#jrpgs.

[dynamite-derek]

Super Mario RPG: An effective trojan horse

In 1992, a game called Final Fantasy Mystic Quest released. Despite being a Japanese game developed by Japanese developers, it had an English language target audience. Role Playing Games, specifically of the turn based variety, were all the rage in Japan. Dragon Quest in particular was so popular that kids would skip school to pick it up. You see, back in the stone age, there were no digital games. If you couldn't secure a physical copy, you were out of luck. So what does a young man who wants to fight slimes do? Skip school. According to an interview with Game Informer, police asked Enix to release their games on the weekend to avoid this. So they did.

But this sort of hysteria for role playing games was not seen in America. Yeah, there were definitely people who would camp out and try to snag a copy of Super Mario Brothers 2 or something, but there wasn't a bunch of nerdy kids trying to bum rush the store to see what the hell Cecil and Kain were up to. So Squaresoft wanted to fix this and their solution was Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. It was supposed to be a trojan horse into the genre. Instead of being overly complex and dense, it was simple and easy to approach. You get a small taste...but you still crave more. Yes, JRPGs are crack cocaine.

While RPGs would eventually find a foothold in the states, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest wasn't exactly successful in its mission. Whenever you hear people reminisce fondly about Super Nintendo RPGs, you very rarely hear someone wax poetically about Mystic Quest. In fact, I would argue it is one of the more 'obscure' Final Fantasy games despite its mission to act as an entryway for children. Square's intended trojan horse was a dud, but there's one other game a suspicious number of people think fondly of. It also goes for the same 'simplistic approach to a complicated genre' thing Mystic Quest went for.

That game is Super Mario RPG. I speak of it in a similar 'trojan horse to the genre' way as Mystic Quest because that was quite literally the case for me. I had never heard the letters "RPG" together before. I was an eight year old and all I knew about the game was that it starred Mario and the screenshots in gamepro looked cool as hell. I remember playing this game for the first time vividly. My eyes had just gotten dilated because they were testing my vision and my dad decided to rent me a game to make my suffering less apparent. I saw Super Mario RPG and the choice was obvious. Everything about the world charmed me.

I loved the music and the quirky dialogue. I felt there were a lot of mysteries in the world to see that were just beyond my reach. For instance, I spent hours trying to figure out what Toadstool's "???" was. I tried to figure out where Toad's bazooka was because if he mentioned it, that must mean he has one somewhere and maybe he could join my party! Hell, some kid at school told me about a weird glitch in the beginning of the game where if you pressed a bunch of buttons in some sort of order you would trigger three hidden characters who would join your party. I spent hours trying to figure out how to get Yoshi to leave Yoshi's Island and come with me. Things like hidden treasure boxes and the lazy shell actually existing in game helped propel these wild theories.

Basically, if you experienced the Pokemon phenomenon of the 90s, you know where I'm coming from. It was impossible to be on a school ground and not hear about moving the truck for Mew or learning about Bill's Secret Garden or Pikablu. Mario RPG was that for me on a much smaller scale. I had never seen a game with such a fleshed out story before. In short, I was hooked.

This discovery led me to many other video games I might not have tried otherwise. It led me to renting Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV (2), Final Fantasy VI (3) and basically anything that I thought had turn based combat. Basically this simplistic game featuring Mario fighting a scary blacksmith kicked off my lifelong fascination with a genre. My excursion to a rental store as an eight year old probably led Squaresoft (now Square Enix) to profit thousands of dollars from me alone. And given the reverence surrounding this game, there's just no way I'm alone.

If you go back and play Super Mario RPG as an adult, it's still a really good time. As someone with a great deal of nostalgia for it, it's hard for me to look at it objectively. But when I compare SMRPG to its contemporaries, I really don't think it measures up. The gameplay is simplistic and laughably easy - the game's super boss Culex would probably be seen as a mid tier boss in Final Fantasy IV - there isn't a whole lot of depth to how you build your characters, the item inventory is extremely simple and easy to manage and the game's stages are very easy to navigate. SNES RPGs could feel labyrinthian at times and that's before I get to stuff like Shin Megami Tensei, which released in 1992.

This isn't to say that SMRPG is a bad game. It absolutely isn't. While it is simplistic, I think there are four things that carry it a long way. The things that make it a game that hooked countless children and made them RPG addicts.

