Upon returning to Monstro Town with a Shiny Stone in his possession, Mario attempts to open the sealed door, causing the small crystal to begin reacting, eventually dispelling the magical seal. To retrieve a Shiny Stone, Mario first must buy the Fireworks from a male mole in Moleville for five hundred coins, then trade the Fireworks for a Shiny Stone from a young mole girl in the same town. The Piranha Plant neighbor of Culex provides a clue to opening the sealed door, reporting to Mario about Culex’s obsession with Crystals, and then hypothesizing: “Isn’t a “Crystal” some kind of a shiny rock…or something? I know I’ve seen those somewhere!” This “shiny rock” is actually a Shiny Stone, a micro-sized crystal that can be acquired in Moleville.

Mario and his party discover the mysterious sealed door during their travels to Monstro Town. The seal to Culex’s dimensional vortex is eventually broken by Mario, the champion of the Mushroom Kingdom. Before he leaves for his home dimension though, Culex wishes to battle the world’s “strongest knight.” As such, Culex is forced to return to Vanda without completing the Dark Mage’s assignment. However, Culex discovers that Mario’s dimension was actually uninhabitable by himself and others of his kind. The Dark Knight is sent to Mario’s world to fight on behalf of the Dark Mage. According to one of his neighbors, a Piranha Plant, Culex is “always mumbling about Crystal-this and an Evil-that.” Despite waiting in a dimensional rift, Culex’s next-door neighbors can still hear the Dark Knight talking to himself through the walls. Culex eventually comes to reside in a cross-dimensional region that is found behind a sealed door in Monstro Town, a village of reformed monsters, which is located in Land’s End. Nevertheless, the Dark Knight was designed as an allusion to the Final Fantasy series, as both Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and Final Fantasy were developed by Square.īefore or during the events of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Culex crosses over from the dimension of Vanda to Mario’s dimension. Culex’s HP, combined with the HP of the Crystals, is 12,396.Ĭulex could be considered a crossover character from the Final Fantasy series, although he has never appeared in a Final Fantasy game. Alongside the Crystals, Culex is an even more powerful boss than the main story’s antagonist, Smithy. He is a Dark Knight from the alternate dimension of Vanda.

Culex is an optional hidden boss who appears in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

Culex super mario rpg