Un héroe no es aquel que hace lo correcto, si no aquel que pese a las adversidades sigue por el buen camino.
Mucho se habla de la triste vida que vivió Lucas, pero nadie habla de lo excelente protagonista que es, sin decir una sola palabra podemos percibir su tristeza, pero también su determinación a terminar con lo que empezó.
El hecho que el grupo principal sea tan distinto al de los dos juegos anteriores da un mensaje muy simple pero bello: No importa que sea, chico, chica, perro o Duster, la amistad viene de lo más profundo e ignora la edad, el sexo, de dónde provengas e incluso la especie.
Un JRPG de los más hermoso. 10/10
Mucho se habla de la triste vida que vivió Lucas, pero nadie habla de lo excelente protagonista que es, sin decir una sola palabra podemos percibir su tristeza, pero también su determinación a terminar con lo que empezó.
El hecho que el grupo principal sea tan distinto al de los dos juegos anteriores da un mensaje muy simple pero bello: No importa que sea, chico, chica, perro o Duster, la amistad viene de lo más profundo e ignora la edad, el sexo, de dónde provengas e incluso la especie.
Un JRPG de los más hermoso. 10/10
Easily the best anti-capitalist anti-imperialist anti-industrialist game to ever be released
this is the game that made me fall in love with storytelling. this game is the sole reason i write anything.
A game I played the English patch of nearly a decade ago, it was high time I return to Mother 3 to see what the original Japanese was like. Mother 3 not only held up in my memory as a game definitively better than Mother 2 (Earthbound) in every way, but also it exceeded those expectations and is a really wonderful piece of storytelling with some really clever design both narratively and mechanically. It took me around 27 hours, and I played on the Wii U Virtual Console (the game is very pretty on a TV <3 ).
First off, the mechanics of this game aren't THAT different from Earthbound, but they move the bar just enough to take it beyond the "Dragon Quest clone with a slowly raising/lowering health gimmick" status that Earthbound largely occupies. Mother 3 introduces a "heartbeat" system that allows the player to combo basic attacks by tapping the A Button repeatedly in time with the music, almost in a "Earthbound meets Rhythm Heaven" kind of way. This doesn't seem like much, but it has a fairly ingenious way of working together with the slowly raising/lowering health gimmick. Where previously spells whose animation were the most dangerous threat to how quickly you could potentially heal a dying party member, now the player can actively CHOOSE to continue a combo or stop it prematurely to try and rush down an enemy or save that teammate before they bleed out.
This system has some problems, the largest being that it's entirely up to the player's intuition on what beats of the background music the combo can be executed and some are VERY unintuitive and difficult to figure out. Given that the game seems largely balanced around the player having some skill at this system (granted I beat the game as a kid never using it, so it's not impossible to do), this can make certain boss fights or even normal enemies FAR more difficult than surrounding enemies or successive bosses that just happen to have a background track easier to time the beats to. Faults aside, the heartbeat system makes combat far more engaging, and really encourages the player to get into the fantastic musical score of the game, which has to be one of the best on the GBA (which you'd hope for a game that came out 2 years after the DS did).
Speaking of the music, this game has some incredible presentation. Cutscenes are blocked with care, and some of the most important (especially one near the end of chapter 1) are some of the most impressive conveyance of emotion and atmosphere that I've seen in a 2D game with no voice acting. Similarly, this game brings back a lot of visual motifs and music from the other two Mother games (mostly Earthbound), and while sometimes it certainly feels like it's there just for familiarity's sake (like the cave theme), other times it is used in a fiendishly clever way to convey the atmosphere of a scene (like the introduction to chapter 4). The Tazmily theme is also used in a variety of ways throughout the game to convey different meanings, and the game overall uses the theme of the "uncanny" to great effect.
I will be posting another blog post in the future entirely dedicated to narrative analysis of Mother 3, so I will keep comment on the story here brief. Mother 3 has a very well crafted story. The main characters actually feel like characters, and even Lucas' characterization, while brief, feels meaningful to the plot. However, it is not without its missteps. Aside from naming and presentation decisions for the "Magypsies" done in impressively poor taste, Mother 3 was originally going to be a much longer N64 game, and it shows. The game's last half disrupts much of the pacing and vignette style of the first half in favor of rapid fire globe trotting that doesn't add much to the characters. This leads to many major themes' presences getting very confused and tangled up among new minor themes, and an overall feeling that there was originally more to this story. That said, what is there is a damn good story for an RPG that tackles some quite dark themes with good taste, and even the Magypsies are actually treated quite well as characters within the narrative (their main problematic elements coming from their contextualization within the narrative, and not so much from their treatment within it).
