Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a 1996 role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was the final Mario game for the SNES, and was directed by Chihiro Fujioka and Yoshihiko Maekawa, produced by Shigeru Miyamoto, and scored by Yoko Shimomura.
Super Mario RPG story focuses on Mario and his friends as they seek to defeat the Smithy Gang, who have crashed into their world and scattered the seven star pieces of Star Road. It is the first RPG in the Mario franchise, drawing from major elements of Square's RPG franchises such as Final Fantasy. The main form of fighting enemies is turn-based combat with a party of up to three characters. It is also the first game in the Mario franchise to have gameplay within an isometric 3D environment, allowing for a new variety of the exploration and platforming elements reminiscent of the Super Mario series. The game features many new characters, such as Mallow and Geno.
Super Mario RPG was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, particularly for its humor and 3D-rendered graphics. It was released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2008, marking its debut in Europe and Australia, and for the Wii U's Virtual Console in 2015. It was also included with the Super NES Classic Edition in 2017. [|A remake] developed by ArtePiazza for the Nintendo Switch was released in 2023 and received positive reviews. Super Mario RPG was followed by the Mario RPG series Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi, which retain some gameplay elements.
Gameplay
Super Mario RPG contains token similarities to other Square-developed video games, such as the Final Fantasy series, along with a story and gameplay based on the Super Mario series of platform games. Like most traditional JRPGs, the two main sections of the game are adventuring and turn-based battle sequences. Much of Super Mario RPGs gameplay is outside monster battles and plays like an isometric 3D platformer, in which traditional Mario elements, such as punching floating question blocks from below, are prominent. There are no random encounters, and as such, enemies are visible in the field; a battle ensues only if Mario comes in contact with one. This allows the player to evade unnecessary battles.The player's party initially begins with only Mario and grows to five characters. Mario and up to two other members participate in battles, who can be swapped in and out while the player explores the overworld. Each of the five characters has a unique set of attacks and techniques. For example, Princess Peach's abilities are primarily healing techniques, whereas Geno and Bowser have offensive attacks that deal high amounts of damage. The combat is based on a traditional turn-based battle system with the addition of action commands that amplify a move's effects. The player starts each turn by choosing to attack, defend, run, use an item, or perform magic from the combat menu. The action command consists of timed button presses during an attack, special move, defense, or item usage, which became a mainstay of later Mario RPGs.
Story
Characters and setting
The game world is set in a geographically diverse land, which includes mountains, forests, and bodies of water. Each region has distinct characteristics held by its inhabitants; Mushroom Kingdom is inhabited by Toads, Moleville is inhabited by moles, Monstro Town is populated by reformed monsters, Yo'ster Isle is where Yoshi and his eponymous species reside, and Nimbus Land is an area inhabited by cloud people. Bowser's Castle is another prominent location and, during the events of the game, holds the portal to the Smithy Gang's homeworld.As in most Super Mario games, the main protagonist is Mario, whose initial goal is to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. Soon after the start of his journey, the Smithy Gang, the main antagonists of the game, invades Mario's world. While attempting to stop the group, Mario is joined by Mallow, a cloud boy who thinks he is a tadpole; Geno, a doll possessed by a celestial spirit from the Star Road; Bowser, whose armies have deserted him out of fear of the Smithy Gang; and Princess Toadstool, who was lost in the turmoil that occurred when the Smithy Gang arrived. The Smithy Gang is led by Smithy, a robotic blacksmith from another world with aspirations of world domination.
Plot
One day, Mario sets out once again to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser at his castle. During their battle, a giant animate sword named Exor falls from the sky, breaks through the Star Road, and crashes into Bowser's castle, sending Mario, Peach, and Bowser flying in different directions, as well as scattering the seven-star fragments. Mario lands back at his pad and meets up with Toad, who tells him he has to rescue Peach. Mario returns to Bowser's castle, but Exor destroys the bridge, preventing him from entering. Mario makes his way to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Mario encounters a "tadpole" named Mallow who has set out to retrieve a frog coin taken by the local thief Croco. After Mario helps him retrieve the frog coin, they return to the Mushroom Kingdom to find that it is overrun by the Smithy Gang, followers of the evil robotic blacksmith king named Smithy. Mario and Mallow enter the castle to defeat their lieutenant, Claymorton, and subsequently find a mysterious Star Piece. Mallow accompanies Mario to Tadpole Pond so they can get advice from the Frog Sage, Mallow's grandfather. He reveals that Mallow is not really a tadpole, and says Mallow should join Mario on a quest to find the seven Star Pieces as well as Mallow's real parents.The duo travel to Rose Town where they meet a star spirit who has animated and taken control of a wooden doll named Geno. After battling the bow-like creature Bowyer, who is immobilizing residents of Rose Town with his arrows, they retrieve another Star Piece. Geno joins Mario and reveals to him the Star Piece is a part of the shattered Star Road, where he normally resides. Geno has been tasked with repairing the Star Road and defeating Smithy, so that the world's wishes may again be heard. The trio retrieve the third star piece then head to Booster Tower, the home of the eccentric amusement-venue owner, Booster, where they encounter Bowser, whose minions have all deserted him. Bowser reluctantly asks Mario to help him to reclaim his castle; Mario agrees, allowing Bowser to save face by pretending he is joining the Koopa Troop, and Bowser joins the party. The new team intercepts Princess Peach just before she is forcibly married to Booster, but it turns out that the wedding wasn't real; Booster, having no idea what a marriage actually is, just thought it was a fun party and abruptly returns home after devouring the cake.
