The Super Mario RPG Remake thread

[Calavera]

I know we have a Super Mario thread but with this being a pretty big release I thought starting it's own thread would be ok.

I've not finished it yet I'm currently at Land's End but so far I have to say this is a nearly perfect remake. It is more or less just the original game with much much improved graphics. No BS changes that change how the game is played just the same game with a fresh coat of paint. There are some new additions. One major one being the new group move that you can use once you fill up a gauge during battle. A good addition imo. You also are now able to switch party members during battle. This is a great addition, you can switch to Peach if you need a healing spell then switch back to Bowser or whoever to attack on the next turn.

The new graphics are amazing. I have no complaints at all about the visuals. For someone who has played the SNES version many times it is fun to see the new improved versions of all the different characters. I do have on slight disappointment with one battle. I was looking forward to seeing how the Culex battle looked with the new graphics. I wasn't sure if they would keep Culex and improve the graphics or possibly change it to a different character. When I entered the sealed door I was dissapointed to see the same 2D sprite. Culex then says something about how you are 3D and he was made to be 2D. When it goes to the battle it is the exact same sprites from the SNES version with no improvements.

One other slight complaint I have is the controls. You can set it so Mario either always walks or runs and then you press L to do the opposite. This will probably be fine for the majority of people but I'm so used to holding Y to run in SNES games that I couldn't help myself from constantly trying to hold Y. I know this is a minor complaint and will only effect a small number of people but it would have been nice if they included a classic control scheme that mirrored the SNES controls.

This isn't really a complaint it is just how the game is. The new version has an option for standard or basic. Basic mode apparently makes the battles much easier so you can just focus on the story. The thing is that even on normal the game is VERY easy for anyone remotely familiar with RPGS. I would have liked to see an Expert mode for people who have already played the SNES version many times and would like more of a challenge.

One thing I find kind of strange about the remake is that they've changed some names of characters,spells and equipment. The first time I noticed this is when I fought Mack at the beginning of the game. He is no longer named Mack and is now Claymorton. I'm not sure why they did this. Mallow's Psychopath ability where he can see how much HP an enemy has remaining and also read their thoughts with a timed press is now called Thought Peek. Toadstool is now Peach but I totally understand that change as she hasn't been called Princess Toadstool in over 25 years. There are other changes some make sense other are kind of confusing. One other small change I noticed is before the fight with Bowyer in the original Mallow says something like "You can't just go in with fists flying, who do you think you are Bruce Lee?" The Bruce Lee reference is now removed.

Overall I say it is a pretty much perfect remake that makes the SNES version obsolete. Many times with remakes they mess something up and their is still reason to play the original. With this remake though I see no reason to ever go back to the SNES version. This is the definitive way to play Mario RPG.

So who here have played it?

[Dr. Zoidberg]

The original Super Mario RPG wasn't released in PAL territories, so I never played it on original hardware and haven't played it much on emulation.

I'm interested in checking out the Switch version eventually but it's not one I'm going to rush to just yet. Maybe when it's on special I'll grab it.

[Calavera]

The original Super Mario RPG wasn't released in PAL territories, so I never played it on original hardware and haven't played it much on emulation.

I'm interested in checking out the Switch version eventually but it's not one I'm going to rush to just yet. Maybe when it's on special I'll grab it.

Really? I always assumed it came out in all territories. I highly recommend you give it a go. It will be interesting to see what you think of it with no nostalgia attached. I owned it back in the day and I'm pretty sure it was the first RPG I really played. Actually I believe I did play Earthbound before Mario RPG but I didn't really understand it at the time.

I highly HIGHLY recommend you play it but it's current price of $60 is pretty high. Not only because when you get down to it it is a 27 year old game with pretty graphics added. But mainly because it is a fairly short game, especially for an RPG. Where Final Fantasy VI on the SNES was around a 40 hour game Mario RPG is more around 15 hours or so maybe 20 at most. But seeing how the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remake Bundle is $75 on Switch and to complete that will take somewhere around 150 hours yeah even though Super Mario RPG is a great game $60 is just too much. It should be half that at $30.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Most big RPGs on the Nintendo 8-bit and 16-bit systems didn't come out in the PAL countries, mainly due to the price of the cartridges and because they were seen as niche games. We got things like Zelda and Secret Of Mana, but no Final Fantasy (except for Mystic Quest) or Dragon Quest.

You would think a Mario game would come out even if it was an RPG but it was probably too late in the SNES' life for them to take a chance on it.