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention about the game's difficulty. While the game certainly seems balanced around the heartbeat combos being used well, if you do use them, the whole game has a really well done difficulty curve. The difficulty never felt outright unfair or just rushing through enemies to kill them before my health ticked down like so much of the last of Earthbound is. It's a pretty hard game, but it rarely feels outright unfair. There are a couple proper horrible enemies and one not very well explained boss fight, but the game on the whole is consistently challenging in a way that feels fair, fun, and engaging.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Mother 3 is a truly impressive sequel. It manages to not only improve on the groundwork laid by its predecessor but also add in so much on top of that it could be its own franchise on top of that. It is a damn shame that this game never got officially localized, and I cannot recommend the English fan translation enough for those of you who love Earthbound (or JRPGs at all) and are willing to go through downloading a GBA emulator and installing the translation patch.
First off, the mechanics of this game aren't THAT different from Earthbound, but they move the bar just enough to take it beyond the "Dragon Quest clone with a slowly raising/lowering health gimmick" status that Earthbound largely occupies. Mother 3 introduces a "heartbeat" system that allows the player to combo basic attacks by tapping the A Button repeatedly in time with the music, almost in a "Earthbound meets Rhythm Heaven" kind of way. This doesn't seem like much, but it has a fairly ingenious way of working together with the slowly raising/lowering health gimmick. Where previously spells whose animation were the most dangerous threat to how quickly you could potentially heal a dying party member, now the player can actively CHOOSE to continue a combo or stop it prematurely to try and rush down an enemy or save that teammate before they bleed out.
This system has some problems, the largest being that it's entirely up to the player's intuition on what beats of the background music the combo can be executed and some are VERY unintuitive and difficult to figure out. Given that the game seems largely balanced around the player having some skill at this system (granted I beat the game as a kid never using it, so it's not impossible to do), this can make certain boss fights or even normal enemies FAR more difficult than surrounding enemies or successive bosses that just happen to have a background track easier to time the beats to. Faults aside, the heartbeat system makes combat far more engaging, and really encourages the player to get into the fantastic musical score of the game, which has to be one of the best on the GBA (which you'd hope for a game that came out 2 years after the DS did).
Speaking of the music, this game has some incredible presentation. Cutscenes are blocked with care, and some of the most important (especially one near the end of chapter 1) are some of the most impressive conveyance of emotion and atmosphere that I've seen in a 2D game with no voice acting. Similarly, this game brings back a lot of visual motifs and music from the other two Mother games (mostly Earthbound), and while sometimes it certainly feels like it's there just for familiarity's sake (like the cave theme), other times it is used in a fiendishly clever way to convey the atmosphere of a scene (like the introduction to chapter 4). The Tazmily theme is also used in a variety of ways throughout the game to convey different meanings, and the game overall uses the theme of the "uncanny" to great effect.
I will be posting another blog post in the future entirely dedicated to narrative analysis of Mother 3, so I will keep comment on the story here brief. Mother 3 has a very well crafted story. The main characters actually feel like characters, and even Lucas' characterization, while brief, feels meaningful to the plot. However, it is not without its missteps. Aside from naming and presentation decisions for the "Magypsies" done in impressively poor taste, Mother 3 was originally going to be a much longer N64 game, and it shows. The game's last half disrupts much of the pacing and vignette style of the first half in favor of rapid fire globe trotting that doesn't add much to the characters. This leads to many major themes' presences getting very confused and tangled up among new minor themes, and an overall feeling that there was originally more to this story. That said, what is there is a damn good story for an RPG that tackles some quite dark themes with good taste, and even the Magypsies are actually treated quite well as characters within the narrative (their main problematic elements coming from their contextualization within the narrative, and not so much from their treatment within it).
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention about the game's difficulty. While the game certainly seems balanced around the heartbeat combos being used well, if you do use them, the whole game has a really well done difficulty curve. The difficulty never felt outright unfair or just rushing through enemies to kill them before my health ticked down like so much of the last of Earthbound is. It's a pretty hard game, but it rarely feels outright unfair. There are a couple proper horrible enemies and one not very well explained boss fight, but the game on the whole is consistently challenging in a way that feels fair, fun, and engaging.
Verdict: Highly Recommended. Mother 3 is a truly impressive sequel. It manages to not only improve on the groundwork laid by its predecessor but also add in so much on top of that it could be its own franchise on top of that. It is a damn shame that this game never got officially localized, and I cannot recommend the English fan translation enough for those of you who love Earthbound (or JRPGs at all) and are willing to go through downloading a GBA emulator and installing the translation patch.
I feel like the running HP bar is less forgiving here than it is in Mom2, and there are like 2 kinda jarring difficulty spikes (looking at you, Masked Man fight 1). Otherwise though this is a damn near perfect game.
This review contains spoilers
Mother 3 is a game everyone should get the chance to play. It’s one of the few works I’ve experienced that feels larger than just a piece of fiction, and dare I say larger than life itself. it burrows its way into your mind and leaves a lasting impression especially due to its masterful writing and Itoi's grasp on what makes our lives special. I still think about it every day ever since I completed it, and it’s a game that I truly believe has changed me in some way.
