Before I start, I will place one warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Thanks, now for the retrospective!~
Well,
since Earthbound fans are having a Bound-Fest or something like that,
as well as Mother 4, Its time for a retro-review! About Mother 4, it's
Fan-game that is a prequel to Mother2/Earthbound taking place in the
197X; 20 years before the birth of one of the most annoying game
characters ever. No, not Kefka, silly fools; Porky. And before you
ask, wouldn't recommend Consonance Distance because it messes with the
cannon. We all know that Giygas is cannon as he attacked the 9X's and
what's left of his body created Mewtwo, as his corpse was left in the
Pokemon world. Guess they didn't think they would make a clone of the
shell of an alien god!
First off, Earthbound Zero, this is where
Giygue was first still in his teen-agency sent to kill Ninten's
grandfather and grandmother who raised him as a kid, his his parents
left him behind because...of a plot point never explained within the
series. Wars? Rebooting earth? Who knows!? Anyways, While the
grandmother was raising Giegue, the grandfather studied their race and
abandoned them. (Itoi never really had a father in his life.) Giygue,
angry that he ran off with the knowledge, kills him and starts
kidnapping people, as he fears that humanity will use his race's power
ageist the universe. Nintend gets involved when he find his
grandfather's journal and goes off to stop Giygue.
Sadly enough,
this game is the WEAKEST of the series; Since the game's fighting
system based off the old Dragon Quest games, Random encounters where bad
to the point that they where actually work in a way that it wasn't
really intended. The game was intentionally hard for the wrong reasons
that the modding community made an easy version of the game to
over-condensate for the difficulty of the game. while most NES
role-playing games didn't age well, this game is one of the worst aged
games. It's why I decided to spoil the plot without warning.
After
the events in Mother1/Earthbound Zero, Giegue retreated to space, where
his powers grew to the point to becoming the power of evil himself!
After losing his alien form, he become like Cthulhu and becomes a dark
alien god. However, he has lost his mind, as "absolute power corrupts
absolutely," the newly formed Giygas was contained int the Devil's
Machine as his mind-controlling powers corrupts everyone including the
annoying neighbor Porky, who helps sets everything in motion as the
"devil's" advocate. Buzz-Buzz, a failed version of Ness, goes back into
time to warn past Ness and sends him to find the eight Your Sanctuary
locations to get the powers of the earth and stop Giygas.
At
first, this game did NOT sit well with most critics, but being a 90's
person, this game was not build on fun but more on the reflection to
most people at the time. Also, this game did influence games later in
the line like Persona 4, which is considered one of the best JRPGS of
it's time. Being someone who personally like Earthbound dispute what
critics say, as some like soulless games like Doom 3, It one of the best
classics. Other than that, the game introduced an awesome combat system
that adds a "Bleeding" effect to where the health counts down like a
car's fuel gadge. SOMEONE needs a HEALH bar. The game also has the
enemies in the background instead of random encounters, making it
manageable and some fights ship-able. This game is also thankfully
easier that Zero, but is the LONGEST of the series. Despite this, it's
recommended none-the-less.
After Giygas' defeated, Porky runs off with what is
left of Giygas' power and technology, making him a very dangerous foe
more than before. With the technology left behind, he uses it to kidnap
people from his time and creates the Pigmask army, a reference and
parody of the collective from Half-life 2. He and his army lands in
Tazmilly Village, a post-apocalyptic village in an Australia-like
island, he bombs forest and gains control via happy boxes. He then makes
chimeras, Animal and machine hybrids that cause chaos that kills
Lucas' mother in the start of the game! It's up to Lucas and company to
stop the Porky and his Pigmask army while looking for his missing
brother Clause.
While Earthbound was strong, as it didn't take
itself seriously as a free-roaming JRPG. However, Mother 3 has the
strongest story of the trilogy as the player has feelings twords the
characters and their new movements of sprites. This game pushed the
limits of the Game-boy advance! The player can relate to one or many of
the events that occur during the story. The battle system has been
ampted, as there's a new combo system that is based on of the rhythm in
the background music, and getting them down is satisfying! Returning and
fixed from Mother 1 is the running mechanic, which can bypass weak
enimies and sometime crashing into things cause things to happen, even
if there's a few in the game. The game is considered the BEST in the
series for a reason, beating Earthbound with the majorities tens all
over review sites. This is highly recommended, but I will not spoil the
ending here as it's something to see first hand!
Overall, the
Mother/Earthbound series is all about the experience! While some do not
see it as fun, as they tend to not see gaming as art, I would recommend
the series for anyone who like to play RPGs to kill the gods of olde.
However, its recommended to watch Mother 1 as its the weakest of the
trilogy. While Earhbound seems dated, it has that "Story is not
important" charm liked in games like Phantasy Star Online. Mother 3 has
the heart and actually revolutionized RPGs to perfection, it's a real
damn shame that it will NEVER be localized normally; While I don't
recommend piracy, play the game via translation patch. This is one RPG
trilogy that is under-utilized withing the realm of gaming...
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