Super Mario RPG is an absolutely essential video game for Mario. It was the starting point of Mario's RPG adventures that would later split into two different RPG series that borrowed many concepts and creativity the original offered, those being Paper Mario, and the Mario & Luigi series. While these two series have their own unique concepts, mechanics, and art styles, at their core they both used Mario RPG as a foundation. It is rather unfortunate then that Mario RPG was left behind in favor of the other two series because Square left Nintendo, but also because Mario RPG still somehow sets itself apart drastically even to this day. Mario RPGs currently aren't in the best position, Mario & Luigi has since ended since AlphaDream's bankruptcy. and Paper Mario being an absolute shell of its former self, it seemed like Mario RPGs were doomed to losing relevancy and positive reception with fans. When the remake was announced, I was unbelievably excited at the prospect that perhaps this was what the Mario RPG space needed, a reminder to both players and developers that there still exists a large fanbase of passionate and dedicated players for these games. Perhaps the success of this game would give Mario RPGs the turnaround it needed to succeed again, but if the game isn't any good, then Mario RPGs as we once knew them may be lost forever. So, was Super Mario RPG's Remake any good?
Super Mario RPG's remake is the most faithful remake I think I've encountered in a very long time. Almost no dialogue was altered from the original, with the exception of some awkward translations and some name changes, everything else was exactly as it was from the original release. This includes a lack of censorship as well, which surprised me. They kept a lot of dialogue and concepts here that I expected to not be included, but I am so glad they did because all of it culminates into what Mario RPG is, and without it, it'd feel just a bit less like how it should.
There's plenty of changes and new additions in this remake as well that are a rather mixed bag for me. Firstly, and most importantly are the changes to timed hits, the remake gives you indications on when to time your attacks, and when to time your guarding. Having an indication to know what the perfect timing is allows players to learn it much more consistently which feels more rewarding overall rather than guessing like in the original. Timed hits and guarding also come in two forms, early inputs, and perfect inputs. An early input like the original will give you more damage and blocking, but not fully, in the Remake this is showcased by the font of the damage that pops up on the screen which is a useful visual aid so players can tune their timings further. A perfectly timed attack or guard have substantial rewards in the remake especially, a perfectly timed attack will allow you to deal smaller splash damage to every other enemy you didn't target in battle, which speeds fights up tremendously. Perfect guarding negates any and all damage you would've taken from the attack, which encourages you to learn the timings of every attack an enemy can use on you which feels really satisfying to master. This new and improved timing system ties into two new mechanics in the Remake which further rewards your mastery of them, chains, and your special meter. Chains is a number that increases the more timed hits you do correctly in a row, the first four or five in a chain will actually buff your stats, which is already a strong incentive to go for, but the chain actually never stops counting your streak. I never found out if there was a limit or not, but my personal best record was seventy-one times. I enjoy that it keeps track of it for so long because it can add a lot of personal challenge to try and hit one hundred which gives the game a small minigame almost within combat to go for which is really fun and can help break up the monotony of random battles if you're feeling a bit burnt out, which is a welcome addition. The special meter ties into timed hits because every correct timed hit will fill up the gauge slightly, when it's filled to 100% you can utilize a "triple attack" where all three of your current party members will do an attack together to deal some really good damage. All of the animations are charming and provide a few unique advantages not found in the original. I actually found them pretty charming and cute, so I liked this addition. Really all of the new additions for combat in the remake are nice because it all ties into the mechanic of timed hits that doesn't make it feel complicated to learn, it's also not as busy as it might look at first glance, which is really important because Super Mario RPG is very beginner friendly for an RPG. This is an easy recommendation for someone who wants to get into the genre.
Unfortunately, while all these new additions do enrich the combat, the side-effect is the absolute downgrade in difficulty. Super Mario RPG was never considered a difficult game, but to make the game even easier can turn a lot of players off if there's no challenge, because then mastering timed hits and all these new additions seems pointless if nothing can stand up to it. Surprise, nothing can, the game is still very much balanced with the original in mind, so a lot of these buffs and the triple moves just decimate everything in their path without any issue whatsoever. I mentioned this in my Super Mario Wonder review, but I do not expect Mario RPG to be difficult, rather I expect the game to at least gradually make me master the mechanics presented to face the ever more powerful and capable enemies and bosses as I progress. That natural progression of the player's skill and game's difficulty is smeared due to the new mechanics in this remake that dulls down the experience a lot, and mastery of timed hits and blocking, while emphasized and rewarded far more than the original, do not matter when said reward one-shots everything. The reward should be justified through the difficulty the game is presenting, but since this game is incredibly easy, those rewards in turn don't feel as necessary or substantial either.
