I’ll review it when I finish it. It feels very strange playing it, though. It copies most of the visual style of Earthbound, with a little more graphical detail (and a much less aggravating inventory system). But the tone is very different. At least in the beginning, it’s more like a fantasy RPG, without the suburban satire of Earthbound. There are also fewer jokes, though that could just be the translation.
I just finished Chapter 4.
So far the first Chapter has been the highest note, emotionally. Though I hear the last Chapter gets pretty crazy too.
Still, that one scene in Chapter 1 (you all know which one I mean) was more powerful than anything in Earthbound, and is why I think the phrase ‘absurdly tragic’ fits the story to this game. “Hey Flint! I have some good news and bad news… the GOOD news is I found a Drago Fang, it should make an AWESOME weapon for you! The BAD news is, uh, where I found it. It was… buried in your wife’s heart.” Just… WHAT? Imagine if he had given Flint the bad news first. It was an emotional scene, and Flint’s reaction was pretty potent, and really sets the game apart from Earthbound. But still, the delivery of the tragic news was just… absurd. And it’s why I’m loving this game.
It does feel much more linear than Earthbound did, but that is probably due to it being broken up into Chapters.
The game changes a lot starting with Chapter 4. It resembles Earthbound more, with a more modern setting, and has more humour. However, the story still has a serious tone underneath the jokes. It is fascinating.
The plot is highly reminiscent of the song “Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey’s Head” by Gorillaz:
“Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain, there was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived. Their very existence a mystery to the rest of the world, obscured as it was by great clouds. Here they played out their peaceful lives, innocent of the litany of excess and violence that was growing in the world below. To live in harmony with the spirit of the mountain called Monkey was enough. Then one day, Strangefolk arrived in the town. They came in camouflage, hidden behind dark glasses, but no one noticed them; they only saw shadows. You see, without the truth of the eyes, the Happyfolk were blind.”
You have no idea, my spoony little friend. 
Also, for those of you who don’t want to miss an optional boss like I did: Go back to Osohe Castle as soon as Chapter 5 starts and check out the room where the boss was.
Actually I do. I’ve already been spoiled on the final bosses/ending. SSBB already spoiled one of the big reveals. However, I am not spoiled on everything that comes before it. So in other words, while playing Mother 3 I already know the destination, I’m just in it for the ride.
Also, yes, I did that. Lord Passion was tricky, but ultimately easier with a 4-person party. The weapon for Duster you get afterward is well worth the trip.
I managed to avert most of Brawl’s spoilers by not reading the info on the Mother 3-related trophies, so the only thing that got spoiled for me was the identity of the Pig King. Although, the identity of the Masked Man wasn’t exactly a major headscratcher.
Still, though. Dick move, Nintendo.
Just finished Chapter 1. So sad what happened…
I’m kinda in the same boat as Spoony. I’m aware of the final bosses and most of that stuff, but not everything else in between.
Just finished it, really enjoyed the game and the references to Mother 1 and 2. Since I rushed a little, I have some questions about the last chapters that maybe some of you guys can answer:
So, we learn that some green liquid at Pork Tower make people follow Pork’s orders. If that’s the case, then what is the purpose of the “happy box” early on? Or is it just a sort of symbol?
How the heck did Porky/Pokey build up all that stuff? Traveling through time and space after the end of Mother 2 is one thing, building an entire city plus an army is far too much.
Why is Dr. Andonuts helping Pokey/Porky? He helped Ness back then (Mother 2), why switch sides? How did he end up lost in nowhere island?
Any idea on what is the Dark Dragon? We don’t get to see it after all. Maybe it’s just representing something?
Ok, I am totally doing something wrong. Any advice?
I just started chapter 2 with Duster, and I’m getting my ass kicked left and right. I have to heal after every other battle, and at that rate I’ll be out of food in no time. What am I doing wrong?
You really have to take advantage of the thief tools and you might need to get a few levels. Dying has no consequence if you don’t have any money, and you don’t get money until a later chapter.
Well I try to use 'em, but they seem to fail more often than they work, and I’m trying to be at least a little legitimate by not reloading state during battles to make them work, though it is very tempting to do so. I guess I’m just unlucky more than anything, though.
The game is very forgiving – if you die and choose “yes” at the game over screen, you just restart at the nearest frog at full strength. Save your food items for the boss fights (if you need food, I think the barrel guys frequently drop some), just let yourself die and regenerate until you gain enough levels to have an easier time. Also use the dash ability to bypass some enemies.
I am currently in the middle of Chapter 7. The psychedelic episode in the jungle is spectacular, it rivals Moonside in Earthbound for weirdness.
