Have a short history of the Mario RPG directors

Have a short history of the Mario RPG directors.

SUPER MARIO RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars - Chihiro Fujioka, Yoshihiko Maekawa

>Chihiro Fujioka: Rock drummer who composed music for some computer games made by Xtalsoft and Riverhillsoft for the PC-88 and PC-98 before joining Square. After working on Final Fantasy directing Super Mario RPG, producing more Square games for Playstation and working on Love-de-Lic's UFO: A Day in the Life (Love de Lic being made of ex-Square employees), he became part of AlphaDream in 2001, an exodus from Square employees, and directed their debut game Koto Battle: Tengai no Moribito, as well as Tomato Adventure, Hamtaro: Rainbow Rescue and Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Games. He was credited for all Mario & Luigi games as well: Special Thanks for M&L1, Field/World Design for M&L2, M&L3 and Paper Jam, and Menu Design for M&L4. He also composed again for Compile Heart's Fairy Fencer F and Megadimension Neptunia VII.

>Yoshihiko Maekawa: Square employee who worked on Live a Live, Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy, he directed Super Mario RPG then became part of the exodus from Square that turned into AlphaDream and directed Mario & Luigi 1 and produced M&L2, 3, 4 and Paper Jam.

>Ryota Kaxade: Always has been an employee of Intelligent Systems. He worked on Wario's Woods as Designer, directed the first three Paper Mario games, and supervised the use of the series in Smash 4. He also was credited as Special Thanks for Sticker Star and was a planner for Brain Age: Concentration Training and Codename: STEAM.

>Hiroyuki Kubota: AlphaDream employee who worked on designing the field & writing the story for Superstar Saga. He would then direct every other Mario & Luigi game.

>Naohiko Aoyama: Art designer working for Intelligent Systems, who in particular worked on the art design for the original Paper Mario. He is credited as Special Thanks for several other games - Mario Kart Super Circuit, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Paper Mario 2, Game & Wario... - but Sticker Star was his first role as a director.

>Taro Kudo: Vanpool employee who used to compose for Konami and as such composed music for Axelay and Super Castlevania IV. Afterward, he joined Square and worked on Super Mario RPG on Event Design. He would then be the designer for Love-de-Lic's UFO: A Day in the Life, and later be one of the first employees of Vanpool, still made of ex-Square employees much like Love-de-Lic. Vanpool would specialize itself in short, casual games on Nintendo platforms: Taro Kudo worked on Mario & Luigi 1's mini-games, as well as other games such as Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, Little King's Story, Wii Play; Motion, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star, the latter which was directed by Taro Kudo who also worked on the scenario and revealed in the Iwata Asks interview that he felt story was unimportant. More recently, Taro Kudo produced Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash.

>Shunsuke Kobayashi: AlphaDream employee who does not appear to have history before directing Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. He is also credited as the scenario writer, and participated in the official Miiverse interview during which he revealed that they were going to go for a large story featuring both series before settling for something much more simple to focus on the humor instead.

cool. thanks, op. :)

Mario RPG 2 WHEN

Considering that a large chunk of the people who worked on Mario RPG moved to AlphaDream, and that some of those who did not moved to Love-de-Lic then Vanpool instead, Superstar Saga is Mario RPG 2 in everything but name (even then, the M&L series got to keep the "RPG" name in Japan).

And Geno was also in Super Star Saga as a cameo

What's your point, OP? If you have one that is.

None, just interesting to remember that the people who worked on SMRPG went on to work on M&L, and Taro Kudo in particular had a hand in both SMRPG, PM and M&L. And that Ryota Kawade got the boot for Sticker Star, whcih was instead directed by someone who usually just works on art design and someone who usually just makes mini-games.

Ah alright then. Yeah it is pretty neat to find out their backgrounds, it's a shame Ryoto Kawade didn't direct Sticker Star, it's so apparent he had no involvement just with how the game feels when playing it.

bump for the op

Are the M&L games still good, at least?

Many would say not as much. They didn't go in the direction of Paper Mario when it comes to bad but they've gotten a bit weak in my opinion. Paper Jam while had some nice gameplay had dull generic areas & a boring story. Also personally I hate how since Bowser's Inside Story mini-games are plentiful.

if I had to only play one M&L which one should I go for?

>Taro Kudo in particular had a hand in both SMRPG, PM and M&L
>in particular
He had the least involvment in all of those out of the people listed

SSS is still the strongest entry, sadly.

>Taro Kudo worked on Mario & Luigi 1's mini-games
Thanks, now I'm never gonna be able to enjoy those again

Partners in Time, don't listen to americans.

I honestly want to agree with since it's my favorite but probably the original is the best to go for.

And he ruined Paper Mario by using the same philosophy he used for his work on SMRPG and M&L. You know, those in which he only made mini-games.

Superstar Saga or Bowser's Inside Story if you want a great RPG.
Partners in Time if you need something more linear and straight to the point.
Play Dream Team if you enjoyed those above and don't mind a very slow pace.
Play Paper Jam if you find the battles in the games above to be too easy.

Bowsers inside story

Any other games like the Mario RPGs but without Mario?

South Park RPGs are pretty much Paper Mario successors, I've heard.

goddamn you guys have some shit taste

>Superstar Saga is Mario RPG 2 in everything but name (even then, the M&L series got to keep the "RPG" name in Japan)

Yeah, you know, except the part where it doesn't feel, look, or play anything like SMRPG.

Like the new Paper Mario games don't have ANY of the charm of PM1, and certainly don't play like PM1 or TTYD.