Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Also known as: Super Mario RPG (JP) Developers: Square Publishers: Nintendo (JP/US), Hyundai (KR) Platform: SNES Released in JP: March 9, 1996 Released in US: May 13, 1996 Released in EU: August 22, 2008 (VC) Released in AU: August 22, 2008 (VC) Released in KR: 1996 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused abilities. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a Data Crystal page

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a unique collaboration between Nintendo and Square which gave birth to the first in a line of Mario role-playing games.

It's a fairly lighthearted romp fondly remembered for its memorable cast and good bit of humor spread in. Unfortunately, Square parting ways with Nintendo soon after the game's release makes a direct sequel unlikely, much to the dismay of fans around the world. On November 17, 2023, a remake was released for the Nintendo Switch.

Sub-Pages

Prerelease Info

Unused Text

Unused Maps and Battle Backgrounds Test maps, early versions of existing locations, and even some completely scrapped areas!

Unused Enemies They didn't bother putting in proper stats for these guys.

Developer Message

To do: What is the character floating on the right?

A hidden message from Mitsuo Yoshioka, credited in the game as the menu programmer, which is located at 0x30010 (CPU address C30010) in all versions of the ROM:

JP version	US version
JAPANESE VER. by M.YOSHIOKA ‘ 大滝秀治命	ENGLISH VER. by M.YOSHIOKA ‘ 大滝秀治命

大滝秀治命 roughly translates to "The Honorable Hideji Ootaki".

Debug Menu (Battle)

Not only does this game have a debug menu, but it is a very complex one, at that. To enable it, use Pro Action Replay (PAR) code C106AF80, enter any battle, and simply press Start on your turn. The different options it contains are as follow:

• SCENE - Battle select. Allows you to select any battle/formation in the game, including ones which go unused.
• OBJ - Allows you to view all the uncompressed sprites in the game!
• BG - Allows you to change the current battle background.

• HPMAX - Simply refills your HP to its current maximum. It won't max out your HP to 999.
• MUSIC - Lets you listen to all music tracks.
• SE - Allows you to listen to all the sound effects in the game.
• LINE - Used to measure the CPU usage of what it would use on the SNES, nothing too fancy. Can simply be turned on or off.

• EFFECT - Used to show the background animation of objects like the Star used for Mallow's Star Rain or the rock from Bowser's Crusher attack.
• EVT 1 - Leads directly to the first fight to save Peach from Bowser.
• EVT 2 - Leads directly to the fight with Boomer at Bowser's Keep.
• EVT 3 - Leads directly to the Smithy fight.
• TEST - Simply shows the animation used when Smithy transforms into his true form, after which the game hangs.

(Source: SMRPG Secrets)

Spell Effect Test Menu

This menu tests several HDMA and translucency effects used in magic attacks. To enable it, add the above debug menu code, in addition with PAR codes C106D2F3 and C106D307. Once that is done, simply enter a battle, and then press Start on your turn.

• MAGIC - Lets you choose from several spell effects that utilize translucency.
• LASTER - Most certainly meaning "Raster" given Japanese phonology, this option displays an image of the Big Boo from Bowser's Terrorize special. Pressing Left and Right lets you manipulate the image.
• BGLASTER - Same function as the one above, but this one tests vertical scaling. Pressing Up and Down scales the image.

(Source: Giangurgolo - Creator of the LazyShell editor)

Debug Menu (Overworld)

A different debug menu, this one intended for the overworld, which can be accessed with PAR codes D4AFC100 D4AFC226 DF000001, and talking to the Fungi Light in Mario's Pad (please note that you have to enable the codes before entering the pipe house).

Below is a tree showing the page flow in the debug menu. Options shown in bold are blanked out in the English version and have translations filled in, with italicized explanations and differences in parenthesis:

• Next (Event)
  • Next
    • Next
      • Next
      • Hillside A (Booster Hill, Booster chase)
      • Hillside B (next)
        • Next (Beetle Box ON Hill B; Booster Hill, beetle chase)
        • Beetle Scenario OFF Hill B (Booster Hill, flower search)
        • Beetle Box OFF Hill B (Booster Hill, beetle chase no box)*
    • Cart End B (either the scene where the trolley crashes through the roof if it hasn't happened yet, or Moleville Mountain finishes at 02’46’’66 with wagered coins)
    • Falls (start of the Midas River waterfall, NPC waiting at the end)
  • Donut (leads to the second Donut Block of the Sky Bridge in Land's End)
  • Sky Troopas (leads to Land's End desert, in front of the cliff area entrance, with Sky Troopas active)
• Demo (next)
  • Next
    • Next
      • Next (closes menu)
      • Wiggler step (INTRO: Jumping on Wiggler; once one of the "demo" options are picked, the game cycles through these demos endlessly, and the player can only soft reset)
      • Koopa (INTRO: Koopa Troop at Moleville)
    • Star (INTRO: Invincibility at Bandit's Way)
    • Hillside (INTRO: Booster Hill, Snifit chase)
  • Fall in (INTRO: Midas River tunnel)
  • Downriver (INTRO: Midas River barrels)
• Option
  • Next
    • Next
      • Next (closes menu)
      • To Mole B Villa C (just entered Moleville's Swap Shop)
      • Croco page OBJ null (restart from the menu's first page; unknown if that was always the intended function)
    • 99 flowers
    • Max level up (Mass level up is more like it; if you want to go all the way from min 1 to max 30, you'll have to reselect it)
  • 500 coins
  • 1 level up

