Beating the Remake of Super Mario RPG Without Taking a Single Point of Damage

Battles in this game have an action element. Pressing the button with the right timing as an enemy attacks nullifies the damage. The goal this time is to keep using this mechanic and never get hit all the way to the end.

In the opening Bowser fight, Mario targets Kinklink, which holds up the platform. It has 60 HP, and Jump deals 54 damage, so two hits will take it down. Bowser's attacks were blocked by guarding, and the second Jump dropped the platform. Here the uploader points out that the second Jump's damage had risen to 55.

According to the uploader, Jump's power increases by 0.5 each time it is used, and the increase continues up to 250 uses. So in front of Mario's house, they kept stomping on hundreds of Goombas, resting whenever FP ran out and then jumping again. In this way they got the 250 uses in.

The payoff shows immediately in the next fight, against the Hammer Bro. Jump dealt 264 damage to an opponent with 50 HP, enough to finish it even though it gutted it out and halved the damage. From here on, the strategy is built around this trained-up Jump. According to the uploader, Jump's damage depends on magic attack. For that reason, in the later part of the game they stack up ways to raise magic attack.

In the first Croco fight (HP 320), setting his tail on fire incapacitates him, so Mario first lands a Fireball. Mashing the button increases the damage. Mallow raises the party's magic attack just by being on the field. With that in place, a Jump finished him off.

In the Mack fight (HP 480), lightning attacks can incapacitate him, so Mallow's Thunderbolt was timed well to paralyze him, and a Jump finished him off. The first Belome fight (HP 500) was won with two Jumps.

In the Bowyer fight (HP 720), the Energizer obtained at the lake makes Mario's damage 1.5 times higher. The boosted Jump dealt 384 damage, so two hits were expected to win. Partway through, however, Bowyer proposes a rule change: each turn, the commands on a specified button are banned, and after the second Jump, Bowyer banned all commands.

This is where Triple Moves, new to the remake, come in. They can be used when the gauge in the lower left reaches 100%, and their effect changes depending on the party lineup. With this trio, it becomes "Star Riders," which deals a powerful blow to a single enemy. According to the uploader, the gauge fills by about 2% for a successful action and about 4% for an excellent one. Since there are also Triple Moves that raise the stats of the whole party, they decided to go into subsequent boss fights with the gauge at 100% as a rule.

In the mining town, they bought a pair of underpants—said to be the strongest armor, raising power—for everyone (in the subtitles it sounds like "dirty underpants"). These five pairs of underpants are the only armor bought in this run.

In the second Croco fight (HP 750), Geno, who can act before Mario, uses "Geno Boost" to make Mario's damage 1.5 times higher. Then Mario used Super Jump, which can stomp up to 100 times and gains power with the number of stomps. The result was 1,302 damage. Croco steals all your items on the first turn, but if you defeat him within that turn, for some reason he gives them right back.

Against the bomb-making master Punchinello (HP 1200), the same sequence produced a single Super Jump for 1,517 damage. This opponent, however, won't go down even at 0 HP until the phase changes. The uploader kept attacking casually to go along with his flow, and he was finally defeated once Punchinello summoned Bob-ombs.

At Booster Tower, Bowser joins the party, and they fight the Clown Brothers. The procedure against the older brother (HP 700) was as follows. The speedy Geno takes the first move, then swaps out for Mallow to raise magic attack with the ally bonus, and the Energizer boosts Mario. Bowser, with gear that raises speed, acts before Mario and uses "Terrorize" to lower the enemy's defense. The older brother is weak to fire, so Mario defeated him with his new move Super Flame for 684 damage.

The younger brother (HP 900) is a tough opponent skilled with status-effect attacks, and Mallow was put to sleep by bubbles. For Mario, they chose the regular Jump, which has a shorter animation than Super Jump and is "kind to video uploaders." The finish came with the new Triple Move "Shooting Star Shot." It attacks random targets five times and also raises this trio's firepower for three turns, and the uploader rates it as extremely good. The five shots totaled 6,779 damage.

The part of this video that took the most time was the fight against the wedding cake at the wedding chapel. The uploader calls Bundt (HP 900) "the strongest boss of this whole adventure." That's because even after its HP hits 0, seven more regular attacks are needed. The five candles on its head have to be put out with regular attacks, and one relights each time the opponent takes a turn. So at least seven attacks are required.

