This review contains spoilers
Let me preface this text dump with its intent. This is not a review. Mother 3 has not been a game you discover on a mere fancy for quite some time now. Recommending this game by highlighting its appeal and features is a meaningless endeavor. It is not a product to be consumed, you cannot even purchase it. It is instead a work you seek out at the culmination of a personal journey. It being an iterative sequel, its slight inaccessibility, and its resonating message that people wish to share. These traits means that by the time you get around to seriously consider playing it, doing so has already become an inevitability.
So instead, this is merely an attempt to journal what this game means to me and my personal interpretation of it. Publicly disseminated so that I may compare my thoughts against those before me whom this game has also touched. The game has a lot to say and with the minimalist nature of trying to condense it all onto a 32-megabyte GBA cartridge there is a lot of room for its players to extrapolate its messaging from its details. I am incapable of encapsulating it all and certain topics I refrain from repeating, that which others I know have articulated far more succinctly than I. I choose instead to limit my focus on my observation on what Mother 3 says about legacy, and unavoidably, of love.
“And so the tale first begins… …as a tragedy”
We start off with the first chapter, establishing the tone of the rest of the story that is yet to come. Immediately any preconception that this tale was going to follow in the whimsical adventure template of its predecessors is stabbed through the heart. Flint, a reliable man of action loses the love of his life to an encroaching corruption. His son emulating him, goes out to seek retaliation. It does not end well. Although Flint does refrain from perpetuating the cycles of harm, this event destroys him. Unable to move on from his grief, Flint becomes stuck reminiscing in the past. Impotent to act against the coming storm.
“However, not everyone is content to sit quietly by as the enemy continues its odious attacks from every angle”
Recollection of the past can be more than just escapism from facing the present, understanding the past is paradoxically necessary to escape from itself. Duster, is strongly connected to the idea of identity to one’s legacy. Although not made apparent until the end, the idyllic communal town of Tazmily exist as the result of deliberate obfuscation of the past. However, without having the learned lessons of historic mistakes the town is vulnerable to repeating them. Wess, Duster’s father, is burdened to act as a failsafe during the inevitable time of crisis. A crisis that may not occur in his lifetime. How can one fulfil such a purpose that exists beyond their span? Through proxy. Duster is made to inherit this burden, the gravitas of which supersedes any personal desire for agency. Although the intention is noble, the game does not downplay the result of such a relationship where a parent tries to live extendedly through their child. Abuse. No matter the beatings or verbal assault or even mutual desire of both parties, Duster can never become Wess. This idea culminates in Duster’s inability to intrinsically understand his purpose, failing a test of discernment. The implication of this failure not lost upon an exasperated Wess.
“The pain and the sadness are unforgivably regrettable. Now I would like to repay all of this to you”
The abuse Wess enacts upon of Duster is born of frustration. While not to be undermined it is important to note that distinction when examining what follows. Fassad’s abuse of Salsa, and their zealous desire to destroy Tazmily, is incomparable. It is pure unadulterated malice. Calculated cruelty engineered to harm as much as possible. Fassad’s explicit motives are never elaborated upon. They are ultimately irrelevant. To provide a motive is to provide vindication that these actions are plausibly justified. Mother 3 makes no such concessions. Instead, the game gives nuance to his character through his background. That being, he was counted among the number of Magypsies, the nigh eternal beings responsible for overseeing the end of the world. Once again, the motive of his disaffiliation is left to the player to infer. The why is less important than the who. Fassad, is an individual acutely aware of history, and will ensure it is repeated. To oversee that humans cannibalise themselves to extinction once more through hubris and greed. Perhaps they seek to begrudge humanity from redemption? That when given a clean slate we can be so gently nudged towards our own annihilation. Perhaps this affirms a cynical worldview, that which appears reformed is merely a façade worth of contempt. It matters not, he is ambiguous by design for one to speculate. To showcase that vitriol can stem from anywhere.
