Game of the Week: Mother (NES/GBA)

Mr.Saturn

Quelle surprise.

Ironically, the only entry in the series lacking any Mr.Saturns. Suppose that's how I roll, really.

Anyways, I wanted to shine a tiny bit of light on the opening chapter in the trilogy, as its younger siblings seem to hog a vast amount of the plaudits, and it's understandable on some level, given the primitive nature of Mother, compared to latter-day RPGs, but it still manages to communicate an affecting story of young love, redemption, maternity and the odd bit of alien adoption. It's hard to really reflect much on the game's charm, considering a vast amount of it would contain spoilers, and with this being an 8-bit RPG, there's only so much plot to spoil before it's down the swanny, but it's a bit of a special one, alright.

Mind, brutally hard title if you're playing it in its original form, random, rockhard battles galore but there exists ways around that, of course.

Mother begins by telling the story of a young married couple from rural America who mysteriously vanished after a dark shadow covered their small country town. Two years later, the husband, George, returned as mysteriously as he vanished, and began a strange study in complete seclusion. His wife, Maria, was never heard from again..........

spoilers within

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PJTURgpMYM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9onnnzq5UF4

On, and the soundtrack, 8-bit'd bliss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYqDCPg7GPE

Retr0gamer

Good choice and a game far ahead of it's time. Despite some balance issues (you'll do a lot of grinding and the final area isa joke, just run from all the battles) this is a game well ahead of it's time. Narratively speaking it's way ahead of the vast majority of games today, and considering when it came out it's a remarkable achievement. In the series typical fashion it doesn't come together until the very end and it isn't a convoluted plot about a spiky haired teen saving the world but about the emotional responses it can elicit in you. It's one of the few games that uses the medium of videogames to elicit these emotions and is one of the few examples as games as art. You might think I'm over analysing it but if you listen to the interviews with Shigesato Itoi about the mother series it will confirm it.

Also have to agree, the soundtrack is superb and songs from the game are taught to schoolchildren in japan in music classes.

Pyongyang

Absolutely agree, fantastic little game, if bloody difficult/grinding without the easy key (for me anyway).

Mother 2 is still my favourite, though I haven't played enough of Mother 3 yet (though with my new Game Boy Micro I shall be soon!).

Top choice, nice one.

Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy

Look Mr Saturn, I’m really for you getting GotW and I'mma Let you finish but Mother 2 is the is the best Mother game of all time, of all time!
Lol jk
I'm actually playing it now, not too far though just met Lloyd like.
Found it a bit hard to go from M3 back to Mother (especially the black backgrounds in battles, it really bothered me).
A while into playing it I got used to it and started enjoying it, love singing along with Pollyanna when I'm walking around, can't wait to play more.

Pyongyang wrote: »

Absolutely agree, fantastic little game, if bloody difficult/grinding without the easy key (for me anyway).
Mother 2 is still my favourite, though I haven't played enough of Mother 3 yet (though with my new Game Boy Micro I shall be soon!).

I've the easy ring as well.
Hope you get to play more Mother 3 soon Pyongyang because it's just such an amazing game (but Mother 2 will always be my favourite )

Retr0gamer

The story about how Mother was created was that Shigesato Itoi, a famous copywriter and novelist, was fed up of how bad the stories were in games so went to Nintendo to talk about it and ended up being in charge of the game. It's why the series a bit more literary than anything else.

Mr.Saturn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Shigesato Itoi

I'd advise anyone to keep an eye on this name, it turns up in the most obscure places. From the castlist of My Neighbour Totoro to acting as
food-critic to some equally obscure Japanese cooking program. Proper polymath, Alan Moore territory.

Retr0gamer

He's a huge celebrity in Japan. He has his hand in everything.

Retr0gamer

RopeDrink wrote: »

EDIT: Ok, the names are different, but I assume he's related to or part of the Mother series. Lucas (Another one) was supposedly the main character of Mother 3... Either way I had no idea what the series' even where until this thread.

Ness is the main character from Mother 2/Earthbound. Lucas is from Mother 3. Ninten is the main character from Mother 1.

OwaynOTT

'The name's Do. Ninten Do.'

paperwork

All this thread made me do was attempt to finish the game of earthbound I'd started ages ago.

Retr0gamer

You should It's so worth it.