I am also thankful for Mother 3 in English.
I will refrain from saying anything specific 'til I've finished it, but so far (I'm on the fifth chapter), this game is--not wanting to sound hyperbolic, BUT--one of the best things I've ever played.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 4:51 PM
Ah, glad you finally got around to it. I thought that Chapter 1 was amazing, and Ch. 2-6 were very good (Ch. 6 is quite beautiful). Ch. 7 (I think) has an amazing psychedelic episode (you'll know it when it happens, but try examining all the mailboxes when it does). However, I thought the ending was a bit of a letdown, I guess I just didn't like how they tried to tie it into Mother 2. I kind of feel like they passed up a chance to actually do a decent critique of consumerism that didn't feel preachy.
The Magypsies are hilarious though. I am guessing that the game didn't get released in the US because of the scene where an ancient old man in lingerie teaches PSI Love to Lucas by telling him to turn around and close his eyes. Or, perhaps, because of the oxygen machines in the underwater level. Damned prudes.
SK
Yeah, chapter 6 was really good, although part of me is saying, goddamnit, I want it to be longer because I want the whole GAME to be longer. We'll see how I feel by the end, but how often do you see RPGs with coherent, effective, genuinely original artistic visions? Not too often, is how often.
(favorite thing so far: a sign that says "This is a garbage dump. So let's throw our busted dreams out with the rest of the trash!" Indeed let's!)
I don't know, I thought it was very effective and ominous, the way they introduced the Happy Boxes and gradually changed the town in the beginning, but that sort of gets shoved aside in the last chapter. I feel like they passed up a good chance to show how the introduction of these novelties subtly changes the townspeople for the worse. And I don't think it was really worth the trouble to connect the game to Mother 2 -- it makes it feel a bit like Chrono Cross, a game that I hated.
SK
The parts of Chrono Cross that tried to tie the game in to CT were indeed fucking terrible, and the "ha--everyone you knew and loved from the previous game is DEAD DEAD DEAD!" seemed like an act of hostility. What did we ever do to provoke that?
That said, I thought it was an okay game, even if its overweening ambition got to be too much for the infrastructure to support. Nice music, very pretty, and some plot twists that I would describe as "pretty cool." At least they were trying.