After its HP hits 0, its actions consist of five kinds of single-target attacks, one single-target sleep, and four kinds of all-party attacks, and it acts two or three times per turn. Single-target attacks can be blocked with the button, and sleep can be nullified with an accessory. The all-party attacks, though, can't be blocked no matter what. The uploader assumed a total of five actions in one battle. If each action were chosen with equal probability, they calculated, the chance of getting through would be 8%. In practice, however, the all-party attacks came up more often than that, they say.

Up to this point they had progressed without resetting, but from this fight on, they had to rely on luck. Each retry meant sitting through about three minutes of events, and it took 20 hours before they finally drew a pattern of only single-target attacks. Raspberry (HP 600) afterward was defeated with Jump, and Peach joined the party. Looking back, the uploader says that because luck played such a large role, it was a fight that got them really fired up every time a single-target attack came out.

The King Calamari fight on the sunken ship is three battles in a row. The tentacles have 240 HP on the left and 260 on the right, and both are weak to fire. Fire Bombs deal a fixed 240 damage, so the right tentacle is left with 20. That was cleared out together with Mallow's attack. Against the boss itself (HP 800), Mario's Super Flame dealt 374 damage and the other two's Fire Bombs dealt 240 each, wearing it down completely. The math worked out so that exactly four Fire Bombs were enough.

In the Johnny fight (HP 820), defeating all his crew prompts Johnny to propose a one-on-one duel. With 170 HP left, the uploader finished with a Jump, saying, "Here, defeating him with Jump is only proper etiquette."

Yaridovich (HP 1500) excels at both offense and defense, and uses a powerful all-party attack on the first turn. The uploader raised magic attack by 12% with Shooting Star, stacking Mallow's ally bonus and the Energizer on top. Finally they used Mario's new move Ultra Jump, ending it in one hit for 1,950 damage. During the jumping, though, the uploader reveals in passing chatter that the Triple Move's 12% increase is overwritten by the 25% increase from Mallow's ally bonus, so this time the Triple Move had no real effect and they used it only because it looks cool. The uploader also says the Triple Move's power seems to reference the party's attack and the enemy's defense.

The second Belome (HP 1000) is susceptible to fear. They used Terrorize to make it take 1.5 times damage, then used a Triple Move, and finished it with Mario's Jump. Fear and the Energizer don't stack, so the uploader says Terrorize, which also deals damage, is the better deal. With this method, however, Mallow can't be put on the field. If the damage falls short, they recommend using a Fright Bomb. Mario can act last every time because he's equipped with a charm that lowers speed.

The Megasmilax fight is a string of battles with the buds (HP 200) multiplying. They swept them away with Mallow's "Snowy" and Ice Bombs (280 fixed damage) stockpiled from town. Ice Bombs can only be bought before defeating Johnny, so you need to be careful, they say. They also note that since the only armor bought is the underpants, money is left over, so stocking up on attack items isn't a problem. Against the main body (HP 1000), Mallow, with magic attack raised by 57 through equipment, dealt 528 damage with his magic. After that, they defeated it with a Triple Move that includes ice, lightning, and fire. According to the uploader, this move deals heavy damage if even one of those three elements is a weakness.

The Birdo fight at Nimbus Castle is a bit complicated, since the conditions for breaking the shell (HP 500) involve both the remaining HP and the number of regular attacks. Hearing "a boss you have to hit with regular attacks many times" brought back bad memories, but this one gave them no trouble, they say. The main body (HP 777) was defeated with Jump and Bowser's regular attacks.

The Valentina fight begins with a one-on-one duel between the summoned Dodo and the character in the middle of the party. The uploader chose Geno and gave him an accessory with an effect equivalent to the Energizer. Dodo is weak to fire and went down to two Fire Bombs.

The following Valentina (HP 2000) has high speed and always moves first. On top of that, she has many unblockable all-party attacks. As a countermeasure, the uploader says they will "pray harder than usual." The plan was to draw a single-target attack and then defeat her with Ultra Jump. They flubbed a Jump during fast-forwarding, but were saved when her next action was also a single-target attack. Ultra Jump dealt 3,242 damage, and Geno's Beam closed things out.

