Welcome to our review of Super Mario RPG, one of the biggest releases of the year as the original SNES game skipped Europe. Super Mario RPG is now completely remade on Nintendo Switch and launched simultaneously in all regions.
Set out on a classic Mario adventure! Enter—or revisit—a world of whimsy with Mario on a quest to repair Star Road and defeat the troublemaking Smithy Gang. Team up with a party of unlikely allies, like the monstrous Bowser and a mysterious doll named Geno, in a story-rich RPG packed with laughs and quirky characters.
A strange party unites to save Star Road. Meet the team of oddballs setting out to thwart the troublesome Smithy Gang and protect everyone’s wishes. Even Bowser is lending a claw! The hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario, who always jumps in to help. Mario serves Fireball and Jump specials to stomp all over enemies.
Princess Peach: The beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom who is…missing?! Once found, Princess Peach supports the party with healing and staggering status effect specials. Bowser, the King of the Koopas who lost his Keep to the invading Smithy Gang. Bowser uses his might and mischievous minions to overwhelm his enemies.
Mallow: A young frog (despite appearances) and the grandson of the Frog Sage. Mallow unleashes the destructive power of weather onto enemies, while healing his allies with rain. And last is Geno, a powerful protector of Star Road taking the form of a humble doll. Geno puppeteers his own style of moves, like Geno Beam and Geno Boost.
Take it easy with Breezy Difficulty Mode. Players new to RPGs or who want a story-focused experience can use the new Breezy difficulty, which makes battles easier and leveling up faster. You can set the difficulty at any time if you change your mind. Jump towards your next goal and continue the story. Run into monsters to enter turn-based battles with your party of three. Master the new Chain and Triple Moves system to claim victory.
Super Mario RPG is quite probably one of the biggest non-European Nintendo games ever. When it got announced, I will admit to squeaking like a little girl, this game had been on my personal wishlist for ages and well, my written/read Japanese is not sufficient to play it on import and that is why I never bought it in the past, I also skipped the Virtual Console rerelease.
Yes, I know with modern-day technology, I could just point my iPhone at the screen and let Google Translate do the work for an imported Japanese game, it has proven to be very successful in the past when translating menus for other various imports like my all-time favorite anime series turned games, Lupin III. But honestly speaking, I always felt like a massive RPG like this one, would have taken me out of playing other games for weeks. Not that that is a bad thing, but you know where this is going, games like these, when you get stuck, you get stuck. ( I do know a US version exists, but I prefer my import games to be Japanese, in case anyone is wondering)
But talking about the new version now, aside from the smaller local puzzles, there is very little that can go wrong. Yes, you can lose your way at first, but they are never the size of puzzles where you get stuck in an infinite loop of replays. According to my experience, these places are pretty decent for easy upgrading and leveling up. Something you need to do very much a lot because this is the way the old skool RPGs went.
Now, to talk about the actual story and how it plays, which is the main point of this review after all. Well, if you ever played a Paper Mario game, this is the exact same feeling. Imagine a turn-based RPG, with loads of fun and jokes, adding in some surprisingly awesome-looking graphics for this one, once you get your team up to 3 members, you will see what I mean when you launch the special attacks…
In itself, Nintendo once again outdid itself with an amazing remake of this game and they showed that older RPGs really do have their spot in modern-day gaming. With this one now remade, it just leaves Mother right? As the one in need of a modern-day coating. Oh yes, maybe there are some others, but I am already delighted to get a massive hit like this one.
And yes, I said it, this is a massive hit to be adding to an already amazing lineup of games on the Nintendo Switch. The console that is probably having the best lineup of games now “all-round” all the genres. Just taking a game like Super Mario RPG and still giving it some love, is amazing and I am truly grateful Nintendo went out of their way to bring a classic like this to the Switch.
Now, a review would not be a review without purposely looking at the negatives of a game and while there are very little, there are a few. The first one being how weird it is that Mallow is really powerful at first and basically just a potion master after a while as he becomes quite useless in combat, but then again he is priceless as a healer. I know this is more or less typical in RPGs, not everyone is a tank or banging fighter, he is just turned into his new role rather quickly. But hey, him being a great healer is really a bonus.
Another thing I also find weird is not a complaint per se, but it is strange how you buy new clothes or accessories and you do not get the auto-equip question. I have gotten so used to this feature from other great RPGs and it is just something I want as default haha.
What was also weird, was how much time I spent in fighting random enemies. I should even say on purpose. I am pretty much always out there trying to pick fights and upgrade the entire time. I usually do not always do this kind of grinding, but I just find the variety of monsters out there so cool, from a seemingly imprisoned Donkey Kong to your favorite Bowser minions to boss fights. It clearly shows how much love went into this remake.
In conclusion, Super Mario RPG is an excellent RPG and despite being a shorter length one, this used to be a Super Famicom game after all, back in those days, games were simply not 100s of hours, but at max a day’s worth. In itself, this is an amazing remake and it deserves all the credit we can give it.