(Source: Translations courtesy of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars ~Rebrick Time Capsule~ SNES-nameset by “LiThL”)

Debug Room

Debug Map

This game contains not only two debug menus, but also a debug room, found at map 00, which plays the Mushroom Kingdom theme and uses the standard grassland tileset. The map itself is quite large, though all relevant objects are only found in the first part, leaving the rest of the map completely vacant. To access this map, enable PAR codes 7FF40400 7FF40501 and walk through a loading zone.

Upon entering the area, the following message will be displayed:

    The World Map
   Talk to the person of the place
           you wish to go to.

All the NPCs in this map bring up different functions, with the only exception being Mario, who is a useless NPC:

• Toad (top-left) - Saves your game, enables all party members and world map locations, gives you a Signal Ring, and brings you directly to the credits.
• Toad (top-center) - Warps you to Nimbus Land.
• Toad (top-right) - Warps you to Barrel Volcano.
• Toad (center) - Warps you to Bean Valley.
• Toad (bottom-center) - Warps you to Monstro Town.
• Toad (bottom-right) - Warps you to Land's End.
• Bowser - Warps you to Bowser's Keep.

All of these locations appear late in the game, suggesting that these were the last ones the developers tested.

(Source: Map originally ripped by Peardian from The Spriters Resource)

Unused Cutscenes

There exist two unused alternate versions of the scenes where Peach is trapped in Booster Tower. Both of these scenes can be viewed through the aforementioned debug menu, the first one being found under BG:11 SCENE:150, and the second under BG:11 SCENE:151. As the early versions are considered battle scenes, they use the more constrictive battle messages. Note that the dialogue shown in the video is a mock-up; the actual dialogue has been overwritten in-game by Count Down's announcements.

First Scene
The scene that plays after Mario arrives at Booster Tower for the first time, with Peach overhearing him from the top of the tower. The scene blocking in this early version suggests a bit more emotion.

Early Scene	Final Scene
Peach on the ground, shaking and crying. It's 1:00.Time to play. After some more, stops crying, gets up, and looks right and left. It's 3:00. Time to RECOVER! Walks up to the balcony. It's 5:00. Time for a break, huh? Looks down and then jumps high once in surprise. It's 6:00. Time to FULLY RECOVER. Excitedly blows kisses. It's 7:00. DINNER TIME.	Peach standing up, crying, then stops. TOADSTOOL: Oh? Looks right and left, holding at her right. Did I just hear some voices? Hops and looks toward the camera. It couldn't be...! Runs toward the balcony, then looks down and gets surprised. I can't believe it! It's...Mario! Reaches out with her arms and hops twice. Mario~!!! I'm up here!

Second Scene
The scene that plays after Mario first tries to access the balcony area of Booster Tower. The early version of this scene seems to repeat the line upon seeing Mario.

Early Scene	Final Scene
Mario looks through the door's window, Peach recoiling with surprise upon seeing him. It's 6:00. Time to FULLY RECOVER. She runs toward him, then stops and walks more slowly, nodding twice at the door. It's 10:00. Time to garden. Looks left and right twice. It's 12:00. It's high noon.	Mario looks through the door's window, Peach jumping with excitement upon seeing him and then running toward the door. TOADSTOOL: Mario! You DID come to rescue me. I was so frightened and lonely. But now that you're here... He tries to open the door. TOADSTOOL: The door won't open? I think we need Booster's spell to undo the lock on it. Oh, what should we do?

Unused NPC Data

The exterior of Grate Guy Casino is located on the same physical map as Seaside Town. While this in itself is not particularly unusual, there are some NPCs on the Seaside Town portion which are loaded with the Casino but cannot normally be seen, nor interacted with:

• Male Toad - Is assigned the string used by this map's Geno NPC. Is programmed to bob up and down repeatedly, for some odd reason.
• Geno - Walks back and forth repeatedly. When interacted with, he'll exclaim "Come on! Let's get this show on the road." before resuming his endless walk cycle.
• Terrapins – Two Terrapins which are stationary but play their walking animation nonetheless. Touching them triggers a battle against two Goombas, with the battle background used being the Mushroom Kingdom one.

