I Finally Finished Mother 3

9/14/2024

This article contains SPOILERS for Mother 3! If you want to go in blind, you better go now!

This has been a long time coming for me. I'll get to tell you about my full history with the MOTHER series at some point, but I played Mother 2, and then Mother 1, when I was in middle school. That was about 14 years ago. They left an important impact on me that I'm sure I'll remember forever. Somehow, they came at a critical junction in my life. Why didn't I play Mother 3 right away, at that time? Well, I wanted to! It was a very long time ago, so to my recollection the amazing fan translation wasn't quite ready yet, or I didn't know how to patch the ROM.

What was my excuse as an adult? Well, there isn't one, but every time I would start, I would never get very far, and wouldn't come back to it. I think I never got to Chapter 2. Sorry, Flint and family, for how many times I took you through the opening over the years.

There's been a huge sense of relief for me, beating the game. Something personal to me has now been completed. At the same time, now I'm a bit sad there's no more Mother for me to explore. If the unreleased Nintendo 64 version's ROM ever gets leaked, it would be one of the greatest days of my life. But what did I think of Mother 3 GBA after a decade plus of personal suspense? It's hard to lay it all out, but I'll try. This is gonna be less of a review and more like an opinion dump. You were warned!

A New Chapter

Mother 3 has much of Mother 2's DNA in it, but the storytelling and style of the game is very, very different. Mother 3 is much more cutscene heavy and dialogue heavy than either of the previous games. This took a certain amount of adjustment from me. It's not a bad thing at all, and it's not like Mother 2 is a quiet game by any stretch, but 3 feels much more heavily directed and scripted.

It also doesn't feel totally balanced with itself. The game is divided up into different chapters, of varying lengths and permitted characters in the party. This is something I personally did not vibe with. It feels like the game stops and starts over four or five times, which from a gameplay perspective was a real mood killer. I quite enjoy the steady sense of progression in RPGs, and while that's not absent in Mother 3 by any stretch, it's definitely staggered out in a strange way. Some chapters are short, some are really long, it's all over the place. Chapter 7, in particular, feels somewhat rushed and like they tried to cram the style of quest from 1 and 2 into an abriged part of 3. It does serve the story very well though, which we'll get into in a minute.

I think this chapter structure is part of why I kept falling off the game in its earliest portions. I like Flint, but the beginning of this game does not share the same sense of childlike wonder and discovery that 1 and 2 do. In Mother 1, you see everything as Ninten (the player character) sees. In Mother 2, you also are sometimes separated from Ness to see things from other character's perspectives and their stories, but it feels a lot more cohesive there than it does in 3.

Let it not be thought that Mother 3 isn't confident in what it's doing, though. Chapter 1 in particular ends with a ton of different things for the player to think about, and a heart-breaking loss. So while I do feel the chapter thing is a bit of a detriment to the gameplay at times, in terms of story, it's a pretty outstanding feature.

The Timeskip

So, when did I really get sold on Mother 3? Yes, I was sad about Hinawa's death, who exactly are these Pig Army people that are ruining everything? I thought the perversion of nature's animals into Chimera was mysterious and interesting, it definitely rang as very evil, perhaps even perverted, in this natural village paradise. These things were interesting, but one scene hit me like a ton of bricks and made it all click. I thought I was too old to have my mind blown, but here I was, still having a Mother game making me think and feel new things.

Prior to Chapter 4, a shady character named Fassad (Yokuba in the Japanese version) worms his way into Tazmilly Village. He's a showman type, promising happiness to the already fairly content and happy people. It becomes clear that he has some sort of calculated intent to change the people in some way. The adorable monkey Salsa is forced to aid him in delivering "Happy Boxes" to people's homes. And before that, he gives a huge bag of money to a young boy to hide. No one in this village even knows what money is, including that kid, but he begins to treasure it anyway. This made my heart sink, but I wondered where it was all going?

The game's narration leaves no doubt. This is corruption. Fassad is twisting these people in a way that will harm them. And then, the game skips ahead three years.

Now, Tazmilly is a dead ringer for any American suburb, just like any town you might have visited in the Mother series. The Happy Boxes turned out to be televisions. The Inn has become a huge hotel. Money exists in this society. Many of the villagers work at the new factory, and some even dream of joining the Pig Mask Army. Holy shit.

My jaw hit the floor. I felt sick. Here was iconography of the Mother series, a core part of its charm, now being presented to me as evil, as wrongdoing, as unnatural. AND IT IS! The game does all the work, all the character dialogue, all the tragedy that befalls the village, it's critical to giving this moment its impact. To say this is brilliant doesn't do it justice. Now I saw Hinawa's death not just as a sad event in the village history, but as the death of everyone's innocence. This is heavy as hell, I couldn't believe this kind of anti-capitalist theming was in a game at all.

That's even before you get into the military force beginning to occupy Tazmilly. The Pig Mask Army is one of the best things about the game. They help drive it all home, they feel like invaders, as they should! The Pig Mask leitmotif appears all over the game and helps reinforce their connection to this story theme. It's a damn amazing song, too! It comes in a lot of varieties, and isn't completely exclusive to the Army, but I loved hearing this the entire game.