There is so much to discuss surrounding this game: the multitude of themes that are explored in depth, how it deals with grief and death itself through the lens of a naive child, the dialogue and how witty it is with some perfect comedic timing, how it transitions between being a comedy and being meaningful, hitting you with jab after jab at your heart, confronting and testing Lucas’ (and your) resolve. It’s hard to get emotional at scenes that specifically feel like they are written to make you cry, but Mother 3 does the opposite, it lures you into its world and the characters, seemingly presenting a loving bonded family and a safe town before shattering everything, slowly ripping away all the people you know in front of your eyes, and there’s nothing you can do.
It’s this writing that makes Mother 3 stand apart. It juxtaposes a sinister and despair-riddled plot with a message of hope, we see the way Tazmily transforms from a peaceful, free village to an overrun and capitalist one, and how it unravels the history behind Tazmily itself - a place initially meant to be a way of “starting over”. Flint, a usually calm and kind man bursts into an outrage nearly harming one of his good friends after his wife is tragically murdered by what are usually kind creatures, you can see on his face the anger he is feeling and we can sympathise and connect with him.
Lucas in the melancholic Sunflower Fields tries to take refuge in his dead mother’s loving and warm embrace but falls short. The exceptional TaneTane Island takes the player on a psychedelic-fuelled journey where we get to peer into the minds of our characters and what they are actually thinking upon reconnecting with people of their past. Lucas wishes he switched places with Claus, he expects everyone to hate him and Flint to abuse him. Duster is reminded of his father being abusive, Kumatora’s alternative personality Violet is just a way for her to pretend that she isn’t part of a corrupt royal bloodline and be free. Mailboxes and fake gifts scream out at you in despair, you take a bath in what seems like a gorgeous pool but is actually a garbage dump, you fight horrifying imagery that just turns out to be regular enemies and at the very top, you fight the incredible Barrier Trio.
Finally, Lucas confronts the villain behind everything who has lost all of his humanity, a mentally unstable power-hungry creature who tries to destroy the world for a laugh, who enslaved Lucas’ brother to do his bidding for him, crumbling the bond between 2 brothers. As I have a little brother who I love a lot, it was probably the most emotional moment in a game ever for me, and the way Lucas was unable to fight, just completely broke me. In the final segment where Claus commits suicide knowing he won’t be able to face his brother after all he’s done, and killing himself as Claus and not the Masked Man is absolutely devastating. “I’m going to where Mom is now. I’m sorry, I’m sure we’ll meet again”. God, it can make anyone cry.
But throughout all of this, somehow Lucas stays hopeful. As he pulls the needles one by one, we see he is still leaning toward the good side and wishes for a reborn world. The final needle is pulled, the world is destroyed right before my eyes, and a black screen appears. I see my reflection right there, the reflection of my soul too.
Do I believe the characters? They say their world is alright but is it, could it really have been reborn? I saw the dragon bring the whole place down, maybe Lucas wasn’t able to keep his hope after his brother’s death, it can’t be possible. My pessimistic outlook on life won’t accept it. But I want to, I want to believe it, that everyone I’ve come to know and love over the 25 hours is alright, that the people of Tazmily are alright. The reflection of my soul via the black box reveals this, I know that their world is fine, I want to be a better person, to believe that what the game is telling me is true, that my journey to reach this endpoint wasn't all for nothing. Finally, they ask me if my world will be alright, I can’t know for sure. Tazmily feels like a microcosm of our world, but they are fine aren’t they, so why can’t it apply to our world? Well, will our beloved world be alright? I believe it will, I want to believe it will.
There is so much to discuss surrounding this game: the multitude of themes that are explored in depth, how it deals with grief and death itself through the lens of a naive child, the dialogue and how witty it is with some perfect comedic timing, how it transitions between being a comedy and being meaningful, hitting you with jab after jab at your heart, confronting and testing Lucas’ (and your) resolve. It’s hard to get emotional at scenes that specifically feel like they are written to make you cry, but Mother 3 does the opposite, it lures you into its world and the characters, seemingly presenting a loving bonded family and a safe town before shattering everything, slowly ripping away all the people you know in front of your eyes, and there’s nothing you can do.
It’s this writing that makes Mother 3 stand apart. It juxtaposes a sinister and despair-riddled plot with a message of hope, we see the way Tazmily transforms from a peaceful, free village to an overrun and capitalist one, and how it unravels the history behind Tazmily itself - a place initially meant to be a way of “starting over”. Flint, a usually calm and kind man bursts into an outrage nearly harming one of his good friends after his wife is tragically murdered by what are usually kind creatures, you can see on his face the anger he is feeling and we can sympathise and connect with him.
