Well I picked up on my third run of Mother 3 from the end of Chapter 3 to the start of Chapter 7 now.  I really like the game, I really do.  I’m a huge MOTHER fan, you know, EarthBound and shit.  I’ve got a history with the series and with a lot of people I’ve met on the internet because of Starmen.Net.  This is besides the point, however.  Mother 3 is really a feel good game for me.  When I play it I just feel good, simply.  I love all the stupid dialogue, all the little personal rants and tangents of the NPC’s that ring home a feeling from Mother 2 / EarthBound where the NPCs all had lives of their own that you actually wondered about, and whose lives help create the mold in which the world is formed.  Mother 3 is a bit more modern in this respect, a pig will tell you about an exceptional croquette roll shop in Japan and go on about them.  And then the occasional breaking of the fourth wall, well, more so used in EarthBound where people in the game were playing “EarthBound.”  A couple of the instances in that game is a Shark Punk who guards the backdoor of the Arcade that leads to Frank.  He asks if you want to join the Shark gang and if you say < yes > he tells you to beat EarthBound first, what a jerk!  And then the police chief of Onett also comments that he’s been having some trouble with EarthBound.

All the care in the dialogue really makes me feel warm, I guess.  The series creator / writer of sorts, Shigesato Itoi, speaks most of the text in the game before it’s used.  Blah blah blah.

For Mother 3, Chapters 1, 2, 5 are probably my favorite parts of the game.  I like the smaller sized parties or single character parts.  The mystery that builds up about the evil of the game is fascinating, and most RPGs can disappoint me in that beginning realization process of having to save the world.

I’m still at Tales of Phantasia, it’s got a bit more content than I expected, at about 35 hours and I’ve got a ways to go I think.  I’m now farther than I was when I played the SFC translation like 5 years ago o_O so it’s getting a bit interesting but all in all, its got its roots in RPG tradition when it comes down to being a remake of the first Tales Of game.  Say, did you know there’s a Tales of Vesperia movie in Japan out right now?  I don’t have to think too much when I play ToP, so that’s nice.

And Persona 4, well, I game over’d for the second time in the Game Dungeon.  But now I’ve got a vendetta against that place!  I’ll resume, eventually.

Flying Shark is still fun as hell, Air Gallet blew my socks off, Battle Garegga is not battling me, Mushihimesama kicks ass.  Yeah, Mushihimesama.  Been playing this a fair amount lately.  Working on a No-miss or lx4 clear of original mode, and also beginning to tackle Ultra mode.  I gotta say, Stage 5 is probably the best stage of any shooting game I’ve played.  Because of it’s length, it gets super epic blast the fuck outta all that colorful shit!  I was thinking and what makes me really love the game are the different modes and fantasy setting.  This is why I MUST PLAY MUSHIFUTARI WAAAAAAAAHHHH ;_; Arrange mode still eludes me a bit.  Huzzah!  Look at this big wad of text!