Super Mario RPG Was Almost Based On The Three Musketeers

A developer on the original SNES version ofSuper Mario RPGhas revealed that the game almost had character designs based on The Three Musketeers.

The release of the long-awaitedSuper Mario RPGremake 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 italmost 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 musketeer who appears to be a totally original character called Kinopi, who Mifune sadly didn’t reveal any more details about. We can also see Musketeer versions of Bowser and Peach, who is interestingly referred to here as “Queen Peach”, which would mark one of the first times her royal status has been upgraded from Princess.

It’s not clear why this musketeer version of Super Mario RPG wasn’t picked to be the final approach for the game but, as cool as it is to see alternate versions of Mario and the rest of the cast, it’s probably for the best considering how excellent the final version of Super Mario RPG is. Wario and Luigi would have absolutely made things better, though.