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

Geno is awesome. He is the strongest character in the game by far, and is useful in almost every situation. Add that to his arsenal of cool weapons, his flashy star magic, and his stylin’ blue cape, and it’s no wonder he’s a fan favorite. If there were any justice in the world he’d have his own spinoff by now.

No Geno this update (check out the updated schedule in the first post), but once we do get him, get used to seeing him.

I find that the Princess is actually the weakest character overall. It’s not that she’s bad, it’s that she’s highly specialized – in the fights where you need her, she’s indispensable, but the rest of the time, she’s deadweight. And the fights where you need her number maybe a half-dozen in total. She’s a dedicated healer with no uses outside that narrow field, for better or worse.

When we last left off, we had saved the Mushroom Kingdom from an army of marauding Shysters. Now, we head to Mallow’s home of Tadpole Pond, and to get there, we need to negotiate the dank Kero Sewers. First things first, though…



Mallow forgot why he even came to the Mushroom Kingdom in the first place, but we didn’t. At the shop, we trade the Rare Frog Coin we won back from Croco for the Cricket Pie, evidently some kind of frog delicacy.



Onwards. A new path has opened to the south, leading us into a new submap.



Mallow must be an old hand at traveling through the Sewers at this point, so he takes the lead into the Mushroom Kingdom’s dark underbelly, stopping only to warn us of the dread “Belome”.



Kero Sewers is a network of water and pipes, the first real dungeon in the game. It’s the first place in the game with any real non-linearity. You can rush through this dungeon in a minute or so if you’re so inclined, but we’ll head off the beaten path first to search for treasure.

After heading through the first pipe, we drop down a few steps and enter this one.



After rushing through an empty hallway, we find ourselves atop some ruins. This place is visible from the main path, but can only be reached through the pipes. We climb to the top, snagging a flower from a chest along the way.



After entering the pipe at the top, we emerge in this room, containing a Star and six enemies. I don’t like fighting in the Kero Sewers for reasons I’ll explain in a bit, but Stars are rare and precious and represent free experience, so we grab it and go crazy.



After it wears off, we return the way we came and drop down to the bottom of the room we were previously in. There’s a chest here as well, but it contains a monster, Pandorite.



There are four different species of chest monster in the game, but all of them are completely invulnerable to fire, ice, and lightning. They’re extremely weak to jump, however, so Mario takes the lead against them. Mallow, however, is forced to hunker down in defense.

Pandorite has most of the same attacks as Mack, and is a little more powerful than the big knife. He’s weak on defense, though, and a few Super Jumps bring him down with a minimum of damage.



The real reason we came this way is to beat Pandorite. Not only do we snag a Flower Jar as spoils, but we also pick up a Trueform Pin. The Pin, which protects the wearer against the transformative status effects (“Mushroom” and “Scarecrow”), will be critical once we confront Belome.



Our treasure hunting complete, we head to the exit and swim through this canal to get back on the main path.



We end up in a large room filled with water, with a submerged pipe at the bottom. As Mario can’t dive in this area, there’s no entering it yet – we’ll have to drain the water before we can proceed. To that end, we make our way to the southeast pipe, dodging Rat Funks as we go.



I kind of dislike fighting enemies in the Kero Sewers. They take a while to beat, especially with only two characters, and they love to throw status effects like poison and fear at you. It’s not that they’re difficult so much as they’re annoying… I do most of my fighting in areas where the enemy groups go down in a round or two. If you’ve gotten to level 6 before Mack, that should hold you over until after you’re done with the Forest Maze, so I tend to ignore fights in this area.

Of course, sometimes the game will randomly prevent you from running. There’s an item which will allow you to run away 100% of the time, but this is the only dungeon in the game where I flee very often.



Eventually, we make our way to a green switch. When tripped, this drains the water from the large room we were in before, allowing us to access the underwater pipe we saw earlier.



Like so.



This treasure box is tantalizingly out of reach… What happens is that much later in the game, we’ll uncover a secret path which leads back to this area. We’ll reenter from a pipe in the north which will allow us to jump to the box.



However, some manipulation of the engine allows us to get up there now. There are a bunch of Boos in this area, and when you flee from a fight, the enemy flashes for a few seconds to give you time to get away. The enemy will not engage a fight in this state, but it’s still solid, so you can bait an enemy in, flee from the fight, then use it as a stepping stone to these inaccessible areas.

Sadly, someone at Square must have anticipated this exploit, as the chest contains only a flower rather than the much rarer item it has if you pick it up legitimately. And the path is a dead end when entered from this direction, so no sequence breaking for us. Phooey.

Back on track, we grab a mushroom from the chest, save our game, and drop into the room beyond…



…Which contains a giant door, as Mallow helpfully points out…



…And what can only be Belome.