First is the undeniable charm of everything. Super Mario RPG is bursting with personality. The story does not have a lot of depth, but the character dialogue is all interesting and quirky. If you compare it to the NPC dialogue of something like Final Fantasy IV, I think it's a lot more interesting. Children's media tends to be brightly colored and loud and I would suggest SMRPG fits in with that. Even the volcano world is full of personality and color. Who could forget the Axim Rangers? I remember thinking it was hilarious that you had to sleep on the boxes at the volcano Inn.

Second is the music. As is typical with most Squaresoft RPGs of the 90s, the soundtrack is excellent. If you pull up a random youtuber's videos, odds are you will hear a Super Mario RPG track at some point. The music is distinct and memorable. Honestly, as far as SNES RPGs are concerned, I think it hangs with Chrono Trigger and Earthbound in the sound department. This is insanely high praise and if this is your first experience with a game like this, you will remember these tunes.

Third is the fact that it is a Mario game. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest's main character is Benjamin. Not exactly a memorable name like Cloud or Cecil. His Japanese name was Zash though, I guess that's kinda cool! This game stars Mario. As a child, you could slap that plumber's face on anything and I would instantly buy it. Recruiting Princess Toadstool (before everyone knew her name was Peach) and Bowser into your party was just the coolest thing. This wasn't the first Mario spin-off, but it was probably the first one that didn't make you shove your head in a history book. People love those characters, so sticking them in a quirky and colorful world is going to make for a beloved game.

Lastly is the difficulty. It's no secret that RPGs used to be a lot more grindy than they are now. It's something you either love or you hate. SMRPG does not require a grind at all. You certainly *can* if you want to, but you don't have to be anywhere near the max level to finish off the game and even then, I think on my most recent run everybody was fairly close to it anyway and I assure you I did not go out of my way to fight goombas. This is a game that was designed to be beaten. No matter how much a kid runs into a wall, they will probably find a way to come out on top. So you leave this beautiful colorful and quirky game feeling good about yourself because you beat it. There is maybe one non-Culex boss that could be defined as 'that boss' and it's a monster wedding cake. ...Ya see what I mean about a world full of personality?

The things surrounding the actual game take what could have just been a ho-hum average experience and elevates it to the next level. You will see RPG snobs turn their nose up at this game because of its simplicity, but I think SMRPG accomplished exactly what it was trying to do. It created a horde of people invested in RPGs. Even if they didn't stick with other games in the genre like I did, they probably tried at least one or two others.

Whether intentionally done or not, Super Mario RPG achieved what Final Fantasy Mystic Quest set out to do. While I don't think there's any chance the remake will be able to capture that same magic, I would bet that a lot of 30+ year old men and women will be sitting in front of their televisions this weekend feeling that they've gone back in time. Cursing Sakurai for not placing Geno in Smash. Feeling like they need to figure out how to get Luigi to join your party because that one star in star road was clearly written by him and god dammit he is probably stronger than mallow at least right?

It's not the best game. But it is a beautiful one.

#Super Mario RPG #video games #nintendo #nintendo switch #retro games #gaming #jrpgs. #rpgs #Geno

[rollingredneck]

#youtube #letsplay #.hack. #.hack//imoq #.hack//outbreak #videogames #jrpgs.

[retrogamingblog2]

The message that Akira Toriyama left for his kids in Chrono Trigger

#akira toriyama #nintendo #chrono trigger #gaming #video games #anime #manga #dragon ball z #dragon ball #dbz #dragon quest #super famicom #snes #super nintendo #90s #wholesome #rpg #jrpg #retro #retrogaming

[kutyanchan]

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY

#Omori #omori spoilers #omori sunny #omori basil #omori mari #omori fanart #omori #artists on tumblr #dijital art #small artist #procreate #new on tumblr #indie games #jrpg

[brushbugs]

I wanna play Shin Megami Tensei IV, I wanna play Devil Survivor, I wanna play Devil Survivor 2, I wanna play the Persona 2 duology, I wanna play Xenogears, I wanna play Xensoaga, I wanna play Xenoblade 1, I wanna play Xenoblade 2, I wanna play Xenoblade 3, I wanna play - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

#man. #jrpgs. #i should just become a streamer lmao #meanwhile: hm how about another quick round of salmon run?

