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Friday 25 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY:
As I continued playing the Super Mario RPG, I kept in mind the question that had been concerning me since I started: would the game be able to pull off a good story that brought new, deep characters into the story? I found out soon that it did. In the next two hours of game play, the characters Mallow and Geno were introduced into the story. Now, at this point you might be thinking "Well they don't sound familiar" - and that is right. This is the first (and to my knowledge, only) game that featured these two characters. Fortunately, they are characters that fit perfectly into the Mario setting and story. For example, Geno is a puppet that is given life through the power of the stars that live in the world, while Mallow is a "cloud" (he actually is humanoid, but i guess he was bron from the clouds) that thought he was a frog until Mario's influence brought the truth to light.
Needless to say, I was thrilled to find that the game showed a sense of character development and plot; although I am not far enough in the story to say what will happen, a "cloud" coming to terms with his existence and a puppet trying to find a place in the world are excellent starting points for a deep character.
But even with a good story, I needed to see if the gameplay got repetitive or boring. I dove back into the battle system determined to make my characters powerful enough to avoid being killed in 2 hits (which did unfortunately happen a couple times; seems that whole armor thing keeps people alive better. Whoops.) The different abilities that have shown up in multiple Mario games (such as fireballs and jumps) proved to be a fun way to give Mario his special moves, while the backstory of Geno and Mallow allowed Square to put the typical magic moves in the game without breaking the feel of the world. They did a good job creating a battle system that did not destroy the feel of the overlaying world.
DESIGN:
While I was leveling up a few times, I realized something that I did not mention in my previous log: the level up features. When you gain a level in this game, you also get to choose one of 3 powerups: a physical boost, magical boost, or health boost. I realized immediately what you could do with this: focus your characters to tank, hit people good, or blow things up with magic. It was a nice little touch that lets you feel as though you control how your characters will evolve. Needless to say, most people will probably keep Mario as physical damage and give Geno and Mallow the magic upgrades (I know I did), but it still is a game mechanic that doesn't force you into a single role with each character.
The level design fit the previous versions of Mario perfectly: even though it is a RPG, Legend of the Seven Stars does show its platformer roots. The levels are 3D, where Mario needs to jump or use platforms to reach new areas on the map. Although not essential to the game, its a way for players dipping into the RPG genre through the Mario name to feel more at easy. Another way they did that was to get rid of the typical random battle system. You can see the gombas you need to fight wandering the map, and can avoid them if you wish. It makes the game resemble its platform ancestors, and keeps the game feeling like a distinct Mario game. It even rewarded you for playing it like a platformer: treasure chests weren't laying on the ground, they were in the box floating high above you or on a area of the map that you need to time a jump right to get to.
From what I've seen of the game so far, it reworked traditional RPG elements into the background it came from to make a game that truly represents Mario well. Personally, I think that if it had strayed further from its roots Legend of the Seven Stars would not be as famous and popular as it is, nor would it be on the classics list for this class.
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