Mother 3 Commentary 

I remember when I was in elementary school and I asked for Mother 3 for my birthday so my father installed a GBA Emulator with the Mother 3 translation patch on the computer. Honestly one of the best birthday presents ever and rewatching this video reminds me of those times over a decade later. Thanks for making this, it's brought back some old memories.

Fun fact: The one time in that final fight that Lucas can actually attack Claus normally without stopping or getting second thoughts is when Flint gets obliterated. Without any words shared and gameplay alone you can tell that Lucas is absolutely furious and ready to kill at that moment, which is absolutely tragic.

One touch that I love about the disguised Mr. Saturn at around 2:37:50 is that if you walk back you can see that he is still there staring at a wall. He says "Zuchinni". The reason he's there was because initially because of a bug, but Itoi thought it was so funny he left it in and gave it a line of dialog. Another example of something unnecessary but a joy to experience.

How is it that someone could've made a game so emotionally mature and heartbreaking almost 20 years ago? It blows my mind that, even as videogames nowadays still struggle with connecting to the players in the way that an artform should, as long as it's taken/taking people to understand the value of exploring different emotional relationships with the players, such as frustration, sadness and pain, Mother 3, and honestly the entire Mother series seems to take it for granted and do it so effortlessly. People still to this day disregard video games as mindless drivel and an immature waste of time. For most games, that may even be true. But still, Itoi seemed to just... get it, from the moment he approached the medium of video games, back in the fucking 80s! Of course people will care about what happens in a game. Of course, you can bring a person to tears while they hold a controller. Of course, you can convey the entirety of human experience in one, tiny, megabyte-sized cartridge. Because if you care about it, if you love it, then others will love it too. Fuck. Shit. Goddamnit.

It's awesome that a RU-vid Channel once called Brutal Cumpowder could mature into something so heartfelt. It's kinda what I love about the internet. Great work. Keep it up. 👍

this is easily the best commentary out there. really happy you chose to do this

This was such a joy to listen through. I finally played this game for the first time and I’m obsessed now.

Just finished this video and oh my god all the memories of playing this game for the first time almost 5 years ago when I wasn't even old enough to fully grasp its meaning have all come flooding back. Thank you so much for this video! Also, I'm not crying! you're crying!

Hell yeah been waiting for this i love your earthbound commentary

This us the best Mother 3 video on the platform, deserves way more views. Most videos like this are a glorified plot summary, but this has excellent analysis the entire time. Thanks for making this, i really enjoyed it.

Beautiful commentary, I loved your earthbound one too. One thought about the layout of the Nowhere Islands being dragon shaped. I always saw it as the dragon sleeping curled up, with the head being where New Pork City would be and the tail being the islands leading up to Tane Tane island. This would make the final needle all the more impactful, with it situated on the head A few more things I noticed in this game that may or may not be references. The mushroom trip seems to be this game's version of Magicant, as it is an otherworldy place where people unlock the thoughts and secrets in their mind. Another reference are the Magypsies. As stated they are all named after musical modes. The mode Locria is named after, the Locrian mode, technically does not exist in real life as it is the only mode with no harmony, it has no resolution. Which is perfectly in tune with Locria.

The way you covered the mushrooms sequence makes me so happy. There are no mother 3 fans i know of who understand what this sequence is supposed to be. they seem to just label it as “silly earthbound drug trip that prevents localization”

Thank you so much, for such a gorgeous video!

This video is the ultimate mother 3 content i been searching for

thank you so much man. these commentary videos are the best.

Amazing work!

What a phenomenal video, my goodness. This is genuinely one of my favourite videos on RU-vid as a whole.

This game is truly a masterpiece of a rpg final fantasy 7 has nothing on Mother 3 or Earthbound both have emotional moments especially Mother 3 my favorite rpg was Undertale and definitely Mother 3 it's a genuinely best game I care about the characters in Mother 3 just like I did in Undertale thank you Iwata and Itoi for making art and to inspire Toby fox to make a game that made me fall in love with rpgs

Honestly fantastic job, I've played this game, watched emcee prophet, bee squared?, and etc talk about this game, but you have done such a complete job of giving the feeling of playing this game and feeling for its characters.

hey I was here at the beginning, and it's great to see you put out quality shit after so many years, and an excellent commentary on my favorite game no less.

