Mother 3 Analysis

the mother series spends 30 years yet just three games the first in the series mother was released for the Famicom in 1989 being a JRPG that took a lot of inspiration from Dragon Quest but with a twist of existing and a modern contemporary setting as opposed to a fantasy setting which was the norm for the time mother however was never released outside of Japan until a global release for the Wii U eShop in 2015 where it was titled earthbound beginnings the next title was mother - which released in Japan in 1994 for the Super Famicom and in the u.s. in 1995 for the SNES under the name earthbound much like mother one northbound never made a fire of Japan releasing in the US but not other markets like Europe or Australia once again until a Nintendo eShop release later down the road the third and final game mother3 arrived on April 20th of 2006 in Japan for the Game Boy Advance and it still hasn't made its way outside of Japan even 13 years later but despite the erratic releases and lack of support for international versions the series has still developed an incredibly passionate fan base outside of Japan one of the biggest reasons the mother series has stayed so beloved is that there really isn't anything like it they've certainly been titles very inspired by them other games like the Lisa series or undertale but there still isn't anything that quiet scratches the same itch this is partly because of the unique choice and setting as mentioned earlier but it's also the self-awareness humour and general absurdity of the series for example you mostly fight everyday objects like fire hydrants taxis and sentient piles of vomit not fantastical creatures for the most part anyway plot progression will often happen apropos of nothing being so blatantly coincidental that you find it hard to blame the game because you know that it knows how to ridiculous this all is there's also a very distinct tone of voice and writing characters often feel like a genuine product of the really strange world that they exist in often to a point that it's hard to separate the world from its inhabitants it's so strange that it makes the world and characters more believable because surely only people from other game would talk like this so who's the brainchild behind the mother series a series of games so distinct yet streamlined and consistent must be honed by someone just as interesting right well let's get into it chicas hot toy toy was born in 1948 in a Japanese town called Maebashi it toys parents divorced early in his life and as a result he no longer saw his mother and rarely saw his father thanks to his busy work life as legal advisor after high school a toy enrolled at sa University in Tokyo that ended up dropping out he soon felt that he had no plan for his future and so he wanted to find a job this led him back to school where he pursued copywriting he found success in this industry carving out a career for himself writing for TV advertisements bands and even log lines for multiple Studio Ghibli films a toy eventually moved on from copywriting instead moving on to writing proper in 1981 he co-authored a collection of short stories with Haruki Murakami a Japanese writer known worldwide for his works Kotori had a unique strange and slightly unsettling style of writing however his catalogue is made up mostly of essays covering a wide range of topics from his dog to economics the toy has also ran a personal blog for lack of a better term since 1998 or her bony connotation when translated to toys almost daily news he constantly updates the site to this day making posts about whichever topic he feels and is yet to go a day without posting despite the name there's also no advertisements instead making revenue through an online store where you can buy clothes books food and jewelry among other things although this may seem all appropriately strange the page is very popular being able to support the toy in an office of around 40 employees looking back on sugar Sartori toys work he can certainly see the DNA of their mother series a focus on subversion community family and connection is weaved throughout his history all his past experience would end up manifesting itself in the mother series it's all you've been interested in games and so wrote a proposal and pitched it to Nintendo through some connections he had Miyamoto wasn't sure at first as a toy had become somewhat of a celebrity in Japan and Miyamoto felt that games by celebrities weren't very good despite this initial reaction the toy was called back by a Nintendo next day who said that I feel serious they were ready to get the project started so what's another one actually like [Music] mother 1 was an interesting title for the time as I mentioned earlier it used the modern setting but it also had you using toy guns and baseball bats for weapons instead of swords and shields it exists in a strange middle ground between parity and admiration mother purposely avoids the cliches that already existed in the genre while also creating a core gameplay loop that's so inspired by Dragon Quest it's hard to think they weren't big fans of the series mother follows an intent along with Lloyd Anna and Teddy as they explore the world to look for eight melodies of a song afternoon tennis tasks to find the melodies by Queen Mary the ruler of a place called magic can in turn was what to magic an after his father explains that his great grandfather had psychic powers and you know what I'll keep the plot summary brief a good chunk of it is reused for mother too anyway mother follows Minton along with Lloyd Anna and Teddy as they explore the world to look for eight melodies as the player looks for the melodies they'll fight random battles using a rather standard battle system you have physical attacks single-use items and PSI attacks which are essentially magic mother one certainly has its fans but it's not looked back on nearly as fondly as the latter two titles are the game goes through a few large spikes in difficulty which results in having to grind and although the setting is unique there isn't too much to see outside of the main plot I'm sure some fans enjoy the challenge and feel like the world is expressive enough without the need of too many details provided outside the plot but it's ultimately a game that the industry is aged out of JRPGs hadn't been around long enough to become as streamlined as they are these days although mother 1 hasn't held up too well it's still an important title it was subversive and different and it laid the groundwork for mother two or earthbound so who knows maybe without mother one earthbound never would have been as fantastic as it was and still is [Music] earthbound would also set itself down in this weird middle ground right next to mother one it is very much a sequel to the first game exploring similar concepts in more depth while also adding new elements and mechanics the game didn't sell very well in the u.s. being backed by a strange marketing scheme this meant that the game never really took off outside of Japan until it retrospectively became one of the most loved titles on the SNES along with a dedicated cult following as mentioned earlier so earthbound now occupies a strange space where it is adored by those who've played it and only really known by those who haven't because of that kid who's in Super Smash Brothers the game has you controlling nests a child from a town called on it want okay so is it honored or want because everyone calls it on it but the next three towns in the game are two synth Reed and four side so if on it begins this number based naming scheme shouldn't it actually be pronounced want yeah yeah yeah I think I think that's right now I'm definitely right the game has you controlling a child cordon s from a town called once in a country named Eagle land which I believe was the name for the beta version of America one night a media falls in the town and Ness and his neighbor pokey go look at the crash site Ness is told by be like a lean mean buzz-buzz that he must find the eight melodies of a song at eight different sanctuaries around eagle end to stop gigas along the way he's joined by Paula and Jeff Teddy was unable to make filming days and so he was recast and played by another earthbound resident who one of the most important changes between the first and second game comes from the battle system when a member of your party is hit with an attack the damage isn't immediately decided and subtracted from the character's HP instead the HB ticks down in real time meaning that if you're quick enough you can heal their character before all the damage is subtracted from the health letting you negate a certain amount of it or in some cases avoid death altogether this new mechanic helps set it apart from other titles and feel like a unique battle system and add some great tension to encounters inventory management has also been streamlined you can call escargots express who will store items for you though only three can be deposited at once making the process rushed reading and likely leaving you wondering why the inventory is so limited in the first place where earthbound benefits from its evolutions the most though is in its writing you'll find a lot of memorable characters throughout the game earthbound and its characters are just really random at absurd and not random in the attention-seeking mid-2000s teenager random but genuinely subversive and entertaining one character will be celebrating because their wife left them for the second time and another will be surprised that you can't foresee the collapse of capitalism [Music] I think part of what elevates these characters is that most of them show up once and say one or two things from the weirdos to the comrades you don't know what to expect because every text box is distinct from the loss okay so intro to mother series check talking about she goes out to a toy check covering mother 1 I've done that covering earthbound done that okay so we're all caught up on context which means we can finally go over the game this video is actually about right right wait wait wait why does the script have an ellipses there we've been going on for like minutes surely we can talk about the actual game now hey stop fading out and answer me are you even doing are you editing the video so you may have noticed that mother3 released 12 years after earthbound and arrived on the gameboy advance instead of a home console the development process stopped and started throughout the 12 years but the setting and overall feel of the game seems to have stayed mostly consistent at least that's what it seems from the small amount of available footage mother 2 had sold well in Japan meaning that a sequel was quickly approved with development being started immediately the team was impressed by 3d games on the Nintendo 64 and so wanted to transition the mother series into the third dimension with the next title it was quickly found out however that the game would be too demanding for the standard 1064 Hardware which resulted in a scaling back of the game scope and a hardware change now developing the game for the Nintendo 64 disc drive this move would historically go in to suit the mothers here as well as the n64 disc drive never released outside of Japan so after the commercial failure of the didi mother 3 was made a cartridge based n64 title mother 3 was announced to be coming to the u.s. under the incredibly original title of earthbound 64 at space world 1999 a playable version of the game was displayed and here we can see mother 3 was already focused around the same family and the exploration of conflicts found at the intersection of nature and technology were present as can be seen with the chimera shown and the logo at the beginning which mixes metal slate and trees in a discussion about the cancellation of the game between shikha's a toy toy Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto he wada said that the game in a general sense was around 30% done overall the cancellation was due to the lack of focus and experienced staff Nintendo were able to lend to the game as the GameCubes launch was approaching three years later however on April 14th of 2003 commercials for mother 1+2 began to air in Japan mother 1+2 was a compilation of the first two titles being released for on the Game Boy Advance the commercials were simple and to the point that had something very interesting at the end mother 3 was announced to be back in development this time for the Game Boy Advance over the next two and a half years it would be restated multiple times that the game was still in development and in late January of 2006 both etoy and Nintendo would announce the final release date of April 20th 2006 in early February just a couple months before release it toy opened world of mother 3 world of mother 3 was a website that would release new information about the game once a week leading up to the launch he retired things like screenshots music tracks general information about the game and finally a letter from shigesato Itoi himself where he urges players to really engage with the game in all its aspects and oh I intend to miss your toy can't you see the length of this video just two days later the game would be released to positive reviews and sales of around 370 thousand copies by the end of 2006 in Japan anyway there was no mention of mother 3 getting any official translation so in November of 2006 a team of fans started to translate the game themselves the translation was led by tomato a professional translator who's worked on a number of popular series a few others helped with ROM hacking and polishing of the scripts on October 17th of 2008 the fan translation was released it was downloaded over 100,000 times within the first few months but this didn't convince Nintendo to release an official translation so mother 3 stays Japan exclusive 13 years later I wanted to go over the history of the development and over the mother series as a whole because this video is about all of mother 3 so although mother 3 can't technically be played officially that doesn't mean that it can't be played properly in my two playthroughs of the game I've never felt like I was playing a translated title the writing has the same qualities of the earthbound localization with it being different where appropriate and breeding very much like something she could start to eat I would write and although it's a shame the mother through his development was so long I'm personally glad that we got the game we did I can't comment on earthbound 64 as a game but there are some things about it that make me happy it wasn't released although it was using this newfangled thing called the third dimension whatever the that is the footage we have shows a game that hasn't aged nearly as well as mother3 the graphics was simple and lacked much style even in comparison to other 3d JRPGs like Final Fantasy 7 which instead used pre-rendered backgrounds to retain the detail of high quality pixel work on top of this Nintendo 64 was in no way the JRPG machine that the SNES was and with earthbound 64 already being scaled back to fit on a cartridge instead of a disc who knows how compromised the final game may have been with her great mother 3 is it's hard to look back on earthbound 64 and want that instead holy we actually get to talk about the game now so just a preface the rest of this video focuses purely on mother 3 and my analysis of it I've purposely avoided other analysis and interviews with a toy about the meaning of the game's narrative so that the points I make on my own I may step into more speculative territory as I don't necessarily have concrete answers for everything so just a heads up let's get into it so you insert the totally legit mother 3 Game Boy Advance cartridges that you definitely have let me just move that and start up the game [Music] [Music] as soon as you hit new game you name each character of the central family the father Flint the mother who Gnawa and the two children Klaus and Lucas along with best boy 2006 Award winner Burnie the dog you then asked what your favorite food is and I put tacos and then what your favorite thing is and I put music though the Canon answer for that second question is love these two small questions returned from earthbound and will be mentioned by characters throughout the game and it just makes it feel a little more personal [Music] the prologue begins in Iowa's father's house as Lukas you hop out of bed and go outside to play with class this small prologue establishes so much of mother3 it's like a tiny microcosm of what the game is its tone writing style music humour emotion and compassion all in one little section it's all captured here in a number of different ways the most obvious of these is the music you're only 5 minutes in and you've already heard that two or three bumpin songs the versatility of the soundtrack is shown here too from energetic fun and crunchy songs to easy listening laid-back tracks that will have you coming along by the second or third loop next is the visual style it looks similar to earthbound although with a little more detail and utilizing completely different environments and locales the graphical style complements the game really well cooperating with its different elements the simplicity and warm optimistic colors make the genuine emotional woman's more touching it's like an extra layer of sweetness and innocence on top on the other hand this simplicity allows mother3 to subvert your expectations more effectively as the visual style has disarmed you a bit so once you walk Lukas outside of Alec's place you'll find yourself in a secluded peaceful area where the house is tucked away and surrounded by wildlife as opposed to the American like town that earthbound had you starting in as you walk around this area you'll quickly see the value in talking to everything the chickens pigs and cows that alec owns all have something to say even if it is just small quips that communicate the quirks of the writing in the game it has a deeper value by making these unimportant animals characters that you can actually talk to it teaches you to see what everyone has to say after all if these animals all have their own dialogue then the human characters must have something interesting to say as well thanks to this small lesson the game doesn't have to force characters upon you when you get to test Millie the main town of the game you're more likely to go out of your way and speak to people which make characterization more natural and unobtrusive once you decide to go see Klaus you will most likely try the first path you see which is straight down here you will encounter the blatant ways in which the game will forbid you from going somewhere as you go to walk down you're stopped as there are ants at your feet and you wouldn't want to step on them even though you can't see them this introduces their self-awareness the game has as well it knows this is a reason for Lucas to stop himself but it's such a reason that you're more likely to chuckle to yourself then get frustrated as a player you now understand the game's positioning when it comes to directing you so when it happens while you're more invested in the story and exploration you probably won't be that mad because it's expected and already established as you try another path to the right you encounter the most important character in the game sa frog the frog explains that you should preserve your memory so you don't forget them or in other words save your game these frogs save your progress but also play into another really important part of mother 3 which is the characterization of boring but essential mechanics this is only something that happens a couple of times but it speaks to the game's commitment to being anything but uninteresting or forgettable saving is something that you have to do in practically every game so it becomes something that is standard and repetitive but necessary so by turning the save point into a character you forge a more concrete connection with it you don't breathe a sigh of relief just because you see a new place to save but also because you see this character saving now has a personality and lines of dialogue and the relationship that players have with saving can be used to make you care about a character and as silly as it sounds you will care about these good green boys by the end of the game continuing down this path you will see Klaus ramming himself against the drago or as i like to call it a dinosaur get it we get it looks like a dinosaur but it isn't okay I'm sorry so despite the fact that Klaus appears to be writing a new word of his death wish with each step he's actually just playing with them because they're peaceful creatures once again something crucial is being established here you're being shown that the nowhere islands are truly peaceful even creatures that the player would assume to be violent and dangerous coexist with humans the islands are an ecosystem in complete balance Alec then teaches you how to - and oh my it's beautiful you don't need to use a consumable atom to travel fast