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Full Review for Mother 3 by Star_Meteor_Dragon

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Introduction

It was June 1, 1995 when cult-classic "Earthbound"(or MOTHER2 for the Japanese) came out in North America. This was a special RPG at it's time, sheerly because of it's off-handedness! Where in other RPGs at the time had you wielding swords to slay dragons, Earthbound had you using frying pans as weapons to defeat slugs. Though a quite underrated game now, back in '95, most children lucky enough to get their hands on a copy enjoyed it. 11 years later, it's loose sequel, MOTHER3, came out in Japan for the GBA. It was as big a hit as it's prequel. However, when people questioned Nintendo of America about localizing it, it became clear that there were no plans to do so. Luckily for us, a fan translation came out about two years later, in October of 2008. Thanks to the hard work of the fan translation team, every one of us who enjoyed Earthbound had a chance to enjoy it's sequel in a language they can read. But how does it match up to the cult-classic Earthbound?

 

Graphics

Ah, graphics. To some, it makes the entire game. I, however, couldn't care less about graphics! To me, whether it looks pretty or not doesn't matter. The gameplay, story, and music are what matters to me, and this is part of the reason I love Earthbound. The graphics are fairly detailed sprites. The sprite animations are simply gorgeous, and I love how they look. It's not like anything else of it's time, oh no, much less flashy, but there's beauty in simplicity, no? This game looks like it could have come out in the 90's, actually, but I like that, so it gets a 9 from me.

 

Sound

The music. The MUSIC. Oh, YES. By far, the most enjoyable aspect of the game! The music is all composed solely by Shogo Sakai, and he did a great job on that! The music is always fitting, serious music in serious times of the game, and silly once one gets to Saturn Valley, where the small creatures, called Mr. Saturns live. The battle system even relies on the music! Unlike in it's prequels, there is a combo system in this game, and one can combo if they can press the 'A' Button in time to the music. The bosses are NOT so easy to combo to, unfortunately, because they get the more complicated songs. The max for a combo is a 16-Hit, and doing that will require quite a bit of practice. Combos are not needed for the game, but believe me when I say they are worth it.

 

Gameplay

I strongly believe this is a big part of the reason why this game is significantly better than Earthbound. Every one of Earthbound's annoyances have been fixed! In Earthbound, managing items was not an easy task, because it seemed one had much too little space to hold everything in. In Mother 3, however, items are easy to manage, although when playing Mother 3, the player gets but two more spaces to put items in as opposed to Earthbound's 14. The major difference here is that in Mother 3, there is a separate "pocket" for Key Items, which took a lot of space in it's prequel. The battles in Mother 3 also seem more natural, and they seem to flow more than Earthbound's. This is because of the Combo system, and may also be due to the fact that Mother 3's health meter(compare to an odometer) rolls down slower than Earthbound's, allowing more time to heal.

Speaking of battles, bosses in Mother 3 seem to be so much harder than in Earthbound. Why is this? This may be because in Mother 3, your main game-breaking skill doesn't come until the main character's traveling companion, Princess Kumatora, reaches level 60, which, unless the player does a lot of grinding, will generally come at the end of the game. Some players don't even realize it exists! In Earthbound, however, the game-breaking device was Jeff's Multi-Bottle Rockets, which would generally 1HKO most bosses, although, there were two bosses where using them was not recommended. Bosses in Mother 3 usually have a couple thousand HP, so not even spamming your best PSI will help most times. Strategy is required to beat the bosses, whereas in Earthbound, all that was needed was generally some Multi-Bottle Rockets and effective PSI. Despite being harder in Mother 3 than in Earthbound, boss battles actually seem to be fun, because it's more of a challenge.

And now we move on to the story. I'm not going to lie. It is simply brilliant. It offers a change from Mothers 1 and 2, because it's not a carbon copy of them. Unlike it's prequels, Mother 3 does NOT take place in a modern setting. It takes place in Nowhere Island, more specifically, Tazmily Village, where everyone is kind to others and is always happy to help their neighbors. This is where the main character(his default name is Lucas) and his twin brother(default name is Claus), as well as their dog(default name is Boney) and their parents(Hinawa is their mom's default name, and Flint their dad's). The game, however, starts with the twins playing at their grandpa Alec's house, in the mountains. Did I mention they're playing with the dinosaur-like creatures, the Dragos? Because they are, and I find that plain adorable. The story kicks off later, at nighttime, when there is a fire in nearby Sunshine Forest. The twins and their mom haven't come back to their house nearby Tazmily yet, and that causes a lot of worry in the villagers. You'll have to play to find out what happens next, sorry. I can guarantee a tear-jerking ending, though, and that's all I'll say about it.

What I find remarkable about the characters is that they're all unique! Even the NPCs seem like actual people, with their own problems, likes, and dislikes. Their own, non-stereotypical personalities. It's hard not to care about the fate of the characters, because they all seem so realistic in my eyes. I actually felt for the characters, worried about them at several points in the game, and at others, muttering "You are so awesome" when my more favorite moments involving the characters happened. I was quite sad at multiple parts of the game, as well, not just because of what happens in the game, but because of the characters' reactions. Mother 3 makes it clear that it wants the player to take the game seriously. It is a darker game than Earthbound, although I can't say much about Earthbound Zero/Mother 1, since I've not played it yet. All the aspects of the game I have covered are the reason I give this a 10.

 

Lastability

It's unfortunate, but this game only lasts about a day(that is, 24 hours), more if you went to go see all of the enemies and their back sprites along the way. If the player finishes the game, goes back to the title screen and then loads it, the player will start again right at the save point before the final boss fight. This is the thing I hated the most about this game. Once the player goes into Chapter 8, all there is left to do is complete the game. No more exploring through the seemingly vast world, and no more going back to Tazmily. Chapter 8 is one of the more enjoyable Chapters, don't get me wrong, but I hate that once the player sees the credits, all there is to do is 'defeat' the final boss over and over again. This is why it gets an 8 from me.

 

Overall

Overall? I adore this game! There is just so much to love about it! The world seems much bigger than Earthbound's, the characters are realistic, NPCs can actually be quite fun to talk to, and the story is involving. I, having played both, find Mother 3 far superior to Earthbound in every aspect. Despite that, I sometimes forget Mother 3 is a Mother game because it's darker than it's two prequels. Earthbound was just plain silly while Mother 3 obviously wanted you to take it seriously. And that's fine, because Mother 3 is a serious game(most of the time.) There are quite a few silly parts in the game, such as Saturn Valley in Chapter 7 and the 'Toilet Dungeon' in Chapter 8. This game is enjoyable, but alas, it is much shorter than Earthbound. But who cares? Mother 3 is a great game, and I strongly recommend it to people who like RPGs and haven't played it.


Final Score: 94%


 

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