Belome is definitely where this game takes a turn for the strange. The dungeon is filled with rats and Boos and Cheep-Cheeps… but the boss is a giant four-eyed monster with tentacles growing out of his forehead and a tremendous appetite. Not your normal Mario fare.



Belome has lots of HP and a collection of weird tricks, but he doesn’t do much actual damage, so we can easily outlast him. Both Super Jump and Thunderbolt work well against him, so we go on the attack.

About halfway through the fight, Belome starts using his Scarecrow Funk spell on you. As you might expect, this turns the target into a scarecrow, in which state they can only defend and use magic. It never wears off, either, so if Mario gets s’crowed and you run out of FP, you have to punch away Belome’s 500 HP with Mallow’s dinky regular attack. Not fun times.

(Can you figure out that this happened to me my first time through the game?)



Thankfully, Belome will only target Mario with this spell, so if you equip him with a Trueform Pin, it does nothing. Belome has something scarier in store for Mallow, as we’ll soon see…



Sweet, a freebie. Sometimes when you use an item, you’ll get a freebie, which causes the item to be returned to your inventory instead of disappearing when you use it. These can evidently be influenced, but I’m not that good at it…



Yikes! Yes, you saw right: Belome ate Mallow alive. Thankfully, he forgot to chew, so we can get him back by pounding on Belome with Mario for a while. This doesn’t even do any damage.



I’ll bet.

Well, I guess we’ll never see him again!



After defeating him, Belome vanishes, leaving behind a green switch and a warning to “Beware the flood!”



How unexpected!

(I have to say that the square water here cracks me up every time. I know it’s just an artifact of perspective, but it looks so dumb.)



We’re released from the sewers into the Midas Waterfall and River, a two-part minigame. In the waterfall part, we drift down the falls, collecting as many floating coins as we can. The path splits twice, and for maximum coinage, you’ll want to take the left fork first, then the right.



I feel that the best way to play this section is to tap the button once a half-second or so. Pounding on the button will cause Mario to move up a bit, but he drops down immediately afterwards and won’t respond to your commands for a second or so. If you wait a beat in between presses, however, you maintain control, and can move more or less horizontally without losing much vertically. You can’t fight the current, so don’t try to; just move with it.

There are also a few caves in the stream… More on this in a bit…

During the River portion, Mario rides barrels, jumping between them to collect coins. There are two “streams” here, and you can switch between them by bumping the barrel you’re riding into another barrel, which will knock you into the opposite stream. The coins are always in the same place, however, so to ensure the best score you’ll want to bump twice, then jump twice. Repeat that pattern over and over until the course ends and you’ll end up with a good score.

This sounds easier than it is; even now I pull off perfect Midas River runs only rarely. It requires slightly more precise timing than the rest of the game, and it speeds up as you go.



You also have to watch out for these little fish, who will knock coins loose if they hit you.



An old man at the bottom keeps track of your score (waterfall and river combined), and will trade you a Frog Coin for your earnings if you meet his price. The better you do, the lower his asking price for a Frog Coin – in other words, if you can do, say, a ninety-coin run, he drops his price to sixty coins for the rest of the game. It’s a risk-free way of winning Coins, but it sure does take a while…



The first time you talk to him, the man also gives you a NokNok Shell, Mario’s next weapon. He’ll also let you use the spring to shoot right back to the top of Midas Waterfall, but that’s kind of a waste of ten coins, as you can do the same by simply rushing through Kero Sewers again – entering what was Belome’s chamber will take you to the beginning of the course.



…Which I go ahead and do right now. I always do the Waterfall twice; once for the Frog Coins, and once for the flowers which appear in two of the caverns. (These are mutually exclusive – you can only get one for each time you do the Waterfall.) The first flower is found in this cavern, the first one encountered after the first fork.

The cool thing about the caves is that there are these little Splash Mountain-esque scenes that play out while you’re traveling through them. In this one, a Bandit and a Sky Troopa fight over a flower, only to accidentally knock it into the water at the end. Suckers!



All the caves have little scenes like this, even the ones that don’t give you flowers.



I pulled off a much better River run this time, as well (the first time I was a little rusty and got nailed by the fish a couple times), and even picked up another Frog Coin.

On to the Pond!



Tadpole Pond is deserted at first. The music is distinctly more low-key, and no one talks to you. Even Melody Bay is empty. To liven things up, we’ll have to have a pow-wow with Frogfucius, so we step on the gray stone.

Mallow steps in and sets the record straight.



Frogfucius, we’ll discover later, is supposed to be our go-to guy when we’re lost and don’t know what to do next. He knows everything, so he can point us in the right direction.



