Aspect Analysis - Mechanics enhancing the Narrative: Mother 3

A game that sadly didn't get a stateside release, I eventually did play the fan translation for the game. A sequel to Earthbound (Mother 2), it's a game that brings with it a lot of bizarre charm, strange enemies, and a lot of undertones that are a lot more serious then you may otherwise expect from the game's surface. One thing I want to talk about is the games ending, and how the game uses game mechanics to create a powerful emotional impact. Note, I am going to be spoiling this game for anyone who wants to first play the game.

Edit: It has been a long time since I had played the game, and someone pointed out a bit of an error. Your father, Flint, doesn't actually die. It doesn't really change anything important to the article itself, but yeah, dumb error on my part.

For a large portion of the game, you are playing as Lucas, chasing after your brother Claus. Claus's emotions have essentially been wiped, turning him into the mental equivalent of a robot. While the age is never specified, it appears the brothers are around twelve. Come the games final battle, you face off one on one against Claus in one of the hardest hitting final boss fights I've ever played.

For starters, there is the fact you are brothers, but to pile on to that it's coming after the death of your father. But where it really starts to hit you is how the battle proper is handled. For anyone who has played Earthbound, you'll be familiar with the 'homesick' status effect. If you don't call home to your mother every so often, you get this status effect. Basically, as long as you are homesick there is a chance you are unable to act, and when you try you get a message described Ness's thoughts, describing him getting teary and what not. Well, this begins to happen after the fight against Claus has gone on for a while.

As it becomes more and more frequent it begins to frustrate you. You start getting angry that you can't so much as hit Claus, personally I even yelled at my game 'Why can't I hit this guy already!' But you'll start noticing Clause begins doing the same thing, and both the descriptions become more and more explicit in how the fight is affecting you.

The mechanics are used here to give you a gradual growth of frustration as a player at your inability to overcome this status, but as you read the descriptions that keep popping up you are slowly feeling sadder and begin to feel for the situation of being forced to fight your own brother. It all ends when the fight comes to its conclusion. You don't defeat Clause, but as his emotions come through as both he and Lucas end the fight in tears, unable to continue on.

By making use of a mechanic that has always existed in the game and series as a whole, Mother 3 manages to invoke a strong mix of frustration, anger, and sadness in you through your normal interaction with the game in addition to the story being told in a way that's just not doable in non-interactive media. And the unexpected and sudden end to that fight gives it a harder impact than (About to spoil Final Fantasy V here) then when Galuf dies fighting off Ex-Death, as the moment your HP hits 0 and you don't die you realize just then how the fight is going to play out.

Mother 3 has one of my all-time favorite finale's because of this and is something that other games don’t take advantage of nearly often enough (There is a fight in Final Fantasy V that is similar). In an unexpected way, Mother 3 is able to use mechanics to enhance emotions in a way no other game I can think of does, or at least not as well.