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Mother 3

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Title Screen

Mother 3

Developers: Brownie Brown, HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Game Boy Advance
Released in JP: April 20, 2006
Released in HK: February 21, 2024 (Nintendo Switch Online)
Released in TW: February 21, 2024 (Nintendo Switch Online)


AreasIcon.png This game has unused areas.
DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
EnemyIcon.png This game has unused enemies.
GraphicsIcon.png This game has unused graphics.
MovieIcon.png This game has unused cinematics.
ItemsIcon.png This game has unused items.
MusicIcon.png This game has unused music.
TextIcon.png This game has unused text.
DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.
Carts.png This game has revisional differences.


PrereleaseIcon.png This game has a prerelease article

Mother 3 has a long history: originally planned for the Super Famicom, 64DD, and then the N64 before being cancelled. A decade later, it was finally released for the GBA...but only in Japan, leaving a group of dedicated fans to eventually translate and localize the game into English.

Hmmm...
To do:
Almost everything...
  • Figure out exactly if the bear is an enemy. Also, does the song used in this video have a tempo map associated with it?
  • Seems like enemies that can't be sniffed by Boney might still have an enemy type (mechanical, animal, etc.) set.
  • Checking what a lot of unused objects and text would have done is now technically possible since Game Logic (Mother 3's overworld scripting system) is more documented, though it's still difficult. A Logic dumper can be found here and a page documenting Game Logic can be found here.

Sub-Pages

Read about prerelease information and/or media for this game.
Prerelease Info
TextIcon.png
Unused Text
Unused dialogue from menus, characters, and more.
Mother3 drago battle unused.png
Unused Enemy Battles
A couple interesting enemies and then a lot of garbage.
M3bear.png
Unused Graphics
Unused graphics for characters, enemies, and backgrounds.
M3 Tables Ico.png
Unused Tables, Objects & Maps
Who needs Bronson when we have Jonel?
Mother3 scene alternate.png
Oddities
Unseen graphics hidden under other graphics.
Mother3-debug1.png
Debug Menu
Give yourself some coupons.

Debug Room

NOTE: No matter what Chapter you choose from, some of the story events will be ignored as if it hasn't been triggered yet or already has; it will possibly softlock the game. Addition to that, if you enter the Debug Room again during any post-timeskip Chapters, the pre-timeskip ones will be set on that timeline. To prevent this, you must start a new game.

Mother3DebugRoom.PNG

On a GameShark (v.3) or emulator, use the following codes during gameplay: CA1D8DB3 689FDAFA, 9CC263F2 68DE0537, and 1DCAC2C5 4FCA9184. Enable these codes while playing the game. Hold L while entering a new screen, and you'll be redirected to the debug room.

Alternatively, use 0200B578:037D and enter a new screen. In version 1.3 of the English Fan Translation, there's a new frog NPC in the room that was added by Lorenzooone for convenience that has custom text and code.

