It is not easy to recover cult games like Super Mario RPG, which in Europe is still quite unreleased given that it arrived years late through Virtual Console and SNES Mini. Nowadays, when the most disparate meanings are attributed to the word "remake", Nintendo has chosen the most obvious solution, perhaps also the safest, certainly the most divisive: not a real remake, but a very faithful graphic remake that honors the original but, at the same time, remains trapped in a time bubble that is difficult to penetrate. .
We tried it with ours. Super Mario RPG Review which we highly recommend you read to understand whether this proposal could be right for you or not. The answer, in fact, is not as simple as it seems.
A very faithful remake, even too faithful
Let's take a step back, why? framing Super Mario RPG is no easy task. Developed by Squaresoft before breaking with Nintendo and temporarily partnering with Sony (unless it found stability in the successful open marriage with Enix), Super Mario RPG was released in 1996 for the SNES. Shigeru Miyamoto was keen to experiment with new genres, while Square wanted to expand the reach of JRPGs also in the West using a safe vector such as the very popular mustachioed plumber.
We have already talked about the success and legacy of Super Mario RPG in these pages. Here it will suffice to say that Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario are their fortunate spiritual successors, but that the extraordinary combination of talents signed by the progenitor has hardly been repeated.
Despite this, Super Mario RPG has never stood out as an RPG, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a great video game. In 1996 it was probably one of the technically best titles for 16-bit consoles., as well as one of the most fascinating, brave and risky experiments of Nintendo's iconic mascot; Above all, he managed to bring many players closer to a genre - that of Final Fantasy - that few knew and many snubbed around the world, and he did so by finding an almost perfect balance between the dynamic platform of Super Mario and the role-playing game. JRPG gameplay dynamics with the Square brand.
Today, the 1996 formula hasn't aged very well, and perhaps that's why Nintendo has made minor adjustments to gameplay that has remained largely identical to the original. Having completed Super Mario RPG several times in the past and therefore knowing it inside out, we were able to finish the adventure for Nintendo Switch in about 13 hours, finding the vast majority of hidden chests, the best equipment and defeating, to a large extent, the secret boss krystax. Obviously new players will take longer to discover all the secrets of the game, but in general we are talking about an RPG that lasts less than twenty hours, suitable for those looking for a title to snack on but certainly not for those who want to invest. your money on long-lasting content.
The hours fly by, although we cannot skip or speed up the cutscenes and dialogues, which are not dubbed at all: Super Mario RPG is still a linear role-playing game, in which the player is constantly advised about the next destination to reach, either from the secondary characters who clearly tell us where to go and what to do, and from the map that clearly highlights the next destination. The story is equally didactic. The mysterious great blacksmith It destroyed Star Road, so Mario sets off in search of the seven star fragments to rebuild it along with a colorful group of companions including Peach and Bowser, as well as the little cloud he thinks is a tadpole Mallow and the animated puppet Geno .
Inspired more by Dragon Quest than Final Fantasy, the adventure is divided into stories: in each new region Mario and his companions must save the inhabitants from the bad guys, but the narrative is strange, very simple and trusting above all to funny jokes and dialogues full of irony. Playing Super Mario RPG is a bit like watching a Sunday morning cartoon, and despite this, the writing, without any particular ambitions, manages to effectively describe the characters and their enemies.
Nintendo's visuals take on more fantastical contours: Square expands them to kingdoms, villages, and species that remain mostly confined to this title. However, everything is barely sketched; Things are like that just because, bad guys do bad things - well, almost - because they are bad and everyone has already heard of Mario and worships him as the jumping hero that he is, trusting with absolute certainty in his feats. Soon, Super Mario RPG is not Final Fantasy and it does not want to be, so those looking for an over-the-top narrative may be disappointed even by the Plumber in Red's standards: the Paper Marios, for example, are decidedly brighter in both their dialogue and plots.
There's no point in looking for something else in a title that doesn't make who knows what claims. Super Mario RPG wants to be Super Mario Bros. but with intuitive role-playing mechanics, barely mentioned, available to everyone. From this point of view, the original game remains a shining example of level design finding the solution to a nearly impossible equation. That's why developer ArtePiazza, who has already created numerous remakes, including several Dragon Quests, has changed nothing, absolutely nothing: the Nintendo Switch version is essentially a carbon copy from the SNES game.
The same maps, the same enemies, the same chests, the same puzzles: everything is identical, everything is in the same place, the many strengths and weaknesses that we remember, including some platform passages particularly spoiled by Isometric view which now seemed simplified by true 3D graphics that replaced the pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds of the time, giving greater precision to our movements. The dialogues are the same - for the first time in Spanish and, at least officially, and the events happen in the same order: ArtePiazza has just replaced some scenes with brief CG cinematics, but otherwise the game is a kind of pixel-perfect replica of the SNES game from twenty years ago . years ago and more.
The settings also allow you to choose the new music from Yoko Shimomura or those he composed for the '96 game. Although this is the only way to physically relive the past, the fact that the title is very faithful to the original in the structure it is very significant. It is clear that Nintendo did not want to change a single point of that historic and beautiful level design, not even at the cost of making mistakes and being overzealous.
