Square Enix Developing a Full-Fledged Follow-Up to Super Mario RPG?

Nintendo did something very different in the late 1990s and early 2000s: it launched three Mario RPGs in one year — Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and a brand-new Mario & Luigi game. Many fans thought this wasn't a mistake. The event seemed like a screening test, a planned test to see which subseries today's gamers liked best and where the Mario RPG series should go next.

In the early 2000s, it was easier to support more than one RPG spinoff at the same time. It was cheaper to develop games, teams were smaller, and companies like AlphaDream could work on both Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi simultaneously.

Nintendo's Next Plan for Mario

However, now that HD is so expensive, Nintendo appears to be more cautious, focusing all its resources on one direction that will yield the most success. There are some clear hints in the sales statistics. The most current numbers, which are somewhat outdated, indicate that the new Mario & Luigi sold over a million units and are approaching two million.

About two million people watched the reboot of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Additionally, Super Mario RPG sold more than three million copies in just a few months, despite being released during the same busy holiday season. With that much support, the reboot was clearly the best of the three. Why? A lot of it had to do with nostalgia.

It had been decades since Super Mario RPG was played again, and longtime Super Nintendo fans were looking forward to its triumphant comeback. The remake didn't skimp on anything—it featured smooth 60 FPS gameplay, improved graphics, revamped mechanics, and even the option to switch between old and new music.

A Nintendo and Square Enix Collaboration?

Paper Mario's version, on the other hand, could only run at 30 FPS, and the new Mario & Luigi had problems with its pace and frame rate. Nintendo and Square Enix have taken note of the game's positive reviews. Both companies have worked together on smaller RPGs before, like on Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, and the reboot of Live A Live, which Nintendo specifically asked them to do.

Since Super Mario RPG did better than expected, it seems likely that there will be talk of a real sequel. Fans know that there is a lot of promise. The remake already made things better by letting you switch between characters, adding new super moves, and updating collections.

If there is a Super Mario RPG 2 for the Switch, it could take these ideas even further and also explore concepts from the first game that were not utilized in that game. There's also still hope that popular characters like Geno will return. Geno has one of the loudest cult followings among fans of the Mario series.

Although there may still be more Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games, the numbers indicate that Nintendo has found its star. The 2024 "Mario RPG Test" showed what players really want: a full-fledged follow-up to Super Mario RPG. The question now is whether Nintendo and Square Enix will make the change.