I recently finished playing Mother 3 on a GBA emulator. I streamed the whole thing, with Sands watching all of it and others, Yuki, Santango, Marco, and maybe some others I don't remember, watching some. The series tends to let you name its main characters, and the channel lent its members' names; Sands and DarkAnima made the parents of myself and Roswell as the two sons. Fede was the dog. Yuki was the useless monkey, Daecher was the crippled thief, and my host was the princess. How fitting some of these names were; my character ended up playing the leading role, unbeknownst to me at the time of naming (I won't spoil anything more, promise). There were also opportunities to name the player, which I identified as myself also; at times the game addressed me by name as such, which was quite surreal, especially nearer the end of the game.
Notice the 'Favourite Thing' item: this was played by Sands, with his foreknowledge, with comedic results later on in the game.
The game is a JRPG at heart. You're given not-quite-free roam of the game's setting, Nowhere Islands. The main village, Tazmily Village, is painted as a rich and vibrant small town, complete with living, breathing inhabitants.
Bottom right is the princess.
Mother 3 is very plot-driven. The narrative is very compelling and, at times, emotional. I have to admit I shed tears at more than one point.
There are no random encounters; instead enemies are sprites in your environment and contact with them initiates battle.
Standard physical and psi attacks, healing, and so forth. Two things stand out. The first is the rolling HP meter.
Perhaps you can see it rolling over there. When you lose health, the counter rolls down at a constant rate. Even if you lose all of your health, you won't die until your counter reaches zero. Also, I believe that when you heal, you stop losing HP when you apply the heal. This adds a time pressure to your menu choices in battle, but it certainly allowed me many a close shave in boss battles too. Exhilarating.
The other stand-out feature is the combo system.
Each enemy has a particular background music associated with it; by attacking in time with the beat, you can put in multiple strikes and combo, up to 16.
I managed this feat once. Some people apparently try to hit one on every song. The horror.
I should mention the soundtrack. It was really stellar. I downloaded it after I'd finished playing. It's also very long; there's a huge variety during the game. Which is just as well because my playthrough took me, by the count of my stream recordings, 28 hours. And every minute gripping.
Overall it was an absolutely fantastic recommendation by Sands, and you can consider me recommending it as well.
