RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

First Japan and now Europe.

NOA must really hate us.

However I can't stay angry, Europe NEVER got this masterpiece so to them its a new game and something they probably really wanted.

To all Europeans, if you like any of the mario RPGs and mario games this is EASILY worth $8.

Mega Man, the game that came out this week in America, came out in June 2007 in Europe. The fact that immediately after we got Mega Man Europe gets this scares me.

If you aren't a Mother fan, then you don't know the half of it... =)

I already have so much to play (including several RPGs coming up soon) that I wouldn't have the time to play this, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise...I'll definitely be getting it, though, because I don't have my SNES here at school...

I know what you mean. We Mother/Earthbound fans have long suffered. NOA seems content with releasing a couple crap games a week with a good one or two every once in a while if we're really lucky. NOA must really find this funny.

This was my first RPG. I've probably played through it six times at least. My recurring E3 fantasy, every year, is that Square comes out and announces a next-gen sequel, with Geno as the main character, maybe even incorporating other Nintendo characters as new party members. It keeps me up at night.

I own this one on SNES, so no particular excitement about the Virtual Console. I'd much rather see it on DS with new content. That and the portability makes it worth a new purchase for me.

I just recently purchased another SNES (old one broke) for pretty much one reason: THIS GAME. Like the poster above, I have probably played through it quite a few times (at least 3) and I have half a mind to delete my current save file (which has been untouched since 2004) and just start all over.

THIS GAME IS MAGICAL. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE EIGHT COPIES.

But is it worth €9? ($13.29) (It's a 900 point game since it's an import).

According to posters at GoNintendo this game is good only for its nostalgia value only and hold up horribly now.

Gonintendo community > Evan

For once I agree with the rabble at the Gonintendo community.

Okay, Super Mario RPG is by no means a bad game, but it's nothing special, either.

It neither has the quality of story telling you would expect from a Square game of that era (i.e. FF6, Crono Trigger), nor is the gameplay near the quality of Nintendo games of the time. All Mario RPG games since have surpassed it.

It's worth 900 points, just don't expect to be blown away.

Just like The Lost Levels i woudn't be surprised if this deleted a few weeks later.

Somehow third parties making spinoffs of Nintendo franchises have a tendency to make them seem like fan-fiction (adding new characters of great importance, making the usual villain a secondary character, reappearance of characters from earlier games that have no real reason to be there, etc)...

I still think you didn't get MM on the VC because you got the anniversary collections.

Very much so...An excellent RPG, especially for those who don't really like RPGs...

QFT

honest mistake.

I haven't played this game since release but I remembered loving it. This was the kind of game you play all hours of the night until your eyes force you to sleep and forget to eat because your busy.

I very much enjoyed Mario and Luigi , Partners of time was disappointment and Paper Mario games have been hit or miss. However this is something I remember and love.

Something about it was special. I haven't played it in 10+ years, but certain aspects of that game are just burned into my memory.

Blasphemy.  I'd probably rank SNES RPG's in this order (personal opinion):

1.  Final Fantasy III
2.  Super Mario RPG
3.  Chrono Trigger (not gonna lie...haven't played this, but it's top 3 easy)

Any Europeans that don't buy this game might as well pick up and move to China, because you're obviously a Communist.

Super Mario RPG Haters = Godless Communists

Urkel: SMRPG isn't as good as Final Fantasy VI.
You: What? That's crazy! SMRPG isn't as good as FFVI!
Urkel: But that's what I....
You: Silence communist!

SNES RPG's:

1.Chrono Trigger
2.FFIV
3.Earthbound
4.Mario RPG

and I love Mario RPG, it allowed us to se the mushroom kingdom in an unprecedented way. It is one of my favourite games, I only put it at #4 because the snes had some truly magical shit going on in the top 3. Also I know that some people won't agree with ffIV, but it's my favourite FF and they are wrong ;)

The debate between FF IV and VI will go on forever (I pick neither, and put Chrono Trigger and Earthbound only inches above SMRPG). SMRPG's strength is definitely not its difficulty or its battle system; instead it wins, like Earthbound, on sheer personality, story-telling, charm, graphics, and above all MUSIC. This is the only game that truly humanizes Bowser, that makes the Mushroom Kingdom seem like a REAL place rather than a collection of disconnected levels, that takes the idea of "events" in RPG storytelling (mine cart ride, Midas Falls, Booster Tower, the Sunken Ship!) to its highest level (I forgot Marrymore!). It is far and away one of my favorite SNES games of all time. And above all the MUSIC!

