Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

"Super Mario RPG will appeal to many gamers from all skill levels, and will attract those that aren't fans of either Mario or RPG"

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 8
Value: 9
Reviewer's Tilt: 9

Total Score: 8.9

For the past 3 years back when Super Mario RPG was released, Square has been filling the SNES library with many great RPG's like Final Fantasy VI in 1994, Chrono Trigger in 1995 and Super Mario RPG in 1996. Though Super Mario RPG was the last game on a Nintendo console up to the Nintendo 64, (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles was for the Gamecube). And the Mario RPG was a great way to end it in the time being because with Squaresoft's RPG making skills and Mario's great license created a fantastic game. With stunning environments and characters, Super Mario RPG was one of the best looking games for the Super Nintendo.

The graphics are some of the best looking and most stunning graphics I've ever seen (at the time). It uses the same artwork style as Donkey Kong Country, which is why it looks so impressive, quite bright and colourful. Though the environments can sometimes be too bright, and the ground can sometimes get dull.

The game starts off with Mario, doing the usual save Princess Toadstool act in Bowser's castle. Understanding how the game works was easy, and the controls to how you make decisions was quite unique from the SNES RPG's I've played. The gameplay style is very simple, you have an attack button, defend button, special abilities button to perform special moves and an item button. It's all simple at first, but Square's games are never simple!

Square added a feature called timed hits. This is when you hit the A button at a certain time, whether it's your turn or your opponents, will give you the advantage in the battle. So lets say the enemy attacks, you can hit the A button at a certain time and the attack damage is reduced. But when it's your turn and you choose to attack, if you hit the A button at the right time, you will double the attack adding more damage points. Something new and innovative for the RPG world to enjoy once again by Square. Also, the special abilities here is much different than Final Fantasies because instead of each character having a certain amount of PP left, all the characters share it instead! This was probably added to add to the difficulty.

After I defeated Bowser and rescued the Princess, something wrong happens! The castle shakes and rumbles as if an earthquake has occured. Though what appears instead is a gigantic sword, surrounded by 7 stars striked in the heart of Bowser's castle, becoming one. The seven stars scatter in opposite directions with one refusing to move. Then a screen shows up having the name of the game pasted on it. Mario crashes into Toad's house.

The next scene shows Mario hanging on a coat rack with Toad making a humourous line. Mario then jumps off, and tries run back to Bowser's castle. Though the gigantic sword spoke to Mario about how they've claimed Bowser's castle as their own. A gang named Smithy has come to this world and are going to rule the world! Their first step was bowser's castle, but the world is too big, especially if we have Mario on the case!

The game is very lighthearted with cute environment surroundings. The controls and gameplay are easy to understand, and the game makes it enjoyable. The gameplay might not be enhanced, but Super Mario RPG isn't really battle concentrated. The game actually has a ton of mini-games to do than just fight in a turn based system.

And the new timed hits feature makes individual battles more fun to watch and do. In other RPG's, sometimes the character has to run all the way to the monster, grab his sword, and slash the guy, then run all the way back to his spot again, but you'll have to actually pay attention in this game if you want timed hits.

The game's battle theme is too soft to be a battle theme, but on its own terms it makes a pretty decent song to listen to on your free time. But the other songs are pretty good, and the boss battle song is pretty good. Not extraordinary like Final Fantasy VI's, but just pretty good. The background music isn't bad too.

The story is MUCH MUCH different than your average Mario game. For once you're not fighting bowser! Bowser actually is on your side later on the game! Also, Toadstool joins you later on as well. The new characters in the game (Mallow and Geno) have an interesting story behind their origin and where they have come from.

Mallow is Mario's first companion. Mallow is a fluffy yellow piece of blob. His story is pretty good and interesting to read. The character designers did a great job on him. You can see the reflections pretty good and the emotions were done well (when he's crying, happy etc.)
Geno is Mario's second companion. He has weak defence but his attacks are quite estrong, and he's the person that supports and ups his allies stats. Geno looks pretty nice as well, well detailed.

Like other RPG's, in order to get stronger, you'll have to train and gain experience by battling enemies, and buy stronger weapons and armour at the store. What's different here than in Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger is that there is a small limit on how much money you can hold. That's probably because money can be easily acquired, so they set a limit to it.

The status effects are quite unique to other game's status effects. Like poison, haste, stop things like that, but here there's things like transforming into a mushroom and transforming into scarecrows! It's a unique thing. When you're a scarecrow, you can only use special abilities. When you're a mushroom, you heal with every turn passing by but you can't do anything at all! So you're a sitting duck, but atleast you get to get healed.

The armour and weapons in the game are pretty basic too if you're a veteran of RPG's. Though the thing is, unlike other RPG's, this has a timed hit feature, and has one for every weapon, but most of the weapons are completely different! Like Mario at first has his fist, but you can get a stronger weapon like the hammer. Then later on you can get the shell, but it's confusing to know when to time the hit because it's a different type of weapon.
There's some armour that are immune to different status effects though. Like a certain armour is immune to transforming into a mushroom, while another armour is immune to getting poisoned. This can help especially if you get irritated by getting poisoned by sewer monsters.

The replay value in the game is pretty good, because there's some extremely powerful weapons and armour to get, and some really hard side-quests. There's even a boss that's harder than the final boss, and this boss is also found in Final Fantasy II that uses the same battle music. Also, the mini-games are really fun to play sometimes so you might want to replay it just for that.

The ending is pretty nice because everyone gets to their happy and normal lives again. Pft, like Mario's life was any normal.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/04