of like ten seconds it it makes me emotional just talking about it suddenly a mole cricket runs in and yes it's exactly what it sounds like it's a cricket that burrows underground like a mole the mole cricket is very confident it can defeat Lucas in class and so you're thrust into your first battle of the game and then the battle quickly ends after about 20 seconds in this battle you'll become more familiar with the UI and navigation as well as the general rhythm and combat system it's a simple turn-based system that lets you attack use items run and guard guarding makes the returning HP take a scroll by slower giving you more time to heal the wounded character like I said this prologue is a small microcosm so you don't quite explore the battle system fully after playing Lucas Claussen and I would get ready to go back home with an hour sending a letter to Flint via carrier Pidgeon seeing a carrier pigeon being used to send a letter draws attention to the fact that you've seen no modern technology thus far no TV phones cars really anything that made the setting of earthbound unique this does a great job of making the player associate the serenity of the nowhere islands with a lack of technology and industrialization as you know ascends the pigeon off a strange song bleeds in and something flies overhead [Music] this thing is making a sort of electronic warbling noise the sounds and theme it produces feel unnatural and in complete contrast to the tone and feel established in the last 15 minutes you know will looks up at the strange thing and wonders what it is but all the player sees is the shadow it casts on the ground the screen fades to black and the title screen is shown [Music] this placement is deliberate and fitting the game is indicating that this struggle between perceived progress and coexistence will be central to the game the theme just heard plays over the title screen and the drums boom in the horns blare it feels grandiose like it's being played by a marching band something that needs numbers and cooperation to truly succeed though the track seems to lack the soul and character that true teamwork instills its march two out of fear and obligation we then see a forest echoing with explosions and catch a few glimpses of people dressed in pig costumes called pig masks who were setting the explosions off the music is a media persistent and intrusive the forest is a liar and people in the nearest town called Taz merely are panicking and rushing around trying to figure out what they can do the wildlife of the forest is shown to the animals are attempting to escape this act isn't one purely about humans but the ecosystem as a whole then the first chapter is introduced the title is foreboding and kind of grim and so far there's only a few named characters that you know of a man named Thomas races down the road to Flint's house knocking furiously on the door and urgently calling for him you then put in control of Flint inside his house at as Milly you're the only one there so it must be the night that her Noah and the kids were supposed to get back thomas is frantically trying to get in and he wonders why anyone would lock their door in such a peaceful town in his attempts to get in the doorknob flies off but flint quickly walked outside thomas then says aah doorknob I mean Flint this is no time to be dozing off there's a huge fire in the sunshine forest this is a great example of how a toys writing finds itself being funny while still retaining the appropriate tone in a serious moment the fire is serious it's treated with dramatic weight but including Thomas's slip-up of calling Flint doorknob it puts a little smile on your face it also makes sense because Thomas is panicked and is likely running off adrenaline as you run through the town towards the forest you can talk to many of the people of taz merely some are just as panicked as Thomas some are scared and some are still finding a way to gossip about another citizen even at a time like this Jill now isn't the type of talking Jill you get a few lines from everyone here the majority have a touch of humor in them but they all have distinct character they don't feel like NPCs of a town that you talk to in the hopes of getting an item or a new sidequest the things they have to say are relevant and as you progress you'll become interested to see what each person thinks about whatever currently going on if link continues to the forest to look for fuel and lidar who live there as you rush through the forest you encounter a number of enemies letting you get a hang of the battle system these first sections let you get acclimated nicely the battles are simple and quite easy so you can get used to the rhythm of combat and explore the more unique aspects of the system like the special moves that Flint has and the rolling HP meter you can also find ample healing items with a healing hot spring being nearby the simple introduction to battling is really important repeated victories give a sense of accomplishment and weak enemies let you experiment with a special moves without too much punishment and on top of that the steady progression through the forest keeps the narrative pace consistent and believable the sunshine forest is a fantastic little tutorial dungeon one Katyn characterization and narrative importance deeper into the forest Flynn and Thomas see one of these pig masses they release a few strange-looking bugs in this area you fight sweet potatoes yes actually an indication that this interference is turning the previously coexisting members of this ecosystem against each other another nice detail is the thematic threads that cross over into the battle the battles in mother games as I'm sure you've noticed so far have strange psychedelic backgrounds often made up of shapes and patterns of various colors that are distorting or moving in strange ways these backgrounds match the world really well for example the backgrounds during the fire in the sunshine forest are made up of reds and oranges they pulse and move constantly changing form much like fire itself this method of placing battles within the world is more theoretical and abstract allowing it to be experimented with it also makes the truly strange and surreal moments much more subtle as you've become accustomed to this weird imagery this change in presentation isn't different for the sake of it it's regularly justified and used in interesting ways you soon come across a lighter lying on the ground he mentioned that fuels still at home deeper in the forest flint goes to find fuel while thomas gets the injured bladder back to safety you fight off what you find out are called fireflies continuing the punny names of almost every enemy in the game soon finding fuel on Leiter's house you barge into the home discovering and battling a flying mouse it looks unnatural with small wings that seem to have come off a bug of some sort it seems that the fire isn't the only thing interrupting the forest ecosystem after the fire you save fuel with the house crumbling around both of you as you exit Clinton fuel make their way back through the forest exiting and seeing a group of villagers around fighter who's bandaged up and lying on a table fuel runs over to his father worried about him this moment is presented as being as genuine as possible which is for the better a game that is so consistently absurd and funny could easily become afraid of being this genuine worried that it seems hokey or corny but mother threes fearlessness in this regard is one of its strongest traits constant jokes could make you feel like this world exists purely to be laughed at so balancing this out with character development and serious writing helps the bonds you form with these characters deepen in fact what can make these emotional moments so effective is how corny it is a town that is purely innocent and peaceful sounds sickeningly sweet but breaking this peace so soon into the game stops it from getting to that point this means that as you go through the first few hours the idea of a purely peaceful world doesn't seem so far-fetched you've seen how these characters help and care for each other so maybe peace could be achieved by this group of people this moment between lighter and fuel is a culmination of all these aspects it is optimistic and hopeful in the face of tragedy humorous but emotionally touching it's all just very human in a good way miraculously it starts pouring with rain putting out the fire in sunshine forests Flint and a few others take lighter back to the local inn outside the end Isak ask Flint if he's seen her now and the kids he then mentions that he saw and now while while up in the mountains later hearing what sounded like the joggers roar Flint runs home seeing the pigeon and I will left a message with earlier he reads the letter seemingly unable to take his eyes off it Isaac walks in on Flint still reading the letter marking that they're still not back he leaves to gather the rest of taz melee so they can all look for him our class and Lucas playing as Flint you go to find a family with the dog burning tagging along again you can see what each resident of Taz merely has to say and get an idea of how they're feeling about the current situation what's especially sharp about this part of the game is the way that it shifts focused so naturally establishing who the family are before you place Flint and then peppering in moments of them as you look for fuel in the forest makes the quick shift from the fire to looking for your family feel justified it also disguises what is really a very sudden change in objective quite well this transition is further smoothed out by having you go through the forest again seeing how it has changed from the fire it's certainly the same place but the atmosphere is dour and gloomy instead of hectic it feels different the catalyst for all of this change is essentially a shift in whether the sudden downpour is used to great effect being where the mood slows the music smooths out and focus shifts from a panic town trying to avert a crisis to an exhausted community that is desperately yes slowly looking for some of their peers you know like a move with purpose but with hope these things work in tandem to make the player buy into this community in town and are executed within just a few seconds and some sudden rain this is an example of why I prayed to sugar Saito a toy at night I mean it's so effective and so efficient that you don't even notice how radically things have changed until you're deep into the forest it sucks you in so much that these changes aren't jarring but engaging you're done with a fire now you need to find a family deep into the forest progress in the search is halted by trees blocking the way with some core marks nearby brunson the town's blacksmith along with Isaac Collider and fuel start trying to move the trees and urge you to find another way around you've seen the town unite to stop the fire in here their unity again but for you reinforcing the sense of community again and again throughout this first hour make sure that the player understands the spirit of these people every player will know just how tight-knit Taz Millie is from every text box to every action it all works to setup Taz me link as a town and as a community while looking around boney sees a piece of red cloth tagged on a branch on top of a cliff in the forest where a citizen of the town sends Bernie to fetch dust or his son as he'll know how to scale if a cutscene of Boni searching for duster plays here I think it emphasizes how every member of the community is important even the pets a sleeping duster is dragged through the forest by Boni eventually waking up and rushing to the cliff this small introduction to duster sets up his character really really well him sleeping at such an important time makes him seem a bit clueless but if he's given the chance he rushes to do what he can he Sprint's to the cliff to get there he does all of this despite his limp which makes contributing in these crucial circumstances more complicated it's a really fast way of communicating who Duster is and makes it our core that more believable and likeable so dusty uses one of his steve tools wall staples to craft an easy to climb ladder up the cliff face it's important to note that dusty mentions that this is the first time he's used its tool despite learning it as a child this really small section establishes duster well reaffirms that peaced has merely existed in and also communicates to the player which situation as the wall staples are used in as they will be utilized throughout the game mother3 constantly has sections like this a few minutes of gameplay that will do so much for the plot gameplay and character progression duster then joins the party and the three of you climbed the wharf staplers of the cliff once you've reached the top the rain stops the mood is shifting once again at the top of the cliff you see two of the same pig cosplayers from the forest they have some animal machine hybrid on top of a strange-looking device as you approach the pigs app this thing to life and it attacks you're fighting a reconstructed caribou a grotesque mix of machine and animal it has hydraulic legs and an antler that is spitting steam like an exhaust pipe this is the first boss of the game and provides a good opportunity to make use of dusters skills each character you play as in mother 3 has skills specific to them they're mostly quite useful and help each character fill a particular role during battles dusters skills are related to his expertise as a thief he has the previously seen wall staples which pin enemies to the ground stopping them from attacking for a couple turns he also has tools to lower enemies offense and defense as well as a pendulum that puts enemies to sleep just to name a few what's great about these is that they not only make each character feel distinct in battle but reinforces their characterization duster is a thief so he has tools that disarm enemies but they're only now being put to use by him so tools like the wall staples and hypnosis pendulum will regularly miss so now you're in a fight that's lengthy oh and can justify using turns to purely buff or debuff characters you're provided the perfect opportunity to experiment with Dusty's abilities right as he joins the party the placement of this boss makes narrative sense as well earlier we saw the mouse with wings a strange enemy but not one that flies in the face of natural evolution when it comes to a mother game anyway in that same forest you're fighting sweet potatoes so strange enemies aren't that unlikely however this chimera is a clear distortion of a natural being fighting this enemy here with the pigs present clues us in that they probably weren't responsible for just the fire after defeating the caribou the pigs run off in their haste leaving a notebook behind the notebook mentions that the pig mass and its leader are going to make a rougher and tougher animals it's written childishly like this decision to destroy all these animals was a flippin one Flint and the others chase after the pigs and we see them take off in a spaceship like vehicle with the same song we heard at the title screen [Music] it seems that these pig masks are the ones marching to this theme there's no way forward so you head back down the cliff to see if the trees have been moved yet as we get down Journal tells us that Lucas and class have been found a nice detail about this section is that the other villages are the ones who find the kids it once again shows us the way these people support each other and it's a great way to show how tight-knit this community is rather than just telling them Flint rushes up ahead and enters a small clearing the kids are huddled up before a fire trying to warn themselves after being washed up at the river Issac lighter and fuel here along with a couple other townspeople Flint class and Lucas embrace happy to be together again after such an exhausting night after a little while Bronson sprints into the clearing calling for Flint Bronson hesitantly explains that he found a drago thing that was pierced through and I was heart killing her [Music] lightning strikes the weather is once again helping set the mood and tone [Music] [Music] you seeing Flint lash out like this if you can't really blame him he hasn't said a word the whole game and it's finally become too much this moment brilliantly humanizes him he's been the savior all night but he's not perfect the people who helped find his children are now just witnesses to Flint's inability to save his own wife seeing characters trying to get through to him despite how obviously scared they are of him it's a testament to the raging ship they have with each other we then see a flashback to the final moments in our in Flint spent together as the kids in her novel left for Alec's house they don't share any words they just stare at each other Lucas has to physically dragonar away we can understand why Flint would be so angry at himself the last thing he did was let her leave with the kids he didn't get any closure what's so impressive about this sequence is how expressive it is visually totally and musically most 2d RPGs on systems like the gameboy advance or SNES are very limited in how characters can animate for example in 2d final fantasy surprises expressed by having the character sprite jump up and down there's a reliance on simple exaggerated movements here though Flint has a whole set of animations that are never seen again the way he stands up from being on his knees how he swings at the campfire in the moment he can't bring himself to swing once again at Olly this level of detailed presentation makes every interaction between characters field genuine not like something that is pre-programmed into a game the music is slow and plodding the keys bounce back and forth sounding bittersweet their mournful and make Flint's actions seem tragic not evil this sequence is compassionate and understanding it treats what is happening with respect and in doing so elevates it to something that is genuinely moving and engaging Flint wakes up int as Millie's jail and Brunson notes that no one has ever had to stay in there before a few minutes after Bronson leaves klaus walks in with a very inconspicuous apple that has a brilliantly hidden hand file inside he mentions how he's going to get stronger than even Drago's and promptly runs out using the hand file Flynn escapes to jail and outside duster offers his condolences at this point you can explore tez million talk to all the residents allowing you to touch base with them and get their perspective continuing to build and develop the characters what's valuable here is how different everyone's responses are to her now is death people will offer condolences in a number of different ways speaking to their personality Jackie is speechless Betsey asks you to keep being a good father and Abbot and oli forgive Flint for hitting them these characters all help establish the general thoughtful reaction the town has while providing nuance in each text box you can also visit some shops turning nuts you may have picked up along the way into better healing items or visiting Thomas's Bazaar where you can take what you need free of charge being able to accrue useful items that no cost to you helps the game play back up the assertion that Taz merely is peaceful and makes the play is mechanical relationship to the town grow tighter while visiting her now is grave you learn from Lucas that Klaus has run off to fight the drago that killed in our after getting this news Flint gets a weapon to fight the drago with and heads off to alex house as you run back through the forest and beyond you come across new enemies two notable enemies are the greedy mouse and agitated ball used to represent the changes this environment and town are going through or are about to go through and they're a clever way of escalating combat while also giving some narrative importance to a part of RPGs I can often be thought of as a purely mechanical role another new enemy this time in a new area near Alex house is the crag lizard this lizard disguises itself as a rock in the overworld only moving once you get very close this is another good example of making enemies more than something you just battle the crag lizard is a representation of the environment or ecosystem arming itself it's a rock or something inanimate that is being weaponized to fight against intruders or humans Alex's class may be at one of his friends houses so you start to travel there along the way Alec will interject with some information about this friend he reveals that they are am a gypsy a genderless being who's been protecting something for a very long time he also mentions that there's more than one arriving at the midship seas house she finds six of them you're introduced to aiolia Doria Phrygian Lydian mixolydian and iron we find out where Klaus was headed to as he came through the same area early on you head north from the megistias house finding yourself in a cave swamp I guess if that's a thing alik guides