Backlog Game Reviews 40: Mother (Famicom)

 

Hey there, and welcome to Backlog Game Reviews.

    Today, let's talk about the JRPG Mother. It was only released in Japan on July 27^th, 1989. There were plans to release it in the U.S, it was even fully translated and ready to hit store shelves. But it was canceled due to it being too late in the NES's life span. The SNES was soon to come out and Nintendo wanted to focus on that.

 

    When it was released in Japan it was an instant hit. It was the sixth best-selling game of 1989 in Japan and sold 400,000 copies. It was heavily praised for how different it was from other RPGs. Instead of taking place in a fantasy world, the setting is modern-day (1989) America. Instead of fighting monsters, you fight possessed old men, stray dogs, and gang members.

 One of the first enimes you fight is a lamp.

    Even though reviewers took issue with the game's high difficulty it received very high scores. Let's take a look and see what Mother has to offer.

 At the start of the game a text scroll gives you some background to the story.

The Story

    80 years before the events of the game a married couple went missing. One day the man, George came back, and after his return, he locked himself in his house and spent all his time conducting some kind of research. Time passed and he eventually died of old age. His wife, Maria, never returned.

 You start the game relaxing in your room.

    Fast Forward to the present day, we meet our protagonist. The grandson of Maria and George, Ninten, a 12-year-old boy with psychic powers. One day while hanging out in his room his lamp started to move and attacked him. Ninten quickly defeats the lamp and goes to check on his younger sister next door. When Ninten enters her room he finds his sister being attacked by one of her dolls.

 After fighting the lamp you end up fighting a doll.

    After saving his sister a music box falls out of the once possessed doll. After listening to the music box play a short song Ninten gets a call from his father. Strange things have been happening all over the country. Zombies have been spotted walking around and kidnapping people, people and once friendly animals have been turning violent, there's even been reports of alien sightings. Ninten's dad tells him to go out on an adventure and try to find the root of these strange happenings and also use this opportunity to strengthen his psychic powers. So, Ninten leaves home and sets out on a strange adventure.

 The world map. Every town in this game is named after a holiday

    The story in this game is pretty good. The main plot is mysterious and does a good job of keeping you interested. It has its happy moments and sad moments, the story in this game can stir up your emotions, which is impressive for a Famicom game. As said in my Ys1 and Ys2 review a good story isn't something that comes to mind when thinking of NES and Famicom games, so this is a pleasant change of pace.

The Gameplay

    The gameplay takes a lot of inspiration from Dragon Quest. It's a turn-based RPG with random battles. The encounter rate can get a little annoying with how inconsistent it is. Sometimes you can't even take a single step without running into an enemy, other times you can walk around for a minute or so without encountering anything.

 The towns are filled with plenty of people to talk to and things to see.

    Just like Dragon Quest battles are displayed in the first person, and are very straightforward. You can attack, use items, run, or use your psychic abilities to heal, buff your teammates or debuff the enemy. There's also an auto-battle command that helps grinding go by much faster than it would by just mashing the attack button. Most battles require very little strategy. Heal when necessary and hit the enemy as hard as you can and as long as your level is high enough then you'll win the battle.

 Using auto battle to fight the first real boss in the game.

    If you're thinking about playing this game sometime, one thing to keep in mind is that it's very grind-heavy. You'll need to stop and grind a lot. The difficulty spikes very often, and every party member except for one joins you at level one, so you'll have to take some time to level them up.

 You save the game by using a pay phone to call your dad.

    One cool thing about the game is that it's pretty much open world. Your goal is to find the eight melody's and after a certain part, you're allowed to go to any town and area in the game. This means you can find the melody's in any order you want and have complete freedom in terms of how you want to tackle the game.

 While Mother is somewhat grounded in reaity there are some fantasy like areas.

    If you don't mind grinding in your JRPG then this game is worth a try, it's a simple yet fun game. The only real complaint that I have is that all the grinding you'll need to do can slow the game down. But like I said, if grinding isn't a deal-breaker then you should check Mother out some time.

 Mother has no shortage of strange enimies to fight.

The Presentation

    As far as Famicom games go Mother is a nice-looking game. The overworld sprites are bright and colorful. The battle sprites are detailed and very well made. Mother is definitely one of the better-looking games on the system.

 You'll find your first party member pretty early in the game.

   The music in this game is really good. Just about every song will end up getting stuck in your head. It does a great job at stirring up your emotions and makes the sad part of the story all the sadder. The music is so good that even if you don't have any plans of playing this game you should absolutely check out the soundtrack sometime.

 You can use a train to go place to place or walk on the tracks.

Conclusion

    After playing through this game I have to say, it's a shame it wasn't released outside of Japan, during the Famicom/NES era. I don't think it would have been a smash hit, but I think it would have done well for its self. I very much enjoyed my playthrough of this game. But, because of how heavy it is in the grinding department and how erratic the difficulty can be, I don't think it's aged very well. If you enjoy old RPGs then Mother is a game you should add to your to-do list. Everyone else, I recommend passing this game up.

    That's all I have to say about Mother on the Famicom. Thanks for reading! The next review will be another retro game as the retro game marathon continues. I'm working on about five different games at once so I can't say for sure what system the next game will be on. Thank you again for reading, I hope to see you again here at Backlog Game Reviews.