Unused Battle Formations

Group ID	Pack ID(s)	Enemies	Notes
010	08	K-9	Part of an unused, easier version of the K-9 enemy pack in Bandit's Way.
03F	N/A	Sparky x4
040	20	Goomba Shy Ranger x4	Packs 20 and 21 were intended for the Pipe Vault, which instead uses the Goomba packs from Bandit's Way.
041	20, 21	Goomba x2 Shy Ranger x2
042	20, 21	Goomba x2 Piranha Plant x2
043	21	Goomba Piranha Plant x2 Sparky
054	2A	Lakitu	Part of an unused, easier version of the Lakitu enemy pack in Booster Pass.
06B	35	Lakitu	Part of an unused, harder version of the Blaster enemy pack in Booster Tower.
06C	35	Torte	Both packs are unused. Either you were intended to fight chefs in Marrymore, or Torte replaced a different enemy.
06D	35, 36	Torte x2
06E	35, 36	Torte x3
06F	36	Torte x4
08B	N/A	Bandana Red x2 Dry Bones x2 Straw Head	This is an easier version of another unused enemy group that is part of a pack.
08C	46	Bandana Blue	Another two enemy packs that are never seen. Bandana Blues are only seen with Johnny.
08D	46, 47	Bandana Blue x2 Greaper
08E	46, 47	Bandana Blue x4
08F	47	Bandana Blue x2 Straw Head Greaper x2
09B	4D	Greaper Gorgon Straw Head x2	Part of an unused, harder version of the Greaper enemy pack in the Sunken Ship.
09C	4E	Drill Bit	Two unused enemy packs with four unused enemy groups populated by an unused enemy.
09D	4E, 4F	Drill Bit x2
09E	4E, 4F	Drill Bit x3
09D	4F	Drill Bit x4
0A8	54	Chomp Chomp	Part of an unused, easier version of the Chomp Chomp enemy pack in Bean Valley.
0BC	5E	Bluebird x2	Part of an unused, easier version of the Chomp Chomp enemy pack in Nimbus Castle.
0BE	5E	Bluebird x4
0C3	61	Pinwheel x3 Sling Shy x2	Part of an unused, easier version of the Pinwheel enemy pack in Nimbus Castle.
0DF	6F	Terra Cotta x2 Gu Goomba x2 Forkies	Part of an unused, harder version of the Terra Cotta enemy pack in Bowser's Keep.
0EB	75	Big Bertha x2 Terra Cotta	Part of an unused, harder version of the Big Bertha enemy pack in Bowser's Keep.
0EC	76	Magikoopa Terra Cotta x4	An interesting set! Either the Magikoopa once behaved differently or it replaced a different enemy. Since the Magikoopa is coded as a boss, the other enemies don't show up. Perhaps the Magikoopa was once a regular enemy.
0ED	76, 77	Magikoopa Malakoopa x2 Tub-O-Troopa
0EE	76, 77	Magikoopa Gu Goomba x2 Star Cruster
0EF	77	Magikoopa Forkies Star Cruster
0F5	N/A	Springer Ameboid Ninja	This was likely intended for pack 7A, which has two copies of the "Springer, Glum Reaper" group.
0F8	N/A	Ameboid	Intended for packs 82 and 83, which instead contain 3 copies each of the 5x Ameboid group. These are old enemy groups, and Gunyolk and Boomer replaced whatever the original enemies were.
0F9	N/A	Ameboid x2 Gunyolk
0FA	N/A	Ameboid Gunyolk Boomer
104	7C, 7D	Mad Mallet x2	Mad Mallets were supposed to appear in large groups as random enemies. Only the 3x Mad Mallet group is used in the game, but it's used in a different pack.
106	7C, 7D	Mad Mallet x5
107	N/A	Mad Mallet x4 Clerk	Another old group, likely intended for pack 7D. Clearly, the Clerk wasn't part of the game's earlier design.
108	7E, 7F	Pounder	Unlike the Mad Mallet packs, none of these sets are used.
109	7E, 7F	Pounder x3
10A	7E, 7F	Pounder x5
10B	N/A	Pounder x4 Clerk	Like group 107, but with Pounders.
111	N/A	Axem Rangers	An odd group. Whatever this one enemy was, the Axem Rangers enemy now appears in its enemy ID slot.
117	A5	(Croco #3)	A third battle with Croco. The Croco in this battle doesn't have an action script and only has 10 HP.
11A	N/A	Right Eye, Bandana Red	Another coded-over boss. The Right Eye clearly wasn't supposed to be in these groups...
11B	N/A	Right Eye, Bandana Red x2
11C	N/A	Right Eye, Bandana Red x4
120	N/A	(Belome #3)	A third battle with Belome! Like Croco #3, he only has 10 HP and no action script.
123	N/A	Microbomb	A very intense boss battle against...oh, a Microbomb. More boss overwriting!
128	N/A	Axem Yellow	Yet another boss battle with a boss that's no longer in the game.
12C	N/A	King Bomb, Mezzo Bomb	This boss duo was overwritten with the two largest Bob-ombs. They sure get around.
140	80, 81	Poundette	Sick of unused hammer enemy groups yet?
141	80, 81	Poundette x3
142	80, 81	Poundette x5
143	N/A	Poundette x4 Clerk	Like group 107, but with Poundettes. Yep.
160	BE	Super Spike x3	Possibly used to test the game's random group code.
161	BE	Super Spike x4
1FD	N/A	Bundt, Raspberry, Terrapin x2	A very strange set that appears right before the Bowser battle's ending group.

