Part 1: The Beginning
Before the story begins, the game prompts us to name the main character and his family, a common trope among RPGs. In this game particularly, naming each character can greatly strengthen your emotional attachment to them. The game also asks for your favorite food and your favorite thing. However, I will be using the default names for storytelling purposes. They go as follows:
- Lucas: The younger twin brother. A gentle boy.
- Claus: The older twin brother. An energetic boy.
- Flint: The strong, kind, and dependable father.
- Hinawa: The beloved mother!
- Boney: The brave and smart dog.
- Favorite food: Omelets
- Favorite thing: Love
It is highly suggested that you watch the video clips throughout this analysis; the game portrays its own story better than my summary can.
After everybody is named, we are introduced to the world of Mother 3. The camera pans over the land the story will take place in, the Nowhere Islands. The game announces the town the story takes place in, Tazmily Village. Even further, it narrows down to the house of Alec, the father of Hinawa, the mother of the main character, Lucas.
Note: When you listen to the music, listen to the song once before reading ahead. When you are done listening, pause the song, as it will continue to play when you listen to the next one.
The song that plays during this opening scene evokes a feeling of excitement. The first four notes sound a grand introduction. Then, powerful drums start beating and an electric guitar slides in. Horns enter soon after, creating anticipation. A legato flute quickly goes up the scale, and the main melody starts. A music box, which is rather unusual, begins the melody, with an energetic bass accompanying it. The energy level of the song rises as more instruments join in. As it’s about to reach the climax… everything mellows out. A synth which was frequently used in EarthBound loops about for a bit, and the song ends. The scale of this game will become very large, but for now, we’re starting off in a humble little cabin. If this song was given a new title with one word, I would call it “Prospect“. Prospect both means “an expected view” and “anticipation,” which I think describes this scene perfectly.
“Lucas!! How long’re you gonna sleep?! Get up so we can play! Get up already! The Dragos brought their babies over! They’re really cute!! Hurry up!”
This is the first line of dialogue in the game. Lucas, the main character is awakened by his energetic twin brother Claus (whose name is a rearrangement of ‘Lucas’). They, along with their mother Hinawa, are paying a visit to their grandfather Alec, in his cozy log cabin.
The song that plays in the house is very calm, with the guitar strumming about in a carefree manner. All is well. The flute is also a soft-sounding instrument to compliment the relaxed guitar.
When you (playing as Lucas) come downstairs, Hinawa is sitting at the dining table. When you try to leave the house, she tells you to change out of your pajamas first. If you try to leave without changing into your striped shirt (the pattern shared across all the main characters in EarthBound), Hinawa won’t let you go outside. This gives a very slight glimpse of the family life Lucas has, with his mother making sure Lucas is on the right track.
When you enter the great outdoors, the overwhelming sunshine makes Lucas need to readjust his eyes. Alec is working outside, and he mentions that it is the last day Lucas, Claus, and Hinawa are staying over at his house. Tonight, Lucas will be sleeping in his own bed.
When you walk around the yard, you can peculiarly talk to the free-range animals. They make typical animal noises (but then they speak English in parentheses like this). They too, along with every other character you’ve interacted with so far, mention that Lucas overslept. Because this is a video game, you are not forced to interact with every character you see. Therefore, each one within the same scene usually portrays the same message so that – even if you just talk to one – you can get all the information the writer wanted you to know. In this context, it’s that Lucas is “Mr. Sleepyhead,” as Hinawa puts it. If you choose to talk with Alec’s two pigs, the first one says “What the pig next to me says worries me…” And when you talk to the pig next to him, he says “Don’t worry about it.” This instantly sets the tone for the rest of the game. First, the animals are talking, and second, they’re making jokes? This game gets quite silly at some points, which I appreciate, since a lot of games only have a serious side to them and don’t make an effort to get you laughing.
The song that plays outside Alec’s house is already one of the standout songs of this game. The guitar gives it a ‘country’ feel to it that gives you a sense of comfort. When the melody kicks in, Shogo Sakai’s signature bass plays quickly, making you feel active and alive, as Lucas has just started his day. The droning synths let you know that this game’s gonna get weird, as we’ve already seen with the talking animals. The electric guitar at the end adds to the sense of upbeat energy to it, along with the percussion that plays throughout the whole piece. With one word, I would call it “Sunny.”
When you go eastward, you will find Claus playing with what the Dragos are: huge reptilian creatures resembling a T-Rex or a dragon, per the name. Though intimidating, Claus has been ramming into them over and over since morning.
He pushes Lucas to try it, and Alec explains to the player how to do it in the game. He tells you to “Try to imagine a thing called a B button!” Itoi’s decision to add the few extra words, “try to imagine,” makes these instructions to the player so much more enjoyable to read. In most games, Alec would have looked at the screen and told the player directly to “Press the B button on your Game Boy Advance to run into the Drago.” Instead, he talks to Lucas, the character you play as, compared to you, the player who controls Lucas. This breaks the immersion of the game as little as possible while still effectively portraying how to play the game.
After further instruction, Lucas is still idly standing (in video games, while you do move the character around, there are scenes where they act on their own, as described here. Even if you did try to move Lucas in this situation, he would still not pick up his feet). Alec proceeds to say, “You’ll never succeed with such a sullen look on your face. That holds true for anything. Just relax!” This reveals a little more about Lucas’s character. As noted earlier, Lucas also slept in. This alludes to a rather solemn personality. Nevertheless, Alec’s encouraging words get through to him and he rams into the Drago. I appreciate quotes like this in media; you might as well give some encouragement to whomever is experiencing your work – I think it’s quite thoughtful.