Attracted by Mario’s celebrity, a whole school(?) of tadpoles appear. They beg for a jump, so Mario, of course…



…gives them one of those ridiculously showy jumps he won’t do in the actual game. Where was that when I was using flashing ghosts as platforms, huh?

At this point, a wizened voice begins floating over the pond…



Frogfucius shows off his knowledge of recent weather conditions. Truly, he is a savant.



I’ve always found this joke to be a little incongruent with Frogfucius’s character. He’s supposed to be our wise, respected mentor, but he’s paying a Lakitu to carry him around so that he can scam people into thinking he’s got psychic powers. What a fraud.



Frogfucius invites us to his island to discuss matters of the gravest importance.



From now on, whenever we step on the gray stone, the tadpoles will form up, allowing us to cross over to Frogfucius. That’s gotta be a degrading existence…

Exposition time!



Frogfucius settles in to explain the plot to us.



Frogfucius goes on to explain the truth of what happened when Exor slammed into Bowser’s Keep, complete with jumping on his desk to reenact the actual slamming. The Princess and Bowser both were sent flying, lost to parts unknown. Meanwhile, Smithy’s goons have been infiltrating Mario’s world.



Somehow I think that the two may end up being one and the same!



Mallow asks for Frogfucius’s opinion on the Star Piece we picked up after crushing Mack. Frogfucius, obviously not wanting to lose his reputation for omniscience, dodges the question by saying something to the effect of “looks important; hang on to ‘em”.

Mallow seems all too willing to kick Mario to the curb, but Frogfucius puts his webbed flipper down.



(Enter dramatic silence.)



Spoiler alert!



Dun dun dun!



It seems improbable that everyone in the pond would be stunned by this revelation. You have to figure that someone said “Well, he’s a fluffy guy with weather magic and none of the characteristics normally associated with frogs. I’m not surprised that he’s not a tadpole. Everything makes total sense to me now!”

Frogfucius tells the origin story -- Mallow floated down the falls in a basket as a baby, and Frogfucius took him in -- and gives Mallow new purpose. He’ll head to Metropolis, become a reporter, and fight crime on the side – er, travel with Mario.



He also gives us our next mission.



Rather than let the old man sink into depression, we cheer him up with the crickety delights of Cricket Pie. Don’t think I’ve gone soft, though – I’m only in it for the reward.



Frogfucius hands over the Froggie Stick, Mallow’s first weapon. Mallow’s regular attack is no longer completely useless. Huzzah!

We could move on to Rose Town at this point, but we’ve still got things to do here.



Not in the least of which is disgusting Frogfucius.

First, we introduce ourselves to this little guy, near Melody Bay. Whenever Toadofsky, the composer, is hanging around, this tadpole will give us exactly the song he wants to hear, so he’s a good friend to have on our side.



Conveniently, Toadofsky himself is currently at Melody Bay, banging his head endlessly against the iron wall of composer’s block. It’s up to us to “inspire” him, by giving him sources from which to plagiarize!



The first song Toadofsky wants is Frogfucius’s Suite #18. (In addition to the tadpole outside, it can be found hanging on a tapestry on Frogfucius’s island.) To play music on Melody Bay, you wait until a tadpole has positioned itself at the proper note position, then jump on it to fix it to that note. Repeat until you’ve played the full melody, seen here.



Toadofsky hands over the Alto Card. Score!

You see what I did there? “Score”, like a musical score, right? Right?



So what’s the Alto Card for? Well, if we take it over to the other end of Tadpole Pond, it gets us in the metaphorical door of the trendy Juice Bar. Here, we can purchase heal-all items found nowhere else in the game. Elixirs (+80 HP for all) are as good as Kerokero Colas for quite a while, so we purchase a few for the road…

And pawn Mario’s old, obsoleted Hammer.



The other shop in this area is the Frog Coin Emporium, and isn’t quite as useful. It sells Sleepy Bombs, which are useless for the same reason things that cause sleep are always useless, and various temporary stat boost items. Bracers and Energizers (one person, defense and one person, offense, respectively) are completely useless because we’ll eventually have a spell that duplicates the effects of both spells and doesn’t take up an item slot. Power Blast and Crystalline (offense up for everyone and defense up for everyone, respectively), are more intriguing, but ultimately not worth the slot. Items don’t stack in this game, and you only have 29 slots worth of space, so specialized items like this are not quite as useful. It doesn’t help that both of the bosses these items would be most useful against can negate them.

Bowing to the requests for shorter updates, I’ll wrap it up here for today. When we pick it up, we’ll move into Rose Way, Rose Town, and the Forest Maze. Plus: Geno.

Next time: Okay, now beware the forest’s mushrooms

Ahh, I figured that's what you meant. Yeah, I guess in terms of versatility Toadstool's outdone, but often I find she makes for a good safety net for the first time through. Her healing is really something out of this world, and for someone playing through the first time it's really a lifesaver.