Evan definitely eats Freedom Fries.

It does have an ugly rendered style though...

Well that's pre-rendered backgrounds on the SNES for you...

Europe never got SMRPG, we never got Terranigma. It would be a good trade-off.

Yeah, wake me up when Terranigma is announced for the U.S. VC, or ANY VC region at that...With SE's laughable VC output it'll be out in 10 years... =(

Is there ANYTHING released by them on the VC? SMRPG doesn't count since they don't have full control over it.

Yeah they released ActRaiser here and like 4 games or so in Japan (mostly games I have never heard of).

Wow this game sucks. Paper Mario 64 for lyfe.

The GoNintendo community also said that my review of Mega Man Star Force 2 was crap because I knocked the story in an RPG.

This game rules and is the only game that I consistently do a yearly playthrough.

I find rendered games look great on TV (a normal TV, it probably looks terrible in HD) but look terrible on portables.  It just seems to look smoother on a TV.

Before I bought a copy I remember a time my brother rented it.  We had rented it already before when it came out and this was a few years later like 1998 or so.  The save battery was busted so my brother just kept the SNES on the ENTIRE duration of the rental.  And he played it like all day.  It was only a two day rental so I don't think he had enough time to beat it.  Later we found a used copy with a working save battery.  Hell even if it didn't work my friend now knows how to replace it as he did with my Earthbound cartridge.

What I love about Super Mario RPG is that it's this perfect balance between an RPG for RPG fans and an RPG for people who don't like RPGs.  Paper Mario is for people who don't like RPGs and it's a fun game.  But the people who like it over Super Mario RPG are usually the people that sh!t on every RPG.  To me that's what I don't really like about Paper Mario and that's why I like Super Mario RPG.  Mario RPG still feels like an RPG so if you hate the genre you'll probably hate it.

I however tend to like RPGs more in theory then in practice.  The problem is usually the game is too damn long and has annoying random battles and these annoying "teenagers vs. the evil empire" storylines.  I however love exploring the world and meeting all the characters and stuff.  Mario RPG is relatively short for an RPG, doesn't have random battles, has an incredibly intuitive user-friendly interface, and has a story that is actually fun.  Actually a lot of what I just said applies to Chrono Trigger as well.  With both games it's like Square stopped and said "Wait a sec!  Why do all our RPGs have these stupid design conventions?  Let's make something actually user friendly for a change."  Chrono Trigger was designed as the "ultimate RPG" and that's pretty much its design philosophy: user friendliness.  It really makes no sense that Square pretty much went back to what they did before with Final Fantasy VII.  They rejected that user friendly design which was supposed to be the way to make the ultimate RPG.  For two games Square was making RPGs exactly the way I like them.  Oh well.

GoNintendo is probably full of brainwashed "RPGs suck" Nintendo fans that decided that Square and the whole genre sucked during the N64 days because Nintendo told them so.  Don't forget that first person shooters suck now too.  They didn't on the N64 but the Gamecube didn't have any while the Xbox did so they suck now.  And online used to suck but now Nintendo is doing it so it's cool, unless it's done in a non-stupid way.  Then it sucks again.

I'm hardly defending GoNintendo, but seriously...Seriously?  RPGs suck because they, well, do...Most of the time, that is...And for the reasons that you even specified in your own post...(Hey look, I can even flip this around...How about Sony fans were brainwashed into thinking RPGs are fun?  That works too, right?)

Hurray for pointless and baseless generalization about favored game genres...

I'll be honest, my problems with first person shooters stem from the oversaturation that's happening now. There are very good first person shooters out there but the genre is a dime a dozen these days.

You did hit the nail on the head on why most people like SMRPG though. I love it because of its mix of depth and simplicity. It's a simple RPG that doesn't really pander to its audience like the Paper Marios have a habit of doing sometimes.

I found the story, characters, and settings of SMRPG to be much better than those found in Paper Mario.

SMRPG > Mario & Luigi > Paper Mario, however all three are amazing and it is really splitting hairs when arguing which series is the best.

I'd say PM stays truest to the Mushroom Kingdom setting, it feels the closest to the regular Mario games in the presentation of the world. Of course that's no major metric, M&L was superior due to its much more interesting gameplay. I feel that SMRPG's rendered style destroys any similarity to the original setting and the added characters don't help as they don't mesh with the rest of the setting.