On the Sega systems, all the RPGs and strategy games did come out or they were region free.

[ian]

We got things like Zelda and Secret Of Mana

The SNES only ever needed Secret of Mana!

I tried to play Mario RPG like 20 years ago with emulation (and a whole shitload of other NES/SNES RPG's)

But they were all pointless after playing Secret of Mana.

It's like you're eating food, you've just had all you can eat lobster and perfectly cooked steak and you're full and then someone offers you stale un-buttered bread.

I don't want to eat stale un-buttered bread. I want more Lobster and perfectly cooked steak.

[pixel]

We got things like Zelda and Chrono Trigger

The SNES only ever needed Chrono Trigger!

I tried to play Mario RPG like 20 years ago with emulation (and a whole shitload of other NES/SNES RPG's)

But they were all pointless after playing Chrono Trigger.

It's like you're eating food, you've just had all you can eat lobster and perfectly cooked steak and you're full and then someone offers you stale un-buttered bread.

I don't want to eat stale un-buttered bread. I want more Lobster and perfectly cooked steak.

I feel the same way about Chrono Trigger. I played that first and never finished Secret of Mana, Terranigma, or Seiken Densetsu 3.

But I was the same kid that completed Illusion of Gaia at least twice, so my taste was/is pretty subjective. I also played any SNES RPG with story mode enabled (a.k.a. Game Genie).

Mario RPG had great visuals and audio but I only ever rented it, so I never made it very far. Then when I could play it on emulation, I had moved on from SNES RPGs and was probably playing manly games like Halo or some other FPS.

[ian]

Then when I could play it on emulation, I had moved on from SNES RPGs and was probably playing manly games like Halo or some other FPS.

Manly games you say? DAMN SKIPPY!
I'm gonna smash HALO, RED FACTION, COD, UT, PERFECT DARK AND HALF LIFE like I smash this broad...


And then, I'm gonna drink beer and smoke joints and play virtual doll house with The Sims! Manly stuff!

[pixel]

Then when I could play it on emulation, I had moved on from SNES RPGs and was probably playing manly games like Halo or some other FPS.

Manly games you say? DAMN SKIPPY!
I'm gonna smash HALO, RED FACTION, COD, UT, PERFECT DARK AND HALF LIFE like I smash this broad...


And then, I'm gonna drink beer and smoke joints and play virtual doll house with The Sims! Manly stuff!

68216eb5-86f4-47ff-b741-e812cd09d36f.png

But seriously, I realized a few years ago: I never liked JRPGs after the 2D sprite era. I know people that are obsessed with PS1-era 3D RPGs but I don't have any connection to them. Mario RPG's prerendered graphics seemed like the natural apex for the genre. Once there were screen-filling summons with millions of particle effects, it didn't seem as fun or engaging as the older games.

[Calavera]

I also played any SNES RPG with story mode enabled (a.k.a. Game Genie).

That is how I played Final Fantasy 7 back in the day when I was still new to RPGs and I still loved it! I'd play it normally now though. I need to playthrough it again someday. It was like 23-25 years ago when I played through.

But seriously, I realized a few years ago: I never liked JRPGs after the 2D sprite era. I know people that are obsessed with PS1-era 3D RPGs but I don't have any connection to them. Mario RPG's prerendered graphics seemed like the natural apex for the genre. Once there were screen-filling summons with millions of particle effects, it didn't seem as fun or engaging as the older games.

For me the best graphics for a JRPG is Dreamcast/PS2 era graphics. Stuff like Skies of Arcadia,Grandia II and Dragon's Quest VIII. It is probably just nostalgia but for me having that type of graphics improves the experience for me. It seems like they still make RPGs in that style though. The graphics are obviously improved upon but I've seen some newer games that still has a similar feel as those kind of graphics.


As for the Mario RPG remake I finished the main story earlier today. But they have added new content once you finished the game. There are several bosses you can fight again and they are MUCH stronger. I'm enjoying them so far, it is just too bad they couldn't have made the bosses during the story somewhat challenging. The final boss just like the rest of the enemies in the game is super easy. The only time I actually died during the main story was when fighting Culex which is an optional fight that is the hardest in the game. While I made it through the whole story mode without losing I've already lost a couple times on these re-matches.

