This graphic also associates each of Smithy’s four main “generals” - the ones known in the final version of the game as Mack, Bowyer, Yaridovich, and the Axem Rangers - with a form of abstract evil, more or less. In addition to showing how much changed between the design stage and the final version of the game, this illustration also shows that whole plotlines were lifted and rearranged, to the point that Valentina remains in the final cut but disconnected from Bowyer, who is defeated far earlier. Her hired muscle is Dodo, a big black bird, and one of the midbosses you fight in Valentina’s portion of the story is Birdo, though I suppose Birdo only seems bird-like in English territories, since she’s not known by that name in Japan. More on that below.) Whatever the case, birds are Valentina’s visual motif.

(EDIT: Actually, I’m now pretty sure it is a reference to Jimmy Buffett and his music, because his fans are “parrot heads” and because Valentina’s original Japanese name seems like a pretty direct reference to his most famous song. I have never figured out whether this might be referenced to something out in pop culture, but I’m pretty sure it’s not meant to imply that she’s a Jimmy Buffett fan.

Valentina is also carrying with her what clearly seems to be a cocktail, which I would think pushes her even more into PG-13 territory - and that’s odd, when these games tend to be the softest of PGs if not G-rated outright, but again, they’re trying to visually signify that Valentina is not Peach, and these seem like handy ways to accomplish that.įor reasons that are not fully explained, Valentina has a parrot on her head that may or may not be dead. Her battle mode sprite shows off an exaggerated figure she has a teeny-tiny wasp waist but wide hips and a big bust - so big, in fact, that her breast jiggle when she’s struck in a way that seems rather unusual for Nintendo in general, much less a Mario game. She also looks nothing like Peach, which is actually kind of notable, because a lot of female characters in the Mario games look like they’re probably related to Peach. Whereas Peach is a beloved monarch of the kingdom she rules over, Valentina is an imposter, having schemed her way to power in a fluffy cloud kingdom, Nimbus Land, by imprisoning the real king and queen and lying to their subjects. In a lot of ways, she works like a response to Princess Peach, which makes sense because in 1996 Peach was still essentially the series’ only female character of note. Valentina, as she’d come to be called in the western localizations of the game, was the main villain of one chapter of the story. But also being the kind of weird little boy who always had an eye out for female characters in any franchise, because they were a lot rarer back in the 8-bit and 16-bit days, I was especially stoked to see previews of the game showing off a new female baddie. Recently, I became a patron of Supper Mario Broth, the multi-platform effort to explore Mario’s niche history, and it turns out the first paywalled post I read upon subscribing had some surprising history behind Super Mario RPG and its sole female villain.īack in 1996, I was a huge fan of both Nintendo and Squaresoft, so I was very excited at the prospect of these two video game companies teaming up to make Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. There’s actually a much bigger one coming in the not-too-distant future, but I’m only offering up so much of this one franchise because I happen to know a lot about the Mario games - and by virtue of being long-lived and consistently popular, there’s a lot to write about. Mack also unleashes different fire-based attacks, implying that Mack is a fire-based enemy.This is not a Mario blog, even if this is the third Mario-related post in a row. During the battle, Mack summons up to four Shysters simultaneously.

The battle with Mack takes place within the castle throne room where Mario must battle his way through several Shysters in order to get to Mack. Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details ends here.

Super mario rpg mack