Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - Retroview

Review Breakdown
Battle System	4
Interaction	2
Originality	4
Story	3
Music & Sound	4
Visuals	4
Challenge	Very Easy
Completion Time	5-30 Hours
Overall
Mario must be afraid of ghosts...

   Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, in my opinion, is the game Kingdom Hearts should’ve been. Long before Square allied with Disney, they allied with Nintendo to create an RPG starring their trademark plumber Mario. Nintendo, unlike Disney, actually had solo experience in making RPGs, what with the likes of the Fire Emblem and Mother (Earthbound) series, not to mention the RPG-like Zeldas. Thus, their contributions to the joint product were far from worthless, and the results were well more than satisfactory.

   One place where SMRPG shines is the battle system. First, I should mention that enemies wander dungeons and fields, and the player starts battles by running into them, much like in the Mother games and Chrono Trigger. Starmen, I should add, rarely exist in treasure chests, and if the player happens to stumble upon them, Mario can instantly kill enemy parties, netting his party quicker experience in the process, until the Starman expires. In battle, the player has three characters, and when the fight reaches one ally’s turn, he/she has the typical turn-based battle commands of attacking, using magic, using an item, defending, or escaping. A character performs his/her command immediately after the player inputs it, so he/she needs not worry about enemies beating the character to healing, if necessary. If a character attacks, the player can increase his/her damage with timed button pressing; timed button pressing can also work for defending enemy attacks, and in my experience, I rarely, if ever, missed an attack addition, though defense addition took a bit more time to master, and didn’t always work. Most magic, too, requires the player’s active participation, requiring him/her to hold the Y button, press Y repeatedly, or swirl around the directional pad for increased effect. An interesting feature is that all characters share the same cache of magic points, called Flower Points in this game. Item use mostly speaks for itself, although the player may occasionally receive a bonus after using an item. An attacking character may also receive a bonus after killing an enemy, such as refilled HP, increased attack or defense, or even the opportunity to double experience and coins after battle, with a one third chance of succeeding, failing, or keeping rewards unchanged. When a character levels up, he/she gains typical stat increases, although the player can choose to give that character additional physical attack/defense, HP, or magic attack/defense after that ally levels up. Overall, combat, despite some very small flaws, definitely shines in the end.

   Interaction, though, is probably the weakest part of the game. One can easily handle the menus, but inventory space is limited, the player can’t see how weapons and armor affect characters’ stats before purchasing them, and coins contain a cap of 999. Still, the addition of platform jumping to dungeon exploration is a very entertaining feature, and many hidden chests exist, as do a few fun mini-games. Furthermore, Ted Woolsey, renowned for his work on Final Fantasy VI, supervised the translation, ensuring it to be virtually spotless.

Monday on Fox: When Evil Plants Attack

   Originality is stronger, however. The game does borrow many characters and monsters from the Mario universe, yet also introduces some new friends and foes. Furthermore, while Beyond the Beyond, released a month earlier in Japan, encouraged the player’s active participation in its battle system, SMRPG is the first RPG to do so by reasonable mathematics and in a more influential manner with its timed additions, and would thus influence the likes of Legend of Dragoon and Shadow Hearts. If there’s an RPG with true timed additions before SMRPG, I have yet to play it. Overall, the game is definitely original.

   SMRPG’s story begins with typical Mario fare: Bowser kidnaps Princess Toadstool, and Mario must rescue her. While Mario triumphs over Bowser, he forgets the princess, and returns only to find a giant sword has pierced Bowser’s fortress, and that the Smithy Gang has taken over the place. Mario eventually has to gather the Seven Stars, fallen from the Star Road, and return them to their rightful place, having some help from new and old friends (and, in a few cases, foes) during his quest. While the story may not exactly be a masterpiece, it’s thankfully devoid of lame crossovers, and introduces plenty of new faces to the Mario universe.

   Composer Yoko Shimomura managed to spin out a nice soundtrack for SMPRG, with many catchy tunes such as that in the Forest Maze and that in Moleville. Mario’s theme also shows up, although the game, thankfully, is hardly reliant upon it for musical compositions and remixes. Some tunes do get slightly repetitive at points, such as the normal battle theme, although boss battle music contains a bit more diversity. While many comical sound effects exist, moreover, they thankfully fit the mood of Mario’s universe.

Mario must be afraid of caterpillars, too.

   Being one of the SNES’s final titles, SMRPG definitely showed what the 16-bit system could graphically accomplish at its maximum. All environments, characters, and monsters contain a bit of a realistic 3-D design, alongside fitting color schemes, and the results are pleasant, looking better than even a few Playstation games. With that said, the graphics appear a bit pixilated when the player sits close to the television screen, with the world map especially showing this. Other than that, however, SMRPG is easily one of the best-looking SNES games, if not the best of all.

   SMRPG is ridiculously easy; no battle throughout the game ever gave me a hard time, and a few mini-games, perhaps, are just about the hardest part, though definitely beatable and rarely intensive. Moreover, one could complete the game in as little as five hours, or take well up to thirty hours by cleaning out every nook and cranny the game has to offer.

   Super Mario RPG came out during what was perhaps Square’s golden age alongside such masterpieces as Final Fantasy VI, and Square and Nintendo’s first and only joint RPG effort easily ranks up close to them. In the end, two rights successfully made an even greater right.