GAMES YOU HATE OR DISLIKE?

Man, that was... Over rated. People hype it up WAY too much for what it is. Sure, it had some good parts but I mean, people make it out to be the most tragic and heartfelt story in the world with all these unforgettable characters and shit, and it just isn't. The only time I really felt "touched" by the game was during the final battle, and I've been way more moved than that before.

One thing I'll say is that the combat is awful. It's not like, hard to beat or anything, but it's just hideously boring and shallow. I'll admit, I ended up turning on some gameshark codes around the end of Chapter 5 just so I wouldn't have to sit there and be bored out of my skull in the fights anymore. Perhaps that's shitty of me, I don't know. But I was literally dreading every fight because all you do is smack the A button for 5 minutes and try to match a beat.

As for the story, I mean, yeah, it's more than your average "dark demon destroys the world" JRPG fare, but it still feels kind of dull and aimless a lot of the time. I never really felt anything pushing me forward in terms of the plot, it was just point A to point B kind of stuff. My favourite part of the story was actually before you even control older Lucas, when you get to play as Flint, Duster and Salsa and see how their stories all happen around each other. I feel like if they kept that kind of story telling going instead of doing the whole Needles thing I would have liked the game more.

People big up the characters a lot, but in terms of the main party there's nothing much to say. They barely even say anything or talk to each other during the game. The only one who really gets a character to speak of is Kumatora, who is thankfully a pretty good one at that. Flint was probably my favourite character of the whole bunch, not sure I can say why... Perhaps he reminds me of my own dad? Again, I might have liked the game more if Flint stayed the main character, but I guess that's not how Mother works.

The NPCs and side characters are all funny and well written, as is expected of Itoi's work. Of course, there's not much depth to any one in particular, again, to be expected. It's just a shame they didn't develop the main characters a bit more.

Hinawa's death isn't "tragic" like people make it out to be. Everyone I've heard talk about it acts like they were moved to tears, but come on, it's barely even on par with Aeris kicking the bucket, and Aeris' death wasn't sad AT ALL. How can you feel bad about her death when you've known her for all of 5 seconds? She has like 3 lines before getting gored to death.

I understand it might be sad to think about losing a mother and stuff, but it really doesn't come off like that, because as a player you aren't invested in Hinawa at all. You don't even know her. The best thing I can say about her death is that they handled Flint's reaction very well, and it was a beautiful way to do it- no talking, just animation and the condolences of the villagers.

Also, while we're on the subject of Lucas' family, they don't really try hard enough to make the reveal of Claus being the Masked Man very surprising. If you pay attention at all it's pretty much written on the walls that he's Claus. "Wow, the commander sounds and looks exactly like me, and somebody in the pigmask army is pulling needles like I can? I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE? Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of dramatic irony or something. I don't know.