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- What Is Super Mario RPG’s Secret Superboss?
- How Is Culex Connected To Final Fantasy?
No Mario villain is as mysterious or terrifying as Culex. Super Mario RPG is known for its many Easter Eggs, but this secret boss is so well-hidden that many people never realize he exists. If you manage to track him down, you’re in for the fight of your life.
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Culex has baffled Super Mario RPG fans since the original launched in 1996. Who is he? Where does he come from? And how is he connected to the Final Fantasy series? While it may seem puzzling, the answers reveal themselves if you look closely at his boss fight.
Who Is Culex?
Culex is a god-like entity depicted as a humanoid creature with a muscular, purple physique, monstrous claws, red and gold wings, and blue crystals encasing his entire lower body.
He resides behind a sealed door in Monstro Town, which requires a Shiny Stone to open. According to the Piranha Plant next door, Culex is always mumbling about crystals and evil.
The crystals he refers to are most likely the elemental crystals that give Culex his powers. These gems hover around his body and grant him devastating magical abilities, including summoning lighting, creating a tornado, shooting fire, and conjuring a blizzard.
When you enter the sealed door, you find yourself in an interdimensional realm engulfed in shadows. Culex inches his way out of the darkness and introduces himself as the “Dark Knight of Vanda.”
He goes on to say, “I’ve crossed into this dimension to fight for the Dark Mage.” From these quotes, two things can be inferred.
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First, Culex comes from an alternate dimension. “Vanda” is either its name or a place within. Second, Culex is a warrior who serves a being known as “the Dark Mage.”
This implies that Culex answers to a higher power despite appearing to be the ultimate source of evil. While the motives of this Dark Mage are a mystery, a clue can be found in the original pre-battle dialogue from the Super Nintendo version of Super Mario RPG.
What Is Culex’s Plan?
In the original SNES version of Super Mario RPG, Culex states, “This world is uninhabitable for me and my kind. I must return to my own world.”
The key takeaway from this quote is that he has deemed Mario’s world unsuitable for his species. This seems to imply that Culex was sent to scope out this dimension for a possible invasion but has found it unacceptable for his kind for some reason.
While it’s unclear why he was sent here, it quickly becomes apparent that Culex has an ulterior motive. His intentions differ slightly depending on the version you’re playing.
In the original Super Mario RPG, Culex’s pre-battle dialogue states, “Before I go, though, I would like to challenge your strongest knight.” From this, it becomes clear that Culex wants to find a worthy opponent.
However, this changes in the remake of Super Mario RPG. In the new version, Culex is the only boss who appears as his original 16-bit sprite. He explains this by saying, “The evil power that gave me life mapped out this flat plane as my form.”
This means that in the Super Mario RPG remake, whatever entity created Culex made him a literal two-dimensional being. When meeting Mario, he appears confused and slightly fascinated by this strange third dimension and wishes to unravel its secrets.
This means that Culex challenges Mario in the remake because he wants to learn more about three-dimensional beings and the feats they are capable of.
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Fortunate for him, Culex witnesses the power of the third dimension firsthand when Mario’s team defeats him during an intense battle. Afterward, Culex expresses his astonishment and laments how he and Mario could have been mortal enemies in another timeline.
Culex leaves Mario’s dimension without a fight, vowing one day to uncover the secrets behind this bizarre world. That would not be the last time Mario encounters him.
What Is Super Mario RPG’s Secret Superboss?
Culex returns at the end of Super Mario RPG’s post-game as a secret superboss. If you reenter his door after finding the Extra-Shiny Stone, Culex appears before you in full 3D.
Culex’s three-dimensional form is significantly more powerful than his 2D version. He immediately summons a meteor shower when the heroes confront him, leaving half of Mario’s team in critical condition.
If that wasn’t enough, Culex becomes more powerful with every crystal Mario and his party defeat. If you combine his health with that of his crystals, this boss has the highest health bar in the game.
Mario eventually defeats Culex again, leaving the boss astonished at his loss. The malevolent forces that granted him a three-dimensional body vanish, returning him to his former 2D self.
Before he departs from this world, Culex vows to regain his strength and challenge Mario again. Before anyone can respond, Culex vanishes into the darkness.
How Is Culex Connected To Final Fantasy?
Culex is essentially one giant Final Fantasy reference, which makes sense given that Super Mario RPG’s developer, Square Enix, also created the Final Fantasy series.
Several Final Fantasy Easter Eggs are hidden throughout Culex’s fights. You can find the first one immediately after you enter his door.
When you meet Culex in his 2D form, you may notice that, unlike every other enemy in the game, Culex’s sprite is depicted from a top-down angle instead of an isometric one.
This refers to how enemies are shown in the classic Final Fantasy games since those titles have a top-down perspective.
The other Easter Eggs come in the form of music tracks. The song that plays during Culex’s battles is the boss theme from Final Fantasy 4. When you beat him, the standard victory music is replaced by the one from the Final Fantasy series.
There are two arrangements of the Final Fantasy 4 boss theme. One mimics the version from the original Super Mario RPG. The other is a newly orchestrated track that follows the style of the remake’s soundtrack.
In addition, when Culex talks to Mario after the fight, you can hear the song “Prelude,” which is featured in several Final Fantasy games.
Super Mario RPG: Culex Boss Guide
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