"i don like this :(" - what my friend wanted me to make my review
Sorry, Goose, but I actually have a lot more to say about this. After giving up on this and beating MOTHER 3 and 1, I decided it was only fair to come back and finish it. I came in with a fresh mind, and was really hoping I would like it as much as everyone else does, but sadly, that just isn't the case.
I'll start with the positives: it's very charming! The reputation it's built up for being very quirky and funny is definitely deserved, there were double-digits times I found myself laughing at a gag or throwaway line, and I think more jokes landed than flopped, which is impressive considering just how many there are. The art style is very striking and creative, it makes the little details like the towns' buildings more memorable and the party members' designs simply iconic, though the peak is the final boss without a doubt. While I personally don't like the SNES soundfont, I do like a majority of the songs from the MOTHER 1 soundtrack that were touched up (e.g. the shop theme) and the two final boss themes are just fantastic, the last being one of my favorite songs in video games. However, that's about all I can say for positives, although the charm is definitely a major part of the game.
The biggest negative I have is the gameplay. Underneath its silly, surreal syrup of style, the RPG that lies at the core is pretty weak. The rolling numbers are a nice addition, but I find that a majority of the time they roll too quickly to the point of being useless, with party members already dead before the healing text box popped up. Too many fights are just A-button mashing with next to zero actual strategizing, ESPECIALLY once Jeff gets his late game bottle rocket collection. Even when you can't bash an enemy to death, I found that Paula and Poo's (and, when necessary, Ness's) PSI attacks rendered most foes dead within the first round, and even if it went on longer, it felt like more of a nuisance than a real fight. Not only the gameplay, but I find that the characters and world are much less interesting than either of its two sibling games, and even on its own, it lacks in that department. What is Paula's character outside of "she's nice to Ness and has psychic powers"? I know it's a lot to ask a SNES-era game to have incredibly compelling characters, but when a major ending plot point is reliant on the fact that you care about them, it feels cheap to ask that when you haven't given me enough to care about. As for the world itself, I just don't find it particularly interesting. It's neat to look at it now, nearly 30 years later, and see just how much of it is a time capsule of an exact era in American culture, but that's about all I feel, the world feels much more disjointed and segmented than I'd want it to.
Rating this game is admittedly very difficult for me, because I don't feel like a 5/10 is correct, but I don't know what to rate it. I think, for what it's worth, it's aged decently. Sure, the menuing is painfully clunky and the console lag can be insufferable at times, but it's not terrible and still very much playable, though I think the amount of slow-scrolling text boxes during battle can certainly start to wear one's patience thin. The gameplay is not great, but the style and vibe of the game definitely wins me over and is what kept me playing until the end, even if the ending was more of a let down for me than anything. I feel near equal parts positive and negative things about this game, and it evens out to a resounding shrug of an experience. I'm glad I played it, and I think its influence on the world of gaming has been more of a good thing than a bad thing, but it's not one I can see myself coming back to, nor is it one I can even see myself recommending.
Sorry, Goose, but I actually have a lot more to say about this. After giving up on this and beating MOTHER 3 and 1, I decided it was only fair to come back and finish it. I came in with a fresh mind, and was really hoping I would like it as much as everyone else does, but sadly, that just isn't the case.
I'll start with the positives: it's very charming! The reputation it's built up for being very quirky and funny is definitely deserved, there were double-digits times I found myself laughing at a gag or throwaway line, and I think more jokes landed than flopped, which is impressive considering just how many there are. The art style is very striking and creative, it makes the little details like the towns' buildings more memorable and the party members' designs simply iconic, though the peak is the final boss without a doubt. While I personally don't like the SNES soundfont, I do like a majority of the songs from the MOTHER 1 soundtrack that were touched up (e.g. the shop theme) and the two final boss themes are just fantastic, the last being one of my favorite songs in video games. However, that's about all I can say for positives, although the charm is definitely a major part of the game.
The biggest negative I have is the gameplay. Underneath its silly, surreal syrup of style, the RPG that lies at the core is pretty weak. The rolling numbers are a nice addition, but I find that a majority of the time they roll too quickly to the point of being useless, with party members already dead before the healing text box popped up. Too many fights are just A-button mashing with next to zero actual strategizing, ESPECIALLY once Jeff gets his late game bottle rocket collection. Even when you can't bash an enemy to death, I found that Paula and Poo's (and, when necessary, Ness's) PSI attacks rendered most foes dead within the first round, and even if it went on longer, it felt like more of a nuisance than a real fight. Not only the gameplay, but I find that the characters and world are much less interesting than either of its two sibling games, and even on its own, it lacks in that department. What is Paula's character outside of "she's nice to Ness and has psychic powers"? I know it's a lot to ask a SNES-era game to have incredibly compelling characters, but when a major ending plot point is reliant on the fact that you care about them, it feels cheap to ask that when you haven't given me enough to care about. As for the world itself, I just don't find it particularly interesting. It's neat to look at it now, nearly 30 years later, and see just how much of it is a time capsule of an exact era in American culture, but that's about all I feel, the world feels much more disjointed and segmented than I'd want it to.
Rating this game is admittedly very difficult for me, because I don't feel like a 5/10 is correct, but I don't know what to rate it. I think, for what it's worth, it's aged decently. Sure, the menuing is painfully clunky and the console lag can be insufferable at times, but it's not terrible and still very much playable, though I think the amount of slow-scrolling text boxes during battle can certainly start to wear one's patience thin. The gameplay is not great, but the style and vibe of the game definitely wins me over and is what kept me playing until the end, even if the ending was more of a let down for me than anything. I feel near equal parts positive and negative things about this game, and it evens out to a resounding shrug of an experience. I'm glad I played it, and I think its influence on the world of gaming has been more of a good thing than a bad thing, but it's not one I can see myself coming back to, nor is it one I can even see myself recommending.
Reviewed on Sep 28, 2022