I hate rendered graphics in general, I remember back when I got the Club Nintendo issue that came with the video cassette promoting Donkey Kong Country, I hated the look even back then.

Of course all of that is a secondary concern. I don't remember much about the gameplay of SMRPG (played it on an emulator LOOOOOONG ago) but I think it was the most RPGish with the action commands feling pretty tacked on and a standard stat system.

I agree with Ian on why Mario RPG is great, and I disagree with his generalizations on why people say it sucks. Personally I think it is nothing more than people distancing themselves from games that get a lot of hype.

Nron also had it right with FPS, the problem isn't that it is a bad genre but that it has been over saturated to the point of being overkill like plat formers were at one time.

It'd be nice if there was an over-saturation of platformers NOW... =(

QFT

Dude, Mario RPG is teh_roxxors. It blows the Paper Mario games out of the WATER. The world is huge, there are secrets galore, the isometric viewpoint actually looks good (the pre-rendered backgrounds haven't aged well, though, I'll admit), and the combat is fun and involving. And I don't have to mess with badges!

And the plot is awesome. Bowser joins your freaking team!

I forgot to mention that my cat is named Booster after the character in the game.

Does it make sense that another part I like about it is that even though it's a lot less complicated then something like Final Fantasy it still has the sort of stats and menu presentation that a typical RPG would have?  Paper Mario just seems like it is dumbed down and treats the player like they're a moron who couldn't understand an RPG.  Little things like how the "party" in Paper Mario is just you and one helper or how the highest level is like 10 or something really small like that just bugged me about that game.  The storyline is a lot simpler either with no real twists or turns at all.  Back then it always bothered me that Nintendo was accused of being "kid-e" but Paper Mario DID seem a lot more kid-e then Super Mario RPG.  Like "we can't have normal RPG stats or the little tykes won't understand it".

Super Mario RPG is also the last time Mario was silent.  A few months later Super Mario 64 came out with that stupid "it's a-me" voice.  Anyone playing the game now for the first time should take into account that when it came out those playing it had a different perception of Mario then what would soon follow.  To me Super Mario RPG seemed like the "real" Mario and everything since then hasn't quite felt right.  Remember also that when the game came out no previous Mario game had any significant story or character development .  Super Mario RPG was the first time the Mushroom Kingdom was presented as a world and not just a series of levels.  Yeah there was the show and the comic but this was the first true reveal in the videogames and even as a kid I knew that the videogames were the true canon.  To me Super Mario RPG will always be the true Mushroom Kingdom.

One thing that always hurt Paper Mario for me was that the world was inconsistent with the one in Super Mario RPG and the Mario RPG one was a lot more interesting.  The inconsistency gave me the impression that Nintendo was sloppy and didn't care.  Keep in mind that when Paper Mario came out there were only six Zelda games so it wasn't entirely obvious how sloppy Nintendo is about that stuff.  That careless attitude towards continuity still bothers me but I'm just more used to it now.  You pretty much have to take each Nintendo game as an isolated title.

Hahaha, what...Super Mario RPG isn't consistent with, well, Super Mario Brothers 3...How about them apples?

I really wish Ian would stop posting a lot of words that mean very little.

So the "real" Mario to you is the one from a spinoff?  That's really damn weird.  Care to comment, Ian2004? *click*

Who the heck is that guy?  That guy's not me.  Mario should never be in any spinoff ever!  Especially not ones I personally do not like and another th-

That's enough, Ian2004.  *click*  The consistency thing is also laughable considering Mario started fighting Donkey Kong, then some kind of Turtle somewhere else, then some kind of green thing, and then the turtle comes back, and then DINOSAURS show up.... I think you get the point.

But of course, we shouldn't make this post about Ian.  Mario RPG is a stunning effort by a company not know for gameplay, and shows that Nintendo can change any third party for the better if they'd only let them.  But my personal preference in the Mario RPG line is Mario and Luigi, because it has better writing.  Zoom!

There's no indication that the areas in Super Mario Bros. 3 and the areas in Super Mario RPG can't co-exist.  They could very well just be different portions of land on the same planet.  And in the sidescrollers the levels aren't very specfic.  For example Mario visits Yoshi's Island in Super Mario World but he visits like six levels which would be like visiting six houses on an entire island.  So the fact that none of those areas are in Yoshi's Island doesn't screw up continuity because they COULD be there and that game takes place like 30 years earlier anyway.