[melancholy]

My foray into RPG's started with Mario RPG. Back when I was younger and less wise, I sold my entire Sega Genesis collection in an attempt to raise enough money to buy a Playstation. I sold my Genesis to my cousin and all the games to various resell shops around town. When I finally had enough, my mom took me to the closest city with a game store, which was an hour away: McVans Video Game Trader. I walked in with a fat stack of cash, only to find that I didn't calculate sales tax correctly in my equation and was $20 short. I begged my mom to lend me $20, but she refused. I sold everything for that Playstation and ended up with nothing. So when we next went to the mall, I took my cash to Electronics Boutique and bought a Super Nintendo (the Killer Instinct bundle) and a game that had just came out a few days beforehand: Mario RPG.

Playing this game for the first time was...confusing. I had no idea what an RPG was, and didn't understand anything about the mechanics. But as this was now the only game I owned (other than SNES Killer Instinct), I played through it...a lot. Me and a friend put tons of hours on the cart and filled all 4 save slots. It was honestly way more fun after a couple times through because we understood how battles worked.

My desire for more RPGs led me to try Final Fantasy II next. Talk about a step backwards, everything just felt so inferior. I remember being so annoyed because I was timing my button presses for attacks but getting critical hits seemed so random (which I would later go on to discover that they WERE random, timed hits was unique to Mario RPG). And so my love of RPG's faded until one day, a friend suggested I try this new game called Final Fantasy VII. For a month, I traded my SNES and Mario RPG for his Playstation and Final Fantasy VII. FFVII changed everything for me. It was glorious. One of the greatest games ever created. After that, going back to nearly ANY SNES RPG just seemed so inferior. FFIII, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana...none of them were ever that great to me. I'd take PSX RPG's over SNES RPG's any day. With the exception of Mario RPG, which will always have a special place in my heart.

And fun fact: you know that Genesis I sold to my cousin? A year or two later, her family was moving to Michigan and they didn't play it enough to bother taking it with them, so her mom asked if I wanted it. So I ended up getting it back in the end.

[Calavera]

That is rough about the Playstation story. Do you look back at it now like "I'm glad my mom did that, she taught me an important lesson about earning a dollar" or do you still think it is crappy that she couldn't just lend you the $20 considering you sold all your video games to get the Playstation. You came out good in the end though, you got to experience Mario RPG when it was new and you still were able to play an awesome PS1 RPG. It might have been better anyways because it sounds like even if she did lend you the $20 you then wouldn't have had any money for games.

I can't really remember how it was when I first played Mario RPG. I remember renting Earthbound before and have basically zero idea how it worked. I can remember having a hard time with the earlier bosses like the Hammer Bros. and Mack which are incredibly easy now. I think I had at least some idea how RPGs worked when I played it. Maybe they figured a lot of people playing it wouldn't be RPG experts and made it easy to get into. I do remember buying it though. I think it was either in 1997 or 1998. I had recently learned about emulation and was trying out tons of SNES and Genesis games. At that time the compatibility was still pretty low, any SNES games with additional chips wouldn't play. I remember even Pilotwings couldn't be emulated. I wanted to play Mario RPG but it was one of those games that wouldn't work. So I wanted to buy a copy but by that time it wasn't in stores anymore. I ended up ordering it from Etoys.com(pretty sure that was the name). By that time I knew I should keep the box and everything with it. I think I ended up selling it CIB on Ebay for like $70 which yeah I should have held onto longer. Same with all my Dreamcast stuff! But at the time it was hard to think that stuff would ever sell for as much as it does now.

I had a similar experience with the timed hits. Since Mario RPG was the first RPG I really played and finished I still find myself sometimes trying to do timed hits in other RPGs even though I know it doesn't do anything. I still need to go back and try some of the 16 and 32-bit era RPGs. I've never played Chrono Trigger,Secret of Mana or Final Fantasy 6. The only RPG I even played on PS1 was FF7 with some experience cheat on so I was max level from the start.

Do you plan on playing the remake of Mario RPG? Yes it will be very easy but it is still a fun time. I know you have kids or kid don't know if you have more than one. I don't know how much into games they are but it might be fun to playthrough it with them. And as I mentioned after you complete the story you get to rechallenge several of the bosses. Seven in total I think and they are much harder. I beat the rematch with Jinx and Belome without too much trouble. Right now I'm on Booster and it is pretty tough. Mainly because he has an attack that does 9999 damage to all 3 party members! One thing that is different in the remake is if all 3 party members get knocked out it will automatically bring in the other two members if they aren't knocked out. For example if Mario,Bowser and Mallow get knocked out Geno and Peach will automatically come into the battle.

