It's rather funny, really. I've played both Earthbound and Mother 3, but only now have I gotten around to playing Mother proper. And while I think it's a good game, it's definitely got a lot of rough patches that keep it from being much higher.
This game from what I remember was a very late Famicom/NES game, coming out only a year before the Super Famicom, and for what it is, Mother is a really impressive game. And while it definitely has its shortcomings and limitations, I find it really impressive. While this game isn't a massive RPG, I beat it in about 10-11 hours total, the sense of scale that Mother has is really cool!
I really love the aesthetic of Mother, the idea of a turn based RPG set in some midwest US state is really cool. The mundanity mixed with the fantastical nature of evil monsters and magic PSI abilities. It creates a really charming aesthetic, and one that persists throughout the entire game, even when you get to the ending. I also absolutely love the music, easily my favorite being Snowman.
The actual combat of Mother is rather fun as well, though probably the simplest of the series from what I remember. The PSI abilities are fun, but I never really used many of them. I pretty much only used them to heal, and use PK Beam when I needed a good offensive option. Though I never found the game too difficult, I probably would've had an easier time with the game if I used more of the PSI abilities. But at the same time, I never felt the need to.
Compared to its later games, Mother isn't as story heavy from what I experienced. However, the story it does have is really good, and the actual emotional core of Mother is very strong. The final moments of the game are super impactful, especially.
But, even though the game is really good in the previously mentioned aspects, it's got some noticeable problems, I feel. While I do compliment the scale of Mother's world, god it so difficult to navigate. The overworld and dungeons feel like mazes, and it's really hard to find your way around. This definitely lead to times where I was just completely lost, having no way to get my bearings. I remember this especially when I was in Duncan's Factory, where the entire area blended together and I just had no idea where to go. Eventually I just pulled a guide and followed it all the way to the end, and I don't think I could've beaten the game without it. The level layout I think is the general issue here, as I had the idea of where I needed to go, just not how to get there.
The other, and definitely more glaring issue is the rate of Random Encounters. In particular, random encounters occur so often in Mother, sometimes just taking a single step brings about one. Now, while that's passable early on, as enemies could be beaten easily, and it's good for level grinding, the further you get, the worse it becomes. Enemies often have noticeable spikes in difficulty, and can often appear in groups of 2-4, and because of how long these battles can take, it proves easier to try and run from them instead of fighting them. However, that leads into one of my personal pet peeves that appear in many RPGs, which is failing to flee from a battle. Failing to run away is often a punishment to the player, however, there's already an innate punishment in running away already, as you wont gain experience at all, thus, you'll ultimately be weaker. But regardless of that, the chance of failing the run away feels way too high, and while there is a PSI ability to ensure a success flee, it costs 16 PP to use, so you get at best about 10 uses of it at the end of the game. And with how often random encounters occur, you're likely to run out of PP before getting to the end of a dungeon. Though I think this issue wouldn't be as big of an issue here if the encounter rate was significantly lower.
But I still really appreciate Mother for what it is. It's definitely got its shortcomings, and it's probably my least favorite of the trilogy, but there's a lot of heart here. I think it was definitely worth playing, but I don't think I'd replay it any time soon.
This game from what I remember was a very late Famicom/NES game, coming out only a year before the Super Famicom, and for what it is, Mother is a really impressive game. And while it definitely has its shortcomings and limitations, I find it really impressive. While this game isn't a massive RPG, I beat it in about 10-11 hours total, the sense of scale that Mother has is really cool!
I really love the aesthetic of Mother, the idea of a turn based RPG set in some midwest US state is really cool. The mundanity mixed with the fantastical nature of evil monsters and magic PSI abilities. It creates a really charming aesthetic, and one that persists throughout the entire game, even when you get to the ending. I also absolutely love the music, easily my favorite being Snowman.
The actual combat of Mother is rather fun as well, though probably the simplest of the series from what I remember. The PSI abilities are fun, but I never really used many of them. I pretty much only used them to heal, and use PK Beam when I needed a good offensive option. Though I never found the game too difficult, I probably would've had an easier time with the game if I used more of the PSI abilities. But at the same time, I never felt the need to.
Compared to its later games, Mother isn't as story heavy from what I experienced. However, the story it does have is really good, and the actual emotional core of Mother is very strong. The final moments of the game are super impactful, especially.
But, even though the game is really good in the previously mentioned aspects, it's got some noticeable problems, I feel. While I do compliment the scale of Mother's world, god it so difficult to navigate. The overworld and dungeons feel like mazes, and it's really hard to find your way around. This definitely lead to times where I was just completely lost, having no way to get my bearings. I remember this especially when I was in Duncan's Factory, where the entire area blended together and I just had no idea where to go. Eventually I just pulled a guide and followed it all the way to the end, and I don't think I could've beaten the game without it. The level layout I think is the general issue here, as I had the idea of where I needed to go, just not how to get there.
The other, and definitely more glaring issue is the rate of Random Encounters. In particular, random encounters occur so often in Mother, sometimes just taking a single step brings about one. Now, while that's passable early on, as enemies could be beaten easily, and it's good for level grinding, the further you get, the worse it becomes. Enemies often have noticeable spikes in difficulty, and can often appear in groups of 2-4, and because of how long these battles can take, it proves easier to try and run from them instead of fighting them. However, that leads into one of my personal pet peeves that appear in many RPGs, which is failing to flee from a battle. Failing to run away is often a punishment to the player, however, there's already an innate punishment in running away already, as you wont gain experience at all, thus, you'll ultimately be weaker. But regardless of that, the chance of failing the run away feels way too high, and while there is a PSI ability to ensure a success flee, it costs 16 PP to use, so you get at best about 10 uses of it at the end of the game. And with how often random encounters occur, you're likely to run out of PP before getting to the end of a dungeon. Though I think this issue wouldn't be as big of an issue here if the encounter rate was significantly lower.
But I still really appreciate Mother for what it is. It's definitely got its shortcomings, and it's probably my least favorite of the trilogy, but there's a lot of heart here. I think it was definitely worth playing, but I don't think I'd replay it any time soon.