Mother 3

Would recommend if you like: Earthbound, FF7 & 8 and 9 The Sims, Silent Hill 2, Takeshi Murakimis "Dance Dance Dance", Paranoia Agent.

Would recommend if you want: An RPG that relies heavily on humour, narrative and character rather then clever customisation and stats.

Early on in Mother 3, tragedy befalls the main character and his family.

Many light hearted encounters and turn based battles follow, but it's the unflinching manner in which this initial incident is handled that drives Mother 3 to such lofty heights, arguably even surpassing its revered prequel, Mother 2, or Earthbound as its know outside Japan. 

Soundtracks are important. Mother 3s is badass.

This is not to say that the game doesn't have other strong points, it most certainly does- the irreverent sense of humor and startlingly unique game world alone would have been enough to see me through 40 plus hours it takes  to complete. Ditto for the beautifully simple character designs and animation. But its that central premises that's present at the majority of the games strongest moments, and pushes you to ignore some of the games short comings.

Arguably the biggest of these short comings is the turn based battles. Chances are if you've spend any amount of time playing rpgs there'll be no surprises here, your party attacks the enemy in turns determined by there speed, using your bog standard magic/ melee and buffs. Its not to say the the system is bad, its perfectly functional, but if you want a innovative deep combat system, you'd best look else where. Saying that, some of the boss battles get pretty damn tense, and sometimes the narrative bleeds into the combat, upping the enjoyment level immeasurably.

Its hard not to get enthralled in the game world itself, every new location reveals bizarre and beautiful new characters and situations. Its fascinating to watch as a sinister traveling merchant turn your home town against you, or get ship wrecked on an exotic island and experience one of the most bizarre, downright terrifying hallucinatory sequences in gaming's history. Its in these touches that you really get a sense of what Hal Laboratories was really going for, and one of the main aspects that make spending a few hours with Mother 3 such a pleasure.



Wess's dance.


Mother 3 is never stronger than in its final 3 hours. To explain why would unfortunately ruin some of what makes it great, but trust me when I say that if you enjoy a good ending, you can't miss this. 


So, should you play Mother 3? Sweet Jesus almighty you should. I cant guarantee it will be to every one's taste, and if your in anyway adverse to the surreal or bizarre then you should probably just go back to Call of Duty (yeah I said it). But, if you want to see just how uniquely games can handle a deeply emotional narrative, then you owe it to yourself to play this. Download link below.


Rom: http://romhustler.net/rom/gba/1725/mother-3-japan (the little blue link in the middle)


English translation patch: http://mother3.fobby.net/

BIZARRE FACT: Mother 3 has been in development for ten years and even went thorugh a  failed jump to the third dimension: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pcd9VnnXSQ