Air Date: March 21, 2015
I load up Super Mario RPG for the super Nintendo and began at the final save spot in the Factory. My characters are maxed out at level 30 by this point in the game. If you purchased five or more fireworks from the mole merchant in Moleville you will see a star firework at the end of the game instead of a flower or mushroom.
At this point in the game the only remaining bosses are the factory chief, gunyolk, and the forms of smithy. I take the time to show my current equipment and also increase my flower count to the maximum 99. You will note that I still have many flower maximum increases left in my inventory at this time but now have three empty spots. Next I backtrack back a couple of screens to toad to pick up some pick me up potions in the spare areas just encase I take a fatal hit from the final bosses.
During the game I also opted to get the maximum increase for each character level up. Basically this means that once you level up you are taken to a level up bonus screen where you have three choices which are between attack and physical defense; magical attack and defense, and Hit points. Normally I look to either magical or physical attributes first. If one of these is the best level up the stat increases for both the attack and defense attributes will each go up by more than a single point. If this has not been found on my first choice, I cancel button back and try the other category, finally defaulting to the hit point increase if neither offers a substantial level up bonus.
Back to the task at hand. For the final battles of the game I like to utilize Mario, the princess, and Geno. I return to the save spot and bypass it to engage the factory chief and gunyolk. After some dialog it is time to put on the hurt. I start out in the normal manor by having Geno cast Geno boost on each character. You can turn this defense up spell into an additional attack up spell by hitting the action button right before the arrows disappear. Generally you know you pulled off this bonus if the screen flashes after the arrows fade. The Princess's main task for the battles ahead is to keep our group healed with her group hug and therapy spells. I also give her healing spells an extra kick with the action button which can be utilized as the twinkles fade from the healing spell. She can also let loose with the frying pan weapon should her healing service not be needed during a round. With the frying pan you can tag the action button right after she completes the first swing and the pan is in the lower position, which will cause her to take an additional swing for extra damage. Mario is always an attacker unless he has other issues to deal with which is rare since this party holds there won pretty well. He is sporting the lazy shell as a weapon. You are able to get increased damage from the shell if you hit the action button right before he kicks the shell, after it is tossed up in the air. After Geno is done buffing all of the party members he will resort to physical attacks as well. His fist launching attack can also benefit from the action button if you time your button press right as his hands come off of his wrists. Since the Chief likes turning people into mushrooms he is the first to go during this fight. After he falls we focus our efforts on the Gunyolk. This battle really doesn't take to many rounds to put both to rest with the increased stats from Geno's beam and the action button boosts.
Next is some dialog, with Geno mentioning this is where weapons are coming from. Jump on the raised green exclamation button and a crane will come over. Mario jumps to grab it and it retracts up toward the tubes at the top where Mario jumps down the chute to meet smithy, who has the last star strapped to his chest. Everyone shares in the banter with Smithy before the battle ensues. As with the other battle, we Geno boost staring with the princess because she has the lowest defense. While Geno proceeds to buff the party members, everyone else is free to start attacking Smithy. I begin addressing the Smelter that I ignored before when it starts to produce additional enemies. The battle flow takes on the form of killing an additional enemies made by the smelter and then attack the Smelter directly. The princess is act more as the healer during this battle to weather the multi-target spells that Smithy launches and the sledge attack. The Smelter will eventually die and cannot be selected anymore. At this point you can bear all of your assault efforts on Smithy who falls pretty quickly with the added boosts and action button enhanced hits. Smithy is upset after the battle and the weapon try to warn him to calm down because of his blood pressure. Smithy gets made and slams his hammer on the platform which causes it to fall to the depths of the factory along with everyone on it.
The final battle is fought in a creepy basement of the factory. Smithy yells and transforms to his real form which is composed by a body and a changeling head unit. The body can be temporarily disabled during the battle but it will revive after a short period of time. The head is the true target for this fight but its strengths and weakness change as it switches forms, each time he hits it with his hammer. We star this battle like our last one with Geno boost spells, starting with the princess. The princess heals for the start of the battle he turns into a tank head. The tank head is the most dangerous in my opinion because it can counter with magnum, when damaged, which can instantly kill a party member if you do not dodge. I try to bate him into a head change and decide to take out his body with some physical attacks and then use rock candy until he changes form to something else. I luck out and he changes to the sorcerer head form which is weak against physical attacks, which my party excel at dealing. With the current attack buffs and then action button enhancements, each character does between 450 to 500 damage per hit. The princess has her work cut out though because he has all multi-target magic attacks, such as dark star, sword rain, meteor swarm, and boulders. Realizing this was the best change to inflict maximum damage, I went nuts with the physical attacks, only pausing to heal as needed. His body revives during this process when he says, "I am burning with power". Despite the fact he would switch at any minute I kept to my physical assault, ending the fight pretty quickly. I was shocked when everyone survived the battle without dying once since I normally have some issues with the magnum shots from his tank form.
Smithy blows up after a lengthy death speech, giving up the final star piece. The ending and credits play. After everyone's wishes are granted and the parade has concluded with the castle, the fireworks will form a star if you get enough fireworks purchased from mole people during the game.