Mother 3

Mother 3
Developer(s)	HAL Laboratory Brownie Brown Nintendo SPD
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Genre(s)	RPG

Mother 3 (マザースリー, Mazā Surī) is a role-playing video game for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console, developed by HAL Laboratory and Brownie Brown, published by Nintendo. It was praised for its humourous elements, intriguing storyline, and innovative beat-responsive battle tecniques. Although the game itself was never released outside of Japan, a translation patch made by fans has come out on the internet for Mother 3, making gameplay outside of Japan only avaliable on emulation or through the usage of a "flash cart".

Gameplay

Like other RPGs, the world of Mother 3 features villages, forests and dungeons the main characters travel through. Unlike Mother or EarthBound, however, the game is more centered about the story progressing than about travelling. The game is divided in eight chapters. In most places, battles will occur when the party encounters enemies visible in the screen. Battles allow character's stats to grow and eventually causes them to level up and learn new abilities. Like EarthBound, Mother 3 allows characters than catch an enemy from behind to gain an extra turn at the start of the battle, or lose a turn if they are caught from behind. When the characters are powerful enough, they can run into some enemies, instantly defeating them without entering battle, but without gaining experience either, which differs from EarthBound.

While the previous two games in the series used an oblique projection, Mother 3 settles for a more traditional top-down view. On the other hand, the game does share the aspect of avoiding an overworld camera. Cities and roads are always seen at the same size.

Boney performs a music combo against an Almost Mecha-Lion.

In battle, characters and their enemies have Hit Points and they take turns to do actions that include attacking or using special abilities, in an effort to reduce a team's hit points to 0, where the battle is ended. The game retakes the odometer-like box from EarthBound to display a characters' HP. As one character takes damage, his or her hit points slowly decrease, giving the player the necessary time to heal him or her, or even win the battle, in case the character has taken "mortal damage". An interesting new feature is the music combo system: if a character attacks with a regular hit (not PSI or an item), the player may continue pressing the A button with the beat of the background music to continue doing up to 16 hits in a single turn. However, with this in mind, the music varies from enemy to enemy, and the tempo and/or beat combination may become more difficult to perform as the game progresses. The same way, some enemies have a background music similar to an older enemy's, giving the player the feel he or she knows the song, only to feature an unexpected change in the time signature or tempo. Finally, while an enemy is asleep, a heartbeat-like sound is heard so that the player studies when to press the button.

Plot

Characters

Mother 3 differs significantly from the other games in the series in that its playable characters do not longer share the same look or personality, nor does it have the same party of characters at all times. While the other two games started with a boy wearing a red baseball cap and having PSI eventually meeting a very smart kid and a girl, Mother 3's final party consists of a blond kid, Lucas, a tomboyish princess, Kumatora, a young thief with a disabled leg, Duster, and Lucas's dog, Boney. Other main playable characters in the story include Lucas's father, Flint, and a monkey called Salsa.

Story

Spoiler warning: The following information contains spoilers. Please read at your own risk.

Prologue

(From left to right) Alec, Claus, Lucas and The Drago Family

The game starts off in Tazmily Village, where two twins, Lucas and Claus, are playing with Dragos at their grandfather Alec's house. After battling a Mole Cricket who swears to get revenge, their mother, Hinawa, calls them in for dinner. Next we see a letter written to her husband Flint which indicates they will be home within a few hours, before the sun sets.

Chapter 1: Night of the Funeral

At night, chaos starts in Sunshine Forest, where Pigmasks are throwing bombs. Flint helps calm the situation by first saving his friend Lighter's son Fuel, stuck in their log cabin in fire. Flint realizes it's already late for his wife and children, so he and his dog Boney, along with other villagers, starts to look for them. Boney spots a piece of cloth resembling the mother's dress in a cliff, and old man Wess calls his son Duster to Wall Staple the side of the mountain, making it able to be climbed. At the top, two Pigmasks have altered a caribou into a mechanical Chimera, which attacks Flint, Duster and Boney. Later, Flint is told Lucas and Claus have been found, and they receive the kids in a fireplace. Bronson, however, comes to tell Flint he found a Drago's fand pierced through Hinawa's heart. Overwhelmed by anger, Flint ends up attacking innocent townspeople who want to help him. Lighter knocks him out unconcious before he can cause more damage, and Flint awakes in jail, only to have Claus soon come to break him out.