When Lucas bashes into the Drago, there is about a second’s delay between the impact and the reaction of the giant. The Drago remains standing still, but then it realizes that Lucas was trying to play with it, so it dramatically falls over to the ground, as if being brutally slammed into. After about a second of lying on the ground, it opens its eyes, and it gets right back up as if nothing happened. This shows that however threatening these creatures might look, they are gentle. From this little snippet of Mother 3, it would look like nothing ever goes wrong in this world.
If you choose to talk to Alec after hitting the Drago, he says rather bluntly, “You’re a weakling now, but I just know that someday you’ll be stronger than anyone else.” Yet another trait of Lucas is revealed: he’s a weakling. All of these details paint a picture of a meek little boy. However, Alec says that he knows Lucas will be stronger than anybody else eventually, with no small portion of foreshadowing. In video games, even in text-heavy RPGs, dialogue is quick and direct compared to other literature; a character in a book probably wouldn’t just say this line out of the blue like Alec does here. But it is a game, after all, so in order to have time to actually play it, the dialogue is shortened, for better or worse. I think the simplicity of dialogue like this makes it more approachable to the average player; throughout your time with it, Mother 3 sends you a message in the package of a game. While you usually play a game to have fun, Itoi made this game for you to reflect. Having fun is the point of any game, but he sprinkles some of his insight along the game to keep the flavor lasting longer than a simple ‘fun time’ would.
After Lucas had his share of playing, he and Claus are interrupted by a mole cricket, who wants to join in on the fun. This starts the first ‘battle’ of the game: Lucas and Claus vs. the Mole Cricket.
The music that plays during the battle is on the strange side, further adding to the essence of absurdity that the game has. In the very first second of the song, a drum is dramatically played. After that, a strong bass line and guitar comes in for a little bit, giving a sense of “action” to this turn-based battle. I particularly like the weird drone that comes in after the drum, which, along with the spontaneous melody, gives the song its zany vibe.
The twins effortlessly defeat the Mole Cricket, and he surrenders. The Mole Cricket insists that he is an experienced fighter and invites the twins to the ‘Mole Cricket Hole Stadium’. He then proceeds to walk off-screen. Hinawa enters, and after mentioning that she accidentally stepped on a bug, announces she has made whatever you entered your favorite food to be for lunch; In this case, it’s omelets. The boys run back into the house, with Hinawa walking behind.
Alec is left as the lone character on the screen. Like an actor in a Shakespearean play, He looks around to check that the coast is clear, and talks directly to the player, instructing you how to ‘save the game,’ the term used to describe how to keep the progress you make in a game before you turn the system off. In this game, you do so by talking to frogs that are scattered all over the world. Alec acts like he is on a secret mission by breaking the fourth wall, adding more humor to these otherwise bland instructions. This is the second example of how Itoi adds character to the ‘game’ in ‘video games.’ Some developers don’t even think to use a character to explain the concepts of the game. But by doing this, it makes the game more memorable, and in part, more fun.
As they eat lunch, the family discusses their departure from the cabin, mentioning that they will have to go through the forest to get back to the village they live in. Alec replies, “I bet the kids could make it there on their own, it’s that safe. I bet even you can handle it, Lucas! Hahahaha!” Again, this is more not-so-subtle dialogue that gets the point across to the player that this world is safe, and that Lucas is a wimp. But even if he is one, there are hardly any consequences for it.
After lunch, Hinawa sends a heartfelt letter via pigeon to her husband, Flint, about how their stay at Alec’s cabin was, and the words of the message crawl up the screen. She mentions that she had wished Flint could have been there, and that they should get a neighbor to tend the sheep next time. She adds that she’ll get to making the player’s favorite food for him right away when they return home in the evening.
The song that plays during this scene definitely sounds like a recap of the days she spent in the cabin, with the same flute that played inside the cabin also being played here. The most common note in this melody is F#, and the song always gravitates back to it. I especially like the part where the strings carry on the melody that the flute was playing, with the notes of the melody taking more dramatic steps, yet still making sure to land on F# occasionally and at the very end. I don’t think it would be too far of a stretch to say that the song symbolizes their marriage, and their love in it. It starts off with just Hinawa (the flute) all alone and separated, but ends with grand strings going on adventures that the flute could have never done on its own, symbolizing togetherness, harmony, and love. The song may only be thirty seconds long, but it sure is deep for the time it lasts. I appreciate that video game music can be as short as half a minute before looping while still being able to provide the same amount of emotions as a lyrical song, when given strong enough contextualization.
As she is about to come back back inside, the heartwarming song that was playing is drowned out by an ominous, militaristic-sounding tune, which seems to be coming from whatever is casting a great shadow over the landscape. The screen fades to black, and the same tune returns in an orchestral form. Mother 3 has just begun.
After the title screen, the game shows us the forest at night.
All is quiet, until explosions erupt from the trees! We are then shown the animals and townsfolk alike panicking at the chaos that is unfolding among them. We are shown two men in pig-like uniforms, identities hidden from head to toe, throwing explosives about in the forest. One clumsily trips on the ground, and the other ineptly stumbles over his fallen comrade – they too run in panic from the object they detonated. The forest is ablaze, and the animals are running for their lives. What is happening to Tazmily? Is it not entirely peaceful as we were just shown a moment ago? What is going to happen to Lucas and his family? Something is going horribly wrong, and the title of the first chapter of the game hints at even worse to come…
Chapter 1: The Night of the Funeral
This concludes part 1 of the analysis.