Unused Items

There are a few unused items present in the game, though they're less proper ones and more along the lines of developer items to quickly test status effects on characters. They are as follow:

• Bomb (ボム) - Deals 255 damage to a single enemy.
• Debug Bomb (デバッガーボム, "Debugger Bomb") - Deals 255 damage to all enemies.
• Doom Bomb (ころしボム, "Kill Bomb") - Deals 255 damage to targeted ally.
• Bane Bomb (どくボム, "Poison Bomb") - Causes "Poison" status on targeted ally.
• Fear Bomb (きょうふボム) - Causes "Fear" status on targeted ally.
• Sleep Bomb (ねむりボム) - Causes "Sleep" status on targeted ally.
• Mute Bomb (ちんもくボム) - Causes "Mute" status on targeted ally.
• S.Crow Bomb (カカシボム) - Causes "Scarecrow" status on targeted ally.
• Secret Game (ひみつのゲーム) - It appears that the Beetle Mania game was also supposed to be an item. Its description is "A super popular video game!", and it sells for 999 coins. In the final game, Beetle Mania adds itself to the menu, rendering this item unused.

Note that the used bombs also use a different Japanese term, which more directly translates to "ball".

(Source: SMRPG Secrets - Bombs info, Liliana - Secret Game info, “LiThL” - Japanese)

Unused Attacks

There are a few unused enemy attacks, as well. The first four can be seen in action here.

• Toxicyst (どくきのこのほうし, "Poison Mushroom Spore") - Throws green spores at the party. Causes Poison status.
• Dahlia Dance (フラワーダンス, "Flower Dance") - Turns one character into a mushroom.
• Chain Saw (チェーンソー) - Same as the Corona attack. Name isn't displayed.
• Knock Out (いしきふめい) - Deals 9999 to all party members.
• Royal Flush (ロイヤルストレート. "Royal Straight") - A physical attack, and the only attack with an 8× modifier in the game. Based on his other moves (Full House and Wild Card, which are 2× and 4× respectively), it was almost certainly intended for Jester, but removed due to being a bit overpowered.
• Sickle (かかしのかま, "S’crow Sickle") - Turns one character into a scarecrow, has a 1.5× modifier.

(Source: SMRPG Secrets, Liliana, “LiThL” - Japanese)

Unused Battle-Related Code

Under the hood rests unused code.

Unused Status Ailment

There exists an unused status ailment which, when cast on an ally, will cause the player to lose control of said character, with them continuously physically attacking random targets, including other party members and themselves until the ailment is cleared. May have been intended as a sort of "Confused" or "Berserk" status ailment, both of them being standards in RPGs. Interestingly, when cast on an enemy, they will also lose control and select random targets, including themselves, but the attacks will miss 100% of the time. In addition, if both the enemy and an ally character have this status effect on them, enemies will use "Scream" and "Hammer Time" randomly with a 100% miss chance, but it is unclear as to why they use these attacks in particular.

Other noteworthy tidbits are the portrait does change to an unused index, sequence 6. If the ally attacks themselves and they fall/are wounded, they will revert back to their standing position when transferring back to their original coordinates. The byte for this status ailment is 10.

This status would reappear, still unused, in Paper Mario.

(Source: Yakibomb)

Unused Item Behavior

All items (weapons, armors and consumables) are made up of 18 bytes. Consumable items are the only ones to make use of byte 17 for Attack Flags. Setting this to 03 will enable an unused string of code to add stats to a character upon use. Stats that can be modified are Speed, Attack, Defense, Magic Attack, and Magic Defense.

The code can be found at C2:C074 - C2:C0B1.

(Source: Yakibomb)

Unused Equipment Parameters

Weapons, items, armors and accessories are akin in that they are all made up of 18 bytes for parameters for various functions, with byte 1 setting the type of item or equipment it will be.

Byte 5, Bits 4-7: These bits, dedicated for the elements (Ice, Thunder, Fire, and Jump respectively), set a weapon's damage type to that element if applied to a weapon, armor or accessory. Judging by how weapons, armors and accessories are applied to the character, it was definitely intended for weapons to use elements at some point, but for whatever reason, it was never used. It even has a byte on the character's RAM dedicated to it: 7E:004B, which can be set to 10, 20, 40, or 80 to get that element's effect.

