Part 14: DCMC Concert
Whenever you decide to approach the railway station, Bronson and Jackie come out discussing someone they saw that looked a lot like Duster, who hasn’t been seen in three years. Jackie believes that the bassist at the Club, named Lucky, is him, but Bronson is unconvinced. When you go on your way to tell Wess about the rumor, this happens:
Wess is highly suspicious of the recent lightning strikes. In protest, he attempts to stand up to Fassad, who backhandedly dismisses him. In the time it takes for him to villainize Wess, a Pigmask sneaks up behind him, catches him in a bug net, and drags him back to the Old Man’s Paradise. When Lucas approaches Fassad, he whispers to him to quit intervening. If it wouldn’t cause any uproar, Fassad probably would have gotten rid of Lucas by now. If you talk to some of the people who witnessed this, they didn’t see anything wrong – Wess was just being a stubborn old man like he always is.
If you go back to the Yado Hotel, you can see Jackie, who came back from working at the factory to work at the hotel. As politely as he can say it, he tells Lucas to leave, as he makes the hotel’s reputation worse. Fassad is manipulating the town to subscribe to his ideology, and if anyone disagrees, they are made enemies.
Tazmily just had a new song playing in the last article, and it’s already changing again. This song is called “Happy Town?” After witnessing how Wess is treated, most of the happiness in the song is drained. It still has some energy to it, but the drawn-out notes and minor key really give it a gloomy feel. Everyone has all these “Happy” products, but are these objects only hiding the emptiness that’s been growing in their hearts?
Lucas goes to the nursing home to give Wess the news about the rumor concerning Duster. He says that he would look for him himself, but the Pigmasks are watching his every move since he is a threat to Fassad’s plans. Before Lucas goes to the Club to see if Lucky really is Wess’s moron, he gives Lucas a messenger pigeon, which has just been standing around in his apartment. If he finds Duster, Lucas will send the pigeon back to Wess.
If you talk to Brenda, she has new dialogue concerning Duster: “You’re going out to look for Duster? You do know he’s the one that stole all of Butch’s money, right? I guess it’s up to you to look for him and all, but I’d keep my nose out of other people’s business if I were you. You’ll only wind up hurting your reputation even more.” Duster too, is an enemy of the people.
The only way to make it to the Club is by going on the train, since it’s so far away. The only problem is, the operator is out of town. The attendant recommends that Lucas walks along the tracks to get there, but only if he really wants to go. When you go along the tracks and into the tunnel, a man will stop you to warn you about how dangerous it is to walk along train tracks. He knows Lucas won’t listen to him, so all he can do is caution him. This is more of Itoi’s life advice being inserted into the dialogue. Even though the train is supposed to be out of order for the time being, it can still almost run over Lucas if you walk on the tracks. If that happens, the man will save your life.
Along the tracks, you come across a valley filled with magic butterflies. I really hate what happens here; I cringe every time I get to this part of the game. Up on a little hill lies a hot spring. In that hot spring, lies Ionia, one of the Magypsies. Ionia mistakes Lucas for Claus. Once Lucas corrects him, Ionia introduces himself. Ionia says he comes to this hot spring every now and then to revitalize his PSI abilities. When Lucas mentions he doesn’t know what that is, Ionia says he senses “loads of magical power coming from you.” Ionia turns Lucas around and tells him to “Just endure it for a little bit.” The screen fades to black, as Ionia tells Lucas not to struggle. The screen takes us back to the hot spring, and Lucas’s head emerges from under the water. “Something has awoken inside Lucas,” and he gains several new powerful PSI techniques, including PK Love, the default word for your favorite thing, which was entered at the beginning of the game.
Mother 3 is such a special game to me – this scene is not one of the reasons why. In an interview with Itoi, he said this scene was deliberately made to make the player feel nervous and confused. He also adds that PSI is supposed to be something a character gains after bodily fatigue, like a fever. In the game, right before Lucas or Kumatora learn a new move, they get a fever and can’t run. I’m fine with human physiology being a theme of the game. What I’m not fine with, though, is how this scene is portrayed. It’s so ambiguous as to what Ionia does to Lucas to “awaken” him; it could be a lot of different things. Because we do see Lucas’s head coming out of the water, I think what Itoi was trying to imply was that Ionia stuck his head underwater in this hot spring to induce a fever, but the dialogue is so vague that it’s not what your mind immediately goes to. Combined with the way the Magypsies act, I think this was handled extremely irresponsibly. If drowning Lucas was the only way he could have learned PSI, he should have at least made a few hints to that before the screen goes dark. Please bear with me – I promise that was the worst part of the game.
Once you walk to the end of the track, you’re almost there to the Club. The only problem is, the only way to get inside is to have a ticket, and the only way to get a ticket is to work a shift at the factory. Inside the factory, Claymen dig up dirt and employees recharge them. To sign up for work, a Pigmask asks you to sign a document – not Lucas, you. He says,
“I mean… you know… the name of… of the person in the background… The person pulling the strings, I guess you could say? What I mean to say is..! Th-th-th-th-the player’s name. I just need it for verification purposes, it’s nothing too important. You know how it is.”
