The developer behind Nintendo and Square Enix’s Super Mario RPG remake for Nintendo Switch has been revealed, as spoilers for early copies of the game have begun circulating on social media.
As social media users have noted, the copyright notice attached to eShop pre-orders reveals that Japanese studio ArtePiazza developed the new Mario RPG.
ArtePiazza is best known for her involvement in Square’s Dragon Quest series, dating back to Dragon Quest 3 in 1996. She was mostly responsible for the CG design in the early titles and, later, produced remakes for the PS2 and Nintendo DS.
More details about the team behind the Mario RPG remake have been shared by a Twitter user Mondo_Mega. Nintendo EPD’s Ayako Moriwaki reportedly directed the Switch version.
Moriwaki most recently worked as an assistant director on Pikmin 4. Before that, she worked on Yoshi’s Crafted World (2019) and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (2013).
According to Mondo_Mega, other Nintendo EPD employees were involved in the art direction, graphics, and UI for Mario RPG. Nintendo Pictures, the animation studio created last year, is said to have provided the character art and animation.
Several of the original Mario RPG’s development team are also said to be credited for working on the remake, including event designer Taro Kudo, co-director Yoshihiko Maekawa, and composer Yoko Shimomura.
Square Enix’s involvement in the Mario RPG for Switch was allegedly limited mainly to supervision.
Chihiro Fujioka, who co-directed the 1996 SNES original, isn’t working on the remake in any capacity, but earlier this year, he said he was looking forward to playing it.
In a recent hands-on preview of Mario RPG, we wrote: “It’s so authentic that you can almost imagine converting the visuals back to the original previously rendered objects by toggling a menu option, and you can also — brilliantly — using the game’s audio recording.
“For many people, this will seem incredibly appealing, as the Mario RPG remains one of Nintendo’s most beloved games of the 1990s. For those with fewer memories of the original, the Square adventure will undoubtedly hold up well into 2023.”
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