ease up the inventory management that was ever-present originally. Your space for equipment is now also unlimited, no longer forcing you to sell things you might want to keep (including one-of-a-kind gear), and finally, there is also a storage box in Mario's house where you can keep any excess items and keep them for later.
As with most other Square titles from the time, the game also offers a wealth of secrets to be found, some easy enough to figure out, and others not so much. At various points in the game, there will be little mini games which can be played to rack up coins and Frog Coins, the latter of which acting as a secondary currency that can be used to purchase items you can't get anywhere else. There's a lot of stuff to do: finding secret paths while sliding down a waterfall, playing a little arcade game where you need to shoot Koopa shells, running up a hill while trying to catch someone for loot and a surprisingly fun minecart ride game. It all helps to break up the monotony even further, making this a particularly varied game, and the rewards are worth it.
Unfortunately, this also leads us to the game's biggest problem: it is very, very easy. Not counting the random strong enemies, most battles last less than a minute, and even most of the boss fights aren't too hard to win. Now, this was a perfectly valid criticism of the original game as well, but the addition of dealing damage to all enemies and being able to completely nullify attacks makes things even easier, while the rest of the difficulty wasn't changed. The team attacks further exacerbate this, as the damaging ones can clear out most encounters instantly, and once again they also do well against bosses. While nobody forces you to use these, the chain boosts received from inputting commands correctly are also overpowered by themselves, and especially as a returning player, your natural instinct will make you use the timed hits, like or not. But fear not: the game has difficulty options... normal and easy. Yup, that's it, they made an already easy game even easier by adding this option. This mode cuts the amount of experience needed to level up, weakens enemies and makes the action commands easier. This is somewhat comparable to the built-in trainer in the Final Fantasy re-releases, and I guess they serve the purpose of making the game more accessible for those just wanting to enjoy the story (or really young players), which does mean it is an excellent entry-level RPG, but the hardcore crowd would do well in looking elsewhere - check out Mario & Luigi Dream Team's hard mode if you're feeling particularly freaky.
And then, after making the game extremely easy, they introduced a few bits of new content which are actually tough, mainly the rematches against non-Smithy bosses. These all come with new gimmicks that make them a lot harder, such as one boss forcing you into a 1v1 duel and prohibiting item use, meaning you must absolutely master the perfect guard to survive, as well as an ultimate superboss unlocked after beating all of these, and this one is genuinely tough, and without any gimmicks to boot, requiring you to master absolutely every strategy in the game and being quick on your feet if you want to win - I enjoyed that, but it just makes the easy parts of the game stand out even more.
Some other new additions in the game include a detailed enemy log (giving you more of an incentive to keep Mallow in the party, since only he knows the analyze spell), the ability to fast travel to specific spots in the world, and a diary that serves as a quest log, written by Mario's companions in retrospective, which is a neat way to add more personality. And that's... it, really, the game is still mostly the same as it was over twenty years ago, for better or for worse.
The graphics were naturally overhauled. Whereas the original used pre-rendered sprites akin to Donkey Kong Country, here everything is done in real-time 3D, and the upgrade is a very pleasant one. The locations have been rebuilt almost 1:1, but with much more detail added to bring an already vibrant world to life, such as adding lighting effects, unnecessary but gorgeous background elements such as little butterflies flying around and the mushrooms in the forest emitting spores, and naturally everything moves a lot more fluidly, all combined with some incredibly vibrant and strong color work. This is most evident with the enemies, as some of them were hard to make out originally, such as the first major boss, Claymorton (originally called Mack):
As such, the higher resolution really helps to see things more clearly and makes a lot of the less-recognizable enemies a bit more tangible, although these can still be incredibly weird at times. Visual effects were also redone, now using particles to actually show what the original tried to emulate, and they do their job well, although several attacks in the game had their animations redone in order to not flash the screen anymore, in compliance with Japan's stricter epilepsy guidelines introduced in 1997, just a year after the original came out, funnily enough. The game also mostly runs at 60fps like it originally did, which helps. I'm saying mostly, because there are a few select areas where there is slowdown, although this was only apparent in the few places that features water you can swim in - there's something about the wave effect that causes it, but it's no big deal for a turn-based game. There are also a few pre-rendered cutscenes, mostly before fighting bosses, but also several key elements, and they look just as great, now using more dynamic camera angles to show the respective scenes - although they all oddly lack any sort of sound effects, only playing music, which feels a bit weird, especially when there clearly should be a sound playing, but it is what it is.
The soundtrack, done by the great Yoko Shimomura, was completely re-arranged by an orchestra this time. Unlike the Mario & Luigi remakes, which were also scored and re-arranged by her, these new versions of the old songs are a straight up improvements, with them really benefitting from the usage of real instruments. The score is also full of certified bangers, some of which even went on to gain memetic status, but I'm gonna single out a few:
Shimomura is a fantastic composer, and this proves that she's still got it all these years later, and it's fantastic to finally have official orchestral versions of these songs. The original SNES soundtrack is also an option if you prefer, although this new music goes better with the updated visuals.
The sound effects are, much like the score, the same but redone in stereo and higher fidelity, and amazingly enough they still fit wherever they're used, despite the updated animations. Sadly, there was no voice acting added to this remake, not even the usual voice clips, so the game is entirely silent - which feels especially odd in the pre-rendered cutscenes, as the characters only "speak" through subtitles, with the mouths clearly moving. I still yearn for Nintendo to give full voice acting in the series another try; just because it wasn't well-received once doesn't mean you can't ever try again, but here we are.
In case you can't tell from the length of this review, I adore this game a whole lot, despite its easiness. It's clearly an effort that had a lot of heart put into it, and it shines bright as a result. As long as you don't go in expecting a hardcore experience, it is perfectly serviceable - and at about twelve hours length, doesn't overstay its welcome either, as I've already beaten this remake twice; the second time in anticipation of the new Mario & Luigi game coming out next week!
85% - a well-done facelift
Pros:
- Enjoyable characters and writing
- Fun and varied gameplay
- Gorgeous visual and aural upgrade
Cons:
- Way too easy
- New content, while fun, is very little
- It took this long to finally get a physical release in Europe
All screenshots:
Note: all screenshots were taken in docked mode.
Write a comment