After her rescue, the princess returns home to Mushroom Kingdom only to then decide to join the party while her grandmother takes her place in disguise. After recovering two more star pieces, they search Nimbus Land. A statue maker, Garro, informs them that Valentina has the rulers of Nimbus Land being held captive, and her sidekick Dodo is impersonating the prince so he can make Valentina queen. Garro recognizes Mallow as the true prince, then disguises Mario as a statue to infiltrate the castle. There they defeat Valentina and Dodo and liberate Mallow’s parents, the King and Queen.
After traveling to Barrel Volcano to obtain the sixth Star Piece, Mario's party learns that the final piece must be held by Smithy in Bowser's castle. They battle their way through the assembled enemies to enter the castle, where they discover that Exor is actually a gateway to Smithy's factory, the place where Smithy mass-produces his army. Mario and company cross over, find the heart of the factory, and defeat Smithy, thereby stopping his army creation and causing Exor to disappear. The collected Star Pieces are used to repair the Star Road, Geno returns to the Star Road, Bowser rebuilds his castle with his newly reformed army, Mallow regains his rightful title as prince of Nimbus Land, and Mario and Princess Peach return to the Mushroom Kingdom to celebrate their victory.
Development
According to Yoshio Hongo of Nintendo, Super Mario RPG came out of Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto's desire to make an RPG using Mario, as well as Square's desire to develop an RPG that could do better outside of Japan than their previous games. Development began in early 1994 after a business meeting between Nintendo and Square. The first phase was spent on deciding a basic system, while the isometric view was chosen to help bring the world to life. The game was originally conceived with weapons in mind, but as meetings with Miyamoto progressed, the development team realized that they didn't fit with the Mario franchise, and left them out. An exception was the hammer, which Miyamoto insisted on keeping. One of the main concerns of the development team was they did not want to make a "normal RPG that simply substituted in Mario characters." To help the game fit with the Mario series, it was made to be more action- and movement-focused compared to Square's other RPGs, using concepts such as jumping and dashing. Development began in earnest during the second quarter of 1995, when the programming, story events, and graphics data were being implemented.The game was officially announced by Miyamoto and co-director Chihiro Fujioka at the 1995 V-Jump Festival event in Japan. Miyamoto led teams at Nintendo and Square, who spent over a year developing the graphics. Square reported that the game was about 70% complete in October 1995. The developers created the interior elements such as columns, stairways, and exterior elements with advanced computer modeling techniques. Special lighting effects were used to create shadows and reflections that were meant to improve the 3D elements. Shinya Takahashi, who would later become head of Nintendo SPD and Nintendo EPD, designed the game's CG models. With guidance from Miyamoto, Square developed the game, combining role-playing aspects of previous Square games like Final Fantasy VI with the platforming elements of Mario games. Square's Final Fantasy series was the model for the battle sequences, while the tradition of Mario games demanded a lot of action. Mario's ability to jog in eight directions and jump up or down in a three–quarter perspective gave him a comparatively large range of motion. At 70% completion, the mix of adventure and action gameplay elements placed it in a category closer to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
When Nintendo of America received a 60% complete version of the game in November, its staff was surprised at the inclusion of an RPG battle system. The battle screens, using pre-rendered sprites as in the rest of the game, included attack animations of equipped weapons. In December, further development and improvements to the gameplay delayed the translation of the game. For example, the Chancellor, who was named the Mushroom Retainer in Japan, was called the "Minister" in North America. Plans continued through February 1996 for the North American version, with the release date being pushed back from winter to spring.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura, who incorporated arrangements of music by Koji Kondo from Super Mario Bros., and three tracks by Nobuo Uematsu from Final Fantasy IV. Shimomura regards the Super Mario RPG score as one of the turning points in her career. On March 25, 1996, NTT Publishing released a two-disc soundtrack album, Super Mario RPG Original Sound Version.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is one of only seven SNES games released outside Japan to use the Nintendo SA-1 chip. Compared with standard SNES games, the additional microprocessor allows higher clock speeds; faster access to the random-access memory ; greater memory mapping capabilities, data storage, and compression; new direct memory access modes, such as bitmap to bit plane transfer; and built-in CIC lockout for piracy protection and regional marketing control. The game was originally not released in PAL regions, as Nintendo representatives cited the need to optimize the game for PAL televisions and translate it into multiple languages.