Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
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was the last Mario game made and released on the Super Famicom/Super NES. As well as the last major Squaresoft (now Square Enix) produced game for a Nintendo video game console until Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles in 2003. It was also the first role-playing game (RPG) in the Mario series. It contains token similarities to Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series with a story based on the Mario universe. Since it was an easy-to-play RPG starring Mario, it introduced many long-time Mario fans to RPGs and as such is sometimes seen as an introductory RPG. This was also the first game in which Mario and Bowser are allied. It was not released in the PAL region.
Gameplay
The enemies are visible in the field; Mario must touch them to begin combat. This allows the player to avoid unwanted battles by jumping over or walking around the foe.
Battle system
The battles themselves are a blend of platforming elements and traditional RPG battles. As well as selecting attacks, the player is usually required to perform action commands to increase the damage done. These consist of timed button presses and other movements (such as rotating the D-pad or pressing Y repeatedly) to increase, or in a few cases, determine, the power of the characters' moves. The need to perform action commands in between navigating menus keeps the player engaged in the battle the whole time. Unlike many RPGs before and after its release, much of the gameplay was outside of monster battles. In the field, the game plays much like an isometric platformer, with many traditional Mario features (such as jumping) as well as many new ones (such as magic spells) playing a key role.Story
Princess Toadstool is once again kidnapped by King Bowser, and once again, Mario goes to save her. He battles and defeats Bowser in his keep, but before he can untie the princess, a giant sword (named Exor) smashes through the roof of the castle, sending all three inside flying. Exor is the first of many enemies sent by the evil Smithy to take over the mushroom world.Mario lands in his own house and quickly learns that Bowser's Keep wasn't the only thing that was smashed by Exor. The Star Road, a magical place where wishes are granted (based on the common child's tale about shooting stars), has been split into seven pieces, and the task has fallen on Mario to find both the star pieces and the Princess. Along the way, he meets up with four other characters who will help him in this quest.
Subplots include helping Mallow find his parents, Geno fixing the Star Road, finding Princess Toadstool, and helping Bowser get his castle back.
Characters
Although Mario begins alone in his quest, many other characters soon join, both to help out and for their own personal goals (most of which are subplots explained throughout the course of the game). Some are familiar faces from previous Mario games, and many are new characters introduced for the first time. The most recognizable party members are Mario, Princess Toadstool, and King Bowser.Playable characters
As billed in the opening credits...- Mario: As the main character of the game, he is always controlled by the player, meaning that (with the exception of one boss battle) he never leaves the party. His weapons are gloves, hammers, and Koopa shells, and his special attacks are centered around jumping and throwing fireballs. Mario is famously mute throughout the entire Super Mario series, and the game exploits this for a few laughs (especially when he performs an elaborate pantomime reenactment of an event, in lieu of simply explaining what happened).
- Mallow: Despite being a cloud, he is convinced during the early stages of the game that he is a tadpole, having been raised by Frogfucius for as long as he can remember. His physical attacks are weak, but he has strong magic powers: the healing "HP Rain", elemental attacks such as "Shocker" and "Snowy", and the informative "Psychopath" (scans the HP and possible weak points of enemies). His weapons are staves, gloves, and cymbals. He is found in Mushroom Kingdom, crying after Croco stole his Frog Coin.
- Geno: He is a wooden puppet brought to life by a star. Because his real name (♥♪!?) is unpronounceable in Mario's language, he decides to go by the doll's name, "Geno". Early in the game he explains to Mario about Smithy and what has been going on. He is the fastest character and has powerful physical and magic attacks (centered in blasts and lasers), but his defense is low. His weapons are his rocket-propelled fists and guns that shoot pellets and stars.
- King Bowser (King Koopa in the Japanese version): After losing his castle to Smithy's troops, Bowser immediately sets about assembling an army to help him seize back his castle. He eventually lets Mario and company "join" his "army". He has the best defense and physical attacks, but his magic and magic defense is weak; additionally, he is the slowest character. His weapons are claws, Chomps, and the Hurly Gloves, which allow him to throw Mario at the enemy. He can be found at the foot of Booster Tower.
