Mother 3
2006
- role-playing (rpg)
- turn-based strategy (tbs)
- fantasy
- science fiction
- comedy
- single player
The story
A turn-based JRPG and sequel to EarthBound (1994) in which a tragedy surrounding a family in the primitive yet joyful village of Tazmily incites the coming-of-age story of Lucas, the family's younger son, who goes on perilous adventures along with his friends in order to find his missing brother and stop a group of masked men from bringing about the end of the world.
What it’s like
Soft, hand-painted pastoral scenes give way to bleached, cracked wastelands, and the whole game has the look of a storybook that has been left out in the weather. Its sprites are chunky and expressive, the village of Tazmily bright with flowers and warm daylight, and the later sections turn to ash-grey industrial ruin and sun-scorched desert. The soundtrack, full of bouncy folk-pop leads, wistful chiptune melodies and sudden bursts of rhythmic percussion, is as much a character as anyone on screen, and silence or a single held note often lands harder than any scored swell. Battles run on a turn-based rhythm that the game is always nudging you to keep time with. Its vibe is bittersweet and whimsical, a warm, playful childhood slowly souring into grief and unease, with a gentle absurdist streak. The pacing is leisurely, with long wandering stretches broken by sharp emotional turns, and the arc of its young hero is one of innocence tested by loss. Violence is cartoonish but real: enemies fall in battle, and some scenes of death and cruelty are upsetting, though nothing is gory. It suits a long, unhurried play session, and it is for players who want a melancholy fable told through play, and who don't mind an ending that asks more of them than it answers.
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