  • The Mr. Saturns allow the player to start playing from the beginning of a select chapter. The Mr. Saturn to the left begins Chapters 1-3, while the Mr. Saturn to the right begins Chapters 4-8.
  • Flint allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 1.
  • Duster allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 2.
  • Salsa allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 3.
  • Lucas allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 4.
  • The Clayman allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 5.
  • Ionia allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 7.
  • The Mecha-Porky robot allows the player to select during which event they should begin Chapter 8.
  • There are two Hinawas in the room. Speaking to her top-row sprite allows the player to view the game's ending cinematic. Speaking to her lower-row sprite allows the player to save their progress.
  • The projector allows the player to select whether Lucas and Kumatora use their kid or adolescent sprites.
  • "CAST" causes the character and production credits to roll. If this is viewed before the player has entered names for Salsa, Duster, and Kumatora, their names default to "Salsa", "Duster", and "Kumatora" (it is plausible that the same would apply to Lucas, Claus, Flint, Hinawa, and Boney, however it is not possible to enter the Debug Room before naming them, rendering the notion moot); however, if viewed before the player's name has been entered, the name is left blank at the end of the credits.
  • The Pigmask allows the player to configure the current party members, being able to put Flint, Lucas, Duster, Kumatora, Boney, Salsa, Wess, Thomas, Ionia, Fuel, Alec, Fassad, and Claus into the party, and may select up to five characters (as opposed to the usual limit of four).
  • The Pigmask Captain allows the player to configure the level of a party member. They may set between Levels 1 through 60 at intervals of 5, and Level 99. Interestingly, it's possible to set a level value for Wess, unlike all other NPC party members. Wess' stats are unaffected, but his damage output is affected due to Level affecting the damage dealt. (However, his Secret Thief Art Technique is unchanged, due to it working akin to a PSI move.)
  • The Navy SQUEAL allows the player to fill their inventory with Nuts.
  • The Pigmask Major allows the player to view several screen transitions.
  • The Pigmask Colonel allows the player to turn on all memo flags and obtain every regional map.
  • Losing to the Firefly in the corner of the Debug Room is the only method of direct exit, although starting a chapter by consulting one of the appropriate characters in the top row is an alternative method of leaving the room. You can actually sneak up on it from behind and see its back sprite, even though this is normally impossible. Note that it will never turn around and just will keep fighting as normal, because it is a mini-boss.
(Source: EarthBound Wiki)

Debug Warp NPCs

It seems there are four Magypsy NPCs which are used as instant warps to any given location, changing your party configuration in the process. They can be accessed by being at Osohe Castle during the beginning of Chapter 2 and using the cheat codes 02004BE4:FF to load the correct table and 02004BF7:19 to enable the characters. In version 1.3 of the English Fan Translation, there's a new NPC in the debug room that can take you to them easily.

To have Doria near the grate, use 02004BE2:10 too. This one is a byproduct of the routine that places Nyppolite near the grate after Duster retrieves the Noble Spitoon. Since the loaded table is wrong, it will place Doria there instead.

The available warps are for Chapter 7 locations.

•Go how far into Murasaki Forest?
  ←END SELECTION→
  ←Chimera Lab→
  ←Spec. Room→
  ←Ult. Chimera→
  ←Doria's Gate→
  ←Pump Chimera→
  ←Heart Needle→
  ←Doria's Gate 2→
	
•Go how far into Snowcap Mountain?
  ←END SELECTION→
  ←Lydia's House→
  ←Uninv. Guest→
  ←Riding Sled→
  ←Cemetery→
	
•Go how far into Saturn Valley?
  ←END SELECTION→
  ←Saturn Bean→
  ←Saturn Valley→
  ←Saturn Ladder→
  ←Phrygia→
  ←Volcano→
  ←Tunnel Destr.→
  ←Birdcage→
  ←Ceru. Beach→
	
•Go how far into Tanetane Island?
  ←END SELECTION→
  ←Tanetane Beach→
  ←Funky Beach→
  ←Missy's House→
  ←Island Hill→
  ←Defeated→
  ←Octopus Ride→
  ←Ceru. Beach→

Unused Cutscenes

Using the code 0200B578:XXXX (where "XXXX" is one of the below), one can access a few cutscenes the game never uses. Enter the code, then go to a new room to see the cutscene.

