Mario RPG variants

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Since I have some time at home today, I played Super Mario RPG instead of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  It's the first RPG I played, and I'd highly recommend it as an introduction to Japanese RPGs.  The game itself is pretty easy, so it was about time to try a solo run.  Not Mario, however.  I had a different character in mind.


Bowser's Castle

-This is the tutorial dungeon, where I fought a few Koopas and then Bowser himself.  Princess Peach told me to attack the chain, not Bowser himself.  The reason for this is that we were battling on chandeliers.  A Jump and a punch later, Bowser was crashing to the ground.  This was a pointless victory when a giant sword crashed into Bowser's Castle and sent everyone flying in different directions.

Mario's Pad

-Toad tried to teach me the basics about saving, sleeping to restore health, and combat, but I told him I already knew about timed hits. 


Mushroom Way

-I ran through this area as fast as possible, trying not to level up.  The bosses here were the Hammer Brothers.  Their Hammer Time move hit hard for this point in the game.  I managed to take out the first with a couple of Jumps, but then ran out of FP. 

Flower Points are basically MP, but they have slightly different mechanics from what you might be used to in other games.  All party members share FP instead of having individual reserves, and they cannot be gained through level up.  The only way to get a higher maximum FP is to find flowers and items like "Flower Tab" and "Flower Jar" throughout the world.  Anyway, I had to beat the other Hammer Brother with my crummy punches.  The surviving Hammer Brother buffs his defense significantly when his partner dies.


Mushroom Kingdom 1

-Princess Peach's hometown was the first opportunity to shop.  Mario pantomimed the incident at Bowser's Castle in greater detail than any human could.  He transformed into Bowser and Peach and everything!  A boy who looked like a wad of cotton candy was chasing a blue crocodile through the town, but the reptile stole his coin anyway.  Cotton Candy Kid said his name was Mallow, and started to cry.  This made it rain until Mario agreed to help.  A nearby Toad said he left his bazooka at home, and couldn't fight Croco himself.  It was time to go to Bandit Way and start the first real challenge.

Bandit Way

-First things first in any solo run:  Kill off the other characters!  Unfortunately, a game mechanic previously unknown to me ruined that plan.  After Mario died in a random battle, he revived after the fight with 1 HP.  To mimic the ideal of a solo run, I decided to have Mario defend or launch useless attacks in random battles to reduce his HP to an amount low enough to die in one hit from a boss.  Mallow would do all the actual fighting.  (There's one later fight that's impossible to do as a solo anyway, so might as well have him level up slightly before that part.)

Mallow is sort of the Red Mage of Super Mario RPG.  He's useful early on, but most players dump him for either a superior healer (Peach) or a better fighter (Geno, Bowser).  I'm planning on soloing the game with Mallow to prove the naysayers wrong.  He starts with Thunderbolt, an electric attack that hits all enemies, and he gets the single target healing spell HP Rain at level 3.  He doesn't get any new moves until level 10.  Keep in mind that the maximum level in this game is 30, and the average player may get into the low 20s by the end.

Mallow wasn't meant to be a melee fighter, so I was relying mostly on Thunderbolt to deal damage.  The problem of course was low FP.  I often had to run back to Mario's Pad to restore my magic.  Fortunately, an invicibility powerup auto-killed enough K-9s to level up to 3 to get HP Rain.  Just in case, I fought enough enemies on the map to level up to 4.  By this time I had Pants armor and an Antidote Pin.

Croco was Mallow's first boss, and the fight was much more interesting without Mario.  Normally, you're supposed to have Mario exploit Croco's weakness to fire, but he couldn't save me this time.  Croco had two main attacks.  A dash hit Mallow for about 4 damage or so, and a bomb hit for about 10 damage if it didn't miss.  Mallow needed FP much more than HP.  He was reliant on Thunderbolt for damage, and the attack cost 2 FP per use. 

Quite a few Honey Syrups were needed here, and getting a couple of "freebies" helped.  Consumable items sometimes give you a replacement when you use them, and it's a nice way to prevent hoarding.  Once I ran out of Mushrooms, HP Rain provided healing (30 without a timed hit, and 37 with one). Late in the fight, Croco used a "Weird Mushroom" to restore 60 HP.  More Thunderbolts eventually defeated him.



Mallow's current stats and equipment.  Parentheses indicate the value with equipment bonuses added, as depicted in the status screen:

Level 4

Speed:  18
Attack:  27
Defense:  10 (18)
Mg. Attack:  20
Mg. Defense:  15 (20)

Weapon:  None
Armor:  Pants
Accessory:  Antidote Pin (Status ailments kill in any RPG solo run.  No enemies have poison to my knowledge yet.  K-9s love using Fear, which is an attack and defense debuff.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG Part 2:  Pandorite Is Tougher Than Any Boss

Mushroom Kingdom 2

After beating Croco, Mallow returned to the Mushroom Kingdom only to find out that Shy Guys on pogo swords had taken over.  I could easily defeat an entire party of them with one Thunderbolt.  After saving some citizens, they gave me several maximum FP items and an Wakeup Pin.  Sleep immunity might be nice later in the game. 

Mack, the first boss guarding one of the 7 Stars, was an anticlimax with solo Mallow.  Having Mario dead might have messed up his AI script or something.  Mallow's Mg. Defense was too high for Mack's fire spells to be effective.  Almost every time I used Thunderbolt, Mack wasted his turn summoning more useless pogo Shy Guy minions.