Belome was where SMRPG really picked up for me when I played through the first time. Square's and Woolsey's strange, strange sense of humour are really something unique, and I honestly can't get enough of it when I see it.

Loving the new update format, by the way. Lots o' things to talk about without it being overwhelming, and you covered a lot of the humour we all know and love. Keep 'em coming!

Okay, at first I didn't really mind the long updates, but I dunno. I'm still going to read it, it's just that I don't feel like reading it right now because it's so intimidating. I know this is hypocritical considering that some of my updates for Ogre Battle spanned six or seven posts, but you've got sixteen posts here.

I think that you're trying to show too many details. I understand that with a game like this, part of the reason why people like it is because of the details. And I understand that you are a complete master of this game. But this is a bit much I feel. We don't need to see the shop screen detailing you selling Mario's Hammer for instance. Just tell us. And we don't need a dedicated screenshot/text blurb to explain that there are fish in the river. Just tell us and move on. I think small changes like that would make it 100% less intimidating.

So...he's a puppet with a cape and gun hands and he's strong. Yeah...I still don't get it.

I respectfully disagree. The attention to detail and in-depth presentation are part of the reasons why I'm enjoying this LP. It's more fun to see someone doing something than it is to read about it, I feel, and seeing images of the actions-in-question make it easier to understand what's going on regardless. Besides, text-only descriptions are bo-ring, and I don't really mind the image-increase if it's there to supplement the text - what I found intimidating was that Tanto was initially skimming over so much at once, and now that he's slowed things down a bit I'm really enjoying it.

I agree with PapillonReel. I very much like the in-depth coverage of the game's events - I haven't played this game in a decade, and this LP really brings it all back home.

3rd'd Papillion. This is great! And I have to agree with how you split this up too. It's easy to forget just how much there is in this game.

And I think a lot of you missed why Geno is so awesome. It's not that he's one of the few gunners in this game, though it helps. I think it's in his intro...

I like large quantities of colorful screenshots. I approve fully of this level of detail! :3

I like the new update format as well. I don't mind more pictures since they're usually arranged so sequential scenes are right next to each other and don't require actual scrolling. I also feel like I'm playing along as well. I could hear the subdued Tadpole Pond theme when Mario first enters the area and when it morphs into the full theme remember and hear the sound effect accompanying the say what!? and dramatic sad music for all the relevant screen shots.

Thanks for doing this, Tanto.

In celebration of this awesome LP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvB-lIcHHPQ

(I guess there are spoilers there if you're worried about that sort of thing for a 12 year old game.)

Geno is a Mary Sue. Granted, he's a Mary Sue I've always liked, but he's of divine origin, he's more powerful than Mario and his friends (which he outright admits), he's mysterious and his design barely contains a trace of Nintendo.

Basically (and I ranted about this elsewhere), I find Mario RPG to be a lot of fun and God knows it's influential, but watching it being played through on the VC made me realise that Squaresoft didn't think much of the Nintendo mythos. With Paper Mario, especially Paper Mario TTYD, the enemies, bosses and characters looked and acted like pure Mario series denziens, even if they hadn't appeared in previous games. Mario RPG throws some bad guys that seem like they just belong in a Final Fantasy title. Culex aside.

But that doesn't stop my fond, fond memories of this game, so I'll shift to a new controversy: wasn't there a mild stink over the name "NokNok Shell" because omg Woolsey didn't translate it right? And it was supposed to be "NokoNoko Shell," as in the Japanese name for a Koopa?

Didn't something similar happen with the name "Lazy Shell?"

Panic! Time for a re-translation patch!

Oh hell yeah, fan re-translation time! All the characters say "I'm foolish, but pease take care of me!" when they join and "Okay then, I'll humbly recieve this" when they get something! The whole experience will be much more immersive.

On a side note, I think that's a part of why I didn't really care for Super Paper Mario. Well, that and the mediocre gameplay ...

Sup?

7. Mario wields hammers for weapons, and his special attacks are jumps and fireballs. His ability to leap several times his own height, treated as a matter of fact in previous games, is made the focus of his celebrity in the Mushroom Kingdom.


Nothing in this game (excepting Culex) looks more foreign to Mario than, say, the X-Nauts.

Have you ever played M&L: Partners in Time? They seemed malicious. And alien. At least Grodus and the gang had the silliness typical of PM1 and even Bowyer and the rest of the Smithy Gang.

I'd ... kind of like a Mario RPG where the Koopa Kids (NOT FREAKING BOWSER JR.! (sorry)) are the sub bosses as Mario fights his way to Bowser's castle and saves the princess ... is that weird?