He knows about timed hits! Let's play Super Mario RPG!

Culex's posture and expansive chest makes me think that he's, uh, not one.

In retrospect, it feels more like Gilgamesh - totally out of place, but fun nevertheless. In fact, the goofy nature of Gilgamesh would probably have fit right in with Mario RPG.

Err, not what?

Not a he.

Here at Let’s Play Super Mario RPG, we have at long last reached the end of the line. We’ve collected six Star Pieces and penetrated directly into the heart of Smithy’s Weapons Factory, which means it’s time for us to confront the big man himself and end this charade once and for all.

But first, progress report!



Here’s our team going into the final battle. The top number of each stat is that stat’s “base” value, and the bottom one is the stat once all bonuses and penalties from equipment are applied.



Speaking of equipment, here’s our setup. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Unlike Culex, Smithy can be defeated (and easily) without the defensive properties of the Safety Ring and the Lazy Shell, but having them around doesn’t hurt.



Finally, items. I’ve been stockpiling Kerokero Colas and Rock Candies all game, to the point where we’ll almost certainly not need them all.



Mario presses the button revealed when we defeated the Factory Manager, causing the crane to carry us into the heart of the Factory.



Inside, the completely unmenacing-looking Smithy confronts us, pounding out Drill Bits all the while. In case you don’t see what Mallow is referring to here, the seventh Star Piece is attached to Smithy’s chest.



For all that he’s been our goal for virtually the entire game, Smithy is pretty much completely lacking in characterization. One of the things that I feel the Paper Mario games do better than Mario RPG is giving you more chances to watch the villains react as Mario works his way inexorably closer to them. Coming into this final encounter, we know virtually nothing about Smithy other than “he’s evil” — we’d never even seen him before this moment. One of the reasons a lot of people think Exor is Smithy is because the game never comes out and tells you that he isn’t; doesn’t tell you anything about Smithy at all. I don’t need deep characterization from my Mario villains, but I would like to interact with them a few times before throwing down.



All the non-mute party members have a moment to yell at Smithy, but the evil mastermind takes the abuse in stride…

…Even offering to take the rest of the Star Pieces off our hands.



Eventually, Mario and Smithy take off the gloves, and the final battle begins in earnest.



Smithy’s most dangerous moves in the first part of the fight are his unique spells, Sledge and Meteor Swarm, which hit everyone on the field for fairly respectable damage. You’ll want the Princess on standby to make sure you don’t get too in the hole from these attacks. Smithy’s other moves are all single-target jobs and can be mostly ignored.



Our first order of business is to take out Smelter, the weird device who hangs out with Smithy. Smelter has no attacks, but…



It can poor out molten metal, which Smithy can beat into Shypers. Shypers have a spell called Sword Rain which hits all characters for about the same amount of damage as Smithy’s Sledge, and Smithy can have up two on the field at the same time — it doesn’t take too many multi-hit spells to put you in serious trouble.

Smithy will keep churning out Shypers until Smelter is gone, so make knocking out his assistant your first priority. Then you can wipe out any remaining Shypers with a Geno Flash or two.



When the Shypers are in play, it’s more important than ever to keep your health up. Group Hug every turn if you have to. Smithy can’t do enough damage on his own to wipe you out unexpectedly, but he can with Shyper assistance, so beware.



Here’s the aforementioned Meteor Swarm. It’s the most powerful of Smithy’s spells, doing about 100 damage apiece to even my well-trained, well-outfitted team.

I’ve always really liked the music for the first part of the Smithy fight for some reason. It’s just a really cool tune.



Once Smithy starts to realize he’s losing, he flies into a rage and starts pounding the floor, causing his various minions to enter and try to console him. You might recognize Aero here from the Forest Maze, where he escaped from us at a dead run after we transformed Bowyer into an unrecognizable smear.

Drill Bit is the Weapons Factory’s newest prototype, one of the many we spotted coming down the production line as we entered the Factory proper.



And this Shyster is presumably one of the ones who tattled on us back at the very beginning after we won the first Star from Mack.



Smithy doesn’t take to being placated, though, and gives the floor one more smash…



…causing it to collapse beneath our feet.



We drop into a bizarre hellscape made of gears and Smithy masks. Smithy takes one more opportunity to get some yelling in…

With that final ultimatum, Smithy begins transforming into a much larger and more dangerous form…



I’m pretty sure that this is the first boss I ever encountered with multiple forms. As a kid, I had a hard enough time beating Smithy’s first form; the fact that he had another, harder one waiting for me afterwards was almost too much to bear.

Okay. In this form, Smithy has two parts, head and body, which can be attacked separately. You only need to beat the head to win: Attacking the body puts it out of action for a while, but Smithy will eventually revive it, and it doesn’t have any dangerous moves. Therefore, focus your firepower on the head instead.

Additionally, the head is constantly switching between four modes, each with different attacks, different stats, and different weaknesses. The four modes are: Tank, which has strong physical attacks and defense, as well as the instant-death move Magnum (weak to lightning); Wizard, which as you might expect has powerful multi-target magic, and is invulnerable to all elements, but features crap physical defense; Computer, which has nearly-impenetrable physical defense, the buff-obliterating Shredder spell, and a few other things (weak to ice); and Treasure Chest, which gives random status effects to your characters (weak to fire).

