The Little Things in MOTHER 3

Esas son las cosas que hacen que un juego sea de los mejores, los pequeños detalles lo hacen mas realistico! Lástima que no salió oficialmente para America… No sabía que se hacian mas altos conforme pasaba el juego!!

The last time I played Mother 3, I pulled the needles in a different order:

Pulling Mixolydia’s needle right after visiting Aeolia is very difficult, but possible and warrants some interesting events. Boney has a lot more dialog and actually suggests that Lucas eats the mushroom. Without Duster, Wes is replaced by Alec after the Zombie Shroom battle and says something surprisingly disturbing to the player. The screen goes dark and he addresses the player like at the beginning of the game. I forget exactly what he says, but I remember it being pretty dark.

If you pull Doria’s needle last before visiting Ionia, Alec and Mapson will be near the Clayman factory.

Pigmask Kumatora is a bit slimmer than Pigmask Duster or the other pigmasks.

Ramming into Hinawa in the Prologue, ramming into the side of the ballbearing statue in ch. 2, the pig with the secret message, going back to the Chimera Lab with Salsa.

I also like the subtle but consistent/logical trends in status weakness: cloth-based enemies (Osohe Cape, Carpet Monster) are the most susceptible to being wall stapled (and the caped pig mask is weaker to wall staples than regular ones). Sad/emotional enemies (Negative Man, Mr. Passion, Gently Weeping Guitar) are weak to crying.

@ Sparky: I think I just found a new challenge for my Hard Mode Mother 3 playthrough!! Thanks.

Also, there’s all the Doorknob references spread throughout the game. In capter 3, Fassad will even toss it out of Osohe’s court yard if you examin it!

All the rides in the “Porky Park” of New Pork City have weird descriptions if you examine them- there’s the teacups, the roller coaster, the viking boat and the carousel.

A cardboard cut-out of Andonuts Lab can be seen in New Pork.

My favourites were all the little insights into Porky’s psychology; things like how, when you’re in his room in the Thunder Tower, the only thing you can steal that has an alarm or a guard on it is the Friend’s Yo-Yo. Little things like that that, taken as a whole, make Porky seem more a tragic figure than a straight-up malevolent one.

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How about the old guy who appears in several of the hot springs in the game.

Oh yeah, can’t forget the newspaper articles in the old folks home. That was half my doing though.

Oh yeah, if you try to walk back to Tazmily at night during Chapter 4, that Mr. T lookalike’s brother will stop you and say the stuff the Mr. T guy did, only very slightly different.

And the insignificant message on the back of the tree…

I didn’t figure this out by myself (Tim Rogers of action button dot net included it in his Mother 3 review), but one of the Magypsies (Phrygia, perhaps?) says “kietari mo shiteru kedo, watashi wa genki desu.” This is a reference to the slogan created by Itoi for Kiki’s Delivery Service “ochikondari mo shita kedo, watashi wa genki desu.” (The first means something like “I’m fading away, but I’m fine” while the latter is “I was a bit depressed, but I’m fine”). I always smile when I see that reference.

After seeing the old guy comment, I also recalled noticing the most recent time I played this game is that if you’re hallucinating when you see the hot springs man, he looks like Fassad.

to the comment at the top i say “el comento en espanol”

Also, when you fight the Mecha-Drago, he’s missing a tooth.

Hey Mato, could you maybe list all of them with some screen shots. This would make a very cool content post, maybe you could compile all these little Easter eggs and it would be very interesting.

I noticed the flowers thing, in fact if you check them, it says “Flint is always bringing new flowers for Hinawa”, or something like that.

I’m trying to remember stuff, but there’s so much, ,and many had already been mentioned… I remember if you talk to the kael/frog that’s near Lucas’ home in chapter 4 he’ll say something about the time passage, can’t remember exactly what.

What about the guitar pick in club titiboo after the concert?Isn’t it like the sesame seeds in Earthbound?
I feel special that I maybe one of the few people who noticed it ;D

Actually, I’ve noticed Kumatora is missing 5 PP because the Magic Pendant adds on 5 PP. So theoretically, the character you would get before the event had full PP, but was equipped by an event with the Magic Pendant, thus creating the illusion that she’s missing 5.

Hey, I’m probably wrong, but crack theories are what the EarthBound community is made of!

Hehe, the soot was funny! But seeing the flowers with different colors was touching…

I noticed this too when playing mother 3

For the later chapters, the flowers were the only indication I had that Flint was even alive. He really is a pretty bad father, you don’t see him untill late 7 since 3 if I recall.

lalala, I noticed it too.

