The Rolling HP Meter
The Mother/Earthbound series features one of the most unique and peculiar gameplay elements in video games. Essentially the Mother series plays and looks similar to earlier Dragon Quest games in terms of combat, but one of the biggest differences is how the HP meter behaves like a life odometer.
The part of this particular non-spoiler video that I want to focus on is the first part. Keep in mind most of the stuff after the first battle is glitchy as none of this stuff was kept in the final game. However, the following battle from Mother 3 is a good example of the rolling HP meter.
You’ll notice that when Lucas and Boney are attacked, their HP is not immediately taken away but rather rolls down. The magic behind this HP meter is that you aren’t immediately dead, but dying, and you can still issue commands to other characters and you can even heal a character at the last minute, even if they’ve received mortal damage. In the particular battle above, it’s important to note that even though the player did not heal themselves, they were still able to escape from the battle while they were dying.
This is such a dynamite idea and it’s really sad that it hasn’t been imitated. It’s one of the best features of the game and really gives the battle system an extra edge.
It truly is something to appreciate as it’s one of the rarest and surprisingly least copied gameplay element in video games, and to my knowledge it’s currently exclusive to the Mother series.
My wonderful girlfriend has put together a collection of Mother 3 desktop backgrounds which contain white backgrounds and large sprites of enemies and characters.
If you like minimalism and Mother 3, then these backgrounds should be right up your alley.
mother 3 ebay hunting
Every now and then I get an itch to explore eBay for Mother 3 goods. A lot of the material are really ridiculous fan-mangas that involve the characters in ways that series creator, Itoi probably would be weirded out to see.
However, with most all things, diamonds in the rough do exist and I stumbled upon this piece today.
While not a very distinctive art style, the choice to have Lucas holding Claus’s shoe like that is a total heart break, and I have to commend this weird pirate manga culture in Japan that is so devoted to the Mother franchise.
Don’t Import Mother 3 From Toys N Joys
They’re lying when they say they have it in stock. They’ve already charged my credit card and recently sent me an email informing me it’s on back order and it could take up to ten days before they even have a copy.
So whatever you do, take my advice and don’t buy Mother 3 from here.
The Earthbound Movie
Ness sure does look mighty old and Porky looks like a girl.