The 1996 release of the SMRPG soundtrack, “Super Mario RPG Original Sound Version,” contained a short essay about the game by Yoko Shimomura as well as liner notes with some of her thoughts about each track. You can see scans of the CD case’s contents on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/SMRPG-OST/

The liner notes were included in the 2024 “Original Sound Box” re-release alongside English translations, but the essay was not. Here is an English translation of the essay by Philhouse. All inline translator’s notes are from him as well.

Super Mario Was My Introduction to the World of Games

When I was still in school studying my piano major, I remember a time when I completely ignored the piano, which should have been my main focus, and would instead stay up all night playing Mario (I never beat any of the games, though. Not even once...sob). In fact, I played Mario so much that I got stiff shoulders, or tendinitis, or my arms would get worn out. This meant I would struggle to play the piano, which then got me in trouble with my teacher. This cycle repeated multiple times. That was my experience at university in a nutshell. So when I heard the news that I was going to be the composer for Mario RPG, I was ecstatic.

From the very start, the main priorities I had in mind were to make sure the soundtrack didn’t clash with the atmosphere of the rest of the Mario series while also making sure that I didn’t feel restrained creatively by the series either. It was like I was attempting to create my very own world for Mario. I began this process by listening to every soundtrack from the series: “It doesn’t matter how many times I listen to these tracks, they’re just so totally rad. The tracks are simple with nothing wasted or unnecessary, but they still push all the right buttons. The really amazing thing is how downright fun they are to listen to. The tracks are chock full of excitement and thrills. Ahhh, they’re just so incredible! Wait a sec, this is no time to be sitting around oohing and ahhing. I’m in trouble. What have I gotten myself into? This series is a big deal! Am I in over my head? Let’s see, maybe I should try and mimic the series’s musical style? Or maybe I could try arranging the original tracks? Or I could also try making something that sounds similar…? No, no, this doesn’t feel right. I want to do this in a more natural way. Music’s not about thinking things through, after all. If I want people to really enjoy the world of Mario RPG, then I need to come up with songs that bring people joy the moment they hear them. They need to be fun, exciting, thrilling. Oh yeah, I think I’m onto something. Okay! What’s most important is that I have fun composing these tracks. Time to stop overthinking and leave this one to my gut. As long as I have fun composing the songs, and I feel the joy I want listeners when I listen to the songs myself, I know that’ll be enough! (You sure about that?!) Ordinarily, everyone only ever sees Mario from the side, right? That makes me wonder how Mario’s going to react now that he’s moving in three dimensions. He’s obviously going to be talking to all sorts of people, right? Townspeople, and party members, and maybe even monsters. I think I’m getting an idea of the sort of personality I want for this soundtrack. Woo! Now I’m really starting to have fun. Talk about exciting. Okay! Time to roll up my sleeves and get composing. And I bet whenever one of the arrangements of the older songs does show up, everyone’s gonna go ‘Whoooa!’ That’s really gonna hit ’em right in the nostalgia!” And that was how I decided to include a few arrangements of original songs from the Mario series. Some people might wonder, “Is there a reason you chose this song to play at this point in the game…?” But the truth is, I just picked Mario songs that I liked and placed them in parts of the game I thought would work well. I’m sorry, but I didn’t put that much thought into it… I mostly wanted to make sure that I poured my heart into the arrangements and tried my best not to ruin the feel of the originals. I hope that’s alright.

It really felt like this soundtrack gave me a chance to revisit my musical roots for the first time in a long time. When I first started working on it, I was just having so, so much fun composing songs that I kept coming up with more and more, and didn’t pause to let anyone actually listen to them. And as I composed songs to match what was happening on-screen, and in turn watched what happened on-screen match the music, it filled me with joy to imagine this game as a stage that people could come visit and listen to my music. I was downright ecstatic. It made me want to challenge myself and compose tracks in genres I had no experience with. Sometimes I succeeded, but sometimes I failed… I charged ahead recklessly and made plenty of mistakes along the way (I’m probably still pretty reckless, mind you…) But when you’ve been composing music for as many years as I have, you’re bound to hit rough patches that make you want to drop everything and run away. “Ugh, gimme a break, this is way too much. I just want to quit!” That sort of thing. But I’m so glad that I kept going all these years, and I want to keep going for many more years to come. I want to write all sorts of music, get even better at what I do best, and compose music that people can tell right away was written by me. That’s the sort of composer I want to become. No matter what, I want to keep improving for the rest of my life, or at least for as long as I keep feeling the urge to compose. As long as I don’t overthink things and follow my gut, that should be enough!