Kero Sewers

This was the hardest part of the game so far, partially because I forgot how some of the fights worked here.  Every RPG needs sewers, and Super Mario RPG continues that tradition.  These are clean sewers, however.  Not like the Meltokio Sewers in Tales of Symphonia.  Several of the enemies were undead, such as The Bigger Boo.  Undead enemies can be killed instantly with the Pure Water in this game.  I decided to save any I had for later.  These ghosts and skeletons could be either avoided or killed easily.

While rummaging around the treasure chest, I wound up in an encounter with Pandorite.  Yet another RPG cliche is the powerful treasure chest mimic enemy.  Pandorite turned out to be immune to Thunderbolt, so I had to use melee the whole fight.  It could inflict Fear status with Scream, and when that happened, I either used Defend or HP Rain.  That's because its Carni-Kiss attack could make Mallow lose half his health!  The fight took so long Pandorite ran out of FP for its fire spells and wasted a few turns doing nothing because of it.  Carni-Kiss and Scream didn't require FP, so it was only slightly less dangerous than before.  After defeating Pandorite, I received a Flower Jar and a Trueform Pin.

Belome was one boss fight where I had to violate the solo rules.  He often temporarily ate Mallow, and Mario had to attack him to free his friend.  I didn't realize that the first attempt, and Mario died after Defending for a few rounds.

Death Count:  1

I made sure to equip Mario with the Hammer for Round 2.  A few Jumps and Fire Orbs could free Mallow whenever Belome swallowed him.  Most rounds I just had Mario defend to keep some semblance of a solo fight.  Each Thunderbolt made Belome lose over 10% of his health.  Scarecrow status didn't matter because I wasn't using regular attacks.  (Scarecrow disables Item and Attack commands.)  When he was defeated, he opened the floodgates leading to the next stage.


Midas River

-This was a minigame level, not a combat one.  I went down the waterfall, collecting regular coins and the much rarer Frog Coins.  After that, I rode a barrel down a river, jumping to get coins and avoid fish.  At the end, a Toad told me that I could exchange Midas River coins for Frog Coins, but I didn't have enough to do it yet.


Tadpole Pond

-Mallow's hometown was Tadpole Pond.  He wanted to visit Frogfucius for advice, and there was a silly cutscene where a Lakitu was dangling the sage from a fishing hook to create the illusion of flight.  Frogfucius told Mallow he was going to go with Mario on his journey and that he wasn't really a tadpole at all.  All the tadpoles gathered around as soon as the sound effect played after that last revelation.  Giving Frogfucius the Cricket Pie from the beginning of the game made him hand over the Froggie Stick.  Finally, a melee weapon for my solo character!

Rose Way

-Rose Way was a platforming stage with no bosses.  The random enemies hit harder than before.  At the end, a cutscene about Bowser marshaling his minions played.


Rose Town

-One member of the Smithy Gang was launching paralyzing arrows at the local Toads, so most people stayed indoors.  Gaz was excited to meet Mario at the end while playing with his Mario doll.  His Geno doll was too powerful, and his shot knocked Mario unconscious.  Afterwards, a spirit possessed the Geno doll and left for the Forest Maze.  Rose Town sold status ailment resistance accessories and Thick Pants armor, so I bought what I needed.  And that's the end of this update.

  
Mallow's stats and equipment:

Level 6

Speed:  18
Attack:  34 (54)
Defense:  17 (31)
Mg. Attack:  26
Mg. Defense:  19 (27)


Weapon:  Froggie Stick
Armor:  Thick Pants
Accessory:  Antidote Pin

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's a smaller update, but still important enough to be a separate post.

Rose Town trivia

-One thing that surprised me was that Rose Town had no running water despite being close to a town where a kid had a Game Boy.  The Toads go outside and pump water manually!  And Rose Town isn't supposed to be poor, either.


Forest Maze

-To save Rose Town, Mallow had to navigate the Forest Maze.  This dungeon tripped me up as a kid, and I remember sending a letter to either Nintendo of America or Nintendo Power asking how to get through.  The trick turned out to be following Geno, but there was one place where I didn't see him appear at all.  Even with the ingame hint, it took trial and error.    

The random enemies included bees that could be killed with one Thunderbolt, chained Donkey Kongs who hit with physical attacks, and mushrooms that tried to turn me into a mushroom.  Mushroom is the worst status ailment possible.  You can't do anything as a mushroom but sit there, and that means death for solos.  That's why I put on the Trueform Pin.

For the boss fight, I should have switched to the Wakeup Pin instead.  Bowyer was a long fight at level 6.  I made a save state on the Super Nintendo Classic once Geno and Mario died to avoid cutscenes on future attempts, but then again I would have switched accessories anyway.  Thunderbolt did very little damage to Bowyer, probably because he had a resistance.  Melee attacks with the Froggie Stick was the only viable option, and when the boss had 720 HP, well. . .

