Super Mario RPG - DF Tech Review - The SNES Classic Shines On Switch

So nice to see a studio give a legacy title the respect it deserves.

DF That transition at 0:29 of the video to the switch version was 👌🏻

Even with the frame drops, it’s impressive that Artepiazza pulled off this level of performance and fidelity with the notoriously inefficient Unity on the Switch. Like John, I really really appreciate the care that went into making the FMVs look good and actually 60 FPS. Something that, for some reason, a lot of other developers could not care less about.

It is impressive what Nintendo and third party devs managed to do on such an ancient hardware for today's standards. They really pushed the Tegra X1 to its limits.

In this game and SMB Wonder the art is so clean that I really can't tell if something is pre-rendered or using polygons.

Video game demos or main menu attract modes are a long lost art of video games that I really miss. I know they’re a holdover from the Arcade years, and like lives have gone the way of the dodo, but it is one of those things that shouldn’t have gone away. Super Metroid has some of the basic main menu demos that show you super cool tricks and secrets that you might’ve never figured out, If you’re just willing to wait and see what the game will show you.

This will be my first time playing this. Given the comparisons between this and the original, it looks absolutely stunning. Aside from the sudden drops, this looks very well done. Can't wait to get it.

I got to admit, I still love the way the SNES version looks.

ArtePiazza did a good job here. Recreating old games in Unity or Unreal Engine always fascinates me.

I can't wait to play this one, it would be cool if Square Enix and Nintendo collaborated again someday

This was the most I've ever paid for a game -- $70 in 1996. I'm sure that's like $200 now. I think this remake is absolutely gorgeous and even fascinating, especially in a side-by-side comparison. The art direction and how they expanded the original in each scene is just really interesting and gratifying. This makes me want to see other games (even originally hand-drawn rather than rendered and rasterized ones) get this kind of treatment.

I think Super Mario RPG is the perfect example, why more games should use a fixed camera like this. The fact that the game can look this good while running mostly great without using dynamic resolution is a testament to that.

I find it ever so fascinating watching games that use Unity/UE4 on Switch because you can really see how far them engines have come since the Nintendo Switch's first year. I mean you can't argue about it, some games did struggle, but then years have come by and the optimisating of the engines have done so much over the years and if you take the time to look back at earlier videos, it is really impressive. It also bodes well for Nintendo's next platform because the engines are so well polished for Nintendo now. You got take into account Wii U barely had any support like this, and now we can go into a generation that will not only have the support, but have optimisations pretty tight on. I'm hopeful that the successor will have some really clean UE5/Unity titles from the get go!

Great video John! That transition in the river seen was incredibly smooth! I'm so happy to hear that this is such a good experience for new and old players alike

Really appreciated your comments on the music and the furigana! Shows how much knowledge and attention to detail goes into your videos

Really wish Secret of Mana could've gotten a quality remake like this.

Thanks so much for always taking the time to also cover the music and sound design, as well as the visuals. Yoko Shimomura is a legend and I'm thrilled we get the option to listen to the original SNES music - between this and the Star Ocean Second Story R remake, I'm pretty stoked - also still hopeful for that Chrono Trigger remake some day.

Another pristine video from John and DF. We are very lucky to have such an incredible outlet.

It’s incredible how much work goes into these videos. Even such a little thing as mimicking the font for the title card. Can’t imagine that’s a simple task.

Wow, this really shows that with "ancient" techniques like planar reflections and precalculated lighting, you can achieve visuals comparable to raytraced graphics even on low spec hardware. Valve is taking the same approach with Source 2, but not many developers seem to do this anymore even though it's a perfect match for something like the Switch. Every time a game has a compromised realtime approach to reflections or GI, I think back to Half-Life 2 and its perfect reflections in 2004.