  • 00E5 – Fassad's Interpreter flying in the sky akin to the Sky Runner in EarthBound. Her lack of animation suggests that her sprite might not have been intended to be here, and the original sprite used for this was overwritten during development.
  • 00F5 – A flashback of Lucas and Claus playing and swimming; Boney wants to join in the fun too, but he's afraid to dive in as what it seems. This scene takes you to the start of the second phase of the final battle.
  • 00F6 – The second flashback shows Lucas and Claus playing janken, Claus wins. Getting frustrated over losing the game of janken, Lucas kicks Claus then Claus pushes Lucas down. Lucas cries, and this angers Flint, who was just trying to care for the sheep. Claus tries to explain to Flint what happened, but Flint says something that makes Claus run away. This then takes you to the first phase of the final battle.
  • 00F7 – The last flashback shows Lucas and Claus wanted Hinawa to show something, but don't know where it is. So the brothers decided to look for an object in the grass to show it to her.
  • 00E7 - An ending scene for Salsa and Samba. Has no music or sounds. This scene has two dead Dogfishes with their unused suffocated sprites as well as Murasaki Forest on fire, both things otherwise unseen in the final game. This cutscene continues the ending as normal.
  • 0196 - An ending scene for Alec. Like the Salsa scene, this also lacks music and sounds while being slightly unfinished. It uses a unique sunset palette. This takes you to a random corner in the Last Cave.
  • 00CB - An alternate version of "A Letter for You, Honey.". This takes you the inside of Alec's home afterwards.

It seems like F5, F6, and F7 were intended to be shown during the final battle, since the game drops the player off at the final battle with the Masked Man after playing those movies. Said three cutscenes have static flickering throughout, likely to indicate Claus' mental status. Scene F7 in particular ends with a long period of static and the otherwise unused "TV shutoff" effect, suggesting this scene was for the climax of the final battle as a callback to EarthBound.

(Source: RGBA_CRT, Earthbound Central)

Map 0x0F features a (very incomplete) variation of the "F-F-Fire!" cutscene at the beginning of the game featuring Hinawa, Lucas and Claus stuck in the forest. This cutscene seems to show Hinawa being injured or even killed by a Pigmask bomb in the forest, a story beat that was cut from the final game.

Unused scenes that would have appeared in an attract mode similar to the one seen in EarthBound. Like in EarthBound, they would have played on the title screen after waiting for a set period of time. While mostly functional, it's still clear that these scenes were cut fairly early into the game's development. Residual code reveals that music "Adolescence (Toilet Cow's Recommendation)" was originally meant to have played during these sequences.

Unused Events

By inserting org $913CCA7; db $00 into m3hacks.asm using the MOTHER 3 Translation Tools, one can restore a few unused events for Flint in Chapters 4 and 7 at the Twins' House. He was to have a handful of unique lines of dialogue depending on game progress, and he would give the player a Mosquito Charm once the Duster Search event is triggered by talking to Wess after he gets caught by the bug net. Note that even after returning to Flint with Duster in tow, he has no change in dialogue referencing this. Also note that Flint disappears from this spot permanently once Ionia leaves the party.

Dialogue changes occur once the following events trigger:

Chapter 4 Start | Chapter 4 Duster Search | Chapter 7 with Ionia


(Source: https://twitter.com/Lorenzooone/status/1260881521046585344])

If you use a Walk Through Walls code to bypass the Pigmask guarding the Chimera Lab entrance in Chapter 4, you can talk to the receptionist of the lab to trigger a cutscene involving the mini theater, which is never used during the final game. Only 3 party members are allowed to partake in the cutscene. Note that the Secrebot's dialogue on the way out of the theater incorrectly uses the name tag "Woman".

Unused Party Members

Bronson

M3 Bronson Unused Party.png

Bronson has unused graphics not found in any other non-Party NPCs, including full pre-running & idle sprites, which are only reserved for party members. His graphics work perfectly when loaded in game, though unfortunately no other data exists. It’s unknown where he would’ve been, but seeing how Chapter 1 had a lot of roles swapped (including Bronson originally not the one to tell Flint about his Hinawa’s passing), it’s most likely that Bronson was to accompany Flint somewhere in Chapter 1, probably being replaced by Thomas in the final game. This could also suggest an earlier draft of the story where Bronson was much more against the Pigmasks, which would explain why he comes to Porky's room with other Tazmily citizens who are against them.

