A remake of the SNES classic, Super Mario RPG sticks very close to its roots to bring Mario’s very first foray into the RPG genre to a whole new audience on Switch.
What that means is that the core experience and charm of the 1996 original is left intact for this remake. All the original dialogue and jokes are left the same, the level design is the same and the character designs are left the same with the updated visuals keeping the very same squished chibi-esque look of Mario and co.
The handful of additions that have been made to this remake have been done with care and with an attempt to entice first time RPG players into the genre.
A breezy difficulty mode has been added for newcomers and a few additions to the battle system do lower the difficulty a bit. Like the original game, pressing the action button at the right time during an attack will do extra damage but here, the more accurate you time the button press, you can gain the addition of splash damage that hits all enemies. While this does make battles easier because you're damaging several enemies at once, I really like that it's based on your skill with the battle system and therefore you're being rewarded for playing well rather than just being gifted bonus damage. Timing your attacks well now also fills up a special gauge that can be used to pull off a flashy and well animated special attack that does major damage. Again it does make the game easier but I don't really mind that myself and I loved seeing the special animation for each party setup.
Changes elsewhere include a remastered soundtrack that perfectly captures the feel of the original game, the button icons now being based off the red/blue/green/yellow EU/JP SNES colour scheme instead of the horrible purple US version (which was probably the case for the Japanese original anyways), new post game boss rematches for those looking for a challenge, and brand new CG cutscenes throughout the story which brings me to my sole complaint of the game - the lack of any dialogue sound effects.
I don't need full voice acting in my Mario games but I do need a little more than pure silent text screen boxes and cutscene subtitles in my modern games. Something like the Mario & Luigi games unintelligible gibberish or the odd wahoo just to liven the reading up a little bit or even a text sound effect like Undertale does. There's points where Bowser does his signature roars which is what I feel was missing from Mario and Peach in particular. It's a minor nitpick in an otherwise really well done remake.
For those who haven't experienced Mario’s first RPG adventure I highly recommend this. A lot of the core DNA from the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series (which was even titled Mario RPG 2 in development!) can be found here. Bowser's very funny and heartwarming personality, the unique takes on classic Mario characters to give them even more personality like Boshi the Yoshi, the unique races brought into the Mario universe like the cloud people, the platforming elements and minigame challenges, the bonus stats you can attribute after levelling up, the well paced story that just keeps moving at a good pace, all encounters being seen on the overworld, the action battle system - it's all here and it's all very well done.
Super Mario RPG is a fantastic entry point to the RPG genre and is still a fun and charming adventure to this day.
What that means is that the core experience and charm of the 1996 original is left intact for this remake. All the original dialogue and jokes are left the same, the level design is the same and the character designs are left the same with the updated visuals keeping the very same squished chibi-esque look of Mario and co.
The handful of additions that have been made to this remake have been done with care and with an attempt to entice first time RPG players into the genre.
A breezy difficulty mode has been added for newcomers and a few additions to the battle system do lower the difficulty a bit. Like the original game, pressing the action button at the right time during an attack will do extra damage but here, the more accurate you time the button press, you can gain the addition of splash damage that hits all enemies. While this does make battles easier because you're damaging several enemies at once, I really like that it's based on your skill with the battle system and therefore you're being rewarded for playing well rather than just being gifted bonus damage. Timing your attacks well now also fills up a special gauge that can be used to pull off a flashy and well animated special attack that does major damage. Again it does make the game easier but I don't really mind that myself and I loved seeing the special animation for each party setup.
Changes elsewhere include a remastered soundtrack that perfectly captures the feel of the original game, the button icons now being based off the red/blue/green/yellow EU/JP SNES colour scheme instead of the horrible purple US version (which was probably the case for the Japanese original anyways), new post game boss rematches for those looking for a challenge, and brand new CG cutscenes throughout the story which brings me to my sole complaint of the game - the lack of any dialogue sound effects.
I don't need full voice acting in my Mario games but I do need a little more than pure silent text screen boxes and cutscene subtitles in my modern games. Something like the Mario & Luigi games unintelligible gibberish or the odd wahoo just to liven the reading up a little bit or even a text sound effect like Undertale does. There's points where Bowser does his signature roars which is what I feel was missing from Mario and Peach in particular. It's a minor nitpick in an otherwise really well done remake.
For those who haven't experienced Mario’s first RPG adventure I highly recommend this. A lot of the core DNA from the Mario & Luigi series and the Paper Mario series (which was even titled Mario RPG 2 in development!) can be found here. Bowser's very funny and heartwarming personality, the unique takes on classic Mario characters to give them even more personality like Boshi the Yoshi, the unique races brought into the Mario universe like the cloud people, the platforming elements and minigame challenges, the bonus stats you can attribute after levelling up, the well paced story that just keeps moving at a good pace, all encounters being seen on the overworld, the action battle system - it's all here and it's all very well done.
Super Mario RPG is a fantastic entry point to the RPG genre and is still a fun and charming adventure to this day.