#game-review #MiSTer-play #finishedgame2024 # Mother 3  [Console:: Gameboy Advance] [Status:: Beaten] [Approximate Start Date:: 2024-08-11] [Finish Date:: 2024-10-08] [Clear Time:: 25h 30m] [Total Play Time:: 25h 35m] [nReplays:: 0] ## [Rating:: 94] I mean, how can you not call this one of the most fascinating and impactful games ever made? It's a tremendous achievement. It's a wonderful story. I am so fortunate to have had this experience. # Playthrough Notes - Playing as part of the lowercasejai patron discord server Mother 3 playthrough - Playing on the mister, I should probably make it just a tag at this point -> #MiSTer-play - Named characters after IRL people - I gave Flint my name, my partner's name to Hinawa, and names I'd give my sons to Lucas and Claus. - This was done in suggestion from Sage and [[Game&Burger]]'s recommendations that for a first playthrough "you should go with names of people in your life" - Post Chapter 1: *how dare they* # My Thoughts - Oh no, what am I doing to myself - Apparently a lot of this plot is inspired by "The Notebook Trilogy" by Agota Kristof, which may contain thematic spoilers for the story. - There are save frogs literally EVERYWHERE in Chapter 1, and I save at like every single one of them - Mother 3 uses game mechanics to tell its story - Tutorials double as idealic societies -> introduction of money acts as a difficulty curve since now items aren't necessarily available. - Silent Protagonists provide characterization to the playable characters. You can interpret their silence literally in-universe. ## Playing the Fan-Translation of Mother 3 is to embrace the values of Tazmily Village - Alternatively, "people who lambast the fan-translation because it's 'piracy' would happily fit in at New Pork City". - The only reason we can play mother 3 in English is because some dedicated individuals focused their passion for a game to make something without ever expecting anything in return. When you ask for a game like Mother 3 to be localized and disavow the fan translation (as piracy), you are choosing to pursue the "happy box". I'm not saying every person who wants an official translation and release of this game is a fascist, far from it! But they're people who are likely to defend corporations over the work of the dedicated and passionate individuals. The fan-translation IS the translation, and you owe it to yourself to accept that Nintendo is never going to localize the game because of copyright law, and to take matters into your own hands. The game is 18+ years old at this point, literally go emulate it. ## The Villain in this Game is FASCISM - Duster, a thief, still acts with a moral code, implying that despite his job, he is a noble person. He builds a ladder for Flint in Chapter 1 by using "thief's tools" - In Chapter 1, all the items are free. Yeah, some items aren't available all the time, but antidotes and nut breads are just generally available for you to grab at all times if you need any. - This is fun because you can use these as a tutorialization in the game - Fassad can be seen in chapter 1, gassing up a random farmer saying his pigs are very impressive and that they have value, while the rest of the town is reeling from the funeral. He's setting the trap to make someone feel more important than others, implying a false-hierarchy intrinsic to fascism. - Later in Chapters 2 and 3 Fassad establishes himself as a "voice of reason" when conflict breaks out, making it so that the town feels reliant on his willingness to help. - ### What are the Happy Boxes? - So the happy Boxes are part TV, part Computer, part Mood Dialer from [[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep]]? I think they're generally a stand in for a lifestyle that isn't immediately accessible to the people of Tazmily pre-modernization. - The people of Tazmily are being sold on an idea that they don't have what they need. that their previous way of life leaves them inadequate. - the happy boxes are literally introduced on the idea of forced labor, they are symbols of injustice - Maybe the Happy Boxes are literally just a symbol for fascist ideology #### The Boxes are an Idea that Grows into Fascism excerpt from my discord messages in the jaicord: > "to me, the boxes are an idea, brought by a malicious actor on the backs of exploited parties, presented as a valuable and necessary concept that is adopted by well-meaning folks who don't understand how volatile the idea really is. As others have said before, it's the idea of inadequacy, that one's society isn't good enough without X, 'you are worse off than your neighbor if you don't have X' which leads to distrust amongst people who once helped and respected each other. Now they're forced into a state of surveillance "How can I be better off than my neighbors?" and so on and so forth. Perhaps the happy boxes are just a symbol for fascism as a whole. ## Chapter 1 - Night of the Funeral - [[By Making Flint a Silent Protagonist, Mother 3 characterizes Flint over the course of Chapter 1]] - There's a stunning lack of money in this early section of the game. People help each other. - If you need antidotes, Isaac just has a bunch at his house and you can take as many as you want. - Thomas Bazaar just has random items you can use if you need them. - People are baking nut bread and are happy to give it to the people who need it. - The ants blocking the path at the start of the game is so charming. Best invisible wall in gaming? ## Chapter 2 - Thief Adventure - Duster's Silence in response