Now, difficulty is incredibly hard to pin down per individual, so obviously someone may have a very difficult time with this game compared to myself. But even in the original, I would get my ass handed to me if I wasn't at least a tad considerate of the capabilities enemies and bosses had against me. That's really my big issue, nothing really poses a threat in this game like the original. You could argue that later in the original, you can damn near one-shot everything anyway, so why am I making this a big deal? Well, there's one extremely big difference I haven't mentioned yet, which is the enemy magic attacks. In the original, every magic attack could not be blocked, meaning you were taking full damage from them every time, along with any status effects those attacks had. In the Remake, most magic attacks enemies cast can be blocked, which I think was a nice change overall, but definitely made the game easier still. There are some magic that still cannot be blocked however, which I think was a good idea to try and keep some stake in fights, but I think they were too broad and selective about which attacks can and can't be blocked, and wished it was more even rather than being able to block most of them. I was overjoyed to be proven wrong with one extremely specific fight I won't spoil, but it was the highlight of the game for me because it rewarded me for mastering my timings and utilizing every single advantage I could possibly get to win, it made all the mechanics and new mechanics feel justified with the extremely challenging nature of that battle, which made it all the more satisfying and fun. If you can just breeze through everything like a picnic, nothing feels as necessary or fun as it should or could be, and that's my biggest problem with this remake.
Graphically, the game is once again amazingly faithful, but does not let this new technological leap go to waste by any means. Every area has backgrounds now that really makes the areas come to life so much more and makes it feel much larger than what you're capable of exploring, which I loved. Every area had an amazing glow-up, and nothing looked off or changed at all, it's honestly impressive how well they nailed the area's vibes while giving them a new coat of paint for them to really shine to their fullest potential. The new remixed music is a mixed bag, some tracks have transcended their originals by a mile, others definitely don't feel as charming or accurate to the originals did. I will concede though that most tracks people know about are done perfectly, they still have their iconic instrumentation and sound, while being upgraded with more depth to make them somehow sound more complete than they already did, which is an achievement. If you don't like the new renditions of the songs, you can actually switch to the original soundtrack in-game, which really shows me how much the devs respected the original, and the fans of the original to even have that option. I very much respect them for that, but I insisted on keeping the new tracks on because I wanted to try and have as new of an experience as possible while playing this remaster, and that was definitely fulfilled in a sense by doing that.
The new cutscenes and boss introductions are phenomenal and really give the game more personality, as well as the bosses. The minigames in the Remake have been altered a bit to throw you a few curveballs for veterans, and for new players, a good sense of difficulty progression. All of the optional content is still here, tons of secrets to find, They give you a specific accessory earlier to help find the hidden treasures in the world much easier, there's a plethora of additional items the game gives you. They updated the inventory system, to where rather than having limited space, you can only hold so many of one item. I like this change, but also don't like it because now the small decision making of what items are essential to you, and which ones aren't is no longer present, you just grab every item you see without worrying about it, and any extras you get go to your storage for safe-keeping. While this helps minimize waste, the player isn't forced to make a tough decision on what item they deem more valuable at that given time anymore, which is a shame, because I personally really enjoyed that aspect of the original, it also wasn't as cumbersome as a game like Earthbound, which made it more bearable as well. You can switch out your party members now mid fight, which makes the game even easier, but I actually like this change because games like Final Fantasy VI already allowed you to do this if you wiped. Unlike Final Fantasy VI however, you can also swap out party members if they have a status that keeps them from fighting for a while, which is another mixed bag. For one, I actually like the change because it no longer kills momentum of the battle to just have one ally not be able to do anything for four turns, but it also doesn't punish the player nearly as hard for not being prepared that something like this could happen. You just switch out your party member and you're good to go. It also just makes specific status nullifying items lose their value later in the game when you can just switch out, though to be fair, status nullifying items got outshined in the original as well in favor of better accessories, and obviously if you swap your party member out for someone else and they suffer the same status effect, it's not even an issue at that point because the fact stands they weren't prepared for it. Platforming sections and other puzzles in this game that were harrowing in the original are still difficult here just due to the isometric perspective of the camera, though I wish they polished it a bit more because some sections were still a nightmare to progress through in this remake.
