4.5/5 ★ – Metalhead_Cinema's review of Mother 3.

Oh boy what a game. Genuinely one of the best JRPGs Nintendo has ever published. For me, finishing the Mother trilogy has been a goal of mine for over a decade and while I would occasionally play the games over the years, it took me until this year to finally sit down and play through all 3 of them in order, and it was an experience, and while Earthbound Beginnings (which for simplicity sake I will refer to as Mother 1) was my favorite before I finished Mother 3 (unpopular opinion I know) Mother 3 is definitely my favorite now, although all 3 of the Mother games are excellent imo. Anyways on to the actual review. So what's changed from Earthbound to Mother 3 that makes this game super special? For me it's primarily in how it presents its story and characters. While Mother 1 and Earthbound had its main characters mostly mute and the story mostly in the background, Mother 3 tells a much more involved and complex story with character relationships and drama. It's definitely the selling point compared to the last 2 games, and while I'm sure the types of people reading and writing reviews on this website have probably already played this game, I won't mention spoilers. But the story on a more analytical level is very deep and fairly dark as well. You have themes of nature vs technology, feudalism vs capitalism, violence, drug use, acceptance of death, neglect, animal abuse, fascism, and plenty of others that would've worried Nintendo of America in the past. And while those are just the themes that I gathered in my playthrough, it's still interesting to see a Nintendo game tackle such complex themes. It's not Evangelion or Lynchian levels of complex or bizarre, but it's a great and emotional story that you want to see through to the end, and the last hour or so are especially heartbreaking, it's hard not to almost shed a tear at points. I just love the characters in this game, I remember almost everyone. The main appeal of the Mother games have always been its NPCs and just how out there they can be sometimes, not only Mother 3 carries on this tradition, but it helps by making the setting of Tazmily Village and its change over time the main focus. You genuinely care for these characters and it's heartbreaking whenever things change for the worse. The main party is also excellent. While Lucas is still largely mute, you still understand his pain and emotions, especially in the heartbreaking final boss. The game gives you a reason to care for him and doesn't throw terrible things at him just to make you feel pity for him, you genuinely feel bad for him. I love Kumatora and her no shits attitude. I love Duster and his arc. Boney is just fun to have around, I mean what's more fitting for a game like Mother than to have a kid and his dog set out on an adventure. While I always appreciate character interactions in my RPGs and while there really isn't much of that here, whenever these characters do get a chance to shine, you'll always treasure those moments. Gameplay wise, this game is my favorite of the Mother trilogy, despite not being all too different from Earthbound. The rolling counter mechanic during battles is back, and honestly felt more exhilarating this time around. Earthbound wasn't a hard game by any means, and while Mother 3 is far from the difficulty of Mother 1, it's still noticeably harder than Earthbound, especially during the excellent boss battles, so the rolling counter this time around felt more clutch than in Earthbound, although it was still great in that game. The dash button returns from Mother 1, and while it's helpful, I think I would've preferred the traditional run button from Mother 1 rather than how it is in Mother 3, but that's just a minor complaint. Something new to battles is the sound battle mechanic. Whenever you're doing a regular attack, if you press A in time to the music, you'll be able to perform a multi hit combo with up to 16 hits. Of course if you aren't good at maintaining a steady tempo it can be challenging, but once you do master it, oh boy it's super satisfying, especially on the more challenging songs with tempo and time changes. But of course, if you can't master it, don't feel too bad as it's not required to master it in order to get through the game. While because of that, some may see the mechanic as pointless, I like having it in the game for those who are able to get it down. Since I play Bass guitar (it's kind of my job to keep a steady tempo) I had a lot of fun with this feature. Although it really only works well when playing on actual hardware. If you're playing on an emulator, results in input lag may vary. I played the game on an emulator, and I will admit that at points it felt off time. One change I'm glad was made was combining the purpose of the hospitals and hotels into hot springs which are littered throughout the game. It's free and far more convenient than spending money on hospitals or hotels or teleporting to a location with free healing. Speaking of which, teleporting is absent thanks to the new approach to the world of the game. Mother 3 does away with the open ended world of Mother 1 and Earthbound in favor of more linear and centralized locales to accommodate for the more linear and story focused narrative. While this may be seen as a step back for some folks, like I said, it fits the story of this game and as such I don't have a problem with it. It's impossible to get lost in this game, everything is clear and straight forward. Even though I've been singing high praises for this game, I do have some minor gripes. Of course the returning issue of limited item storage. While this game makes it clear that you don't want to be hoarding items and you want to use them as often as you can as seen by the high item drop rates, I still found the item management to be a problem. 16 slots for each character like in Earthbound. It's still annoying how items don't stack, and while the item guy is far more convenient than the escargo express from Earthbound, it's still annoying how the limited item storage is a problem present throughout all three games. Another minor gripe I have has to do with how you learn PK (or PSI) moves. Instead of gaining them immediately when leveling up, you have to wait until your character gets a fever which seems to happen at some random point after a certain level has been reached, and then you have to walk around for a bit until your character gets over the fever and then learns the new skill. While this only happens to Lucas and Kumatora, it's still annoying how you can't run while one of them has a fever. I'm sure there's some deeper story meaning for this that I'm just not getting, but just from a gameplay perspective, I find it annoying. Fuck, I'm this far down and I still haven't talked about the music. Well as to be expected, the OST for this game is fucking outstanding. The Mother trilogy in general has amazing music, and this game is no exception. The various battle themes are great, and so many reoccurring motifs in the game are used excellently. The music helps deepen the impact of the more emotional moments more than you could imagine. I feel like I can't do it justice, so just go check out the music for this game if you can, or just play it. Final thoughts. This game is a masterpiece. While the Mother games may not be everyone's cup of tea, I still say it's worth playing them if you're an RPG fan, especially Mother 3. While it's criminal how this game never officially made it out of Japan, I can see some imagery and themes in the game causing Nintendo of America to censor some things, especially back then. Maybe nowadays things could be different, but who knows. The fan translation is a masterpiece and I have nothing but the deepest respect for the beautiful people who worked on it. I don't think it's a stretch to say that this game is more well known amongst people for being that one Nintendo game that never released outside of Japan that people really want. More people should play Mother 3, I consider it an essential JRPG, and that's all I have to say.