Happy (belated) Birthday, Mother 3!!

I'm over a week late, but Mother 3's anniversary was on April 20th. I didn't think in advance about doing a post for it, but seeing all sorts of Mother 3 tributes around the 'net has made me think about doing my own. I figured late is better than never, especially for a game like this.

I found Mother 3 through someone I followed on tumblr. She drew and posted a lot of fanart for it, and eventually I was like "hey, what is this from? It looks kind of neat." By that point I'd been spoiled for a pretty large twist in the game, but knowing that particular fact only made me want to play it all the more. A story about brothers seemed right up my alley, and I'd always been curious about the young boy named Lucas with psychic abilities that I saw and mained in SSB: Brawl.

the enemy descriptions in this
game are fantastic

Of course, in looking to play it, I discovered that Mother 3 has actually only ever been released in Japan. It has a pretty awesome fan-translation (headed by professional translator and huge Earthbound fan Clyde "Tomato" Mandelin), but at the time, I was extremely hesitant about emulating anything. I'd never done it before, and wasn't sure my computer could handle it.

Instead, I watched a walkthrough of Mother 3 on youtube. I was immediately taken by the game's charm and wonderful story. It was well crafted, had a ton of characters and tropes I cared about, and while I won't talk about the ending, we'll just say I was absolutely floored. Even despite having one of the game's biggest twists spoiled for me!

Within literal days (it was like, two) I decided that my hesitations about emulation didn't matter. I was going to play the game myself.

So I did. I downloaded an emulator, a Mother 3 rom, and the English Translation patch, and I experienced the game fresh. I was now able to go through the game at my own place and explore what few places the walkthrough didn't. You'd think that it being the second time I'd experienced the game, I wouldn't feel so strongly for it as I had before, but I did. In fact, the plot seemed to wash over me twice as hard as it had the first time! Perhaps because I'd put myself more firmly in Lucas' shoes, but, who knows.

The thing about Mother 3 is that it's just so undeniably good.

Sure, it starts off as a bit of a drag, considering you spend three chapters playing characters who aren't Lucas, and that becomes sort of a chore at points. And the gameplay, while an improvement over Earthbound's (run button, prettier menu), doesn't exactly add anything new to the formula. But those things aren't what make Mother 3 so great.

Mother 3's story is what makes it so wonderful, and what makes it stand out so much. Mother 3's story is what make fans go on and on about how much they loved it. As a writer, avid reader, and general consumer of works that tell great stories myself, I say with great confidence that Mother 3 is one of the best and most well-written stories I've ever experienced.

I was serious about those
enemy descriptions

Mother 3 touches on darker themes without ever giving off a sense of complete and utter despair. It's not Dark and Gritty (TM) like most "serious" games these days.It tackles challenging themes, but it balances those with humor. (If you're a Paper Mario fan, the feeling is much the same.)

Mother 3 also has some of the best foreshadowing I think I've ever encountered. Undertale is the only other game, off the top of my head, that I can think of with foreshadowing as subtle and as great Mother 3's. Perhaps its telling that Toby Fox, creator of Undertale, was inspired by Mother 3 when he made Undertale.

Mother 3 is fundamentally a story about change, but it's also a story about family. It's, actually, the only game I've ever played that has the theme of family so intricately woven into its climax---and it's definitely the only game I've played that does so without use of any old or annoying tropes. I can't personally name any games that do this specifically, but I know how common the theme of "one brother turned evil and did terrible things and now the brothers are sworn enemies and have to fight" is. Mother 3 isn't like that. Mother 3 is....

Well, I shouldn't spoil it. But it's good, and I'm so grateful for it.

Mother 3's family

And, there's so many other things to love about Mother 3, too!

One of the most striking, and my most favorite things, is that the villains (the Pigmasks) are all extremely human. It's hard to give concrete examples, but in short they really feel like that old cartoon trope of "all the goons are really just guys with a job and have lives outside of this". Some Pigmasks are genuinely nice to you, one takes a paid vacation in the middle of battle, most are all fans of the local rock band... They get flustered, they get worried, and the game lets you see that side of them (multiple times!) and it honestly feels so good.