you through it and there's a funny bit where alec interrupts with shitty puns and then gets self-conscious about flint not laughing at them this interjection of humor helps lift the mood a bit and also contrasts Flint's silence well it stops the journey to find Klaus from being purely negative and intense balancing the dynamic out well while looking for Klaus you come across one of his shoes meaning he's likely clothes a bit further ahead you see the same machine that the pig masks used to power up the caribou chimera these two little breadcrumbs bring the game back to a serious tone quite well along with the atmospheric cloudy music Flint and Alex soon find the other of classes shoes and a drago chimera walks out from behind a rock attacking Flint and thus beginning another boss battle you [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] the battle is pretty intense but still simple which is the unfortunate reality for most of the early bosses as you haven't uncovered the complexities of the battle system yet turning them into a simple Hill when needed attack all of the times approach personally speaking this doesn't bother me that much as I'm not that into boss fights in the first place but it can make the battle system seems shallow at the beginning you use a Drago Fane to pierce the mecha Drago's hired allowing it to be damaged something I do like about this fire is that although alec isn't controllable in this section he'll sometimes automatically attack for pitiful amounts of damage which plays into his character well he's homely and sweet and old surprisingly he's not made for fighting robot dinosaurs the fight ends well too right before the drago is defeated it attacks one last time doing almost 300 damage as the battle ends right after the HP ticker won't have got down to zero yet but it does make what happens next more appropriate after the battle Alec Flint and the mecha jogo are all lying on the ground wounded or hurt the drago tries to get up and keep fighting but it can't hold its own weight Flint then prepares to finish it off but it's child jumps out to shield it he can't bring himself to attack and so he backs down this interaction sets a precedent in the game's commentary on technology it establishes that technological progress isn't necessarily a bad thing this Drago still has a soul and a mind and so killing it just because of its reliance or integration with technology would only be perpetuating violence this sets the groundwork for the idea that technological evolution is only bad when put in the wrong hands or carried out under the pretense of unethical motives it plants the seeds that will grow throughout the game to come to form a more coherent and thoughtful message [Music] [Music] once Flint backs away the camera pans showing class lying on a lower section of the cliff not too far away perhaps this implies that Flint was so focused on revenge that he forgot what he was really looking for you [Music] chapter 2 begins in Dustin's house wes is giving duster a mission to sneak into a SOHO castle to retrieve an item that Wes insists duster will be able to identify Wes Himself hid this item while the king of a so he still lived in the castle though the memory seems fuzzy with this knowledge you head off to the castle on the way there duster comes across a strange man with a monkey and he's not anyone the play has seen before you also run into butch a resident of Ismaili who was given money by this strange man though neither of them know what money actually is however butch is convinced that it's something of value and hides it in the well at the center of Challen he went to the graveyard on the way to the castle and have to fight off a group of zombies which when you think about it is really up because duster probably knows all these people and he apparently just doesn't care anyway you back to the graveyard and find that the drawbridge to the castle is not lowered so we have to find another fee fee away in as you go to leave back into the graveyard you get one of the most important tutorials of the game apropos of nothing an ant randomly explains sound battles you've probably seen throughout this video that sometimes during a physical attack I will hit multiple times sometimes as high as 16 this is a sound battle if you press the attack button along with the rhythm of the battle theme you'll continue to attack with the subsequent hits doing varying amounts of damage but mostly a fair bit weaker than the initial hit these combos can be really useful though at times doubling or even tripling the amount of damage you do this is a cool way to keep standard attacks engaging instead of just watching everyone cycle through their turn it also creates another decision to be made if someone is hit for mortal damage you want to avoid doing these combos so that this character gets healed as soon as possible most importantly though it means that the game is filled with new battle themes you're not tapping along to the same theme over and over there's fifty eight battle themes in this game and they're all catchy as hell [Music] you [Music] sure Final Fantasy 4's battle theme is amazing but it will get old if you're playing for longer than an hour or two at a time mother 3 is almost never like that you regularly get not only a new bang of a theme but a new rhythm to figure out another part of this system is the sound cues you get when ripping through these combos it's super satisfying and ties into the musical theme of battle really well that being said this combo system isn't a necessity it helps but you can still comfortably complete the game without utilizing it this system brings battles alive and adds so much energy while making for more complex battles that have you making more decisions okay so now that we got the completely random explanation of this incredibly important game mechanic let's get back to the plot after entering back into the graveyard does to find the secret passage and the grave keepers Shack which leads the castle after fighting some lobsters with Tim Jean you've come out the other side of the passage and inside the castle walls using some wall staples duster makes his way inside the castle on one of the upper floors he explores the castle fighting stinky ghosts and getting rotten eclairs from them these rotten eclairs represent the inherent foul decadence that comes with Commerce and capitalism as the eclairs later on form a currency to be used within the castle and nah I'm not that pretentious I think the castle is falling apart from neglect it's from a long-forgotten time also one of the gift boxes here just has a ghost that burps on you and cackles in your face about it [Music] and that's my mother 39:10 best game event while exploring the castle you come across a room filled with friendly ghosts who are some of my favourite MVC's in the game one ghost is eating food that falls right through him another sings a song about how you definitely shouldn't attach wall staples to the wall and another ghost who sings along to this song while not knowing the words so it comes across as nonsense well more nonsense than it already is these ghosts are a great example of Vittorio's efficiency in writing before this the castle is pretty creepy feeling lonely and generally abandoned but these guys have flipped that around making it feel lively and lived in I think what gives the writing this power over mood is the consistency at which it subvert your expectations and in a conversational tone you fight a bunch of ghosts so seeing these friendly ones is surprising then one of the Friendly Ghost is playing a piano and singing a song that tells you exactly what to do next to progress and then another ghost is misinterpreting that song into something weirder and it does this all by presenting these ghosts as normal characters they don't feel like they exist to be funny they're characters who happen to say funny things once scaling the wall thanks to the ghosts advice you find yourself in a room with an impassable hole in the floor to cross this gap you use a rope snake which you brought from a ghost on the first floor with some eclairs this rope snake isn't just an item but a character too with a pretty faint arc throughout the game this continues the trend of turning mechanics into characters that I mentioned earlier with the say frogs as Doctor continues to explore he sees a go - off down the hallway dropping a pendant in the process duster picks up the pendant and goes on he soon finds himself in a room where it goes to composer called mr. passion is bustling all the furniture in the room around in his fervor when you refuse to listen to his music he attacks starting a boss fight this fight is quite fun having a much more dynamic energy now that you've been introduced to the sound battle system along with the versatility of dusters thief's tools the music here also shines it has a lovely feel of progression and comping along - it feels important like you're making a real contribution to defeating him [Music] [Applause] once he's beaten dusta finds a room filled with nothing but a vase and some strange wall carvings duster grabs the vase and leaves the castle heading back to his home as it's morning the people of Taz merely are up in a bear and you can talk to most of them it's nice to get a new perspective on these characters as they talk to duster differently than they did Flint everyone's a little bit shorter duster doesn't seem to be as respected as Flint is seeing these new sides of people only makes them seem more genuine and isn't something you typically see in RPGs as you mostly plays a single character and I meant to embody them to an extent there are a couple important things you can learn from some people at this point betsie who works in the local yarrow in mentions that some strange Matt gave her money and two children Nicole and Richie say they saw some creepy guy hitting his monkey this little bit of information tells us that man duster saw last night he's making a considerable effort to change Taz mealy and probably for the worse Dustin makes his way back home he shows Westar vase and then West Yates into the ground shattering it he then goes on a tirade about how stupid duster is and suddenly you know why duster was nervous of showing him in the first place duster then shows West dependent he found and Wes shocked mentions that the owner of the pendant may be the princess of a so hey castle with that information he joined your party and you head back to the castle to search for the princess and the real treasure when the two arrived at her so hey they see some tanks belonging to the pig masks who've been seen periodically so far just inside the castle two of the pigs noticed you and shock alive a creature made of clay which then attacks you much like Alec with Flint you have no control over Wes but he will contribute to battles however Wes isn't a useless piece of bad joke making rather uses effective items which do almost as much damage as dr. himself this helps Wes feel like a valuable member of the team and positions him as genuinely skilled as he's keeping up with dust Oh despite being much older by now it's been well established that the pig masks are cowardly in a week when not backed up by objectively superior technology the player understands that they have no integrity and you'll have motivation to hate them because of what they've done to Taz merely with the fire and chimeras as you enter the castle proper you see that it's no longer ghost haunting the place but pig masks you battle them for the first time here and there's a few interesting things to note they carry these laser guns that look almost like a child's toy version of a gun but it does fire real bullets the design is kind of generic and exaggerated which is a goofy juxtaposition to the fact that it is a real gun another thing is that the pig masks themselves are pretty weak they can dish out some firepower but don't have a lot of peach pee also the healing items you get from them are things like pork chips West's nutritional fattier junk food rather than the more homestyle cooking items you've been using thus far like bread and milk in the return visit I say he is more dilapidated than previously suits of armor that used to be standing laying pieces on the floor the treads of the tank have ripped up the greenery outside the castle and the Friendly Ghost from earlier have all squeezed themselves into the kitchen this not only makes for a cute visual gag and development of these characters but shows us just how in truce even Calais the pigs are I mean even go so weirded out by these freaks eventually you make it back to the room where the vase was and West reveals that the strange carving is actually a door West makes sure dusty turns around and then bust some sweet moves while repeatedly telling duster not to turn around West being presented as a very serious skilled and precise thief and then doing this ridiculous dance along with the goofy music it does a good job of warming him up to the player it's also a good example of mother threes weirdness working because the absurdity is worked into the whole world and not just its writing a dance as dumb as this needing to be performed to open this door is a rule within the world and so to an extent grounds the strange writing and characters making them feel consistent unbelievable there's this sort of consistent logic to the game's absurdity that allows it to play itself straight as well after West's finishes the dance the door opens and the two continue through it in a stairwell not far past the door we see the girl from earlier who dropped the pendant she's been caught in a trap and West promptly helps her out of it the girl who introduces herself as kumatora and then joins the party the wind yeah the general concept of wind tells us that kumatora knows psi attacks which are essentially magic moves while continuing to fight through the castle we encounter a few new enemies including a floating broom that sweeps you a few floors down if you make contact with it setting you like five minutes back for no reason I think this is supposed to make sure the players using the dash function to dodge enemies but that would have been way more useful in the first or second hour here is just frustrating so much so that I used a very real rewind feature of my gameboy advance thanks Nintendo as the three get closer to the treasure they're looking for you'll likely see the kumatora starts to feel feverish this is a strange feature where characters who learn psi moves will get feverish for a short period of time before learning a new move this results in the character in by extension the whole party not being able to dash I think the idea is that you don't just learn something new instantly you have to go through the process of understanding it holistically something which takes time however this little feature manifests as a semi-regular annoyance not adding anything to the game and needlessly crippling the players speed soon after a duster kumatora and West enter a room with the treasure in it it's a strange item called the egg of light or hummingbird egg West mentions that he doesn't even know what's in the egg just that it holds secrets you get the impression that he doesn't know why this item is important just that it is kumatora expresses the same sentiment speaking in vague terms about its importance as they go to take the egg claim monster SOT ramming the door kumatora takes it but is told by West that he placed traps around it resulting in the four falling from under them conveniently letting them escape the pig masks the three fall into a pool of water filled with skulls I don't like the implications of that a shadow moves through the water under them and you're thrown into a boss fight against the oso snake get it like it so hey after the fight the water suddenly starts escaping from one side with the current pulling the party and the egg along with it after a fade to black we cut back to tez melee where we see that Wesson kumatora have washed up on the shore with Dustin nowhere to be seen as the pair enter the town square a crowd is gathered around butch who is furiously looking for duster thinking that he stole that money from the well the other townspeople seem confused as none of them even know what money is after some arguing Flint interjects imploring everyone to calm down and just trust that duster didn't steal the money and that they should wait for him to get back I like this appearance from Flint because it implies that he's grown a bit from when I was death as a recent as it may be he's trying to stay calm and keep the peace instead of being emotional and lashing out as he did it earlier after this interjection from Flint Chapter two comes to a close you you you [Music] you you [Music] chapter three begins with a group of pig masks along with the strange man from earlier who we now know as facade torturing a monkey named salsa after separating him from his girlfriend pig masks fly off in a large ship leaving you as salsa with just facade you're then ordered by him to find a white building further west in the desert and so you do just that something you'll immediately notice is how a weak sorcerer is only doing a few points of damage with a standard physical attack this sets chapter 3 up for a very interesting dynamic societies a non-playable party member attacking a random like Alec Alves from earlier the thing is he's much much stronger than you to the point where you are relying on him in battles this dynamic displays the power facade has over you making you dependent on someone who abuses you at any sign of descent this is just another way the game ties combat to narrative really well facade is also established as a villain effectively - he's not the nuance - villain at this part of the game but that's not necessarily a bad thing after building relationships with the people of Tazz mealy and salsa being a defenseless animal the side becomes very easy to hate and builds motivation for a player to want to defeat him you travel through the desert saving a safe road along the way and eventually coming to the white building the building is actually an elevator taking you to some underground tunnel mother3 will often drastically switch environments with little transition making for a world that can feel a little disjointed what stops this from becoming a major problem though is the writing the writing style and mother3 is so distinct that all the characters you meet make for environments that maybe don't make geographical sense but do make tonal sense the consistency here helps connect each area making them feel a part of a larger world not just self-contained this lessons are sort of whiplash you would get from changing environments so suddenly this is also held by the chapter structure as you often jump around to different characters in point in time making changing locales feel less jarring this new tunnel area is much more industrial than anything you've seen so far and shows how the pig masks influence is spreading quite rapidly eventually you come to a pork being which is a hovering vehicle that you can use to get around quicker the side says we're going to take it to an unbelievably uncivilized village Cortez merely that's what fasaad thinks of Taz merely seeing the simple piece they lived in as lesser than the industrialization and commerce he will soon introduce we also see an instant revitalizing device a machine that instantly heals all health and PSI this machine is the pig mass equivalent to the hot springs that do the same thing these two methods of healing represent the clashing ideologies and forces well the hot spring is natural relaxing and a more holistic experience integrated well into its environment the instant revitalizing device however is cold mechanical and clinical but also efficient it is a result of exploited labour feeling only natural when surrounded by the full version of progress that the pig master tried to force upon the world climbing a ladder out of the tunnel facade and salsa find themselves in Tazz Millie's graveyard you make your way to the town square along the way bumping into duster coinciding with his first trip tour so he castle from chapter 2 duster and salsa share a moment with duster seemingly understanding that sorta isn't there by his own free will we then see that facade was hiding behind the well wind which hid the money there implying that facade was the one who stole the money you go to yellow in to get a room for the night and the owners seem confused that you'd have to pay a fee to stay but despite this facade he and some money over anyway attending to begin integrating it into the community as a whole the to go into their room sleeping for the night [Music] in the morning facade talks to the citizens of tells me about how the world is becoming more dangerous with each passing day with new animals vehicles soaring in the sky and in the near future powerful lightning strikes constantly he then pitches his answer to these threats claiming that true happiness can be achieved too thanks