The game prompts you to enter your own name. This happened once before when Flint was made to go to the prayer sanctuary. The game wants to double-check to make sure your name is actually your real name and not something silly. I think it’s really cute how they’re aware it’s all a game, but they’re trying to keep it a secret. Lucas’s Job is to shock low-energy Claymen back to life. Watch as Lucas works his shift:
That didn’t look very fun and video gamey, did it? That looked depressingly realistic. I have a hunch that the Club was made as an incentive for people to work. By the time they’re done working, they’re too tired to do anything else. Their lives consist of work, Club, sleep, repeat. Mr. Brown tells Lucas to go achieve his dreams with the money he earned, but what dreams can he fulfill if he spends all his day working at the factory?
Anyways, Lucas and Boney go into the Club, after a little complication. Watch this next video to see what I mean (I promise it’s more entertaining than the last one).
In the dialogue of this game, sometimes characters’ “speech” makes short pauses; I think it’s used to great comedic effect here. Who is this Violet who comes to our rescue..? It’s Kumatora. The moment they enter the Club, she reveals her identity, and says she’ll explain everything later. She explains that the next song from the performing band DCMC is about to start, and that Lucas should put a smile on his face. Before the concert starts, though, there’s one peculiar thing that one of the fans informs us of: “Supposedly, there’s just one guy who makes the world go ‘round. No, actually, I’m not sure if it’s a guy or not. I guess it could be a woman or even a kid.”
The concert continues:
What a peculiar name for a song. Who is this “King P?” And also, that song is just the Pigmask’s theme! They’re playing propaganda music to these people! That bass player was definitely Duster, by the way. What is he doing playing this song? At least it sounded good.
After the concert, Kumatora leads Lucas and Boney through an underground tunnel that takes them to her room. Apparently, everyone who works at the Club lives there. They both catch up with each other. The game summarizes what they discussed, with text scrolling up the screen:
“The three conversed at great length, almost as if filling in the three-year gap that had separated them.
They discussed the rescued monkey…
They discussed the Hummingbird Egg from Osohe Castle, and how it went missing…
They discussed the fact that one of the DCMC band members appears to be an amnesic Duster…
And they discussed the mysterious army that had radically transformed Tazmily Village…
As if assembling the jumbled pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, they told each other what they knew to put their thoughts together.
The coming battle will not be easy…
This, more than anything, they all knew too well.
‘I want to be stronger…’
It was at this time that Lucas began to have such feelings…”
Apparently, “Lucky” has no idea who “Duster” even is. Kumatora tells Lucas to go see if he can talk some sense into him. But in order to get to Duster’s room, Lucas and Boney have to sneak through the attic, which is filled with monsters and the boss of chapter 4: the Jealous Bass. This bass used to be played all the time until Lucky came around with a new one. Now, it’s just been collecting dust in the attic. This whole attic part of the game only exists so that you can “play” the game.
The song that plays in the attic is really good, though. The bass is seemingly Sakai’s favorite instrument, from how pronounced it is in the soundtrack. This song takes full advantage of the fact that we’re going through the attic to get to a bassist. The only way to describe how the bass goes in this song is “crazy.” There’s also some quirky little noises thrown in to symbolize the weird enemies you have to fight against, like the “Arachnid!!!!,” spelled with four exclamation points at the end.
After defeating the Jealous Bass, you can enter Duster’s room. Kumatora and all the other DCMC members are there, and Kumatora explained everything to them. Duster tells Lucas that he had absolutely no memory of anything before coming to the Club a few years ago. His earliest recollection was that he was holding a certain egg with great care. Somehow, he had the notion that the egg he was holding was extremely important, and that he had to keep it safe. So, he buried it underground in a valley where no one would find it. Kumatora pushes Duster to just come with them, but he’s hesitant because he’s grown so close with the band. Duster is torn on what to do, so the band members suggest destiny makes the decision for him. This “destiny” is determined by playing stone-sheet-clippers (rock, paper, scissors). Everyone agrees that if Lucas can beat all five band members in the game, Lucky will leave the group. If he can’t, he stays. When Lucas plays with each band member, they all tell him which move they’re going to use. If Lucas loses, they secretly let him try again. Suffice to say, Lucas wins every game.
So it’s decided! Lucky leaves the DCMC and joins Lucas and Kumatora on their mission to retrieve the Egg of Light! Kumatora runs as fast as she can back to her room to change out of her “girl clothes,” beating up the bodyguards in her way.
Just as they all exit, Duster hears something coming from the stage. The DCMC plays one last song for Duster. Duster responds with their greeting/departure phrase, “tonda gossa” and heads out with everyone else. Lucas sends out the carrier pigeon back to Wess to let him know he found Duster. This concludes Chapter 4.