Super Mario RPG Remake was a fantastic remake of the beloved SNES RPG for me. It definitely has some problems and downgrades as I mentioned, but it's not like the original was perfect either. This is a very solid remake, and I think a lot of the changes could be argued for the betterment of the game, but some of them I wasn't the biggest fan of. It's a super solid remake that respects the original and the fans, and does an immaculate job remastering the graphics and music for the most part that makes it feel familiar, but also new enough to warrant playing. I still prefer the original, although I'd actually recommend this version to anyone who wants to get into RPG's, hell I'd recommend it anyway just because it did a really great job, and I think a lot of the new content I didn't go over to prevent spoiling more than justifying anyone to go out and give it a try, even if you played and loved the original. Thank you all for reading my review of the Super Mario RPG Remake! I'm not sure what games I'll be getting to next since there aren't any new releases for awhile that I'm interested in, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thank you all again for reading!
Super Mario RPG's remake is the most faithful remake I think I've encountered in a very long time. Almost no dialogue was altered from the original, with the exception of some awkward translations and some name changes, everything else was exactly as it was from the original release. This includes a lack of censorship as well, which surprised me. They kept a lot of dialogue and concepts here that I expected to not be included, but I am so glad they did because all of it culminates into what Mario RPG is, and without it, it'd feel just a bit less like how it should.
There's plenty of changes and new additions in this remake as well that are a rather mixed bag for me. Firstly, and most importantly are the changes to timed hits, the remake gives you indications on when to time your attacks, and when to time your guarding. Having an indication to know what the perfect timing is allows players to learn it much more consistently which feels more rewarding overall rather than guessing like in the original. Timed hits and guarding also come in two forms, early inputs, and perfect inputs. An early input like the original will give you more damage and blocking, but not fully, in the Remake this is showcased by the font of the damage that pops up on the screen which is a useful visual aid so players can tune their timings further. A perfectly timed attack or guard have substantial rewards in the remake especially, a perfectly timed attack will allow you to deal smaller splash damage to every other enemy you didn't target in battle, which speeds fights up tremendously. Perfect guarding negates any and all damage you would've taken from the attack, which encourages you to learn the timings of every attack an enemy can use on you which feels really satisfying to master. This new and improved timing system ties into two new mechanics in the Remake which further rewards your mastery of them, chains, and your special meter. Chains is a number that increases the more timed hits you do correctly in a row, the first four or five in a chain will actually buff your stats, which is already a strong incentive to go for, but the chain actually never stops counting your streak. I never found out if there was a limit or not, but my personal best record was seventy-one times. I enjoy that it keeps track of it for so long because it can add a lot of personal challenge to try and hit one hundred which gives the game a small minigame almost within combat to go for which is really fun and can help break up the monotony of random battles if you're feeling a bit burnt out, which is a welcome addition. The special meter ties into timed hits because every correct timed hit will fill up the gauge slightly, when it's filled to 100% you can utilize a "triple attack" where all three of your current party members will do an attack together to deal some really good damage. All of the animations are charming and provide a few unique advantages not found in the original. I actually found them pretty charming and cute, so I liked this addition. Really all of the new additions for combat in the remake are nice because it all ties into the mechanic of timed hits that doesn't make it feel complicated to learn, it's also not as busy as it might look at first glance, which is really important because Super Mario RPG is very beginner friendly for an RPG. This is an easy recommendation for someone who wants to get into the genre.
Unfortunately, while all these new additions do enrich the combat, the side-effect is the absolute downgrade in difficulty. Super Mario RPG was never considered a difficult game, but to make the game even easier can turn a lot of players off if there's no challenge, because then mastering timed hits and all these new additions seems pointless if nothing can stand up to it. Surprise, nothing can, the game is still very much balanced with the original in mind, so a lot of these buffs and the triple moves just decimate everything in their path without any issue whatsoever. I mentioned this in my Super Mario Wonder review, but I do not expect Mario RPG to be difficult, rather I expect the game to at least gradually make me master the mechanics presented to face the ever more powerful and capable enemies and bosses as I progress. That natural progression of the player's skill and game's difficulty is smeared due to the new mechanics in this remake that dulls down the experience a lot, and mastery of timed hits and blocking, while emphasized and rewarded far more than the original, do not matter when said reward one-shots everything. The reward should be justified through the difficulty the game is presenting, but since this game is incredibly easy, those rewards in turn don't feel as necessary or substantial either.
