Mother 3 Chapter 5 Analysis
Boy, does it feel good to not swap POVs after finishing a chapter! Lucas, Duster, Kumatora and Boney set off for the Unknown Valley. The amnesiac Duster buried the Egg of Light inside of a broken Clayman there three years ago. When we arrive in the valley, we have to pick one of many holes to jump into. If we pick the wrong hole, we must find a ladder and pick another hole. This area reminds me quite a bit of EarthBound. EarthBounds dungeons are much like mazes, akin to something like the Lunar games. They make me feel like “Oh this won’t be hard”, but prove me wrong quite fast.
After getting through the hole dungeon, the Clayman runs off towards the Thunder Tower. The Thunder Tower is seemingly responsible for the lightning strikes that occur near the homes of people that don’t own a Happy Box.
It’s really fulfilling to finally be able to use everybody’s toolsets in battle at once. We have Lucas and Kumatora’s PSI abilities. We have Duster’s Thief Tools. And we have Boney’s Sniff ability, which allows us to decipher enemy weaknesses and strengths. Everything has been building up to this moment of total player freedom. In typical Mother fashion, the game is fairly challenging too. You won’t be mowing over enemies within seconds. A lot of them have attacks that can damage multiple party members at once.
Another way this game differentiates itself from the previous two Mother games is its enemies. In the first two games, you fight a wide arrange of preposterous enemies. These can range from a pile of vomit, a garbage can, a crow smoking cigarettes, and even a lamp. In Mother 3, enemies are more contextual. We fight tons of mechanized animals. Remember, the Pigmask army has a bad habit of turning poor wild animals into cyborgs.
Playing EarthBound and Mother 3 back to back has really been an enlightening experience. I’ve gotten to see how Mother 3 polishes its gameplay mechanics while also losing a good portion of the spirit of the series. Yes, there is humor. Yes, there are ludicrous situations. But something feels a bit forgotten.
When we get to a Pigmask base, the army mistakes Lucas for their commander (gee, I wonder why). The entire party wears a disguise. I really like that the developers kept Duster’s limping animation even while in costume. After driving around using a floating vehicle and chasing the Clayman, we eventually arrive at Thunder Tower. We retrieve the Egg of Light and Duster’s memories finally return to him.
This is where we bump into Fasaad again, this time supported by a group of Pigmask soldiers. We run to the very top of the tower, and find what appears to be a child’s bedroom. There are toys, presents, and even teddy bears straight out of EarthBound. There’s a robot maid who mentions somebody named “Master P”.
After a boss battle, we reach the yellow sphere on the very apex of the tower. Fasaad and his soldiers taunt us. He plans to blow up the tower and escape on his Porkship. They drop a rope ladder for him and float above us. But Fasaad, who has been eating bananas and carelessly tossing the peels on the ground, slips on a peel. He falls off the tower and the four of us grab onto the rope ladder via Rope Snake.
The Rope Snake is an item/character from Chapter 2. He humorously alerts us that he can no longer hold onto the rope ladder. And thus, the whole party falls to the ground. Surely death awaits them after such a long fall?