Thanks for the good content my dood 💪

awesome stuff, Bru.

Mother 3 is my favorite game of all time, I fucking love this. You're amazing at these long-form video essays, I feel like I could watch them about anything.

Mother 3’s title drop is one of my favorite moments in gaming. It simultaneously feels so welcoming yet so intimidating. It makes me feel like i’m about to witness something BIG.

heya. i have adhd. usually, its difficult for me to sit through a video this long-- or anything, for that matter-- without frequent pauses, or fidgeting, or doing something else at the same time while its on in the background. i dont know if its because your commentary was so good or because i just love mother so much, but i sat through this whole thing with no breaks, no fidgeting, no lapses in attention. i have never been that still and silent for so long in my life. was very amusing and surprising to me so i figured i would leave a comment.

I am not good with my words, and have many things to say. This is one of the best RU-vid videos I have ever watched and the best game-related video. This made me feel the complete experience of the game and all of the commentary felt on-point and well structured, none of the words or editing felt unnecessary, I consider this the perfection of a game review, if that is the right term, and I sincerely agree with the points and opinions mentioned here. Thank you

Just finished and wow this is heartfelt and all around impressive. Great job encapsulating so much of what there is to love about this game in a single video.

One of the greatest videos on RU-vid

I like this analysis. Love the MOTHER series!

Thank you for another masterpiece _brrrutahlcampaudor_

Holy shit this is a masterpiece and the best commentary that exists for this game

Thanks to Itoi stating that the ending is up to the player to interpret, my headcanon given the events of the end credits with Claus now being 13 with Lucas and running with him means the Dragon revived him and Hinawa. Of course this is my interpretation, but still, it feels like it is truly canon.

I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but I couldn't help but notice the name of the mother, Hinawa, is very similar to the Japanese word for sunflower "Himawari". I don't know if this was intentional, but regardless, I find it beautiful, and worth mentioning.

Best commentary on mother 3 ever seen, wow

1 hour in I cried :) loved the video

Epic analysis. I'd title this a comprehensive retrospective /analysis if I were you

I don't have much to say, just that I'm about a half-hour in and enjoying it.

It’s so good! I love it so much!

Will you be covering Mother 1? I really like your style of commentary and I feel like Mother 1 needs its due diligence from you!

This game will always be in my top 10. I've never really replayed an rpg but this one. Ive played this 5 times now

Thank you so much.

Hypeeee can’t wait to watch

Mother 3 curtain call is so beautiful, truly an amazing way to say the last goodbye to all its characters.

Criminally underrated content

Mother 2 and 3 are game masterpieces, because they only work as video games. I usually don't like Rpgs because they're just cool stories/universes/musics that could work on any format (final fantasy games are basically done by people who wanted to do cinema but didn't have the chance to lmao). This series really made the difference for me, and will always be some of the best examples of what gaming as an art form can do that is unique. It's strange, funny and heartrending.

Wow, I'm only 5 minutes in, and I can already tell that this video is incredibly well done! This video easily deserves over 100k views! I will definitely be sharing this video with all of my friends who are into the Mother series. Great job!

Superb commentary. I'm replaying the game and having your video on the side makes it even more enjoyable than usual. I appreciate anyone willing to put in the effort to comment over the _entire_ game.

Thanks so much for this video! I wanted to experience this game but I don't have the time to do a playthrough myself, this was a great way to get a glimpse.

dude weeeeeeed haha

In the present was a very nice video. Ah

Your idea about the Magypsies being extreme manifestations of human attributes rather than an being a direct attempt at LGBT representation is super interesting.

Great video! I hope you do a similar one on LISA

Such a good quality video finally giving mother 3 the content it deserves

Great work, these mother videos have been incredible! I'm curious, based on your comments, if you have any spiritual perspectives in your own life?

Really nice video, I thoroughly enjoyed watching through it. I have it on my 3DS, but my charger is broken, so I haven't been able to replay it in a while. Sure, I could play it on my pc or my phone but it isn't the same without playing it with physical buttons.

49:12 - Why do I get the impression that Wess is related to Elder Kai from Dragonball Z? Also, there's a line of dialogue that you can read if you respond to him a certain way in the beginning of the chapter that implies that he was abusive toward Duster, and that caused the injury to his leg.

