Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was developed by Square, most famous for the Final Fantasy series, and published by Nintendo for the SNES in 1996 in Japan and North America. It would not see a European release until 2008 when it was released on the Wii Virtual Console. This is the first Mario role-playing game. It would be Squares last game released for the SNES in North America, and one the last game made by Square released for a Nintendo home console until the Gamecube-era.
Despite that the game was never released here, I did know about this game quite early. The reason for that is because it was in a mail-order catalogue of a local video game store, and it was always something of a mystery to me. First of all they were selling it for 999 Swedish kronor, which I found to be a crazy high price, and you needed a converter in order to play it on a European SNES. It was also described as a Mario game that plays more like Zelda. Later, when we got internet in my home, I found some images from this game and was quite amazed by its graphics by SNES standards. I eventually tried out the game on an emulator and originally only got to Croco and then kept dying, because I had no idea of even the basics of an RPG, and generally tried to avoid enemies rather than fighting them to gain experience. I did eventually learn more about how to play it and ended up playing through it and it became one of my favourite games. So it was really fun to return to this one.
The game starts out with Bowser having kidnapped the Princess. As Mario comes to rescue her, a giant sword falls down into Bowser’s Keep and Mario, Bowser and Princess all end up in different places. The Sword belongs to the Smithy Gang wanting to take over the world. In order to stop them you must collect the seven star pieces and defeat the Smithy gang.
Super Mario RPG features many typical things you would expect from a SNES-era RPG. Battles are turn-based but the encounters are not random. Instead you can always see the enemies and avoid them as you see fit. You gain experience points to level up, and you do have Magic Attacks that costs “Flower Points”, as this game calls it. But a lot of the RPG aspects of this game has been simplified, which I will get back to.
There’s five playable characters in the game, although you start out with only Mario. Mario is the all-round character, with strong physical attacks as well as some good magic attacks. Mallow has stronger magic attacks as well as some basic healing spells, but is weaker physically. Geno also relies mostly on magical attacks. Bowser is pure strength, and Princess Toadstool is mainly just there for healing. You can only use three characters at once in battle, and Mario must always be one of them. However, even the characters you are not using will gain experience points as you win battles.
The Flower Points are shared between all characters, which might seem annoying, but also makes it simpler to keep track of. Each character has one slot for a weapon, one for armor, as well as a slot for an accessory, making it much simpler than your typical RPG with several different armor pieces to keep track of. The armor in this game is generally just getting better, rather than being strong against different attacks, which would mean that you would need to choose different armor for different situations.
While the battles are turn-based, they aren’t your typical RPG battles. In fact, you can hit the attack button at the right moment to make your attack stronger, as well as hitting it when you are attacked by an enemy, to make their attack do less damage towards you. This makes the battles more interesting and you are not just pushing a button to do an attack. When defeating enemies in battle, you can sometimes get Bonuses, which will temporary increase your attack or defence, give you full HP or even let you attack one more time. Also, randomly when using an item in battle, you will get a freebie, which means you get to keep the item you just used.
The game also incorporates some elements from your typical Mario games. There are several platforming elements involved, some of which can get very frustrating due to the Isometric 3D perspective. It is mostly not too bad, but by the end of the game there are some really annoying sections. You can find question-mark boxes every now and then, sometimes containing coins, mushrooms or flower points, and even a Starman in a few chests. Getting one of those makes you invincible, just like your typical Mario game, and lets you take out enemies on the map screen and you even get experience points for it. In fact, there are a few sections where you can really abuse this by saving right before you get it, using the starman, and then getting yourself killed. Doing that will make you start at the save point, and all your progress you made after it will reset except that you get to keep your Experience points. There’s also a few minigames included, where you can usually win coins.
Throughout the game you will fight many familiar enemies such as Goombas, Koopas, Shyguys, Bloopers, Lakitu, Bob-Ombs and even Birdo makes an appearance. Square did however design a bunch of new and unique enemies who only appear in this game. Some of the enemies are just palette swaps, however, but there’s still quite a wide variety of enemies to fight.
While the story might be quite basic and not exactly award-winning, the game is full of funny moments and humorous dialogue. It might not be for everyone, but it certainly fits the game and makes it quite entertaining to play through.
As for the difficulty, it should be noted that this is an entry-level RPG. It is made for beginners of the genre. I remember finding this game quite challenging back when I first played it, and was completely unfamiliar with how an RPG even worked, but playing it now, after having played through Final Fantasy VI and EarthBound not long before, this game was a complete breeze. To make the game easier, your health and magic refills after defeating a boss, and your health also refills as you level up. Save Points are also plentiful and they appear even inside of the dungeons, so even if you die, you generally don’t get sent back very far. So if you are an experienced RPG player, this game will be a piece of cake for you. It should also be noted that while EarthBound took me over 30 hours to beat, and Final Fantasy VI took me more than 45 hours to beat, Super Mario RPG took me less than 15 hours to beat and that was including all the sidequests and minigames, meaning you could probably beat it in 10 hours if you are not a completist.
Graphically it looks really good by SNES standards. It uses similar pre-rendered 3D graphics to Donkey Kong Country, and everything looks really vibrant and colourful. It simply looks like a world I’d like to hang out in. Sure, it might look a bit outdated by today’s standards, but I still like the visual style of it.
The soundtrack, composed by Yoko Shimomura, is also really good, and it is one of the better SNES soundtracks, even though I might have said that many times before (the SNES had a lot of good soundtracks compared to other consoles). It still manages to sound very “Mario”, even using some remixed Koji Kondo tunes, but it is also really diverse and catchy soundtrack. The only thing that gets a bit repetitive is the battle theme, since there’s really only one of them, as well as two different boss themes.
Overall, Super Mario RPG is a fantastic entry-level RPG, and it is even a good game on its own. It might seem a bit too easy and simple for experienced RPG fans, but the overall fun gameplay and humorous writing makes up for that.
Is it worth Playing?
I would certainly recommend this game, especially for people who are new to RPG’s and want a good entry-level game. I think most Mario fans would enjoy this game as well, even if it play differently from your typical Mario game. Hardcore RPG fans will probably find it way too easy and simplified, but even they might get some enjoyment out of it.
Final score: 10/10
Screenshots via MobyGames: http://www.mobygames.com
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