A look back at: MOTHER 3

Only 13 days? Even I'm genuinely surprised by how quickly I managed to beat MOTHER 3. I was all looking at this being quite a long one, but in actuality the game was quite short. However, being short means that it would have a deciding fun factor to it, and MOTHER 3 delivered. Memorable characters, funny NPC dialogue, heartbreaking moments, familiar tunes and characters, a beat-themed battle system, frustrations and fun were had when they were had.

Growing up, I've taken interest in a few things I never thought I'd take interest in, most notably politics and the economy. MOTHER 3 surprisingly does well in molding just how corruptible society is with the introduction of wealth to a backwater village (in Chapter 3) as well as promises of happiness. It's so crazy how this subliminal political message makes a statement so well. Tazmily in the beginning was just a nice village without worry, then Fassad comes in with the promise of happiness and wealth, Tazmily evolves, and residents become more cynical. It's truly maddening. Then they all migrate in the end, reaching a richer city of riches, leaving their old homes behind.

That isn't the only cool thing MOTHER 3 manages to convey. The heartbreaking loss of Hinawa has a huge effect on the rest of the family, the horrible tortures Salsa has to put up with, the always messed-up ambitions Porky has, it all makes the experience so much more memorable. And while the fabled exposition dumps that other RPGs have tend to bore players to death, the one offered by Leder in the final chapter is something that is not boring. It is actually interesting, calling back what I said earlier about how corruptible humans are, as well as the loss of memory and the greed Porky so gleefully displays. The fact that an exposition dump manages to be interesting is truly a high mark for the game.

If there's only one thing I can say I don't really like that much in MOTHER 3, it's trying to time my button presses to the beat of the background music. Of course, it's not really necessary, but it does make battles faster. I'm never really a fan of action command-centric gameplay all that much anymore. It did not detriment this game enough for me to put it out of at least the Top 20 in my opinion though.