Bowyer's main gimmick was disabling a command by shooting an arrow at the corresponding button.  When he hit "Y", for example, I couldn't use magic.  He mostly alternated between "Y" and "X" (item button) throughout the fight.  Good thing I picked some Mushrooms in the forest to use when HP Rain was blocked!   Occasionally, he would shoot me with a regular arrow or cast Lightning Orb or Bolt.  If he was feeling evil enough, he'd use G'Night and put me to sleep.  Sleep in Super Mario RPG is similar to the Final Fantasy games in that physical attacks wake up an afflicted character.  Sometimes, it can wear off after a few turns.  If Bowyer used his lightning spells, Mallow would still snooze. 

After poking him with a stick for what seemed like a geological epoch, Bowyer vanished and coins flew everywhere.  I received a Flower Box for my trouble, which I'll use when I'm low on FP in a dungeon.  It raises maximum FP by 5, a huge advantage in this game.  Geno joined the party, but of course he'll spend most of the playthrough Defending or dead.

   
Pipe Vault

-This level was entirely optional.  Even on the map, I could skip straight to Moleville if I wanted to.  Pipe Vault is a tribute to underground levels in Super Mario Bros., complete with the music.  The enemies were the usual Goombas and Piranha plants.  Not much of interest was here other than a slight FP increase.

Yo'ster Isle

-Yes, Yoshi is in this game, but he's stuck in an annoying rhythm minigame that was annoying in every playthrough I've had.  Whatever prize I'd get probably isn't relevant to Mallow anyway.  I decided to leave and head to the 3rd map.

Moleville part 1

-Moleville was the next town where I could buy equipment.  Mallow got Cymbals to burst enemies' eardrums, and one of the best armors in the game, Work Pants.  Work Pants give boosts to Attack and Mg. Attack, not just defenses.  It had slightly weaker Mg. Defense than Thick Pants for some reason.  Maple Syrup was available to restore 40 FP per use, so I bought a few of those too.  Bowser and his dwindling army of minions appeared near the mine for a short cutscene.  Dyna the mole was trapped in the mine, so of course Mallow has to rescue her soon.  The next few days will be busy for me, so chance are I may not be able to do long updates.


Mallow's current stats and equipment:

Level 6, 30 FP


Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  34 (74)
Defense:  17 (36)
Mg. Attack:  26
Mg. Defense:  19 (28)



Weapon:  Cymbals
Armor:  Work Pants (It gives an Attack and Mg. Attack boost too.  It has weaker Mg. Def though.)
Accessory:  Trueform Pin


One thing I'm learning on this solo playthrough is how much weapons and armor matter.  A "no equipment" run with a full party would be fun to read about if anyone else wants to try it.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Moleville Part 2

This morning, I leveled up from 6 to 8 on random enemies because I didn't have enough time to go through the whole dungeon.  When I got back home, it was time to fight the two bosses.  First up was our friend Croco.  Mario had to jump onto a spring and hit his head on the ceiling to activate the next event flag.  Croco took advantage of Mario being unconscious and stole all my coins.  He used his trademark bombs to destroy a previously impassable wall.  Then I had to chase him down to start the fight.

Croco initially fought the same way he did in the previous fight, just with higher stats.  Attacking with the Cymbals did much more damage than Thunderbolt, so I saved my FP for HP Rain.  HP Rain came in handy after the halfway point or so when Croco disabled all my items.  I wonder if solo Mario or Geno would have problems with this boss due to their lack of healing spells.  His main attack after stealing my items was Chomp, which involved throwing random enemies at me for physical damage.  Eventually the clanging Cymbals were too much for Croco's ears, and he helpfully gave access to the rest of the dungeon.

Punchinello of the Smithy Gang was the guy responsible for the monsters in the mine, but Mallow said he never heard of him.  It took a while for Mario and Geno to die, so I made a save state after that happened to avoid cutscenes if I needed to redo the battle.  At first, I used Thunderbolt to take out all the mini-bombs and do about 25 damage to Punchinello.  Then I found out that once again Cymbals were the way to go.  Careful use of the Defend command and timed defense helped me survive the bigger bombs Punchinello sent out on the 2nd and 3rd phases.  I think he used Sand Storm once before Mario and Geno died, but then ran out of FP.

After losing all his HP, the party taunted Punchinello and goaded him to use his biggest bomb.  Mallow thought everyone was done for, but all the explosion did was cover everyone in gray soot.  The 3rd star conveniently cleaned the party.  The missing kids Dyna and Mite were in the next room.  They wanted to play MODE 7 MINE CARTS!  Yes, even over 20 years after this game was released, we still have to make fun of Mode 7.    
Mode 7 Mine Carts was a quick minigame, but distinctive enough that I remembered most of the details.  My time wasn't very good because I often crashed on the tight turns.  Mario and company crashed through the roof of Dyna and Mite's house and brought them back to their parents.  When I left the house, 3 Snifits were chasing a beetle and talking about how their employer Booster was hosting a "princess from the sky".  Since there was only one princess in this setting, the party knew it must be Peach.


Booster Pass

-This was a short, uneventful platforming stage with no bosses.  It featured a Piranha Pant disguised as an artichoke as a random enemy.  Artichokes must be funny plants to fiction writers.  The Mexican telenovela "Alegrijes y rebujos" had a kid nicknamed "Alcachofa" because he threw artichokes at his girlfriend's parents to keep them from moving away.  Anyway, the artichoke monster was immune to Thunderstorm, and could heal its HP.  It was too stupid to do so and died to clanging Cymbals.  This was just a random battle for fun.  Booster Pass will become relevant in a future update after events in the next stage.