Lucas in the melancholic Sunflower Fields tries to take refuge in his dead mother’s loving and warm embrace but falls short. The exceptional TaneTane Island takes the player on a psychedelic-fuelled journey where we get to peer into the minds of our characters and what they are actually thinking upon reconnecting with people of their past. Lucas wishes he switched places with Claus, he expects everyone to hate him and Flint to abuse him. Duster is reminded of his father being abusive, Kumatora’s alternative personality Violet is just a way for her to pretend that she isn’t part of a corrupt royal bloodline and be free. Mailboxes and fake gifts scream out at you in despair, you take a bath in what seems like a gorgeous pool but is actually a garbage dump, you fight horrifying imagery that just turns out to be regular enemies and at the very top, you fight the incredible Barrier Trio.
Finally, Lucas confronts the villain behind everything who has lost all of his humanity, a mentally unstable power-hungry creature who tries to destroy the world for a laugh, who enslaved Lucas’ brother to do his bidding for him, crumbling the bond between 2 brothers. As I have a little brother who I love a lot, it was probably the most emotional moment in a game ever for me, and the way Lucas was unable to fight, just completely broke me. In the final segment where Claus commits suicide knowing he won’t be able to face his brother after all he’s done, and killing himself as Claus and not the Masked Man is absolutely devastating. “I’m going to where Mom is now. I’m sorry, I’m sure we’ll meet again”. God, it can make anyone cry.
But throughout all of this, somehow Lucas stays hopeful. As he pulls the needles one by one, we see he is still leaning toward the good side and wishes for a reborn world. The final needle is pulled, the world is destroyed right before my eyes, and a black screen appears. I see my reflection right there, the reflection of my soul too.
Do I believe the characters? They say their world is alright but is it, could it really have been reborn? I saw the dragon bring the whole place down, maybe Lucas wasn’t able to keep his hope after his brother’s death, it can’t be possible. My pessimistic outlook on life won’t accept it. But I want to, I want to believe it, that everyone I’ve come to know and love over the 25 hours is alright, that the people of Tazmily are alright. The reflection of my soul via the black box reveals this, I know that their world is fine, I want to be a better person, to believe that what the game is telling me is true, that my journey to reach this endpoint wasn't all for nothing. Finally, they ask me if my world will be alright, I can’t know for sure. Tazmily feels like a microcosm of our world, but they are fine aren’t they, so why can’t it apply to our world? Well, will our beloved world be alright? I believe it will, I want to believe it will.
My favorite RPG ever
the pinnacle of the GBA
My shadow has been cemented into my chair
This review contains spoilers
✔
The Mother series (or the Earthbound series if you're in America) is like the John Wick movies. All of them are 10/10 and it's valid to think one is better or worse than the other as long as Earthbound is your favorite. I knew going in that I would like it less than Earthbound, and I did, but it's still perfect. Yes, some things are imperfect, but they're wrong. Gosh, I love video games.
In terms of gameplay, not much changes other than a more accessible menu system, a musical combo mechanic in battles, and a chapter-based story structure. Just like in Earthbound, it gets easier as you go along. By the end of the game, my characters were all level 62 (except for Lucas, who was level 63), so I swept up the remaining encounters. The final battle, unlike Earthbound, was not against a big monster or some insurmountable foe. It was just your brother, stuck in his controlled state. Yes, it is similar to Giygas in the way that traditional attacks won't always work, but you have stakes in this because of his significance in the story (which I didn't get spoiled on, funnily enough).
Speaking of which, the story is gold like always. Shigesato Itoi knows how to craft great stories. There are tons of characters you'll like, of course. The bigger achievement on my mind is that Mother 3 manages to introduce not just one, but two people that you're going to hate (Fassad sucks, by the way). I will admit that it doesn't really start until Chapter 4 though. The first three chapters are mostly setting up the story, making you familiar with the world and characters. I admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of the concept, but it's executed masterfully here. If nothing else, the game is worth playing for the story.
Out of every game, Mother 3 definitely deserves the name Mother. Hinawa, your mom, is an important factor for most of the plot. Her death drives the motivation of Flint, Claus and Lucas, her presence is felt throughout the whole game, and it is her who manages to pull Claus back from Porky's clutches (Porky sucks, by the way). Mother 3 is more about family than any of the other games in the series, really emphasizing the familial connections. Even if we're not just talking about the mother, the other members of the family are represented well. Lucas and Claus spoke to me as two siblings who just didn't see eye to eye (yes, one was being controlled, but it can really feel that way sometimes). Of course, I can't forget Flint. He isn't a perfect dad, but we find out why this time instead of just seeing a phone ring. I really appreciate that during the end, he tries to make sure he doesn't lose anyone else like he lost Hinawa.
I know I didn't write nearly as much for this review as I did for Earthbound, but I enjoyed my time with Mother 3 so darn much. I wonder what they did in the timeline where it came to America. Maybe they called it Earthbound: Love or something. Maybe they changed the series name back to Mother. Maybe nothing happened like our current timeline. It's a shame that America has to resort to a fan translation or to just play it in Japanese. The Mother series deserves an audience and I think you ought to go try it out.