Hinawa

M3 Hinawa Unused Party.png

Hinawa has her own entry in “Level-Up Stats Table” at entry 0E, appearing after Claus in 0D. Unfortunately, all her stats & data are completely empty, with only her ID remaining. Just like all other assist-only characters, she has no possible battle actions, except for “Run” if she’s the only party member alive. Her name appears as “Empty” in the status screen, but appears in the Battle Screen, has no character menu, although her name is mis-aligned to the left, using post-timeskip Lucas’ portrait due to party member 0E being the slot the portrait is stored in. Since her battle sounds pointer is set to 0, she would play songs like "Adolescence (Toilet Cow's Recommendation)", "Stand Up Strong" and "Big Shot's Theme" instead of battle sounds if she could attack. Note her out-of-battle data is deleted every time you save the game, but in battle her name becomes more mis-aligned. Seeing how she lacks pre-running, running, & idle sprites, she may have been meant for a battle, like Claus is in the final game. It's also possible that this slot exists just to store her name and post-timeskip Lucas' battle portrait, like how party member 0F seemingly exists only to store post-timeskip Kumatora's battle portrait.

Unused Menus

"Unused" Stat: Kindness

Alongside the OFF, DEF, IQ, and SPD stats, there is a mostly-unused stat called Kindness, which is mentioned in the unused Memo menu. This stat was a carry over from the N64 version of the game, according to notes from EXCELSIOR's blog on the Spaceworld '99 demo.[1]

Mother3 kidness stat mouse.png

While it is never talked about during normal gameplay, it is used in the final game:

  • Whenever the message "You felt something warm inside your heart" appears, it increases by 1 for the whole party. However, it never exceeds the single digits, due to such opportunities being rare. It has some effects on the game: when hacking it to a higher value, it increases healing by both Lifeup and items used in battle by 1% per point. This applies to all characters, not just Lucas.
  • The message "Your Kindness increases by ..." is stored among the Battle engine text block, specifically inside the Level-Up messages. Obviously, this message never appears normally in-game because the Level-Up data is set up so that this stat always increases by 0. However, some rare glitches (or heavy EXP cheating) can cause you to level-up above Level 100 (the cap normally being 99), which causes the game to read data from other areas as level-up data, which in turn increases the Kindness stat and displays this message.
  • Here are some Kindness addresses, which must be set between 00 and FF (max 255):
    • Flint: 020041A8:XX
    • Lucas: 02004214:XX
    • Duster: 02004280:XX
    • Kumatora: 020042EC:XX
    • Boney: 02004358:XX
    • Salsa: 020043C4:XX
    • Claus: 020046B8:XX

All enemies in the game have an entry for both the Kindness stat and the Kindness stat when the enemy is approached from behind, which are notably 4 bytes long instead of 1 byte long like the other enemy stats, but it's set to 0 for all of them. Changing the values doesn't seem to do anything.

(Source: Courtesy of EarthBoundCentral.com and Data Crystal)

Unused Battle Action: Consider

Nothing happens when using Consider.

Among the special battle actions script, like the ones used by Salsa, Flint, and Duster, at the very end of the text block, there is a Battle Action called "Consider". It is unknown how this command might have functioned. It may be related to "Sing" and/or "Pray", which share an endgame purpose in Mother and EarthBound respectively, but have no equivalent in this game.

Nothing happens when using this battle action as far as we know and it seems its data has been removed.

Unused Status Effects

Status effects 0x2B and 0x2F (both labelled "MonkeyDanceIQ" by the fan translation) are unused by the game. 0x2B increases the target's IQ (non-stackable), similar to Salsa's Dance's stat-boosting effect (which either affects Offense, Defense, or Speed, though the third is rarely, if ever, seen). 0x2F has the opposite effect; it decreases the target's IQ in a similar manner instead. Both of them use the same animations and sound effects as the rarely-seen Speed-altering effects, but there is an unused variant of the stat up/down animations that is colored purple, which might have fit with these effects.

Price of the Courage Badge

The Courage Badge actually has a sell price of 1 DP. This can never be seen as the Courage Badge is a Key Item and cannot be sold.

Unused Items

By using the code 02004224:XX (where "XX" is one of the below), the first item in Lucas' inventory will be replaced with an unused item.