Unused Spell Damage Parameters

Spells are made up of 12 bytes for parameters, using bits to enable/disable certain functions. Interestingly, Byte 1, Bit 0: Uses atk/def of caster/target to calculate final damage, instead of using mg.attack/mg.defense. This completely ignores adding the spell's power.

Unused Party Member Leftovers

There are leads within the code that point to what may have been an ultimately cut sixth party member. At a glance, there are unused specials commands and coordinates for the ABXY buttons on the battle screen if said character were to exist. All named "Dummy" (ダミー), these unused specials are most likely leftovers from how the game writes to a character's specials pool, however, they still function as any ally special would. The animations themselves are actually incorrectly read pointers, due to how the code is organized. The animation code is placed just after the pointers, so when the code reads the pointers to play the animation for the dummy specials, the game is actually reading the beginning of the animation script used by Mario's Jump special. Also noteworthy, these dummy specials all share the same timing as the specials Jump, Therapy, Crusher, HP Rain, and Shocker, because the timings themselves (located at C2:CACB) are all read by the same code.

The coordinates for the ABXY buttons for the battle screen do have bytes dedicated for the X/Y position for one more character. The coordinates are the same exact as Mario's. It is loaded at C2:3461 (with the coordinates themselves at C2:3685).

(Source: Yakibomb)

Mushroom Ailment Oddities

The Mushroom ailment is meant to immediately pass the character's turn if they are afflicted with it, however, disabling the turn skip by pointing the ailment to do something else reveals that it disables the three action commands for attacks, items and specials. Seeing how it leaves the defend/run command enabled, this could suggest the player once had some control over the Mushroom, though this could also simply be a leftover that has no significance whatsoever.

Additionally, the game checks to see if Mushroom or Fear are set to calculate final damage. If either are set, damage is divided by 2.

Unused Bowyer Behavior

Bowyer's battle script (as well as the one of his Machine Made counterpart) has code that re-enables all buttons if the Carbo Cookie is used on him. In the final game, the Carbo Cookie is an event item that cannot be used in battle, so this is likely leftover code that was meant to target a different item that got cut from the game.

Unused Graphics

Unused Palettes

Sprite Palettes

It seems that every item graphic was given a red, green, blue and yellow palette. A few items, such as bombs, made use of all four palettes. Most items, however, did not. Not a single one of the above item palettes are used.

Unused red and blue palettes for the hammer. These may have been intended as elemental hammers, or just as a way to distinguish the various hammers in the game.

Unused	Used

Two unused recolors for the NokNok Shell, one red and the other orange.

Unused	Used

Two unused recolors for the Troopa Shell, one green and the other red.

Unused	Used

Two unused recolors for the Lazy Shell, one green and the other orange.

An unused greyish-blue palette for Mallow's Cymbals.

(Source: Yakibomb)

Individual palettes for the teleportation animation used by the Axem Rangers, who in the final game inexplicably all use Red's red teleportation palette. The Switch remake rectifies this and gives the Rangers their own teleportation colors.

(Source: Mattrizzle)

Background Palettes

A darker, unused alternate palette for the caves tileset.

(Source: The IT)

An early palette for the Mushroom Castle which could be seen in the game's 1995 V-Jump Festival presentation.

(Source: The IT)

This layer 3 palette is loaded into CGRAM indices $08-$0B on the menu screens, but isn't used.

When the palette is applied to the top left corner tile of each red border, a visible shine can be seen:

Used	Mockup with unused palette

Said tile is clearly drawn with this palette in mind and looks rather out of place in the final game, so this palette going unused was probably a mistake.

(Source: Mattrizzle)

Unused Graphics

A generic placeholder which appears several times in the debug menu.

Use code C1121CBD to display them.

These are located in the same bank as the other digits. They are just different numbers, likely intended for the battle UI. These are actually very similar to the numbers used for the in-battle page scrolling number display.

Even more unused digits, alongside some other tiles, located just above the rest of the battle UI GFX. Curiously, after the 9 are two tiles that are just two 1, except one is solid and the other is hollow.

Unused graphics which are found right under the chandelier graphic in Bowser's Keep (at 01C000 in yychr). They appear to lack a proper palette, and depict a Shy Guy idle, sitting, and knocked down, alongside a star and a mushroom. These graphics are rather intriguing, as they don't match the final game’s art style, indicating that they must have been made rather early on in development.

A banana peel with eyes, not unlike the ones seen in the Mario Kart games. It could probably have worked just about anywhere, although the most likely place would have been Booster Hill (probably while chasing Booster himself).

A small sea urchin, which appears to be based on the Urchin enemy from Super Mario World. Probably intended as a trap of sorts for the Sea or Sunken Ship areas. Oddly enough, two instances of this object are actually loaded up in-game, being found out of bounds during the scene where Mario has to gather Peach's belongings during her makeshift marriage with Booster.

