Aurlyn
3 reviews liked by Aurlyn
This game has charm, but it's mostly whatever. Feels like a half-baked Kirby title.
Super Mario RPG
2023
The one word that always comes up whenever Mario RPG is brought into a conversation is “charm” and it’s not hard to see why. The game oozes with personality from its writing to its premise, it’s just a shame the game seems to trade out substance for that personality.
I never fully understood the hype behind Mario RPG, I tried to play it years ago and put it down fairly quickly, with the release of the 2023 remake though I figured I’d give it another go. I’m glad I did, even if just to understand why the SNES original became a cult classic.
Let’s start by looking at why the game is so beloved, first of all the visuals are extremely unique, both the originals and this remake which manages to preserve the style of the original while prettying it up a little, the toy/mini figure look for the characters is extremely endearing, and the overall look of the world matches that aesthetic well. I think some of the original vision was lost trying to bring this game to modern hardware, but I don’t really blame the game for that, the Switch is obviously far superior hardware to the SNES.
The music has also been brought back for a new generation, and it’s as timeless as ever. Going through this game there was multiple times I stopped because I recognized so many tracks from the internet, so many of these songs have endured the test of time and they’re just as good here as they were nearly 30 years ago.
The combat is… interesting, on one hand the combat using of a mix of traditional turn based and rhythm/timing based inputs to increase the power of the moves was novel for the time and is fun now even though this games successors did this style of combat far better. On the other hand the game fairly quickly devolves into just spamming basic attacks to get fights over with quickly as there’s hardly ever a need for spells and more powerful specials outside of the occasional heal, and most of the time these moves do barely more damage than a standard especially come late game. Which makes the FP usage almost unjustifiable as it’s better spent on a heal. To make matters worse, the remake introduced a new gauge the fills as you get perfect timing on attacks and blocks which charges a new special move depending on who’s in your party further trivializing fights. Overall I think the combat IS still fun but it becomes fairly one note and kind of basic the further you go in the game, I do however appreciate how this combat would be improved upon in the first two Paper Mario games, but that’s to be saved for another review I suppose.
There is one more thing that really stands out beyond what mentioned for this game though, and that’s the writing. It has a very similar tone to Undertale and Earthbound, and I know that’ll make many roll their eyes but considering when this game released I’m not going to hold how oversaturated that style of humor became against it, it’s still funny and cute and I’m sure it’ll get some laughs and chuckles out of most.
But how’s the story and characters? They’re fine, story’s very one note and predictable but for a 15 hour JRPG designed towards children it doesn’t really need to be much else. Characters are ok, most are pretty whatever and serve only as a joke, no one particularly stands out from the original characters except Mallow and Geno the two original characters that become party members. I’ll admit I don’t fully understand the Geno hype? He was really boring and nothing stood out from him apart from his design. Mallow at least gets a completed character arc and some development, I figured he’d be a far more requested Smash character than Geno but I guess not.
As a whole though the game’s decent, a refreshingly low stakes short JRPG geared more towards a younger audience is appreciated, especially seeing as it can be enjoyed by adults as well. I just wish the game was harder and had more depth to its story and combat, seeing as combat is all there really is to the gameplay outside of the occasional mini game or shitty platforming segment.
Glad I played the game though, and I get why it has the reputation it does now, I’d say it’s worth a playthrough seeing how short it is but don’t go in expecting to get wowed.
6.5/10, closer to a 7 than a 6 though.
I never fully understood the hype behind Mario RPG, I tried to play it years ago and put it down fairly quickly, with the release of the 2023 remake though I figured I’d give it another go. I’m glad I did, even if just to understand why the SNES original became a cult classic.
Let’s start by looking at why the game is so beloved, first of all the visuals are extremely unique, both the originals and this remake which manages to preserve the style of the original while prettying it up a little, the toy/mini figure look for the characters is extremely endearing, and the overall look of the world matches that aesthetic well. I think some of the original vision was lost trying to bring this game to modern hardware, but I don’t really blame the game for that, the Switch is obviously far superior hardware to the SNES.