Man this makes me so damn sad

Pretty anecdotal, but I finished this video feeling plenty emotional (average reaction to the ending of Mother 3) and at around the same time I received a nice little text message from my mother. Good timing mom

2:46:02 A very minor correction: This kind of music is actually a genre of Japanese music called enka.

I just finished EarthBound a few days ago and adored both the game and your first commentary video. I’m about 2 hours into Mother 3 and I already can’t wait to finish it so I can watch this criminally underrated content.

I love this video bro you should do a commentary on earthbound beginnings if you haven’t keep up the good work 🎉

41:19 - Fun fact: If you go to Butch's farm with Flint right after leaving the jail, you get to see part of the exchange between him and Fassad in the act.

Perhaps a LISA commentary in 3 years?

2:15:28 - I think what they mean by 'giving Duster more to do' is he gets more development. Kumatora searches for Duster for a bit, she helps Salsa escape and gets the party into the concert and watches while Lucas and Boney go into a dungeon? With Duster, you have an entire dungeon, and an entire story arc with him and DCMC that develops his character. Duster gets almost two full chapters of development while Kumatora doesn't even get a quarter of a chapter. And by the end of the game, you know about as much about Kumatora as you did when you first saw her.

Serious business

59:30 - Fassad's a direct allegory for the second beast in Revelation (also known as the False Prophet). Porky is a reference to the first beast (note that they call him King P in the game). And based on what we see later, Happy Boxes are an obvious parallel to the mark of the beast. You'll see a lot of references to Revelation as you play through Mother 3.

No crying until the end!

Seeing the reconstructed Caribou design always remembers me of one thing would change in Mother 3: That all Chimeras have blank white eyes(For example, when someone is dead, like in some manga/anime) and more emotionless expression to symbolize that these creatures are unnatural beings and actually not really alive I wonder would this be a bit TOO dark and Un-Mother/Earthbound-like?

One of my prized possessions is an English-translated GBA cartridge of Mother 3. Maybe it’s less than legal, but by god I won’t apologize for it.

The sad thing about this is that Porky became this way due to his abusive parents and his best friend abandoning him to defeat Giygas. Is it wrong to believe that we can do better as people and stop anyone from becoming someone like Porky?

1:24:16 gotta agree this song slaps so hard in this arrangement

2:39:05 "Fair fight." 4v1

Felt like playing the game for the first time again.

Does anyone think that the phase distorter is the white ship. Great video by the way

Epic

1:43:19 You're beyond right. Chapter six makes me legit cry, and my heart breaks each time I watch Lucas jump for his mother. All these emotions, and only a few words used throughout

3:14:41 Itoi: sees apoxy glue. *shits pants*

if you remember claus' instrument from the tutorial, and listen as he attacks you during the 1st Masked Man fight, you'll quickly figure out that its the same instrument. more hints to his true identity. really like that attention to detail.

This game wasn't for me, but I can appreciate the work they put in

Something gut wrenching I thought about during the commentary/reading of the Porky fight: if anyone here delves into politics or niche zoomer anti-modernity talk, they might know about a creator and comedian named Jreg. He's been known for a long time as a confusingly-ironic person who talks about everything from anarcho-primitivism to advocating the destruction of the political compass' "centrist" class. He's wild. He talks in this snarky "isn't this stupid" manner about everything, to the point you can't tell what his goofy grinning ass actually believes. He made a video about maximizing suffering through politics to simulate Hell, and at the end of the video he pauses and says "Wait a minute.......I'm just describing current day America!" The reason I'm mentioning this is because he made a video recently about the concept of irony poisoning. The idea of being so detached by way of irony as a cope, that being earnest or attached to feelings is almost impossible. Even in saying that he's recovering from this, he even says he still can't stop grinning while filming videos just because he developed the habit from talking about genocide and cults and political extremes of all sorts with the same detached irony. Porky's dialogue made me think so much of this. "Who knows! I might be 1000 years old, or even 10,000 years old! But despite that, I'm still the same kid at heart! Isn't that funny!? It is, isn't it? Doesn't it make you laugh? Are you laughing at me?" From what you said in your Earthbound commentary, Pokey/Porky came from a physically abusive father and a smothering mother, lacking honest friendship and unable to really understand said friendship. He's detached from consequences, from others' perspectives and emotions, and underwent a journey across all possible universes and timelines involving humanity. And in all of them, his bleak perspective on humankind is confirmed. All civilizations will fall to greed, avarice and envy. The universe will forever be wasted and rendered void by the sin of humanity, the one (known) lens by which this universe knows itself. Porky is a victim of irony poisoning. He can't truly reckon with the sad reality of human iniquity, because confronting it takes strength of spirit which he was never taught to nurture the way Ness or Lucas was. Even in his last moments on-screen, Porky only wanted absolute safety from the consequences of his actions, from his mortality, from his own degradation. I think the saddest part of it all is that I can see where he's coming from. Truly, I can. I mean shit man, look at the stats on fatherlessness children in America. 23%, a full quarter of the children of this country, will belong to a demographic which is responsible for the most teen pregnancies and abortions, the most adolescent violence and felonies, the most clear signs of mental unwellness. Even two thirds of teen...self-sunsetting. And in this generation we're reaping what we sow, thanks to this lack of family, lack of community, and unfettered access to a vast network of equally unsalvageable kids with which to spread our suffering. Porky is the avatar of modernity. Porky is the Nietzschean last man.

