This review contains spoilers
Forgive me if what I've written is all over the place, I just have a lot I want to say about the story of this game that I find to be so endearing and powerful. I definitely did not include everything I may have wanted to say as this was largely written off the cuff and without any planning. Consider it more of a stream of consciousness than much of a review lol
I remember trying to play it a number of times back in the 2010s and just never made it further than Chapter 4. At one point in 2020, I decided to play it to fruition. I can't remember exactly how long it took me to complete, but it was likely within a week's time.
The thing is, I don't think I would have cherished it as much as I do now had I completed the game back in the 2010s like I had set out to do a few times, in large part due to my own political awakening in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Like all forms of art, Mother 3 is political, but maybe more explicitly so. Mother 3 is, to its core, an anti-capitalist work; and it would be impossible to see Mother 3 without that message that is so ingrained within its storytelling.
The invasion of the Pigmasks into Tazmily and the introduction of the "Happy Box" at the end of Chapter 3 becomes a keystone moment in the transitioning of the island from a communal society into one that focuses on individual consumption and the creation of a market economy. Prior to this, the shops on the island offer free materials, the townspeople help each other out and establish a society without a profit motive, everyone works for each other and for the betterment of Tazmily. Chapter 4 starts with a time skip that is utilized to juxtapose the Tazmily pre-colonialism to the Tazmily now under the thumb of an oppressive colonizer. Everyone in Tazmily now owns their "Happy Box" and whoever does not gets their home mysteriously targetted by errant bolts of lightning. If the citizens of Tazmily do not comply or conform to the imperial order, they become subjected to the violence of the state and forced to submit.
The "Happy Boxes," while not directly televisions, do hold a similarity to them which lends further to the anti-capitalist messaging in this game. The people of Tazmily who own them rave about them and keep pressuring people like Clint who refuse to own one. Within a short period of time, the people of Tazmily have become an arm of the imperial regime and have been suckered into the capitalist dogma that it espouses.
The island post-time skip shows how far the colonial ambitions of the Pigmask Army have come and how different the island had become what with their rampant industrialization, wage slavery, and desecration and disruption of the environment.
Another important theme in the game involves this dynamic between nature and the synthetic. The Pigmasks conduct experiments on the local wildlife by taking one animal and fusing it with another, adding machine parts to them, turning them into chimeras that only know violence. This gross perversion of nature and the fusion of the synthetic with the natural is demonstrated throughout the game. Tazmily, which was once this cohesive society built on the labor of those who lived there, was swiftly perverted by the imperialist ambitions of the Pigmask army and its introducing capitalism onto the island.
In Chapter 8, the game takes us to New Pork City: a city that is a stark contrast from the once peaceful Tazmily Village. The city, home to a returning villain from the franchise's previous entry, Earthbound, is a shrine to the oppulence, unimaginable wealth, and inherent exploitation baked into capitalism. Bright lights, amusement park rides, cheap tourist traps, and a 100-story building that becomes the final battleground at the end of the game -- all built by the Tazmily citizens-turned-laborers for the Pigmask's ultimate capitalist endeavor.
The logo of the game has this part-chrome, part-wooden design that, upon completion of the game and reaching the final title card, becomes totally wooden as if to say that all things go back to the natural order of things. That capitalism, this make-up of society that pits us against each other, makes us forget the commonality we have with one another against those who hold political power or capital. And, more importantly, that there is a world beyond capitalism. That the short-term benefits and happiness we feel from our consumption is at the expense of others and, ultimately, ourselves.
I love this game. From its music, to its message, its humor, and its story, I find it hard not to love everything about it. This game is very special, and while I don't anticipate that it will ever be localized to a non-Japanese audience, I will still cherish it.
I remember trying to play it a number of times back in the 2010s and just never made it further than Chapter 4. At one point in 2020, I decided to play it to fruition. I can't remember exactly how long it took me to complete, but it was likely within a week's time.
The thing is, I don't think I would have cherished it as much as I do now had I completed the game back in the 2010s like I had set out to do a few times, in large part due to my own political awakening in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
Like all forms of art, Mother 3 is political, but maybe more explicitly so. Mother 3 is, to its core, an anti-capitalist work; and it would be impossible to see Mother 3 without that message that is so ingrained within its storytelling.
The invasion of the Pigmasks into Tazmily and the introduction of the "Happy Box" at the end of Chapter 3 becomes a keystone moment in the transitioning of the island from a communal society into one that focuses on individual consumption and the creation of a market economy. Prior to this, the shops on the island offer free materials, the townspeople help each other out and establish a society without a profit motive, everyone works for each other and for the betterment of Tazmily. Chapter 4 starts with a time skip that is utilized to juxtapose the Tazmily pre-colonialism to the Tazmily now under the thumb of an oppressive colonizer. Everyone in Tazmily now owns their "Happy Box" and whoever does not gets their home mysteriously targetted by errant bolts of lightning. If the citizens of Tazmily do not comply or conform to the imperial order, they become subjected to the violence of the state and forced to submit.
The "Happy Boxes," while not directly televisions, do hold a similarity to them which lends further to the anti-capitalist messaging in this game. The people of Tazmily who own them rave about them and keep pressuring people like Clint who refuse to own one. Within a short period of time, the people of Tazmily have become an arm of the imperial regime and have been suckered into the capitalist dogma that it espouses.
The island post-time skip shows how far the colonial ambitions of the Pigmask Army have come and how different the island had become what with their rampant industrialization, wage slavery, and desecration and disruption of the environment.
Another important theme in the game involves this dynamic between nature and the synthetic. The Pigmasks conduct experiments on the local wildlife by taking one animal and fusing it with another, adding machine parts to them, turning them into chimeras that only know violence. This gross perversion of nature and the fusion of the synthetic with the natural is demonstrated throughout the game. Tazmily, which was once this cohesive society built on the labor of those who lived there, was swiftly perverted by the imperialist ambitions of the Pigmask army and its introducing capitalism onto the island.
In Chapter 8, the game takes us to New Pork City: a city that is a stark contrast from the once peaceful Tazmily Village. The city, home to a returning villain from the franchise's previous entry, Earthbound, is a shrine to the oppulence, unimaginable wealth, and inherent exploitation baked into capitalism. Bright lights, amusement park rides, cheap tourist traps, and a 100-story building that becomes the final battleground at the end of the game -- all built by the Tazmily citizens-turned-laborers for the Pigmask's ultimate capitalist endeavor.
The logo of the game has this part-chrome, part-wooden design that, upon completion of the game and reaching the final title card, becomes totally wooden as if to say that all things go back to the natural order of things. That capitalism, this make-up of society that pits us against each other, makes us forget the commonality we have with one another against those who hold political power or capital. And, more importantly, that there is a world beyond capitalism. That the short-term benefits and happiness we feel from our consumption is at the expense of others and, ultimately, ourselves.
I love this game. From its music, to its message, its humor, and its story, I find it hard not to love everything about it. This game is very special, and while I don't anticipate that it will ever be localized to a non-Japanese audience, I will still cherish it.