to this one item only a few people take the offer and it's your job as salsa to deliver the item to these people on delivery you find out that this thing called a happy box is essentially a TV though it's really a representation / symbol of predatory technology after delivering the heavy boxes you'll both have to rush to assay a castle because of some people interfering in the piñas invasion of the area social facade go to the basement of the castle passing through another secret entrance you continue lower even still to a sewer like area you fight your way through some enemies including this fellow who steers you to your series after pulling a strange lever the water begins rushing out where duster kumatora West and the hummingbird egg race past being pulled by the current as you leave the castle you run into two pig masks with tanks blocking the way facade yells at them as they try to shift the blame onto each other showing how childish and incompetent they are it helps give a little clue as to how this group is being run and the personalities it fosters when reaching the tank square you see the same argument that chapter two ended on the side takes the opportunity need to do some scaremongering mentioning that tez merely must be cursed social imprimatur I have a moment indicating that kuma Tory gets an impression of Sultan's predicament they return to the gutter in and sleep for the night [Music] in the middle of the night soldiers woken up by kumatora voice her and Wes have come to help soldier escape the three make it to the town square stealing and destroying the Shocker device as well as they're about to leave to find duster the side walks in with a group of pig masks there are three of them run off with the pig mask giving chase [Music] the group runs into the forest fighting off the pig masks along the way as you move further into the forest the path is blocked by some pork tanks with them quickly surrounding you one lurches forward and a boss fight begins this fight has a really great sense of tension as it's much more visually and composing than previous opponents with its size and inhuman experience you're also fighting a mechanical enemy something you've not done too much of so far the boss has some really cool moves as well for example it will vent its exhaust towards you possibly making your characters cry crying is a status effect that may cause you to miss by the way it may not seem like much but these moves unique to different enemies and bosses do a great job of keeping the fights entrenched in the world having some sort of logic to them they help create consistency in the world making it more believable this fight is pretty challenging especially with salsa being so weak and mostly relying on usable items there's also a nice sense of progression with the tank eventually beginning to smoke and the cannon sometimes jamming causing one of its most powerful attacks to fail [Music] the battle ends with a great feeling of satisfaction our only to be wiped away as facade approaches with a group of pig masks and another pork tank you've likely spent all your items as well as kuma Torres PP 4 psi attacks and don't know how you'll win the next fight then suddenly Lucas walks on the screen before you shortly by some Drago's I want to see my little boy here we go man 1 the adult Drago's eliminates some of the pig masks with others running off seeing them get so scared after they just had you up against the ropes is really satisfying this sequence also has some important character moments as we see Lucas take more control of his life after being debilitated by sadness from Canalis death also soldier is the one who directs the drugger to take the side out meaning you see him get revenge for how facade has treated him this sequence is just really cathartic it's a great payoff for what you've seen so far the druggers then leave with West recounting what's happened so far - Lucas kumatora and souls will leave to search for Dustoff with Wes and Lucas Tang and Taz merely with that chapter 3 ends in between Chapter three and four we see a small compilation of flashbacks showing how Lucas has changed in the time since I was death setting us up to take control of him for Chapter four [Music] [Music] chapter four begins with a train bolting by while lightning and thunder roars overhead we learn that it's three years later and seat as nearly residents getting off the train at this new station we then see how the town has changed houses are more private there are police officers in the streets and stoplights on the corners all of a sudden has merely looks much closer to a town that would be found in earthbound facades influence has clearly taken over the town you wake up as Lucas finally in control of the main boy like six hours into the game after getting bony to join the party we learn about DP from a save frog the frog explains that you now own DP or dragon power and that this unit can be exchanged for goods or services DP serves as currency and is earned from battling or selling items you can withdraw or deposit DP from a safe frog and you lose some of the DP you're holding if you get a game over that being said you'll likely never lose any money this way as 99% of the time there's a safe frog right next to a shop so you can easily circumvent this risk by withdrawing money spending it at a shop and immediately deposit in the remaining TP I'm not necessarily complaining but it does make this whole system of withdrawing and depositing redundant it's just a small thing that could have been changed to save some of the players time you also see a tourist marveling at Lucas's house or as he calls it the lightning house it seems that the home has been getting repeatedly struck by lightning and that coincidentally Lucas and Flint are one of the few people in town who don't own a happy box it seems that façades prediction of lightning came true but it's quite obvious that it's being artificially made and struck on those who haven't conformed happy boxes themselves seem to have some brain numbing effects you'll see that people just can't seem to look away in this engagement with the happy boxes maybe become so ingrained in the town's culture that do not participate is to enact a sort of social isolation onto yourself turning the device into something that people feel they absolutely need if they want to fit in at Tazz merely as you explore the town more changes will become apparent Thomas's store now charges for things and his son runs it as Thomas himself now works the factory one of the farms has become a training ground for pig masks with pigs filling the jail as well and may a pusher has become an even bigger piece of some now one of the most important things however is just how many people there are these new people outnumber the tasmat residents that you're familiar with and none of them have any names they're generic and unimportant talking to the residents you are familiar with however gives you a good insight to what I think this games stance on progress is it's telling us that industrial and technological progress isn't inherently bad I mean car frog is a great example of that but it can become deadly when this progress is sought after for the wrong reasons be that control power or profit neglecting to put people and their well-being at the heart of this strive for progress is how you create a future days inhuman and uncaring one that is unfair and most suited to those with access to the things that you instead prioritize to achieve that progress creating a world that is built for the rich and powerful facade and the pig masks have come out of nowhere with a huge excess of resources and have been able to leverage this wealth to force a controlling full progress on Taz merely punishing descent and nonconformity with violence and oppression in this case raining lightning down onto people's houses for not owning happy boxes they've become the de facto dictators of this town simply because they had more access and power for no legitimate fair reason I could certainly be projecting my own views here but I believe this interpretation is one that's backed up consistently throughout the game and will continue to look at it as we go that being said complete submission to the ruling class is totally worth it if it means we can have car frog and old man frog I mean the car so cute and the old man frogs accent is so cute eventually you will come to see facade presenting to people in the town square again though this time Wes interrupts claiming he thinks facades behind the Lightning facade responds calmly putting on a facade of politeness Wes is dragged away by a pig mask speaking to the power facade has and the willingness with which he exploits it from talking with people you'll learn of a band called DC MC who play at club titty boo yes that's how it's pronounced for the factory workers it's said that one of the band members looks like duster so you go and tell Wes he asks you to see if it really is dust on the train to and from the factory is no longer running for the day so you walk down the train lines to get there while travelling down the line you'll come into contact with some you Camaros indicating that the creation of chimeras has continued to expand over time the chimera servers great standard enemies as they fit into the familiar yet absurd setting of mother 3 taking two different animals and combining them into some abomination makes for some great visual gags and each one is a funny name as well it also makes for a pretty diverse group of monsters with them all being so unique and at times being themed around the area you'll find them in they also show you how the pig masks power lets them bend nature to their will seemingly not caring for the consequences or moral and ethical implications about halfway down the train line you'll come across a hot spring as you enter the hot spring you'll see Ionia one of them Egyptians you saw while playing as Flint and then this happens [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] yeah I'm not a fan of this bit the implications is trying to draw and joke about a way to close to something completely disgusting that does happen in real life it's not strange or funny just inappropriate I understand there may be some cultural differences of play here in terms of what's appropriate and what isn't but this section is purely trying to laugh at this is just eveness of it not saying anything or trying to be more than crash joke it just doesn't land and making one of them and Gypsies the character that does this yeah the coding here is pretty gross anyway after this process Lucas learns how to use psi starting off with a move called peek a blank well not peek a blank the blank part is filled in with whatever you listed as your favorite thing at the beginning of the game I'll refer to it as peek he loves as that's the Canon name there is one saving grace for this little part however and that is magical butterfly frog it's just adorable using a theme with the Frog so far soon after Lucas and boney make it to the factory and learn that to get into Club Teddy boo they'll need a pass earned by working at the factory itself earlier I mentioned town other three terms mechanical necessities into characters to make them more interesting in regards to the say frogs we see that same thing here but with inventory management a complaint about mother games has always been the limited inventory and by extension regular inventory management that has to be done the friendly item guy mitigates this frustration to an extent for no charge you can deposit and withdraw items and in my two playthroughs of the game I've never reached the limit of what I can store so he provides some mechanical relief to the player and then as the character is endlessly positive about how well you're doing stressing that you can do it and so on you don't see him in different forms like you do with the frogs and it is not as frequent making him less interesting and memorable than the save frogs but it's still a good way to make this part of the game more interesting at the factory you'll see a few familiar faces from Taz Millie as well as the clay monsters that you fought at a so hey castle now working around the factory inside you talk to a blue pig mask him that you could do some part-time work for the day to get tickets to club titty boo the big mosque also mentions that the club was built for factory workers and that it's where they go to relax this tells us that facade and the pig masks have constructed a monopoly where workers have to work in the factory for deeply and then because of the exhaustion from work visit club TV boo to relax where they likely spend ep this system has been engineered to make laborers dependent on this one seller keeping them in the ecosystem indefinitely unless some little kid and his dog come up on to save the world this situation isn't too unlike our world which is full of oligopolies markets dominated by a few sellers for example it can be very hard to look for entertainment without supporting Disney and their pervasiveness within that industry makes it easy to become trapped like those factory workers from Taz merely once again the imbalance of power is being manipulated to make the rich richer Lukas agrees to work and the pig masks are something interesting they say oh and sign your name on this document no no not your name I mean you know the name of of the person in the background the person pulling the strings I guess you could say what I mean to say is the the player's name this method of breaking the fourth wall is really interesting the pig mass speaks with hesitation as though talking about something they completely know but not knowing at all why they know it or what it could possibly mean it's like this strange middle ground of self-awareness that's really entertaining to watch it kind of masks the fact that the game is randomly trying to get you to put your actual name in not lucas's though it becomes relevant later you're to work on I think I would down claim in up to the top floor to be re-energized as a player you actually have to do the day's work pushing the claimant around the factory to get them to the top this part isn't very fun but I think that's kind of the point the work is monotonous boring and without challenge at the same time it takes a bit to do so you're sick of it by the end this puts you in the mindset of these workers you as the player are bored of the work so going to club city boot is appealing sounds more exciting and like a place where you can do something more interesting so you can see why the club appeals to the workers it's relaxing different and exciting it's a nice way of putting you in their shoes helping you get a more holistic view of how life under this quote-unquote progress is you also get to catch up with some Taz Millie residents and a pig mask at the bottom mentions that the factory has a secret purpose that is being used to uncover a dragon bigger than the nowhere islands so this part does have some of the same other three weirdness it's not all boring you finish your work in clock off earning a ticket to club titi Boo and 200 DP which really isn't that much especially after you subtract the expenses of the club also another bad thing about this place they just hired a child with no hesitations so that's really all the motivation you need to hit posad not that he's been hard to hate so far anyway Boni and Lucas take a road way up a mountain where the club is located [Music] once you arrive at the top of the mountain there's this great sense of loneliness with the wind whipping its way over the surfaces of the rock and the music of the club leading out of the walls making you feel removed from everything being removed from that liveliness shows how it's easy to be drawn to the lights music company you can understand why the people of Taz merely have bought facades lies Lucas and boney are initially refused entry into the club but I'll let in after a waitress named violet vouchers for them inside the club you talk to violet who reveals herself to be kumatora she tells you to go on watched ECMC play their next song along the way you see some flyers for an upcoming show and one is a dtmc concert for King P and a patron of the club says supposedly there's just one person running the world you start to wonder if Assad isn't running the show after all right before the song starts kumatora asked you to hang around the lobby after the show the performance begins with the frontman Oh J mentioning that they're gonna play Kim P's theme well there's some plays you notice that the bass player looks exactly like Duster but with a wig on something remarkable about this performance is that it actually feels like these characters are performing it doesn't look like some sprites bouncing around with some music layered on top the song itself is super enjoyable with every instrument making noticeable contributions while still coming together as a great whole [Music] it shows this great sense of collaboration the interplay of all these characters strengths as musicians this is certainly helped by the expressive animation and presentation as touched on earlier the concert ends and you exit the lobby talking to kumatora she takes you through an underground passage which leads to a room she and Lucas fill each other into what's been happening over the past three years kumatora then tells Boni and Lucas to go talks for the DC MC bass player or duster she hoped drug his memory the to go through the attic so as not to get caught you fight your way through the area taking on bugs and neglected instruments all of this is done to a great track it has a nice sense of energy while seamlessly moving from frantic pace to an airy smooth one [Music] you eventually you make it to the boss of the Attic a base that is very jealous because duster doesn't play him anymore unfortunately this boss is way too high level for this part of the game in both my playthroughs of mother3 I was about level 15 once I reached this boss but then had to grind to level 20 to make it bearable I'm not alone on this either videos on YouTube beating this boss are filled with people saying they were suddenly having a lot of trouble but so far mother3 has established itself as a game that you don't have to grind in if you fight each battle you run into along the way without running too much you'll be appropriately leveled for 95% of the game so this section is a contradiction of how the game is balanced making the player think that their strategy must be wrong and not that they're just too low-level after beating the base you jump down from the Attic into justhe's room where the rest of DC MC are along with kumatora duster or lucky as he now goes by explains that he woke up with no memory clutching a strange egg he somehow knew it was important so he hid it in a value somewhere duster seems reluctant to go and find it with you not even sure if he is duster or not he leaves it up to fate meaning if you can beat all five band members in scissors paper rock he'll go with you so you play against them but every time you're put in a situation where you lose the opponent will say something like hi once you're late let's do it over it's hard to tell if the DC MC members know justice should go with you or if destiny really is steering the game in your favor giving you chances until you win as you go to play against OJ the band's leader he tells you what he's going to play throwing the match and letting you beat him the band all say their goodbyes and it's actually really sweet how sad they all are you get the feeling they really do genuinely care for each other also if you peek into the club from the lobby window you can see the band playing a sad song showing flashbacks of them helping duster in making him a part of the band I appreciate how sentimental it gets here helping keep the balance in tone between humor and seriousness Lukas bony kuma trained us to leave the club in search of hummingbird egg ending chapter 4 [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] dusted directs us towards the egg one of the most important artifacts of the nowhere islands so you turn around and look at this item box with a pretty fireworks inside then after that incredibly essential task you move on to find the egg as you travel you get to experience the battle system in more detail finally having a full party of four to control each character fulfills our role really well feeling essential to the team kumatora uses offensive psi attacks along with some buffs and debuffs and maybe some healing if you're desperate duster uses his thief skills to deep off enemies and inflict status effects as well as a strong physical attack bony can use his sniff ability to determine enemy weaknesses and his high speed makes him good for using single-use items most importantly Lukas is essentially the support of the team he learns very few offensive psi attacks and the low speed makes physical attacks less viable placing him in the role of buffing healing and providing shields for the rest of the team the role