But in Super Mario RPG you have the Mushroom Kingdom with the castle that Princess Peach lives in.  Now even though the castle looks slighty different in Super Mario 64 it's close enough that it can work.  BUT in Paper Mario there's Toad Town which has completely different geography surrounding it than the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario RPG.  Crap.  Unless the worlds of the two games are on opposite sides of Peach's castle we've got a big inconsistency.  That bothered me at the time.  It's too big to explain it away or even have the possibility that the areas COULD co-exist.

That's just somewhere where Nintendo and I disagree.  If I created a fictional world I'd be damn picky about making sure the world was consistent with itself throughout the franchise.  Nintendo does not care about that at all and Paper Mario was the first time I really noticed that, though I probably could have discovered it much earlier.

S-E is third party, what they make is as canon as fan fiction. None of the characters and races added in SMRPG have been reused in any later Mario game to my knowledge.

Nintendo doesn't care about continuity or story as much as they care about gameplay and they have zero qualms tossing anything out that doesn't work in favour of the game.

Also remember that this fictional world was never designed as a world just as jumpman was never designed to be a character. These were simple things thrown into a simple game since SOMETHING had to be there and they were designed for only one purpose: Working well with the game. That's why I insist Nintendo should stop reusing characters from the NES and SNES era in "epic" games since these characters were simply not designed to be more than a sprite that represents the player.

Okay, so you say that there is no evidence that all the other games could or could not have been in the Mushroom Kingdom...So in essence you are basically admitting that it was Super Mario RPG that ruined the "continuity" of the series by forcing a location to be set...

Ugh no way, he did not even attempt to do that.  There is no way in Hell Ian tried to connect SMB3 and SMRPG.  God Golly Gracious, your standards for continuity are low, even tot he realm of "could be's."  And if they are that low, I can connect Paper Mario to SMRPG in less moves.

Please notice all the lumber and construction equipment in the Southern Part of Toad Town.  Obviously the town has expanded enough to be severed from the actual castle proper, as obvious from the Mushroom Kingdom's economic move from fief-and serfdom to a well financed Communistic Capitalism.  (What with coins literally falling out of random boxes and such.)

This sounds like a waste of time because it is, and you can't even do that right, lightweight.

All I'm saying is that Paper Mario had a completely different world than Super Mario RPG and IN MY OPINION that partially affected my enjoyment of Paper Mario and that TO ME that was an inconsistency that bugged me that made ME notice that Nintendo doesn't give two sh!ts about that kind of stuff for the first time.  Pointing out a bunch of stuff I missed prior to 2001 doesn't mean jack sh!t because I'm talking about something that happened.  And just because I was apparently too dumb in 2001 to notice that Mario didn't have any consistent continuity doesn't change it.  Paper Mario made me notice it.  That's factual so why present all these counter-arguments when I am merely stating what I noticed for the first time seven years ago?

Super Mario RPG kicks ass.  Paper Mario isn't fit to wipe Super Mario RPG's butt.  Back on topic.

lol i love internet bouts

I think the Super Mario RPG stands completely separate from the Paper Mario series, which in turn is completely different from the Mario & Luigi games. So we've got three Mario RPG frachises. I could do without one of them.

I will agree with Ian on at least one point: Paper Mario is like RPG's for people who have never played an RPG or D&D at any point in their lives, and Nintendo doesn't seem to think that we can handle stats any more complicated than Attack and Defense.

Happily, Mario & Luigi remedied that problem. I think the Paper Mario is for the younger, RPG-newb crowd while Mario & Luigi is being built up as the successor to Super Mario RPG.

Now that Nintendo and Square(Enix) have remedied their relationship, perhaps we can start hoping for a real sequel? That would be pretty kickass. I would like to see Super Mario RPG on the North American Virtual Console, and maybe even a souped-up DS port.

I've never played Super Mario RPG but I have a negative impression of the game because of people that feel the need to bash Paper Mario in their praise of the game.

Play it.  You won't be sorry.  Paper Mario is good, but Super Mario RPG is on another level entirely.

Besides, you have to wash off that Communist stench.