Czar Dragon in the volcano is weak to ice. Mallow's Snowy, with boosted magic attack, dealt 982 damage, and Mario's Jump delivered the finishing blow. The next form, Zombone (HP 1800), switches its weakness to lightning and also has higher magic defense. So they dealt 1,534 damage with a Triple Move that references defense.

Each of the Axem Rangers has around 500 HP, and Geno Flash took about 600 off each, defeating half of them. Only Red, with 800 HP, was left, so Mario's Jump defeated him. The final Blade (HP 999) was destroyed with Shooting Star Shot. The uploader recalls that in the original, they had defeated it bit by bit with Ultra Jump. In the remake, Triple Moves are powerful, and five shots of a little over 200 each just barely reached its 999 HP, they say.

Magikoopa (HP 1600) was put into a state of fear with a Fright Bomb, then defeated by about 1,500 damage from Shooting Star Shot. According to the uploader, Fright Bombs are more powerful than Terrorize.

Boomer (HP 2000) has low magic defense. A Jump from Mario, wearing the Jumper Scarf that resists instant death, plus Geno Flash, took off about half its HP. Its swallow-reversal strike came at Mallow, so Mallow had to take it with an action command. This battle runs straight into the next boss with no chance to change equipment in between. That made tuning speed to line up the turn order a real pain, they say.

Exor is divided into four parts, and while its eyes remain, the main body (HP 1800) is invincible. They knocked out the left eye with Jump, and once the barrier disappeared, landed Geno Whirl for 9,999 damage, defeating it in one shot.

Count Down (main body HP 2400) is weak to Jump and lightning, and took 1,341 damage from Jump and 1,636 from a Triple Move. Cloaker & Domino are the type where defeating one makes the partner stronger. One is weak to physical attacks and the other to magic, so the attacks are used selectively. First, the physical-leaning "Star Riders" defeated Domino (HP 800). Then Ultra Jump took out Cloaker (HP 1200) and Earth Link (HP 2500) together (3,535 damage). Ultra Jump against multiple opponents is easy to mistime when going by sight, so they stomped by listening to the sound and going by feel, they say.

Gunyolk (HP 1500) and the Factory Chief (HP 1000) were defeated with ice magic and a Triple Move. The uploader also touches on their character-building approach. This time, Bowser and Peach were specialized in physical attack, and the others in magic. They were torn on which way to take Geno, but for this run either seemed fine, and the magic specialization, which let Geno Flash scatter enemies, was comfortable, they say.

The final battle comes in two parts. If the first form (HP 2000) is defeated by the third member of the party, then after the form change, the party can act again starting from the first member. So the uploader avoided getting the kill with Mario. Their strategy was to use Super Jump to adjust his HP to around 1,000, then apply the Energizer and finish him with a Triple Move. That's because Triple Move damage varies, with a minimum of about 1,000. Putting Mario third would have worked, but the equipment that raises magic attack also raises speed, so that was difficult, they say. With the farewell to Geno drawing near, they used "Star Riders" as the final Triple Move.

The second form has 8,000 HP. Considering that the bosses so far had mostly been around 2,000, the uploader remarks that he really went big. The maximum damage that can be dealt in one go is 5,009, which can't finish him in a single action. So first, a light Super Jump whittled him down a little. The second form's first turn is always spent solely on the form change, so by adjusting turns well, you can shut him out without letting him do anything. The final Super Jump was shown at normal speed, hitting 100 stomps and settling things with 5,009 damage.

Between jumps, the uploader also shares tips for Super Jump. They preface it by saying that concentrating with your eyes or ears gets tiring, and that they go by feel themselves, so it's not much of a reference. They prefer to set the controller on something hard rather than something soft and press with their fingertip. If you're timing with your eyes, it's easier to use something that doesn't move, like the background, as a marker. That's because the hit text changes position with the count, and the enemy's body moves too. If you really want to use the enemy's body as a guide, putting it to sleep so it stays still might be a good idea, they say. The most fun to stomp on was Cloaker & Earth Link, they say. That's because there's a height difference, and which one Ultra Jump lands on is random.

Reaching the ending, the uploader reflects that they were able to play obsessively every day, as if they'd gone back to when they first encountered Mario RPG. The total damage taken in battle was 0, achieving a no-damage clear just as originally intended.