This GAME is just phenomenal:
- FUN gameplay
- Quirky characters and setting
- Great writing by the Earthbound creator himself
- A rly depressing and sad story

playing it on an iphone in 2015 and with the actual console in 2022, both times i cried, got angry, and felt happy to have played this. Story just keeps going and feels like an RPG adventure with something completely unique to say. There's so much personality contained in such a tiny GBA chip here... this game's OST has like 300 SONGS like DAWG THIS GAME IS 32 MB!!!!!!! Lucas is awesome, kumatora is swaggy, Duster can prolly hit the griddy like crazy, salsa is an OG, Lucas's dad even gets a banger chapter to open the game and the writing is good from the START. and by god the connections to earthbound are so cool, the final chapter of this game is just so, so, good. The adventure is well worth your time, but everyone on the internet has said this way before me, i'm a simple drop in the ocean of praises for Mother 3. I hope if you're reading this looking for a reason to play it, you find it...

Honestly if someone dislikes this I immedietly just fear they can't comprehend media, but most of the time it's because their ex liked it or somethin :shrug emoji:

Mother 3 is a JRPG that is actually good. The gameplay is as shallow as you'd expect, but luckily the game makes up for it by excelling in everything else. The music, the atmosphere, the graphics and the characters are all full of charm. It also manages to deliver one of the saddest stories ever without being edgy or taking itself too seriously. It induces a sense of child-like wonder, but it also hits you in the face with mature themes. This was attempted in Earthbound too, but the execution this time was so much better.

“We can forget happy things. We can probably forget sad things too. People have the power to forget.” 

I haven't stopped thinking about Mother 3 since i finished it a week ago, and i can confidently say that this is one of my favorite games of all time.
I love everything about it, the characters are awesome and fit perfectly in the world (Duster and Flint are the best ones imo), the music sets a perfect tone for each setting, the gameplay was fun but grindy at times, and the story is probably the most amazing part, with each chapter being interesting in its own way. (The ones i liked the most were chapters 4 and 6).
This was an incredible game and I think that everyone should experience Mother 3 at least once in their lives.

I'm gonna keep it a fat stack I've always thought the other two games in the series were way better. I think this game can be really fucking good at times, genuinely at some points it amazes me. But I've got a lot of issues with it. I've never really been fond of the chapter based structure of this game. It makes it feel like the pacing is all over the damn place. Chapter 3 has also always just felt like that one chapter that doesn't really have much rhyme or reason to exist other than to set up Fassad, which I think just could've been done with just npc dialogue like some moments in Chapter 2. The game really doesn't start to pick up til Chapter 4. Once it starts to actually focus on Lucas, the game starts to get pretty dang sweet. I'm not really huge on the bosses in this game. I found a lot of them a surprise spike in difficulty instead of feeling more natural like the bosses in Mother 2. The needle thing also kinda sorta feels like it comes outta nowhere too. Like in the other two games it's established right off the bat that the melodies are the objective. I get it was focused less on for story, but i dunno. It just always kinda bothered me a little.

I think maybe my biggest disappointment though is the tonal shift. Mother 1 & 2 always felt like road trip sort of games. You travel across America (or Eagleland) and see all the different things & whatnot. Mother 3 always alienated me in that sense. I feel like the big appeal of Mother to me was the post modern setting, and with that setting changed, it always kinda bummed me out a bit.

Gameplay wise? Meh. It's certainly a lot easier than Mother 1, but I've always thought Mother 2's combat was better. The rhythm system is neat on paper, but the fact that it takes multiple playthroughs to get a good grasp at is puzzling.

The soundtrack is great. Compared to Mother 1 & 2? Not even close. Some of the battle themes in this game are great. Pure joy to listen to. Mr. Batty Twist & Rock and Roll being up there as one of my favorite RPG battle themes. Porky's theme is also pretty damn memorable & catchy. Here's the thing though. I think since the soundtrack wasn't done by Hip Tanaka & Keiichi Suzuki, it doesn't have the same warm nostalgia vibes that 1 & 2 hit. The love theme is a great song, yeah, but I wish the love theme had more relevance. Not saying it should be a song you build like the eight melodies in the other games, but I think it needed something more.

At the end of the day, I still think this is a game that a lot of people SHOULD play, but I think as a Mother game it leaves me a little disappointed.