- Princess Toadstool (Princess Peach in the Japanese version): After being blown from Bowser's castle by Exor, Princess Toadstool is eventually found by Mario and his party. Before that, Booster tries to marry her, much to her displeasure and unwillingness; she is finally rescued by Mario. Her initial physical attacks are weak (which include slapping gloves and parasols) before she finds her strongest weapon, the Frying Pan (which became one of her Smash attacks in Super Smash Bros. Melee). Her magic is focused on healing, with only three "attack spells": two that cause status ailments on enemies and one in which she throws bombs.
Other characters
- Chancellor: The Chancellor of the Mushroom Kingdom. He desperatly urges Mario and his friends to find the Princess, and seems to be constantly worried about her. He appears to be the functional head of government in the game. A character appears in Paper Mario and calls himself the "Minister of Princess Peach's Castle", which is a possible translation of his Japanese name. He stays in the Mushroom Castle. Some fans consider the Minister to be the Chancellor for this reason. Ignoring that the spots on his cap are green rather than brown, it is possible to infer that this is in fact the unnamed Toadsworth, due to his similar appearance to "young Toadsworth" from Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. It would also fit in with the idea introduced in later games that Toadsworth has been the lone guardian of Peach since birth. The lines drawn between the characters are not officially supported, some doubt the relation due to Toadsworth's recent incorporation and see his inclusion in the history as retroactive. What would not be retroactive, however, is if Toadsworth were intended to be the proper name of these characters.
- Toadstool's Grandmother: Princess Toadstool's grandmother, who is clearly a Toad. In order for the Princess to fight alongside Mario, she disguises herself as her granddaughter. Early on, she offers advice on items, and at times heals Mario and his allies.
- Croco: Croco the thief appears many times throughout the game, and must be fought twice. He usually pops up to steal from the party, and the party must chase Croco down and win their goods back in battle. Croco sports purple leather skin, a black top hat, and a serious grammar problem. He sometimes loots and steals with 3 Sakons as his helpers. After defeating Valentina and Birdo (see below), he can be found in one of the houses in Nimbus Land, where talking to him will cause him to speak to Mario briefly, then run and drop a Signal Ring, which allows the wearer to detect hidden treasure chests. Near the end of the game, Croco turns straight and sells items for a living in Bowser's Castle, but his conversion to being good may have been short lived as he robs Bowser's Castle in the victory parade after the defeat of Smithy.
- Belome: A sleepy, hungry, dog-like creature. Belome hides deep within the Kero Sewers, guarding the floodgate. However, once the party overcomes Belome and his odd eating habits, the four-eyed, long-tongued villain makes his way to Land's End, where some misguided soul has built a temple dedicated to him. Once again, Belome guards the way forward in the game, but this time, he's learned how to clone the party members and use them as allies. Later on, he mellows out and simply guards the treasure of the temple.
- Boshi: A mean yoshi who became the leader of Yo'ster Island after he beat all the other yoshies in races. He changed the rules of the Yoshi Derby so that the yoshies can race only him in a one on one challenge. He is generally known as the fastest yoshi until the player defeats him in a race.
- Frogfucius: The wise and noble frog sage of Tadpole Pond, he is Mallow's adopted grandfather and is well-versed in many secrets. The waters of Midas River bring many travelers to Tadpole Pond, and with them comes the latest gossip. At several key points in the game, Frogfucius is available to give advice and counsel to Mario's party.
- Mole-People: The inhabitants of Moleville are a kindly and simple folk. They have a mining cart mini-game and a trading sequence in town, and are assumed responsible for most of the ore used in the Mushroom Kingdom and surrounding areas.
- Booster: Booster is a wealthy and eccentric entrepreneur who lives in a tower with his Snifit henchmen. His idea of fun involves bombs, cannons, Chain-Chomps, and a dangerous game of Hide-and-Seek. Booster declares Princess Toadstool his bride, so Mario and his allies must make their way up Booster's Tower and fight their way through Booster's various 'games' to reach the Princess; however, upon doing so, Booster flees with the Princess to a wedding chapel, and the party must finally fight their way past the Snifits, Chef Torte, and an odd live wedding cake to stop the marriage. His appearance is very similar to Wario.