Flint meets Lucas at Hinawa's grave, who then reveals, nerviously, that Claus has sent out to get revenge on the Drago that killed his mother. Alarmed, Flint rushes to the Drago's home, with the help of Alec. He makes Flint meet his friends, the Magypsies, which have sent Claus with some "PSI" to the Drago. Going on a litle further, both men find Claus's shoe, and they hear a movement behind a rock. Flint calls for his son, but instead a giant Mecha Drago comes out of the rock. After defeating it, the baby Drago comes along, and Flint threatens to kill the father, stopped only by Alec.

Chapter 2: Thief's Adventure

That night, Duster is sent by Wess to get an important item from Osohe Castle. While leaving the town, a mysterious man with a monkey steps into Duster, and they appear to be going to the Yado Inn. Then Duster finds a kid, Butch, with a bag of the then-unknown and unusable money, saying he traded it for pigs to some man, and revealing Duster he will hide it in the well. He gets to the room of the precious object after a series of mazes that included buying a Rope Snake from a ghost and gets the Noble Spitoon. Once he returns home in the morning, however, Wess flies into rage saying this was not the right object, and now accompanies him back to the castle.

After reaching the castle, they notice Pigmasks have inflitrated the castle after Duster left, and the party fights them and a Clayman they send. Later, the group gets once again to the room of the Noble Spitoon and Wess notices there is another door to be opened. Wess performs a humorous dance, which the secret door recognizes and, thus, opens. While there, Duster and Wess find Kumatora, the tomboy-ish princess of the Osohe Castle. After the three rescue the egg, a trap sends them to a dungeon, and they get washed away. Kumatora and Wess arrive back at Tazmily through the sewers, found by Lighter and Fuel, while Duster and the egg are nowhere to be found. Back in the town, Butch doesn't find his money where he left it, in the well, and accuses Duster of stealing it, as he was the only one to know where it was. Flint comes to calm the group and the chapter ends.

Chapter 3: The Mysterious Peddler

It is the day Flint woke up from jail, and the player takes over Salsa, a young monkey who must obey his abusive master, Fassad, to keep his girlfriend unharmed. In order to make sure the monkey does its job well, it has been given a collar that zaps it every time Fassad wants to, to use it as a punishment. As Salsa is weak at battling, Fassad helps both get through the Death Desert and defeat the Cactus Wolf. The group reaches the tunnel, and travel to Tazmily Village via Pork Bean. They arrive at night, to step into Duster while he's getting out of town. They stay at the Yado Inn after overhearing a conversation Duster and Butch about his new money. Later in the night, Salsa spies Fassad, who steals the money from the well.

The next day, Fassad takes Salsa with him give a speech to the villagers, hoping to get their trust. After Salsa delivers "Happy Boxes" to four villagers, Fassad receives a call from the Pigmasks, and he is informed there are intruders at Osohe Castle, and that they have trouble finding certain important item that is mentioned. With Salsa's help, the same dance Wess made, they both find a basement entrance with a lever that causes Duster, Wess and Kumatora to fall through the waterway. Fassad arrives only to catch the last of the conversation between Butch and the villagers. For a moment, though, Kumatora recognizes Salsa is sad. That night, Salsa is awakened by Kumatora and Wess, and escapes through the window. Fassad notices, however, and the group is chased into the forest. Suddenly, though, Lucas appears and whistles to call for a Drago and its baby, which beat the Pigmasks. Lucas is told everything that has happened and they settle to protect the village while Kumatora and Salsa leave in search of Duster and the egg.

Chapter 4: Club Titiboo

Lucas and Boney set out to the Tazmily, now three years in the future. The entire town is more modern, the Pigmasks are regularly seen in the town, and lightning appears to be hitting regularly houses of those who haven't bought a Happy Box. After Lucas hears the bassist from the group DCMC, in Club Titiboo, resembles Duster, he goes by foot to find out. In the road, he finds the Magypsy Ioina, who teaches him about PSI powers. After a part-time job working for the Pig Mask Army that involved moving dead, unresponsive Claymen, Lucas and Boney can now enter Club Titiboo.

While waiting for the concert to start, a waitress named Violet explains that she is actually Kumatora. After the DCMC stops playing, Lucas and Boney go outside, where Kumatora tells them to meet her in her room. When Lucas arrives, the two talk about what has happened in the past three years in Tazmily. After getting through the attic, Lucas explains everything to the now amnesic Duster about his past and who he really is. Fate, as the DCMC say, wants Lucky to leave, so they accept it. Duster gains some memory about the egg and joins the group.

