Mother 3 Is As Good As They Say It Is

Erudite critique, confrontation, and analysis of a theme in artistic creation can sometimes be dulled or even completely undercut depending on the circumstances through which that art is created. And in today’s day and age where artistic creation is often funneled through a heavily industrialized and commercial space, it is especially hard for the very mechanism of capitalism to receive genuine criticism when an unfortunate reality of the art being created is done so with the intention of acquiring said capital. As Joyce Messier in Disco Elysium said "Capital has the ability to subsume all critiques into itself. Even those who critique capital end up reinforcing it instead.” As an artistic idealist I cannot view cultural, philosophical and artistic texts in the same way as a “product” or good. Even just thinking of them in similar contexts feels absurdly icky to me. There is a massive difference between a transformative work of its medium like Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime series) and toothpaste. They exist and will exist beyond their “place in the market.” And a humble little game from one of the biggest game makers/publishers in the world has both intentionally and accidentally done a remarkable job of earning and realizing its critique.

Mother 3, the final game in Shigesato Itoi’s beautiful trilogy of role-playing games (better known as “Earthbound” here in the west), might just be the crown jewel of his unmatched and idiosyncratic creativity. Backed by Nintendo once again to finish his career making games, Itoi and the development team at Brownie Brown realized the most subversive, dark, and ambitious vision of what this series was ultimately meant to become.

Tazmily Village is a small, isolated, but happy town in the Nowhere Islands. Flint and Hinawa live in a hilltop home overlooking the town, their young twin sons Lucas and Claus, are returning home to Tazmily after visiting Hinawa’s father Alec in the northern reaches of the Islands. Before they can return the village is attacked by a mysterious military force donning armor and pig masks. The pig-masked army bombs the forest, starting a forest fire, causing Flint to set out back home from downtown through the fire to save his family. Along the way he discovers that the Dragos, normally docile dinosaur-like creatures indigenous to the area have been mechanized by the pig-masked army and are now aggressive. Throughout the story the perspective changes between Flint and Lucas and his friends as they seek to uncover just what the army is, what they want, and who is commanding them, and how to stop them.

Mother 3 is able to bring so much personality out of its massively varied and diverse cast. It uses each and every method it can, given its size, in the JRPG toolbox to enhance that sense of expression and extract joy, humor, confusion, and despair. Flint lashing out at those around trying to console him at the apex of grief, punching the ground, a miserable heap in a hopeless agony. Text speed scrolling faster or slower for comedic, dramatic, and emotional effect. How quickly they turn, how they dance, even down to the simple act of a characters walking animation is given an individuality that is unique to that particular person. 

True and meaningful character depth is reserved for the main players in the story, and as you would expect they are given extra time to shine through these seemingly minor methods of fleshing out the world and people in it. A small thing constantly present isn’t small. Over time it adds up to give us a complete picture of these kids, this town, these Nowhere Islands as a whole. Tazmily Village itself and how it changes an excellent representation of how Mother 3 delivers on its narrative through consequence, furthering our belief that this is a living breathing world where people live and breathe according to the believable complexities of life. One thing affecting another in a chain with the player an active part of that chainlink. At the beginning of the story Tazmily Village is a quaint, secluded, but healthy and populated place resembling community as it should be. As the story goes on, and it is further meddled with, people leave for the supposed greener pastures of the city under construction. By the end it is an abandoned husk of its former self, given up on by the facade (pun intended. If you know you know.) of individual prosperity, constant action, and instant gratification.

Shogo Sakai’s brilliant score that both pays homage to the Mother/Earthbound games that came before it and carves its own path with its own identity and soundscape that contributes as much to Mother 3 as any other element. Characteristically off-kilter when it necessitates, chipper when amongst the townsfolk,  heart-wrenchingly gentle in many cases and overall both wacky and/or unsettling. Tonally so many different places, yet distinct and cohesive that when you hear the soundtrack out of context you would know beyond the shadow of a doubt; “that’s Mother 3.” The music is even incorporated in the turn based battles, as tapping along to the beat of each respecting battle theme nets you extra physical damage to your opponents which creates even more synergy with Mother 3’s other elements.

At the heart of Mother 3’s anti-capitalist themes and story threads lies its true message as I see it. With the expansionist aspirations of unchecked capitalism combined with the unethical practices of technological progress at any and every cost, morality be damned, will eventually trickle it’s way down to the outskirts of the world, the most modest and unassuming places on earth to cause pain and tragedy, tearing families from each other and inflicting sorrow on people who only desired and deserved to live and lead with love. All under the guise of prosperity, ease, and happiness created through the suffering of the land and all its creatures. In their “utopia” no one will be able to hide from these so called “better times”, even if they didn’t know that there was something they needed to hide from to begin with. All because someone who decided they wanted more took it because they could and pretended it was in everyone’s best interests that they do. Life and love is devalued at the behest of nihilistic self interest. Industry need not be as heartless as it is.

After all this praise you must want to know: “Where can I play this?” Well…the funny thing is…you can’t. At least not through traditional means such as digital storefronts or secondhand stores. 

Originally released in 2006 for the Game Boy Advance, the game has never received a formal release from Nintendo in any territories outside of Japan. Passionate pleas from the intensely loyal international Mother/Earthbound fanbase have fallen on deaf ears by Nintendo in the 20 years since release to the point where many have completely given up hope of ever seeing an official global release. But the dedicated fans of the series have done their part to make the game as accessible as possible to potential players through their rigorous work on numerous fan-run sites as well as an unofficial and immaculate English translation/localization by longtime translator Clyde Mandelin. The legality of it all is questionable, but as far as I am concerned completely irrelevant. Their fervent love and passion for the art that they love is all that matters.

By its release, 20 years ago, in a limited market (though it has been re-released a couple of times digitally, once again in Japan only) to modestly healthy sales makes Mother 3, by perplexing circumstances, able to stand higher on it’s satirization, lampooning, and critique of capitalization moreso than many other works of modern art in contemporary mediums but, especially in it’s medium realized further through its possibly unintended commercial modesty and completely and inarguable intentional artistic creation.