Booster Tower Part 1

-Peach was indeed at the top of the tower, and tried to get Mario's attention.  Bowser was moping about things were better in the old days when he could kidnap her and fight Mario, but Mario and company heard him.  Bowser agreed to let them join the Koopa Troop, and the party played along.  At least long enough for Bowser to break down the front door.


How does solo Mallow play at this point?  Well, Thunderbolt can kill some weaker random enemies in the Moleville mines, but it's really fallen off in effectiveness after its peak in the Mack fight.  HP Rain makes him into a durable melee fighter, but he doesn't have the physical power of Mario or Geno.  We'll see how much he improves once he gets to level 10 and learns Shocker.  In a normal run, Shocker is useful on the Sunken Ship against all the sea monsters, including the bosses.  But Sunken Ship is late in the 4th map.  Some grinding may be required before Marrymore.  I'll have to waive the solo rules when its boss appears because of a certain gimmick in that fight.  (Sort of the Atomos for Super Mario RPG.)


 
Mallow's stats and equipment:

Level 8, 37 FP

Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  40 (80)
Defense:  23 (42)
Mg. Attack:  35 (45)
Mg. Defense:  24 (33)

Weapon:  Cymbals
Armor:  Work Pants
Accessory:  Trueform Pin

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG:  The Return of the Death Count

Booster Tower Part 2

-Booster Tower should be renamed "Wake Up Pin Tower".  If I had equipped it more often, I would have avoided some trouble.  In one encounter with a Blue Snifit on the map, the enemies defeated Mallow, and I think the Snifit used an attack that caused Silence, one ailment the Wakeup Pin prevents.

Death Count:  2

I avoided the Snfiits from there on out.  The Rob-omb encounters were great for grinding.  I wanted to level up to 10 for the next few bosses, especially an optional one coming up.  If you encounter 3 Rob-ombs, you can kill them all in one hit with Thunderbolt and gain 6 EXP.  There's another encounter with two Rob-ombs and a Remo Con that gets you more experience, but takes longer since you have to kill the Remo Con with melee.  (It took 0 damage from my Thunderbolts, anyway).  Once I got to 10, Mallow learned Shocker, a single-target lightning spell that costs 8 FP.  Expensive for this point in the game, but it can be powerful against certain opponents.

Grinding could not save me from the next boss.  You're supposed to skip the fight with Booster by hiding behind the curtains while the Snifits look for the Mario doll to begin the wedding rehearsal.  There's some funny dialogue where the Snifits and Booster think the only point of a wedding is to eat cake and drink punch, and Booster wants to practice his anti-Mario contingency plans.  If you let yourself be caught, Booster and the Snifits will attack.

Booster didn't attack me at first, and the Snifits wasted their turns casting weak lightning (Bolt, Static E) and ice (Blizzard) spells instead of using their much stronger melee attacks.  It took so long for my other characters to die that the Snfiits ran out of FP.  Gunk Ball's Silence effect was more powerful.

After all three of them died to Thunderbolt and Cymbal claps, Booster entered the fight.  I could weather the bombs with HP Rain, and timed defenses sometimes blocked his punches completely.  Shocker did about 91 damage or so per use.  When Booster was low on HP, he used Spritz Bomb.  That dealt damage I could heal as long as he didn't use it constantly.  Then he rode the Loco Express and did over 100 damage.  Mallow had about 75 max HP at the time.  From being a little overleveled.

Death Count:  3

Obviously, I couldn't take down Booster without level grinding so severe it would make the rest of the game trivial.  I decided to move on with the plot and skip the Booster battle.  Disappointing, but you have to make compromises in solo games sometimes.  Hiding from the Snifits gave me the Amulet, an accessory that boosts most stats.  It still wasn't as valuable as ailment-blocking accessories.

On the balcony, Knife Guy and Grate Guy came out of nowhere and challenged me to a boss fight.  Since I had the Trueform Pin on instead of the Wakeup Pin, Grate Guy put Mallow to sleep and cast spells repeatedly until he died.  Oops.  This is what I get for not looking at the FAQ before boss fights. 

Death Count:  4


Mario and Geno were at full health because I forgot to have random enemies whale on them.  (Level ups restore HP.)  Knife Guy stabbed Mario to death quickly, but then the bosses stacked on top of each other and used their magic until they ran out of FP.  Turns out they won't use their melee at all in this form!  I hit Knife Guy with the Cymbals a few times once I realized Shocker dealt 0 damage to him.  (Knife Guy's weak to Mario's fire spells.) Electrocuting Grate Guy was much more effective and dealt triple digit damage.  After Grate Guy faded and spewed out coins, Knife Guy stabbed Geno to death.  After that, the fight devolved into whacking him with Cymbals and healing with HP Rain.


Booster Hill

-Booster Hill was a isometric platform minigame where Mario chased down Booster and Peach.  Every time I caught up to her, I got a maximum FP increase.  Unfortunately, I was terrible at this minigame and only got 3 or so.  It was trickier to time the jumps than I expected thanks to the weird perspective.