"However, in that darkness, a once weak boy tried to become stronger. Lucas, is trying to paint this tragic story with a bright future.“
Likewise, so can kindness. The obsession with preserving and propagating the past, ones lived experiences, is a curse imposed with age. It is not by chance that instigating change is much more readily embraced by the youth. The fresh perspective that comes from those living solely in the present is necessary to conceive a future that has never been. These were my initial preconceptions going in for my expectations of a character such as Lucas that would be a gross mischaracterisation of what they are now. Former crybaby Lucas, as he is oft described, is just as shackled to the past as those previously mentioned. While Flint chases the fleeting spectre of those lost, Lucas however opts to fill their void. Claus, his twin, his mirror, now just a memory is not gone. No, Claus can yet live still through Lucas. Equivalent since birth, Lucas steps up to emulate the headstrong person he perceived his brother to be. Already embodying a kind and empathetic personality reminiscent of his mother, Lucas will propel the legacy of those he loves through his own life. This is not a burden nor obligation, this is how a child is able to contextualise a traumatic event to allow themselves to persevere, live and move on in absentia of mother, brother, and father. Not that Flint needs to worry that he is unable to see past the past to guide his son, he has ‘already grown to be a strong young man’.
“We crafted our story in haste, so the people inside it have very little “past” or “history”.”
In contrast and in parallel to Lucas and Wess, Kumatora, the driving force against the corruption that desecrates Tazmily is notable in her complete absence of familial legacy to propagate. That initial descriptor I had of Lucas, that as the catalyst of change, is more aptly applied to Kumatora. Just as kind and capable if not more so, the rugged princess of Osohe is beholden instead to a responsibility masqueraded as a fictitious past. However, unlike Duster, whom is oblivious of his true purpose, Kumatora is much more aware of the farce that is her role. Yet she continues to serve it through her own conviction. This isn’t as saccharine as it seems, otherwise completely isolated from the lives of the villagers, she fears without her ‘story’ she has no purpose nor connection to be made with people. A psychedelically induced dream entity declares: “Princess Kumatora is no princess. She's a broken woman not loved by anyone”. These fears are not unfounded, her interaction with the general populous of Tazmily incites commentary that is othering. Regardless she presses on, the significance and belief in her task too heavy to let such concerns cause her to falter.
“A great undefiable power has prepared a festival for the end of all life…”
Together Duster, Lucas and Kumatora (and a very narratively significant dog that I would do an injustice to describe) seek to preserve the idyllic commune of Tazmily from succumbing to the corrupting tendrils of a malignant thought. One perceived to have been carefully eradicated in order to preserve what little salvageable life is left in the world. Their efforts prove to be in vain. To forget is to repeat missteps. You cannot move on from that which you do not know. Their quest doomed before it even began. The end of life, of everything becomes inevitable. Yet there is meaning to be found in the struggle. Duster whose agency had always been privy to others comes to self-realisation and through his own agency commits himself fully to the cause. An end may also conceive a new beginning.
“I'll let you in on a little secret. No matter how much you attack me, I'm not going to die. Even if you manage to knock me down, I will not die. Didn't you know that?”
Porky Minch and what they represent is absolute harrowing, they are the dregs of the experience that is life, they are very much human, and they are eternal. The final chapter of the game is almost entirely dedicated to examining Porky as a character and idea and consequently the very worst aspects of the human condition. Fassad, who represents a concentrated and precise contempt is a nihilistic ideal that can be tangibly confronted, defeated, and suppressed. Porky comparatively is instead almost ethereal. A theology that cannot be meaningfully engaged and therefore cannot be defeated. Yet the impact of this idea they represent are very tangible, having omnipresent sway over the hearts and minds of people. There is an allure to the commodified lens of the world that Porky embodies. A lens that will see you perceive the world in terms of value and outputs. Of dollars and gains. Of winners and more tellingly losers. The destruction of the world that Porky conducts, the same that had occurred once before, is not done out of hatred nor malice. It has a much more sinister motive. Apathy. The ideal that is Porky, this harbinger of humanity’s unmaking is simply committed out of boredom. An act of exhaustion ensuing from a long life that is unfulfilling. When examining the world in such a way, this capitalistic framework ironically makes everything ultimately worthless. This is because fundamentally, the reason Porky is the way they are is because they do not, they cannot, comprehend love, to perceive something you hold dear to have personal value. In love’s void a perverse imitation is born. This corrupt idea of value is what Porky covets, enshrines but is never sated by. And it is so very very contagious.