he fills backs up his characterization when hunama dies his instinct wasn't to search for power and revenge like Klaus it was to mourn and reflect so it makes sense that his psi powers would manifest as those that stop others from suffering or dying he's trying to protect people not through violence but through kindness this is even cooler because it's a nicer version of the role that protagonists typically play of being very offensively powerful having these mechanical through lines of characterization also helps the battles feel more tangible your character leveling up doesn't just symbolize their increasing physical power but also mental and emotional power psi R is a more mindful emotional form of magic so Lucas learning more healing psi moves represents his growing resilience and empathy for his friends and the people he meets along the way after traveling through the valley you eventually see where dusty hid the egg inside a forgotten powered down claim in as he approaches lightning strikes the clean man jolting it to life and causing it to run away hearty chase after it passing by the Tower of Thunder you come to another factory and water inside as it's the only way forward the pig masks inside are aggressive at first but become afraid after mistaking you for their commander you're given a change of clothes serving as a disguise and letting you move around the pig mask with no trouble just as you exit the factory you see a garbage truck take off and you follow it in hopes of finding the claim manual looking for along the way some pig mouths give you a pork beam to chase after the truck in making exploring much easier however as you speed off the pork being slips on banana peels even though it hovers a pork trooper the same one seen at Club titty boo drives by stopping to check if you are right optimist taking you for the commander he sees through the disguise however and you enter another boss fight this fight is really fun as you finally get to face the boss with a full party the music's great the portrait is intimidating and you now have enough hit points to make for a nice back-and-forth of being healed up and on the offensive and scrambling to keep everyone alive after defeat the portrait retreats leaving his pork being behind at this point you actually get the chance to explore a pretty large open-ended area it's a nice change of pace as the large majority of mother 3 is quite linear with a very few side quests as your reward for exploring is usually an item box or a goofy character with the pork bean you can explore this area efficiently and there's some cute bonus stuff that reward for exploration well one thing this area does do is draw two attention just how small the game is being about 10 hours in so far you've really only explored Taz melee repeatedly entering different areas within a town or surrounding environments and even as you've gone to new locations they're often very close to previous places this may rub some people the wrong way especially if you like the open-ended nature of RPGs but I think mother3 is a testament to linearity and small worlds up to this point I've mentioned again and again that you continue to revisit Taz merely after different events this process is essential to mother threes identity as it lets you learn about and connect with these characters seeing them change and how their lives are being altered you feel a part of this family and community precisely because you were people be interacting with them mother3 can get away with making new characters or textboxes the reward for exploration because it taught us that those things have a value whether that's because their insightful poignant or just funny I think this is one of the best ways that mother3 subverts RPG tropes and it's what makes it so unique and memorable look at why people often connect the most with their party members in RPGs it's because you spend more time with them and learn about who they are and in a mother 3 every citizen of Taz Milly is given that treatment to varying extents the fact that mother 3 makes a small mostly linear world feel like it could be a back of the box feature is proof of the charm and talent with which the writing is executed after exploring this area and coming across the grocer's petrol station ever a cow in line for the bathroom and most importantly another frog car if you head to the Northeast finding the dump where the clay man is being dropped into as Lucas and the others approach the egg a clay man formed in front of them being composed of other junk from the pile it's time for another boss fight [Music] what I love about this encounter is how it almost seems sad this weird amalgamation of clay and God which just looks wrong like a clear violation of the rules of nature the fact that this pile of what should be inanimate objects continues to attack in an act of violence even after its usefulness has been deemed over it's kind of tragic it's not clear if the claimant have any sort of consciousness but if they do it's obvious this is a cruel fate after the fire the hummingbird egg is retrieved as dusta holds it it begins emitting a bright light causing him to regain his memory we see a sweet moment of relief where duster feels confident in who he is now that he has his memory back the party is then taken to the Thunder tower thanks to another Pig mask and mistaking Lucas for that commander exploring the Thunder tower has this nice sense of tension walking amongst all these pig masks feels wrong and leaves you a bit on edge not to mention that the Thunder tower is basically a monument to King piers immense power in the complete disregard they have for anyone but themselves it's sires combined with how life was it feels gives off this great sense of atmosphere loss feels kind of inevitable here and exploring it is an isolating experience [Music] [Music] in the tower you get a better idea of the pig masks methods as well you can see catfish that they are harvesting energy from floating aimlessly in a small tank surrounded by watchful eyes that exist to exploit it it's very clear that the pig masks interference and destruction of nature is a thread that runs throughout all their operations the game does provide some commentary here though we learn that the generators are malfunctioning proving that this continued exploitation of the world energy resources is unsustainable that perpetual growth is unviable and dangerous to everyone involved you come across the pork trooper again here blocking the ladder that leads further up the tower another fight against them begins this encounter is pretty easy as you can use PCMC merchandise to stop him from attacking because he's a massive DC MC stem after defeating the pork trooper facade shows up hoping to take revenge after the Drago attack the forest scape of the ladder leading to the scaffolding of the tower the nice atmosphere continues here with only limit Alex sounds of hitting the ground and the wind whistling as it passes over the massive structure you simply make your way up the scaffolding fighting some screws along the way eventually you're climbing up the ladder taking you into what looks to be a child's room with toys littering the ground there's also a hot spring along with a few of the beers you can buy as items in earthbound in the room you see a robot maid protecting a yo-yo that looks like one that nests from earthbound could have used if you approach the yo-yo the maid miss marshmallow attacks you urging you not to take king P is important yo-yo this begins an optional boss fire defeating the boss Awards you their friends yo-yo which is a pretty good weapon for this point in the game from the hints we've gotten King P appears to be the one running the pig masks although it should have been obvious I mean is called king P ascending once again takes you to the guts of the tower where you're surrounded by exposed wiring that is constantly sparking even emitting enemies you can fight called short circuits while continuing to climb this final part of the tower Lucas is all of a sudden struck by lightning that is discharged by the inside of the tower [Music] this causes him to learn PK flash a pretty helpful move that inflict status effects and can in some cases when he killed the enemy you target the team make it to the very top of the towers interior which causes a self defense alarm to ring as you're now in the generator room this causes a robot to extend from the generator and attack you this boss fight is pretty challenging with the enemy mr. Geneva or Canada I don't know occasionally storing electricity and later on discharging in doing pretty serious damage to multiple party members the damage that mr. janitor inflicts can be lessened with a wearable item called a rather cape seeing as he attacks with electricity unfortunately I don't think it's quite communicated well enough that these capes have this effect if you look at the item objectively it makes sense that it would reduce the power of lightning damage seeing as it's made from rubber but within the context of the game this isn't as obvious up to this point you haven't gotten any element of armor or weapons so there's been no precedent set when it comes to countering elemental news with armor considering the fact that the pure defense that of the Cape isn't great in that they're pretty expensive the game just discourages you from buying them now it's not completely unnecessary to beat the boss but it is very helpful especially for people playing for the first time after defeating mr. Ginetta and evacuation alarm sounds with a serious error having occurred within the generator facade catches up to you causing the party to leave out the door to the exterior you're now at the very top of the tower right next to the device that has been discharging electricity down onto the houses of those without happy boxes including Lucas's facade follows you out saying that he'll use the Thunder tower self-destruction to take the party out all at once the mother box ship approaches blaring that familiar theme facade plans to escape on the ship but as the tower begins to fall apart he's thrown onto his own banana peel causing it to slip off the side of the tower to his death [Music] this has got to be one of my favorite moments of the game seeing this cocky prick get a death this pathetic is incredibly satisfying and to have such an important character die by slipping on a banana peel is just a very mother3 thing to do the pork ship descends to let the sod on trying to retreat once they see that he's no longer there but rather a gross little staying on the ground below duster quickly swings his rope snake which grabs on to the rope ladder with the rest of the party hanging on to each other for dear life as the four are trying to hang on someone we've yet to see walks out dressed in clothes similar to Lucas's disguise the rope snake struggles to hang on eventually losing his grip and causing them all to plummet to the ground you [Music] you [Music] you [Music] Lukis falls into a field of sunflowers the music is serene and white and floaty while dipping into some satyr tones you walk through the field unsure of what you're actually looking for then someone calls out to Lucas though it seems more spectral rather than a figure literally calling to him [Music] you oh nice it's up ahead and Lucas joins him we see her now a Flickr interview seeming to be a vision of sorts [Music] Boni and Lukas try and catch up but an hour doesn't let him get too close and she walks off the edge of the field standing on nothing Lukas runs and tries to jump to her but he falls short he and Boni fall into a pile of hay and Taz merely somehow still alive [Music] [Music] [Music] this sequence is important but vague though I do have my own thoughts on what's happening here I believe that Hanauma is able to manifest herself to Lucas and Boni because of her connection with them the experiences they've had with her and the memories they keep allow Hanauma to exist in some form after death and she uses this version of existence to guide Boni and Lucas at this point she offers no words and says Lucas's name only once she's not here for a reunion she's here to push them further to urge them to keep fighting she does this by positioning herself past the sunflower field and over nothing this way Lucas has to take a leap to reach her but he falls short because he's still needed in Tasmania and the nowhere islands this little section is strange but it makes some sense when you think of mother 3 as a game it is reinforced how important community is and the impact that love can have and crafting connections can have so it makes sense that something this strange would happen it is really just a manifestation of love not to mention that one of the game's main themes is the love theme landing in the pile of hay is representative of a small but crucial part some other three storytelling all throughout the game you'll come across ridiculous over-the-top coincidences that assist Lucas and the rest of the party whether that's just happening to fall in pile of hay or learning a powerful attack by randomly getting struck by lightning it's egregiously convenient but these actions all proved one thing Lucas really is meant to go through this journey think about other games where the player character is said to be destined to save the world the endless roadblocks that you'll face during the game make it feel like a farce and can rub some of the accomplishment from the player in mother3 however the logic and rules of the world seem to bend themselves to accommodate Lucas you actually feel like you're fulfilling a destiny as your progress is assisted in totally unrealistic ways as though you only have some control over the path and story you [Music] [Music] you [Music] you [Music] you you [Music] Lucas wakes up in Alec's room not at all injured from the fall not far from the nursing home we see Ionia the merge if see tied up with a crowd of people around them if you talk to the people around Ionia you'll notice that they're all unnamed characters move to the town after the introduction of happy boxes some of them seem as though they want to help but none of them actually do seemingly afraid of what could happen this new Taz merely has created people too afraid to help each other because of the unforeseen consequences Iona joins the party saying that the three of you need to go to a Oh Leah's house you get a boat ride up the river to get there but before that you can also explore the town once again different people have Taz merely have different reactions to Ionia some good some bad and others just neutral this helps build their character at will and provides some individuality the factory is closed down but instead of coming back to Taz merely the residents who worked there instead moved to new park city many people will mention this new place around town and a general consensus seems to be that the shine of this new more developed Taz merely has worn off making it seem boring now in comparison this has prompted many to move to the city which does make the town feel a bit empty you've been conditioned to seek out what the people have Taz merely have to say but now you can't do that for those in the city so you feel the loss of them not being there you get on the boat and it's rode up the river soon arriving near AO Leah's house soon after entering the house a strange noise is heard followed by tremens with that aioli starts blinking fading out of existence she mentions that someone has pulled the needle in her so a castle that she's been protecting she opens up a shortcut to her so hey telling you to find out if the person who pulled the needle was good or bad a Oulu fades out of existence [Music] I owe Nia Barney and Lucas take the underground shortcut coming out the other side of the castle courtyard Ionia says that she can't sense a good or bad heart as though the person who pulled the needle was devoid of emotion thankfully she then offers some explanation the nowhere islands are protected by a sleeping dragon that's as big as the islands themselves because the dragon was too powerful to control matured sea ancestors place seven needles in it to make it fall asleep seven Majesties have each guarded a needle for thousands of years with it being said that when the Dragons power is needed someone able to cool the needles will appear however the person's heart whether good or evil will be passed on to the dragon should they wake it either resulting in evil ruling or good ruling it's also said that only those with pique love can pull the needles hearing this explanation you may be reminded of something in the factory you worked at in chapter 4 a pig mask mentioned this dark dragon foreshadowing at hours ago this is something mother 3 consistently does taking advantage of its own tone to create foreshadowing when the pig mask mentions the dragon it seems like just another strange line of dialogue so you don't think too much of it so the game has blatantly told you an important bit of law while using it's absurd nature to instead make it serve as subtle foreshadowing this is done all throughout the game we saw it earlier with the tower aware facade mentioned that Tasmania will soon be struck by endless lightning at the time seeming silly but turning out to be true something that facade himself did this technique is an example of how mother threes absurdity becomes more than just being weird for the sake of being weird the tone and mood this strange writing causes has been considered and thoughtfully taken advantage of with the explanation over we see a phone ringing on the ground Lucas picks it up in a pig mask is asking the commander to come to the Chimera lab as that's where the next needle is iron your leaves as she's worried about her own needle with bony and Lucas heading taz million bucket on Iowa's grave the grave keeper asked Lucas if he's seen Flint lately he mentions that Flint needn't worry about Lucas anymore as he's grown to be very strong he then gives him a courage badge something that Flint wanted Lucas to have even after this short time if you go look around Taz Milligan some more people have left for New York City telling us that people are moving to the city at quite a fast rate Lucas and boney take the train to the factory then make their way to the chimera lab they get led into the lab after being mistaken for part-timers as part-timers you're instructed to look for two monkeys who have gone missing and hid somewhere inside this involves looking around the lab which is a good way of making you confront what the pig masks are doing to make these chimeras as you look around you'll be avoiding a big red chimera many of you probably recognize it as the thing from smash brothers that you right up if you get too close in mother3 it's known as the ultimate chimera all the thing that you right up if you get too close this enemy will kill you instantly if it catches you making for a nice change of pace the existence of the ultimate chimera also gives us an insight into the pig masks they aren't in complete control of these things and given the chance these chimeras would kill them it ties into the fact that the chimeras on a marvel or achievement there are tragedy of power and complete lack of empathy and care while in the lab you'll come across dr. endo nuts someone who's being forced to conduct research by quote a certain man dr. n donut is also in earthbound and he assists you during that game with some of his inventions it's strange to see him here as the nowhere island seemed to be completely separate from where earthbound took place eventually you find the two monkeys soul-stirring his girlfriend in the lab the ultimate chimera then shows up chasing Lucas and Bonilla out the room solsa recognizes Lucas from when Lucas saved him with the Drago's so he gives chase to help him has de cámara pounces at boney and Lucas this also switches the chimera off saving them both he then joins the party and you head outside the lab to the big stone door nearby this also performs the dance from a so hey castle opening the door to the Majesty's House inside you see kumatora and they're introduced to Daurio them and Lucas then heads down to pull the needle before you do however Doria reflects on her time a bit what's cool is that she frames the pulling of the needle as a positive thing although she will be a little sad she's also excited as she's essentially fulfilling her purpose in so many other games the Majesties would end up being the bosses you fight to be able to pull the needles but here they're a positive force a group that has immense power yet doesn't display that through excessive violence but rather affection and compassion Lucas pulls the needle with the world shaking and erupting around him he learns PK love beta the next iteration of the move this is a nice little way to reward the player while showing how Lucas has grown Doria disappears for good leaving a memento with Lucas these mementos will automatically revive someone when they die and make these relationships have helped for mechanical merit