Rating this is kind of impossible because I really didn't play the same game everyone else did. I abused the shit out of my emulator's rewind and turbo options, ESPECIALLY the latter. If I didn't, I probably would've thrown in the towel about 30 minutes in. However, I credit these as a workaround to the game's poor aging, because the story at the heart of the game is incredibly compelling and kept me just interested enough to keep going. The final 15 minutes was, surprisingly, worth all of the pain of grinding and pushing through the constant encounters. I think the best summation I could give of this game is that everything you've heard about it is true. The grinding is pretty excessive, the encounters are way too frequent, and in general it feels like a dry run for Mother 2, but it is saved by having really intriguing worldbuilding and themes, an absolutely stellar soundtrack, and an impactful final boss fight that sticks with you despite its simplicity. I wouldn't recommend that you play it, maybe just watch someone else play it instead, but if you do, there are a lot of hacks to make things more enjoyable; I'd personally recommend the all-in-one Demiforce hack.
Also, Backloggd dropped the ball on this. It's called Mother. Nothing else. Don't listen to Nintendo's lies.
Also, Backloggd dropped the ball on this. It's called Mother. Nothing else. Don't listen to Nintendo's lies.
4 Comments
Yeah, I can agree with that. I should've mentioned that in my review, but a game of this detail is stupidly impressive for the NES, and I really, really respect it in that regard. I might come back to this in the future with the gameplay hack, since I do think that it is a great game that's only held back by repetitive fights. Again, I definitely agree with just how much it got right on the first go; just look at how much wasn't changed for M2.
yeah i think a lot of people who really love this game should be more willing to welcome alternative ways to play (personally i'd recommend the gba fan translation, [for the tradeoff of worse music] the dialogue is markedly improved, there's a couple of bug fixes, a better working run button, pixel-based movement, and with the easy ring the balance stuff is toggle-able so you can put it on only when you need to).
this may be a huge hot take, but i honestly enjoy the world, characters, and narrative threads between ninten and giygas more than their equivalents in Mother 2, though this is mostly due to the supplementary material within the MOTHER Encyclopedia which iirc was bundled with the game in japan but never received an official translation. give it a read if you can, a lot of it is fan translated and it does a lot of fleshing out of your party members, especially Teddy. unfortunately something like this for 2 was never made which is why for me it falters a bit in those aspects when compared to the other games. 1 absolutely isn't as funny and is not as much a prerequisite to play its sequel, but overall it's a solid foundation held back by its antiquated elements.
now that you've beaten 1 and 3 will you be heading back to try and complete 2?
this may be a huge hot take, but i honestly enjoy the world, characters, and narrative threads between ninten and giygas more than their equivalents in Mother 2, though this is mostly due to the supplementary material within the MOTHER Encyclopedia which iirc was bundled with the game in japan but never received an official translation. give it a read if you can, a lot of it is fan translated and it does a lot of fleshing out of your party members, especially Teddy. unfortunately something like this for 2 was never made which is why for me it falters a bit in those aspects when compared to the other games. 1 absolutely isn't as funny and is not as much a prerequisite to play its sequel, but overall it's a solid foundation held back by its antiquated elements.
now that you've beaten 1 and 3 will you be heading back to try and complete 2?
Funny enough, my friend who convinced me to play this also prefers this to 2, but in a much more vast way; he's gone on record saying he doesn't really care for 2, lol. I'll definitely read into that Encyclopedia, this is the kind of game that feels like it has a massive world that's held back by the limitations of the technology. And yes, I will go back to 2! Honestly, a lot of M1, and even M3, I thought "I'll probably enjoy 2 a lot more when I go back to it", haha.
baldur
1 year ago