Super Mario RPG SNES Artist Reveals Scrapped Concept Art Based on Three Musketeers

Highlights

The Super Mario RPG remake for Nintendo Switch is a critical and commercial success, staying true to the original SNES version.
Original staff members, including the director, praise the remake for being a “perfect” recreation of the game.
Following its release, concept art of the original has been shared that reveals scrapped ideas, including a Three Musketeers motif and a “slug” kingdom, giving fans a glimpse into the game’s development history.

One of the original artists who worked on the SNES version of Super Mario RPG reveals a bunch of scrapped concept art, which showed how the game was originally proposed with a Three Musketeers motif in mind. The release of the Super Mario RPG remake on Nintendo Switch has been a critical and commercial hit, making it one of the biggest and most successful released from Nintendo’s 2023 library. While there are numerous changes made in the Super Mario RPG remake, it is a faithful remake of the SNES original.

This remake has been praised not only by fans, but also by several development staff members who originally worked on the game. This includes Super Mario RPG‘s original director, Chihiro Fujioka. While Fujioka was not involved in the development of Switch remake, he praised how the team at ArtePiazza created the “perfect” remake. Another original member of the game’s staff, Jiro Mifune, also celebrated the release of the Switch remake, posting several pieces of scrapped concept art when Squaresoft was working on the SNES original.

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This concept art was posted on Mifune’s Twitter account (some archived by NintendoLife), showing off the various sketches when Super Mario RPG was in its early concept phase. One of the original ideas for the RPG was to base it off of The Three Musketeers, showing off Mario, Luigi, Wario, and even Toad dressed in the same garb as the characters, complete with swords. Princess Peach and Bowser are even dressed in similar era-appropriate attire as well. These were all based off of Mifune feeling “uncomfortable” picturing Mario with a traditional sword and shield.

Mifune also released concept art of the “third” kingdom, which was called the “slug” kingdom, and would have been the villainous force that invaded Bowser’s kingdom and kidnaped Peach. These included an antagonistic mage named “Enigma Slugnid,” who had an army of anthropomorphic snails and sea creatures as enemies. These would eventually morph into the mechanical weapon-like bosses from Smithy’s Army that players would face in the final game.

Mifune wanted to celebrate the “miracle remake” of the game, which is why he posted all this unseen concept art of Super Mario RPG. He thanked the many members of the development team who had worked on the remake, while posting about how he enjoyed watching playthrough videos of Super Mario RPG on YouTube, Twitch, and other social media sites.

These pieces of concept art are all intriguing glimpses into the development history of Super Mario RPG, which is filled with secrets and possible avenues the game could have taken. For those who are sad that the “Mario Musketeers” idea never got off the ground, the upcoming Princess Peach: Showtime! is likely the closest that Nintendo will get to revisiting the concept for now.