Oh, and don't forget. No crying until the end.
The Mother series (or the Earthbound series if you're in America) is like the John Wick movies. All of them are 10/10 and it's valid to think one is better or worse than the other as long as Earthbound is your favorite. I knew going in that I would like it less than Earthbound, and I did, but it's still perfect. Yes, some things are imperfect, but they're wrong. Gosh, I love video games.
In terms of gameplay, not much changes other than a more accessible menu system, a musical combo mechanic in battles, and a chapter-based story structure. Just like in Earthbound, it gets easier as you go along. By the end of the game, my characters were all level 62 (except for Lucas, who was level 63), so I swept up the remaining encounters. The final battle, unlike Earthbound, was not against a big monster or some insurmountable foe. It was just your brother, stuck in his controlled state. Yes, it is similar to Giygas in the way that traditional attacks won't always work, but you have stakes in this because of his significance in the story (which I didn't get spoiled on, funnily enough).
Speaking of which, the story is gold like always. Shigesato Itoi knows how to craft great stories. There are tons of characters you'll like, of course. The bigger achievement on my mind is that Mother 3 manages to introduce not just one, but two people that you're going to hate (Fassad sucks, by the way). I will admit that it doesn't really start until Chapter 4 though. The first three chapters are mostly setting up the story, making you familiar with the world and characters. I admit that I wasn't the biggest fan of the concept, but it's executed masterfully here. If nothing else, the game is worth playing for the story.
Out of every game, Mother 3 definitely deserves the name Mother. Hinawa, your mom, is an important factor for most of the plot. Her death drives the motivation of Flint, Claus and Lucas, her presence is felt throughout the whole game, and it is her who manages to pull Claus back from Porky's clutches (Porky sucks, by the way). Mother 3 is more about family than any of the other games in the series, really emphasizing the familial connections. Even if we're not just talking about the mother, the other members of the family are represented well. Lucas and Claus spoke to me as two siblings who just didn't see eye to eye (yes, one was being controlled, but it can really feel that way sometimes). Of course, I can't forget Flint. He isn't a perfect dad, but we find out why this time instead of just seeing a phone ring. I really appreciate that during the end, he tries to make sure he doesn't lose anyone else like he lost Hinawa.
I know I didn't write nearly as much for this review as I did for Earthbound, but I enjoyed my time with Mother 3 so darn much. I wonder what they did in the timeline where it came to America. Maybe they called it Earthbound: Love or something. Maybe they changed the series name back to Mother. Maybe nothing happened like our current timeline. It's a shame that America has to resort to a fan translation or to just play it in Japanese. The Mother series deserves an audience and I think you ought to go try it out.
Oh, and don't forget. No crying until the end.
yea, it's about as good as everyone says it is lol
This was the first game I ever acquired on my own. Up until then, my parents would buy me games based on my input - but Mother 3 looked so compelling that as a pre-teen I figured out how to set up an emulator and find a patched copy of the English translation online. I look at this game through rose-tinted glasses as a masterpiece and don't think I could ever give it a proper critique.
I did it.
I always planned to play this. I thought Earthbound was great when I first played it on the Wii U Virtual Console, and I knew I wanted to get to it before Deltarune fully released, since I'm pretty sure it's in conversation with Mother 3. Eventually, I finally did it. I don't remember what caused me to finally start the game. Maybe it was the Deltarune Valentines event that reminded me I needed to hurry up and beat it first.
I took a long break from the game because of the Attic dungeon, but once I returned I had much smoother sailing.
I was worried that the ending wouldn't hot for me since I got spoiled a long time ago. But, despite knowing the twist, it still got to me.
I can see why Nintendo wouldn't want to localize the game. I don't think they want normal people to know about it. But I think they someday will. I think the most likely thing they would do is to make it a timed exclusive. Maybe shadowdrop it so that only the Fans would see it. No way they would use the Mato translation, but there's that book coming out with the dialouge of all the Mother games, including an English release...
Played on RetroArch mGBA on Steam Deck, with the Mato translation.
I always planned to play this. I thought Earthbound was great when I first played it on the Wii U Virtual Console, and I knew I wanted to get to it before Deltarune fully released, since I'm pretty sure it's in conversation with Mother 3. Eventually, I finally did it. I don't remember what caused me to finally start the game. Maybe it was the Deltarune Valentines event that reminded me I needed to hurry up and beat it first.
I took a long break from the game because of the Attic dungeon, but once I returned I had much smoother sailing.
I was worried that the ending wouldn't hot for me since I got spoiled a long time ago. But, despite knowing the twist, it still got to me.
I can see why Nintendo wouldn't want to localize the game. I don't think they want normal people to know about it. But I think they someday will. I think the most likely thing they would do is to make it a timed exclusive. Maybe shadowdrop it so that only the Fans would see it. No way they would use the Mato translation, but there's that book coming out with the dialouge of all the Mother games, including an English release...