Marrymore

-Marrymore was the final town of Map 3.  It was mostly a hotel and a wedding chapel.  At the hotel, I bought armor for Mario and Bowser.  Why do this in a solo run?  You'll see!  I had to break down the chapel doors with the aid of Bowser and a Snifit to enter.  Doing this scattered all of Peach's accessories.  If you're kidnapped by a comic relief villain and being forced into a sham wedding, the first thing you have to worry about is your brooch.    

I intentionally got a bad time on that minigame to see Bowser and Booster kiss Mario by mistake.  Hey, it was the funniest outcome!  Mario was about to take Peach home when the chefs attacked.   They flailed around with their fists, dealing minor damage.  Then their cake came to life!  Yes, a cake is one of the bosses in this game, and one that's immune to solo runs too. 

For the first part of the fight, I had to make all three characters attack Bundt's top half to blow out its candles.  It didn't matter how much damage I did.  Each attack could only snuff out one candle, and Bundt lit one at the end of every round.  Bundt cast some familiar spells like Blizzard and Sand Storm.  It also had new ones like the all-target Drain Beam and the single-target Diamond Saw.  (For whatever reason, several enemy spells have "Drain" in the name, but they don't steal your HP or anything.  Must be a translation mistake.)

After I destroyed the top half of the cake, I waited for the bottom half to kill off my characters.  And waited.  And waited.  Bowser would never die, even well after Bundt ran out of FP and started using regular attacks.  The Koopa King took very little damage when the boss bothered to aim for him instead of Mallow.  Then I decided I wouldn't wait any longer.  Bowser Defended for the rest of the battle, and Mallow conked Bundt with the Cymbals.  Turned out Bundt was immune to Shocker.  All that grinding for this?     For a mage, Mallow was spending a lot of time killing enemies with his mediocre melee.

Mario took Peach home, and several cutscenes later, she snuck out of the castle and joined the party.  I'll be keeping her in the third slot because she has the lowest HP and defenses.  That's right.  Even in a solo Mallow playthrough, Peach will still always be in the party, if only because she dies faster.  


I'm having a lot of fun with this playthrough.  You learn a game's quirks when you try a solo run.  Especially how a distressingly high amount of enemies are immune to your main element.  I've gained a new appreciation for HP Rain.  It scales with Mg. Attack, so as of now it always healed at least a little more than Mallow's max HP.

Mallow's stats and equipment:

Level 10, 45 FP

HP:  75
Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  49 (89)
Defense:  30 (48)
Mg. Attack:  43 (53)
Mg. Defense:  30 (38)

Weapon:  Cymbals
Armor:  Work Pants
Accessory:  Wake Up Pin

Tomorrow will probably bring a Final Fantasy Tactics Advance update instead of a Super Mario RPG one.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG:  Does Every Enemy Wear Rubber Armor?

Where we last left off, Mallow smashed up a cake with clanging Cymbals.  Frogfucius suggested going to Star Hill because one of the Seven Stars was seen there. 

Star Hill

-This is an easy level in a normal playthrough without any bosses.  Not in a Mallow solo run!  I ran into a Mastadoom who gave him a bonkus of the conkus for over 80 damage if my memory isn't lying to me.  And it was immune to Shocker to rub it in.  

Death Count:  5

Even the Mukumuku gophers took 0 damage from Thunderbolt.  The programmers must have hated Mallow.  After that fiasco, I ran through Star Hill as quickly as possible.  Be sure to look at all the wishes when you get to this level.  You'll instantly recognize who made each one if you've paid attention to the dialogue.


Seaside Town

-All the inhabitants had awkward dialogue with many ellipses suggesting they were hiding something.  A "restricted area" with "nothing of interest"?  Sure, you're not lying!     Some of the residents suggested looking for the next star in the sea where the pirate Jonathan Jones lived. 

If you're playing a different variant, you may want to consider buying as many Fire Bombs and Ice Bombs in Seaside Town as possible. The shop disappears permanently later in the game.  I didn't have enough cash to try that.  Equipment wasn't available here, so it was time to move on to the sea.

Sea

-A cloaked person sold new equipment.  I didn't realize this at first, so I went back to Marrymore and bought a Whomp Glove.  Mallow needed a new melee weapon.  There was an invincibility block, so I ran into as many starfish as possible to gain another level.  Believe me, I needed it.  An encounter with two Zeostars and two jellyfish Leukos was more difficult than I expected.  An underwater level with a character that has lightning spells?  How hard could it be?  When the Leukos turn out to be immune to electricity, know the powerful ice spell Solidify, and can attack multiple times before Mallow can act. . .  

Death Count:  6

The solution was buying Sailor Pants.  Losing the attack boosts from Work Pants was sad, but the extra Mg. Defense made Solidify hit for around 38 damage rather than 50 or so.  I survived a battle with Leukos and took revenge.  One thing I learned from this playthrough is that Mallow is SLOW.  His Speed is 18 vs. Peach's 24.  No wonder people abandon him as soon as possible.  Many enemies laugh at his main attack element, and Peach can heal multiple allies from the start.


Sunken Ship

-I was supposed to solve a puzzle, but I vaguely remembered that the password was PEARLS.  To get to the first boss, I had to fight through a couple of Greapers.  I didn't want to take any chances with their Death Sickle attack, so I used Pure Waters to kill them instantly.  After entering the password, a tentacle extended through the door and taunted me.  It had good reason to do so.    