Chapter 5: Thunder Tower

Duster leads the group to the broken Clayman where he had hidden the Humming Bird Egg in. Before retreiving it, though, lightning strikes the Clayman, activating it. The malfunctioning Clayman runs off up to the garbage dump, and Lucas and company follow him. Lucas is mistaken for a commander, so the group easily reaches the egg after a lot of running. When Duster touches the Egg, he regains all of his memory. Soon after, a Pig Mask comes, mistakes you for the commander again, and takes you to Thunder Tower.

Before getting to the top of the tower, the group passes through a childish room, containing many dolls and toys. When they reach the top, the group fights Mr. Genetor, the lightning generator responsible for all of the lightning strikes. After he's defeaten, Fassad, having recognized them, comes in and explains to Lucas how much of a pest he and his partners have been for him. The party runs outside onto a balcony then up some stairs to the roof of the Tower. Yokuba arrives, while eating a banana. He tosses the peel, and tells them the Tower will blow up while he escapes on a helicopter. The helicopter comes, but Fasaad slips on the banana peel he tossed and falls off the Tower. Duster's Rope Snake grabs on to the chopper ladder, but a Masked Man appears from inside the helicopter, and makes it shake so that the group falls.

Chapter 6: Sunflower Field

Lucas awakes in a field full of sunflowers. After walking around a bit, he finds Boney barking at a ghostly Hinawa. Lucas and Boney follow her until she appears on a cloud near a cliff. Lucas runs off, thinking he will finally be rejoined with his beloved mother, but falls. Lucas and Boney land in a haypile, with Alec and Wess waiting next to it.

Chapter 7: The Seven Needles

When Lucas wakes up, Alec tells him to go see the Magypsies. Lucas heads into town, when on the bridge, tied-up, is Ionia, the Magyspy he met earlier in the game. She then insists to go to Aeolia's house, the house first visited by Flint and Alec. Aeolia explains that when seven legendary "Needles" are finally pulled, it will awake The Dragon and will take the passion of the person who pulls them. She also says that the first has already been pulled and she will soon fade away because of it. Lucas, Boney and Ionia go through the underground passage to get to Oshoe Courtyard and, to their disbelief, the Needle is gone. Ionia explains further about the Dragon and the Needles, and how only those who know PK Love, Lucas's signature PSI, can pull them. She then stays behind as Lucas and Boney decide to stop at Hinawa's grave for a bit. Nippolyte is there and says the they just missed Flint. He did, however, leave a Courage Badge for them. Lucas takes the badge and goes to the Cross Road Station.

After a bit of traveling, Lucas and Boney finally end up at the Chimera Lab, where a Pig Mask mistakes them for part-time workers. He tells you to watch for intruders as he looks for two escaped monkeys. Lucas and Boney ditch the job and go in the lab, anyways. After chasing Salsa and his girlfriend, the missing monkeys, Lucas is told the Ultimate Chimera has been released, and is now roaming the halls freely. The group meets Dr. Andonuts hidden in a trash can. All of a sudden, the Ultimate Chimera comes in and traps Lucas and Boney, who had already trapped the monkeys. Dr. Andonuts arrives in a trash can to tell them that the Chimera can be turned off by hitting the button on it's back. Salsa barely manages to press the button on it's back and stop it. Lucas, Boney, Salsa, and Dr. Andonuts all escape without harm. The group soon enter a passage, thanks to Salsa's dance, and meet Kumatora and Doria, another Magypsy. Here, Lucas pulls the second Needle.

Near the laboratory, the group surprisingly finds the Mole Cricket Lucas met three years before. He takes the group to the Mole Cricket Hole, and battles Lucas again. When he learns Mole Crickets are maybe not meant to be powerful, many Mole Crickets start a business selling things they find on the ground. The end of the hole leads to Snowcap Mountain, where the third Magypsy, Lydia, and his Needle are found. When they reach the Needle, however, the Pig Mask Army has already pulled it.

Going back to Tazmily Village through a refrigerator, the group sees a bottle with a message. It leads them to the highway, through a Mr. Saturn table-like vehicle, up to Saturn Valley. There, Mr. Saturn are being scared by Frightbots and Pigmasks. The group also finds Duster tied along with Mr. Saturns and free them. North of the valley, the group gets through Phyriga's house and visits the Gova Volcano, where the fourth Needle is found. They find Fassad, now reconstructed and unable to speak, and beat him to pull the Needle. A Mr. Saturn offers cleaning up Lucas's Courage Badge before he and the group leaves in a flying machine the Mr. Saturn invented, composed of a cage with birds.