- Jonathan "Johnny" Jones: Johnny is a shark pirate that inhabited the sunken ship with his fellow sharks. Mario must fight his way through the sunken ship, which is now infested with ghosts, and fight Johnny and his minions to earn a Star Piece. After the victory, Johnny and Mario become friends, and Johnny later prevents the next boss character, "Yaridovich" from running away from a fight with Mario.
- Sergeant Flutter: The captain of the Monstro Town air force, the Sky Troopas, Flutter is a punctual yet helpful Koopa who orders his Troopas to form a floating bridge that allows the party to climb the cliff at the edge of Land's End. Sergeant Flutter also awards prizes to the group if they can reach the top in certain amounts of time.
- Garro: Garros is Nimbus Land's resident sculptor and the only Nimban to have a name other than Mallow, King Nimbus, and Queen Nimbus. He provides entrance to castle for Mario and the gang by pretending that they are sculptures.
- Valentina: An ambitious and vain woman, Valentina was once the advisor to the King and Queen of Nimbus Land. She takes the King and Queen (and as a result, the entire oblivious land) hostage as "Queen". Valentina has a giant and dimwitted bird named Dodo as a partner, who engages in one-on-one battles with members of the party before they team up to fight the entire group.
- Exor: Exor is the sword that breaks the Star Road and smashes into Bowser's Keep. Many first time players make the mistake of thinking that he is Smithy until defeating him and moving on (possibly as a result of the game's TV ad falsely referring to the creature as "Smithy the Sword"). After Exor is defeated, he is not destroyed completely, but he instead becomes a portal to a different dimension where Smithy resides. When Geno returns to spirit form after defeating Smithy, he makes Exor dissolve into thin air.
- Smithy: The main villain, Smithy, hides within a factory that is connected to Mario's world via the sword/portal Exor. Smithy has expressed an interest in the Star Pieces, and sends out his minions to collect them, causing trouble for Mario and the gang along the way as they conquer the world. His most heinous creations are Blade, Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, and the Axem Rangers. Smithy also employs various other minions who oversee his factory and the protection of Bowser's Castle. Such minions include Domino, Cloaker, the Gunyolk, Boomer, a brainwashed Magikoopa, and the sinister giant sword, Exor.
Development
Cultural references
Super Mario RPG contains many references to other games by Square and Nintendo. One of the best-known and most popular references is the hidden boss, Culex. Culex is supposedly a reference to Final Fantasy-style bosses and has Final Fantasy-esque battle music (the boss battle theme of Final Fantasy IV, the traditional pre-Final Fantasy VII victory theme, and the Final Fantasy prelude theme were all reused in this segment). Culex is also joined in battle by Fire, Water, Earth and Wind elemental Crystals, a running theme in Final Fantasy games. Culex even has a small overworld sprite compared to his in-battle sprites. Culex's physical apperance also looks incredibly out of place in a Mario game, but he looks like he would fit in well in a Final Fantasy game. Culex, however, has never appeared in any Final Fantasy game. The music for the Mushroom Kingdom is quite similar to the castle theme of Final Fantasy V, as well. Another possible nod to the Final Fantasy games, the various members of Smithy's gang seem to have an elemental focus, much like the Final Fantasy series' main elemental magic: Mack has fire-based attacks (Flame, Flame Wall), Bowyer has lightning-based attacks (Bolt, Static E, Lightning Orb), and Yaridovich has a powerful water-based attack (Water Blast). The Axem Rangers, with the exception of Axem Green, use non-elemental, physical attacks (Spritz Bomb, Body Slam, Recover, Mega Recover, Petal Blast, Venom Drool).
Link from the Legend of Zelda series and Samus Aran from the Metroid series made cameo appearances sleeping in various inns throughout the game. Link could be found sleeping in the Rose Town inn after you beat Bowyer, and Samus could be found sleeping in the Mushroom Kingdom castle's "guest room" after you beat Yaridovich. Samus only stayed in bed for a limited time, while Link remained in bed throughout the game. Two enemies, the "Chained Kong" and the "Guerilla," closely resemble Donkey Kong. Also within the game are models of Captain Falcon's and Samurai Goroh's F-Zero machines and a Star Fox Arwing. In addition, there are two Easter eggs in the Booster Tower area. One allows the player to control the original Mario as he appeared in Super Mario Bros. for a short time, while the second is a Samus figurine in the toy box of Booster's Room. A similar trick (as revealed in Nintendo Power) is also present in Paper Mario, as well as its sequel, .