to Wess's abuse is because he's used to it and knows that he can't fight back. It doesn't make sense to fight back. but Duster is a thief, he works in silence. Silence is where he's most comfortable. - Meeting Kumatora, who is explicitly NOT a silent protagonist, but a protagonist all the same. - She's OUTSPOKEN, and that's what makes her so interesting compared to the other, quieter characters. ## Chapter 3 - The Mysterious Peddler - Salsa is silent because he is being controlled by Fassad. - This is such a cruel chapter. - It's short, but this chapter feels REALLY long because of the way you're Salsa, a monkey with little control over your circumstances - Lucas's Big Damn heroes moment is a really cool way to characterize him. He knows that the baby Drago is in the situation as him, having lost a parent to these pigmasks, so he calls upon the Baby Drago and its sibling to take out the giant Pork Tank. He uses empathy to help bring people together. ## Chapter 4 - Club Titiboo - Lucas being a silent protagonist works in a couple ways: - He's silent in Tazmily because he's anxious about the changes to his town - He is silent when he works part-time in the mines perhaps to not draw attention to himself. - He explicitly TALKS with Kumatora during the "catch up" moment at Club titiboo, though it happens through third person narration which makes the moment feel like the player has less autonomy over the scene. - Hell is the suburbs. - People's homes can't even be in the same building. Everyone MUST have their OWN house, with their OWN yard and their OWN happy box - Actually so wild that they make the part-time labor the worst fucking thing on the planet. And the jingle that plays when you're done with it REALLY captures the feeling of being done with a miserable slate of work. - Fireworks in treasure boxes. That's fun. they're little rewards if nothing else. - There's a lot of sincere moments this chapter: - The Hot Spring in Kumatora's Room where Lucas and Kumatora catch up on everything in a safe and peaceful period of time. It really feels like a nice exhalation of pent up stress of feeling alone in the world. - The DCMC send-off song for their bandmate Duster at the end of the chapter. They're also cool dudes, and there's just a melancholic rock ballad in the middle of this game, which is real special. they've got a lot of character, along with Duster. - The Jealous Bass wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be? I spammed a lot of items with Boney and PK Love with Lucas since I figured getting rid of the extra monsters would be helpful. - I figure if you don't get rid of the bass or the drum, this fight can get REALLY out of hand. ## Chapter 5 - The Tower of Thunder - this is where the game REALLY opens up and feels like a game beyond a linear JRPG - My damn Pork Bean ran out of juice. I didn't realize that was even possible - I don't think that's an awful thing in the long run, I got to get a ton of exp from just grinding over the course of exploring the highway - I went back and fought Lord Passion, twice. Got the good shoes for Duster - I went and did the Mouse Hunt sidequest and ended up getting a Shield Remover which is one of those jelly-hand toys. What an item. What a concept. - The Cafe is hilariously run down - Got bodied by L'il Miss Marshmallow - Hahahah the jukebox plays Earthbound music! - this is the first room / instance where it's clear there IS definitely some connection to Earthbound, but it still feels organic enough of a room to not make people who have never played Earthbound feel isolated? - Thunder Tower is actually super long dude, woah - I mean, I know the game's supposed to get harder, but I hate these robots with their bombs that do a spread 40-45 damage. What a fiasco, hassle, and marathon stretch al at once. - It probably doesn't help that there's no interesting music playing, only a whirring, electrical noise. ## Chapter 6 - Sunflower Fields - man - really impactful scene, especially with Lucas's jump ## Chapter 7 - The Seven Needles - The way that the Chapter 7 title card just drops in immediately after the peaceful moment in the hay, and is this dissonant saxophone noise is disguuuuuusting - The folks of Tazmily warning Lucas to be mindful of who is friends with when Lucas is joined by the obviously queer character, Ionia is very disheartening. Especially because the older folks of Tazmily, like Alec, have always known as respected the Magypsies. - It seems like the ideas of not trusting people who are different from you has taken full effect which is hard to watch, especially because the Magypsies have been on the Nowhere Islands far longer than the Pigmasks. - It's the idea that if you want to fight fascism, you have to accept it from anyone and anywhere, so long as these people are outright detrimental to the cause. Ionia has done nothing wrong other than "be different". - The scene in the Osohe Courtyard after the needle has been pulled is really solemn. It's clear that you've missed the important thing that's happened and it feels really BIG. The music really makes you feel that way too. - SATURN VALLEY OUT OF NOWHERE - Somehow they managed to make the Mr. Saturns still really funny in this game? They don't over stay their welcome and they're not dwelling on the nostalgia of Saturn Valley from [[EarthBound]] to make a moment happen. - It's also really disheartening to see the Pigmasks torturing even the most absurd creates like the Mr. Saturn. Not even the prvious game is immune from pigmask