Yoko Shimomura reflects on her work for Super Mario RPG

Yoko Shimomura played a key role in Super Mario RPG as back in the day, she was the game’s composer. Music is one of a few reasons why the title is beloved today.

Shimomura came back for the new remake and updated the tracks for the modern era. However, players can switch to the original music if they prefer.

In a previous feature on Daion, Shimomura shared a few words about her work. She mentions feeling pressure living up to the Super Mario name while also feeling “incredibly lucky”. We also get to hear about wanting the Switch version’s music to remain faithful to the original.

Shimomura said:

I was still an employee of Square for the original 1996 game, but even though I was afraid I could not arrange those famous melodies, from the start I had a strong desire to make a piece that lived up to the Super Mario name that everyone could enjoy listening to. There was also pressure back then but perhaps I remember the joy being stronger because I was younger. I get to work on the famous Super Mario series? I thought I was incredibly lucky.

At that time, it was the Super Nintendo’s sound software, so everything had an instrument sound sampling in the internal sound system. This time the Nintendo Switch version includes recorded sound files just as they were entered in the software. Comparing it to the original, you may really feel the hardware evolution in the game’s music and content.

However, it is the same as the original composition. If we changed the base part (of the score), fans of the original work would not receive it well. We tried not to change the appearance of the world or the impression of Super Mario RPG.

The Super Mario RPG remake is currently available on Switch.

Translation provided by Philip Proctor, Simon Griffin, and SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything.