One Word Review: Fathomable
Everything about Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is easily accessible to the player. The RPG gameplay is easy to understand for the uninitiated. The story is easier to get than that fat pimpled girl you asked out a week before prom. Even the idea of the game just makes sense; a collaboration between Nintendo and the powerhouse Japanese studio that produced numerous hits on their Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
The marriage between Squaresoft (Not yet Square Enix.) and Nintendo is easy to comprehend. Square at the time was putting out a lot of RPGs on the SNES, but the American market was a difficult one to crack for this genre. Most American videogame players wanted action games, instead of the RPGs that were so popular in Japan. Square needed an RPG that was accessible to Americans (Obviously, Mystic Quest didn't really garner high praise for the company.) but was popular enough to turn a profit even if the Americas didn't jump on the bandwagon. Super Mario is one of those characters that people around the world can identify; thus, the marriage of Square and Nintendo made perfect sense.
Something that is unfathomable to me is that the simple RPG system that is present in this game has not been implemented more in RPGs. Most RPG games have you hitting one button on your controller for literally hours at a time. Usually, RPGs have you judiciously using the button to move through battle or town menus and jamming it incessantly through dialog boxes with inane characters. Super Mario RPG turns the RPG world on it's head; simply by having the player push the button one more time than most other RPGs. This one extra push of the button, amazingly adds a whole new strategic element to the game. A well timed button press can easily double your attack or it can cut an attack from the enemy in half. The timing is such that the player probably won't be able to time the button press correctly every time, but it can definitely make the game pretty easy at times for experienced RPG players.
Experienced RPG players will probably think that the battle system is much too easy and they would be correct. There really isn't too much strategy when it comes to the battles. It is easy to tell which enemies are the strong ones and which are weak. Not only is the battle system non-standard fare for RPG aficionados, but the game's 20 hour play time also goes against the RPG norm. These should be weaknesses that are held against the game, but they really make the game more appealing to everybody, which is what Squaresoft wanted with this game.
If you don't know much about RPGs, then you have an easy game that will keep you interested while not confusing you with mind bending battle systems or leveling structures. If you are an RPG pro, then it will only take you 20 hours to escort your favorite Nintendo characters through these gorgeous environments that pushed the system's power to produce one of the greatest swan songs in video game history.
Finally, Super Mario RPG's success is fathomable because like the original intent of the word; fathom, when you play any Mario game you run to it with your arms outstretched wanting to hold onto it forever and experience it over and over again. The fantastic music and the stellar localization will make this a game that is easy to come back to year in and year out. I can definitely fathom myself coming back to this game. I wish that I had bought this game originally on the SNES because, in all reality, in 10 years my SNES will probably still be out in my entertainment center working perfectly, while I am sure that my Wii will be boxed up in some closet.