Part 26: The 100th Floor
Lucas and friends exit the sewer to storm the Empire Porky Building. But right at the exit, none other than Fassad emerges from the sewage to thwart them!
He is no longer New Fassad. Now, he is Miracle Fassad. He has so many horns on him that you can barely even see his body, or what’s left of it. Fassad’s entire purpose has been reduced to exacting revenge on Lucas, and he is willing to go through whatever means necessary to defeat him. He mechanized and weaponized almost his entire body to become a living weapon; he even waited underneath the filthy sewage just so he could ambush Lucas and his team. After enough damage is dealt to Fassad, most of his horns fall off, making waste of all the effort he went through to become stronger. His heart becomes filled with hatred, and he starts using extremely powerful PSI moves, which he has never been seen using before this fight. He even uses PK Starstorm, the most sacred and powerful move in the game. How did he ever get to learn that?
Once he is defeated, Fassad is enlightened. He remarks that he is only a puppet in Porky’s big game, and he’s finally sick of it. Fortunately for him, Lucas and his team have damaged him enough that he doesn’t have much more time left on this earth. His jetpack stops working, and Fassad plummets back into the sewage. Fassad’s story has come to an end.
Some new NPCs can be found in the city. Their dialogue is extremely simple, though:
“Gaze. View.”
“Good. Bad.”
“But. But.”
“No buts. No buts.”
“In love. In love.”
“Say. Won’t say.”
“Cry. Laugh.”
This reminds me of a part from George Orwell’s 1984, where the number of words in the spoken language actually decreases over time rather than increasing, in an effort to simplify people’s thoughts. Porky has hypnotized these people to do exactly what he wants, and they are all but action figures to place in his city.
When you enter the Empire Porky Building, the first place to get looking for him is the elevator, which has conveniently been repaired right after Leder gave his speech. It’s as if Porky meant to have the truth revealed to Lucas right before their epic battle where he crushes him and everyone else. When you get on the elevator, the guy who repaired it said he was rushed to fix it, so it only goes up to the 24th floor – how inconvenient for us. On this 24th floor, the DCMC is about to play a concert. The guy who fixed the elevator recognizes Duster, and he expects him to play with the band. When you enter the concert hall, the DCMC is excited to see him back. Shimmy Zmizz, the pianist, says all life on the islands have been gathered to New Pork City, saying “A great, undefiable power has prepared a festival for the end of all life.” The band members know exactly what Porky is doing, “’Cause we’re so drunk on our music that he can’t fool us with his nonsensical crap!” This is such a dumb excuse, but remember: logic only applies to Mother 3 when it’s convenient. Itoi will brute force his way to get his plot points in. But let’s just enjoy the concert for now:
The last complete song that the DCMC plays is a rock cover of Mind of a Thief from Chapter 2, which is essentially Duster’s theme. I think that’s a very fitting way to put DCMC’s story to a close. The last song they play is cut off by Porky, who tells Lucas and his crew to meet him at the 100th floor. There is a blackout in the Empire Porky Building, but all the electricity that needs to work for his plans is still perfectly fine… Again, this is all just one big game; even Porky himself calls it the “final game.” Did you take notice of how immature and cocky he sounded over the telecom? Someone needs to knock some sense into this kid. When you get on the elevator, you are taken to the 100th floor:
This isn’t the 100th floor. This is a pool for Hippo Launcher Chimeras. The song that plays here is as anticlimactic as it gets. In the face of life and death, this silly little song bounces around as you swim with hippos with rocket launcher mouths. Over the telecom, Porky says,
“Breaking news! Some idiots have been seen pretending to be sea monkeys in the middle of a pond. Wahahahahaha! I’m talking about you guys! Getting all covered in mud so you can fight for your lives… It’s all so ridiculous! *snicker* Alright, then, Get on to the next elevator. I think I’m gonna sit back and watch even more of your stupidity in action. Come on! Don’t give up! You’re so close to the real 100th floor now! Ahahahahaha!”
