Super Mario RPG’s original director, Chihiro Fujioka, isn’t working on the Switch remake, though he’s happy it exists. Fujioka retweeted the announcement after the June Nintendo Direct and expressed surprised and excitement over the project, despite not being involved in it (thanks, Eurogamer).
“Oh my God, finally!” Fujioka said on Twitter (via Google translate). “Both the art and music are wonderfully upgraded! I’m really looking forward to seeing how the feel of various mini-games and fields evolves!”
He said in a reply to someone else that he was surprised to learn the remake exists, so it seems safe to say he wasn’t in the loop at all on the remake and its direction.
Yoko Shimomura, the game’s original composer, was in charge of rearranging the soundtrack, however.
おお！なんと、ついに！
絵も音楽も素晴らしくグレードアップしてますねー！
いろんなミニゲームやフィールドの手触りがどう進化しているのかとても楽しみですね！ https://t.co/qertLNC53C— chihiro fujioka (@ChihiroFujioka) June 22, 2023
Fujioka said during an interview in 2022 that he wanted to create a Super Mario RPG sequel before retiring.
“In my career, I’ve been involved in a lot of games and I would really like my final one to be another Mario RPG game, if possible,” he said. “I would like to go back and create a Mario RPG (different from Mario & Luigi) where you’re only controlling Mario.”
It looks like that probably won’t happen now, though Fujioka certainly left his mark on Mario games and the RPG genre. He worked on every game in the Mario & Luigi series after Super Mario RPG launched and was credited as a game designer for Fantasian, the Apple-exclusive mobile game from Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.
The Super Mario RPG remake launches for Nintendo Switch on Nov. 17, 2023.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
[mm-video type=video id=01fvcjnp6fsbvxksdqgj playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fvcjnp6fsbvxksdqgj/01fvcjnp6fsbvxksdqgj-63f0de0fb272e8e5052147565eaa6662.jpg]