What I wanna know is, is there anything like Fourside? And when I say that, I don’t mean how trippy it is, I mean like, in how absurdly hard it was to get through it. I loved the Earthbound on NES, and I really liked the SNES one until Fourside. I played a bit past that (I got to Summers, I believe); but Fourside really drained me of all desire to want to keep playing.
Nothing yet, though I’m just a little behind SK.
For me, the hardest part of the game was at the start of chapter 2 when you just had one party member. It got kinda tricky. Once I got past Chapter 2, though, I’ve had a relatively easy time with only one boss encounter giving me trouble. The Steel Mechorilla. First time it beat the crap out of me, second time I hit it with debuffs and turned the tables.
Which part did you find hard – the mole cave, the Monotoli building, or Moonside?
I don’t think there’s anything like that in Mother 3. The dungeons are all fairly short, and you get maps for all of them. It’s definitely easier than Earthbound, though a few boss battles will be very close.
It’s kinda hard to imagine how Earthbound/Mother 64 was supposed to be this game. For awhile I kinda thought that plans for it were scrapped entirely, but it seems like Mother 3 actually does really resemble what they had planned for the N64 game.
Took awhile, but at least we finally got it.
From what I’ve been able to tell, Mother 64 was to keep the same story more or less, but you can tell there’s some differences and such if you look close enough. But, I haven’t played through enough to figure out all that yet.
On that note, makes you wonder what Mother 3 would look like in 3D today. Looking at the 64’s battle screens makes me laugh with the funky backgrounds.
Moonside - sorry, when I said Fourside, I meant Moonside, heh.
Either way, that sounds good. The difficulty of combat never stopped me (hell, I loved Earthbound Zero, and good grief that game could be brutal), but Moonside was just so…augh.
I just finished the game. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed by the ending. Ryuuhi’s questions about the story are all well-founded, all of those are things the game doesn’t really bother to explain, I think they put them in solely because that was the only way they could think of to make a stronger connection to Earthbound.
The game suffers a bit from Chrono Cross syndrome. There aren’t that many locations (in fact, like Chrono Cross, the entire story takes place on small islands), so it just doesn’t feel like a big world. Basically there’s just two towns, plus a sort-of town that you visit in the last chapter. The locations don’t really stand out, and because there are few towns, there are few opportunities for parody of modern suburban life, which was the funniest aspect of Earthbound. Mother 3 feels a lot more like a generic fantasy RPG occasionally.
Also like in Chrono Cross, the way the game tries to make a connection to Earthbound is somewhat half-assed. I think this may be the translators’ problem, but why the hell do they keep referring to Pokey as “Porky”? He says his last name, Minch, at one point, so there’s no reason to be coy about his first name. Even if that’s somehow a more accurate translation, they should still have stuck with the name that everyone knows. On the other hand, to be fair, the return of the Mr. Saturns is handled pretty well.
Next, I think the big revelation made by Leder in Chapter 8 is a pretty weak way to resolve the plot. It is exciting to watch the village slowly change in the first couple of chapters, but soon after that, the village stops being important. The Happy Boxes in the beginning make a very ominous impression, and it seems like the game is trying to make some kind of allegory about being addicted to television (I really wish they had fleshed this out, it would have made a good contrast to Earthbound), but that whole idea gets abandoned immediately after it’s introduced. Same with the whole castle treasure thing, it drives the plot for a couple of chapters and then gets forgotten.
Still, there are a lot of hilarious parts, like the Magypsies (the scene where one of them teaches PSI powers to Lucas by telling him to turn around and hold still is hysterical – I think this scene is the reason why Nintendo decided not to translate the game), the mushroom scene in the jungle (the messages you get from the mailboxes are great), the oxygen stations, the secret dance used to get into the castle, and so on. Also, the first half of the game has a surprisingly powerful dark undercurrent. The ending of Chapter 1 is the most emotionally moving moment in the entire Mother series, and the sunflower field scene in Chapter 6 is also very strong.
Basically, I feel that the story doesn’t live up to its own promise, which it builds in the first few chapters. At the same time, those first few chapters are very good, even better than Earthbound in some ways. Hopefully the next installment, if there is one, will be bigger and more detailed.
I haven’t finished it yet, but regarding the translator’s decision on Pokey/Porky, they might’ve just been trying to coincide with Nintendo’s ‘latest’ translation of the name. He was called Porky in SSBB, so I guess they thought that’s what he always should’ve been called in the first place. He resembles his Brawl appearance more than his Earthbound one so perhaps they were trying to avoid confusion. Earthbound fans would know it to be Pokey anyway, and new fans who might’ve only played SSBB would make the connection without scratching their heads.