I can respect Super Mario RPG for the mountain of a hurdle it had to take on in order to work. Taking the world's most popular platformer, one of the most beginner friendly genres in the industry, and turning it into a genre known for slow, strategic decision-making is no easy feat. Many of the design sensibilities are inherently opposing of one another. Despite the clear effort put into fusing these two together, Super Mario RPG misses the mark and ends up with an experience that fails to satisfy the strengths of either, sticking too close to the conventions of its genre. Instead of adapting or innovating on it to create something truly new, it waters down everything that makes RPGs great and leaves a half baked mess, creating a wholly unsatisfying and forgettable experience.
Combat is very simple, even by 1996 standards. Everything that you'd expect is here, with very little done to spice up the flow or structure of battle. New moves are often just direct upgrades of old moves at a slightly higher cost. The party members don't rarely anything unique to the table that other characters don't have access to. Unique additions to the formula such as a shared MP gauge and action commands get no room to shine do to the lack of any required strategy or thought. While bosses do commonly have gimmicks in an attempt to make battles feel more unique, I can not remember a single one that caused me to rethink my strategy. Every battle just feels like you're going through the motions, requiring the bare minimum amount of thought needed to progress. Even outside the realm of battles, Super Mario RPG fails to deliver much in gameplay. The overworld is generally very bland with little room to explore and discover. The whole game is set on one linear path with very minimal splits. Any other form of gameplay such as platforming or the various minigames feel very underdeveloped, the former being consistently annoying due to the stereoscopic 3D angle.
Most of the things I’ve mentioned up until now is stuff I expected. Even Chrono Trigger, a game that had less of a wide net to toss, rarely satisfied me in combat or gameplay. No, the true thing I looked forward to was the story and characters. Though it has been a few years, I remember the other Mario RPGs I had dabbled in prior consistently delivering decent stories and charming characters, as well as plenty of memorable moments along the way. And with this game being from Square, a company that had satisfied me in those same areas both before and after this game, I had solid expectation set, which makes it all the more disheartening when I met all those aspects with a resounding “meh”. The actual story itself is also pretty much nothing and could be summarized in a single sentence, but I think that's the lesser issue. Most of the characters and antagonists I felt were kinda forgettable, likely due to the generally short amount of time given to each antagonist (there's 7 big bads, not including Smithy himself which, mixed with the game's 10 hour run time, means you usually get one or two short scenes and a battle with each within areas that barely last an hour), as well as there being only one consistent threat to fight against that's only loosely tied to everything else in the game. This tied with practically no recurring characters makes the entire game just feel like a string of random, generally forgettable moments held together by said loose thread of a central threat (the aforementioned thread could be removed and very little would change). Even in its best moments, such as exploring Star Hill, the game is heavily tainted by this disconnect.
While the game does have its few upsides, particularly in the visuals, music, and the insanely impressive battle animations, I just feel dissatisfied by Super Mario RPG. It didn’t do enough.
Combat is very simple, even by 1996 standards. Everything that you'd expect is here, with very little done to spice up the flow or structure of battle. New moves are often just direct upgrades of old moves at a slightly higher cost. The party members don't rarely anything unique to the table that other characters don't have access to. Unique additions to the formula such as a shared MP gauge and action commands get no room to shine do to the lack of any required strategy or thought. While bosses do commonly have gimmicks in an attempt to make battles feel more unique, I can not remember a single one that caused me to rethink my strategy. Every battle just feels like you're going through the motions, requiring the bare minimum amount of thought needed to progress. Even outside the realm of battles, Super Mario RPG fails to deliver much in gameplay. The overworld is generally very bland with little room to explore and discover. The whole game is set on one linear path with very minimal splits. Any other form of gameplay such as platforming or the various minigames feel very underdeveloped, the former being consistently annoying due to the stereoscopic 3D angle.
Most of the things I’ve mentioned up until now is stuff I expected. Even Chrono Trigger, a game that had less of a wide net to toss, rarely satisfied me in combat or gameplay. No, the true thing I looked forward to was the story and characters. Though it has been a few years, I remember the other Mario RPGs I had dabbled in prior consistently delivering decent stories and charming characters, as well as plenty of memorable moments along the way. And with this game being from Square, a company that had satisfied me in those same areas both before and after this game, I had solid expectation set, which makes it all the more disheartening when I met all those aspects with a resounding “meh”. The actual story itself is also pretty much nothing and could be summarized in a single sentence, but I think that's the lesser issue. Most of the characters and antagonists I felt were kinda forgettable, likely due to the generally short amount of time given to each antagonist (there's 7 big bads, not including Smithy himself which, mixed with the game's 10 hour run time, means you usually get one or two short scenes and a battle with each within areas that barely last an hour), as well as there being only one consistent threat to fight against that's only loosely tied to everything else in the game. This tied with practically no recurring characters makes the entire game just feel like a string of random, generally forgettable moments held together by said loose thread of a central threat (the aforementioned thread could be removed and very little would change). Even in its best moments, such as exploring Star Hill, the game is heavily tainted by this disconnect.
While the game does have its few upsides, particularly in the visuals, music, and the insanely impressive battle animations, I just feel dissatisfied by Super Mario RPG. It didn’t do enough.