I didn't say I wasn't going to play it, I'll buy it as soon as it comes out, I have blocks reserved for it and Mega Man 2, another classic that I've never played before. I'm just sick of the argument; one of the first things I did on this forum was get into a big argument with Mashiro about the quality of Paper Mario, a game he hated because of Super Mario RPG.

Paper Mario and Mario RPG are two completely different games. It is like comparing Zelda with Mario, it just does not work.

Deg's entire posting career is made up of rule-breaking name-calling like this, almost always directed towards Ian. I don't care how ridiculous Ian can be, maybe you're the problem, not him?

That was essentially my argument, that Paper Mario wasn't trying to do what Super Mario RPG did, it was a different kind of game.

Hmmm tempting, huge fan of M&L and Paper Mario 1/2, but a big part of that was the humour. Mario RPG looks dull as dogshit in that respect. I'll check it out one day, still need to check out M&L2 as well, and SPM.

Saying that you can't compare the two doesn't really make sense. I mean it's not like one is a platformer and one is a FPS, they're both RPG games using the mario property. I do agree, however, that Mario RPG and Paper Mario are not trying to meet the same goal. This doesn't mean that comparing the two is a fruitless endeavor, but what goal each game is trying to meet should be taken into account. Both games are working with the RPG formula but they modify them in different ways. By picking out the differences you can see why some people might prefer one game over the other, or see what modifications to the RPG formula worked better than others.

I personally liked Mario RPG better because it was more engaging. I also enjoyed Paper Mario, but I found myself getting bored much faster. Mario RPG just had so many fun things going on that broke up the battles and the story. Riding in the mine cart, barrel jumping on midas river, hiding behind the curtains in boosters mansion, playing musical tadpoles... these things were great and well placed. Paper mario was just more straight forward, still fun, I just found it less inventive.

and the stories for the paper mario games are never more than derivative. Super Mario RPG wins on that round, methinks.

Well, can you? I see those numbers and really I have no idea what exactly they mean. Sure, more strength means more damage but how much? How does STR +5 affect my damage, how does DEX +5 affect my hit rates? The Diablo games and Hellgate gave you values for each, showed directly what each value meant (e.g. "every point in CON increases your HP by 2"), in D&D the tables were in the manual but in a jRPG you can only guess. So why not simplify it? Why not remove this whole silliness of "My number is bigger than yours" and just cut it down to values where a player can actually tell what they do? 2 damage -1 defence = 1 damage, anyone can see that and it makes sense. 109 attack vs 87 defense = 212 damage? What?

If you want humor go play Super Paper Mario immediately, it's hilarious, especially some of the early Bowser lines.

"Story in games is like story in porn, it's expected to be there but it's not important." - John Romero

Carmack actually. Romero was the guy who went on to make Daikatana, Carmack just kept making engines.

SMRPG was more oriented toward turn based traditional RPGs in how it was handled, while the Paper Mario series is pretty much a BASIC RPG with more platforming fundamentals. They are two very different games in their approach, and in turn should not be compared. It is like comparing a Pokemon game to Final Fantasy IV or VI, there is little in common with them and they are doing very different things.

My main point was just because games may share similar mechanics does not make them the same but since we want to be picky about it, what about comparing Halo 3 to Metroid Prime 1-3? They both share the same "genre" but they do vastly different things and it is asinine to compare the two, just like it is asinine to compare Paper Mario with SMRPG. Paper Mario turned into a weird platformer/RPG hybrid which was even more striking with the sequel.

Are you sure the quote was from Carmack?

Anyway, I just like that quote, but Shigeru Miyamoto pretty much feels the same way, and I'm dangerously close to forming a religion around that man, so I feel that way too.

Wow...We sure know how to send a thread to Hell! :D

Anyways, regarding the SMRPG vs. PM debate...

SMRPG was the FIRST RPG I had ever played. I avoided the genre because it looked boring and complicated. But then I saw SMRPG and me being a Nintendo fanboy that loved everything Mario I had to get it. I even bought a guide in fear that I would get lost in this new genre.

I got it for Christmas and I was HOOKED!

It was the game that sold Bowser. After playing the game I ADORED Bowser. He was my idol, the best character in the whole game.

What I loved so much about it is that after all these years of him being a cardboard villain in which you expect to defeat at the end of the game he finally gains a voice, a personality and a story. In fact, I will be daring enough to say that if it wasn't for Square's storytelling abilities Bowser wouldn't be as popular as he is today with some fans.