Unused	Used

There are two versions of the Mario doll in the game, with only the one on the right being used in-game. The unused variant is pretty much only a miniature version of Mario's regular sprite, while the used sprite conveys a more toy-like aesthetic.

How the wall pipes look when placed in-game.

Pipes that go into walls, which actually have metatiles defined for them in an unused version of the sewer tileset (L1/L2 tileset setting 59 in Lazy Shell). The used version of the tileset replaces these with the gargoyles from Belome Temple.

Found in the Marrymore tileset, these are just two bouquets of flowers which never get used anywhere.

A Belome statue, unsurprisingly meant for Belome Temple. Due to the statues always being placed on the left walls, this right-facing sprite ultimately went unused.

An early version of the blackjack table from Grate Guy's Casino, this one is a lot less detailed and has a more curved shape. Seeing how this sprite is only found in the lobby, this could either mean that the main area of the casino once used the same graphics, or that this room was the main area at one point.

Within the game's data, there lies graphics for an early version of the Sunken Ship. There, the full ship is present, instead of just the mast, sails, and crow's nest. The ship also faces the opposite direction (top-right instead of bottom-left), and the crow's nest doesn't look like a pipe opening. The latter point is interesting, as it could mean that early in development there must have been another method of entry, or that the ship wasn't originally intended to be explored.

Interestingly, this ship design can be seen in the ending parade, with the early crow's nest fully intact.

Two graphics for the Sunken Ship. The shark is likely a placeholder sprite for the Bandana sharks, while the "30" is a developer's marking.

(Source: The IT)

What looks like smooth stone structures that may have belonged to a different style of cave tileset.

(Source: The IT)

A rather crude drawing of a typical Mario-styled cloud. Most likely an early version of the clouds from Nimbus Land's sky.

Signs saying "HOLLOW" which were once used in Nimbus Land, and can be seen in early game screenshots.

An early version of the trophy stands found in Nimbus Castle. The grey one can be seen in early game screenshots.

An animation for the flowers which only appear during the ending sequence on Yo'ster Isle. They are completely stationary during said sequence, rendering this animation unused.

An unused battle effect which depicts a spiderweb expanding and then disintegrating. While it's not really clear what this may have been intended for, it's possible this was meant for Arachne and/or Spinthra, both of them spider-like enemies.

An unused battle effect which isn't easily seen listed in the game, instead needing a little digging. To view this animation in this game's main editor, Lazy Shell, change the Image to 131 and Animation to 198. While it's not really clear what this may have been intended for, it's possible this may have been intended to be used for Mallow when he uses his cymbals.

An unused animation for a Lakitu using an air pump.

An unused animation for Toadofsky. Presumably this was meant to be used for scenes where he's actually conducting music, like after completing his sidequest or his scene in the credits, but the game reuses his "baton flourish" sprites instead.

An unused sprite of Carroboscis, an enemy in Booster Pass.

An unused variant of the Shyster's bounce animation.

These are found paired with the rest of the elder graphics and would have been used during Bowyer's reign on Rose Town.

An unused animation of Geno holding his head. A similar animation plays when Geno first comes to life and bonks against the staircase, though there he is seen from the back.

An unused animation of Peach crying profusely on the floor. This animation is used in the early version of the cutscene where Mario first arrives at Booster Tower, the final one instead using the animation of Peach crying while standing up. Moreover, the first frame of this animation is actually used during Peach and Booster's wedding after Peach gets knocked down by Mario and Bowser's impromptu entrance.

An alternate, equally unused version of the aforementioned Peach crying animation. This one is rather interesting, as at the end Peach is seen poking her eye out as if to see if whoever she was beside saw that she was crying. It's unknown where this "fake cry" animation would have been used.

An unused variation of Czar Dragon's spell casting animation. Was going to be used for a charge up animation, akin to Valor Up or Vigor up!

An attack which would have been used by the enemy Leuko, as well as its palette-swap Muckle. Due to them only using magic, this physical attack animation goes completely unseen.

The Chester enemy, from the end of one of Bowser's battle doors, has an attack animation which goes unused as this enemy does not physically attack, it only uses spells and summons a Bahamutt. The attack animation reveals that an Ameboid is inside the chest. This also means that this enemy's impressive Attack stat (220, the highest out of all enemies in the game) goes completely unused.

An unused animation of Exor's right eye looking to the left.

An unused animation of Exor's right eye looking to the right.

An unused animation of Exor's left eye looking to the left.

An unused animation of Exor's left eye looking to the right.

A small version of Smithy's head. It is actually used in the transformation cutscene, in which this head morphs into the full-sized head, but Smithy is completely obscured by the beam of light, so it is never seen.

An attack animation for Smithy's normal head, which never attacks. It does play repeatedly during Smithy's death animation if the player somehow defeats him before he changes his head.