The group gets back to Tazmily and begins to travel the ocean to go to Tanetane Island. After being washed away by Master Eddy, they are unable to proceed with all their damage, so they are forced to eat strange-looking mushrooms they find, which make them distort colors, and see evil and disturbing illusions of people they know. After getting to Mixolydia's house, the group is cured from the mushroom's effect, and they proceed to the Needle. The group manages to defeat the guardians of the Needle, but the Masked Man appears, throws lightning to the group through a sword, and pulls the Needle before they react.

Finally, the group returns again to Tazmily Village and travel near Alec's old house to find Ionia's house. She tells the group some vines frozen in time are guarding the Chupichupyoi Temple, where the sixth Needle is found. The group receives a special item to remove the vines and also meets a Mr. Saturn before going to the temple. He indicates the courage he borrowed is now clean, and it is discovered it is a Franklin Badge, a device able to reflect lightning. The Masked Man is trying to get to the Needle when the group arrives, but his shock is reflected by Lucas's badge. After the group battles him, the Pig Mask Army leaves and Lucas pulls the sixth Needle. Outside, a flying limousine is waiting for Lucas.

Chapter 8: All Things...

The limousine's Chauffeur tells the group his master Porky Minch has invited them to New Pork City, where all the residents of Tazmily Village had already moved to. When they reach the city, the see a modern but childishly-designed city, full of giant toy-like objects, restaurants, an unfinished amusement park, an arcade, a theater and a tall building. When the group enters the theater, they are told there is some bug causing a terrible odour. Boney finds the Stinkbug and chases it through the sewers. The group finds an entrance through the arcade and manages to find Boney at the end of the city's sewer tunnels. They find a room with Boney, the bug and Leder, the previous very tall person who used to ring the bell at Tazmily, but never talked. He tells Lucas a very long story about what has been happening, using the Stinkbug to remember, as he says it helps with the memory.

Leder explains there was once a world, way bigger than Nowhere Islands and with a lot of people, but these people destroyed it. A small group, however, came in a White Ship to the Nowhere Islands, as it was the only place that would survive the end of the world. This was because the islands were the home of The Dragon. As it couldn't coexist with humans, it was sealed by the seven Needles the Magypsies guard. The people, fearing another end of the world, chose to erase their memories and create a "story" they would act, which is how the peaceful Tazmily came to be. The Hummingbird Egg contained the erased memories of everyone, and Leder was the one chosen to remember in case things needed to be retold. The peace was beginning to end, however, because a child named Porky had travelled to the islands with a time machine, using the world as his own "toy box" where he could create Chimeras, build things like the Thunder Tower and have an army. Porky was helped by a traitor Magypsy, Locria, the only one whose Needle had not been pulled.

After hearing the story, the groups wants to get out of the sewers and stop Porky's plans to pull the last Needle. They are attacked by Fassad again near the exit of the sewers. When he is defeated, he falls to the sewers, never to be seen again. The group enters the Empire Pork Building and takes the elevator to a DCMC concert, the last one. Duster gets his afro back and agrees to play with them one last time. The show is interrupted by Porky, however, who taunts Lucas and his friends to go search for him at the 100th floor. The group takes an elevator and gets through a room filled with Hippo Chimeras, one with a lot of girls talking about Porky and one filled with many bathrooms. Then the group reaches a hall that contains a Magypsy's house with Fassad's clothes and bananas inside. A nearby mouse is found, and talks about how good his master Locria is with him. He says he went out but he's waiting for him to come back.

The group reaches yet another 100th floor, this one half-constructed, then passes through a lab-like set of rooms, the last hall containing people an animals trapped in a green substance that apparently makes them want to like Porky. The party finally reaches a different room, with the limousine Chauffer now acting as a host in a set of three games where Lucas must compete with a Porky robot. To proceed, the group must make Porky happy by always losing to the robot but only by a narrow result. A giant pig robot, the Natural Killer Cyborg, is the one last enemy before a hall full of objects from the previous Earth (seen in EarthBound), such as Dungeon Man.

