May's Retro Game of the Month is Super Mario RPG

Super Mario rpg was my vote, love this game and I haven't played it through in years. Good time to play it on my snes classic.

Super Mario RPG it looks like, lets go SNES classic! and the kids can play

I finally got a Switch and have been drowning in Zelda the last month or so. I'll get back to playing these games when I finally beat it.

do you ever really "beat" zelda BOTW?

Super Mario RPG it is, lets go bros! get those hammers out- and dont spend too much time trying to wake link up ;-)

So I am trying to start this up with the kids.

I miss the "old school" way of teaching you games, by actually playing the game lol

The visuals at the time were amazing and even now can at least be appreciated in contrast to other SNES titles of the time.

This was a game made with Square at its peak and Nintendo, everyone wanted more of this partnership after playing this game- it is easy to see why.

The blending of action platforming mario and traditional RPG is amazing, I still like it better than its spawn (paper mario and mario+luigi etc.) on screen enemies, jumping - running - dynamic menu system in combat - all great things either done very well for the first time (mainstream) or borrowed and improved upon.

I honestly think Legend of the Seven Stars is the best game Square ever made, even edging out Kingdom Hearts 2 which I absolutely love. Either way the SNES era was definitely the golden age of RPGs.

Played a bit today. Got the first star. Let's just say I am not exactly enthusiastic at this point... obviously it will never stop being an eyesore, but maybe things will pick up a bit, be it storywise or gameplaywise.

Szlia said:

Played a bit today. Got the first star. Let's just say I am not exactly enthusiastic at this point... obviously it will never stop being an eyesore, but maybe things will pick up a bit, be it storywise or gameplaywise.

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Well if the general story and general gameplay is not doing it for you, unless you seek out the "extras" of this game, it will be more of the same. Once you get your party and generally established stuff- its a nice well done power arch upward to the end of the game- nothing exactly ultra shocking or expectation subverting.

There are however smaller side shit that, as a kid infuriated me - as a kid this game was with my older brother who was/is a music guy...so the fucking mini game side area of the stupid tad pols etc he spent so much damn time with it drove me insane- i just wanted to move on!

The final fantasy crystal boss is fun if you find em, and not easy- and great music.

Got the 2nd star yesterday. The game's brand of humor leaves me pretty cold I must say, but I enjoyed the meta elements that surround the 'birth' of Geno. The level design of that sewer section was also pretty cool as it manages to be disorientating with a very small number of rooms. On the other hand, the barrel jumping mini game is super lame and so is the forest maze section. Did not mind the tadpole musical mini-game puzzle thing even if it's a bit tedious. The guy implies there might be more melodies to find though and that could get old fast if the mechanism to find them stays exactly the same (as solving the problem is always the same process no matter what the melody is).

Got the 5th star. I don't understand this game. It's like no system makes sense, all mini-games are unplayable, difficulty goes up and down without rhyme or reason, the comedy misses a lot more than it hits... there are some original puzzles here and there and it's kinda charming at times but heh.

Szlia said:

Got the 5th star. I don't understand this game. It's like no system makes sense, all mini-games are unplayable, difficulty goes up and down without rhyme or reason, the comedy misses a lot more than it hits... there are some original puzzles here and there and it's kinda charming at times but heh.

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Go away.

Lenas Gavinmad Well... can you explain to me how damage dealing works in this game? Attacking the same enemy type in the same encounter formation in 2 different fights, using the same basic attack with Mario, both time triggering the damage bonus, I hit once for 60 and the next for 180... Also, are there hidden damage types and armor types? Some characters seem to do more damage on some types of enemies, but again that might be me imagining things because of the inconsistency in damage. Or maybe enemies can randomly trigger increased defense like players can with a well timed A press? Who knows.... About these timed presses also... how awesome is it to have no consistent visual cue and delayed and/or unclear feedback for all this stuff? That's about as well designed as isometric platforming with a character that has almost no shadow and when the main directions require to hit the diagonal on a d-pad...

Damage intake is also totally weird. It feels like the formula is done in a messed-up way. Like 99% of the attacks on Mario and Bowser deal 1 dmg and they did so since the start of the game and it's not like I ground levels like a madman or anything (though I never flee and don't actively try to dodge enemies) and then you get Geno and he gets destroyed by anything that looks at him funny... and then you have magic attacks with damage that are all over the place, even against trash mobs... no system makes sense.

Well, the thing is SuperMario RPG is decidedly Japan - yet trying to be American to get the $$$s - I admit.

This is also one of the first places the GAME makers (not counting cartoons!) had to give the world some depth and text dialogue - this was really before Mario had anything solid to fall back on...so it is trying, yet keeping it simple. SO, there are problems in this game, but it also has many, many things that were done very well.