King Calamari is one of those boss fights where Mallow is supposed to shine.  The tentacles are weak to lightning.  Unfortunately, the tentacles also have a nasty habit of "killing" party members by dragging them away from the battlefield.  Eventually, they return with Fear status.  If two party members are dead and one is still tied up by tentacles, it's a Game Over.  This is sort of like the Carry Armor from Final Fantasy 7.  I died twice before coming up with a solution.  No, it wasn't equipping a Fearless Pin.  Only smart players do that, and I didn't think of that at the time.

Death Count:  8 


King Calamari was a no-go for solo Mallow.  Or at least the first two phases were.  I equipped Marrymore armor onto Mario and Peach and had them heal themselves and Defend.  Only Mallow was allowed to attack.  Mallow was tangled up by tentacles so often he was constantly under Fear status.  This made the fight take a while. 

Once all the tentacles were dead, I let Mario and Peach die so it could be a proper one-on-one match between Mallow and the giant squid.  King Calamari could use Sand Storm (more Fear), Drain Beam (useless), Venom Drool (weak poison), and Ink Blast (physical damage).  The fight lasted so long the squid ran out of FP and wasted some of its turns.  Shocker did about 83 damage, and melee couldn't even reach 15.  At last King Calamari was dead, and I saved the game immediately.  I didn't want to repeat THAT fight.        

Current stats and equipment:

Level 11, 46 FP

HP:  85
Speed:  18
Attack:  53 (93)
Defense:  33 (66)
Mg. Attack:  47 (47)
Mg. Defense:  33 (51)

EDIT:  Forgot to post equipment.  I think the weapon was Whomp Glove, the armor was Sailor Pants, and the accessory was some status ailment prevention pin.

It doesn't seem like there's Mg. Attack boosting equipment other than Work Pants so far.  Maybe that's why Mallow's spells are lackluster.  Even Peach has 52 at level 11, and she's the dedicated healer!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG:  The Random Battle Music Means Death

Sunken Ship Part 2

-The section after King Calamari was easier than the beginning of the stage.  Well, mostly easier.  I was overconfident enough to try to take on Hidon the treasure chest mimic.  The combination of Goombette bites and Hidon Carni-Kisses sent Mallow to Davy Jones's Locker.

Death Count:  9

Turns out I was mistaken as to the location of the Safety Ring.  I thought you got it from Hidon, but that's actually the Safety Badge.  The Safety Ring was really inside an underwater room hidden by barrels.  Its description says it protects against "mortal blows", but it really guards you against all status ailments, including instant death.  It also blocks a few minor attack spells.  You can probably guess that I was going to use the Safety Ring for the rest of the game.  


The next few rooms were great for grinding.  An encounter with two Cheep Cheeps and a Crusty could be killed with one Thunderbolt, allowing me to level to about 13.  The mandatory battles with Jonathan Jones's shark pirates were another good way to troll for experience points.  After his minions were dead, Jonathan Jones mostly hit me with regular attacks and Diamond Saw.  A ways into the fight, he buffed his stats with Get Tough.  Shocker wasn't cost-efficient in terms of FP, so I slowly punched him into submission.  Johnny ran out of FP about two turns before he lost.


Seaside Town Part 2

-After getting the Star, Yaridovich revealed he was one of Smithy's minions and not the local elder.  He threatened to torture the townsfolk by tickling them with a feather.  In a But Thou Must moment, Mario had to hand over the star.  Yaridovich's victory was short-lived.  His flying axe friend Blade hadn't shown up, so it was time to fight. 

Yaridovich is one of the harder bosses if you don't know what to expect, and he can hit hard even if you are prepared.  A Water Blast knocked out Mario and Peach immediately, saving me some trouble.  I hit him with a few Shockers, but his physical attacks and Water Blast were so strong that I decided to Defend and heal until he ran out of FP.  It couldn't save me from his sludge shots and spear, but the absence of Water Blasts removed some of the pressure.  Sometimes, he made a mirage clone of himself, but it was easy to tell the difference because the mirage was weaker.  While Yaridovich wasted turns trying to cast spells with 0 FP, I hit him with Shocker until he faded in a shower of coins.  

Defeating Yaridovich unlocked the real Seaside Town shops.  Mallow picked up a Ribbit Stick and some Maple Syrups.


Land's End

-The first area in map 5 was tricky.  Once again I ran into a random enemy (Octovader) that was immune to lightning.  You could make a drinking game out of all the times I used Thunderbolt or Shocker on enemies, only to see a 0 damage printout.  

The Shogun ants could be hit with Mallow's spells.  If that weren't the case, I would have been in for some major level grinding.  Along the way, I found a cave that led to a previously inaccessible treasure chest in the Kero Sewers.  It contained Cricket Jam.  After giving that to Frogfucius, he said his wish came true and gave me enough Frog Coins so I could buy the Exp Booster accessory in Seaside Town.  (See, Geno?  We don't need the Star Road if Mallow can grant your wishes anyway.)  Grinding will be less painful if I need to do that at some point.

To get through the desert, I needed to fight several Shogun ants in the sand whirlpools.  Each could be killed with a Thunderbolt and a Shocker.  The problem was that they knew Carni-Kiss.  You can guess what happened in one unlucky battle.

