I am now on chapter 2 of Mother 3. I'm still curious; how does the franchise go from a mediocre Dragon Quest ripoff, to, well, M3? Well, it's been many years since the last one came out; I guess the developers became more experienced.
Another thing; the hot springs. These are life savers! Even if 'dying' in the game didn't matter, the hot springs are great. Where were they in M2? Huh!?
Oh, something amusing. I didn't know the "official" names of the characters when I first downloaded M3. I just inputed the names of characters from an in-progress serial I've been writing for the names. I know who Lucas is, thanks to the overexposure of The Only Nintendo Series Anyone Gives A Shit About Anymore(tm), [Hint: it's not Mother.] but I didn't know anyone else's name. I even named Lucas after one of my own characters. Since there is the outside possibility that my series will get published, I can't tell you what names I used for the M3 cast. But, I can tell you what I named the dog. The dog's "official" name is Boney. I, being ignorant of that fact at the time, gave him a different name; Rex. Because Rex is a cool name for a dog. I don't have anyone named Rex in my works, so there.
But there's a personal feel to this game, when you use names you made up. Even though the names I used were derived from made-up characters of my own, it still has a personal feel to me, nonetheless.
So play Mother 3 if you can. If you've come to despise the cliches of Japanese RPGs, don't worry; M3 is void 0f them. Out with the bishounens and pretensiousness, in with the Pig Nazis!
Pig Nazis. I hate those guys.