Mother 3 devotes so much attention to detail, and it pours so much charm and thought into the world and its characters.

The soundtrack is super killer too, with somewhere around 250 tracks. There's so many good songs, but a few of my personal faves are: Tragic Reconstruction, Natural Killer Cyborg (of course!), Gentle Rain, and Phantasmagoric.

There's so much good stuff in this game, and you should really pick it up.


And, if you're lucky, you won't have to be restricted to a walkthrough or an emulator in order to experience it!! Hopes for an English release of this game are higher than they've ever been.

Even if you don't pay attention to the rumors going around, there are so many other signs pointing to an English release of Mother 3 in the future. Mother 1 (localized as Eearthbound Beginnings) was released for the Wii U Virtual Console at last year's E3---the first time it's been released outside Japan!

Mother 3 itself was released on the Virtual Console in Japan just a few months ago. That's really only a step away from an English release on the Virtual Console. That, on top of the fact this year is Mother 3's 10th anniversary! And, we know Nintendo likes doing things to celebrate important anniversaries. Earthbound Beginnings was released as part of a 25 year celebration of the Mother series, and so it seems likely if they'll ever release Mother 3, it'll be in the year of its 10th anniversary!

Sure, it wasn't released for the actual anniversary of Mother 3, but, I've got high hopes for a release at E3 this year, like Mother 1! And if not at E3, then maybe later this year. (After all, the localization process does take time, and could be taking longer than they anticipated, especially considering some of the content Mother 3 presents.)


My hopes are high. This really seems like something that's gonna happen.

We'll just have to wait and see.



Anyway, if you don't want to wait around for an English localization to experience Mother 3, then check out one of these things!

-  Here's the walkthrough I watched when I first got into it! It's nice and simple, with no commentary, meaning the game speaks for itself. A swell way to experience Mother 3 if you don't want to emulate it / don't have the time or energy to play it yourself.

- Here's the English Translation patch, if you want to play and emulate it yourself! The page links emulators to use (personally I used VBA), and, uh, you're on your own for a rom.

- If you've experienced Mother 3 already, then you can check out this playthrough of the game by the guy who did the English Translation patch, featuring his wife! They provide interesting notes about the game and the translation choices they made, and that's pretty neat. ~*MEGA SPOILERS*~ though, so don't watch if you haven't already experienced the game. ((They also joke around a lot, even during a few of the more serious scenes, so I definitely recommend not watching this until you've experienced the game otherwise first.))

Trust me. You won't regret playing Mother 3. It's a wonderful, beautifully told game that's been life changing for me and a lot of people.

~ I believe a dream can still come true  

Why shouldn’t I believe the same in you! ~

2015: A Year In Review

This is less a year and review for like my life, and more like a year in review for some cool things I got introduced to / experienced over the year!! Mainly video games. Of course it's mainly video games.

HERE WE GO!

• I made a twitter and started following some cool people!! Namely: drak, Gigi D. G., Toby Fox

All three of them are super cool people who make great things! Drak's working on a cool game called Item Haver and does a lot of neat video game streams! I love his humor - his streams are a lot of fun to watch while I'm doing something else in the background.

Gigi writes Cucumber Quest! A webcomic about bunny kids going on adventures, heavily inspired by RPGs like Paper Mario and Kirby. It's super good and I highly highly highly recommend it!

Toby Fox is the guy.... er, dog??? behind Undertale, which, I've already mentioned (twice!) on here. A really cool game that takes traditional RPG elements and flips them on their head. I, obviously, highly recommend this as well!

• Drak and Gigi play Sonic 06

This was how I first found Drak and his streams (I'd already been following Gigi for a while), and, through this, got introduced to the Sonic series! Well, outside the vague "Sonic exists, he was in Smash and the Mario and Sonic Olympic games" knowledge of Sonic I already had.

Anyway, I recommend these streams to basically anyone! Whether you're a longtime fan of Sonic or, like me, someone who only vaguely knows about them, they're a lot of fun!! Just two friends enjoying a broken game and all in all having a good time. I'm really glad they exist. They still make me smile when I watch them.

• Tied into that: I actually looked further into the Sonic series, and discovered I really really like it?????? It's kind of bad in a lot of ways but, it's still..... it's really good. I'm glad games like Sonic 06 and Sonic Adventure 2 exist.

