Super Mario RPG made the genre click for me when Final Fantasy couldn’t

destructoid.com:

When Super Mario RPG first dropped, it showed the kind of magic that could happen when two of the biggest names in gaming — Square and Nintendo — combined their powers. The recent remake is a great reminder of how those creative decisions can introduce new players to a genre that otherwise never clicked for them.

I used to be among that crowd, appreciating the idea of role-playing games without ever quite grasping what made them work. Not to out myself as a Dumb Gamer™, but going from reflex-based to menu-based action was jarring for me. When you’re a kid who almost exclusively plays platformers, beat ’em ups, and run-and-gunners, it can be difficult to make the leap to RPGs. It certainly wasn’t for lack of trying, either. 

With turn-based RPGs, I felt both too much pressure and a discouraging lack of immediacy. Systems like Final Fantasy VI‘s Active Time Battles were slow cookers. The heat was there, but the execution and the outcome just didn’t grab me quickly enough. When Super Mario RPG launched two years later, it finally managed to bridge that yawning gap. On its surface, the same turn-based trappings of other traditional RPGs remained. Once you leaped into battle, though, you were able to punctuate each decision with a timing-based action. You weren’t just telling Mario to hop on a Koopa Troopa; you were telling him to hop on one and then personally giving that attack even more power. 

This spoke to me in a way that your average fantasy adventure hadn’t been able to just yet. When I look back at my history with RPGs prior to 1996, it was a series of earnest attempts without ever being willing to meet the genre on its own terms. In 1990, NES kids who subscribed to Nintendo Power got a taste of RPGs whether they