The Mario RPG thread

Talk about the Mario rpgs here.
Here is how I would rate them:

1.Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
2.Paper Mario thousand year door
3.Mario & Luigi Dream Team
4.Paper Mario & Mario & Luigi Bowser inside story
5.Mario & Luigi Partners in time
6.Super Paper Mario
7.Super Mario RPG
8.Paper Mario Sticker Star

From all of those I only played SuperStar Saga (emulated) and Super Paper Mario (WII). I stopped playing SuperStar Saga, need to continue one day.

Out of all of these, I only played Superstar Saga. Got stuck at BeanBean airport, could never figure out what to do wtih the plants, gave up, traded the game away.
A few years later, played the game on an emulator. Made it almost all the way. But for whatever reason, stopped in Bowser's Castle after defeating 4 or 5 Koopa kids, and just never got back to it...

From what I played...

1. Paper Mario 64
2. M & L Superstar Saga
3. M & L Dream Team
4. Super Paper Mario
5. Paper Mario Sticker Star

I've played Superstar Saga, TTYD, and Partners in Time (and a little bit of Super Paper Mario but it didn't even feel like an RPG, it was more like a platformer with paper skills which wasn't bad, but it wasn't like the two before it).

All of them were great music wise, the M&L series wasn't like a conventional RPG, and TTYD was a neat mix of strategy, exploration and humor. I think Super Mario RPG plays like Dragon Quest or something because (Square or Enix?) made it. It's very hard to compare them or say which one I like best.

The Super Paper Mario first level music is the best Mario platformer music remix ever.

Oh, also, I recently I started a Goombario-Only challenge (With some less restrictions) on 64! Basically, the only things Mario can do are using items and Star Powers. It was been good so far, but I got stuck at Dry-Dry Ruins and might need to do some grinding...

So, been wondering when best to post in this topic.

Basically, I love the Mario RPGs. Not as much as Wario, but damn, the Mario & Luigi series are still my favourite RPGs ever. I especially liked Dream Team's giant battles. And Antasma. And the Massif Bros. And the music. And you know, pretty much everything about it. Same with the earlier games. Fawful is awesome damnit!

Just makes you wish Wario was in a Mario RPG as a playable character...

CM30 said:

So, been wondering when best to post in this topic.

Basically, I love the Mario RPGs. Not as much as Wario, but damn, the Mario & Luigi series are still my favourite RPGs ever. I especially liked Dream Team's giant battles. And Antasma. And the Massif Bros. And the music. And you know, pretty much everything about it. Same with the earlier games. Fawful is awesome damnit!

Just makes you wish Wario was in a Mario RPG as a playable character...

Click to expand...

Yeah, say what you will about Dream Teams dragging tutorials and the frustrating ring minigame, the good parts of the game are among the best things the Mario franchise has EVER seen, especially everything regarding Bowser in this game.
That's just one thing I like about the M&L series as a whole the fact that it treats Bowser with respect, rather than playing up the tired 'Lol, look how much more competent and badass the new bad guys are , compared to that loser Bowser' shtick.

I enjoyed Super Mario RPG. It confused me as a child, but when I played it again years later, I was loving every minute of it. Played the game again not too long ago, and boy, was it a fun trip.

Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga is one I find to be a worthy successor to that game, even though it wasn't a true sequel. It wasn't as good, but it was still a great game. Plus, Fawful is amazing.

Beyond that? Never played much else.

I'm also a fan of Mario RPGs as a whole, though I like the Paper Mario series (sans Sticker Star) significantly more, as the games are longer, more fleshed out and feel more complete (SMRPG also shares this trait, and is an unforgettable classic). I also much enjoy the M&L series: it's very funny and quirky, just not as good as Paper.

Oh, my ranking:

1. Paper Mario 2
2. Paper Mario
3. SMRPG
4. Super Paper Mario
5. Dream Team
6. Superstar Saga
7. Inside Story






8. Sticker Star
9. Partners in Time

I don't think it's "not so good". I think it's a really bad game, and easily the worst Mario RPG. It grabbed all typical flaws of the M&L series (the world lacks depth, boss battles take too long, game feels rushed, weak story) and made sure they were enhanced to unbearable levels. And then they picked the best thing the M&L series has to offer (lots of humor and quirkiness) and made sure there was almost none of it.

Princess Shroob in PiT is the most fantastically broken boss in RPG history. What the fuck where they thinking.

Mario RPGs you say? Huh...

1: TTYD - The older I get, the more I appreciate the game's battle system, aesthetic and its winkful (and at time, subversive) take on ~teh Mario mythos ~.

2: SMRPG. Fun battel system. Witty script, but not quite to the level of Paper Mario. Original characters sucks.

3: PiT. Fun battel. Script's really dry. Soundtrack's more mediocre than you expect. Bosses have too much HP unless you do an all-attack build. Fails to leverage the time travel premise into something interesting.

4: Mediocrity, thy name is Super Paper Mario.

I thought Mario & Luigi Partners in Time wasn't as bad as people say. Yes it was unbalanced and hell and about as linear as your average triple A Square Enix game to boot, but the graphics were pretty nice, the battling could sometimes be fun, the music was... interesting in some cases and the concept was kind of neat. I mean, it introduced probably the darkest, most evil villains in a Mario RPG ever.

Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door, was great not only because of the gameplay but because it was the one time Intelligent Systems kept the meta 'humour' in check and made a great game to go with it. Compare that to Super Paper Mario and Sticker Star... and it feels like they were made to be 'different' more than 'fun'. As someone in the video review game said (I think either Nostalgia Critic or Mysterious Mr Enter), pointing out your flaws does not make them funny (or make up for them). Saying 'oh ha ha, look how funny it is that you're suffering through bad game design' does not excuse it. Intelligent Systems often come across as like hipsters thinking that being 'ironic' is always good.

I really like Partners in Time, but compared to the rest of the series it easily ranks the lowest for me.

Anyway, I already praised the M&L series' treatment of Bowser before, but if theres one character that truly stands out for me it's Mario himself.
I don't know if I'm in the minority on this one, but I legitametly like Mario as a character and the M&L series is a great example of how to handle him:
He (and Luigi) has no dialog as usual, but he really doesn't need to in my opinion because the series handles expressions and reactions so well that the characters ooze with personality without even saying a single word.
It also helps that Mario is allowed to actually react to things, unlike the Paper Mario series were Mario is pretty static most of the time.
His interactions with Luigi are the best part thought, they may be brothers but Mario will get annoyed by Luigi's antics at times and sometime even forcefully drag him into a fight.
And then there are those moments were he stands up for Luigi like when confronting that Star door in Partners in Time, or making it clear to Starlow that it was Luigi who was ultimatly responsible for getting rid of the Shroops, those moments are just incredibly sweet and show a bond between the brothers that really should be more prominent in the enterity of the franchise.
This series also has my favorite piece of Mario artwork ever:



The sleeker look suits him really well and I like how they actually managed to make a more no nonsense kind of expression for Mario look naturel, especially compared to the Smash version:

Yeah, Mario looks awesome in the Mario & Luigi series.

Which brings me to another point... I really like how Nintendo expands the Mario universe and cast list in the Mario RPGs. I mean, in a world where the New Super Mario Bros games add absolutely sod all to the world of the Mushroom Kingdom, it's nice to see all the interesting new places, characters and species introduced in Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi.

Well, except Sticker Star. Screw that game.