Mario RPG Discussion Thread

[LiveStudioAudience]

The Mario RPG sequel starts off with seemingly a timed battle only for Bowser to refuse to adhere to that system:

Peach: Bowser you need to wait for your turn to attack.
Bowser: A King doesn't wait for turns!

Bowser charges forward with a Drill Claw attack

 

[Geno Boost]

i managed to think of SMRPG item that would work well for smash which is sleep bomb

basically you throw it on someone then they fall sleep for few seconds and it can effect multiple if others are close to it when it explode
could also work well for mario kart by making the sleep while they drive unable to turn left or right or break

 

[Diddy Kong]

A Mario RPG that's unique from the groundwork that SMRPG, M&L and Paper Mario have done?

I think I'd make it a platformer, but a slower one. With many RPG elements and real time action. Buttons for actions like jumping and power ups for example. Many of the typical Mario Power Ups being collectable items indeed but with permanent function if you choose so. Like grabbing a Fire Flower in Mario.

Lots would rely on platforming, positioning, but all in real time. Mario would increase in power over time, like increased jump capacities and run speed and amount of durability and name it, but nothing extreme. I would prioritise skill over stats, a skillful player would be able to reach Bowser and rescue Peach without leveling up potentially. Just like in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom basically.

So the power scaling would need to be adjusted to this principle. And the environment and collectable power up items would need to be of influence too to the battles. As well as regular jumps and stuff from enemies like Koopa Shells being easy to exploit against enemies. Kinda like in the regular Mario platformers huh. I'd also scale the items compared to the environment. Maybe like having levels on the power ups themselves? Level 1 Fire Flower minimal to level 5 Fire Flower maximal for example. I don't know.

So yeah in a way I'd try to make this game appealing to speed runners, completionists, lovers of grinding, and add an engaging story if you actually take time to go and liberate the castles the Princess isn't in. And I'd try to keep it as Mario as possible, but with a slowed down engine to support a more strategic approach, yet not too much as to dumb down the platforming aspects.

My approach would be to combine the best aspects of the Mario series while also making it a traditional complestionist RPG with a deeper story, which is optional to go after.

 

[PLATINUM7]

A Mario RPG that's unique from the groundwork that SMRPG, M&L and Paper Mario have done?

I think I'd make it a platformer, but a slower one. With many RPG elements and real time action. Buttons for actions like jumping and power ups for example. Many of the typical Mario Power Ups being collectable items indeed but with permanent function if you choose so. Like grabbing a Fire Flower in Mario.

Lots would rely on platforming, positioning, but all in real time. Mario would increase in power over time, like increased jump capacities and run speed and amount of durability and name it, but nothing extreme. I would prioritise skill over stats, a skillful player would be able to reach Bowser and rescue Peach without leveling up potentially. Just like in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom basically.

So the power scaling would need to be adjusted to this principle. And the environment and collectable power up items would need to be of influence too to the battles. As well as regular jumps and stuff from enemies like Koopa Shells being easy to exploit against enemies. Kinda like in the regular Mario platformers huh. I'd also scale the items compared to the environment. Maybe like having levels on the power ups themselves? Level 1 Fire Flower minimal to level 5 Fire Flower maximal for example. I don't know.

So yeah in a way I'd try to make this game appealing to speed runners, completionists, lovers of grinding, and add an engaging story if you actually take time to go and liberate the castles the Princess isn't in. And I'd try to keep it as Mario as possible, but with a slowed down engine to support a more strategic approach, yet not too much as to dumb down the platforming aspects.

My approach would be to combine the best aspects of the Mario series while also making it a traditional complestionist RPG with a deeper story, which is optional to go after.

Sounds like Super Paper Mario with some more RPG aspects.

 

[Mushroomguy12]

For a unique new Mario RPG series, most of what comes to mind for me has already been said by others, my favorite idea is the action RPG. I just want Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG to just receive new games, especially for Paper Mario getting a new game in the old style of the first two. The remakes were nice, but I hope Nintendo doesn't treat them as a one and done and go back to doing "Sticker Star" style games.

That being said, if we were to do a brand new series to get a unique identity from the current series of Mario and Luigi & Paper Mario.... I really did love the Subspace Emissary and while I understand Sakurai probably won't ever do another adventure mode on that scale in Smash again.... perhaps we could do a Smash Bros RPG? We could get all the excellent story potential of a Nintendo RPG without taking away from fighting game Smash's development by making it a separate series.