A spell casting animation for Smithy's Tank head form. While we can't be sure, it's likely it was for spell casting, as it plays when it uses a spell, if given one.

Unlike most graphics seen in this game, this is one is certainly the most bizarre. Having seemingly no place anywhere to be shown in the game, this graphic, featuring Mario's primary colors, is curiously placed just before Smithy's graphics, whose graphics are just before Mario's!

(Source: Yakibomb, The IT, LightsJusticeZ)

Regional Differences

Intro

Japan	US

During the intro cutscene, "King Koopa" was appropriately changed to "King Bowser", while "Princess Peach" was renamed "Princess Toadstool". And if you squint really carefully, you might just notice that Geno's name was realigned in the English version by a pixel.

Title Screen

Japan	US

The banner under the game's logo was extended to fit the localized subtitle, and the copyright date was updated.

File Select

Japan	US

The file select screen was completely reworked, probably so that long location names such as "Mushroom Kingdom" could fit in there.

Battle Buttons

Japan	US

In the Japanese version, the battle menu buttons, as well as the ones in Bowyer's boss fight, reflect the Japanese Super Famicom controller with the colored buttons. In the US version, the buttons on the controller are all purple, so this change was also reflected in-game. The Nintendo Switch remake uses the Super Famicom's colors, regardless of region.

Menu Screens

Japan	US

The borders of some menu boxes were widened so they could fit more text, as seen with the main menu as well as the Equip sub-menu.

Easter Egg

Japan	US

In Peach's room, interacting with the right side of the fireplace will cause Mario to find one of her hidden belongings. If Peach is not in the party or in the room, Grandma will trade it for a Mushroom; if she is in the room or in the party, Mario will get scolded and ordered to put the item back where he found it. Originally called "Peach's XXX" in the Japanese version, this mystery item was renamed "Toadstool's ???" in the English version, likely to reduce any perceived dirty connotation.

Geno's True Name

Japan	US

Interestingly, Geno's true name is different between the Japanese and English versions. The Japanese version uses unique characters that are only used here, while the English version went with standard characters seen all throughout the game.

Bowser's Victory Pose

Japan	US

Bowser's victory pose was changed for the English version to not resemble the offensive Iberian slap, also known as bras d'honneur.

Funky Light

In the Japanese version, using the Fungi Light in the Marrymore Hotel suite will make it orientate itself towards the door when Mario wakes up, which lasts until the room is reentered. This happens due to directions being defined in the entrance's loader event but not the sleep sequence reloading the room. An override was added to the English version.

Chapel Chatter

Japan	US

Japan	US

In the Japanese version, there are unique NPC lines for inspecting the chapel doors before talking to the crowd, and thanking Mario for clearing the room. In the English version, this seemingly got mangled and compiled into a duplicate.

Torte Tattles

Japan	US

Japan	US

In the Japanese version, Chef Torte and his Apprentice both have the same speech pattern (often using「ノ」as a sentence ender). In the English version, only Chef Torte is shown to have an outward accent. This may be considered a form of censorship, as the translation team most likely saw the duo as originally having okama implications. Despite this, the Apprentice still slips in this quirk in the Psychopath thought and the Star Hill wish that was probably meant to be his.

BEEG Yoshi

Japan	US

Baby Fat talks like any other adult Yoshi in the English version. In the Japanese version, he has more "baby-like" speech. Before he gives an item to you, he also announces that he's about to lay an egg. Thanks for sharing!

Fallen Wishes

Japan	US

Some of the wishes read a bit differently between the Japanese and English versions. As mentioned, the Torte wish could have been intended to be the Apprentice. Other notable ones include Luigi's wish, which does not include Mario's name but does seem to allude to him via the phrase big bro, and Croco's wish, which almost looks like it could belong to a different character in the English version.

How High?

Japan	US	US (hack)

In the Japanese version, before choosing to confirm quitting the Sunken Ship's 3-Dimensional Maze, the player is informed how high Mario stands to give an idea of the current progress, from 0 at the lowest to 7 at the highest. The English version seems to mistakenly remove this detail since the number is still recalled in memory. The rightmost picture, edited with a line from the Nintendo Switch remake, shows that the behavior to display this information can be restored with a simple control code hack.

Jagger Stagger

Japan	US

In the Japanese version, running away from Jagger does not cause the infamous duplication from the Monstro Town Chester's dialogue.

Axem Forced

Japan	US

Japan	US

Because the Japanese names for the Blade (オノフォース, Axe Force) and Axem Rangers (オノレンジャー, Axe Rangers) can be confused for each other at a glance, it appears that the English version got them mixed up in a few places. On a related note, Shy Away's dialogue also twice mixes up Megasmilax (クィーンフラワー, Queen Flower) with Smilax (つぼみ, bud). In fairness, some of these may be intentional changes; note that the factory has Machine Made Axem Rangers, not Machine Made Blades.