as well making their impact more pronounced and characterization reinforced crematoria seems to be plundering the road ahead and asked if she can come along to see it to the end the party of three say goodbye to the two monkeys setting off for the next needle as you leave the lab area you run into the mall cricket that you fought in the first battle of the game he asks you to battle him in the mall cricket hole so you follow him there the again builds up how exceptionally strong years and the elder mole cricket joins in warning how tough the fight will be so this time you kill him even faster [Music] you're then directed by the mole cricket to snow-capped mountain which can be accessed from an exit on the opposite side of the mole hole leaving the hole really isn't very difficult you just need a glance of the map every now and then exiting the hole kumatora Boni and Lucas find themselves on the mountain [Music] you make your way up it along the way battling yetis and ice dogs which are luckily not as bad as the dogs from earthbound you also come across another friendly Adam guy but this time without his car despite this he still has all your items you keeping my items you freak [Music] a little further up the mountain you find them a gypsy Lydia inside her house you can find a pig mask sleeping Lydia found them separated from the others apparently lost as you go to leave you hear the pig mask theme and walk out to see the masked man pull the needle he flies off leaving you to fight another boss thus kill meh karela this swooping in and taking the needle represents the pig masks well they fly in on new technology but leave a mess in their wake in the pursuit of power therefore guang consideration of others and the world they live in after defeating the boss lydia exits to see the needle has been pulled she insists that Lukas must pull the rest of the needles and fades away back in Lydia's place the big mask has removed his well pig mask he's gonna stay and take care of Lydia's bunnies and says he won't help you but it won't stop you either it's nice to get a humanizing moment for a pig mask and that they aren't portrayed as being purely evil it shows that some people have likely been fooled by the lives of facade and others possibly joining with good intentions though that doesn't really excuse what they've done he then leaves snow-capped mountain sledding a fridge down it and jumping back into Tasman cemetery [Music] in the cemetery you'll see a message in a bottle the message leads you to a secret passage and judging by the font was sent by a mr. Saturn another message directs you towards the Thunder tower so you travel there you make your way through the same open area we use to get to the Thunder tower previously things have progressed a little like the cowl now being in the bathroom instead of in the line it's a small detail that makes the world feel more alive as it's changing and developing even when you're not there you'll come across some road construction and so head down the tunnel that's been made leaving the tunnel the party enters Saturn Valley as you look around and in the houses you see that the pig masks have invaded certain valley and are attempting to force the nosy boys to tell them where the needle is you clear them out from the area finding dusters in one of the houses after freeing him you had north as the mrs. hatten say that's where the next needle is you come to this volcano area and head into Phrygia house she's the sleeping mat gypsy and so she's left Lukas a note for when he arrives the note says to continue to the volcano itself where the next needle can be found this process of collecting and pulling the needles is the closest mother3 comes to having a more traditional structure up until this point progress is marked by narrative beats not necessarily by completing a single objective you simply do things as you're directed to with the story unfolding along the way then once the seven needles are discussed the end goal becomes to pull them all you can immediately see that this is how the game will progress going forward head to the new area dispose of threat meet me gypsy collect needle this change in structure could ruin the pace of the game but mother threes charm stops this from happening chapter seven isn't perfect but by repeatedly introducing new characters areas and enemies it still feels like you're making some type of progress even if the narrative itself doesn't move along much this is helped by the fact that this structure doesn't come into play until like halfway through the game in motion a RPGs this search for different MacGuffins becomes the main motivation and objective just a few hours in spanning the rest of the game but by introducing this later on mother3 can rely on the fact that the player has become interested in the world and characters stopping it from seeming pointless or boring you also learn more about the pig Marcin Noah Islands as you go so it still feels like you're being rewarded narratively by visiting new places and pulling the needles even if you're mostly being told backstory the volcano was a small dungeon filled with some new and disturbing enemies despite that the area isn't too tough and before long you'll find yourself walking up to pull the needle before that can be done though a new and improved facade floats down he has a jetpack in two horns coming from where his mouth used to be as he can't speak he has a small robot that interprets what he's saying facade himself has essentially become a chimera now showing that he's only becoming more obsessed with the ideology and methods of the pig masks and their leader facade is rubbing himself with his own humanity in an attempt to become more powerful with the new facade introduced you enter a boss fight this fight feels appropriately important as he's essentially been the main villain of the game so far he has powerful physical attacks along with a lot of status effect inflicting moves and the ability to heal himself for around 550 HP at a time combine that with the fact that you have four party members again and the powerful psi moves Lucas and kumatora have animates for a tense challenging boss defeating facade is really satisfying not just because he's such a piece of but because last time the needle was taken out from under your nose and you're able to prevent that this time [Music] with facade defeated he flies off saying he'll get revenge Lukas pulls a needle learning the next level of pique love Phrygia then arrives telling Lukas and the others where the other needles can be found one is on teen teen island south of Tazz melee and the other in okay how do you say should be chilly and the other end should we chop you a temple in the oriental mountains I have no confidence that that's how that said but I can't think of any other way of pronouncing it now it we'll just go with that they also mentioned that one needle can't be located the one that's said to be sticking out of the dragon's head fridgey then disappears and the party head back to Saturn Valley as you arrive a pig mask blows the exit closed in an attempt to delay you trapping the party in the valley luckily the Saturn's have a way of getting out as you wait for the solution they mr. Saturn asked for your courage badge saying they'll polish it for you with the flying device a cage full of birds complete you fly back to Taz merely holding on to the rope snake the snake once again fails to hold on dropping everyone into the water at Tazz Miller's Beach eventually washing up onto the shore [Music] [Music] as merely his just as empty as it was earlier unfortunately not changing much at all at the beach a crab informs you that to get to taint aim you need to walk across the ocean so you simply walk into the ocean finding yourself underwater in this part of the game you have a breath meter which can be restored by these dudes yeah this new mechanic is neat in that it causes you to make calculated risks to get an item or manage your route properly so that you can make it to the next err machine that being said if you'd like to get everything trial-and-error is required as you don't know where the next err machine will be this discourages exploration as running out of air puts you back on the beach incentivizing people to take the most efficient and direct route so as to avoid repetition so although it's an interesting idea it's one that could be iterated upon to be more enjoyable and less tedious once reaching a certain point in the ocean you'll be sucked into a battle against this creature called master Eddy it's actually impossible to win this fight as you have to lose to push the narrative forward but you can't just let yourself die it's a strange encounter where your death is scripted but to get to this scripted death you have to fight your way through a good portion of the boss with his final move he inflicts around 670 damage to everyone in the process knocking all the items the party is carrying off them [Music] [Music] Lukis kumatora bony and duster wake up on the shore of tain tain Island with no items and only one HP just past the beach you find some energizing mushrooms with no health or items and no other means of healing yourself you decide to eat them duster kumatora and lucas feel odd soon passing out [Music] when they come to the world is distorted the colors have changed thus a frog is no longer in a snake but an umbrella and members of Lucas's family are wandering around Lukas talks to Flint triggering a battle with an eerie smile after doing some damage the eerie smile becomes a zombie shrew and revealing its identity further into the island you come across mailboxes filled with endless screams and never-ending darkness it seems as though the thoughts and feelings of the party are manifesting in front of them when they fight enemies they imagine them to be hateful versions of people they love when Lucas looks inside the mailboxes he's seeing all the things he believes people are saying when he's not there to fight these enemies you have to approach and talk to them the party has to choose to fight them almost as though they can't overcome this trauma without being proactive and taking control of how they process it these enemies also give a lot of XP emphasizing the fact that the party is growing rapidly by being brave enough to confront their own personal demons this section exists to show us how these characters are feeling by seeing how the negative thoughts are manifesting we understand how this journey has affected them mentally instead of the characters dictating this to each other it's visualized and made to have mechanical ramifications as you progress these hallucinations get more abstract the characters repeat themselves at times not even making coherent sentences it's like the enemies lose power as each member of the party begins to confront their own negativity the strength of these enemies is important too they're strong enough to require thoughtful contribution from each member of the party during battle it's as though working through this trauma would be much harder alone you're only able to survive by supporting each other after many battles you finally make it to them gypsies house Lukas kumatora and duster can rest you meet mixo-lydia or Missy she essentially snaps you out of it the world returning to normal Oh Joe the octopus also returns all your items after picking them up on the beach this is a nice way to hammer home that their characters are still themselves you've overcome those demons and come out the other side stronger and just as well-equipped you head out for the needle which is through a cave and upper mountainous area when you arrive there you come across the barrier trio who are guarding the location the trio will strike poses during battle making them immune to all but one of the elemental PK moves as they know very strong psi moves including PK starstorm you need to make good use of psi shields and understand the role of each party member thoroughly to defeat them this boss is pretty tough but can be caught in a loop where they will buff their defense every turn if you continue to lower it this means they'll never actually make an offensive move allowing you to focus on dealing as much damage as possible after striking one last spectacular pose they'll be beating [Applause] [Music] was the barrier trio gone Lucas can pull the needle however the masked man along with some pigma swooping once again the masked man cause down lightning striking the party and leaving them lying on the ground he approaches the needle and pulls it I think that having the masked man steal another needle right in front of you kills some of the momentum here it's not really surprising but demoralizing to put in that time and to defeat the hardest boss in the game up to this point only to be denied of the reward it's pretty frustrating and can begin to make the needle hunt feel a bit pointless perhaps you're meant to feel downtrodden so that you can rise to the occasion anyway but this is never mirrored by any of the characters so it doesn't feel as though that's how it's being framed and presented soon Missy wakes everyone up with the pig masks having departed already she leaves you with her memento and fades away after heading back to the beach otro takes you back to Taz merely on his back roaming Taz merely you find few people are still around as you mill about the music is Samba never changing as you enter shops or homes this communicates that as melee has lost its character a big part of why it was so safe was because of the people who live there without them it's no longer Taz melee at this point in the game walking around the town feels almost nostalgic you can clearly remember when it was filled with people who all had their personal opinions and points of view those same people have all left to the same place to do the same thing becoming controlled by consumption by those who manufactured consent seem tez merely like this in its saddest form it piles on to the motivation you have to take down this kin P you get your map marked by maps in so you can go to the six needle and be one step closer Lucas and the others find themselves on the other side of the sunshine forest heading north to a Gila pass as they enter they trip over dropping a jar of yummy pickles that Missy gave them to deliver to Ionia this begins a strange little section where he plays bony looking for the jar of pickles I think this part is trying to show them working as a team that although tez merely in the know what clans have changed that there's still hope however it just feels unnecessary and it's not entertaining enough to justify the interruption you travel through our gila pass through a cave system on the way to Ionia along the way you find a room with one single enemy in it this is negative man negative man is a very sad slice of cheese sponge I don't know he'll never attack you merely muttering insults to himself as he cries so you sit there beating on this thing as it does nothing but hate itself and then once you beat it you receive 3 XP 3 this fight is so absurd that it does a much better job of lifting the mood than searching for the pickles does in a way it is sad but it's so unexpected that it's hard not to laugh that as well you make it out the other side of the cave system and walk north to our owner's house inside they give you the waters of time to get rid of the vines on chupa chup you a temple just outside the home you see a Saturn who returns the courage badge which has now been polished to become a Franklin badge at the entrance to the temple the masked man and some Pig masks are trying to brute force their way inside you fight some of them off defeating them and walking to confront the masked men he tries to knock the party out once again with lightning however Lucas's Franklin badge reflects it knocking the masked man to his knees thus starts a battle against him [Music] the masked man is not too difficult especially after the barrier trio but the ability he has to destroy all shields on the battlefield can be a regular hazard making defending a more time-consuming matter he can also use PK love connecting him in some way to Lucas after a long battle the masked man is bested taking off with the pig mass I said earlier that having the masked man steal two needles from under you was too much but I must admit that it adds to the satisfaction of beating him here I think ultimately I'd still prefer not having the second needle stolen though as I feel that creates a dissonance that the game does a really good job of avoiding otherwise you entered the temple using the waters of time and as the forced end in front of the needle Ionia enters she stresses that Lucas needs his friends to complete this task and teachers kumatora PK starstorm Lucas pulls a six needle making it the third one who is Paul tired with a masked man Lucas learns the next level of peaky love and Ionia fades away the party leaves the temple as a limousine pulls up outside a chauffeur steps out informing you that the new leader of the world master porky has invited Lucas to Newport city if you refuse to enter the limo the chauffeur insists that when it comes to master porky there are no nose no not no nose like there aren't any nose no not that knows all that knows this no there are no nose it anyway with you inside the limo takes off flying away to the city the limousine is spacious and filled with all sorts of things there's a pool table bars seating and much more but upon closer inspection none of this can actually be used it all appears to be fake existing to give off the impression of expense rather than the reality of it after looking around you soon make it to Newport City it's expensive being the only location in mother3 that could really qualify as a city with one tower in particular being incredibly big looming over the whole city [Music] you [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] you you entering new park city has this strange sense of excitement much like visiting a new city in real life you've been hearing about this place for a while now people have been abandoned as merely to come here so you're heading in with some sort of anticipation the games put in the work to foreshadow and build up the city and it makes your time here feel so much like a culmination of the journey thus far practically everything you do here is payoff for what you've been hearing people say for so long this excitement will quickly turn to a sort of satisfaction as you see that new Park City is mostly made up of facades like literal building facades not episode if you look at the map only four or five buildings actually have interiors compared to the 40 or so fakes seeing this validates all the hatred you have the King P who we now know is called master porky as well as facade and the pig mask porky has been putting in all this work to convince people or force people to come to the city because the location itself is empty and shallow much like his perspective and ideology as you wander around you'll see familiar faces from Tasmania with Lucas being the last person from the town to come to new pork some people are completely bought into Porky's Liars like Isaac who's become a pig mask and Thomas who is obsessed with the arcade others are skeptical like Biff who wonders if people are gathering or rather being gathered in new pork there certainly is an argument to be made that the actual main antagonists not even being named until this late in the game is bad pacing or riding but I would disagree now that we actually know who's running the show porky we can begin to piece together what they're like throughout the last 20 hours we've learned that the pig masks are cruel childish petty and evil so even though we're only just getting to interact with the villain now the rest of the game has already been establishing his character and personality knowing the pig masks allows us to understand what the person making these orders and decisions must be like this makes for a villain that we despise and feel motivated to defeat from the second we hear their name so up until this point I've tried to relay the plot throughout this video as closely as I can to the actual game but at this point I need a straight from that a bit porky is actually pokey from Earthbound pokey was neces neighbor who as the game progressed somehow became more and more powerful eventually being the second-in-command to Gaius the main villain so knowing that we can better understand porky and his motivations he was someone already obsessed with power but after being defeated by Ness he has become irrationally focused on that particular battle in a way wanting to destroy everything to prove that he is the most powerful being in the world this obsession can be seen in the theater which plays a projection showing parts from earthbound this aspect will also be shown again and again during this final chapter new park city also serves really well as a concentration of all the game's themes and the connections they share this city has become a driving force of destroying a community