Favorite Food

It was a good experience.

5C

Description: A family favorite. Restores 300 HP.

Heals 300 HP to a single party member, making it the best healing item in the game alongside the Beefsteak. It has its own icon and description, indicating that it was planned for inclusion at some point in development. In-game it's actually named whatever the player entered as their favorite food. It can be bought for 200 DP.

Doorknob

Aahh, Doorknob! I mean, Flint!

9F

Description: A doorknob from a front door.

Although the Doorknob is acquired during the post-ending scene, the player cannot access the inventory during the scene and see it. If it is used in battle, the selected enemy eats the Doorknob (?!) and takes a single point of damage.

Memory Snake

100% guaranteed to not leave your party twice!

C9

Description: A snake that's generally quite good at determining the lengths of things.

The Memory Snake, possibly related to the Rope Snake, is weird. The snake itself does nothing and can't be thrown away, yet the description mentions it as being good at determining the length of things. It could have been an early version of Stinkbug's Memory or similar to the Ruler from EarthBound. It notably uses item type 09, which only it and 3 empty item slots use. It is also a key item, which is what empty items would be by default since an item's key item flag has to be set to be 00 to be a key item and 01 to be a normal item. This could mean that the Memory Snake wasn't worked on for too long before being scrapped.

Suspicious Tea

The last time I had a suspicious-looking tea...

BA

Description: Made by a disgruntled employee. It looks like it could contain something... unpleasant.

Deals 75-85 HP of damage to a single enemy, and can be bought for 20 DP. Based on the description, which mentions that the tea was made by a disgruntled employee, it might have been served at the Dur-T Café on the Highway.

Rotten Bavarois

Straight Outta Bavaria.

68

Description: A favorite among ghosts. Not recommended for the living.

The Rotten Bavarois is similar to the Rotten Éclair in every way except name and icon.

It's supposed to be used for a trade in the Osohe Kitchen, but because of a coding error, the characters must also have a Rotten Éclair in their inventory for the trade to trigger.

As a result of said error, a Rotten Éclair trade from the same ghost can never be triggered.

Test

The best armor ever.

CE

Description: (EMPTY)

A debug item, Test is equippable to any party member's body. If it is equipped, Test makes the player incredibly weak to every ailment and PSI move, and doesn't give any defense.

EMPTY

M3EMPTYCFIcon.png

CF

M3EMPTYD0Icon.png

D0

M3EMPTYD1Icon.png

D1

Descriptions: (EMPTY)

These 3 items are identical outside of their IDs and Icons. They are all key items, which empty items would use as a default due to the way the key item flag works. What's notable about them is that they use item type 09, which only them and the unused Memory Snake item use. This could possibly mean that item type 09 was used for empty item slots in development.

Unused Shops

Shop 00

This unused shop contains Lighter's Lumber, Fresh Lumber, the Stick and the Better Stick. Note that these are all the weapons Flint can obtain in Chapter 1.

Shop 01

This unused shop contains an Antidote, a Paper Fan and an Alarm Cicada.

Shop 07

This unused shop contains an Enemy Wimperizer. That's it.

Shop 0F

This unused shop contains Sincerity Dumplings.

Shop 14

This unused shop contains Fresh Milk, Strawberry Tofu, Peculiar Cheese, a Bread Roll and more Fresh Milk.

Shop 16

This unused shop contains absolutely nothing. This table is actually loaded by the unused Fire Mountain NPC Loner The Explorer.

Shop 17

This unused shop contains an Aloha Coat, Jumbo Shrimp Soup and Giant Abalone Steak.

Shop 1A

This unused shop table also contains nothing.

Unused Audio

Hmmm...
To do:
The game's GSF rip has heartbeat versions of nearly every battle theme in the game, even boss themes. Record the unused heartbeat themes and upload them here.

