Super Mario RPG Director Was "Very Surprised" By The Switch Remake Announcement

This is going to be a day one purchase for sure. It’s the only Mario RPG that I haven’t played and I’ve wanted to for a long time.

You know, I often forget the creators don’t always don’t know about projects like this, I always just they would tell them about, I don’t know why I assume they do for some reason lol.

Wouldn't it be sweet if he did get to work on that sequel when this game goes on to sell really well?

@Snatcher Probably in order to maintain that trademark Nintendo secrecy, it’s just too risky to tell even trusted former developers about these projects.

I think that boxart works for the SNES packaging but wish the upcoming Switch one was more elaborate.

Even though he's not involve in the remake hopefully Nintendo and Square Enix would bring him back to do a sequel if the remake became popular. Making a proper sequel to Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is the main goal and final wish of Chihiro Fujioka before he retire from gaming for good.

@Uncle_Franklin Hopefully they make it a reversible cover, since Super Mario RPG was only released in 2 regions, having 2 covers makes sense. One side be the Japanese cover with the white background whereas the other side is the colorful NA version with Exor and Bowser's Keep in the background.

Met someone today who apparently knows people who work at Square Enix.

Sounds a little 'my uncle works at Nintendo'
but might try and quiz him about this remake when I see him Thursday.

@blindsquarel Same here, It might as well be a brand new release for me!

I kinda love that they didn't even bother to give it a more... marketable title for the remake.

It's simply Super Mario RPG.

Straight to the point.

One of my most hyped 2023 games, along with mario bros wonder

@Sisilly_G I know we all call it that, but I think they should have retained the “Legend of the Seven Stars” sub-heading. An RPG campaign needs a title. 😊

Really, though, i am nostalgic for it. That was the title when I bought it in the 90s.

I wasn’t actually bothered at all by this in the direct.
But then after reading people’s reactions and other articles online it seems quite an important game and one I will now be picking up.
I do actually enjoy AlphaDreams mario and Luigi games on 3ds so am expecting something similar from this (I hope)

Wonder if he'll get a mention on the credits.

@eltomo
Maybe, he didn’t work on the remake so I could see him being omitted.

@DwaynesGames I'm pretty sure that was added for the localization and wasn't in the original Japanese version. The remake is faithful to the original Japanese version not the western version.

@eltomo easiest thing to do is copy and paste the original games credits after the remake credits. Not hard to do. Don't get why they don't do it every time.

Well, that's kind of sad.

They could've at least brought him on again as an advisor or something.

@Vil From the looks of it, it's going to be a faithful remake with new graphics (like Metroid Prime remastered). There's not much to consult on. But he shouldn't have been kept in the dark.

So does anybody know if square is actually involved in this remake?

I mean, the game was originally a joint venture between nintendo and squaresoft... Squaresoft doesn't exist anymore, Not quite sure what happened to the properties in that merger, But i'm sure nintendo kept it all.

I have seen no mention of square in any official capacity.

The guy's 63 years old now. Why would he have to be involved in the remake or have to be told? He doesn't own the IP and made the game as part of his role at Square. Did a fantastic job and while we can admire and respect his work (and he's got some absolute gems in his CV) but we should be championing new blood and new people in the industry.

@Yosher What a twist of fate indeed. For us fans I hope Mr. Fujioka can get his wish! I’m all in for future Mario RPGs with Geno and Mallow that’s for sure

It would be awesome if they could make either a sequel or a new Mario and Luigi with him at the helm.

@ozwally It's easily one of the top SNES games ever created, the direct inspiration for Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi RPGs, and an absolute charming title with characters virtually never seen since who all have cult followings. Given the immediate success (and drama) following launch the game is one of the most important industry releases originally, a significant release for 2023, and a very bright look towards the future. The only thing more miraculous at this point would be something like Mother 3 localization announcement/Earthbound collection.

I would think, based on how things with Nintendo operates, they are already well into creating the “sequel” and I would think they are remastering Paper Mario Thousand Year Door as well. Typically releasing something like this RPG is a test run to see how fans react, and it’s been a huge response. Nintendo will likely run with that. We all would enjoy some Mario RPGs wouldn’t we? 😀

@RobynAlecksys thanks for the feedback on it, its all sounding very positive so far and hoping i'll really enjoy it when it releases.
Plus at around 15 hours, thats great for me, I dont have time for large RPG's the likes of Xenoblade (though I own all 3 + Torna, they will probably never be played because of length)

Oh yeah this’ll definitely end up with the crybaby credits drama once this comes out.

All that sequel talk. The game was lightning in a bottle with the right people at the right time in the perfect happenstance environment. Just like Chrono Trigger there's no way that magic can be recreated. A remake is the best possible outcome, there will never be another Super Mario RPG of the same caliber.

You better hope he's busy working on another Mario & Luigi game directly with Nintendo or with Intelligent Systems. Otherwise, this would be the second time they shafted him, the first being AlphaDream's bankruptcy.

I wish he were… I can only imagine what a director’s cut of this game would be like… post game content, additional side activities and quests, etc. Oh well, I’m still excited.

@blindsquarel It’s in my top 3 games of all time. It’s incredible. I already preordered as well ^_^. Enjoy!

Should we be concerned that he's not involved or even informed? You would think consulting the creative team in charge of an original would be good idea when doing a remake.

@Hero-of-WiiU There probably won't be any dev crying about not been in the credit this time cause the dev team are Japanese and not western. Only western devs complain about everything. The devs for Pac-Man World and Metroid Prime are western devs.

@Axecon Why would they go out of their way to inform former staff of the original release about the remake if they are not going to be involved at all? Even tracking some of them down might be tricky. It doesn't make any sense to do so.

Should mass mail articles of that interview to Nintendo offices until they let him make his final game 😭

@Jacket_p Yeah you can't just have the same people doing everything forever. If new staffers don't get the opportunity to ever direct a project then when the original project leads retire there's a big experience black hole.

For example Miyamoto has been hands off on all his IP games, and the directors he handed Mario & Zelda off during the GC gen have already shifted back into a producer role while handing off Director to even newer staff. And it's worked both
Mario and Zelda are bigger now than when Miyamoto handed them off.

Same for the Mario RPGs, the Iwata Asks said that as of Sticker Star 90%of the Paper Mario Team were new staff and despite controversy they managed to keep the series going even releasing on WiiU.

But Alphadream was still the NES/SNES era Square staff and somehow managed to go bankrupt with releasing exclusively Mario games on a fairly successful system like the 3DS.

Wonder if he will feature in the end credits?.... steps back, now the can of worms is opened.

I'm really excited about this. I've always dreamed of a proper sequel (Paper Mario has a lot of fans, but I could never get into it) and this is the best chance we have of getting one. Also, there are some subtle clues in the trailer that the battle system has been enhanced - I saw splash damage, among other things. I really hope there's some harder difficulty scaling, and maybe the ability to go past level 30. My only complaint with SMRPG is that it was really basic in its RPG elements - I'd love to see that side of it fleshed out more.

@Cordyceps The ending card for the game in the trailer does say SQUARE ENIX in the bottom-left corner, so yes, they are involved

I wonder if people still complain about the cover art knowing it's modeled after the original super famicom cover?