Greetings. Last time we talked about the second and most famous game in the series. The game that became the face of the entire series. However, the real peak part of the series was the game we’ll talk about today. Mother 3 . The most unique game in the series. A game that is not afraid to show the dark aspects of life and at the same time, it is the one that shows the player the value of this very life, showing him its fragility.
Development
Mother 64/Earthbound 64 – The Game That Was
Development of the third part began almost immediately after the release of the second part in Japan. It was originally supposed to be released on the same console, Superfamicom, using pre-rendered graphics like Donkey Kong Country . Prior to this, Shigesato Itoi, in an interview with Famitsu weekly, dated June 19, 1992, said that the game would be released on a CD add-on for SNES.
However, due to the imminent release of the Nintendo 64 (hereinafter referred to as N64), the project quickly moved to a new platform. At the same time, it was decided to move the game to a three-dimensional plane, discarding the idea of a two-dimensional game based on pre-rendered sprites. This decision was prompted by Shigesato Itoi’s successful transition into the 3D Mario series, with the release of Super Mario 64 .
First difficulties
Game development was not going well from the very beginning. After all, the game was planned to be released not on a simple N64, but on a CD add-on for it. Only in 1998 the game switched to a regular cartridge, because the release of the Addon was delayed due to which the financial success was in doubt .
The team also experienced great difficulties due to the transition to 3D. After all, the team previously worked only on two-dimensional games. The team had to spend resources on retraining, and even so, HAL LAB had to allocate developers working on Pokemon stadium for the game . Satoru Iwata himself said the following about the development of MOTHER 64:
Any normal project has a trial period where you make a trial product and get the green light based on the response. But MOTHER 3 was special in that we skipped the trial period and went straight into production. Without this trial period, all we had was the experience and achievements gained from making MOTHER 2, without the advantage of starting with a team of people who worked on MOTHER 2.
Satoru Iwata.
In 1999, the game was subtitled "The Fall of the Pig King". That same year, the game was brought to the Nintendo Space World exhibition, where players saw the game live, and journalists were even able to play it. Later, many of them highly praised the game, particularly for its graphics, soundtrack and controls.
The game’s release was scheduled for March 22, 2000, but closer to the release date, the game was postponed to an unknown date. Due to too many postponements and insufficient readiness of the project, the game was canceled. Shigesato Itoi himself reported this on August 21, 2000, on his website.
The only official trailer that has survived to this day.
MOTHER 3 – The game that is.
After this, the project was abandoned in a distant drawer. However, after a short time, in 2003, the development of the game was restarted. It was decided to continue the traditions of the series and make a two-dimensional game with sprites.
This time the game https://panda-bet-casino.co.uk/games/ director was Nobuyuki Inoue, Shigesato Itoi participated only as a screenwriter.
Fans have been trying for years to find out why Mother 3 never made it outside of Japan. Even now, this question still hangs in the air, unanswered.
At E3 2014, one fan was able to ask this question to the President of the American division of the company. Reginald Fils-Aimé, known simply as Reggie. He answered this question like this:
I love Earthbound, but luckily for me it’s a decision I’m not involved in.
Reggie
This moment became a meme among fans and even beyond. There is even a parody of this moment in the series "Robot Chicken"
Gameplay
As mentioned above, for the first time the game designer of the game was not Shigesato Itoi, but another person – Nobuyuki Inoue. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the gameplay of this game is very different from other parts of the series.
The game is still divided into two components – World exploration and combat. In both aspects, the game was not a revelation, but rather a natural evolution.
Telephone and ATM mechanics combined. Now, in order to save and manage the currency, you need to go to the frogs. ATM and savepoint functions transferred to them.
The world map is not given at the very beginning as in the first part, and it is not obtained only once per game as in the second. Now we will have to collect one piece for each location, fortunately we can do without them, the locations are not insurmountable labyrinths. Don’t worry, they don’t take up space in your inventory, there’s a special, hidden inventory for them.
Running returned to the game, which was absent in the second part, but was in the first. This greatly speeded up travel through locations and allowed us to avoid unwanted fights. In the second part, the enemy was almost always faster than the player, which is why he had to take the fight.
Since we’ve moved on to combat, probably the biggest innovation in gameplay is the inclusion of combat combo systems. Now during the battle, you will have to press the strike button, falling under the rhythm of the soundtrack. Each hit that hits the beat will deal an additional hit and allow you to continue the combo, up to sixteen times.
However, the most powerful will be the first 2-4 hits. This is done so that the player does not depend on this system.
Soundtrack
The composers of the previous parts, Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki, were unable to write the soundtrack for the third part due to being busy with other projects. Therefore, this time the composer was a staff specialist from HAL-lab, Shogo Sakai.
As a result, not a single track from the previous parts was returned. Is that the track 16 Melodies is a kind of rethinking of the track eight melodies from the second part. The complete Game Soundtrack consists of Two Hundred and Fifty(!) tracks. The second had one hundred and sixteen tracks, and the first forty.
Game history.
Last time, this segment was criticized, so I decided to change it a little. This one will be more about how the plot was written and what inspired it, and from the game itself there will only be a prologue and a description of the main structure of the stories.
Original source
For the first time in the series, the game’s story is not an original script by Shigesato Itoi, but rather an adaptation of someone else’s story.
This story is a trilogy of books “The Notebook Trilogy” by Agotha Kristoff. If we describe the plot in general terms, then these books tell how brothers, Klaus and Lucas, together with their mother, try to escape into the wilderness of the country in order to avoid the horrors and fears of war. However, they still overtake them.
Plot structure.
The game’s plot is divided into chapters. The game has 8 chapters and a game prologue. in the first three chapters we will have different protagonists, and in the prologue and remaining chapters we will play as the main protagonist of the game.
The chapters are uneven, some can be completed very quickly, and some take up almost a third of the game. Locations in chapters may be repeated, but there will not be one hundred percent repetition.
Preface
The game takes place on the Nowhere Islands. It is unknown how much time has passed since the events of Earthbound and whether this universe is even the same. The peace and quiet on these islands is disrupted by an army of pigmasks, which invades these islands and establishes the dictatorship of King Porky.
The game opens with Lucas as his family is visiting Alec’s grandfather’s log cabin north of the village of Tazmili. Klaus, the eldest of the brothers, wakes Lucas up to play with the Dragos who have come to visit. During the game, they are interrupted by a mole cricket, who challenges Lucas and Klaus to a duel. Here we are taught the game’s combat system.
Afterwards, the twins’ mother, Hinawa, invites them to have an omelette for lunch. Later, Hinawa sends her husband Flint a message via carrier pigeon that they will be heading home later that evening.
Thus begins the adventure called Mother 3. During which the player, together with the protagonist Lucas, will experience both sorrows and joys, growing up with him. This story is largely dark and heavy, during it there will be losses and sorrows. Lucas’s family and the residents of the village of Tazmilia will have to feel the cruelty of the newly arrived enemies.
However, at the same time, this story is about hope, that no matter how bad you feel, you must continue your fight. About the fact that difficulties harden us, making the player and the hero stronger. The power to allow Lucas and his friends to protect themselves, their family and their village, thereby freeing them from the evil brought by the army of pigmasks.
