Boing!

The English patch for Mother 3 came out yesterday morning.  Like normal people, I had to work, so when I got home I made myself a sandwich and sat down to play.  The hard part is deciding which of my many, many observations are important enough to share.

For those of you who don't know, Mother 3 is set up in Chapters.  Each chapter features a different main character whose special skills can be quite different.  Each chapter is also a relatively different flavor.

For example, chapter 1 features our main character's dad, who I call Damien, and their faithful dog, who I've called Puck like the character from Shakespeare.  Damien and Puck go out to deal with a suspicious raging forest fire.  Now, this takes place in a small village where everyone knows eachother's name and there's no such thing as money.  The original state of the village is an important factor, actually....but the thing is that it doesn't give you an Earthbound-y feeling.  In fact, it doesn't really until chapter 4 (where I am).  But, that has to do with a plot point, so I accept the original non-Earthbound-iness.

As to gameplay, the controls feel a lot like its predecessor.  There's a dashing feature (not dashing as in charming but dashing as in running) that's an interesting addition.  This means that if you plan it right, you can zip by certain enemies.  You can also ram into monsters that are too easy for you and insta-kill them (for no experience points).  It's especially fun to do in the Pork Bean or whatever it was called in Chapter 3.  But I digress....

To be continued:  Next time read about my favorite part so far!