 

[Griselda]

I think I'd like a turn-based strategy type of RPG similar to the old Genesis Shining Force games, where the units are all distinct characters. It'd be a good way to properly give the extended Mario cast more focus, considering how large the pool of characters to swap in and out can get in those.

 

[LiveStudioAudience]

We're kind of at an interesting crossroads for Mario role play games, especially with the upcoming launch of the Switch 2. All three of the notable pillars (Mario RPG, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi) have had remakes/ports/sequels on Switch and given the solid sales for all three, any one of them would be viable for a follow-up.

A successor to Origami King which further downplayed the RPG elements and/or went with wacky battle gimmicks would be the least interesting route to me, but even that game was a solid adventure title only bogged down by battles didn't really need anymore. Another M&L game so soon would be a surprise barring something like a Partners in Time remake (and the failure of the previous two M&L remakes may have given Nintendo cold feet).

I guess my personal hope is that finally do get a Mario RPG sequel with Square Enix's blessing. ArtePiazza demonstrated some solid work with the remake, and it feels like they could be trusted to push that particular game series forward when enough oversight.

 

[Griselda]

Honestly? I just want the reverted character and environment designs from the TTYD remake to stick, instead of just resuming the post-SS redesigns. Yeah, that's a little shallow, but I want my thick-browed goombas and female-presenting toads. And child/elderly toads. And the RPG-original races like Doogans and Shamans. And Toadsworth. ...And having a taste of them back again after so long just makes me anxious to lose them again.

While I'd of course want a new Paper Mario to build on the 64/TTYD gameplay style, I think it is fair to say that Origami King was a pretty decent title in the sense that it had some interesting ideas that could've really gone somewhere if they'd been totally fleshed out instead of being at a weird halfway point where it was clearly trying to emulate some of the older ideas while still insisting on being different.

Battles in particular. I actually really liked the boss battles in Origami King, looking back on it. Some of them had pretty hectic vibes, and having them essentially be puzzle-fights had some genuine value. Regular battles, though? While they were okay-ish, they were still held back by forced limited attack resources and lack of major/permanent rewards. Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly, given the insistently different-from-before vibes most earlier Switch titles had), I think I feel the way about them that I feel about BoTW's battles. They had the potential to be fun, and sometimes really were, but after a while I just started avoiding any non-mandatory ones because it felt like they weren't particularly meaningful, and really just ended up using limited battle resources I knew I'd have to buy more of - and it just became a 'buy items-use items-get coins-buy items' loop without any sense of progression beyond different areas selling different items. But maybe that's just me.

I think if they're going to try out a different gameplay style with Paper Mario, they need to fully lean into it the way that Super did, by being a sort of action-RPG with a platformer focus. If the next Paper Mario wants to lean more into puzzle/adventure, maybe they could just take it all the way and turn it into something similar to the pre-BoTW Zelda games.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

While I'd of course want a new Paper Mario to build on the 64/TTYD gameplay style, I think it is fair to say that Origami King was a pretty decent title in the sense that it had some interesting ideas that could've really gone somewhere if they'd been totally fleshed out instead of being at a weird halfway point where it was clearly trying to emulate some of the older ideas while still insisting on being different.

Part of me wonders if Origami King's battle system would have benefited for more wacky randomness. Like truly go off the wall.

 

[Griselda]

Surprised that nobody's mentioned this about Mario Kart World, yet.

 

[Borskaboska]

So, if you could design a brand new Mario RPG franchise that's different from RPG, M&L, Paper Mario and Rabbids... What would it look like?

I've had this idea for a game for a while, for a mario take on a disgaia style tactics game. I know Mario + Rabbids is already a tactics game, but thats more of an X-com thing where the focus is on maximizing odds and increasing percentage attributes. What I'm imagining is something with paper mario style low numbers, a skill menu a la the badge system for every character, and mario & luigi action commands.

I think action commands would work really well in a tactics style game because you could introduce a spacial element, like a Powerbounce where you could also jump on adjacent tiles, well timed attacks pushing enemies backwards a number of tiles, or having to press in the direction an attack is coming from to do a power guard. I've been busy between school and work, but i've had godot installed for months now because I've been wanting to make a proof of concept just to get the idea out of my head.

I really like the mario cast, so above all I just want to be able to make a party of characters out of random mario goobers. Ideally, youd form a party out of 1-2 captains and then a number of generic mooks, like the sluggers games.