Novelty and nostalgia
Just to clarify, Super Mario RPG is simply beautiful to look at. Very clean, very colorful, especially on the bright Switch OLED screen, Nintendo's title is a joy for the eyes and ears Such is the attention to detail, animations and lighting that it immediately places it among the best products for the hybrid console, and all without distorting the original artistic direction: For example, despite being more complete and detailed, the 3D models of the characters continue to imitate conversations based on a small number of poses, just as happened twenty years ago. Considering what was said above, namely Nintendo's desire to revive a much-loved game by simply redoing its makeup, ArtePiazza might as well have stopped there. Instead, he got to work, although the results did not completely convince us.
Without a doubt, the interface has undergone the most appropriate change, since it has remained faithful to the style of the original, becoming much more stylized, agile and intuitive, both in the menus and in combat. Additions also include a nice Diary which briefly summarizes the adventures of Mario and company, as well as a compendium that records the enemies encountered and allows their 3D models and characteristics to be viewed at any time. The job is completed with a statistics summary screen and a mode in which to listen to the game's old and new music.
However, in the gaming arena, ArtePiazza has made small but significant quality of life improvements, for example by implementing autosave and fast travel between the different areas and, consequently, eliminating many trampolines that connected the maps in the original, or slightly modifying the controls in certain minigames - such as the race on Yoshi's back - that worked less well on the SNES.
The combat system is perhaps the aspect that has been reworked the most, although we are not convinced that everything has gone well. Super Mario RPG is a role-playing game focused on turn-based fight really very easy, so much so that ArtePiazza has introduced stronger than normal enemies that appear completely at random and can even cause difficulties, rewarding the player with frog coins which in the original title were much more annoying to accumulate. Despite this, it is now possible to choose an Easy difficulty level in the options menu, designed for those who want to complete the game without worry.
Between automatic saves, consumables in abundance, supply points, coins that never end up being spent on weapons and accessories... let's say that it is very difficult to enter Game Over, also because the Flower Points that the characters share to use the special movements They restore almost continuously, making it virtually impossible to run out of healing, not to mention that in most cases Mario, Bowser, and Geno's normal attacks deal more damage than special moves, which become redundant. The problem, in fact, lies precisely in the tweaks that ArtePiazza has made to the interactions of a combat system that was not precisely balanced from the beginning.
Basically, every time a character attacks or is attacked, the player can Press a key at the right time. to deal more damage or take less damage. It also worked like this in the original title (and the special moves are like little QTEs that require different types of input), but this time it is possible to get the perfect moment to deal damage to all enemies around the target, thanks also to a audiovisual suggestion which was not in the original and forced the player to memorize timings and animations. This innovation greatly simplifies the already easy fights and was probably designed to speed them up, but at the same time it overshadows other old and new gameplay dynamics.
The new Super Mario RPG adds a indicator which is charged each turn and which grants bonuses to the group that depend on the characters deployed. Characters that we can now exchange at any time with those on the bench, also because once the aforementioned indicator is filled it is possible to use a call three way movement, that is, a cinematic super attack that deals a lot of damage to enemies or grants important buffs to the team. Needless to say, the best strategy is to charge up the gauge during the very easy normal fights, only to unload it on another boss who will fall in a few turns.
To overcome these oversimplifications, ArtePiazza appears to have reduced the time window in which it is possible to engage in attacks and parries, as we found it quite difficult to achieve perfect timings, especially with certain weapons instead of others. This didn't stop us from completing the game, of course, but it did make it quite frustrating for some. revenge with my boss in which almost every shot had to be blocked perfectly.
The truth, in fact, is that this Super Mario RPG is a carbon copy only to a certain extent. Once the adventure is completed and the final save is reloaded, some new opportunities open up compared to the SNES version, mainly in the form of Bosses that we have already faced and that we can challenge again. in battles more challenging than the previous ones. It's a small thing, mind you, and longevity only partially benefits it, but going back to the initial discussion, we must keep Nintendo's purpose in mind and take these small new additions as simple concessions.
Super Mario RPG, in short, exists in a kind of time bubble of its own, independently of the universe that moves around it, happy to have remained itself despite the facelift that has hidden some wrinkles. It's a'operation nostalgia mischievous that in the end works, but that also makes us reflect on the disproportionate importance that the past is being carved into the present, and at its price to a large extent.
Conclusions
digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 59,99 € Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (42) 8.1 your voteIt's not easy to recommend Super Mario RPG to those who've already played and finished it in the past, unless there's nostalgia involved, and then it might make sense to pay full price for a walk down memory lane. We recommend caution to new players: the Square title has not aged very well but, in general, Super Mario RPG is a rebirth that has its own reason: ArtePiazza has renewed its appearance, preserving the main characteristics that made it a cult, without exaggerating with the touch-ups that could have distorted its nature. In this sense, it is undoubtedly a successful operation, but we can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have made more sense to go further, remake the game 100% and simply leave the memories in the past.
PRO
- The new look is amazing.
- The adjustments modernize the experience without distorting it.
- An excellent title to get started in role-playing video games
AGAINST
- It is very faithful to the original for better... and for worse.
- The additions to the combat system are not 100% convincing.
- It hasn't aged well at all