If you get Claus to be on your team via Debug menu, then try going into the hotspring, Claus walks on water

also, I would have never in a million years found out that kumatora dosn’t start out with full PP because she shot a PK frezze at you. How do people find this out?

The reason you don’t see Flint for most of the game is because he continues searching for Claus every day. This is stated somewhere, I think in Tazmily in the beginning of chapter 4.

Speaking of Flint, I seem to recall that Lucas yells at him if you talk to Lucas first thing during the Funeral in Chapter 1. And of course there’s Lucas’s other bits of depressing dialogue if you talk to him at various points through Chapters 2-3.

The differently-pitched blips and bloops for text is something that goes on in the Dragon Quest series, too.

If you speak two times to Lucas and Claus when at the camp fire, they will actually say some words!

Also, when someone’s following you, go speak to Ledder. Your companion will have something to say about him.

I thought Kumatora’s missing PP was due to her not having her pendant. If you equip something that raises your HP or PP, the stat will not completely restore to the amount of HP/PP you have after equiping the item, but will remain the same amount as it was BEFORE equiping the item. That DOES look like how PK Freeze appeared in brawl though.

Am I the only one who got the feeling that Claus and Lucas switched places at some point?

When I played the game I just felt for some reason that the Lucas you play as is really Claus. For example, Lucas was the more timid and momma’s boy of the two. Claus appears to be more or less in control when he frees Flint, but then he suddenly 180s and goes to avenge his mom. Meanwhile, Lucas suddenly seems to calm down and becomes brave. Add this in with what the halucination “Claus” says later in the game.

Naturally, this is impossible due to the fact that Claus obviously has different colored hair and the fact that ending text would be weird otherwise…

Hey EmeraldWind – I don’t agree with your theory, but it’s weird how similar it is to the plot of the trilogy of books from which Itoi pulled Lucas and Claus’s names (these). It’d make an interesting fanfic, at least.

Hmm, I shouldn’t say similar to the plot of the books because there’s a lot of stuff happening in them that have absolutely nothing to do with the game. Your theory is similar to one of the mysteries that exists throughout the three books. Yeah, now I make sense.

Well, I don’t really call it a theory, cuz honestly I don’t believe it either. I just got the feeling from some of the events in the game… I was curious if anyone else had thought that.

For me, I believe that Claus had always intended to go after Drago, he was just trying to play it cool so that nobody would try to stop him. As for Lucas, he’s a late bloomer and he becomes brave because he’s growing up.

When you check Hinawa’s bed at the beginning of the game, it says, “Hinawa’s bed.”

But when you check it in chapter 1, it says, “The bed that Hinawa used.”

If you look closely, the grave stone also says MLF.

@EmeraldWind

Hey, doesn’t it say in the game a few times that Claus and Lucas are often mistaken for one another?

Hah, puts a new twist on that. But yea, thats a really cool idea you had. I had some odd speculations as I played the game the first time too.

If you talk to Claus in Chapter 1 after the kids are found, he says his usual thing. Talk to him again and he says “Darn it, darn it.” Cursing himself under his breath.

Great job Itoi! and Tomato too, for the translation!
Both of you never forget even the smallest of details! That gives an atmosphere on a simplistic design (but GREAT) game.

Mother 3 is my second favourite game of all time, the first is Earthbound!

I like that Lucas and Claus share the same letters in their name

@Spitball Sparky

If you visit Tanetane before getting Duster back, Alec says this:
“Where is Hinawa? Have you seen Hinawa anywhere?”
(Dialog is the same whether you answer Yes or No)
“Oh. Then bring her here right away.”
*Alec turns so he’s facing forward, and the screen goes dark.*
“I know you’ve seen her!”

Kinda creepy, really.(Apologies for my dreadful English xDD)

I think that that Kumatora is not at full PP because she has something on her when she joins you that increases her maximum PP by 5.

In Chapter 2, if you talk to Pusher on you way back to the castle with Wess, he mentions plans on building an old folks home

Also, prior to chapter 4, one of the graves stones in the cemetary say its reserved. If you check it again after the 3 year skip, you’ll find that Scamp is burried there

In the prologue, Claus’s attack sound is a sitar. When the masked man attacks, he can attack twice, and it sounds like a sitar.

I never knew about Fassad in chapter 1. O_O
How?

Mega-Drago is missing a tooth when you fight him. Komoru already mentioned it, but it always made me smile. It’s amazing how hugely detailed this tiny little cartridge is. Totally worth waiting eleven years for.