Mario RPG's and How They've Changed

Ricky[Vi$ious!]

Ricky[Vi$ious!]

Maxin' and Relaxin'
So we all know and love Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. That is where the Mario franchise first stepped into the RPG scene, it was a huge success and is still to this day one of the greatest games ever (in my opinion). Paper Mario for the N64 followed after and was also a huge success and is also one of my favorite games ever. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is also a fantastic RPG game that I love. Partners in Time and Thousand Year Door were the next steps in these franchises and did a good job of continuing the success. However this is where things changed, I think. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, and Dream Team along with Super Paper Mario and Paper Mario: Sticker Star have strayed from what a traditional Mario RPG is. This isn't to say they are bad games, but they most definitely are not true sequels in the franchise and because of this I feel they are lacking.

What do y'all think?
 
Paper Mario 64 was certainly not a huge success. It's the worst selling of every Mario RPG. Didn't even crack a million.

In fact, the best selling ones are the non-traditional ones you mentioned. Bowser's Inside Story hit 4 million, and the others are around 2 million.
 
Can you define what a "true" Mario RPG is?
 
Good points, I guess when using the word "success" it's kind of relative. Maybe it wasn't a success financially when compared to those later installments like Super Paper Mario but I feel like when faced with the choice the community as a whole would pick Paper Mario (N64) over Super Paper Mario. I feel. Mario & Luigi, yeah, that I can't argue just because I haven't played Dream Team. The only thing that turned me off from Bowser's Inside Story was the whole mechanic that half the game you were basically inside a 2-D side scroller world. I feel an open world approach to Mario RPG's is a better fit. It's because of this reason the later Paper Mario games weren't a hit with me.

But then again this is all opinion-based and like you said the later installments sold waaaay better.

"True" Mario RPG I just used to refer back to the first Mario RPG on the SNES and just RPG's in general. Super Paper Mario wasn't really an RPG in my eyes ya know? Which is why I said it's not a bad game, but when compared to the Paper Mario series as a whole I felt it wasn't the best. But, opinions are opinions :p
 
By technical terms, though, Super Paper Mario IS an RPG. It's not a traditional Mario RPG, which is probably that term you're going for.

What's your opinion on Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition?
 
the first super mario rpg definatly is something because squaresoft is/was the 1st address for quality rpgs, especially during the 90s.

even though i think the paper mario series went into a completely different direction i liked those games more than super mario rpg because they have more, idk, nintendo appeal into them, which is something you'd expect from a mario rpg. then there's the mario & luigi series which is is not priority but also pretty good.

then there is super paper mario which once again went into a completely different direction and once again was an extremely good game which i'll never forget.

and THEN they tried to go back to the old formula while cutting out the story, and it didnt work at all

and now we wait for paper mario 5
 
i personally loathe smrpg

it was ugly, poor music, meh characters, and worst of all bowser was an immense wuss and the worst character in the game

id say story but lol mario. Battle system was alright i guess, game was insanely easy too especially with the heavy shell combo. Not many good sidequests either, if any of them are good.

paper mario was a vast improvement, much more interesting battle system with good battle customization once you got enough badges. graphcis were so so even then, music was pretty damn good. Especially that incredible catchy train theme. The game did have a nice way of things with 2.5d. The games story while not super duper, it did capture the mario feel very well, unlike smrpg.

partner system was kinda here and there but otherwise it was pretty neat.


overall solid game and it being my first rpg, im really biased against the other mario rpgs too.


then we have paper mario ttyd.

graphcis were quite neat to look at, the improved multi sprites were impressive and very well animated. The soundtrack was pretty good several good battle themes and sound themes, not quite as good as the first paper mario though.

Battle system was mostly improved but it added random gimicks, so meh. Although ill give them credit for vastly improving the partner system, good job.

Characters were pretty good, most had great personalities and the luigi stories were hilarious.

story had its moments of grandness but the further the game went the more generic it got, especially at the end.

final battle in paper mario 1 was pretty awesome and pretty fast with its pacing. Unlike paper mario ttyd where you have to view a cutscene half-way threw that was obviously inspired by mother 2(MASSIVE MEH), and it was long, and then the battle resumed, rather stupidly i must add.

Good game for the most part though.

mario & luigi super star saga was very interesting in my opinion

a new battle system of sorts still having action commands but with different defenses and a lot of different actions bro moves were a rather interesting choice for action commands and were done very well. hammers were done rather similar but just had a more critical timing, jumping was the same though.

overall great battle system. game looks great too, very interesting sprite style, really well done and a lot of different parts of the game are really well animated.

soundtrack was mostly bad, that may be because of the gba audio quality, well that'd be the usual argument but golden sun and especially mother 3 had far better soundtracks in terms of quality.

story was here and there, very mario fitting and rather goofy, unfortunately you were bossed around 90% of the time and that kinda had a lack of adventure due to it. Not bad though overall, just a little picks here and there.

overall great game, much better than ttyd in my opinion.

i dont think ill go into detail about partners in time due to just really hating that game with a passion, infact i cant think of anything i liked about that game to be honest with you.

same thing with super mario

havent really played the others

overall its an up and down series, it does good with a lot of games but really fails with the others.

as far as an overall rpg opinion, they're okay, they've aged well surpringly and still hold up, especially for nintendo's lack of many rpgs, especially when most of them are very bad(imo).

but yeah i dont have very bad opinions on the newer games though as from what ive seen they're pretty good. But compared to some rpg franchises, they really seem lacking.
 
i should point out that paper mario was even easier than smrpg but theyre both pretty easy so eh (but lol ive seen an entire gamefaqs guide with detailed strategies for every dungeon in smrpg and the guy who wrote it acted like it was the toughest game ever and he grinded 3 levels in the first level)
 
I've always preferred the original Paper Mario to TTYD but it could be, as Zae said, my first Paper Mario game.
 
Eri Ayase said:
i should point out that paper mario was even easier than smrpg but theyre both pretty easy so eh (but lol ive seen an entire gamefaqs guide with detailed strategies for every dungeon in smrpg and the guy who wrote it acted like it was the toughest game ever and he grinded 3 levels in the first level)
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not really, i mean smrpg was really broken in so many ways, as said the lazy shell armor, makes a character invincible pretty much, the weapon for mario is stupidly powerful, most enemies and bosses dontt really do much that requires much effort. I mean i had a harder time with bowser in paper mario then i did any of the optional bosses in smrpg.

although paper mario can be broken down as well, but not quite as much as smrpg. Smrpg is easy no matter what you do, ive done a low level run of it and still beat the shit out of it.

not so much paper mario though.
 
Nah, I think Mario RPGs are still going strong and are as fun to play as ever. Sticker Star was certainly a departure, but it was unique and innovative and sticker collecting was extremely addictive. I think if you expect Mario RPGs to all be incredibly similar to each other then you will be sorely disappointed, but if you approach them as individual games then they're each excellent in their own ways.
 
TTYD is still my favorite. Okay maybe it's nostalgia but I don't even care at this point it's one of my favorite games.
 
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