• I played Earthbound and Earthbound Zero this year!!

What good games.... I'm so glad I actually looked into them instead of leaving my Mother / Earthbound experience at simply Mother 3. They were both really fun, and Earthbound has easily worked it's way onto the list of my favorite games.

• I also played FF8 this year!!!!!!

What another good game..... I already talked about it on this blog before, but, I'm glad to have played it because, I think it's my favorite Final Fantasy, now?? And it was a lot of fun to share the experience with my sister, who loves it, and a friend of mine, who also loves it!! 

FF8 has a lot of good characters and a really good story and, well, I'm glad to have finally gotten around to playing it this year.

• Splatoon!! Splatoon is a thing a I got into, and, it's a really good game!! I'm grateful for it, and, for getting a Wii U, finally.

• I also finally played Majora's Mask this year!!!!

I keep meaning to make a post about it here (it's next on the list, right after a Yoshi's Woolly World review, probably) but haven't gotten around to it yet! In short: I had a lot of low expectations for Majora's Mask, but when I finally sat down to play it on a whim, I was proven very wrong. It's a wonderful game, and is without a doubt one of my favorite Zeldas!

• I watched SGDQ for the first time and enjoyed it immensely. I can’t wait for AGDQ which starts!!! Sunday!!! WOWIE! - check out some deets about both, here!

And, finally, the crown on this big 'ol cake:

• Undertale

Undertale came out in September, after four months of waiting for it -- for me, anyway! 

It was better than the demo promised, and it wasn't just some short little game that I played once and really enjoyed. It ended up being much more than that. It totally took over my life for a few months, and, kind of still has a hold of it now??

I'm so glad we live in a world where Undertale exists, because it is such a good game, and it's really made an impact on the world and gaming and so much cool fanart and fanfic has come from it -- I haven't met anyone new from it, like other people, but I have had a lot of great experiences centered around it!

I never expected Undertale to get so big or to mean so much to me (and honestly, I don't think anyone expected this) but, here we are! Here it is!! And it's wonderful.

It would be silly for me to choose one thing out of this year that I am most thankful for, because I am very very thankful for all these things!! Buuuuuut, if I absolutely had to choose just one, it would be Undertale, without a doubt. GOOD THING I DON'T HAVE TO CHOOSE, HUH?

Anyway, that's some of my fave 2015 experiences year in review. Here's for 2016, finding more fun games, and having an even better year! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

UNDERTALE REVIEW - Best Game I've Played In A Long Time

HOWDY~! Remember last week when I told you to buy a game coming out called UNDERTALE?

Well, I'm back!! This time with a slightly-more-in-depth review now that I've played the whole game. Twice.

by victoria goog (@fridayafternoon)

UNDERTALE is an indie RPG game by Toby Fox, in which no one has to get hurt!!

It's really good!!! Oh my gosh!!! I have not played such a well constructed and well written game in a long time!!! The music is fantastically memorable and I find myself humming it half the time, the characters are so good I can't stop thinking about them, the story's so wonderful it's kept me up at night considering the full possibilities and depths of it!


I talked it up like crazy in last week's post, saying how much I loved the DEMO and how excited I was for the full game, and let me just say! The full game COMPLETELY lived up to my expectations, in fact, IT SURPASSED THEM!

UNDERTALE is funny, it's charming, it made me laugh it made me cry. And under the surface, it's either an inspiring and positive story about how violence isn't the answer, there's always another way, you don't have to fight to win. Or, it's a chilling commentary on violence in video games that makes you rethink destroying lowly monsters in RPGs just for EXP.

I've only played the Pacifist and True Pacifist routes so far (working up the courage to tackle a kill run still) but wow! They're both! Really good!!

I'm amazed at UNDERTALE for having such a deep story that you miss half of on the first playthrough, because certain things are only revealed on your second time through! And the buildup of having to go through the game two or even three (or four!) times before being lead to the True Ending is really! super! good!! It feels so great, and the ending is so wonderful and wonderfully constructed -- UNDERTALE is truly one of the best games I have played in a long time.

