122: Mother 3 (with Rebekah Valentine)

Tales from the Backlog

Famously never localized for an English-speaking audience, HAL Laboratory and Brownie Brown's Mother 3 has almost become a meme at this point. So much so that I wondered if it could live up the inflated expectations that I unwittingly put on games that are unavailable or difficult to find, a kind of forbidden fruit syndrome. So I made sure to put Mother 3 on my Backlog Resolutions list for 2024 and hey! It's pretty good! It's a lot like Earthbound in good and bad ways, and I like the story of Mother 3 for different reasons than I liked Earthbound's story. Looks like I'm gonna need an all-star guest to dig into this one...

Joining me for the discussion about Mother 3 is Rebekah Valentine! Reb is an award winning investigative reporter for IGN, reporting on the inner workings of the industry, how the games we love get made, and giving a voice to workers who are laid off or otherwise mistreated. You can find her work by following this link!

TIMESTAMPS
Intros/Personal Histories with Mother 3/Opening Thoughts 2:03
Story Setup 14:58
Questionable/Offensive Content 32:32
Visuals/Music 42:00
Gameplay/Combat 53:14
Combat, continued 1:03:14
Closing Thoughts/Plugs/Housekeeping 1:11:01
SPOILER WALL 1:19:06

Music used in the episode is credited to Shogo Sakai. Tracks used: Fun Naming, Welcome!, Alec's Log House, Mag**** Party, Homely Yado Inn, Mr. Batty Twist, Fate, Mr. Saturn Theme Z, Mom's Hometown, Happy Town, Sorrowful Tazmily, Mother 3 Love Theme (Arr.), Mother 3 Love Theme, You Won!

Find Dave's TWO guest appearances on the Retro Hangover podcast on your favorite podcast app or by clicking here!

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Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages

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