The music has also been brought back for a new generation, and it’s as timeless as ever. Going through this game there was multiple times I stopped because I recognized so many tracks from the internet, so many of these songs have endured the test of time and they’re just as good here as they were nearly 30 years ago.
The combat is… interesting, on one hand the combat using of a mix of traditional turn based and rhythm/timing based inputs to increase the power of the moves was novel for the time and is fun now even though this games successors did this style of combat far better. On the other hand the game fairly quickly devolves into just spamming basic attacks to get fights over with quickly as there’s hardly ever a need for spells and more powerful specials outside of the occasional heal, and most of the time these moves do barely more damage than a standard especially come late game. Which makes the FP usage almost unjustifiable as it’s better spent on a heal. To make matters worse, the remake introduced a new gauge the fills as you get perfect timing on attacks and blocks which charges a new special move depending on who’s in your party further trivializing fights. Overall I think the combat IS still fun but it becomes fairly one note and kind of basic the further you go in the game, I do however appreciate how this combat would be improved upon in the first two Paper Mario games, but that’s to be saved for another review I suppose.
There is one more thing that really stands out beyond what mentioned for this game though, and that’s the writing. It has a very similar tone to Undertale and Earthbound, and I know that’ll make many roll their eyes but considering when this game released I’m not going to hold how oversaturated that style of humor became against it, it’s still funny and cute and I’m sure it’ll get some laughs and chuckles out of most.
But how’s the story and characters? They’re fine, story’s very one note and predictable but for a 15 hour JRPG designed towards children it doesn’t really need to be much else. Characters are ok, most are pretty whatever and serve only as a joke, no one particularly stands out from the original characters except Mallow and Geno the two original characters that become party members. I’ll admit I don’t fully understand the Geno hype? He was really boring and nothing stood out from him apart from his design. Mallow at least gets a completed character arc and some development, I figured he’d be a far more requested Smash character than Geno but I guess not.
As a whole though the game’s decent, a refreshingly low stakes short JRPG geared more towards a younger audience is appreciated, especially seeing as it can be enjoyed by adults as well. I just wish the game was harder and had more depth to its story and combat, seeing as combat is all there really is to the gameplay outside of the occasional mini game or shitty platforming segment.
Glad I played the game though, and I get why it has the reputation it does now, I’d say it’s worth a playthrough seeing how short it is but don’t go in expecting to get wowed.
6.5/10, closer to a 7 than a 6 though.
Not really that bad just super mediocre and p boring tbh. I am not the target audience for this at all and thats fine, but I feel like it just got super boring especially in the later game that feels extremely padded out despite this being only 7-8 hours long.
Ig its cute and fun for a bit, just not much else going for it tbh, idk maybe I am just a soulless mf but I p much only finished it cuz it was short (a blessing in disguise, I would not have finished this otherwise)
the performance is very bad tho holy shit how are we in 2024 and switch games are still running at 20fps, this game isnt even visually impressive tf are they doing at goodfeel LMAO
so yeah, dont hate it, just something I found boring and will never go back to, feel peach deserves something better, at least its charming tho!
also 100% experience is absolutely miserable and i will never do it, why nintendo simply REFUSES to let us collect something in a stage and then quit out to save it in our lords year 2024 is fucking insane, especially since you are STILL forced to follow the games pace on replays of a stage
Ig its cute and fun for a bit, just not much else going for it tbh, idk maybe I am just a soulless mf but I p much only finished it cuz it was short (a blessing in disguise, I would not have finished this otherwise)
the performance is very bad tho holy shit how are we in 2024 and switch games are still running at 20fps, this game isnt even visually impressive tf are they doing at goodfeel LMAO
so yeah, dont hate it, just something I found boring and will never go back to, feel peach deserves something better, at least its charming tho!
also 100% experience is absolutely miserable and i will never do it, why nintendo simply REFUSES to let us collect something in a stage and then quit out to save it in our lords year 2024 is fucking insane, especially since you are STILL forced to follow the games pace on replays of a stage