Now, difficulty is incredibly hard to pin down per individual, so obviously someone may have a very difficult time with this game compared to myself. But even in the original, I would get my ass handed to me if I wasn't at least a tad considerate of the capabilities enemies and bosses had against me. That's really my big issue, nothing really poses a threat in this game like the original. You could argue that later in the original, you can damn near one-shot everything anyway, so why am I making this a big deal? Well, there's one extremely big difference I haven't mentioned yet, which is the enemy magic attacks. In the original, every magic attack could not be blocked, meaning you were taking full damage from them every time, along with any status effects those attacks had. In the Remake, most magic attacks enemies cast can be blocked, which I think was a nice change overall, but definitely made the game easier still. There are some magic that still cannot be blocked however, which I think was a good idea to try and keep some stake in fights, but I think they were too broad and selective about which attacks can and can't be blocked, and wished it was more even rather than being able to block most of them. I was overjoyed to be proven wrong with one extremely specific fight I won't spoil, but it was the highlight of the game for me because it rewarded me for mastering my timings and utilizing every single advantage I could possibly get to win, it made all the mechanics and new mechanics feel justified with the extremely challenging nature of that battle, which made it all the more satisfying and fun. If you can just breeze through everything like a picnic, nothing feels as necessary or fun as it should or could be, and that's my biggest problem with this remake.
Graphically, the game is once again amazingly faithful, but does not let this new technological leap go to waste by any means. Every area has backgrounds now that really makes the areas come to life so much more and makes it feel much larger than what you're capable of exploring, which I loved. Every area had an amazing glow-up, and nothing looked off or changed at all, it's honestly impressive how well they nailed the area's vibes while giving them a new coat of paint for them to really shine to their fullest potential. The new remixed music is a mixed bag, some tracks have transcended their originals by a mile, others definitely don't feel as charming or accurate to the originals did. I will concede though that most tracks people know about are done perfectly, they still have their iconic instrumentation and sound, while being upgraded with more depth to make them somehow sound more complete than they already did, which is an achievement. If you don't like the new renditions of the songs, you can actually switch to the original soundtrack in-game, which really shows me how much the devs respected the original, and the fans of the original to even have that option. I very much respect them for that, but I insisted on keeping the new tracks on because I wanted to try and have as new of an experience as possible while playing this remaster, and that was definitely fulfilled in a sense by doing that.
The new cutscenes and boss introductions are phenomenal and really give the game more personality, as well as the bosses. The minigames in the Remake have been altered a bit to throw you a few curveballs for veterans, and for new players, a good sense of difficulty progression. All of the optional content is still here, tons of secrets to find, They give you a specific accessory earlier to help find the hidden treasures in the world much easier, there's a plethora of additional items the game gives you. They updated the inventory system, to where rather than having limited space, you can only hold so many of one item. I like this change, but also don't like it because now the small decision making of what items are essential to you, and which ones aren't is no longer present, you just grab every item you see without worrying about it, and any extras you get go to your storage for safe-keeping. While this helps minimize waste, the player isn't forced to make a tough decision on what item they deem more valuable at that given time anymore, which is a shame, because I personally really enjoyed that aspect of the original, it also wasn't as cumbersome as a game like Earthbound, which made it more bearable as well. You can switch out your party members now mid fight, which makes the game even easier, but I actually like this change because games like Final Fantasy VI already allowed you to do this if you wiped. Unlike Final Fantasy VI however, you can also swap out party members if they have a status that keeps them from fighting for a while, which is another mixed bag. For one, I actually like the change because it no longer kills momentum of the battle to just have one ally not be able to do anything for four turns, but it also doesn't punish the player nearly as hard for not being prepared that something like this could happen. You just switch out your party member and you're good to go. It also just makes specific status nullifying items lose their value later in the game when you can just switch out, though to be fair, status nullifying items got outshined in the original as well in favor of better accessories, and obviously if you swap your party member out for someone else and they suffer the same status effect, it's not even an issue at that point because the fact stands they weren't prepared for it. Platforming sections and other puzzles in this game that were harrowing in the original are still difficult here just due to the isometric perspective of the camera, though I wish they polished it a bit more because some sections were still a nightmare to progress through in this remake.
Super Mario RPG Remake was a fantastic remake of the beloved SNES RPG for me. It definitely has some problems and downgrades as I mentioned, but it's not like the original was perfect either. This is a very solid remake, and I think a lot of the changes could be argued for the betterment of the game, but some of them I wasn't the biggest fan of. It's a super solid remake that respects the original and the fans, and does an immaculate job remastering the graphics and music for the most part that makes it feel familiar, but also new enough to warrant playing. I still prefer the original, although I'd actually recommend this version to anyone who wants to get into RPG's, hell I'd recommend it anyway just because it did a really great job, and I think a lot of the new content I didn't go over to prevent spoiling more than justifying anyone to go out and give it a try, even if you played and loved the original. Thank you all for reading my review of the Super Mario RPG Remake! I'm not sure what games I'll be getting to next since there aren't any new releases for awhile that I'm interested in, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. Thank you all again for reading!