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KrepNatas's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
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| [January 21, 2008 03:36:00 AM]
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Gameplay:
Continuing on the quest we meet a number of stereotypic parody characters, including the orphan who's questing to find his parents, the wise old frog that fills you in on the details (and is named Frogfucious), and a doll brought to life by a shooting star. The gameplay remains standard RPG fare, with lots of the same fight repeated so that you can level up to keep up with the enemies. The minimal equipment and character development means there isn't anything too special about finding all the treasure chests; especially since a lot of the chests contain coins and I've already found an upper limit of 999 coins that you can carry.
You do occasionally run into a minigame, which can be entertaining. Looking around I found one that involved jumping on tadpoles to play a song, and playing the correct one let you purchase new items. Another one has you riding barrels and jumping to collect coins. The minigames seem well spaced and are somewhat enjoyable.
Design:
The game seems to be aimed at a young crowd who are familiar with Mario, but may be unfamiliar with the RPG genre. To this end it seems very well designed. The characters often make self-depricating remarks about Bowser having kidnapped the princess again, the colors are bright and cartoonish, and the action is very simple and straightforward. This would have been a great game when I was seven.
The choice to simplify the gameplay to such a low level, however, make it uninteresting when thought of as an RPG. The minigames, while well spaced, are also fairly simple and after a quick read of the directions provided they require very little skill/thought to complete.
For its time and age group, Super Mario RPG is a great game. For anyone who enjoys an engaging storyline and a complex RPG system this just plays too much to the cutesy audience.
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| [January 21, 2008 01:33:49 AM]
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Summary:
The princess has, once again, been kidnapped by Bowser. Bowser only takes about five minutes to defeat, however, and victory is all but assured until a giant, talking space-sword shows up and announces plans to conquer the world. As Mushroom Kingdom's only hope, Mario must once again battle enemies to save the princess and stop the bad guy...thing, but this time in an RPG.
Gameplay:
This game lands somewhere between the normal RPG style and the classic Mario sidescroller. While there are some very unique elements, I found much of the game to be somewhat lacking. After a few hours of gameplay I found myself getting quite bored of the simplified RPG rules (such as only having three item slots--weapon, armor, and accessory) and fairly basic character progression (one new skill every so many levels and a choice of boost to power, hp, or magic every level). Also, the story is a very simple and well-used Mario story, which works fine when the point of the game is challenging, fast-paced levels, but is somewhat lacking in a full RPG style game.
That being said, there are some very interesting elements that were added to the genre. Mario RPG borrows from its sidescroller predecessors in both its map traversal and in the way you navigate levels. Some basic jumping puzzles show up early in the game and I was even able to receive star power for a brief time (which knocks enemies away and prevents battles from taking place). The game also adds a small amount of skill into the fights, as hitting a button at the right moment will increase your attack damage or decrease the damage you take. Some spells also require you to tap a button repeatedly when casting them.
All in all, I don't think I'll be finishing the game after a second session. It has some interesting elements, but after the main storyline had me spend 30 minutes chasing a crocodile who stole a frog/tadpole's (he looks like an egg with arms and legs) money and ignoring the captured princess problem I'm not overly excited to find out what happens next.
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KrepNatas's Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Got Bored
GameLog started on: Saturday 19 January, 2008
GameLog closed on: Monday 21 January, 2008 |
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