When you get on the next elevator, you are taken to the real 100th floor:
This is not the 100th floor. This is Porky’s detestable “pleasure room.” A huge couch is surrounded with junk food and Porky’s “fans,” wearing close to nothing. It seems he has no regard for anything more than instant gratification. Also in the room is another Oxygen Supply Machine. This has both hilarious and horrifying implications. When you get on the next elevator, you are taken to the real 100th floor:
This is not the 100th floor. This is a maze of restrooms. Only one door takes you to the next room. Inside the next room, there are more doors to pick from. You go through each door in trial and error until you make it to the next elevator. When you pick the wrong door, you usually walk into bad guys. There is something different in every single room; here are some of my favorites:
At the end of it all, Porky says, “You’re nothing but a cheap toy crawling in my hand!” and invites you to the REAL 100th floor:
This isn’t the 100th floor, but this is very interesting… Locria’s house was put inside the Empire Porky Building. Inside of it are boxes upon boxes of bananas, a pair of musical horns, and Fassad’s clothes? Fassad was the seventh Magypsy?! There were a few hints to that throughout the game, such as Fassad’s familiarity with Kumatora, his theme being a slowed down version of the Magypsy theme, and his knowledge of PK Starstorm. For whatever reason, Porky is allowing Lucas to learn up on every secret there is about the world, just before he squishes him like a bug. Perhaps that would make things more satisfying for him. To the right of Fassad’s house is the next elevator, which takes you to the true 100th floor. But right before entering that elevator, you can find Locria’s pet mouse, who really loved him. He says that Locria might have been mean to everyone else, but he loved his mouse. Up until now, you were meant to hate Fassad’s guts, detesting him as an irredeemable monster. But it seems that even Fassad has compassion in him, no matter how deep in his heart you have to search for it. Next up: floor 100!
This isn’t floor 100! This doesn’t even have a floor! This is the site of the Great Porky Swimming Bath, but it seems to be under construction. Lucas has been growing at an unprecedented pace, and Porky wasn’t fully prepared for him to storm the Empire Porky Building this soon. Perhaps this was why the new people in the city had such simple dialogue: Porky never got to finish writing it. You have to use some creative thinking to get to the next elevator:
Now, we go to the definitely 100th floor:
This is not the 100th floor; this is a very complicated-looking lab. Various robots and Pigmask Colonels roam the area. The “Almost Mecha-Lion” from the Chimera Lab is now completely robotic; there is nothing organic about it anymore. When you get to the end of the lab, you find out what this floor is used for: the Nice Person Hot Spring. In the Nice Person Hot Spring, people and animals are put into tubes of green liquid, where they are converted to NPCs who worship Master Porky. Apparently, this is the origin of all of the new people from Tazmily after the time-skip: they were kidnapped from their own era and taken to this one with Porky’s time machine, where they are stuffed into the Nice Person Hot Spring to become “nice” to him. After having been inside the tubes that corrode their minds long enough, they are released into the wild to promote New Pork City. Perhaps the reason some of them look the same is because they were cloned by Porky. What a terrifying concept.
At the end of the Hot Spring, there isn’t an elevator, but a staircase. This long staircase leads you to what looks like a game room, with a childish design painted on the walls. A man waits for you inside. He says,
“Master Lucas and friends! I have been waiting for you. I’ve changed my hat, so perhaps you don’t recognize me, but I was the chauffeur of that difficult-to-drive and far-too-long limousine. I’m pleased to see that you’ve made it this far. I will now determine if you’re fit to meet with Master Porky or not. Follow me inside.”
You are required to play three games with a robot that looks like Porky to meet the real Porky. To be fit to meet him, you have to be skilled at games, but not too skilled. See what I mean in this video:
Porky sure is a sore loser! You’re told to try as hard as you can to win, and when you do, you aren’t permitted to go on to the next game until you lose just barely, making it look like a tense and heart-stopping match between two masters. Porky so badly wants to be Master of all things, but when you show him that he isn’t, he throws a fit like a seven year-old. Porky can never accept defeat. When you lose all three games just barely, you are deemed fit to meet Master Porky. You walk up a long flight of steps, to the get to the real, true, final 100th floor.
When you get to the top, you meet a giant pig robot with a protruding brain. Over the telecom, Porky’s theme song plays, as he says the following:
“Lucas. Welcome to my room! This is the REAL 100th floor that you wanted to come to oh-so-badly! Again, I welcome you, my beloved, detestable pests. I was the one who invited you here. So you’re free to come inside if you wish. It’s just, I’ve given orders to let no one enter my room to that little attack toy you see right there. Who knows, maybe this is where we’ll say goodbye, even though I invited you here. Alright, let’s turn it on! Say hello to the Natural Killer Cyborg!”
A battle commences.
This is the strongest boss in the whole game, and its song is therefore the most “epic-sounding”. An electric guitar introduces you to this massive, savage beast, before the drums kick in and the melody begins. The electric guitar intensely strums along, while a synth wildly flies around. The melody sounds similar to the start of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. This song is supposed to sound “killer,” with how the instrumentation is; I think that’s appropriate. Its attacks consist of firing several missiles, taking powerful swings, and firing its End of the Century Beam.
When the Natural Killer Cyborg is defeated, it explodes in grand fashion. In the room it was guarding a long hallway, where the theme song from EarthBound Beginnings plays. After you walk down it, you are taken to a boat ride, where you pass by all sorts of things Porky has collected from Ness’s adventures in EarthBound. The most iconic song in the series, Pollyanna, plays here. This has a dual purpose of showing the player one last image of Porky’s obsession with Ness, as well as celebrating the end of the Mother series of games.
This concludes part 26 of the analysis. In the next part, we will meet Porky, face-to-face.