one that was torn apart thanks to shallow consumerism and a twisted idea of what progress was new pork also demonstrates how a picture of progress built on power and profit is one that ultimately tries to leave the organic world behind while also being dependent on it creating an unsustainable model for the future we see this in the fact that a grand statue of porky is being supported by a tree yet one that has been gnarled and perverted by industrialization the game has been telling us what it thinks showing us these themes and ideas being played out only to take us to the monument of all of it at the end of the game that's why new Park City feels so final because it's the culmination of all of mother threes messaging and perspective while in the theater you find a man that tells you that your leader is locked underground and it seems to be the only lead you have about where you might need to go next so you follow it the group makes their way into the sewer to find this leader the sewer area represents porky any way of life the glamour of new pork above-ground seeming fun and advanced with the sewer the truth running under the surface gross sinister and vile the sewer only extends so far and you'll soon enter a run-down apartment building which is here for some reason look I couldn't find some pretentious justification for everything in this game on the other side of a door on the second floor you come across the letter well leader I highly remember what I call him at a start now you come across letter int as merely let it existed only to ring the comically tall Bell here he's surrounded by books with his feet chained up and attached a heavy weight so that he can't move or escape rather there's this mournful sort of music playing it sounds like something sad has happened in a cartoon and then it totally fits seeing letter trapped here staring forward blankly here you can hear him talk the first time in the whole game and boy does he have something to say what follows is a massive law dump like 20 minutes long massive one that is so sudden and filled with content and context that it can be hard to keep all in your head if I haven't already shown myself to be a complete sucker for this game then it will definitely show here I don't just like this decision ideally this would be stuff that you learned throughout the game catching bits and pieces here and there with it finally coming together and making sense at the climax but instead let it just regurgitate the history of the nowhere islands and tez merely to you that being said the game at least has the self-awareness to understand that this is a lot to take in as you're given an item that can repeat all of this info on demand additionally the game does let you find some of those bits and pieces it's just that they all pay off here instead of satisfyingly discovering and decoding it yourself so let's actually go over what letter tells us I'm also going to go over my thoughts theories and ideas so letter mentions that there used to exist a massive world presumably the world from mother - that was much larger than the nowhere islands thanks to humans this world ended right before this and a white ship carried all the people who would later become citizens of Taz merely to the nowhere islands some people predicted the world was coming to an end and so devised this white ship plan the people who had settled on the Noah Islands were the future survived the apocalypse as the island were protected thanks to the immense power of the Dark Dragon people used to coexist with the dragon but this soon cease to be the case resulting in the placement of the seven needles putting it to sleep this process was exercised by a C's who've lived on the islands for thousands of years the people who'd evaded the end of the world feared another apocalypse as they felt that the previous one was a result of how humans had lived and impacted the world the world of mother 2 was one that had progressed much like the islands have now under porky though slower it was a world with more technological advancements and one that is more recognizable to us the player we can infer that it's this way of life that these people felt brought on the apocalypse it makes sense that porky would follow this path as well as he lived in that world and has become obsessed with his failures in it particularly his inability to stop Ness and his friends from defeating him and Gaius the people from the white ship decided that to avoid the same paths again they'd erase everyone's memories allowing them to start over before this fresh start everyone would devise a story they'd play out with all the stories working in conjunction to create a peaceful functioning town and community and so everyone's memories were wiped replace with these stories instead despite this new beginning they still wanted to store their old memories leading to the hummingbird egg in their new lives western duster would know how to protect the egg sure a threat appear this explains why Wesen duster knew to protect it and how to do so without knowing why they knew or how as a backup one person was chosen to retain their memories of the previous world with that person being letter before tez merely was ever created a kingdom lived on the Noah Islands centered around the king of a so hey these people seem to have left the islands in fear of the dragon possibly being awoken from its sleep before kumatora boarded the white ship she was an orphan in this new life she was raised by the Majesties with her now being called the princess of a so hey castle people from the white ship wanted to create more history but simply ran out of time letter begins to speak as though he's a developer of the game here in a sense mentioning that with more time the nowhere islands and by extension mother3 would be bigger richer and more involved as we saw mother threes development cycle was erratic it wasn't consistently worked on for those 12 years so it is very possible that the scenario in world was still rushed in some parts and not quite what the original vision was these new stories actually worked with people believing they'd always lived in Taz Milly this changed however when porky arrived porky used some device to travel through time and space though was rejected from other areas and places eventually settling in the nowhere islands he then used this device to bring people from other eras to the islands he brainwashed these people turning them into pig masks and the other unnamed characters we've seen with this new army he began doing the things we've seen over the course of mother 3 creating chimeras building a Thunder tower and continuing to build the army porky soon learned about the white ship thanks to a trailer within the merge it sees the traitor was the only magician haven't met in the game yet the one that we're searching for now after learning of the dragon porky one of the power it can give to whoever paws the needles he found someone who could do this controlling them and making them his puppet we learned the porky has gathered everyone to New York City for the pulling of the final needle finally letter tells Lucas to head for the 100th floor of the empire porky building to find out where the final needle is [Music] whoo okay we got that out of the way in this context porky becomes something different he serves as a reminder of what humanity did to the world and that we constantly brush off past transgressions expecting to move forward in ignorant as humans and as people we have to acknowledge what we're doing to the world and study it so that we can then fix it and prevent it from happening again in the future even after erasing all their memories the people of Taz merely couldn't escape the circumstances under which they settled on the neighbor islands the ones in power are most responsible for the current state of the world but the rest of us still have to take responsibility as well as the process of changing for the better may mean removing those powers and that's what we're going to do right now in the 104 of the Empire porky building so you're all pumped up if stringbean looking just gave a hell of a speech and it's time to get topside but as you approach the exit something burst out of the sewage and then facade floats down interview the boss fight starts and you're introduced to a miracle facade now with more horns he barely looks human this robotic look along with the fact that he no longer has a voice makes him kind of sad to fire he's only gotten more obsessed with changing himself becoming less recognizable and more machine than man with that said he's still a despicable piece of so it's time to kill the music gives off this sense of urgency like you have to beat him as soon as possible so you can go save the world [Music] interestingly facade has an off-key music attack which could be implying that even with all these changes he's not somehow become superior or better in any way he's still talking this time it just comes as a flat note the fight itself is pretty exhilarating with a good sense of challenge to make it feel important he has multiple moves that damage a whole party including PK starstorm however you take a few turns d buffing him and buffing your party you should be able to stay on top just make sure you've memorized the menus if you need to heal someone in the pinch as he progressed façades horn will be knocked off making him more human as he takes damage and begins to deal out more damage after the defeat facade has something interesting to say you've bested me kind sirs actually no you did not best me you were merely detestable I'm sick of all this fighting very extremely sick of it this is all just a game you could call it master Porky's game facade is sick of falling porky he's glad to escape this game through death in a sense Lukas is still trapped [Music] you leave the sewer and facade behind the streets of new POC city are different now filled with more people the thing is many of these people speak in nonsense making simple one-word sentences repeating themselves over and over we now know the poor key is pulling these people from other areas and brainwashing them and it seems like he's getting desperate quickly rushing out subjects of his that are incapable of being coherent it kind of feels like you've got to him like he's trying to prove that he still got control you're getting the upper hand in a subtle way and it's really satisfying the lobby of the Empire building is nice and shockingly tasteful for porky you go to take the elevator to the 100th floor only to find out that it only stops at the 24th one on the 24th floor at DC MC concert is happening there chauffeur King P that was advertised in club Teddy boo on this floor you'll also see a couple these two people can be seen in numerous places staring at each other both nervously wondering if the other has a crush on them here they're finally together now wondering if the other wants to kiss them this is such a small thing but the fact that these two people would get some sort of narrative arc is part of what makes mother3 so incredible with everything that's going on in the game up to this point these tertiary characters could justifiably be forgotten about but mother3 refuses it's these little details that make the world feel alive like it exists and makes sense in the concert hall just a reunites with DC MC making for a cute moment he puts his old wig back on in the show starts [Music] [Music] you [Music] however it stops shortly after it began with the power being cut with in here porky speak of an intercom asking those with enough pathetic courage to come to the 100th floor Lukas Boni kumatora and duster get on the elevator heading to the 100th floor [Music] [Music] for 100 is a grassy area with pools of water filled with wading hippo launches it quickly becomes clear that this isn't the actual 100th floor and as you reach the end for key chimes in to mock you saying you're so close to the real 100th for the next floor is just upsetting it's one big bedroom filled with women who love porky which means it's filled with women who've been brainwashed to love porky Oh God and like that he quickly asked you to come to the real 100th floor you've known that the person running the pig master was childish and immature but finally having porky talked to you hearing his tone of voice in the way he speaks it backs up the characterization set out for him really well he easily slots into the position that you imagined him occupying that's another reason I think introducing him this late isn't a detriment he's just as unlikable as he thought he would be the next level 100 is a maze of bathrooms with some being occupied by NPCs or enemies in one of these bathrooms you can find all the friendly goes from a so he packed into one room demonstrating the porky really has gathered everyone for the end of the world as you make it to the next 100 for the tone changes [Music] a slower bearer version of the Medici theme is playing and am a gypsy house it's in the center of the room porky asked you to move on obviously not wanting you to dwell here inside the house you see boxes of bananas and memento and some horns this was the home of the seventh Najeeb see this was the home of facade seeing this it humanizes facade or lucre it rather we've seen the other merge if sees they were all well-intentioned wanting the wall to start anew with Lucas's heart being passed on to the dragon so who's this a low crea wouldn't have been the same our previous experiences make us feel like we know who we lost to an extent even if we never did this also shows the power Porky's brainwashing could have he'd even worked on those who were thousands of years old if lo queria was brainwashed that is we may have hated facade but that doesn't mean we can't mourn the loss of lo creo for 100 version 5 is under construction filled with experimental mechanical chimeras that stalk the scaffolding seeing an area clearly unfinished like this makes you wonder if porky was caught off guard by how fast we collected the needles it gives you a bit of insight into the way porky is ultimately trying to trick himself into thinking he's greater than he actually is the party takes the elevator once again finding themselves in a more clinical floor some sort of laboratory the chimeras here in our pure robots no longer having any animal components in fact the chimeras throughout the Empire walking during have only gotten more robotic unless natural as you move further up the tower and coincidentally closer to Porky at the end of this era you'll find a receptionist introducing the nice person hot spring which turns you into someone who respects master porky the next room is actually filled with green capsules or containing a person or animal these people are being brainwashed turned into someone who likes porky and how he's changed the world showing us this room makes the brainwashing process more believable in the world helping us better understand Porky's methods leaving this room you find yourself in a void with only a staircase leading up there's some uncharacteristically Pleasant music playing making this one of the few nice places in the [Music] this area disarms you to an extent cleansing the palate and making you ready for some more weirdness through the door upstairs you find yourself in this game show like environment where you'll be tested to see if you're fit to me porky this involves playing a bunch of mini games against a small robot controlled by porky however winning these games isn't how you progress if you win porky will throw a tantrum you're supposed to let him win by a hair making sure it's not obvious you were throwing the match you have to play whack-a-mole run an obstacle course and see who can blow a balloon up fastest these activities lose their fun because of how you're forced to play turning these games that could be blazed through into tedious time wasters it makes the sequence frustrating but appropriate porky is so childish that he can't stand to lose even though it's likely he knows you're letting him win seeing this plays out it makes him seem that much more pathetic it makes you want to stop him from pulling the final needle that much more because you know it'll be satisfying after playing these games you exit through a door finding yourself in another staircase at the next door you enter a room with just you and a massive Pig like robot it's time to fight their natural killer cyborg the track that plays during this fight feels appropriately chaotic and intense making your attacks feel more meaningful in the hits that you take that much more deadly [Music] this is further emphasized by the size of the boss it takes up the whole screen being the most physically imposing thing you've seen all game mixing a robot with something recognizable like a pig makes it look just wrong this encounter can be really difficult but if kumatora has learned PK ground then it gets a lot easier PK ground hits five times in one use doing around 150 to 200 damage per hit the cyborg killer can still hit back hard though keeping you on your toes the fight can go by pretty quickly adding to the intense deadly nature of it I don't think beating a boss this easily is always a bad thing it just shows how much more powerful you've become and it can be super gratifying [Music] moving through the door that was being guarded by the cyborgs you'll find yourself in a very long hallway with a sweet song playing [Music] [Music] it sounds almost like a lullaby telling a small story while having this childish tone it gives some nice weight to this simple walk it feels significant like this lullaby this story is coming to an end stepping out of the hallway you enter a strange room filled with water and a boat the boat drifts through the pool taking you past memorabilia from earthbound the phone the ATM and the sky runner them among other things are all on display this display shows us again how Porky's become obsessed with that time in his life and that fire he's kept all these reminders of that time not being able to move past it at the same time this could be here as a show of power from porky like him saying that he was able to take these things from another time and place still coming out alive this would play into his characterization as his displays of power and the way he uses that power I have always been childish and more pitiful than in human dating so attempting to impress but instead seeming insecure it makes perfect sense continuing on the environment is now made of stone and moss looking dank damp and decrepit the music is atmospheric sounding hollow and inhuman eventually the party enters a large bear room looking over the nowhere islands the ceiling is tangled with vines and wiring panning back down walking our stands right in front of us he approaches asking to be friends when Lukas refuses he explodes unless the end of the game gets real thanks for watching I hope you have a greater five more of these porky robots fall initiating battle these bots are too powerful individually but all together they create a battle that is more an insurance test this is a good change of pace full of boss battles as they typically involve trying to inflict as much damage as possible while staying alive where here you have to spread out the damage over more targets the 5 porky bots are destroyed when after slight pause and other drops bringing two chimeras with it this little baton switch is what sells this fight this is the only time a battle continues like this so it's completely unexpected giving this feeling of worry wondering if you're going to fail this fight like 10 minutes in a seventh what joins a battle along with more chimeras after the seventh what it feels like it's finally over until three more drop down however the ECMC appear a DC MC track kicks in feeling triumphant and hectic they all attack taking out the three remaining Porky BOTS ending their battle the relationship you have with these guys has being shifted to have mechanical importance makes it all the more rewarding even if you weren't too interested in these characters the time spent with them is still useful as they were able to help in an important fight that seemed to never end after the battle ends Flint enters the room to along with West's and a number of other characters even if they were fooled by porky or bought in at some point they've taken that responsibility and removed themselves as cogs in Porky's machine instead becoming hazards trying to stop the wheels from turning after speaking with them again and again throughout the game it's nice to know they showed up for you porky begins speaking again trying to command attention the wires and gears in the ceiling / luring a life-preserving device with some old gray man inside that's porky just like everything he's done on the Noah Islands he's empty lifeless and devoid of soul he sputters and coughs as he talks fighting to get the words out porky then begins to reveal his perspective he believes that humans will always become a victim to themselves he believes the people of Taz merely