Played on RetroArch mGBA on Steam Deck, with the Mato translation.
goated
This review contains spoilers
"It looks like things will work out here, but what about your world? Will it be alright?
"Hey other world! Be good to Josh"
I have been a massive fan of Earthbound for half of my life. I was first exposed to the game when I first played smash Bros and really liked using the characters Ness and Lucas. I had never heard of them and used my computer to look up who they were. I discovered that they were from a rpg series named Mother, a trilogy that only saw one game release in the west called Earthbound. I searched for ways to play the game and managed to get it on my dad's old laptop. It ran horribly and the games mechanics didn't really click with me and yet I saw it through to the end and fell in love with how the game ended its story. I left Earthbound with a relatively positive feeling about the game but with the opinion that it wasn't anything special. Yet, for a game that was "nothing special" it would constantly call back to me... I would play through it over and over again throughout the years as it released on different hardware and fall more and more in love with it each time. Now, as I sit here on it's 30th anniversary it stands as one of my absolute favourite games of all time, just as special to me as foundational childhood favourites like A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of sky and taking up the same space I have in my heart for games that are precious to me beyond words like Dragon Quest 5. Earthbound is special to me, it's one of my favourite things ever... but this isn't an Earthbound review... it's a Mother 3 one.
I have thought about playing Mother 3 many times throughout the years but relatively early on I clung to a stubborn belief that if I was patient enough it would be localized and I could play it for the first time in some legit capacity. This year and what has happened with Mother 3 on switch was finally the straw that broke the camel's back. I would deny myself this experience no longer, if Nintendo didn't want me to experience the game in my native language than I would finally take up the work of fans much more pationate than I and experience it that way. I bought a cheap copy of the game I found online, threw it into my gba sp and got playing.
As I crushed through each chapter I could tell I was enjoying the game but something was off. It had the same charm and heart of Earthbound but the story seemed so much more strange for lack of a better word. The whiplash between heart wrenching scenes of sadness and despair were juxtaposed with scenes of baffling humor and downright otherworldly absurdity. Earthbound had these moments of craziness that often resulted in the games best moments but the darker moments of Earthbound were so much less personal than Mother 3. Sure there are cults and alien abductions and ither zany happenings but those things were happening to the world around you. It impacts you as a member of the world rather than as a character directly, the stakes are personal to you as a resident who is destined to die unless they take up a call to action and fight. Mother 3 on the other hand is nothing but personal. The Pig army had taken over your town, corrupted your friends, ruined nature, destroyed utopia, killed your mother, taken your brother and broken your unbreakable father. You are left with nothing (well, you still got Boney so not NOTHING nothing) and it is in that moment where you set out to make things right. You've seen what's happening and even though Lucas is a cry baby they have decided enough is enough. Sure, you discover later that you are one of two beings capable of waking a sleeping dragon that has the power to re-write the world itself, but that is not what drives you initially or emotionally. Your call to action is much more personal, your reasons for saving the world are much more personal and the final climax is much more personal.
The ending is what changed my opinion of the game as a whole. Up until that point I had decided that I loved the look of the game, the rhythm based battle system coupled with Earthbound's scrolling health bar was way to much fun and that the characters were endearing and charming... but the game lacked the wow factor Earthbound did. After experiencing the ending however my opinion has completly shifted. The way in which the ending tied the whole game together for me was an absolute master class. Never before has the ending of a game altered my perception of the entire experience so much since the very first time I played Earthbound.
I included the text at the begining of this review because that moment really stuck out to me. The game's story at the end (in my interpretation anyway) was one about grief. When the worst of the worst happenes how do you respond? Do you hide yourself away, never allowing anyone to come close to you or hurt you again? Do you find the emotions to harmful to the point where you escape them through erasing everything that made you you? Do you use those emotions to spur yourself on, allowing yourself to feel it all and grow from it? I have been in a place where my heart was empty... I have tried to run to a place where no one could ever hurt me again. That attempt failed and when it did I was forced to face the feelings that drove me to emptiness. It was a turning point- would I grow and evolve or would I stay empty and die. I chose to live, I chose to grow... I chose to feel. Mother 3 presents you with these differing viewpoints and methods of dealing with grief, presents a senario where a character manages to use grief in order to grow and then in the end asks you, the player, "hey are you good?" "You've taken the time to see our story through to the end and now it's time to continue living yours... we hope you are okay!" The story of Lucas and Mother 3 is one of tragedy and loss and how one weak, timid boy was forced to grow up. From that grief he came out with strength unrivaled. It wasn't the end for him but a new begining. Armed with that knowledge the game then asks you the player "what say you?" "The world will throw everything its got at you and in those moments when you are faced with grief how will you respond?" "Please take care and grow just like Lucas!"
