Background
When Super Mario RPG came out, Square had already moved onto the Playstation, so it was kind of a neglected stepchild.
It’s sad...
Chihiro Fujioka, Director of "Super Mario RPG" (god-bird.net - December 14th, 2014)[1]
By the very end of 1995, just months before "Super Mario RPG" launched in Japan, Squaresoft made the decision to switch to Sony & their "Playstation" system, due to its hardware matching
what they wanted to achieve their major title, "Final Fantasy 7". All plans for a potential "Super Mario RPG 2" on the Nintendo 64, which had been hinted about since the first game's reveal during
Square's 1995 V-Jump Festival, were cancelled before they could really even begin.
But while Square's story ends there, another would shortly begin. While many of the "Super Mario RPG" staff would move on to other games, such as "Final Fantasy Tactics" & "Final Fantasy VII", a
handful of developers would leave Square to another company, LOVE-de-LIC, another game development studio comprised of former-Square developers. For a small period, LOVE-de-LIC would attempt to
pitch to Nintendo an official follow-up to "Super Mario RPG", which would unfortuntely lead to nowhere. Note that all of these were drawn by Kazuyuki Kurashima, Mario RPG's Monster Designer / Character
Supervisor.
PITCH - A DIRECT SEQUEL
Please click on images to enlarge them.
In what is likely the first of these concepts created, "MARIO RPG 2" is implied to be a direct follow-up to the events of the original game. In a constant between all the art seen
here, the story would've followed a standard "Mario v.s. Bowser" concept seen in other games, but usually with a twist. While it's not apparent in these pieces, it's made clear that Luigi had much
more importance here than in the original game, with him asking Mario "Where have you been?" in the second image. The first image has him sided on Bowser's side, which could possibly mean that
he could've been an antagonist at some point (though he is under Bowser's page, so it probably didn't mean much except for a visual gag.) In terms of returning characters, the only one from the
original game that is present in Mallow, still fighting on Mario's side.
While the "Mario v.s. Bowser" concept isn't exactly interesting, it's likely that the developers could've made an interest premise around it. The only major issues that can be seen here is the
usage of Mallow, as all unique characters from the game are owned by Squaresoft & not Nintendo.
PITCH - NINTENDO CROSSOVER
In what is likely the least fleshed-out of all the pitches, is this one of concept art of what appears to be a Nintendo-crossover game set in the Mario universe. While Mario, Bowser,
and his minions are present, so is Link from the "Legend of Zelda", Samus from "Metroid" (which isn't surprising as they were also in the original game as cameos), and Donbe from "Shin Onigashima".
This is pure speculation, but judging by the arrow above Mario, this could've likely been a Tactical RPG instead of a traditional RPG, so closer to the "Fire Emblem" series.
While this concept is interesting, i could see Nintendo getting cold feet about having all these franchises mixing together in a game developed by a third-party company, especially since this was a
few years before "Super Smash Bros." would be pitched by Masahiro Sakurai of HAL Laboratories, a second-party company.
PITCH - MARIO RPG 2 ~OPERATION: SAVE MARIO!
The final piece of art here is one of the most interesting, since it comes with an idea for a plot. In this pitch, called "MARIO RPG 2 ~OPERATION: SAVE MARIO!~", the original Mario is
kidnapped by Bowser, so Peach calls upon the Mario's of the world in order to save him. It's described as an "Omnibus RPG", which likely meant that each part of the game would focus on a different
Mario, one chapter for each of the seven Marios.
While it's an incredibly interesting propsal, and part of me wants to see more of it, the idea of multiple different Marios inhabiting the same world as the original Mario does seem rather odd, so I
can see why such a proposal would've have gone that far.
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