I said earlier how it is a short game but right now I've got about 20 hours in according to the in-game clock. And I think that is pretty accurate. However I spend a lot of time messing around doing stuff you don't really have to do. I played the Midas river course way too many times lol. I also did the Yoshi race a bunch when I got to Yo'ster Island until I got 100 cookies. Even though I never used a cookie once in battle!

[pixel]

That is rough about the Playstation story.

I've been there myself, one of the worst feelings as a kid when the best laid plans go south.

[Calavera]

That is rough about the Playstation story.

I've been there myself, one of the worst feelings as a kid when the best laid plans go south.

The worst gaming related thing that happened to me as a kid was getting Rocko's Modern Life for the Super Nintendo. I must of heard about it from this commercial.



I loved the cartoon so I just had to get the video game! It is the absolute worst game I've ever owned. OMG it is terrible! You'd think it would just be a generic platformer with Rocko characters but oh no. It is basically a puzzle game. You have to get Spunky to the end of the level by doing stuff like timing raising a platform as soon as he walks onto it, flipping him into the air, making sure a flotation device is at the edge of the water so he can cross and picking him up and sitting him back down to change his direction. It is not fun in the slightest and it is really damn hard for a game made for kids!

It came out in April 1994 and I probably got it not too long after it released so I would have been 6 years old. If you've never played it watch some gameplay of it and imagine a 6 year old in 1994 trying to figure all that out. The worst part about it is it isn't like now where if you get a bad game you just don't play it very long and move to one of the other of 100s of games you have in your library. Back then when you got a new game you played it no matter what because it was a new game.

This is kind of embarassing but I remember playing it one time and was literally screaming and crying at the game. Back then I did tend to get pretty mad at games and throw the controller or yell but as far as I can remember Rocko on SNES is the only game that ever made me cry with how awful it was. It is the worst gaming experience I've had in my entire life. Also it was only the second damn level of the game! The first level wasn't too bad but then the second level is like 50x more difficult.

Here is gameplay of the level that made me scream and cry as a six year old Calavera. 2:53-7:00




Just look at all that crap you have to do and imagine a 6 year old in 1994 trying to figure all that out. I don't get why they made games like this so hard! I know the whole games were harder so you couldn't rent them and beat them but this is ridiculous. It wasn't like it was a game that appealed to all ages it was a game based on Rocko's Modern Life! The main audience for the game was probably in the 6-12 range. All they had to do was make a Mario like game and replace Mario with Rocko and replace the goombas and koopa troopas with other characters from the show. That is more or less was Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden treasure did.

That was another game I owned back then. I remember that game getting kind of hard for me at the time but that is once I was many levels into it. That game has 33 levels so the difficulty was able to gradually increase like most games. Stupid ass Rocko has 4 areas with 4 levels each so it sorta has 16 levels so less than half that of Buster's Hidden Treasure. But in Buster the levels had a ton of variety and several different bosses. With Rocko you play 4 levels that look almost the same then move onto the next area where you do the exact same thing again and really the only difference is the background and platforms change! So instead of a beach background with wooden platforms it is a junkyard background with steel platforms. It may technically have 16 levels but every level plays exactly the same!

I'd like to know how the development for Rocko SNES went. Did it actually turn out how they wanted it to? When it was finished were they happy with it and thought they had made a good game? Of all the ideas they could have went with who the hell came up with frustratingly guiding Spunky
to the end of each level? Why did anyone think that was a good idea?

I went on a bit of a rant there but you can see just how much I hate that game. When I win the lottery I might just buy every copy that keeps showing up on Ebay and destroy them. Kind of like that old website where they were trying to destroy every copy of Shaq Fu. At least Shaq Fu is playable. Heck Shaq Fu is a masterpiece compared to Rocko's Shitty Ass Modern Piece of Shit Life!

[Calavera]

I've beat all the extra bosses. They weren't as hard as I first thought they were. Some of them really weren't that challenging at all. Others seemed hard at first but once you know how to fight them they aren't that bad. This may be a slighter spoiler but I'd mentioned before how I was dissapointed that Culex was still in 2D. Well you fight him a second time and he is much harder and in 3D. I've fought him twice. The second time I did it in 25 turns and didn't really have that much trouble.

