A good, charming little JRPG starring some weird little fella named Mario. I think it's good, but I also don't share nearly the same reverence for it as others do, mostly because the novelty of a Mario JRPG had largely worn off by the time I was even aware of it. Somehow I didn't even know about this game until a (now ex) girlfriend told me about playing it when she was a kid, and we were dating in our early 20s. A decade-and-a-half gap between release and me forming some sort of awareness of it is almost as crazy as buying her a copy for eight dollars for her birthday. A loose cart is worth nearly ten times as much now.

I think this game will always be the one I think of when I contemplate how awful the used game market is. Pretty much that and me trading in Super Mario Sunshine for like, a dollar.

I think by now this game is so extremely well known that I don't need to walk anyone through how it operates mechanically. My main point of reference for other Mario RPGs is Paper Mario, which I think is quite good, and there's enough in common with button timing in battles and the overall sense of humor that I slipped right in with this one. Comfortable territory for sure. However, a lack of any childhood nostalgia and a reverence for a game that does more with Mario RPGs concepts means this game didn't quite land for me the way I'm sure it did for others.

Geno is cool, though. They should put him into some sort of fighting game. Geno fans need to eat.