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How well does Super Mario RPG hold up today?

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maxcriden

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Pictured above: weird clay dolls of famous Japanese pop cultural icons.

So, what is this game like? As a kid, my first console was the N64 so my first Mario RPG experience was Paper Mario. Which I love, and still loved, and since then I have been enamored of all of the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games I've played. What keeps me excited in the RPG gameplay, as someone otherwise averse to turn-based RPGs, is the presence of button-timed attack and defense and special move commands. Are those present in this game?

I do like isometric games a lot, as well as games with a fun story set in the Mario-verse. So I'm interested in hearing about the story in this game. I am hopeful it has charm akin to the other Mario RPGs.

Save systems are important to me. If I have to get it on Wii U VC to use save states I will. I think I have it on Wii VC from a Club Nintendo reward so it will only be $1.50. I'm happy to pay $1.50 if the save system is middling by today's standards.

Mostly, I am interested in hearing from people who played it for the first time or a replay in the past 5-10 years, though I am eager to hear anyone's impressions.

Thanks all!
 
It's my most wanted VC game for Switch. I would buy a New 3DS even though I have an OG 3DS if they wised up and released it.

It's one of those games I play through at some point each year. It's that good.
 
I think it's pretty good. The writing is still great in it. I think it got surpassed by Paper Mario pretty quickly since that actually makes better use of the Mario property, but as a standalone game SMRPG is still great.
 
Very well in my opinion. I played it again two years ago and it's such a treat. Truth be told it was my very first RPG I've ever played through, so the nostalgia is strong in me.
 
Loved every second of it, and I replayed it a 2-3 years ago. Still holds up incredibly well but you have to really enjoy turn based RPG's. Game is very challenging as well, especially the optional boss.
 
It does have timed attack, defense and special commands -- it created them for the series! I think they're a bit more obtuse and harder to pull off than Paper Mario's and beyond though. They're also less important and the balance of the gameplay is closer to classic RPGs though.

It's been a year or two since I last played it but its still great imo.
 
I've been watching Vinny from Vinesauce play through the game and have been enjoying re-experiencing it through a different perspective. Game seems to have held up really well over the years and you can see how it laid the foundation of the later Mario RPG series.

Only thing I can think of that could be potentially annoying is the limited inventory but even then LotSS seems to handle it better than other RPGs of its era.
 
Played a few hours of it not too long ago.
Seems pretty good, not as good as Paper Mario (...the first two) but still good. Better than the 3DS M&Ls, tho I haven't finished it
 
agreed that paper mario plays better but SMRPG is just so weird and unique that i like it more, plus i like the graphics style they chose

lazy shell makes it awfully trivial in the endgame and it already is easy, but some bosses like yaridovich were challenging for me at the time
 
It's still a fantastic game despite some areas having some pacing issues.
Great writing/humour, all the basics of the mario rpgs, nice artstyle and music, pretty original story for a mario game, etc.

I replay it every 3 years or so.
 
Very well, still one of my favorite jrpgs.

No real grinding needed, quick unobtrusive battles, quickly moving story with fun characters.

Great stuff.
 
Outside of the graphics looking weird without scanlines or a CRT to give it its proper 3D effect with the sprites, the game still holds up really well. It's a shorter RPG and the max level is only 30 but it's perfectly okay and feels really well balanced. The writing is excellent and there's a great cast of unique one-off characters and villains.

If you've played the first Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi games, you should easily understand some of the skills required in battle like a timed press of a button to make you swing twice with your hammer, or jump a lot etc.
 
It holds up very well, i recommend this game for anybody who wants to get into JRPGs because it's a fantastic "My first RPG" experience.

Even the graphics hold up in the proper resolution.

Oreiller said:
Not as good as the two Paper Mario games but it's still a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

Disagree, it's waaay better than the first Paper Mario.
 
I like it. Like others have said, it was made at a weird time in the series' history (possibly the last major game where Peach was called Toadstool.) Since it was the first Mario RPG, elements like the action commands were still in their formative stages, and are tougher to "read" than in subsequent games. The characters have an odd split between the normal Mario staples and more esoteric one-offs, as you can see in the party comprised of Mario, Peach and Bowser... and a cloud and a puppet.

I'd say I prefer PM 1 & 2 and M&L SS & BiS over it, but it's still quite enjoyable.
 
maxcriden said:
What is the battle system like?
Click to expand...