Pop Quiz

Japan	US

Japan	US

Japan	US

Japan	US

Japan	US

Dr. Topper's quiz has a number of differences between the Japanese and English versions, but perhaps the most notable is that Exdeath and Kefka, respective villains from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, are mentioned as possible answers.

Exor's Mouth

Japan	US

For reasons still unknown, Exor's mouth, whose name simply translates as "Mouth" in the Japanese version, was inexplicably renamed "Neosquid" in the English version.

Bowser's Poem

Japan	US

The poem Bowser composes in Smithy's factory is different between versions. The Japanese version is a poem, which translates to "Why does everyone say 'Mario, Mario'? My heart is very sad.". Meanwhile, the English version replaces it with a self-congratulatory haiku where Bowser praises his undeniable intellect and undisputable musculature. Also worth noting is how the Japanese version ends the poem with Bowser's name, while the English version ends it with "~Haiku".

Psychopath Thoughts

In the Japanese version, many of the Psychopath thoughts consist of various Japanese pop culture references, likely meant as an Easter egg for explorers. In the English version, presumably due to battle-message limitations, most of these lines are more generic; some are translated literally without accounting for the context, while others are replaced altogether. The exceptions are Gecko, which preserves the original reference (a nod to Luigi not being a playable character); Goombette, which quotes an aphorism from United States president Theodore Roosevelt; Stinger, which inserts a Madonna quote; Magikoopa, which preserves the Yoshi's Island reference (though incorrectly refers to Bowser rather than Mario); and Machine Made (Mack), which inserts a reference to Poltergeist II: The Other Side.

Secret Code

The Japanese version features a secret button combination, which, once inputted, will trigger a short humorous scene with Toad. Upon opening the menu, after pressing Down, Up, Right, Left, Select, Start, Select, Start, B, Toad will show up and take you to your status screen, showing that none of your stats have changed. He then discourages you from looking for other cheats, and afterwards the game resumes as usual. This entire scene was removed in the English version, but is restored and slightly rewritten in the Nintendo Switch remake. Here is a translation of the dialogue spoken by Toad in this scene:

Secret code found!

Now, let's take a look at your status.

...Wow! 

Nothing's changed at all.

But, what about your experience points...

Nope, nothing's changed.

There's no point in looking for other codes,

and this one will do the same thing every time.

Though I'll play with you as many times as you like... 

Secret code END

Script Behavior

To do: So much is regionally different that it could be its own sub-page.

Some of the text boxes behave differently between the Japanese and English versions. For example, the lines after Exor crashes into Bowser's Keep and before Mario jumps into the Bowyer battle are automatic in the Japanese version. In the English version, they last until the player pushes the A button. Similarly, Mallow's line before getting flooded away and Pa'Mole's line after setting the Bambino Bomb have a scroll break in the English version, so unlike the Japanese version, it is possible for the scene to proceed without all of the text being displayed.

In addition, many cases of the Japanese and English versions use a different amount of text boxes to deliver some of the same information. In several cases, however, text boxes contain lines exclusive to one region. For example, Mallow has a second text box when he first sees Belome in the English version, with a unique line that does not appear in the Japanese version. Presumably, this line was added to call attention to Belome's tongue, which the English audience would not understand due to the translation opting for a transliteration.

Japan	US

In the pictured example, if Mario sells the NPC's wallet after he finds out that he has it, the last line is repeated. Because the English version is a bit longer, notice that there is a format overflow not present in the Japanese version.

Japan	US

In this other example, there is a scroll break for this line of Snifit 1's text in both versions of the game. The oddity is that there is only more text in the Japanese version; the English version is mistakenly blank.

That isn't to say that the Japanese version is spotless. As shown here, there is an overflow that occurs in the Vault Guard's "Flower" explanation that does not occur in the English version.

There are also massive differences with the dialogue pauses between regions, such as many more instances of pauses between ellipses in the Japanese version, as well as many swaps between text box refreshes and scrolls.

(Source: The Mushroom Kingdom for Bowser/Peach intro, title screen, file select, button color, menu screen, Peach's ???, Geno's true name, Neosquid, and Bowser's pose/poem differences; Legends of Localization for Toad's secret code and pop-culture thoughts; pidgezero_one for technical breakdown on sideways suite lamp (discovered by philh0use); “LiThL” for others)

Virtual Console Changes

• Certain spell animations, such as Static E! and Flame Wall, were toned down due to them originally featuring bright flashing colors that could potentially cause epileptic seizures.
• For unclear reasons, the rocky floor and cliffs in Moleville, Booster Pass, and the beginning portion of Land's End was darkened significantly for the Virtual Console versions.
• The European English VC release alters one line spoken by Croco early on in the game, changing the word "bugger" to "pest", as "bugger" is a vulgarity in British English. The Nintendo Switch remake uses the European English version of the line in all regions.

(Source: BlazingMan11)