The real top floor contains Porky Bots that battle the group. After an exhausting battle, the DCMC come to help the party battle the last ones. Then the real Porky Minch appears, in his spider-like machine, now way older than in the previous game. Porky explains he's lost his faith in humanity and so immaturely says it's better to have fun playing with the last bit of the world before it is destroyed by The Dragon. Suddenly, he is informed the last Needle has been found, just under the Empire Pork Building. Lucas, Duster, Kumatora and Boney, now also joined by Flint, go by elevator and find a cave. Porky here faces the group with unexplainable attacks much like Giygas'. When he is hit enough, he enters his Absolutely Safe Machine, designed by Dr. Andonuts, to ensure he does not die. The capsule, however, also forbids him to do any action or to get out, so the group leaves Porky inside and proceeds through the cave. Flint, apparently hurt by Porky, reveals he found out the Masked Man is in fact Lucas's twin, Claus.

Lucas finds him near the Needle, and he attacks the rest of the party while Lucas is protected by the Franklin Badge. Lucas, unable to fight his brother, only defends himself. Slowly, though, a voice fills the air. It's Hinawa's voice, trying to make Claus react. After attacking Lucas and damaging Flint, Claus appears to be somehow hearing his mother's voice. Both brothers are only left hitting each other innocently. Then, Hinawa's voice manages to get through Porky's mind control and tells Claus to join her. He does so by casting a last lightning against Lucas, only to get the attack reflected. Claus receives severe damage, but says goodbye to everyone before dying. Lucas, finally, decides to pull the last Needle. Earthquakes begin, volcanoes erupt and meteors start crashing Nowehere Islands. New Pork City, Tazmily Village and the rest of the islands are totally destroyed by the apocalypse.

An all-black screen reveals everyone has somehow survived The Dragon, and everyone, including Porky, is still alive. They thank the player for being the one responsible for saving them. Because this last part of the game is so abstract, many interpret differently the fact that Claus and/or Hinaway may be alive again, or that the world was not meant to be destroyed but only transformed into a new, uncorrupted one. This one last idea is supported by the fact that the very last screen of the game shows the MOTHER 3 logo, now completely rid of metal, and with the silver "O" replaced by a picture of the Earth.

Spoiler warning: Spoilers end here.

Development

Nintendo 64 version

Bronson tells Flint there are good news and bad news in the Nintendo 64 version.

EarthBound 64 (Mother 3 in Japan) was a cancelled Nintendo 64 title. Soon after EarthBound was released for the Super Famicom, development for a sequel began, soon to be transferred to the Nintendo 64DD. It was first planned as a launch title for the console, under the name of Mother 3: Forest of the Chimera, then changed to Mother 3: The Fall of the Pig King and expected as one of the first one hundred titles for the Nintendo 64.

The 3D graphics and Nintendo 64 hardware, however, proved to be really difficult for the development team. At one point, the team had to be assisted by the Pokémon Stadium team so that the visuals were better. In Spaceworld 1999, a demo playable version was shown, featuring scenes recognizable in the Game Boy Advance version. The game was later delayed to March 2000. It had a lot of glitches and needed corrections, even though most of the programming was ready, and the Nintendo GameCube was soon going to outshadow new Nintendo 64 titles if they were to be delayed so much. On August of the same year, though, Shigesato Itoi confirmed the game's cancellation.

The Nintendo 64 version had a lot of planned mechanics that had to be dropped for the Game Boy Advance. These included an internal clock that would allow the game's time to match the current time. Also, some battle actions weren't present in the GBA version either, including "Call" (for Lucas only), "Speak" and "Magic". The game was also meant to be an unique experience to every player, meaning there were many distinct paths to get some things, and some unsual mechanics such as hungry monsters appearing if you dropped food items nearby. These were all removed for the GBA version. In general, Itoi confesses, the game's plot was much darker in the Nintendo 64.

Game Boy Advance version

When Itoi decided to bring Mother and EarthBound into the Game Boy Advance as Mother 1+2", fans encouraged Itoi into making Mother 3 for the Game Boy Advance version and the project was retaken, being developed by Browine Brown and HAL Laboratory. Shigesato Itoi served as the writer and supervisor of the game. The plot was recycled but some scenes were modified while others, like the famous mine-cart scene from the Nintendo 64 trailer, were completely removed.

Mother 3 was designed to have a different feel from the other two games in the series. The story in this game is much darker than in the others, yet, Itoi says, the whole tone is not like that all the time, allowing funny scenes to happen. The slogan of the game is "Strange, Funny and Heartrending" for these kind of reasons. In addition, Itoit comments that learning of PSI in this game is, in a way, comparable to menstruation. Lucas and Kumatora have a fever before learning any new PSI moves. He explains that when he feels exhausted himself it's because something good will happen.

Music

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