Super Mario RPG Was Almost Based On The Three Musketeers

thegamer.com:

A developer on the original SNES version of Super Mario RPG has revealed that the game almost had character designs based on The Three Musketeers.

The release of the long-awaited Super Mario RPG remake has not only reignited everyone's passion for turn-based Mario adventures (just in time for the Thousand-Year Door remake!), but it's also revealed a bunch of information about the game's development and how it even came to be in the first place.

One of the key sources of information about Super Mario RPG's development is Jiro Mifune, who is credited as working on "Visual effects and plot assistance" for the original game. Over the past few months, Mifune has been sharing some design documents for the SNES release, which reveal that it almost had an aesthetic based on The Three Musketeers. No, not the Disney version.

Last week, Mifune shared an early glimpse at the Three Musketeers version of Super Mario RPG, before uploading even more artwork from this proposed version yesterday. Mifune says that this version of the game was pitched because he "felt uncomfortable with Mario wearing a sword and armor", which was standard for RPGs at the time, leading him to draw up a more heroic and friendly iteration of the idea.

This isn't the only version of Super Mario RPG that Mifune has revealed, as he also shared artwork of a pitched version of the game that had Mario dressed as a knight with armour and a sword.

The artwork that Mifune shared shows Mario dressed up in musketeer garb and wielding a rapier, alongside Wario and Luigi, two characters who don't actually show up in the finished game at all (unless you count the references made to Mario's younger brother that were added in the remake).

The artwork also shows a fourth