“Lucas, be happy. We found Claus”
You cannot truly defeat Porky because they are broader than the individual entity they are represented by, they are an eternal occurrence, a perpetual idea. The contemporary to love itself. But what of one who knew love once and lost it? At the very end of the game, you have one final confrontation. Before the final needle which will preside the collective worth of humanity. Lucas stands before his mirror, a young boy who lost themselves to grief. Whos love hurt them so much that it had to be buried. To be forgotten. To leave them with nothing. To see Claus like that, Lucas, whom sought to embody who Claus used to be, what he was going to become, falters completely. It unmakes Lucas, his love for the idea that was his brother was the source of his strength. Lucas doesn’t know what to do. He falters. A voice rings out. A voice that stirs the soul and resonates the heart. You cannot bury those memory deep enough. Love is insidious, its permanent scars mark the very fabric of who you are. And it hurts. It hurts so much. It is unbearable. The memory of love resurfaces indomitable. And it forces Claus to remember. To emerge from the prison of his heart and become himself once more. And then in cruel mercy, allows him the agency to destroy himself.
"You must be so exhausted. Come here Claus”
Its over. Love triumphs. It is beautiful in all its tragedy. There is just one task left. To pull the needle and be judged. What worth is this love that was fought so hard to preserve? Calamity manifests on screen. The End?
“But as you can see, everyone is just fine! We’ve regained something incredibly immense”.
On a black screen the words above appear among many others. After witnessing the spectacle that is the end of the world, the game addresses any player that is still left wanting after the end screen. By fumbling around eventually you are rewarded with text. One by one characters chime in reassuring you that they are all ok and that everything worked out in the end. You can see it right? This is something that you the player can visualise right? This beautiful ending where it all worked out alright? The game is asking you if you can believe it. Do you?
I could not see it. I am currently incapable of doing so. This is a personal failing of mine. I have let bitter cynicism wear down my ability to conceptualise such a world. If I cannot even imagine it, how can I even seek to have it realised? But even so, I believe in it. Everything worked out ok for Lucas, Kumatora, Duster and everyone else. I might not have been able to witness it but it happened. Mother 3 says it can and it did. And I believe it. For what else is there to believe in?
“It looks like things will work out here, but what about your world? Will it be alright?”
So instead, this is merely an attempt to journal what this game means to me and my personal interpretation of it. Publicly disseminated so that I may compare my thoughts against those before me whom this game has also touched. The game has a lot to say and with the minimalist nature of trying to condense it all onto a 32-megabyte GBA cartridge there is a lot of room for its players to extrapolate its messaging from its details. I am incapable of encapsulating it all and certain topics I refrain from repeating, that which others I know have articulated far more succinctly than I. I choose instead to limit my focus on my observation on what Mother 3 says about legacy, and unavoidably, of love.
“And so the tale first begins… …as a tragedy”
We start off with the first chapter, establishing the tone of the rest of the story that is yet to come. Immediately any preconception that this tale was going to follow in the whimsical adventure template of its predecessors is stabbed through the heart. Flint, a reliable man of action loses the love of his life to an encroaching corruption. His son emulating him, goes out to seek retaliation. It does not end well. Although Flint does refrain from perpetuating the cycles of harm, this event destroys him. Unable to move on from his grief, Flint becomes stuck reminiscing in the past. Impotent to act against the coming storm.
“However, not everyone is content to sit quietly by as the enemy continues its odious attacks from every angle”
Recollection of the past can be more than just escapism from facing the present, understanding the past is paradoxically necessary to escape from itself. Duster, is strongly connected to the idea of identity to one’s legacy. Although not made apparent until the end, the idyllic communal town of Tazmily exist as the result of deliberate obfuscation of the past. However, without having the learned lessons of historic mistakes the town is vulnerable to repeating them. Wess, Duster’s father, is burdened to act as a failsafe during the inevitable time of crisis. A crisis that may not occur in his lifetime. How can one fulfil such a purpose that exists beyond their span? Through proxy. Duster is made to inherit this burden, the gravitas of which supersedes any personal desire for agency. Although the intention is noble, the game does not downplay the result of such a relationship where a parent tries to live extendedly through their child. Abuse. No matter the beatings or verbal assault or even mutual desire of both parties, Duster can never become Wess. This idea culminates in Duster’s inability to intrinsically understand his purpose, failing a test of discernment. The implication of this failure not lost upon an exasperated Wess.
