Summer of Sequels Entry #28
It's rather funny really, of the trilogy that is the Mother games, this is the last one I play, the one where the series all began. It's surprising that it took me this long to get to Mother, though I never had the urge to until recently. And while I appreciate Mother for what it is, and I still find it to be a pretty solid game, it's definitely got its issues for me.
Mother is such an impressive game for what it is. It was a very late Famicom game, releasing only a year before the Super Famicom. To be honest, this actually the first NES game I've ever played, and I'm really impressed with it! Though it's not as large as RPGs found in later consoles, as I beat Mother in about 10-11 hours I believe, the sense of overall scale of Mother's world is really cool.
And I am a sucker for Mother's general aesthetic. This idea of a mundane midwest US state combined with the fantastical nature of evil monsters, aliens, and magic psychic powers. It creates a really fun contrast, and it allows the game to be really charming overall. And this is all exemplified by the game's music. The battle themes are jazz tracks, which is so unique compared to its contemporaries, and a lot of the music is still memorable to me. My particular favorite track being Snowman.
And while I think it's actual combat is simpler in comparison to the later entries of the Mother series, I really like it's combat here as well. The PSI abilities are really nice, though I didn't really feel the need to use most of them. I either uses Healing PSI abilities, or PK Beam whenever I needed an offensive option. I think part of why I didn't use PSI abilities that much is that the game was never too difficult enough for me to require using them, though I still think I would've had an overall easier time if I used them more. But in the case of Bosses, I really like when Bosses experiment with the nature of how Boss fights work, and I think the Mother Series as a whole has really memorable Final Bosses, and I love this game's final boss as well.
Of the trilogy, I feel like this game has the weakest story of the three, but I still think it's really good. Mother still has a strong emotional core and themes to its story, and that's part of why I love these games so much. When the emotional core shows itself, mostly in the later parts of the game, it's really impactful, and I love Mother's ending because of it.
But here's where we get into some of the issues that Mother has. In particular, god, I found Mother's world layout really hard to navigate. I know where I'm supposed to go, but not exactly how to get there. It often times made the levels feel like mazes, with me just having little idea of what direction I need to go in order to reach my destination. This ultimately came to a head in the Duncan's Factory area of the game. That area blended together to me, a mix of gray floors, gray walls, and ladders, it was all just a blur. I spent probably an hour trying to find my way out, with little idea of where to go. I think that dungeon made me choose to rely on a guide for the entire rest of the game, and god, I can't imagine beating this game without one.
The other, and probably bigger issue that Mother has is the rate of random encounters. Random Encounters are often an issue found in many RPGs, really, but that's due to how often they can occur. In Mother especially, they occur so often, sometimes you take a single step and you're thrown into another fight. That's fine early on, as enemies are rather easy to beat, and they're good for gaining experience, but it gets bothersome later on. There's sudden spikes in enemy difficulty, and enemies are more likely to appear in groups of 2-4. That means battles become much longer, and you're often better off running away. But the chance to successfully run away is super low from what I experienced, so often when you try, you're gonna lose a lot of health. Failing to run away has always been one of my personal pet peeves in RPGs because of this, especially since there's an innate punishment to fleeing, as you don't gain experience from battles you flee. You can counteract this with a specific PSI ability, however that ability costs 16 PP, meaning around the late game, you can use this about 10 times before running out. And remember, the encounter rate is high, so you'll probably run out before you get to your destination.
I really do appreciate a lot of what Mother has to offer, but because of those previously mentioned issues, I feel like it's probably my least favorite of the trilogy. But even then, there's a lot of heart and emotion put into this game, and that can definitely be seen with the game's final moments. I really am glad I got to play the game that started the series, but I can't imagine replaying it any time soon.
Next Game: Pikmin 2