After all these revelations, the Chimera aspect of the game's many interesting monsters stuck out even more. The Pig Mask Army is actively turning nature into weapons, solely for the amusement of their leader. I do think the game could have gone a little more into this aspect of nature's degradation along with the community of Tazmilly. I half expected it to, since the very title for the game back in 1997 was "Mother 3: キマイラの森 (Mother 3: Forest of the Chimera)". Maybe a party member could have been a Chimera (sorry, Boney, but you'd probably be replaced!) or, one could have spoken out with intelligence and pleaded to Lucas and company for help. Just some ideas, as it exists in the game though, I enjoy it.

All this was the defining aspect of Mother 3, for me. It was brilliant, there are times when checking up on the Tazmilly folk feels borderline disturbing. It's just so damn clever how innocuous this transformation might be in almost anything else. But in Mother 3, you see how an invasive force makes it all go wrong, and slowly at that. It's shocking, sometimes even depressing. I loved it, and I applaud the story for having this kind of stuff in it.

Porky Means Business

Another element that really fascinated me was the return of Porky (Pokey) from Mother 2. Now, I knew he would be there thanks to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but in what capacity and when, I had no idea. This ended up being one of the biggest treats for me, and I suspect a lot of other Mother fans enjoy the character greatly.

Even if you never played Brawl, it's not terribly hard to figure out that Porky might be behind the Pig Mask Army in some way. But the most delicious hint of all comes when you invade a certain room in the Thunder Tower. There, you are able to see on display (and take, if you so wish) the "Friend's Yo-Yo". Porky kept Ness's Yo-Yo around across time and space, for an unknowable amount of years. This added an entirely new dimension to Porky's character. Later on, when you make it to New Pork City, you'll find that Porky has both a theatrical film about Ness's adventure and a literal museum with memorabilia.

Porky is a lot of things. He's equal parts pathetic and scary. Tragic, but also a fool of his own making. But to my recollection, he was never sentimental about anything. This is one idea that's way more tantalizing when you imagine it yourself, rather than Porky or any characters talking about it on screen.

The game holds onto Porky's full reveal as long as it possibly can, down to individual text boxes at times, and it's a huge tease. His presence is all over the events of the game, but I do have a favorite instance of Porky's character being felt before being seen. There are a dozen or so robots in his mother's likeness that all "work" at the restaurant in New Pork City. What would Sigmund Freud say about this! This is much more illustrative of how Porky seems to view anyone that isn't himself. Anyone who can be subservient to Porky, should be, and even his mother only exists to serve him. It's worth noting that there is no robot version of Porky's father (at least not that I saw!), who somewhat famously beat Porky, physically, in Mother 2. Perhaps there are some things Porky would rather forget?

Porky meets a fitting, twisted end. Or rather, no end. Dr. Andonuts confirms as such. Nobody can hurt him, and he can hurt no one else. Creator Shiegesato Itoi even mentions that Porky will never die, even 5.5 billion years from now. There's lots of other great tidbits in here as well, including "Porky is a symbol of humankind." Let's talk about that, actually, because...

Porky, Capitalism, Claus

Any brave soul who stomachs this blog knows that I love to play writer, and suggest ideas that I think could make a story even better. I love stories, we all do! It's not out of malice, I just think it's fun. I do this for things that I like.

I love all the things I've mentioned above, as they are, in Mother 3. but I think some elements could have been taken even further, and been more closely tied together. SPOILER WARNING AGAIN!

Lucas and the gang make it to New Pork City, and most of the other Tazmilly residents have already moved in. This is mostly great, as far as the story and theming go. New Pork City is a shallow amusement park poorly masquerading as a quality place to live. It's completely in Porky's image, literally in a lot of spots, and completely twisted. One recalls Porky's delight during his own escapades at the Monotoli Building in Mother 2.

Storming the Empire Porky Building, it's discovered that...Porky is brainwashing people to like him. It's a freaky visual, and brute force mind control is definitely in Porky's character. But I thought this whole thing was about the fall of a traditional community into capitalism, into greed, the American dream. Whatever you took away from that amazing build up to Chapter 4, it kind of gets put on pause here, at least for me. Why does Porky need to brainwash people at all? They're already joining the Pigmask Army willingly(!!) and moving into the big city. Isn't that the real brainwashing? What's with the pods?

You probably know what I'm leading up to here...

Let me offer again here that I love how the story ended up with Claus. However, as with the mind controlling of citizens, the disappearance of Claus and re-emergence as the Masked Man left something to be desired, for me. It seems like the story got a little off track here, and I really wish it didn't. It's easy to see a mile away that Claus is the Masked Man, but how it ends up all resolving at the end makes for a very emotional climax, it succeeds in creating a tragedy and pulling on the heartstrings. It's very good, and it's done with barely any animation at all, something the writing should be praised for.