It also has some stellar ways of executing certain Things (I won't say what for spoilers) that absolutely took the breath out of my lungs because it was so clever and frankly, terrifying. There's a lot LOT more to Undertale than the scary stuff, but it definitely deserves some awards for being the only game to make me physically sick to my stomach with fear. And to make me cry real tears. Ten minutes after I was laughing at a ridiculous joke.

by inkerton-kun on tumblr

BASICALLY!! UNDERTALE is a really good game that I will recommend avidly and wholeheartedly to no end. I've run out of things to say without repeating myself, so, I guess I'll leave at this!

You can get it on it's website, UNDERTALE.com or on Steam for only $10!! THAT'S A BARGAIN! THAT'S A STEAL! The game is worth so much more than that.

Still aren't sure? Then sit yourself down with the DEMO and play it (it only takes 30 minutes!). If you aren't convinced after playing the DEMO once, then reset it and play through it again, making as many drastically different choices as you possibly can, and that should show you the potential of the full game!!!


UNDERTALE: EVEN MOMS RECOMMEND IT

PLEASE PLAY UNDERTALE!

UNDERTALE

Hello. I'm here to convince you to play UNDERTALE, an indie RPG game by Toby Fox.

from the UNDERTALE Kickstarter

UNDERTALE releases tomorrow, September 15 2015, on its website (undertale.com) and on Steam!

It's a charming and extremely well written game with witty dialogue and humor, along with plot twists that left me screaming for days. (Well, that's what I have to say about the DEMO, anyway. The full game isn't out yet!)

And, get this: It's only $10! What a bargain! (For music loving fans, you will reportedly be able to get the game and its soundtrack for $18! How wonderful!!)


So... What is UNDERTALE?

From the Kickstarter:

A traditional role-playing game where no one has to get hurt.

From the Steam page:

Welcome to UNDERTALE. In this RPG, you control a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. Now you must find your way out... or stay trapped forever. It'll be a perilous journey, but don't worry. Your best friend, FLOWEY, will be with you every step of the way.

Here's the Steam greenlight trailer for UNDERTALE, which was released earlier this year, and acts as a psuedo-trailer for the DEMO:

Interested yet? Maybe?

You can try out the DEMO for yourself (about 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay) and see how you feel about it from there! The DEMO is completely free, and a great experience all on it's own!! Download it here.

Just the DEMO itself has:

• great music
• charming dialogue
• the ability to fight or spare enemies, of course!
• at least four different endings based on your choices throughout it! 
• wonderful characters ft. goatmom Toriel and sad ghost Napstablook
• some great plot twists
• questionable spider bake sales
• cool puzzles

If you play the DEMO, be sure to replay it at least once for maximum enjoyment!! And, check out the instruction manual before and after you play. Trust me.

Gigi D. G., author of Cucumber Quest (a webcomic about bunny people going on an adventure, and RPG trope subversion) says this about UNDERTALE:

She also drew this (among other) cool fanart for it!!

Toriel and player character by Gigi D. G.

Personally? I had an absolute blast playing the DEMO. It took me by surprise at every turn, even on my second and third and fourth times playing it. It didn't seem to matter how many times I went through that game, and how many different strategies I tried, it always found at least one way to surprise me by the time I reached the end again.

The art and writing style remind me vaguely of MOTHER 1 and the rest of the Earthbound series, though truly, UNDERTALE is its own. I absolutely loved the characters (Napstablook is my favorite!!) and I think the music is absolutely wonderful (you can listen to the soundtrack here!).

The UNDERTALE DEMO absolutely blew my mind with how well written it was, and how fun it was to play. All I've heard is that the full game is even better. I can't wait to see for myself.


Here's the release trailer for UNDERTALE:

I'm so excited!! Please play it.


And, while waiting for it to release, check out:

The official UNDERTALE website

The official UNDERTALE tumblr

The official UNDERTALE twitter

Play the UNDERTALE DEMO!



UPDATE: NOW THAT THE GAME IS OUT AND I'VE BEATEN IT (TWICE) CHECK OUT MY FULL REVIEW FOR IT, HERE!!