Smithy always starts with the Tank head, but he seems to go to the Wizard head most often, and the Computer head least often (I haven’t actually seen the Computer head in years). If you’re properly defended against instant death and status effects (as you should be), the Wizard head is the only one with any real damage potential, but it’s also the head that offers you the best opportunity to attack it, so you have to be sure to balance your offense and defense appropriately.

Smithy has 8000 HP, but this goes down quicker than you think. Regular attacks do 400+ damage to the Wizard head, and we’ve got all those attack items lying around, which are good for 200-ish at least.



Speaking of attack items, you’ll want to make sure to go ahead and use all of yours, preferably when Smithy’s using the Tank or Computer heads. After all, what are you going to do? Save them for later?



Here’s the Wizard head. Two unanswered spells from the Wizard head will kill most parties, so make sure that you’ve got some way to heal close at hand.



The Wizard head’s spells are one of the few enemy actions in the game that can outpace the Princess’s healing, so stay on your guard and don’t be afraid to use a Kerokero Cola if it comes down to it.



The Treasure Chest head is by far the weakest head. Its only move is to cause status effects, but we’re completely immune to them, so it’s basically just a chance for us to regroup and start pouring on the damage again.



Smithy doesn’t take his defeat very well, going into the usual “I can’t believe you beat me” spiel.



He then proceeds to go boom.

And there’s number seven. Congrats, everyone!



Geno is, fittingly, the only character with actual lines in the ending.



Whee!




His task complete, the entity known as Geno exits the doll it’s been using, and goes back to work.



The Star Road returns to the heavens…



And Geno uses its power to dissolve Exor into nothingness. Score!

With the Star Road fully repaired and back in its rightful place, we can now look in on the fates of some of our old friends.



Mallow heads back to Nimbus Land and takes up the mantle of prince…



Bowser and the Koopa Troop begin the arduous process of repairing Bowser’s Keep…



I’ve always found this scene to be a little tragic. Everyone else has a home and a happy ending to go to, but what does Jonathan Jones have? He just heads back into his haunted undersea ship and spends the rest of his miserable existence alone, in IP Hell.



Boshi and Croco commiserate over losing the Mushroom Derby to Yoshi, while Raz and Raini contemplate filing divorce papers…



Toadofsky begins teaching a whole new generation the art of ripping off other peoples’ compositions…



Booster and Valentina prepare to bump uglies and have some absolute hilarious kids…



And Mario, of course, gives us his signature V-sign, ready for his next adventure!



Hey, it’s Luigi!

The credits for the game roll on the bottom half of the screen as a parade commemorating the game crosses the top half. There are way too many cool jokes and references in the parade for me to point them all out, so I suggest you look it up on YouTube instead.

I was actually thrilled when I discovered that Paper Mario also ended in a parade, and mildly irritated when I found that Thousand-Year Door didn’t.



This shot is amusing even out-of-context.



Smithy crushes his useless minions as Ted Woolsey looks on.



The parade finally ends with our hero, Mario, waving goodbye to our other hero, Geno, as he returns to the stars.



Just in time for the fireworks!

(If you buy a bunch of Fireworks from the guy in Moleville, you actually get a different fireworks display here.)



And with that… the game, and this LP, comes to a close.

As always, thanks to everyone who read and commented on this LP. Look for Mario and I in Something Completely Different� in Let’s Play Super Demo World: The Legend Continues, coming soon to a Let’s Play forum near you. Goodnight!

Awesome! ^_^

I never beat Mario RPG. I always quit after the Axem Rangers for some reason. I'm still shocked the last boss isn't a giant sword!

I bow to you on your knowledge of SMRPG, Tanto - I've learned so much from this LP that I don't even know where to begin! You have done us a great service with this LP, so congratulations on a job well done!

/Thumbs up!

Great LP!

One for the ages, this LP.

There's a sheep attack?!

I absolutely loved all of the scenes at the end followed by the parade when I was a kid. Great LP.

Great LP! Thanks Tanto!

paper mario now kthx

That, and the Star Egg, ensure any character can be useful.

At least he's unique in that what little characterization he has amounts to "crotchety old man."


That's one Super Mario World reference for the road.


Thanks for everything, Tanto. This has been super good.

Excellent LP. Thanks so much, Tanto!

Great read and great work.

Thanks!

I'm sure you don't need to hear it any more, but awesome job! I'm definitely looking forward to the next LP you do.

Although I do feel kind of sad that's it's all over now.

♥

Good work!

Annnnnd, one more "this was awesome" post.

Congraturations!

This was a great LP. Can't wait for the next one!

Me too. This was truly informative and entertaining. Thank you for playing!!

This was awesome. Thanks for the entertainment, and looking forward to the next one.

Great stuff! See you next mission!

(I always called Smithy's computer head the "coffin head.")

Well Tanto, I deeply enjoyed this LP.

Your great SMRPG Knowledge manages to amaze even me, a multi-time SMRPG Player and avid fan who thought he knew everything. Not quite, not quite at all.