So yea, the ending of Mother 3 really spoke to me. I was expecting for the sad story and endearing characters to be the thing that sold me on it but was blown away when it instead offered me insight into life as a whole. It was a conclusion I had reached without ever playing the game but having it reinforced at a time in my life where I could feel myself slipping into old habits resulted in a reaffirmation of my resolve. I don't need years to know that this game is special to me... it just is already. I need more time to think it over in my brain, more time to experience it again from start to finish once more but I can say with certainty that Mother 3, like Earthbound before it, is more than just a game to me. It too takes a special place in my heart now as a game that speaks to me unlike anything that has come before it.
A truly beautiful experience that I will carry forever. The most no brainer 5/5 for me of all time.
"Hey other world! Be good to Josh"
I have been a massive fan of Earthbound for half of my life. I was first exposed to the game when I first played smash Bros and really liked using the characters Ness and Lucas. I had never heard of them and used my computer to look up who they were. I discovered that they were from a rpg series named Mother, a trilogy that only saw one game release in the west called Earthbound. I searched for ways to play the game and managed to get it on my dad's old laptop. It ran horribly and the games mechanics didn't really click with me and yet I saw it through to the end and fell in love with how the game ended its story. I left Earthbound with a relatively positive feeling about the game but with the opinion that it wasn't anything special. Yet, for a game that was "nothing special" it would constantly call back to me... I would play through it over and over again throughout the years as it released on different hardware and fall more and more in love with it each time. Now, as I sit here on it's 30th anniversary it stands as one of my absolute favourite games of all time, just as special to me as foundational childhood favourites like A Link to the Past, Super Mario World and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of sky and taking up the same space I have in my heart for games that are precious to me beyond words like Dragon Quest 5. Earthbound is special to me, it's one of my favourite things ever... but this isn't an Earthbound review... it's a Mother 3 one.
I have thought about playing Mother 3 many times throughout the years but relatively early on I clung to a stubborn belief that if I was patient enough it would be localized and I could play it for the first time in some legit capacity. This year and what has happened with Mother 3 on switch was finally the straw that broke the camel's back. I would deny myself this experience no longer, if Nintendo didn't want me to experience the game in my native language than I would finally take up the work of fans much more pationate than I and experience it that way. I bought a cheap copy of the game I found online, threw it into my gba sp and got playing.
As I crushed through each chapter I could tell I was enjoying the game but something was off. It had the same charm and heart of Earthbound but the story seemed so much more strange for lack of a better word. The whiplash between heart wrenching scenes of sadness and despair were juxtaposed with scenes of baffling humor and downright otherworldly absurdity. Earthbound had these moments of craziness that often resulted in the games best moments but the darker moments of Earthbound were so much less personal than Mother 3. Sure there are cults and alien abductions and ither zany happenings but those things were happening to the world around you. It impacts you as a member of the world rather than as a character directly, the stakes are personal to you as a resident who is destined to die unless they take up a call to action and fight. Mother 3 on the other hand is nothing but personal. The Pig army had taken over your town, corrupted your friends, ruined nature, destroyed utopia, killed your mother, taken your brother and broken your unbreakable father. You are left with nothing (well, you still got Boney so not NOTHING nothing) and it is in that moment where you set out to make things right. You've seen what's happening and even though Lucas is a cry baby they have decided enough is enough. Sure, you discover later that you are one of two beings capable of waking a sleeping dragon that has the power to re-write the world itself, but that is not what drives you initially or emotionally. Your call to action is much more personal, your reasons for saving the world are much more personal and the final climax is much more personal.
The ending is what changed my opinion of the game as a whole. Up until that point I had decided that I loved the look of the game, the rhythm based battle system coupled with Earthbound's scrolling health bar was way to much fun and that the characters were endearing and charming... but the game lacked the wow factor Earthbound did. After experiencing the ending however my opinion has completly shifted. The way in which the ending tied the whole game together for me was an absolute master class. Never before has the ending of a game altered my perception of the entire experience so much since the very first time I played Earthbound.
I included the text at the begining of this review because that moment really stuck out to me. The game's story at the end (in my interpretation anyway) was one about grief. When the worst of the worst happenes how do you respond? Do you hide yourself away, never allowing anyone to come close to you or hurt you again? Do you find the emotions to harmful to the point where you escape them through erasing everything that made you you? Do you use those emotions to spur yourself on, allowing yourself to feel it all and grow from it? I have been in a place where my heart was empty... I have tried to run to a place where no one could ever hurt me again. That attempt failed and when it did I was forced to face the feelings that drove me to emptiness. It was a turning point- would I grow and evolve or would I stay empty and die. I chose to live, I chose to grow... I chose to feel. Mother 3 presents you with these differing viewpoints and methods of dealing with grief, presents a senario where a character manages to use grief in order to grow and then in the end asks you, the player, "hey are you good?" "You've taken the time to see our story through to the end and now it's time to continue living yours... we hope you are okay!" The story of Lucas and Mother 3 is one of tragedy and loss and how one weak, timid boy was forced to grow up. From that grief he came out with strength unrivaled. It wasn't the end for him but a new begining. Armed with that knowledge the game then asks you the player "what say you?" "The world will throw everything its got at you and in those moments when you are faced with grief how will you respond?" "Please take care and grow just like Lucas!"