Final Fantasy 八 / 8 / VIII

Just a month ago, I had the chance (and, uh, desire to) play Final Fantasy 8. Just a few days ago, I finished it.

So, here's how I feel about FF8.

Final Fantasy 8 is the 8th in the Final Fantasy series, though like every other installment in the series, it has nothing to do with previous or future titles. (If they have anything to do with each other, they have the same number slapped on them, hence 10-2 and 13-3, along with FF7: Crisis Core.) BUT, regardless of that, I'm not here to do a history lesson on Final Fantasy, or on FF8 either.

I'm just here to talk about why enjoyed playing it.


I started playing it for research purposes, actually. FtPverse, being a Kingdom Hearts fanfic (KH is a crossover between Final Fantasy and Disney, in case, you weren't aware of that either), already features the main character of FF8, Squall. Er, Leon. Y'know, this guy:

And I decided I'd really like to include Rinoa, too. So, I sat myself down to play FF8.


This was not my first time playing FF8, actually. My older sister (magik) had played FF8 shortly after I'd finished FF7, and I'd watched her play it from start to finish. I'd started to play it myself, but got as far as the part where a giant robot spider chases you through Dollet. I got interrupted for a phonecall, and by the time I was done on the phone, I decided "I never want to deal with that spider again", turned the system off, and didn't touch the game once after that.

That was four years ago.

This time around, between wanting to go through it for research purposes, flat out still owning a copy and why watch a walkthrough when you own the game, and knowing that stopping because of a giant spider at the beginning of the game was kind of dumb, I picked it back up again.

And it was a lot of fun!!! Having my sister (a huge FF8 fan) watch over my shoulder for half of it, and then tweeting about it to friends (one of whom is also a huge FF8 fan) definitely made it twice as enjoyable.


It's also, the first Final Fantasy game I've beaten since FF7 (well, and Crisis Core, but that counts as FF7). I started 10 and 12 and 13, and though I got halfway through the latter two, I just!! Lost interest. I don't know if the fact FF8's the only Final Fantasy that's been able to keep my attention since FF7 should tell you anything, but, I'm just, tossing it out there.

Anyway!! The actual "how I felt about this game" section!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a lot of fun. The battle style was definitely a huge plus for me, actually. "Oh, I should attack and take 5 turns of battle? Well, why do that when I CAN SUMMON SHIVA!" "Oh, I have to fight this boss battle and worry about their elemental defense? Why do that when I CAN SUMMON EDEN!!"

Definitely a lot of fun, and by the time we were at the end of disc 3, thanks to Encounter-None, I could decide "I don't want to face any more enemies, I just want to muscle through the plot"  and, I could. It was great.

I know the magic system isn't considered "the best" but I didn't find it too much of a chore, and I was having too much fun with the "summon things repeatedly with absolutely no repercussions" to really care.

Story wise, it's great, it's interesting, and while it gets a little Convoluted at points, well, so does.... every other.... Final Fantasy. (And Kingdom Hearts.) I was a huge fan of the sorceresses, and I think the whole cast of characters was really interesting? Sure, it's a Literal Soap Opera at times, but, it's fun. It's good. It's well written. Is it perfect? Nah! But nothing is.

And, here I'm gonna get into spoilers, so, stop reading if you don't want those.

The games been out for like, 16 years now.

But still. Spoilers. Watch out.


I think it's really cool and interesting how real of a character Rinoa is, how human she is. She makes mistakes, she's childish, she's flawed. But she's likeable. She's loveable. And I'm also just a huge fan of girls with Literally Infinite Power in their veins. Ha.

But Rinoa felt real well written, and so did Squall, and I can't fully articulate how I feel about their narratives, but man, it felt good. And I'm not a huge fan of Romance Plots lately, but, Squall/Rinoa felt good. It didn't feel too rushed. There was never a point where Squall stopped being extremely awkward because Wow, He's In Love! Even after it became clear to him and the players what he felt for Rinoa he was still sooooo bad at interacting in any sort of ~romantic~ way and it was really good. It was really refreshing.

Also, there's this:

So, yeah!!! I really enjoyed FF8.

I loved it's gameplay, I loved it's story, I loved it's characters, and most of all I loved joking about it with my sister / friends. It was a lot of fun.