“The pain and the sadness are unforgivably regrettable. Now I would like to repay all of this to you”
The abuse Wess enacts upon of Duster is born of frustration. While not to be undermined it is important to note that distinction when examining what follows. Fassad’s abuse of Salsa, and their zealous desire to destroy Tazmily, is incomparable. It is pure unadulterated malice. Calculated cruelty engineered to harm as much as possible. Fassad’s explicit motives are never elaborated upon. They are ultimately irrelevant. To provide a motive is to provide vindication that these actions are plausibly justified. Mother 3 makes no such concessions. Instead, the game gives nuance to his character through his background. That being, he was counted among the number of Magypsies, the nigh eternal beings responsible for overseeing the end of the world. Once again, the motive of his disaffiliation is left to the player to infer. The why is less important than the who. Fassad, is an individual acutely aware of history, and will ensure it is repeated. To oversee that humans cannibalise themselves to extinction once more through hubris and greed. Perhaps they seek to begrudge humanity from redemption? That when given a clean slate we can be so gently nudged towards our own annihilation. Perhaps this affirms a cynical worldview, that which appears reformed is merely a façade worth of contempt. It matters not, he is ambiguous by design for one to speculate. To showcase that vitriol can stem from anywhere.
"However, in that darkness, a once weak boy tried to become stronger. Lucas, is trying to paint this tragic story with a bright future.“
Likewise, so can kindness. The obsession with preserving and propagating the past, ones lived experiences, is a curse imposed with age. It is not by chance that instigating change is much more readily embraced by the youth. The fresh perspective that comes from those living solely in the present is necessary to conceive a future that has never been. These were my initial preconceptions going in for my expectations of a character such as Lucas that would be a gross mischaracterisation of what they are now. Former crybaby Lucas, as he is oft described, is just as shackled to the past as those previously mentioned. While Flint chases the fleeting spectre of those lost, Lucas however opts to fill their void. Claus, his twin, his mirror, now just a memory is not gone. No, Claus can yet live still through Lucas. Equivalent since birth, Lucas steps up to emulate the headstrong person he perceived his brother to be. Already embodying a kind and empathetic personality reminiscent of his mother, Lucas will propel the legacy of those he loves through his own life. This is not a burden nor obligation, this is how a child is able to contextualise a traumatic event to allow themselves to persevere, live and move on in absentia of mother, brother, and father. Not that Flint needs to worry that he is unable to see past the past to guide his son, he has ‘already grown to be a strong young man’.
“We crafted our story in haste, so the people inside it have very little “past” or “history”.”
In contrast and in parallel to Lucas and Wess, Kumatora, the driving force against the corruption that desecrates Tazmily is notable in her complete absence of familial legacy to propagate. That initial descriptor I had of Lucas, that as the catalyst of change, is more aptly applied to Kumatora. Just as kind and capable if not more so, the rugged princess of Osohe is beholden instead to a responsibility masqueraded as a fictitious past. However, unlike Duster, whom is oblivious of his true purpose, Kumatora is much more aware of the farce that is her role. Yet she continues to serve it through her own conviction. This isn’t as saccharine as it seems, otherwise completely isolated from the lives of the villagers, she fears without her ‘story’ she has no purpose nor connection to be made with people. A psychedelically induced dream entity declares: “Princess Kumatora is no princess. She's a broken woman not loved by anyone”. These fears are not unfounded, her interaction with the general populous of Tazmily incites commentary that is othering. Regardless she presses on, the significance and belief in her task too heavy to let such concerns cause her to falter.
