Okay, so about a year ago I played through Earthbound and it was my first RPG that I ever finished. Now I had played the Super Mario RPGs but always bounced off early and thought that Turn Based JRPGs weren't my thing, but decided to try Earthbound and it unironically changed my life, in short it was perfect top to bottom and I never stopped thinking about it but I didn't want to burn myself out on the series so I forced myself to take a year break before playing this and I'm glad I did.
Now I'm not glad because this is more of the same just so I had time to digest the first game and see Mother 3 as it's own thing which it is. It blows my mind how much charisma and charm this game has and that can't be overstated, it's unreal for how simple the story is that you'd want to talk to everyone in the town and search every little nook and cranny of the map because you loved being there and loved everyone in the game down to little side characters and I ended up clocking over 70 hours and got all my characters to almost max level just because I didn't want to leave this world because I knew there was nothing after it. The way the story is broken up really gives you time to get to know everyone and makes them teaming up for the second half all that more engaging and even when side characters stop back in you get excited to see them. While I feel this game is much more linear than earthbound I don't see that as a fault because as I said this is more about each of the set pieces they set up and all of them hit. It's incredible how perfect every beat of this game is. The music, the art, the writing all of it works for the full playthrough oh and the gameplay...
I loved Earthbounds' rolling health battle system but with the addition of the rhythm it made it perfect. It made every battle feel completely tense to try to either keep your party alive or rush though to the end hoping no one fainted. The battle system really shines at all of the boss encounters, this probably falls into the set-pieces but I always felt like the dungeon leading up the boss perfectly prepared me for the fight and they all felt epic in scale. I would look forward to these fight because it wasn't about grinding out levels it was about being strategic and not getting stupid, which is what a good RPG fight should be and when you were drained and you killed the boss right before your health rolled off it was an unmatched feeling.
I don't want to spoil any story moments in this just my final thoughts are this is a flawless game it blows my mind how they were able to follow up one of the best games I ever played with something that surpassed it in every way. I truely feel like you must play Earthbound before playing this game because any reference just hits that much harder. The "The End?" Screen made more emotional then I've been about a game and tempted me to start another playthrough right there just to get back into that world.
Tonda Gossa.
Now I'm not glad because this is more of the same just so I had time to digest the first game and see Mother 3 as it's own thing which it is. It blows my mind how much charisma and charm this game has and that can't be overstated, it's unreal for how simple the story is that you'd want to talk to everyone in the town and search every little nook and cranny of the map because you loved being there and loved everyone in the game down to little side characters and I ended up clocking over 70 hours and got all my characters to almost max level just because I didn't want to leave this world because I knew there was nothing after it. The way the story is broken up really gives you time to get to know everyone and makes them teaming up for the second half all that more engaging and even when side characters stop back in you get excited to see them. While I feel this game is much more linear than earthbound I don't see that as a fault because as I said this is more about each of the set pieces they set up and all of them hit. It's incredible how perfect every beat of this game is. The music, the art, the writing all of it works for the full playthrough oh and the gameplay...
I loved Earthbounds' rolling health battle system but with the addition of the rhythm it made it perfect. It made every battle feel completely tense to try to either keep your party alive or rush though to the end hoping no one fainted. The battle system really shines at all of the boss encounters, this probably falls into the set-pieces but I always felt like the dungeon leading up the boss perfectly prepared me for the fight and they all felt epic in scale. I would look forward to these fight because it wasn't about grinding out levels it was about being strategic and not getting stupid, which is what a good RPG fight should be and when you were drained and you killed the boss right before your health rolled off it was an unmatched feeling.
I don't want to spoil any story moments in this just my final thoughts are this is a flawless game it blows my mind how they were able to follow up one of the best games I ever played with something that surpassed it in every way. I truely feel like you must play Earthbound before playing this game because any reference just hits that much harder. The "The End?" Screen made more emotional then I've been about a game and tempted me to start another playthrough right there just to get back into that world.
Tonda Gossa.