Entertain me this though; What if Claus were not a victim of kidnapping and mind control, but of the same capitalistic ideals that Porky and Fassad pushed onto the people of Tazmilly? Claus is among the first to be kidnapped and taken to the undiscovered or still in production New Pork City. There, he is given the same kind of treatment that Porky got in Monotoli's company. Over the years, and without contact with his family, Claus becomes a full-on believer in Porky and Fassad's vision. Claus becomes wealthy, greedy, and works effortlessly to bring any holdouts of Porky's ways into the city. What are Lucas and friends to do about a Claus who is willingly leading the Pigmask Army..?

I admit, this is a different story. It's not some minor adjustment with a few textboxes. This is not the same as the existing Claus, who comes to feel a tremendous amount of guilt and pain for what he has done when it's effectively too late. But imagine that twisted, sickening feeling from Chapter 4 and pushing it into 300% discomfort here. I find the idea very tantalizing!

One could say that being a mind-controlled robot who leads, or serves, an imperial army is the final form of capitalism. I'm not really the person to talk to about theory (I bet I said something really stupid already!), but if the game wanted to draw this connection, it needed to do so with a few more hints and suggestions in dialogue. As it stands, I think Mother 3 has two really wonderful stories. One about the deterioration of Tazmilly, and one about the tragedy of Claus. I think a braver, bolder Mother 3 might have gotten it to feel like one story. Or, I'm totally alone in thinking about these kinds of things...

Mother Like No Other

PHEW! Did I cover enough of the story? I actually have a few more highlights of varying kinds...but we won't go in depth. Let's run it down with bullet points!

• "The lore dump" - I loved the story that this scene tells, and it's a memorable scene in a game that's like 90% memorable scenes. It does feel a bit like something larger may have been at play with this aspect of the story that started getting trimmed during development. But it was too good not to used and it got compressed into a cutscene. I also think it's weird that Kumatora and Duster are very chatty through most of the game, but they've gone dead quiet here, and much of the finale in general. There's something to be said for just letting this one breathe in the player's mind though, without commentary.

• I love the Fassad/Missing Gypsy thing. It's brilliant and interesting, and a very Mother-like thing that leaves a lot to the imagination. One could imagine that Fassad's untold story is somewhat like my proposal for Claus!

• The PSI graphic effects aren't as good as the ones in Mother 2. I am sorry for saying this, but if I didn't, I would have to bottle it up inside.

• I found the difficulty to be higher than Mother 2. I imagine in part because there's no level-up exploit like Mother 2. I like to use it when I play that game. I honestly find Mother 1 fine, you just have to be ready to battle a lot. Mother 3 has some notably hard bosses scattered around. That's not a bad thing though, but it caught me off guard to not be a breezy ride 24/7.

• I really like the Magypsies, but they feel like they're modeled after negative stereotypes of queer people, and once or twice it felt like that was played for laughs. On the other hand, in the Mother 3 universe, these queer folk are practically magical gods that serve to contain a Dark Dragon from destroying the world. So that's pretty awesome. Your mileage may vary with these characters!

• This song is amazing! Oh my GOD!

And I'm sure I'll find more things to say about this game as time goes by. I've spent almost two weeks just crafting this post, so I'm sure new things will jump out at me in two months, two years...who knows! I think that's part of the power of the Mother series. It says with you, teasing your mind and heart the way only good art seems to do. In that sense, Mother 3 is a masterpiece just like its predecessors.

If I had to crown one jewel above them all... I would say Mother 2 is still THE game. I will cherish it forever. I only nitpick Mother 3 because it's part of one of the most distinguished and beloved game series of all time. Mother 3 has a lot of lofty, ambitious ideas and a grand-scale story that it should be commended for. Not to imply that Mother 1 and 2 don't have their complexities and big themes, they definitely do, but Mother 3 has its own flavor that I genuinely admire. It's also an absolute miracle for Mother 3 to have gotten cancelled on N64 and revived on GBA. For that, I'm very grateful to Mr. Itoi and Brownie Brown. Seriously, how often does that kind of thing happen?

It's hard to care about some kind of official English release after this long. It's a meme now and nothing more. It's not like Half-Life 3 never coming out, where it just doesn't exist until they make it. A lot of the people who wanted to play Mother 3 have now. Still, I imagine I wouldn't be the only one delighted to see it dropped somewhere officially, with a catchy EarthBound title and a dollar amount for fans to show appreciation and support. It happened before with Earthbound Beginning's Wii U release, so I'd just like Mother 3 to have that same chance with the English speaking world. They don't need to do it for accessibility. Nothing is more accessible than emulation. I just want the chance to show Nintendo how much we all love Mother again, with sales numbers to back it up.

Would that lead to anything? I doubt it. Itoi is done with the Mother series, and has said so many times, for a long time. Nintendo knows, they definitely know, and I hope somehow they're able to get it out there one day.

I have a small bonus for anyone who read this. Here are 250+ screenshots of Mother 3 taken during my playthrough, at native resolution. No filters or blurry stretching! Feel free to use these as you wish. I didn't snapshot every major scene in the game, but I like to imagine that some future Mother 3 writer could use some of these to make their life easier. I'd appreciate a shoutout, but I won't chase you down if I think I see these without credit.

One more plea before I go,

SOMEONE PLEASE LEAK THE N64 ROM!

- Webmaster James