“A great undefiable power has prepared a festival for the end of all life…”
Together Duster, Lucas and Kumatora (and a very narratively significant dog that I would do an injustice to describe) seek to preserve the idyllic commune of Tazmily from succumbing to the corrupting tendrils of a malignant thought. One perceived to have been carefully eradicated in order to preserve what little salvageable life is left in the world. Their efforts prove to be in vain. To forget is to repeat missteps. You cannot move on from that which you do not know. Their quest doomed before it even began. The end of life, of everything becomes inevitable. Yet there is meaning to be found in the struggle. Duster whose agency had always been privy to others comes to self-realisation and through his own agency commits himself fully to the cause. An end may also conceive a new beginning.
“I'll let you in on a little secret. No matter how much you attack me, I'm not going to die. Even if you manage to knock me down, I will not die. Didn't you know that?”
Porky Minch and what they represent is absolute harrowing, they are the dregs of the experience that is life, they are very much human, and they are eternal. The final chapter of the game is almost entirely dedicated to examining Porky as a character and idea and consequently the very worst aspects of the human condition. Fassad, who represents a concentrated and precise contempt is a nihilistic ideal that can be tangibly confronted, defeated, and suppressed. Porky comparatively is instead almost ethereal. A theology that cannot be meaningfully engaged and therefore cannot be defeated. Yet the impact of this idea they represent are very tangible, having omnipresent sway over the hearts and minds of people. There is an allure to the commodified lens of the world that Porky embodies. A lens that will see you perceive the world in terms of value and outputs. Of dollars and gains. Of winners and more tellingly losers. The destruction of the world that Porky conducts, the same that had occurred once before, is not done out of hatred nor malice. It has a much more sinister motive. Apathy. The ideal that is Porky, this harbinger of humanity’s unmaking is simply committed out of boredom. An act of exhaustion ensuing from a long life that is unfulfilling. When examining the world in such a way, this capitalistic framework ironically makes everything ultimately worthless. This is because fundamentally, the reason Porky is the way they are is because they do not, they cannot, comprehend love, to perceive something you hold dear to have personal value. In love’s void a perverse imitation is born. This corrupt idea of value is what Porky covets, enshrines but is never sated by. And it is so very very contagious.
“Lucas, be happy. We found Claus”
You cannot truly defeat Porky because they are broader than the individual entity they are represented by, they are an eternal occurrence, a perpetual idea. The contemporary to love itself. But what of one who knew love once and lost it? At the very end of the game, you have one final confrontation. Before the final needle which will preside the collective worth of humanity. Lucas stands before his mirror, a young boy who lost themselves to grief. Whos love hurt them so much that it had to be buried. To be forgotten. To leave them with nothing. To see Claus like that, Lucas, whom sought to embody who Claus used to be, what he was going to become, falters completely. It unmakes Lucas, his love for the idea that was his brother was the source of his strength. Lucas doesn’t know what to do. He falters. A voice rings out. A voice that stirs the soul and resonates the heart. You cannot bury those memory deep enough. Love is insidious, its permanent scars mark the very fabric of who you are. And it hurts. It hurts so much. It is unbearable. The memory of love resurfaces indomitable. And it forces Claus to remember. To emerge from the prison of his heart and become himself once more. And then in cruel mercy, allows him the agency to destroy himself.
"You must be so exhausted. Come here Claus”
Its over. Love triumphs. It is beautiful in all its tragedy. There is just one task left. To pull the needle and be judged. What worth is this love that was fought so hard to preserve? Calamity manifests on screen. The End?
“But as you can see, everyone is just fine! We’ve regained something incredibly immense”.
On a black screen the words above appear among many others. After witnessing the spectacle that is the end of the world, the game addresses any player that is still left wanting after the end screen. By fumbling around eventually you are rewarded with text. One by one characters chime in reassuring you that they are all ok and that everything worked out in the end. You can see it right? This is something that you the player can visualise right? This beautiful ending where it all worked out alright? The game is asking you if you can believe it. Do you?
I could not see it. I am currently incapable of doing so. This is a personal failing of mine. I have let bitter cynicism wear down my ability to conceptualise such a world. If I cannot even imagine it, how can I even seek to have it realised? But even so, I believe in it. Everything worked out ok for Lucas, Kumatora, Duster and everyone else. I might not have been able to witness it but it happened. Mother 3 says it can and it did. And I believe it. For what else is there to believe in?
“It looks like things will work out here, but what about your world? Will it be alright?”
faded8348
3 months ago