You've played a lot of the other Mario RPGs, so I would go into this expecting blend of that and a simplified Final Fantasy. The timed hits from Paper Mario/M&L all originated here, but the timing will be a little weird to get used to at first since you've played those before. The combat itself is flat-up a Final Fantasy game but with jumps, fire flowers, etc for your special moves. It's pretty similar to the later games, so I think you'll enjoy it if you liked both Paper Mario and M&L.

The only weird thing about it is how distinctly non-Mario a lot of the character designs are. Some of them feel like they were designed by people that didn't really "get" the simplistic charm of the series. The writing is still on-point though.

Frankly, give it a go. It's cheap on the VC and it's still an interesting touchstone for later games.
 
Games don't lose quality over time. It's still the same. Game is just too easy. A hack that increases it should make it the best it can be, just don't play Revolution.
 
I just replayed it a few years ago and other than being so easy that it almost plays itself, it's still just as great as I remembered it.
 
It's almost less "an RPG built around the concept/world of Mario" and more "Mario mixed with the conventions of 16-bit RPGs". Some of the storytelling and town exploration especially feels straight out of a Dragon Quest or something. But there's also other stuff that's very much Mario, or just funny and weird in ways other JRPGs weren't.
 
Everything of this game is timeless.

The gameplay is simple and easy to play and master, the story is fun as hell and the graphics, even for a 21-year old game, are still incredible with lots of good art work.

It is still my favorite Mario RPG game.
 
I replayed it a couple weeks back, and burned out on it faster than I had hoped.

The pros are that it is still super charming, fast paced, clever, and surprisingly pleasing to look at on the WiiU tablet.

The con really boils down to the battle system feeling dated. Normally the dungeons are super short by today's standards, but there are times when the length and number of enemies can combine to drag it all down. However, getting a star is an incredible feeling. You just sprint and end every enemy you touch. It is super satisfying.

To sum up, if you like turn based combat with that timing element that the RPGish Mario games tend to have, this one is definitely one of the better ones.
 
A Mario RPG in which the playable character go beyond Mario, Luigi, or Paper Mario?
A Mario RPG that subverts the "rescue Peach" plotline?
A Mario RPG not afraid to add new characters or expand on old ones?
A Mario RPG without Bowser as the main villain?
A Mario RPG without Koopalings?

Well, at the very least Super Mario RPG would score pretty high on the originality chart since recent Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games seem to want to streamline into a homogeneous state.

On the other hand, I feel like the other games have expanded on some of the ideas and made them better. However, the actual adventure of the game should be pretty interesting for someone who hasn't played it before.
 
I actually don't feel it holds up that well. The story is really weak, graphics aged poorly, combat has been done better by later Mario RPGs. The game is historically important, but when judged by today's standards I don't think its better than average.

It does have a great soundtrack going for it.
 
I played it the first time 2-3 years ago and I thought it held up extremely well.

Gosh, I really wish they would do another pure, hardcore RPG. I'm usually the guy who is like "yaaas let's try new things sticker star and color splash for life!" but I do really want another Super Mario RPG/Paper Mario/TTYD.
 
Writing, gameplay, music, even the graphics all hold up.
It's also relatively short so if you're interested at all I say you shouldn't hesitate to jump in.
 
If you like Paper Mario you'll probably love Mario RPG. It's more RPG than the paper mario games, but it's where the timed attacks and everything originated so it's pretty similar. Paper Mario was great but it always felt like a dumbed down Mario RPG to me at the time (smaller party, tiny numbers to make ti easier for kids, etc).
 
Better than any Mario RPG besides PM1 and 2, and M&L 1 and 3 (Bowsers Inside Story)

TTYD shits on all other Mario RPGs from a great height though.
 
It's fine but visually it doesn't hold up quite as good as Paper Mario.

Played it on VC back in the Wii days. Couldn't beat it.
 
For me personally? I waited a LONG time to finally play it, and while it was good, I think Paper Mario is the superior game. Not saying it's bad, but I just feel it's done better by its spiritual successor.
 
I love almost everything about it. I was real sad when I was young that we never got a direct sequel. But alas, that time passed years ago.

The only things I don't like are how much HP some bosses have. I replay the game every 3 or so years and just the long drawn out boss fights just drag it down. The battle music isn't that great either. Fighting Smithy is just a drag at the end. The dull battle music doesn't help it either.
 
I think it holds up really well, but I might be biased.

The pre-rendered environments really stand out to me and emit the same charm found in Square's PSX games, although they are not as plentiful or varied due to limited storage.
 
It was the game that actually taught me how turn-based combat works.

Looking back (I played it again for a bit a few years ago after it came out on Virtual Console), to me it feels like Final Fantasy 6.5, like Square's bridge between FF6 and FF7.
 
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