The story itself was also fantastic for a Mario game. The insane characters you met, the bosses, the new places, everything reached near perfection. It also features some of the funniest scenes ever seen in a Mario game (Here's a hint: wedding chapel).

The music was also incredible. Yoko Shimomura did a fantastic job of marrying traditional RPG themes with Mario charm. And funny enough she went on to compose the music for another crossover RPG and my all time fave series, Kingdom Hearts.

So unless you couldn't tell, Mario RPG made my Nintendo fandom one of the happiest ever. I couldn't get enough of it. I played it, I finished it, finished it some more, restarted it, played some levels, finished it etc. It never left my SNES.

So imagine the happiness I felt when a sequel was announced for the N64. I DIED! I couldn't wait for it to come out.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that Square had nothing to do with it and the game would feature a flat storybook style...

SMRPG spoiled me, perhaps too much. Once I finally played Paper Mario the experience was forever ruined. Bowser was once again the bad guy, Peach left your party and you had charming but somewhat forgettable sidekicks.

It was a good game, mind you, but SMRPG was so perfect that any Mario RPG that came after it would feel like a step down, to me at least.

Years later I respect the Paper games as being fun RPGs for anyone to enjoy. But SMRPG will always have a place in my heart. Its a very important game that made my childhood years ones that I shall never forget.

I don't think it's possible for Bowser to be a better character than he was in Super Paper Mario.

As I said, a bigger villain replacing the regular one and the latter becoming a friend of the hero reeks of fan fiction. I actually found it unusual that in Galaxy Bowser was actually depicted as a competent and evil adversary rather than a bumbling fool that gets pushed aside at the first opportunity by the new megavillain of the day. Maybe that just depends on what you played before, after all SMRPG only started the trend of other villains taking Bowser's place...

Part of everyone's love of SMRPG is the time frame in which they played it. If you played the Paper Mario series before you play SMRPG, I don't think you'll enjoy SMRPG the same way people did who played SMRPG before the other games. I'm sure the same holds for the other people, just vice-versa.

Playing either game sets your mind up for Mario RPGs to play out a certain way, when they don't approach the same goal, the obvious reaction is disappointment. I think pap's story is pretty accurate for me as well and probably for a number of other people.

It's likely that the other side of the debate will likely play SMRPG and not get what's so great about it because their expectations are different.

Well said.
It's not like I hate the Paper Mario games. I look forward to their releases and they're some of my favorite Mario games in the past ten years. Its just SMRPG is perfect to me.

When I originally heard about the concept of SMRPG (Squaresoft RPG w/Nintendo characters), I thought it'd be terrible.  But I figured that it was Squaresoft RPG so it was worthy of a look, and it turned out to be totally amazing.

The final battle vs. Smithy is EPIC.

Battle vs. Culex even MORE epic.

Music in both battles rock my socks off.
Hell, the music in the game is just fantastic in general.

Well, I bought it. It's a good thing a game over just moves you back to the last save point but lets you keep your experience, the first time I reached Croco I was underlevelled. Mallow is still a bit problematic in the damage department, the first few shy guy battles had him do 1 damage per attack until he levelled up... I hope I'll find a weapon for him soon, I don't remember when you get the first one.

I always ditch Malo as soon as other characters become available. He is really annoying while you have to use him because he is really weak and doesn't ever seem to get strong enough to be worth using.

He's pretty much a black mage so he's useful for spells.  Though I still didn't use him because of one major flaw in the game design - the FP is shared among the entire party.  So once Peach joined the party I would be wary of using magic in case I needed it for Peach's healing spells.  In most RPGs I can dedicate a specific character for healing while other characters can use their magic for attack spells.

If Square ever makes a sequel I hope they have each character have their own flower points.  Though I've long thought a Zelda RPG might be interesting so maybe instead of continuing the series of Mario RPGs the series becomes Nintendo franchise RPGs.  So the sequel would be The Legend of Zelda RPG.  Though that might create some backlash since Zelda is already sorta an RPG and many fans might protest the change.  Zelda is in many way the anti-RPG since it involves similar gameplay but without stats or levels and everything is in real time.

Shared FP do make you think about whether you should heal or attack instead of just spamming both. Of course the magic has to be worth it then.