Well, the Japanese also did these things (colonizing, horrible experiments on people), not just the Nazis.

Honestly this game is just awesome

31:10 - Nobody ever mentions what Lucas says if you talk to him first. What he says is massive foreshadowing for the end. And Alec's response in the scene further contributes Lucas' final decision. The thing is, Mother 3 itself is a tragedy. It's a tragedy about how something pure can be corrupted, and how everyone has a breaking point.

"Ness from Undertale from Smash Brothers" I loved that lmao

The first fight and with Claus and Lucas and the last fight and with Lucas and Claus... Now that I think about it

Personally even in those few times where you mentioned how grinding is necessary because of the difficulty on bosses I didn't actually have to grind at all. I just found those few bosses as a hard challenge and really enjoyed them for their difficulty. I had to grind one time on my first play through and that was only when I accidentally sequenced breaked the game (going to the mountains before the lab) causing me to have one less party member than intended.

18:08 nice

1:43:10 - It's also a plot dump though, and Mother 3 has one of those in Chapter 8 as well when you talk to a certain very tall person. But the scene that I think could have been conveyed with fewer words is your interaction with Asriel at the end of Undertale. The music and scene should have been enough without it getting so wordy.

Thank you for this, this is a brilliant game but I don't actually enjoy the play experience so this is a great way to experience its nuances.

As part of the real human group of being non-binary I am completely fine with the depiction of the magipsies. They are powerful good entities in the world. They rant humans and hence I think can be a completely different design from them. Your description of them is the best one that I have heard and I think it really works for them. Could have a better job been done with the magipsies? Yes, but additionally I don't feel as though it was a bad depiction of some non-binary people and showed non-binary people like me in a negative light. I remember hearing about a interview with Itoi and he was asked about the magipsies where he responded to the likes of that those people (non-binary people) exist in the world and should be recognized, and for 2006, this is really good. I can't think of another group that is non-binary before this game and very few after this. I like that the magipsies exist even if they could be better.

42:10 - I picked Steak as my favorite food. That's right. Tazmily is so utopian that they can grow steaks. Huh... Guess Space Funeral was right all along.

With regards to items like the momentos...I dont understand why you never mention/use the item storage guy? I saved the momentos for end game fights.

just letting you know that you use porky instead of master p around 1:33:00, if that isnt your intention?

waatching 60 seconds tiktok; drake dabbing watcing 4 hour game analysis; drake appy

I'll never get why claus had to die. Hinawa straight up went "kys lol" That said I just watched the world get uprooted. I think the world of Splatoon comes next

Ah.

You kind of spoil the Porky twist earlier at 1:32:49 after working so hard to keep him as “Master P” lol. It was probably unintentional. I’m sure everyone watching this has played the game already anyways

1:44:48 - And if I don't say it, someone else will. The Seven Needles are likely a reference to the seven seals/trumpets/vials in Revelation. Note that one of the first tunes you hear after the chapter starts is one using trumpets (midi trumpets, but they're supposed to be trumpets).

3:48:48 accept claus

Mother 3 has ALOT of references to the Book of Revelation. Two Beasts? They're in this game. Dead rising from the grave? That's here too. Mark of the Beast? Yep. Mother 3's got that too. Judgement Day? Oh you'd better believe it's here.