Death Count:  10

The Shogun ants used Carni-Kiss less often on the second attempt, allowing me to sink through the sand into a cave.  I put on the Exp. Booster and ran through many geckos and dogs with an invincibility chest.  Paying a cloaked person 400 coins got me another invincibility chest, and charging through more geckos gave me 2 levels.  At 14, Mallow learned Snowy, an all-target ice spell that powers up through d-pad rotations.  This game was before Nintendo had heard of the word "ergonomics".  (Exhibit B:  Mario Party 1)  

Snowy did mediocre damage relative to its 12 FP (!) cost, but it would be useful in an upcoming dungeon.  Getting to level 15 was just a nice bonus.  After this quick grinding session, I put on the Safety Ring again and descended into Belome's Temple.  Yes, the boss from Kero Sewers had a temple for some reason.  I had to get the right randomly selected "fortune" to get to Belome, but it succeeded on the first try.

Belome Round 2 was very different from the Kero Sewers fight.  He couldn't remove Mallow from the battle this time.  He could still swallow characters, but this resulted in "clones" of party members.  He swallowed Peach and said she tasted "peachy".  Remember, Super Mario RPG was before English translations of Mario games called her Peach.  She's referred to as "Princess Toadstool" here. 

The clones didn't know my party's moves, but they could use inferior versions.  Clone Peach could heal Belome and herself with Recover, so I had to take her out before I could do anything else.  Belome and company killed the real Peach quickly, so he couldn't swallow her again.  Belome also made Mallow clones who used terrible lightning spells such as Bolt and Static E.  Those animations did nothing but waste my time.  Belome knew several sleep-inducing spells like Aurora Flash, Light Beam, and Lulla-Bye.  Good thing I had a Safety Ring on!  After many Shocker spells, Belome had to flee again.

Monstro Town

-Mallow came to Monstro Town because several characters said there was a star there.  What they really meant was that a singing starfish lived there.  Monstermama understood Mario's pantomime and said the only way to go was up.  She summoned several Paratroopas to help me scale the cliff at Land's End.  A reformed Goomba sold items, but all the equipment was for Bowser.  Talking to a Thwomp made him pound the ground enough for a key to drop.  I'll need to head back to Belome's temple to check out a hidden room.  The Shiny Stone reacted with the door to Culex.  No, I'm not fighting the Super Mario RPG superboss at level 15!  The next area was Bean Valley, and I'll have to see how hard the next boss will be with no fire spells.

Current stats and equipment:

Level 15, 49 FP

HP:  120
Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  76 (126)
Defense:  47 (82)
Mg. Attack:  69
Mg. Defense:  46 (66)

Weapon:  Ribbit Stick
Armor:  Sailor Pants
Accessory:  Safety Ring

Why doesn't most equipment boost Mg. Attack?  I'm curious to see how useful spells would be in a no equipment playthrough.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG:  The Pink Dinosaur of Doom

Bean Valley

-Bean Valley was a short level and a palette swap of areas like Bandit's Way.  After traveling through a few pipes, I found a flying Shy Away watering a Piranha Plant.  But it was not just any Piranha Plant, but Megasmilax.  The fight began with several ordinary Smilaxes that were easily defeated with Ribbit Stick smacks.  They cast Drain, Flame, and Pollen Nap, but the Safety Ring blocked them all. 


After killing enough Smilaxes, the main flower appeared.  Its physical attack was strong, and Petal Blast could hit for around 45 damage.  Snowy defeated the two smaller Smilaxes at its side.  Melee was more efficient for the main boss.  The main threat in this battle would have been becoming a mushroom if I didn't have the Safety Ring.  Overall, it was easier than fighting some of the Land's End random encounters.  After climbing the beanstalk and unlocking Nimbus Land, I headed back to Belome's Temple to look for treasure.  The flowers were the best prize, but there were Frog Coins and a few consumable items too.


Nimbus Land Part 1

-Valentina was trying to fool the residents into thinking that the fat bird Dodo was their long-lost prince Mallow.  Mallow himself thought it was just a coincidence that everyone looked like him and that the prince shared his name.  Not that the townsfolk were any smarter.  They thought Prince Mallow just gained a lot of weight!    

Garro the sculptor had a statue of King Numbus that looked exactly like Mallow.  Finally, my solo character realized his true identity!  Garro had a plan to sneak into the castle by disguising Mario as a statue and calling it "A Plumber's Lament".  Valentina called the Mario "statue" ugly before Garro called it his masterpiece about blue collar workers.  She was impressed afterwards because she pretended to have an artistic personality.

Next up was a minigame where I was supposed to dodge Dodo's pecks.  I wanted to fight him though, so I intentionally failed.  Dodo could Silence with one of his moves, but spent most of the fight pecking.  That Multipeck was more than what Mallow could handle, especially when he got two turns in a row.

Death Count:  11

Getting the hang of Multipeck's timed defense was the trick.  Melee was the answer yet again.  Mallow may have a relatively high Mg. Attack, but I needed the FP for HP Rain more than Shocker or Snowy.

The worst part would come in the next fight.  Birdo was probably the toughest opponent in the game.  I don't know if I can convey how long this boss took in writing.  Her explosive eggs dealt around 103 damage, and the machine gun eggs hit for 69 without Defend or timed defense.  Mallow succumbed twice before I figured out the right tactics.