While going through Bowser's Castle to get to Exor, the player may face a mini-puzzle where Mario must perform timed jumps and walks/runs to get to a Chained Kong that keeps throwing barrels in a variety of patterns, much like the old Donkey Kong games.
The Axem Rangers and their mecha are references to the television programs Super Sentai in Japan and Power Rangers in western countries.
Also in Monstro Town, there is a group of three ghosts who call themselves the "3 Musty Fears," who are named after the Three Musketeers.
The Pipe Vault level can be considered a throwback to the classic NES Mario games. Featuring music similar to the underground levels of the first Mario game, the level is only one square wide, resulting in the effect that it is practically 2D.
In the Forest Maze area (which is similar to the Lost Woods area found in the Legend of Zelda series), Mario and Mallow encounter a boss named Bowyer firing arrows into Rose Town. Mario runs forward to stop Bowyer, but Mallow pulls him back and says "Who do you think you are, Bruce Lee?"
Another cultural reference can be found in one of Smithy's henchmen: Mack, who happens to be a knife (a play on the song Mack the Knife from The Threepenny Opera, which was covered and popularized by Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin).
Toadofsky, the Toad-like composer that lives at Tadpole Pond, is a reference to Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Mario also parodies the silent protagonist which was common in RPGs at the time by never speaking and pantomiming events to other characters to explain them.
Debug Room
Technical
Super Mario RPG was a 32-megabit (4 MB) game, which was relatively large for the SNES. It employed the SA-1 chip on the cartridge. This chip is essentially a 65816 clocked at 10 MHz, running on an ASIC.Music
The musical score for Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars was composed by Yoko Shimomura (who also composed for Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana and the Kingdom Hearts series, and later the semi-sequel to Super Mario RPG, ).She also arranged music by Koji Kondo (composer for the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda series) and Nobuo Uematsu (lead composer for the Final Fantasy series) as part of the score. Three tracks from Final Fantasy appeared in the game, including the Boss Battle theme from Final Fantasy IV, the well-known Battle Victory music (Victory fanfare), featured in many Final Fantasy, and the Prelude.
Sequels
Officially, Super Mario RPG does not have a direct sequel, especially in terms of a sequel based on the original game's plot. However, several successive RPG-themed Mario games including Paper Mario (Nintendo 64), ' (Game Boy Advance), ' (Nintendo GameCube) and (Nintendo DS) are considered to be its "spiritual" and thematic successors. In fact, Paper Mario was originally titled Super Mario RPG 2. However, because of Square's involvement in the original game, direct sequels were not legally possible without Square's permission and/or involvement, so the title was changed, although the development of the game mechanic itself went for the most part unaltered. Some of the original team members (including some from Square) that worked on Super Mario RPG worked on Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time as well, including director(s) Yoshihiko Maekawa and Chihiro Fujioka and music composer Yoko Shimomura, albeit providing very different or similar styles and mechanics in those games then the original Super Mario RPG (as explained below).Certain conventions established in the original Super Mario RPG have been carried over to the de facto sequels and expanded upon, for example, the use of "Flower Points" instead of magic points, timed action commands during battles, the platforming elements of the game, and the basing of the collecting of the seven stars in this game. These games also took the non-RPG concept from Super Mario RPG and expanded upon it, allowing Mario to jump, hammer, ground pound, and use a variety of other techniques. Geno was featured in Mario and Luigi: SuperStar Saga, albeit in doll form. This is the only instance of a character originating from Super Mario RPG in another game. Square was credited at the end for owning the rights to Geno.
References
External links
- [Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars] at MobyGames
- [Soundtrack listing and review at SoundtrackCentral]
- [RPG Classics]
- [Super Mario RPG Legacy]
- [Mario Monsters page]
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