So yea, the ending of Mother 3 really spoke to me. I was expecting for the sad story and endearing characters to be the thing that sold me on it but was blown away when it instead offered me insight into life as a whole. It was a conclusion I had reached without ever playing the game but having it reinforced at a time in my life where I could feel myself slipping into old habits resulted in a reaffirmation of my resolve. I don't need years to know that this game is special to me... it just is already. I need more time to think it over in my brain, more time to experience it again from start to finish once more but I can say with certainty that Mother 3, like Earthbound before it, is more than just a game to me. It too takes a special place in my heart now as a game that speaks to me unlike anything that has come before it.
A truly beautiful experience that I will carry forever. The most no brainer 5/5 for me of all time.
Peak gaming (the grief this story carries will stick with my forever, teaching me that revenge should never be worth ruining the love around you) frfr no cap
I liked
Note to self, you left off on that fucking monkey chapter
Mother 3 was so beautful it changed my life. i stopped jerking off, got a job, started mewing, and i owe it all to Mother 3.
Play this game.
I cried so much.
PLAY IT NOW.
I cried so much.
PLAY IT NOW.
This review contains spoilers
Est-ce que ça sera pas l’une des meilleures fin de l’histoire du jeu vidéo ??? Et aussi la fin partie avec le “End?” non c’est trop, les musiques aussi c’est quoi ce miel, le jeu est exceptionnel.
Undoubtedly an unforgettable game, I just got busy and couldn't finish it. also gets a little grindy, but thats how it is. Timing mechanic helped to make the battles a little more interesting, but that wore off pretty quick.
This game is like a part of me.
Absolute masterpiece. No other words
man nintendo really hates money they could just localize it but nah I guess
I can't stop crying.... I want to see Lucas and his friends again...
i cryed
so hard
and i loved it
so hard
and i loved it
i can finally say that i have, OFFICIALLY, LEGALLY, beaten Mother 3 the way Nintendo fully intended it to be played. sure, i can’t speak or read Japanese and sure i used an English guide every now and then when i was completely lost. but goddamn it, i did it. i have ACTUALLY beaten Mother 3. and it feels really really good
It’s been a long time since I’ve played a game that so immensely inspired my imagination, possibly since I played Earthbound many a year ago. There’s a real wholesomeness to this one despite the various heavy themes it tackles: capitalism, fascism, loss, grief, and the failure to learn from the past among them. Our heroes are plucky underdogs to an increasingly hostile society, and despite their relative lack of dialoguse, you really come to love Lucas Kumatora Duster and Boney (and Salsa! Don’t forget Salsa). Far more than the completely silent children of previous Mother games, the main cast here really feels like a loveable and unforgettable found family.
There are a few gameplay hangups, namely a handful of absurd difficulty spike boss fights (shout outs to Miracle Fassad and the Jealous Bass!), but it isn’t anything that can’t be overcome with enough strategic play (use shields like your life depends on it). We’ve got otherwise a smooth, enjoyable turn based rpg that never devolves into tedium or grinding, partially helped by the excellent rhythm battle system and the series’ signature sense of humor.
In this type of game, though, the gameplay is ultimately just a means to the incredible story, which as mentioned above is thematically rich and emotionally poignant- if you didn’t cry at the ending, are you even human? It’s a story that shows the rise, fall, and redemption of a misguided peoples, and then asks us to apply those lessons to our own world. A beautiful tale, and a masterpiece game.
There are a few gameplay hangups, namely a handful of absurd difficulty spike boss fights (shout outs to Miracle Fassad and the Jealous Bass!), but it isn’t anything that can’t be overcome with enough strategic play (use shields like your life depends on it). We’ve got otherwise a smooth, enjoyable turn based rpg that never devolves into tedium or grinding, partially helped by the excellent rhythm battle system and the series’ signature sense of humor.
In this type of game, though, the gameplay is ultimately just a means to the incredible story, which as mentioned above is thematically rich and emotionally poignant- if you didn’t cry at the ending, are you even human? It’s a story that shows the rise, fall, and redemption of a misguided peoples, and then asks us to apply those lessons to our own world. A beautiful tale, and a masterpiece game.
Finally I can cross Mother 1 and 3 off my video game bucket list. I do prefer the gameplay to Earthbound, but I think I like that game's story more. I like that the run button from Mother 1 is back (like fr why'd they get rid of that?)
We'll see how it stands whenever I play it again, whenever that may be. Sad that I don't have anymore Mother to play.
We'll see how it stands whenever I play it again, whenever that may be. Sad that I don't have anymore Mother to play.