[catboybiologist]

my brother in christ, i pray you wake up from the shackles of this deadly delusion that you are currently entrenched in.

the voices of all your male ancestors are calling out to you. listen closely, and you'll hear them.

they are screaming. utterly disappointed at what you are doing to yourself, how you are chemically castrating yourself and slowly but surely fading away into nothingness. your great-grandfather and his father before him and all his forefathers are deeply saddened by the way you are mutilating your divinely-crafted male body.

you always have to remember your truth. you were born a man. you have strayed from the path of sacred masculinity and forsaken your god-given male nature. but it is still a part of you, no matter how much you deny or attempt to erase it.

your fate has in it embedded a masculine greatness, just like every single male born on this good earth, it is written in the stars for all of us.

you cannot change fate, no matter how hard you try.

it is never too late to embrace your essence and who you truly are, underneath all the masks, disguises, drugs, pharmaceuticals and covers.

a holy bearer of the sacred essence of life: SEMEN.

i pray for you, my fallen brother.

Nah 👍

#imma just let this one stand for itself lmao #not sure if its a troll or what #but wow #nice jrpg dialogue

[acquired-stardust]

Pokemon Silver Gameboy Color 1999

#pokemon #Lapras #Pokemon Sliver #Pokemon Gold #Johto #nintendo #1990s #nostalgia #game boy color #gameboy color #gameboy #pixel art #retro gaming #jrpg #rpg #8 bit #8bit #aesthetic #video games #nostalgic #90s #game boy #gaming #gen1 #gen 1 #gen 1 pokemon #generation 1 #generation 1 pokemon #8 bit aesthetic #1999

[prokopetz]

So help me, I love JRPG bosses with stupid meta strategies that exploit some quirk of the mechanics to ruin your day. Like, yeah, cast a spell that changes my primary damage-dealer's damage type to an element the boss is healed by, and I can't even remove it because it's technically a buff and all of the condition-removing effects specifically don't remove buffs. Give me a boss whose passive aura grants spell reflection to the opposing party, which in practice prevents me from healing myself but doesn't hinder the boss at all because literally all of their attacks are physical type. Go on, make it weird.

#gaming #video games #game design #tropes #jrpgs #violence mention

[vhsstills]

Live’s in his Heaven, all is Laugh with the Love.

#vhs #vaporwave #glitch #gaming #fashion #video games #r23x #rpg #video20xx #jrpg #live laugh love #anime #evangelion #neon genesis evangelion

[luciasatalina]

lil project about a travelling chef searching for the best recipes and dungeon delving with their companions ♥ more there if you wish to check it out!!

#fantasy art #jrpg #game mockup #painting #original character #elf #dnd #fantasy #art #my art #dungeon and dragon

[tsukinoki]

Final Fantasy VIII. 1999.

#final fantasy #ffviii #ff8 #final fantasy viii #final fantasy 8 #ff #square enix #square games #playstation #video games #gaming #screenshot #screencap #tsukinoki #jrpg #rpg #squall #squall leonhart

[rollingredneck]

Let's Play .hack//OUTBREAK Part 5: The Fruits of Game Breaking

#youtube #.hack//imoq #.hack//outbreak #.rpgs #jrpgs. #letsplay

[eden-west]

When I get free time.. My brain goes to Fire Emblem Three houses. I got the FE brain rot now. It gives me so much inspiration. Byleth is one hell of a fun character.

#digital art #digitalart #digitalartwork #made by human #no ai art #noai #digital painting #digital illustration #stylized #illustration #character illustration #character art #byleth eisner #byleth fire emblem #female byleth #fe3h byleth #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #three houses #expression sheet #character #video games #jrpg

[sorryitisandy]

In Persona 4 and Persona 5, party members joining is a big deal. So it is given a lot of ceremony there. No issue there. But Persona 3 really did have some funny ad-hoc shit.

Akihiko pulled up and said "I found this boyfailure and brought him home"

#persona #persona 3 #junpei iori #p3 #akihiko sanada #persona 4 #p4 #persona 5 #p5 #atlus games #jrpg #jrpg games

[saiykik]

Tae Takemi Persona 5

#art #digitalart #digitaldrawing #digitalillustration #digitalpainting #anime #drawing #illustration #cute #atlus #persona #persona 5 #rpg #videogames #jrpg #tae takemi #hot #goth #emo #nurse #shin megami tensei #shin megami tensai persona

[dtscribe]

Just a Tifa drawing

#tifa lockhart #ff7 tifa #ff7 rebirth #ff7r #final fantasy vii #squaresoft #square enix #video game fanart #fanart #digital art #digital illustration #digital painting #jrpg fanart