Mother 3

Mother 3 (マザースリー Māzā Suri) is a roleplay (RPG) developed by HALL Laboratory and Brownie Brown, and published by Nintendo for its portable console the Game Boy Advance, although the gasoline of the play finds its origin in the brilliant spirit of the touch-with-all Shigesato Itoi: after a chaotic development, the play finally left to Japan on April 20th, 2006. Nothing is envisaged at present concerning a possible exit out of the archipelago.

It is about the third episode of the trilogy Mother, whose only second episode on Super Nintendo (EarthBound) succeeded in cutting through a path apart from Japan. Initially envisaged to see the day on Nintendo 64 (the development was announced since 1996), the first images fall in 1997 and goes back it to at the end of 1998 is advanced for the exit of the play. The project takes delay, finally is deferred on 64DD, then announced again on cartridge… In August 2000, it is definitively cancelled to 60% of its development. In 2003, at the time of the exit of compilation Mother 1+2 on Game Boy Advance, Mother 3 is again announced, but this time on Game Boy Advance. In November 2005, Nintendo reveals a coming out date: spring 2006. April 20th, after Shigesato Itoi diffused with the dropper and on its blog some information on its title headlight with the passing days preceding, the play is finally available on the Japanese stalls. It should be noted that between the advertisement of its official exit and this one, the play almost systematically appeared in signal 10 of Most Wanted Games of the magazine Famitsu, and that it was even at the head of this list during the five last weeks of waiting.

Mother 3 obtained one 35/40 in Famitsu. 400.000 specimens of Mother 3 had been past in Japan in September 2006.

At the present time, a continuation is not envisaged, according to Shigesato Itoi.

History

If the two preceding episodes were centered resolutely in a world evoking deep America of years 1980 and 90, Mother 3 positions in a more original universe, less familiar. The essence of the action proceeds around the village of Tatsumairi, a calm place in full heart of Nowhere Islands and where everyone knows itself and gets along well, until the moment when a mysterious army with the suspect intentions unloads: the Pig Mask Army . Is Icelle devoted to strange experiments on fauna and the flora, and extends technology high-tech (benefits of the consumer society?) on its passage, to control the spirits of people: the plain village of Tatsumairi thus will disaggregate slowly with the wire of the adventure, and will see its inhabitants discovering the concepts of money or television and gradually will be folded up on themselves, even worse. From there to see a manner there of expressing the fear of a future désocialisant and controlled by the machines and the Consumérisme, there is only one step.

The play opens whereas Lucas and Claus , two twin brothers, spends a few days to the mountain in their grandfather Alec , in company of their mother Hinawa . During this time, Flint , the father, remained in Tatsumairi in company of their Boney dog. During one night rainy, Hinawa and the two children are attacked by Draco , a dinosaur of their friends become insane because of the experiments of Pig Mask Army, and the mother sacrifices herself to allow Claus and Lucas to flee. By learning the news from died from his wife, Flint becomes insane and must be stopped then placed in prison. During this time, Claus only leaves in the mountain to find Drago and to kill it, but when Flint, Lucas, Boney and Duster leave to its research, they discover only one piece of fabric of clothing of Claus, while Draco is indeed alive…

The adventure takes seat on several chapters (in fact, eight) which make it possible to the player to live the events under various points of view, although starting from fourth Lucas seems the true hero of the history and that the tour adopts a chronological linearity.

In a general way, Mother 3 attaches a much greatter importance to the emotion and the pathetic vein that its predecessors, in spite of an always omnipresent humor and a shifted side which makes a RPG of them very original. The slogan of the play is the following besides: “Strange, funny and heartrending. ” (what could about result in “Strange, funny and poignant”).

Characters

Lucas is the twin brother of Claus and the son of Flint and Hinawa. Child, it is characterized by his propensity natural to cry unceasingly, and is in fact less bold than his brother. It is however him which, after it grew (chapter 4), will fight Pig Mask Army at the sides of his/her friends and after having found Duster and Kumatora at the request of Wes. It is the main character of the play, and its design points out that of Born and Ninten of the first two episodes. Like its glorious elder, it controls capacities PSI.

Claus is the twin brother of Lucas, of a few minutes its elder. Energetic, full with life and courageous, it disappears at the end from the first chapter, whereas it wanted to avenge his mother by facing Drago. Later in the play, it will appear that it survived the events of the first chapter and that he was embrigadé by Pig Mask Army. Mysterious masked Homme that the player meets several times during the play is in fact Claus.

Flint is a father and a loving husband, worthy of confidence, which lives with its family with Tatsumairi. After the tragic events of the first chapter - of which he is the protagonist, he spends his days in the mountains, seeking his Claus son hopelessly, of the years lasting.

Hinawa is the mother of Claus and Lucas and the woman of Flint. However, it tragically loses the life in chapter 1 by sacrificing its life to save her children of Drago made insane by the experiments of Pig Mask Army. Its presence haunts the remainder of the play and it continues to play a key role on several occasions (in particular at the time of the final combat). The death of the Mother seals the one time end and which marks the beginning of the decline of the village of Tastumairi.