Any piece of audio in the game can be heard using the code 0201B910:????, where "????" is one of the below (shown in this section inside parenthesis, in bold, which are in decimal). These values are unsigned and 2-bytes long. To hear them, open the sound test and play to the first song. If you don't press the stop button, it'll automatically play the next song on top of it after around 1 minute, which is how long Let's Begin! takes.

Unused Music

(413) A sad variation of His Highness' Theme. It has been stated by Shigesato Itoi in a Nintendo Dream interview that the theme was once the main theme of the game instead of Love Theme, which was created during the end of the game's development. This piece may be a remnant of that original plan.

(1966) An alternative version of the Love Theme that didn't get used. It's similar to the bit of the said music from 16 Melodies with it's length being more shorter with different instrumental sounds and ending.

(1649) This is the music used when the player talks to the Sanctuary guardians or alien bosses in EarthBound.

(436) An early version of Try Kinda Hard.

(437) An early, unused version of And... Stop!.

(1148) A variant of Fight With Mecha-Drago. At 0:14 and 0:28, some weird buzzing noise is inserted for around 1 second. During this period, there are no combo beats. After the loop, some timpani extend the music's duration, but even with their upbeat nature, the BPM does not change.

(397) A shorter version of Etude for Ghosts. This was one of the battle themes in the unreleased EarthBound 64.

(1936) A weird song, that when sped up, is revealed to be OJ from the DCMC saying "One, Two, Three, Five!" Fans mistakenly called this music "Giygas Theme", which is totally unrelated.

(202) Some eerie creature's breath. It loops endlessly. It sounds like a nod to the "breathing" sounds in Giygas's lair from EarthBound. The sound suggests that it could've been used for the final boss room.

(157) An underwater variation of Good Morning! This piece suggests there may have originally been a place to rest somewhere in the Seafloor Dungeon.

(1939) A heartbeat, with ominous background noise. It's just the same thing over and over. It has no BPM data, so it couldn't have been a battle theme. It does, however, sound similar to the intro of the Masked Man's battle theme.

(1911) An alternate version of Run, My Dog, Run!, sometimes called Fetch, My Dog, Fetch! It's a bit shorter.

(81) An alternate, slightly calmer version of The Green Train's Fun, Too!

(402) An alternate version of the Tazmily theme, based on A Railway in Our Village!. It was meant to be played in the unused flashback cutscenes.

(1162) An alternate version of Formidable Foe called Formidable Foes. The BPM is halved at 0:23, 0:48, and 0:59.

Duster's Unused Melodies

(376 - 390) Due to a bug, Duster's chosen attack melody isn't randomized like everyone else's, being 00 all the time. Turns out he actually has five more melodies, just like everyone else. In this file, each melody part plays individually, and there are three melody parts per melody as usual.

A video of Duster's attack melodies is here. Version 1.2 of the English fan-translation patch fixes this bug.

Unused Beat Data

  • The pause menu, file load/save menu, and the Pigmask radio's song on the training grounds have associated BPM data, even though that data's only used for the rhythm combos in battles. (Example)

Revisional Differences

Hmmm...
To do:
Check if these changes are in the NSO release. Also check for any new changes.

The 2015 re-release for Wii U Virtual Console changed a few things:

  • The flashes of lightning in the cutscene where Boney is sent to retrieve Duster in Chapter 1 are less frequent, likely to reduce the risk of seizures. This also applies to the flashes of lightning during Porky's dialogue in Chapter 8 after the fight with the Mecha-Porkies.
  • The bolt of electricity that strikes Lucas in Chapter 5 is given yellow highlights, likely to make it more visible:
GBA Virtual Console
MOTHER 3 Lightning (GBA).png MOTHER 3 Lightning (Wii U).png
  • The maximum brightness of the Top Dogfish's battle background is slightly brighter:
GBA Virtual Console
Mother 3-Top Dogfish Battle Background (GBA).png Mother 3-Top Dogfish Battle Background (Wii U).png

References

  1. EXCELSIOR MOTHER 3 Spaceworld Demo Report - Nintendo Spaceworld '99, August 27th 1999