Collection essentials #531: Mother 3 (GBA)

“Mother” is the strange name of a JRPG franchise owned by Nintendo, which debuted with a Japan-only Famicom game that felt sort of like the very popular Dragon Quest series but in a more contemporary setting. The second “Mother” game would be cut from a similar cloth, released on the Super Famicom in 1994. That would be the first game in the series to be released in America, given the less-strange name “EarthBound” which is now the series’ official name outside of Japan. Mother 2 sold pretty well in Japan, and while it didn’t meet Nintendo’s sales expectations in America, it left a huge impression on many of those who got to play it, and it’s known for having a very dedicated and passionate fanbase. You can read more about EarthBound in a blog post I made about it a while back.

Plans for Mother 3 were devised right around the time that Mother 2 first released. But the game did not have a smooth development cycle, and it took over a decade before Mother 3 as we know it saw the light of day. For a while it was planned as a fully-3D Nintendo 64 game, which perhaps the console could have used due to its infamous lack of RPGs. Development advanced far enough that Nintendo officially unveiled a demo of the game which would have been localized in English as “EarthBound 64”. As the Nintendo 64 was discontinued during development, the team considered making it a GameCube title, but eventually those plans got scrapped. Instead, they decided to rework the game and can the 3D graphics, instead making it a 2D title on the Game Boy Advance. And this is the Mother 3 that we are now acquainted with, finally seeing a release in 2006 towards the end of the GBA’s lifespan.

Mother 3 is partially a sequel to Mother 2, with one major character returning. But for the most part the game’s story stands on its own. I’m not gonna say much about it to avoid spoilers. You play as a boy named Lucas (a silent protagonist) who lives with his brother and mother. Early in the game, their island village is invaded by a bunch of soldiers called the Pigmask Army, thus setting off the events of the game. A few different characters are introduced as the perspective is temporarily switched away from Lucas, until the party eventually joins up. Much like the protagonist Ness in the previous game, Lucas gains psychic powers which are quite useful in battle.

Mother 3 in various ways keeps elements of the other two Mother games, but it very much has its own style. I think this works to the game’s advantage, because had they tried for the same vibes and tropes of EarthBound it probably would have felt uninspired and not as good. Most notably, it tells more of a proper story, as opposed to the other games which did have stories but at times feel like a series of random bizarre events. Of course, random bizarre events can be great fun, but Mother 3 nails its storytelling so that you wouldn’t want to have it any other way. 

Gameplay is mostly the same as in EarthBound. That is, it’s mostly your typical turn-based JRPG, inspired by Dragon Quest’s battle system. One of EarthBound’s gameplay quirks returns, that being the ability for characters to have a chance to act after receiving a deadly blow as long as they can execute it before the steadily-decreasing number representing their health reaches 0. Mother 3 adds in a welcome additional feature, which is the ability to execute additional strikes for your basic attack by tapping the A button to a rhythm that corresponds to the background music. It’s a neat little bonus that doesn’t need to be mastered to those who struggle with that sort of thing, but is a welcome bit of spice to those who enjoy it.

Despite a lot of fan demand, and Lucas being a recurring character in the popular Super Smash Bros. series, Mother 3 has never been officially released outside of Japan. There are various reasons why, such as Nintendo likely being pessimistic about potential sales, the fact that the GBA was on its way out, and potentially issues with some of the game’s content upon a hypothetical Western release. One lawyer on YouTube (Moon Channel) made a video explaining that some of the game’s music would infringe upon American copyright law and is too prevalent in the game to simply be edited out. Of course, all this hasn’t stopped fans from clamoring for an official English release, and the topic became somewhat of a meme with the former president of Nintendo's American branch (Reggie Fils-Aimé).

Fans knew an official localization was unlikely, so right away they got to work on producing a fan translation. After just a couple years, an English patch for the game was made available in one of the most famous fan translation undertakings in gaming. The leader of the project was professional localizer Clyde Mandelin. Me and Clyde used to follow each other on Twitter years back!

I played the fan translation before very long, doing so on a handheld system I owned which I haven’t covered on this blog yet. This was in the late 2000s, so it’s been many years since I played Mother 3. While I enjoy it, I admit that it didn’t catapult itself into being one of my all-time favorites like it did for some. But it was a very interesting game that I think deserves a replay at some point, and I’d be curious if a second playthrough would lead to any different impressions.

Sadly there haven’t been any new Mother games for nearly two decades now, so it appears that series is done. But it’s one that those interested in Nintendo and/or RPGs really ought to at least try out. These games don’t vibe with everyone, but when they do, they tend to become all-time gaming favorites. While they’re not quite on that level for me, I still consider them to clearly be essentials for my collection.