I don't think a Zelda RPG would get a good reception considering what happened the last time Zelda had stats... Also the world is already fleshed out, it'd lose the novelty of seeing the world as more than just levels and just become a different combat system in the same setting. Setting-wise Metroid would work better but that might not be a good idea either. A part of all Mario RPGs is that they're humorous and can afford doing crazy stuff, more serious franchises wouldnt work there. Maybe a Kirby RPG but again that would seem silly...

So would a Sonic RPG...wait....

Well, Sonic at least has a consistent supporting cast. Who would you draft as a party for Metroid? Some new bounty hunters noone cares about? Do you introduce some new evil and make Samus fight together with the space pirates so you get Kraid, Ridley and the mother brain as your party members?

Kirby has a consistent supporting cast.
Metroid as an RPG wouldn't work because of the solitary nature. Well, at least a conventional RPG.

I like Mallow for his cheap multi-enemy strikes, like the Lightning Storm. It's actually pretty decent later in the game, especially if you hit the A button right after the last bolt hits the ground. Overall, I found Geno pretty unreliable. My party generally consisted of Mario, Peach, and Bowser.

I had the player's guide back when SMRPG first hit stores, and I gotta tell you--it's one of the most error-ridden player's guides out there. If has a section dedicated to where all the hidden treasure chests are, but a few chests are accidentally repeated. So out of, say, 50 chests, you only find out where 48 or 49 are. :-( Also, there was an enemy list with HP, SP, weakness tables, etc., and more than half the time, SOMETHING was wrong. I remember distinctly that according to the guide, Mack's weakness is fire. It turns out that's totally wrong--he's strong against fire (he uses fire attacks) but weak against Jump.

Mario, Peach and Bowser would always be my final party.
My friend and I had that same strategy guide and I remember correcting the errors with pen. That strategy guides now lies in tatters somewhere with two 9-year old's scribbles all over it.

I never bought this game because I rented it for one weekend and beat it, so I didn't think it was worth full price.  It's just too bad I never once saw it for less than $60.  I was severely underleveled for the final boss, but I had Mario's best armor (and weapon, for that matter), so Smithy could barely even hurt him even though I couldn't keep the other characters alive.  Winning was just a matter of patience.  I think I beat Culex the same way.

Everyone's party eventually becomes Mario, Peach and Bowser.

You have to have Mario.
Peach is the only healer.
Due to everyone sharing FP you want to save it for Peach.  So you need to rely on physical attacks and Bowser has the strongest attacks.

To me that sounds like a flaw in the game's design, where technically you have options but all the options except one don't work, but I'm sure someone here will find a way to twist it into a reason SMRPG is better than Paper Mario.

Pretty much every RPG has that problem, at least in the style of Mario RPG where you have a big party. It is kind of like most of the fighters out there where everything is not as balanced as it should be.

I won't.  It's a flaw in the design, outright.  It's a great game but it isn't perfect.

Though note that the ideal party configuration everyone uses involves the three Nintendo characters.  Conspiracy on the part of Nintendo perhaps? ;)

Bah, I came home too late to argue with GP about arguing with my post! So let's do a drive by on the stuff that was posted since I read this last.

About comparing MRPG and PM: At what point do games get similar enough that we are "allowed" to compare them. I think that the problem that you see in this is in trying to discern whether or not one is better than the other, which was never what I was advocating. As a matter of fact, it is the differences in the games that make games worth comparing at all. You could very easily compare metroid prime to halo, but to do so with the goal of proving one is better than the other would be foolish. What we can learn is what mechanics work or don't work for the genre and the intended purpose of the game. You don't necessarily need to compare games to do that, but it can provide some insight that is worth while.

About the strategy guide: I've never really been one to use strategy guides (except the first time I played earthbound, but that was because it came with it and was masterfully written). I do remember my friend having the guide and I think I showed him more hidden chests than he showed me. My favourite was the invisible chest in the sunken ship in the room with the fake mario that mirrors your moves, where you have to fake him out, jump on his head, then from his head onto the visible chest floating in the middle then you jump again to hit the invisible chest..... good stuff.

Now the the topic at hand: The only character I didn't use very much was mallow. Any other party combination is workable with the proper items supplementing them, though balance is weighted heavily in favour of the mario bowser peach combo.

See, you put the Lazy Shell armor on Peach so that she's never in danger of actually being hurt, but give the Lazy Shell weapon to Mario, whose attack stat then matches or exceeds Bowser's.