Boney is the dog of the family of Flint. After having helped this last in the first chapter, it continues to follow Lucas in its peregrinations and becomes starting from the chapter 4 one of principal the persos playable.

Duster is a burglar initiated with this art by his/her father Wes . It can climb cliffs with the assistance of metal levels which it plants in the rock. It is characterized by its phlegmatic attitude and its singular step: indeed, he limps since a mysterious incident which has occurred in the past. His/her father treats it without stop of good with nothing… At the end of the chapter 2 - of which he is the protagonist, he disappears in the watery depths from Oshoe Castle and loses the memory: consequently, it joined the musical group of DCMC as a bass player under the name of Tamekichi. It is not that in the 4 qu chapter' it finds all its head and joined Lucas, Kumatora and Boney in the fight against Pig Mask Army.

Kumatora appears as of the second chapter where she seeks, following the example Duster, egg of Light hidden in Oshoe Castle. It is a princess a little real tomboy, expert are black magic, which becomes in the chapter 4 one of the principal playable characters.

Salsa is a young monkey which points out Bubbles d' EarthBound. Misused by its Yokuba Master, it is used as slave with this last, but is actually in the search of its promised in marriage, it so captured by Pig Mask Army. It will be released by Kumatora at the end of the chapter 3, of which he is the protagonist.

Yokuba is an ambitious man with the pay of Pig Mask Army. It is him which will charm people of Tatsumairi and to convince them to yield to the sirens technology. It is accompanied by Salsa, which it frequently beats or which it electrifies via a collar and a remote control. Thereafter, its role will be growing and it will be drawn up several times on the road of Lucas and its friends.

Gameplay

The player accustomed to the series will not be dépaysé, insofar as the gameplay resembles much that of the two other episodes, in spite of notable differences. The system of combat thus takes again the broad outlines of that of EarthBound, namely that one has to make with a system with the Dragon Quest, in subjective sight, the basic decoration being replaced by a graphics psychedelic driving of the most beautiful effect. Each character has the possibility of attacking, of defending themselves, of launching a fate PSI for some of them (Lucas, Kumatora), using an object or a special faculty which does not require points of magic. The originality of this episode relates to the attacks: indeed, while supporting on has in the rate/rhythm of the musical topic corresponding to the faced enemy, it is possible to connect the blows in only one combo, for a maximum of 16 blows in only one turn. Each blow carried by your character will be the occasion of a different sound played by the instrument corresponding to the character, which is rather sympathetic nerve. As in EarthBound, a fatal blow struck to the one of the characters of your team is not it as much as the points of life of this one (represented on a caster with three bars) are not descended up to zero: concretely, while looking after itself quickly or by eliminating the adversary quickly whereas your HP go down gradually, you are not necessarily condemned to die. The innovation lies in the fact that this caster goes down less quickly than in EarthBound, but that the unfavourable blows are more powerful: a strategic element to take into account. Lastly, it is also always possible to attack the enemy by surprised while arriving by behind (the reverse being also valid), with precedes the possibility of it of seeing the enemy of back lasting the combat, element absent from EarthBound.

Another innovation is the possibility of running while pressing on B lengthily. In race mode, you can even smash wedged doors or achieve other actions of the same order. For the safeguards and the withdrawal of money (DP), it is necessary to pass by the frogs which abound in the play, and which replace the telephones and terminals ATM of the second episode. It should be noted that the principal, accessible menu via the Start key, leaves esthetics Dragon Questienne of EarthBound and is shown more chatoyant, with icons for each object. On the other hand, the number of objects that the characters can carry is again limited, which is sometimes enough irritating, it should be acknowledged.

Winks with the preceding episodes

Towards the end of the play, with New Pork City , of many references to EarthBound was slipped: to start with the cinema of the city, which diffuses in loop a film made up of images of EarthBound, where one can see Ness, Paula, Jeff and Poo in well-known places of the fans of the series. The city is also equipped with a statue of Pokey Minch, the malicious one of the preceding episode…
Pokey Minch, precisely, proves to be true the bad Guy de Mother 3: after having removed the Dr. Andonuts at the end of the events of EarthBound, he travels through time and arrives at the time of Lucas, where he takes the head of Pig Mask Army and load the Doctor to carry out strange experiments.
Before arriving against the final Boss, Lucas and its friends borrows a boat which sails on a small river whose banks are encumbered objects directly drawn from EarthBound.
In chapter 7, the player visits a populated valley of Mr. Saturn, characters round and pinks already present in EarthBound.
Certains enemies of the first two episodes signs their great return.

See too

Internal bonds

Mother ( EarthBound 0 )
EarthBound

External bonds

: Starmen.net, the anglophone Bible on the series '' Mother ''
: the official site of '' Mother 3 ''

Simple: Mother 3

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