I've played Earthbound a few years ago and really loved it, despite my usual dislike of turn based combat. That game just had so much charm in it that it kept me going, so once I was done I imediately put Mother 3 on my list of games I want to play sometime. Unfortunately it has never been ported to newer consoles and even worse (for me) never gotten an official translation. recently I bit the bullet and got the game, along with the very good fan translation it has, and have been playing it for a little bit now.
The start of the game is interesting to me. While I already know that Lucas is the main character of the I've only played as him for a very short time before perspective switched to his father Flint. The games hook is pretty interesting and the world is as fun and playfull as Earthbound was, if not moreso. There are dinosaurs in it so it's an instant 10/10 for me. The mother dying did make me sad, especially since you get to name all the characters when you first meet then and seeing her for even just the little time in the opening did make me somewhat attached to her. The mystery around the people in pig masks is also set up decently well. They admittedly have been more funny than an active threat s far, but I guess they did cuase that fire, so their no push overs either.
Towards the end of my time as Flint I encountered my first real road block. That cyborg dinosaur was a tough battle and my first death... and also the reason I took my first breack for a few days. As I said before, turn based combat isn't my thing, but I can tolerate it as long as a good story has me hooked. Dying here, however, meant I had to get stronge, aka gind for a while, and it got boring quick. I did however use that oportunity of being stuck to explore the town some more and talk to all the people. There are way too many NPCs in this game already and they each have thei own little stories and personalities and I can't wait to see how they develope throughout the game.
Defeating the cyborg dino caused another character switch, this time to the local thief, Duster. It feels a little bad that I lost all the cool items I collected as Flint but Duster has a lot of neat stuff he can do as well. Exploring the castle is fun but much more challanging than the game was up to this point. Here I learned the sort of rythm mechanic the game has. If you make an enemy fall asleep you can hear its heart beat and sinking your A presses to it when you attack means you can deal extra damage. It's really fun and I love when I manage to memorize the rythm and can pull off the multi hits without having to hear it.
My quest here was to find some important item and I left with what I thought was it, but Dusters father wasn't happy with it, so back to the castle I go. This time however, the pig men are also here and they're surprisingly easy to beat in battle. After a while I met the princess of the castle who joined my party and I can finally experiment with PSI abilities. They're fun, though I am yet to figure out if there is any way to recharge PP (Psychic Point; get your head out of the gutter) outside off the hot springs. Right now I'm stuck at the section where you have to sneak by the brooms :/
Also some mean guy introduced the concept of money to the town and I think that's a bad omen.