bullshit. ### Tanetane Island - Obviously has been talked at length given that it's a mushroom trip in a Nintendo game full of traumatic hallucinations. But like, WOW - I don't think I could've ever appreciated how this must've been cooked up as a kid. Is it "accurate" to an experience? Well, I couldn't tell you for certain. - You definitely can't have shared hallucinations - The things you see are described as "visions of deep scars" or something like that. - You see Claus as a child asking Lucas to trade places, and to play with Lucas, - Lucas still feels guilt about how he thinks his brother is dead and wishes he could trade places - You see Flint there and Lucas is afraid of him it seems? - One of the Flint lines is "daddy's gonna beat ya" which is truly awful, it makes you fear that before you took control of Flint in Chapter 1, that he was an awful father. That or, the impact of seeing flint become violent at the campfire scene in Chapter 1 impacted Lucas in such a way to fear his father might lash out at him, no matter how irrational that fear may be. - Who are these character before we impose our wills on them? and afterwards? - Wess constantly berates Duster, but also seems old and frail - Duster is most afriad of his father, but also losing his father, it seems. - Kumatora sees these cute girly characters - Kumatora is a princess but, she struggles with the idea of being feminine? Motivated by this because of her "Violet" sprite showing up. She had to live with harshly imposed gender norms for 3(?) years working at Club Titiboo, surpressing her more "boyish" presentation. - WOO GARBAGE HOTSPRING ## Chapter 8 - All Things - I get to New Pork City and all I feel is contempt and disgust. - It's an obnoxious, gaudy, annoyingly bright city full of fake wooden buildings propped up by a single asshole who enjoys being a jackass. - The only nature in the city is a tree that has been co-opted by a giant annoying statues sitting on top of it and its base is surrounded by purple fluid and pipes emanating seemingly toxic ooze. - Obviously it's a metaphor for capitalism, however I feel that it also represents the final stage of fascist society. - Isaac is literally a pigmask now. - The guy who was happy to give you antidotes for free at the start of the game because that was the kind and moral thing to do. Then he starts believing so hard in what Fassad is selling that he willingly forgoes his old way of life and adopts this hierarchical societal structure because this is how he feels important. Makes you wonder if Isaac only gaveout the antidotes in the first place to feel important. - I also find it ironic that before he was an NPC with a very distinct design and he, likeevery other NPC in tazmily was visually distinct, and by the end of the game as he has fully embraced the fascist pigmask regime, he just becomes another faceless NPC doomed to exist without an identity beyond his allegiance to a political scheme that does not care about him to the same degree that he cares about it. - - wreched fucking disgust - Tomas Jefferson - The movie theater is just showing clips from Earthbound outright, as if to say "this happened and if you played it, you will remember this." Remeber Earthbound? Didn't you like the whimsical nature of it all? - The MT Apartment and Leder's monologue, woo - "That lovely world you explored in Earthbound? Well, it's gone now." - But then we have the 100th floor corridor and boat ride reminding us of all of Mother and Mother 2. - The Boat Ride - What do we say about a corridor full of sprites from Earthbound with no substance to the gameplay beyond "hey look, it's that cool thing from the previous gam! Don't you remember how much fun that was?", it presents the pining for nostalgia that you can never really have again. - "see how easy it is to get a reaction out of you just by showing you 'that thing you played one time', at the very end of its sequel?" - "Look at yourself player, you're a part of this horror" - You are porky are no different. You both long to be kids forever. - It's not even meaningful for anyone in the party, it's only for the player. Lucas, Duster, Kumatora and Boney have no idea what the hell any of this stuff is. - With how the player is an invisible yet present force over the whole game, and the track title "A certain Person's Nostalgia", to me, they're referring to the player. Especially when everything is said and done at the end of the game, all you're left with is a black screen and the reflection of yourself. The game wants you to consider your place in all of this story. - [[The Boat Ride Reminds the Player They Are Complicit in Porky's Plot]] - The final boss - So somehow I lost to it on my first go. YEs really. - And then I got reallly sad. # Favorite Moments / Memories - Leder just being a really tall man for no real reason. - Really like the vibes in "Girl's Room" # What were you doing when not playing this? - playing along with the Jaicord - taking a break from streaming to explore creative passions. - I think I remember trying to play this on our iMac as a kid, and maybe even trying to make a Let's play out of it at the time. I would have to and see if I can recover anything from that harddrive that I have. # Relevant Links - https://legendsoflocalization.com/mother-3/ - https://archive.org/details/notebook0000kris/mode/1up?view=theater - The Notebook Trilogy - This is the collection of stories this game was somewhat based on. The protagonists are literally named "Lucas" and "Claus" for cryin' out loud.