Mother 3 Chapter 1 Analysis

Hello and welcome to a multi-part series where I dissect each chapter of Mother 3. Please be sure to check out previous entries! Also, I will be spoiling.

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After replaying EarthBound, I debated on when I should start my Mother 3 replay. Well, I jumped into it the very next day.

There’s not many games in Nintendo’s catalog I would truly call “mysterious”. Yes, they have other games that haven’t left their home country of Japan. But it sadly did make sense not to originally bring Mother 3 here. The lackluster sales and reception of its predecessor over in the West was one reason. Not to mention that Mother 3 came out two years into the DS’ lifespan! However, the game is almost 20 years old. And EarthBound is now seen as one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. It seems a bit…weird that it hasn’t been brought over yet. There’s a few possible reasons why that is, but I’m not here to really discuss them.

Instead, I want to take a deep look at one of my favorite games ever made.

Note: This entry in my chapter analysis series will be a bit more gameplay focused than the future ones.

One of the main reasons I love playing subsequent entries of game series back-to-back, is to see the little changes the developers chose to make. With Mother 3, there’s a few changes I immediately welcomed. The addition of a run button helps a lot (even though walking seems to be a tad bit slower than in EarthBound). The menus are simplified. You used to have to tap the L button or double tap the A button to talk to NPCs in EarthBound; nothing game shattering, yet awkward. In Mother 3, it’s just one tap of the A button. Your characters sprites appear on screen when it’s their turn during battle. While I don’t actively dislike the first person combat very akin to the older Dragon Quest games, just being able to see my character sprites in battle adds a lot for me. The rolling number HP bar is much smoother too. In EarthBound, the rolling HP bar was extremely chunky and seemed to roll with some sort of lag. I guess overall it didn’t really affect the gameplay. But part of the appeal of the rolling HP bar is being able to heal before you lose all of your affected health, and it’s easier to master that tactic when the HP bar is moving fluidly. Speaking of HP, battles feel faster because they don’t waste time with text boxes like “Ness swings his bat for 250 damage!” Instead, when you attack, the number very quickly appears on screen and that’s it. There’s also a bit of a rhythm mechanic here. You can do a little extra damage if you can time your button presses to the rhythm of the music. But it’s extremely optional. I’m terrible at it and I’ve beaten the game before.

Thank you to the Mother community and mother3tribute.com for allowing free use of your amazing artwork. I will be using plenty of it throughout this series.

Asides from the gameplay improvements, there’s one clear difference between Mother 3 and it’s two older siblings- the emphasis on story. Within the first hour of Mother 1 and 2, you’re grinding up EXP for the first few difficult bosses. Mother 3 instead slowly eases the player into its narrative. That’s not to say that you aren’t actually playing an RPG pretty quickly. Within 20 minutes, you’ll be fighting snakes, bats, and even yams (yes, yams). I can be a pretty harsh critic when it comes to game pacing, but I think Mother 3 actually handles this excellently. You’re still playing the core mechanics while being introduced to the world and cast. And the first major boss of Mother 3 can crush you if you don’t pay attention. I understand that some people may like the faster more gamey pacing of the first two entries. But Mother 3 doesn’t really bother me in this way. It reminds me of the Midgar section of Final Fantasy VI; it is its own unique portion of the game while still getting the player into the core gameplay immediately.

I love that this game opens up in an idyllic way. You’re playing as Lucas, a young boy who is spending a few days at his grandfathers house with his twin brother Claus and his mother Hinawa. You get this feeling of summer vacation. A feeling of childlike freedom. Your mother makes you your favorite food for lunch. You and Claus are playing with a friendly species of dinosaur-like creatures named Dragos. Life is good. I should also note that the Americana spoofing of the first two games is pretty much gone. This is the fictional world of the “Nowhere Islands”

But despite the heavier emphasis on story and player friendly tweaks, this is still Mother. Remember how I mentioned EarthBound having a “stop and smell the flowers” approach? Hinawa writes Flint (Lucas and Claus’ father) a letter, and the player is forced to read the letter twice in a very slow scroll. It doesn’t bother me much because the game just started. But it’s funny that Shigesato Itoi really seems to love slowing the player down every now and then. There’s also the bizarre Mother humor. Very quickly the player is put into the role of Flint, husband of Hinawa. There is a nearby forest fire seemingly started by a group of people wearing pig masks. Flint receives the news that Hinawa was killed by a Drago, which shouldn’t have happened since Dragos are very friendly. You are playing as a family man who just lost his wife. His son has run off to avenge his mother, but is at risk of dying himself. So we have to chase down our son before it’s too late. And yet, Mother 3 has no issue with popping out one-liner jokes and puns during this tension. It’s classic for the series, and I’m glad it’s still present.

There’s a lot of imagery that is permanently etched into my mind from this first chapter. The sound of the siren and bell that ring once the forest fire breaks out. The specific red hue of the forest. Being covered in soot and ash after saving a child, only to enter a hot spring. But the hot spring only cleans the bottom half of your character sprite!

We get introduced to Tazmily Village; a small community of people who proudly state that nobody has ever been put into their prison. Because there is no crime in Tazmily. Everything is okay all of the time. It makes you wonder…

Of course, you wouldn’t know this on a first playthrough, but the player will become very familiar with Tazmily over the course of the game. It’s almost like Clock Town in Majora’s Mask, except we’ll see Tazmily slowly evolve.

Depending on how thorough of a player you are, this first chapter can take between an hour and a half to two and a half hours. It elegantly sets up multiple moving pieces. Who are these pig mask people setting fire to forests? Why do they have an Instant Revitalization Machine created by Dr. Andonuts from EarthBound? Why are wild animals half-mechanized? Almost like cyborgs. What will happen to Claus and Lucas who just lost their mother?

Within the first two hours there are many villagers that pique our interest. Lighter, who is Flints loyal childhood friend. Nipson, the grave keeper. Wess, an old man who seems to have had an interesting past. And Duster, Wess’ son who is being trained in thievery.

As Chapter 1 fades with the tragic battle between Flint and the Drago that killed his wife, the baton is once again passed. The player takes control of Duster.