It’s not even two weeks since we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Secret of Evermore in Europe and today we have to remember another incident related to the Super Nintendo, albeit of a more general nature. First, because Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars didn’t reach our continent—at least not until 2008, when Nintendo recovered it for the Wii Virtual Console—; And second, because beyond its undeniable merits as an individual work, the title marked the first entry in the role of Mario, a surprising decision in its day but destined to sprout into one of the most beloved spin-off branches. . Of the story
Of course, things weren’t quite that simple and the Super Mario RPG, as many of you already know, never got a formal sequel due to problems between Nintendo and Squaresoft – an issue we’re also on. Will discuss But that doesn’t stop their legacy from reaching today, either directly or indirectly: Paper Mario from Intelligent Systems, Mario and Luigi from Alphadream or even more recently Mario + Rabbids from Ubisoft for that unusual SNES game. There are debtors, which are still remembered. As a unique phenomenon – and of course, included in the selection of the SNES Mini. So let’s take a closer look at how the stars aligned in favor of this historic collaboration.
Internationalizing the Japanese role
Like a lot of good stories about video games, Super Mario RPGs date back to the eighties, a decade in which Squaresoft began to differentiate itself as one of the main developers of JRPGs and Nintendo established itself in the console market. installed in Founded in the U.S. as a leading hardware manufacturer, despite its independence, the two companies joined hands and Square – limited to the Japanese market during its first years – was somewhat US or even in the case of Hironobu Sakaguchi-designs. conquered Europe. Racing title Raid Racer. Started launching NES games. , the same Sakaguchi who would create Final Fantasy in 1987 and lead it into a new era of success marked by his expertise in that genre.
The company was founded in the nineties and the advent of the SNES, which went from hit to hit in its homeland. Although Enix’s Dragon Quest remained as the Queen saga, Final Fantasy IV, V and VI traced an upward trajectory (from about a half million copies of the first to over two and a half million sales of the third) and mysteries such as That Nam Mana Ki or Romance Saga series had no problem becoming “million-sellers”. Outside Japan, however, the story was somewhat different. Square continued to stick with a few locations, but the results were far from being that good, leading to decisions like not adopting Final Fantasy V or Romansig Saga, and making games like simpler Mystic Quest Legends or Evermore’s American Mystery. To appeal to the western market.
This was a problem Nintendo didn’t have. Many of its sagas worked well in all areas, and Mario in particular had risen as a safe value, so it didn’t take long for spin-offs like educational games to appear between platform deliveries – officially Licensed, but without the involvement of Nintendo. , Dr. Mario, NES Open Tournament Golf, Mario Paint or Super Mario Kart, the plumber’s first major explosion outside his natural genre (crossing 8 million global copies and climbing into the SNES top 5). So, by the mid-nineties, it was almost inevitable that the two companies’ paths would cross: Square still needed an extra push outside of Japan and Shigeru Miyamoto (the creator of Mario) also needed to create RPGs with the mascot. was interested in
Collision of worlds
Kensuke Tanabe, who is currently best known for acting as a bridge between Nintendo and Western studios such as Retro Studios or Next Level Games, was also in charge of overseeing the script, and since Square owned a lot of its own licenses. Were (development coincided with Chrono Trigger, Seiken Densetsu 3 and Romancing SaGa 3, among others), with two new directors assigned to the project: Chihiro Fujioka and Yoshihiko Maekawa. The first had already been written for Mystic Quest Legends, a previous attempt to internationalize JRPGs, while the second came from participating in the recently completed Final Fantasy VI – many members of that team used Chrono Trigger and Mario RPG. , causing Final Fantasy VII to be temporarily halted. Another name worth mentioning was Taro Kudo, a designer who years later would part with Intelligent Systems under the direction of Sticker Star and Color Splash (in addition to writing the illusory The Origami King of Switch).
One game that is still known today for its lack of localization, Live a Live, also completed development in 1994 and received several major figures. Maekawa and several programmers participated in it, but the more emblematic was the inclusion of Yoko Shimomura, a musician who had made the jump from Capcom to Square a while back. By then, Shimomura had already made a name for himself for the Street Fighter II soundtrack, but his interest in composing for role-playing games, rich in various situations and emotions, prompted him to change company and Found in Legend of Seven. Star your first great RPG, a move to sanctify yourself in the genre and open the doors to names like Parasite Eve, Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles or Final Fantasy – plus, of course, Mario and Luigi.
fun RPG to drive
Looking at the finished game now, 25 years from the future, the way all its pieces fit together seems easy, but getting there was a painstaking process and fraught with doubt. Square’s feature was the top visual game, but Mario needed special treatment, not making up Final Fantasy Mode. The inspiration was coming from another continent quite far away, seeing the excellent results that Rare was achieving with Silicon Graphics computers, making sprites—albeit technically 2D—appropriate for use on the SNES. Was creating and converting 3D models into visible sprites. Sure, as great as they were, games like Donkey Kong Country or Killer Instinct stuck to side scrolling, but an RPG with towns, forests, and dungeons required free movement to explore.
It took some practice to overwrite the instinct of using the crosshairs to switch between menus, but it soon made the process more streamlined. Additionally, the use of A to attack or Y to deploy special techniques can be repeated moments later, just before killing enemies, to increase their effectiveness. These bonuses, called timed hits, had different action windows depending on the attack, and in the case of certain techniques, they were sometimes replaced with more specific instructions such as repeatedly pressing the button, setting the meter to stars. To load with, or rotate with, cross controls quickly. Of course, don’t forget the existence of defensive bonuses, which apply if we press the button at the right time before receiving attacks