 50% of the game is in the player
- This is the same question we asked in the N64 interview, but once again, could you explain to us the message behind the mixture of wood and metal in the MOTHER 3 logo?
Itoi Well, I tend to give a different answer every time. (laughs)
The MOTHER 3 logo is a mixture of wood and metal.
Itoi When things that don't match at all are attached to one another, it's mentally unsettling. I've only written one novel7, and in the opening, I wrote about a hearse. A hearse has a casket of both metal and wood, but when you try and think about how and where they connect to one another, it makes you feel a little weird. It's also interesting how it's meant to carry bodies. Modern things can all be seen in that same way. And you can't question whether we can negate all of these things. In this room, too, for example, there is a wooden table... but this is a reinforced concrete building. Forcibly coordinating incompatible things and matching them...
- Like the things on the wall behind you. Those handwritten scrolls hanging on the bare concrete wall...
The interview took place in the traditional Japanese style room in Itoi's office. Hanging in the back are famous scrolls by Yosui Inoue and Woody Allen.
Itoi Right. I feel like these are all things of modern times--these feelings of uneasiness and discomfort. But I still understand that they make up the world I'm in. That logo is a symbol of that. And Porky is a symbol of humankind. So from the very beginning, I wanted to incorporate these horribly unpleasant things into the logo; it was a lose-lose situation. But there wasn't really anything I could do to change that this time around, either.
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 Note 7: I've only written one novelThe name of this novel, published by Shinchosha, is Family Fall Out. The subject matter is quite "strange and funny".
 Itoi states a hearse as an example of the harmony between "wood and metal"
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- The logo hasn't changed since the N64 version. There were all kinds of subtitles8 attached to it in the N64 version, but why did you just stick to MOTHER 3 by itself this time?
Itoi The meaning behind a game changes a lot between players. Players add more than half of the meaning and value to games, which is more than any other mode of expression. So I feel like that half that you've added is entirely your own... all I did was provide assistance.
So keeping that in mind, subtitles have too strong a message that says, "I want you to look at it this way." It narrows that world that belongs to the player. My personal feelings steer me to want to affirm everything the player thinks about the game. I wanted to make MOTHER 3 like a mirror. One that reflects the heart of the player off of the screen.
- Well then, I guess you could say that the subtitles are located inside the hearts of each and every player.
Itoi That's right. We could almost just hold a "What subtitle would you use?" contest. But really, the "WELCOME TO MOTHER 3 WORLD" line is the actual tagline.
- Really?
Itoi "MOTHER 3 WORLD" is just like a sketch. As long as something exists in that world, everything that exists, right down to the way its story is told, is part of that world.
- I see.
Itoi Nowadays, people are always looking for consistency. Take, for example, a place lined up with nothing but bonsai trees. People would find it strange if there were suddenly a rose among them. But this MOTHER 3 WORLD of mine, including its logo, is the essence of inconsistency. If a child were to see Micky Mouse in Disneyland and tell me, "There's no such thing as mice that big!", I'd want to tell that child, "Of course there is, it's right there." That kinda stuff is like my theme for this game. Like saying, "Let's play on this island!" Just... not in the way Porky would have in mind9.
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Note 8: N64 Title
MOTHER 3 was originally planned for release as N64 software (Developed before that was 64DD, and even earlier before that as SFC software). It has also been announced with the subtitles, "The Chimera Forest", "The Forest of Strange Creatures", and "The Fall of the Pig King".
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 5.5 billion years later, Porky will live on
- Porky wasn't kidding around when it came to playtime.
Itoi Speaking of Porky's playfulness, the octopus that you ride when you return to Tanetane Island looks like a sailor all suited up, doesn't he.
- His initial Man of the Sea appearance was really stylish. (laughs)
Itoi Doesn't he look really cool, at first? (laughs)
- But when he became an Octopus Taxi all of a sudden, that really gave me a shock.
Itoi When I was screwing around like that, it kinda made me feel like Porky. (laughs)
This suave-looking sailor's true form is pretty surprising.
Itoi When I do things like that, I feel like I understand where Porky is coming from. Since the dawn of time, man has always painted out heaven and hell. But no one's ever had any fun drawing heaven. People always have more fun drawing hell.
- Hell is more interesting than heaven... I can see that.
Itoi It's a doing of mankind.
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Note 9: Let's play on this island!
Porky thought of the last habitated island on earth--Nowhere Island--as a place to do whatever he desired. Perhaps Porky thought of everything in the entire world as a playtoy.
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- Porky turned extremely evil, though. You could even go so far as to call him a demon.
Itoi People aren't just inherently evil at heart.
- So he did it all for play.
Itoi Yeah. For example, in the very middle of the spectrum, you have fun and games. Beyond that, you've got mean pranks, and crimes. And beyond those crimes, you have evil. And on the opposite side, you've got the very embodiment of justice. But to me, evil and the embodiment of justice are both unpleasant. The space between those two extremes is something which fluctuates between mean pranks and crimes, like pulling out a needle a little, having things go terribly wrong, and unwittingly causing suffering to other people. My theme is regarding that kind of problem. It's very compelling.
- The thin line between just having fun and mean pranks...
Itoi Right. When I was young, there were a lot of times when I would be scolded for doing things that I'd done just for fun, because the teacher had seen it as naughty. And I thought, "Huh? The line [between good and evil] is drawn...there?" (laughs) Isn't Gian from Doraemon that same way? Saying, "I wonder if everyone's gonna get mad if I do this..." It seems as though people think about whether something is good or bad only after they have already gone and done it.
- Even recently, there was the case of the hotel owner who had the building constructed and broke all of the safety codes. So they've got to completely fix the place up after just going too fast with construction. (laughs)
Itoi There was, wasn't there? (laughs) There are a lot of people like that in this world.
- And this time, there are a lot of items laying around that remind us of Porky and his old neighbor, Ness, but we wonder what kind of feelings Porky really has toward him10.
Itoi That part was the funnest to make. Porky didn't have any friends, you know. So perhaps he'd always just been playing with Ness that whole time. Porky probably just became the way he did because his parents were so bad.
Porky's father, Aloysius. Just like his wife, he had a really horrible feel to him.
- The apple doesn't fall far. (laughs)
Itoi Yeah. His parents were pretty terrible.
- And this Porky we know jumps into the Absolutely Safe Capsule in the very end.
Itoi (laughs)
- That means that even when the world crumbles away, Porky will never die.
Itoi So 5.5 billion years from now, Porky will still be alive. ...But the grief of that is incredibly depressing to me. It's amazing... Porky is truly a poem in himself.
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Note 10: Porky's thoughts/feelings towards Ness
Porky in an apperance in MOTHER 2. He was the boy living next to the main character, Ness. In the end, he ends up battling Ness, but how did he get to be so evil...? For those who are interested, it's a good idea to play through MOTHER 2.
 Did Porky want to be Ness's friend? |
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