If I play through again in the future I might try a no weapons/armor/accessory run and see if it is any harder like that. It should be much harder but I'd bet still pretty easy. Overall it is a great game just a shame it is so easy. Maybe if this remake sells well they will finally release a sequel. Some say Paper Mario is basically a Mario RPG sequel but I disagree. Paper Mario is a totally different type of game imo.

[Calavera]

I started another play through. Usually when I play I fight every enemy I encounter. I thought I'd see how it goes if I skip every optional enemy and only fight the required ones. Right now I've just defeated the cake in Marrymore. I've only done 2 or 3 optional fights that I accidentally got into and couldn't run away but those haven't really effected my level as they were low level enemies worth only a couple EXP.

I just beat the cake with

Mario Level 6 45hp
Mallow Level 6 37hp
Geno Level 7 53hp
Bowser Level 8 80hp

I lost on my first try but beat it on my second. Even with skipping enemies and being underleveled it still is pretty easy. Which makes it even crazier that they included a "Breezy" mode for easier fights. I haven't tried it but wow how can the fights get any easier!

Beat Johnny first try and Yaridovich

Mario L7 51hp Yard L8 57hp
Mallow L7 42hp Yard L8 47hp
Geno L8 61hp YardL9 69hp
Bowser L9 88hp YardL10 96hp
Peach L9 50hp YardL10 63hp

I'm dissapointed. I thought Yaridovich would be kind of challenging. It was still easy as shit! I would usually be probably double the level I was if not more. After fighting Yaridovich Mario only has a total of 474exp! This really is an RPG for babies!

[melancholy]

Did you use a guide @Calavera to find everything?

[Calavera]

Did you use a guide @Calavera to find everything?

No but I have played the SNES version several times throughout the years so I still remembered where everything is. Well I did look up a video to find the treasure chests I had missed on my first playthrough. I never really went after them in the SNES version and figured why not get them this time. Out of the 39 total I think I looked up maybe 10 of them.

If you were asking if I used a guide to find the new content once you beat the game I only looked at one once I beat everything to make sure there wasn't anything I missed. After you beat the game Frogfucius tells you where the new bosses are. After I beat them I looked to see if there was more that I wasn't aware of but nope that was it.

[melancholy]

Did you use a guide @Calavera to find everything?

No but I have played the SNES version several times throughout the years so I still remembered where everything is. Well I did look up a video to find the treasure chests I had missed on my first playthrough. I never really went after them in the SNES version and figured why not get them this time. Out of the 39 total I think I looked up maybe 10 of them.

If you were asking if I used a guide to find the new content once you beat the game I only looked at one once I beat everything to make sure there wasn't anything I missed. After you beat the game Frogfucius tells you where the new bosses are. After I beat them I looked to see if there was more that I wasn't aware of but nope that was it.

No, I was just curious if you knew all the little secrets in the game, like the casino, the game handheld, stuff like that.

[Calavera]

No, I was just curious if you knew all the little secrets in the game, like the casino, the game handheld, stuff like that.

To be totally honest I think I did look up how to get to the Casino way back in the day. That is pretty hard to figure out on your own. I don't think I even knew Knife Guy was in Booster's Tower at all because I had no reason to ever go back there after beating that part. Even if I had found him I don't think I would have figured out to beat him 12 times in a row. It is pretty easy to do in the remake but in the original it was really hard to know which hand the ball was in. Towards the end it gets so fast that it is pretty much just luck if you get it or not (from what I remember.)

On the off chance I figured all that out you still have to find the location of the casino! I believe I found the beetle game on my own. I suck at it though. It seems random whether it gives you huge combos or not. At first I was playing it like you think you would with shooting every beetle. The high score when you get it from the Toad is 5,000 and I couldn't even get that. Then all of a sudden on one game I get like 50,000 points for one shot! You've got to get several million to get the medal for it in the remake. I think I've gotten a little over a million but you need 3 million for the medal. I've seen videos on the best strategy and I've done that but most of the time I don't get the crazy combos even when the screen is filled.
*edit I tried it right after posting this and got over 5 million first try.

Speaking of beetles I also suck at the Boosters Hill Beetle Race mini-game. The one where you have to jump on the barrels and snifits to boost ahead. I somehow did really good at it on my first play through when chasing Booster and got like 10 or 12 flowers. So I thought oh it must be easier on the remake. Then the next time I sucked lol. I also never really cared for the Mine Cart mini-game. I haven't tried getting the medal for it. I don't know if it is hard I haven't tried just because I think that part sucks lol.