"I serve a higher authority."
--Geno, Super Mario RPG
The Switch has become one of the great platforms for ports, remasters, and remakes of games launched for other devices, even games going back to 1996. Such was the year that Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars came to the SNES, and the Switch remake was released more than 20 years later. Videos and screenshots of the original version, contrasted with the Switch game, illustrate how far storytelling and aesthetic technology has advanced in gaming. The spiritual predecessor of the separate Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, and Mario + Rabbids series within the broader franchise, the 1996 title had a grand impact for the IP that sparked many RPG games featuring Mario. As far as visual quality and portability goes, there is no better way to play the game--one that my wife adores in SNES form from her childhood.
Production Values
The very stylized graphics are a great fit for the thematically lighthearted yet visually diverse story, which spans Bowser's castle, the Mushroom Kingdom, a mine, a cloud-suspended city, and more. The isometric perspective is retained in the overworld, the free roam portions, and battles, with cutscenes and certain segments of the gameplay, like controlling a minecart, having a different look or camera angle respectively. Elevated far above the capacities of the SNES, Super Mario RPG's aesthetic has been updated for clarity and detail while otherwise generally keeping the same style as the original. Easter egg objects like a figure of Samus Aran and a model of Starfox's ship might also be noticed by players familiar with other Nintendo games.
Gameplay
As is the case with many Mario games, Super Mario RPG has an overworld map where Mario moves from circle to circle. Within a given broad location, Mario wanders around visibly alone until he comes into contact with an enemy. He is able to use floating blocks, talk with NPCs, and buy equipment or consumables from shops. The Signal Ring item, similar to a certain device in Paper Mario: The Origami King, is not bought from a shop, but it indicates that a secret, invisible block is nearby but does not specify where. The various accessories, weapons, and clothes that are purchasable from shops unlock as one progresses through the game while generally increasing in protection or the boost to damage stats. However, outfits make no difference as to how the characters look at any point. They can make combat far easier over time.
In the fights, as with the Paper Mario games, "action commands" can modify damage dealt or received. Timing when you press the A button to attack or block right before a strike even extends certain attacks or might nullify incoming damage altogether (if the enemy's move is not unblockable). Successfully pressing the A button at just the right time also accelerates the buildup of the new triple move gauge, allowing whichever three player characters are engaged in battle to unleash a grand offensive or defensive move. Only three characters can be directly present in a battle at once, dictating which move is available, though Mario always has to be one of them and the other two characters can be switched out during their turns. The newly chosen character still can make attacks or use items after being switched. Thankfully, even inactive party members still gain XP from fights, which an occasional post-combat minigame wager increases the value of.
Story
When Mario enters Bowser's castle to rescue Peach after she is abducted outside his home, the confrontation with the Koopa King gives way to a new threat when an enormous sword, seemingly sentient due to its eyes and speech, falls from the sky right into the fortification. While descending, it destroys the Star Road by scattering seven stars (hence the subtitle of the SNES original), and it severs the walkway to the castle. Mario wanders around various regions searching for Peach, acquiring new companions, and eventually making an alliance with Bowser himself, who is also not pleased with the giant sword that has expelled him from his residence.
Intellectual Content
Super Mario RPG has remnants of sometimes sexist cliches--though such things are only sexist when done strictly because of a character's gender or without ever subverting the fallacies of stereotypes across time--that contrast with the rightfully closer to true egalitarian portrayal of men and women in contemporary media, not that there is not plenty of sexism against both men and women in a great deal of entertainment. There are puzzles and collectibles in the game, but, as secondary as it is to most of a playthrough, Super Mario RPG handles its themes and bizarre plot in a way that plays into stereotypes tied to Peach, called Princess Toadstool in the original game, and even another character on the basis of gender. Similarly, but even moreso, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door handled its characters in a distinctively sexist way (most overtly in a misandrist manner).
Decades ago, other than in spin-off games like Mario Party, Peach was largely relegated to a literal damsel in distress, with Bowser kidnapping her again (which other characters make sarcastic comments about). The word kidnapping even comes up regarding what happens to Princess Peach in this very game, making kidnapping one of the only capital sins (Exodus 21:16, Deuteronomy 24:7) to appear in the game and extended franchise--along with sorcery (Exodus 22:18), as I have jokingly pointed out! Peach is even confined by a man named Booster who attempts to legally marry her against her will. Booster is himself shown at the chapel in Marrymore about to be legally married to Valentina at the end of the game, but expressing signs that either he is changing his mind or that he has been pressured against his own will from the start. If the game designers think this is humorous when happening to him but not when it happens to Peach, now that a man is the victim and a woman is the perpetrator, then they would be incredibly sexist as many are.
Conclusion
However, not just as somewhat of a relic from a more sexist era of gaming that highlights the difference now, but also as a revival and update of a very influential (and quality) game, Super Mario RPG on the Switch is a great title that infuses what is old with what is new. The Switch has indeed become a haven for re-releases and enhancements of older games, classics like the first RPG game in the Mario franchise among them. Players who appreciate the mechanics of the later Paper Mario games but were born too late to easily access the SNES will find here a well-crafted game in its own right that comes with the modernization to introduce a classic to a new audience. Again, it is this game that set in motion or spiritually inspired multiple other Mario games with turn-based attacks and a party system. For better and not for worse, it left its mark.
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