[1989: p. 79]
[2003: p. 83]
DIMENSIONAL SLIP 3
A Relationship of Trust Between the God of MOTHER and Me
Hoichoi Production Inc.
ホイチョイプロダクション
[Cartoon: Yasuo Baba plays a video game while a woman watches, and another man stands behind him with a giant area map pinned to the wall, sketching it out as his friend plays. On the map can be read the markers "grave", "robot" and "tunnel", so this is presumably supposed to be Holy Loly Mountain (albeit without any pretense of making it accurate).]
What I first felt when I played MOTHER was that I wasn't the game's target demographic. So please consider this write-up "My Summer Vacation and Famicom Thoughts" by someone outside the target, who's been left behind by the new wave of RPGs.
A player of RPGs is no more than a dumb animal whose fate is toyed with by that god known as the game designer, and it's for this reason I think the major question here is whether or not there's exactly a mutual relationship of trust between the player and that god.
In that sense, I was unable to form a trust relationship with the god of MOTHER that lasted through to the end. I know a guy in advertising, who told me he didn't know how to save for the first two or three days, so he left the screen on when he went to the office. Well, even though this is an extreme example, I myself didn't know, until the second half of the game, how to get to Princess Laura¹ on the other side of the wall in Canary Village. When, in the end, a friend told me I could go around behind a stone pillar, I just blurted out: "No fair!" (I would have preferred there be a part earlier than that, where you can go around behind a structure, or somebody gives some distinct, foreshadowing hint that you can.)
Take a look at Dragon Quest or Zelda. If, early on in the game, it's so kind to you it's almost too kind, through that kindness a trust relationship is born, so that even if the game gets tough in its latter half, you can take it in stride.
And then you have MOTHER. Being dragged around without that trust relationship, I was haunted by the worry that I was forgetting something important and wouldn't be able to make it to the end, and it took me out of the experience.
Also, I think one of the big joys of RPGs is the aspect of making your characters grow as you defeat enemies, but when I'd fight an enemy in MOTHER, because the game intentionally avoided using the words "kill" or "die", it failed to kick up the heat of battle, making me feel like I was watching a war movie where people only play dead instead of die, and next thing I knew I just wasn't feeling any urge to defeat the guy. I mean, it's recreation, so I'd rather they did like baseball and just outed the runner straight to the dugout (I guess the very fact that I'm thinking along these lines is your proof that I'm outside the target demographic).
Also, despite everything I've said, the ending was the disappointing part. I was a little shocked at how quickly it was over, leaving the various side plots untied. It turned out I did want to be thanked by the people whose world I saved, and wanted to know how the supporting cast I met throughout later fared. Wouldn't you?
But when a production gets this big, I have to guess there had to be all kinds of parts where even the creator was forced to either give up on something or power through it, and when I think that, I can't help but give the utmost levels of respect to such high creative ambition as MOTHER has. There were a lot of different things I liked about it, like how the music was planned out (I enjoyed the moment early on when the hippie showed up), or little gags (it was great when Dad recommended I take a break, then when I answered with CONTINUE, he agreed: "Well, I guess the Earth IS in danger and all"), or the warping methods or the sightseeing flights; and because of these, I'm really looking forward to the second installment.
(N) Yasuo Baba²
(L) Yuuji Oda³
(A) Tomoyo Harada⁴
(T) Riki Takeuchi⁵
(F) Sea Urchin Sushi⁶
¹ "Princess Laura": Laura's full name is 歌姫ローラ Uta-Hime Rōra, meaning "Songbird [or Songstress] Laura", but taken more literally comes out as "Laura the Singing Princess", so it's an understandable mistake.
² Yasuo Baba: The man behind Hoichoi Production (though he often goes by his company name) and the writer of this article.
³ Yuuji Oda: A popular film actor who starred alongside Tomoyo Harada (see below) in the film 彼女が水着にきがえたら (If She Changes into a Swimsuit), directed by Hoichoi Production and released in the summer of 1989, which is about the same time this article would have been written.
⁴ Tomoyo Harada: A popular Japanese idol during the 1980s.
⁵ Riki Takeuchi: An actor popularly known for Yakuza-themed movies.
⁶ Sea Urchin Sushi: A type of sushi topped with uni, in this case the eggs of a sea urchin.
No comments:
Post a Comment