would have been happy if they allowed themselves to be controlled by him porky speaks as though he's aware of his own selfishness while condemning you for not falling in line with those same selfish needs he believes people are inherently bad and so should be controlled and forced to live under specific oppressive systems forced into a happiness dependent on ignorant he's taken advantage of the ignorance he bred playing with people in their lives like it's nothing it's an ideology built upon unhealthy power balances one that conveniently puts him at the helm of the world pork is only convinced himself that his way is the one road to happiness so that he can do the things he's done under the guise of helping others he's too pathetic to admit that he's evil or maybe just too self-centered as he monologues in alarm sounds the seventh needle has just been found deep underground the empire porky building porky urges Lukas to find the final needle as well with an elevator lowering from the floor taking duster kumatora bony Flint and Lucas down to where the needle ways [Music] the elevator plummets throwing the five out of the door as it makes a crushing impact with the ground at the bottom Flint asked you if he can go ahead insisting you let him he says to come after him if he's been gone for a long time you're eager to reach the needle though so you venture forth the area is desolate you walk on Viraj rock cliffs and your footsteps echo off the sheer rock faces [Music] there's no music just some atmospheric sounds it reminds me of waves crashing against rock though a bit more sinister and in this context foreboding Lucas and the others descend hundreds of stone steps juxtaposing the ones he walked up in the empire porky building there the party was rising to the challenge but they got to the top coming no closer to pulling the needle or eliminating porky so now they're walking down to pork his level having to take a shortcut almost playing Porky's game just so they can get close enough to him after descending some ladders you find something of no it's the doorknob from Lucas's front door it fell off when Thomas tried to open the door during the fire in the sunshine forest this may indicate that flint made it this far that he kept her a minder of that night when he lost his wife it could also be more symbolic like the things that Lucas needs to open her doors aka overcome challenges that lead to the final needle are being provided his fate is being fulfilled when Lucas goes to pick up the doorknob he drops it at this point choices are being taken out of his hands or it could be a throwback to the start of the game what all hello after some time a four is reached flattening out this area looks as though it's under construction which may mean this is a creation of the pig mask army this final empty soulless area sits at the heart of New York City it represents porky a familiar face sits nearby the faithful save frog and not much further along a gift box has a hot spring inside [Music] [Music] man hearing that peaceful song after so long after using the revitalizing machines for a few hours it brings a great sense of relief it almost grounds you in a sense the game has trained you to associate this song with safety and a fully healed party so placing it here in the middle of this oppressive bleak atmosphere it just makes you warm inside much like hot spring leaving through the doorway next to the hot spring you enter a more overbearing area one that's abstract and haunting the music jitters around like something is hiding in the void that surrounds the narrow pathways this feels like an area coursing with energy it feels like the place where that world is controlled from the group continue to move through these caverns with there being no environmental signs of progression this area feels endless after a while Flint's hat flies by and up ahead you find him kneeling not moving you rush over to him and he reveals something the masked man the one who's become Porky's slave the one who's stolen needles right from under you and the one you're racing to stop right now he's class he's Lucas's brother in Flint son Flint is conflicted he finally found his son but in the last place you'd want to despite this he urges Lucas to be the one who pulls the final needle this reveal is strange if you've been paying attention while playing the game it's not that hard to figure out you likely knew already it also feels a bit random it's not immediately surrounded by anything important making it feel sudden maybe there should be some distant noise that implies the confrontation is happening somewhere ahead or something like that it just could have made this moment a bit more special that's not to say it's bad the conflict Flint has is heartbreaking and it gives the ambiguity what happens next some nice anticipation but it's not perfect Flynn stays kneeling and you have to leave in B continuing to move forward at this point you're crossing narrower metal bridges to continue on the geography here is unstable it's being circumvented and ignored it further makes this feel like a place you simply shouldn't be it's unnatural in this area you find a real bat a weapon for Lucas that is incredibly powerful providing great offense and a boost to maximum PP for the whole game you've been using progressively better sticks and now you're using a bat the main weapon for nests of earthbound this could mean that portly placed this item like he's trying to manipulate the fight you'll have against him so that it's as much like the one he had with Ness recreating it in a sense a bit further along the path widens to form a large clearing and as you walk on it walkie chimes in asking you to stop he's in the same device as before this time equipped with six legs that give him mobility he's not letting you go any further porky speaks in the masked man of class as though he's a monster calling him it dehumanizing him he seems unable to believe that the masked man is a person yeah it's time to kill this [Music] [Music] the music is grand flowing through a number of instrumental changes that make it accompany the rhythm of the battle well Porky's machine is designed to look like a spider with many legs and fangs in the front he has a wide array of moves with most targeting multiple party members or the whole body this makes him a nuisance and Lucas will likely be purely on support Judy during the fight even against the person who reduced his brother to nothing he still primarily fights supportively non-violently partway through the fight he speaks porky says that no matter what he'll never die that he can't be killed he's mocking you and reassuring himself he continues to ramble throughout the fight as he gets closer and closer to defeat after taking thousands of points of damage walk his device begins to fail powering down and slumping to the ground sadly porky reiterates that he'll never die he'll never be beaten he moves into his absolutely safe capsule a device that can never be damaged ensuring his survival the battle continues and you try to attack it but no damage is inflicted it's absolutely safe the battle ends with no winner you gain no XP for the fight dr. ender nuts who made the device enters the clearing he reassures us that it is absolutely safe but that it can never be left pork is stuck in this capsule forever at this point the doctor just rolls him around it's one of the few moments of levity in the last couple of hours but it works so well seeing this despicable person who thought he got the better of you being reduced to a big ball being rolled around joyfully it's super satisfying it's the end that porky deserves with porky dealt with Lucas and the others head to the final needle you'll soon come to a say frog after you save it mentions that's the final frog in the game it thanks you for saving with it in the others and cries when this happened on my first playthrough I got legitimately emotional he was sad I wasn't going to be able to see any more goofy iterations of these fellas I developed an emotional connection to the concept of saving just like I said I would right at the start of the video man this game is great the party now fully healed continues to walk through this eerie environment not long after they find the masked man Klaus kneeling next to the final needle he's not pulled it possibly waiting for Lucas Klaus senses his brother and turns to face him in each encounter with the masked man he and Lucas will have some sort of connection the screen draining of color to emphasize it this implies that the masked man does have some innate sense or memory of Lucas Klaus has never been completely gone he shoots lightning at the party again knocking out everyone but Lucas it seems like Klaus is purposefully causing the battle to be between him and his brother the fight starts the tone is set for this battle right as it begins there's no epic music it's atmospheric and personal it feels important but understated Lucas is the only one still standing at the beginning of the fight you can revive other party members but it will only be a waste of items and PP this fight is just between Lucas and Klaus with only Lucas fighting you can't balance healing and attacking classes moves being too strong to ignore this highlights how much other people have helped Lucas how he's not gotten here by just his own merits collaboration and community was essential to the success of his journey in contrast it shows how their motivations and processes led them down different paths Klaus vowed to become stronger seeking physical power and strength motivated by revenge this causes him to achieve that power at the expense of his own well-being his own free will Lucas on the other hand mourned using his strength to help others to heal instead of hurt this path causes him to be helped in return finding allies along the way Klaus can cast pique love a move known by just him and Lucas it deals almost 600 damage assuredly proving fatal to make the most of your PP the best strategy is to God which makes the HP ticker countdown slower after doing this for a few turns a peaceful tune fades in and we hear someone call Lucas's name the battle proceeds for a few more turns until being interrupted again this same voice is now calling out to class it's an hour trying to reach her two children class simply ignores it Lucas keeps guarding choosing not to attack his brother he now calls again begging Klaus to stop she sounds desperate as she speaks the background of the battle changes shaking and buzzing like static the walls that have been built in classes mind are starting to crack this battle and how it subverts the battle system while staying true to Lucas's characterization it's genius you don't just see all this happen you're a part of it the masked man has done horrible things but you don't want to attack him you understand his journey and the way he's been manipulated having to avoid attacking could be frustrating for some players but we've been so well and raptured by the story and characters that it just makes sense this is also where the simplicity of the writing shines there's only short simple appeals to the human mind but it drops with emotion it just feels right after hanging on a little longer Klaus Carr speak a love again this time however Flint jumps in front of Lucas taking the brunt of the attack instead Flint tries to appeal to class as well attempting to reach his son there's a short pause and then he can speak a love again this moment is intense you want this family to feel whole again but it all seems so unlikely now class soon uses pique love again this time a weaker version it gives us hope his class somehow shining through feeling guilty for what he's doing he now calls to him again and he seems to respond the background pulse is slower now waving in sweeping motions he seems calm by her Naya's voice she continues to call in desperation and we soon see a flashback Lucas and class are babies two brothers within the Mint's connection this connection is consistent to the point where the two names are anagrams for the other the process of class returning to himself it shows us the importance of optimism and courage in the face of loss although the comments on consumerism and greed may seem bleak to escape those things you have to keep fighting staying positive and believing in yourself and others in this testament to optimism is central to mother3 the game has this innocence about it so to promote the importance of a positive outlook makes sense for the game it's another part of the balancing act one that is relevant to the game and the player fading back to the battle the music has changed it plays the same melody that's heard when he novel calls out her voice is being heard by Klaus at least on some level at this point only Lucas is in the battle no party members could be revived it can only be the two of you by now class's attacks a weak and restrained he stares at Lucas covering his ears the melody begins to sound more familiar turning back into the tune we remember it from as though it's becoming more clear in classes head [Music] he presses his eyes shut one part of him trying to ignore what's happening Lucas wants to cry seeing the masked man fade and his brother come back into view at this point I honestly feel exactly the same way this battle takes its time giving the different stages room to breathe it feels like you're watching this family come back together all the work the games put into this world and characters it's paying off right now when who now speaks again she sounds full of love she just wants to help Klaus rest the masked man looks around eventually taking his mask off discarding what he was forced to be and becoming class once again the most shocking thing here is how young he looks you kind of forget that he's a child and seeing it after this long it's just heartbreaking he fires off one more bolt of lightning knowing that Lucas's Franklin badge will reflect it back at him it does just that mortally wounding Klaus and ending the battle [Music] [Music] he falls into Lucas's arms they're truly remembering each other for the first time in years Klaus speaks apologizing for how things turned out but being thankful that they could be together for the end he apologizes to Flint as well stating that he's going to wear her now he is now Klaus hopes that he and Lucas meet again and says goodbye taking his final breath in Lucas's embrace okay now we can cry I think the game has earned it Flint reassures Lucas asking him to pull the last needle and impart his heart into it so that we can make the dragon our friend [Music] you the player press the button and Lucas pulls it the earth shakes and we see is all the life from the noir Islands panics as meteors fall from the sky Inferno ravage of the plant life and cyclones pulse over the ground all the places we've been start to crumble pulling themselves apart at the seams undoing all life on the islands the mother pork ship attempts to fly off being struck in the process and falling to the ground even with all the progress pork in the pig mask made it's not enough to escape the natural order of life the immense power of the Dark Dragon as we watch the world end it's bittersweet we did the right thing but we can only hope that people we met along the way are okay because we really cared for them [Music] you or will we find out that they're okay this ending screen can actually be walked around as the player we have control over the ending perhaps on some small level we were this dragon with immense power playing with this world like it was nothing the fate of the nowhere islands rests in our hands as will each tell this story differently talking about mother3 is a game and starting this world anew for others under our jurisdiction that's what I'm doing right now I'm retelling the story and in some way birthing this world in your minds as well thanks to how the game has taken the time to make us care for these characters it's most likely that we'll speak positively of it passing on Lucas's good heart to the people of the islands recreating their world in a positive light as you walk around you'll bump into characters from the game the people of Taz merely of the white ship they're still alive it's such a relief the dragon sped them all these people that entertained you made you care about them they're okay and it makes sense mother three is an optimistic game in the face of all the evil porky and parted into this world you still came out on top reuniting your family one last time and undoing all Porky's so-called progress as you continue to talk to people someone will eventually ask if you're blank they will mention you the player by a name that random time where you were asked to enter your name in the factory has come back around in this ending you're not playing as Lucas but yourself this could possibly mean that we were the concept of fate helping Lucas and the others causing them to fulfill their roles and play their part causing them to take the journey that will set out by them by the developers innocence I like how ambiguous this is there's no concrete answer in the game and I'm just speculating but the players importance is stressed and you become a part of this world characters think you personally by name because of the connections we forged with these characters these thank-yous actually means something while walking around you'll come across something rolling on the ground with something else inside it it appears that porky survived but he still sits in the absolutely safe capsule completely useless reduced to nothing you also pick up the doorknob from Lucas's house previously Lucas couldn't pick it up this item that would allow him to take control of fate opening the doors of life himself but you can pick it up like I said earlier maybe the player was the dictator of fate in a sense so they controls which doors this world walks through the people of the name our Islands bid you farewell thanking you for all you've done we're then treated to a credit sequence but not of the developers rather the characters of the game [Music] mother three managers to shift tones seamlessly during its ending defeating Porky's triumphant fighting classes poignant but tragic seeing the world end is bittersweet and seeing the characters safe and talking to them it's relieving it puts a smile on your face then you get to reminisce over them all as they scroll past feeling celebratory it moves through these moods while giving them enough time to feel fleshed out it feels appropriately final and represents the game really well [Music] then we get to see the staff credits these people all work together to create something amazing I'm grateful for all of them in the world that they built the characters they gave life to when the things that they told us along the way that also goes for those that worked on the fan translation making it possible for me to play one of my favorite games of all time I know I've gone on and on but I truly believe mother 3 is a game worth analyzing this much if you manage to stick through this whole video and what I had to say then thanks I know it's not perfect but finally being able to express my feelings and perspective about this game it's been really satisfying [Music] the final thing we see is the mother 3 logo now free from the technology that porky forced upon it and in Earth making up the oh this world is free from Porky's influence free to flourish again thanks for watching [Music] it's like fire hydrants taxis and sentiment in 1981 he co-authored a collection of short stories with a tokamak satara owatta and she groped Shakira general information about the game and finally a letter from Siegrist man so you insert the totally legit mother hell minute a minute in so despite the fact that Klaus appears to be writing a new word of his death with seeing a carrying it's not a carrier pigeon it's a carrier pigeon the battles are simple and quite easy so you can get used to the Frick frizam what's that he does all of this despite his limp which makes contributing in these my god that being said this combo system isn't unnecessary this may rub some people the wrong way not the wrong way I think this is one of the best ways mother3 subverts John Detroit I think this is one of the best way month I think this is one of the best ways mother3 subvert genre tropes I think this is one of the best ways that mother3 subverts John your truck genre your on genre it doesn't sound like a word anymore I said it too much this expression of power puts into perspective how the pig mask and King port back it's not King porky yet you don't know about yet a chauffeur Asha first Schaffer Schaffer that's something right so further that's it it's not Shepherd chauffeur if you refuse to enter the limo the chauffeur is chauffeur not chef for god dammit Lucas wants to cry Oh God stares into your scene

Channel: Nafan

Views: 89,626

Rating: 4.9276395 out of 5

Keywords: Mother 3, Earthbound

Id: r-ql0_ncIi0

Length: 195min 26sec (11726 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 07 2020