Death Count:  13

Both of Birdo's attacks could miss.  Timed defense could sometimes reduce the machine gun eggs to 0 if I got a low damage roll from the boss.  Most of the fight was spent using HP Rain one milliard times to fish for a miss.  (It took so long that I had to express it with British numbers.)  What I was supposed to do with the explosive eggs was Defend to make them bounce off, and then attack once they were on the field as "enemies".  That was my main method of attack, along with one Fright Bomb and Shocker at the beginning.  Each egg did around 80 damage to Birdo. . .if it hit.  Those could miss too.     Out of pure desperation, I used a melee attack, and happened to KO Birdo with it.      And that's how I beat Birdo with a level 16 solo character.  If I ever do this game again, it won't be a solo run, and you can blame Birdo for that!

Current stats and equipment:

Level 16, 61 FP

HP:  134
Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  81 (141)
Defense:  50 (91)
Mg. Attack:  74 (74)
Mg. Defense:  39 (72)

Weapon:  Sticky Glove
Armor:  Fuzzy Pants
Accessory:  Safety Ring

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Super Mario RPG:  Sometimes You Can't Avoid Grinding

Nimbus Land Finale

-The last boss of Nimbus Land was another one that couldn't be accomplished solo.  Dodo and Valentina fought together, and Dodo dragged off the party member in the middle.  I set Mallow in the last slot since my other characters were weak.  I thought Peach could beat Dodo, but I was wrong.  She just couldn't take Multipecks, even with Nimbus Land armor.

Death Count:  14

Putting Bowser in the middle slot was the solution.  I tried looking for better armor, but Bowser's equipment is so awful that the Work Pants were better than the Courage Shell!  His natural defenses and HP were good enough, with some help from Mid Mushrooms.  Mallow fought Valentina on his own.  She had many typical enemy spells at this point, including Water Blast, Petal Storm, Solidify, Aurora Flash, and Light Beam.  She was immune to Snowy, but melee attacks worked fine.  Dodo joined her later in the battle, and I ignored him and focused on Valentina.  She ran out of FP after a while.  After she lost, she fled with Dodo.

Mario was smart enough to whip out the umbrella when Mallow reunited with his parents King and Queen Nimbus.  King Nimbus wanted everyone's autographs, but had to settle for a jumping demonstration.  They told him to go to Barrel Volcano to find the next star. 


Barrel Volcano

-This is likely the last place you'll use Mallow in a normal playthrough due to the random enemies' ice weakness.  Even that couldn't save my solo.  I once lost to a Stumpet when it "got furious".  Its attack could one shot me from full health! 

Death Count:  15

After that was the Czar Dragon.  You may recognize the name because it was supposed to be a Final Fantasy 6 boss before the idea was scrapped.  It used fire spells as you'd expect, but it could cast Water Blast for around 80 damage as well.  The fatal blow was his fireball summon.  It could create 4 fireballs, which flew into Mallow for 20 damage a piece (if Defended) or 40 damage (if not).  Mallow did not have enough HP to take 160 damage per round!

Death Count:  17

Yes, I died twice on the Czar Dragon before deciding to quit for now.  I'll level up and come back.  The only difference in Mallow's equipment is the pants he bought from Hinopio in the volcano.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's the final post for tonight.  Tomorrow will probably be a FFTA day.  I finally managed to beat the Czar Dragon, if only through excessive leveling.

When I tried the fight at 19, Czar Dragon's bombs were still too much to handle if he got multiple attacks in a row.  At least the damage from each was reduced from 40 to about 33.

Death Count:  18

The successful attempt was a bit like the Birdo battle.  I spent most of the time casting HP Rain and Defending looking for an opportunity to hit with melee.  Unlike Birdo, Czar Dragon could run out of FP for one of its most dangerous attacks (Water Blast).  At level 21, each summoned bomb dealt 27 damage to me.  One thing I noticed while fighting random encounters is that the game seems to have "strong" and "weak" levels.  No, I don't just mean having to select different attribute bonuses each time to avoid diminishing returns.  It's more like Final Fantasy 1 where some levels might give you more HP.  Level 21 gave less gains than 20.

After whaling on Czar Dragon, it turned into its much weaker second form Zombone.  It had endgame spells such as Blast, Boulder, and Storm, but none of them could match the damage output of Czar Dragon's summons.  Melee dealt more damage than Shocker, so I went with punching.  I made sure to make a save state quickly when I won, because who wants to repeat THAT fight? 

The evil Axem Rangers grabbed the Star before Mario could and headed for the top of the volcano.  Each Ranger had their own gimmick in the battle.  Pink could heal her allies, Black could throw bombs, Green was the attack mage, and Red and Yellow mostly used melee.  (I think Yellow had a status ailment attack too.)  Their combined axes and bombs were too much for Mallow's defenses and HP.  Looks like it's time to grind again!  Or maybe I could use a Bracer from my inventory.  It feels a bit cheesy, but it's already a 5 on 1 fight here.

Death Count:  19

Current stats and equipment:

Level 21, 63 FP

HP:  181
Speed:  18 (23)
Attack:  111 (171)
Defense:  66 (113)
Mg. Attack:  98 (98)
Mg. Defense:  67 (93)


Weapon:  Sticky Glove
Armor:  Fire Pants
Accessory:  Safety Ring