Who's Your Favorite Videogame Mom?
Mothers aren't really all over the place in games. I mean, what better tragic backstory for heroes then to have their parents dispatched violently, often in front of them? Despite the fact that videogames are growing up as a whole, most of them are still essentially adolescent male fantasies, and what adolescent male wants his mom (or a virtual representation of her), hanging around watching him decapitating monsters or hiring hookers. Still, a few have managed to sneak in here and there, and for this Mother's Day, I want to know if you've got any favorites you want to share?
My pick is the mom, or moms, from the Pokemon games. Even though they're essentially interchangeable from game to game, they all have that perfect combination of understanding and reckless parenting. It allows them to let their pre-teen son or daughter out into a world filled with giant fire-breathing monsters armed with little more than a couple of tiny birds, lizards, or chipmunks. I wonder if Poke-moms are pretty much drunk all the time? Anyway, let me know your pick in the comments.
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 10 May 2009
· Comments (31)
Other stuff like this: favorite, mom, mother's day, question
"I wonder if Poke-moms are pretty much drunk all the time?"
lol
My favorite Mom line from the 1st gen Pokemon games is "Well, I knew you'd have to leave home some day. It says so on TV." or something to that effect. So, yeah, I'd have to go with drunk all the time.
Wouldn't you be drunk too if your husband made his living by essentially running dogfights with children in a different town and insisting on keeping his profession secret from his own son?
My vote's for Dahlia Gillespie…
Also:
Why's that kid holding a cricket ball?
i agree with the pokemoms. theyre chill AND still let you crash at home whenever you want.
then theres the mom in animal crossing. her letters are always so poignant!
Lucy Parton, the mother of D2's protagonist Laura Parton. Anyone who has played that game needs no further explanation.
G/S/C Pokémom!
I mean, she held your money for you and bought random dolls to stick in your room. True awesomeness.
Also, Rena's mom from Star Ocean 2 was entertaining because she was so Japanese and cute.
I think it's a tie between The Queen of All the Cosmos and Cooking Mama for me.
I'd have to say that my favorite video game mom is Lucia from Suikoden III, not only is she the chief of the Karaya Village but she also joins your party so she is a playable character, that is very uncommon in games. Plus she's fierce lol
.... hinawa?
Ness' mom, for sure.
She cheers you up when you're homesick, she'll cook your favorite meal every time you go visit, and she's just generally funny and understanding.
Does Amaterasu count? She's kinda like the mother of everything!
Oh my god, I laughed so hard at the Pokemom description....and on the actual topic, I think the Pokemoms are the only ones that even come to mind.
I was trying to think of good video game mom's, and the only one I could really think about having found interesting, though perhaps not the best mother ever (I don't think it's possible to have a 'good' mom in a video game, since they should strive to keep their children out of the interest of other video game characters), is Crono's Mom, from Chrono Trigger. She is interested to meet all of Crono's friends, and has the good sense to ask where Crono is if you should visit without him. And then she chases a cat into a time machine.
Aeris's. Not only is she the only one I can think of, but she's also genuinely sympathetic: she knows what's going on, and she suffers for it, but she's really just a loving mother.
Aww! You took my idea for what was my favorite mom. I like the fact that I feel like she's supportive of her child's dreams, and she always has a bed ready for you when you get home.
I cant really think of any other mom that I know of in video games. Maybe the mom in the beginning of Fallout 3 but she dies as soon as she gives birth to you so... that sucks... :(
It's nice to see the site getting into the spirit of the day!
My vote would have to be for Cassandra Alexandra of Soul Blade/Calibur fame. A little high profile compared to some of the other candidates, but she has unyielding devotion to her children, and she can wield a mean sword and shield. What's not to love?
I'm going to pick the mom from Animal Crossing. You never see her face, and yet she can stand in for anybodies mom. Her small-time misadventures are always a treat to read about in random e-mails. Just today I heard about how Dad made her her favorite breakfast in bed... but it turned out to be his favorite, pancakes! I don't know why, but those always manage to bring a smile to me.
I do, also, second the moms in Pokemon. (Pokemom? I should stop now.)
A little late but I have to say I've always liked the grandmother from Windwaker. I am not really sure why. She isn't Link's mother, but obviously a mother so I guess it counts.
Even though I haven't played Grandia 3, I know it includes one of the only playable mothers of the main character to ever grace the RPG-genre: Miranda.
She's a great character in that she isn't your typical "wake up, time to go to school"-Japanese mother, but more like a nurturing big sister type. Kind of like Lorelai Gilmore in the "Gilmore Girls".
I want more characters like her in my JRPGs, please!
I took about five seconds and then the answer came to me: Crono's mom, from Chrono Trigger. She delivers one of those lines that you never forget, at the beginning of an epic adventure - and to top it all off, she gives you a freakin' allowance that you can blow on swords or carnival rides. How awesome is that?
Earthbound= Ness's Mother or any of the Mother Games.
hmm.....Thats all I can think about...Not a whole lotta games with Mom's in em.
Oh man, the mom from Mother 2. Never hesitates to tell you she believes in you, does a great job parenting despite a mostly absent husband... and makes you all the $FOOD you can eat to boot.
Also, @Sami: I totally hear you on the Miranda thing. I started playing Grandia 3, and was totally happy to see something other than "your mom was slaughtered when you village was burned down, now go forth and adventure". But then a short bit in she and the other adult leave you party, and I peeked at a guide and it said they were pretty much gone and you had to follow the annoying whiny kids around for the rest of the game. So I decided to end the game there. Man, I guess I'm getting too old for this...
I have to admit, my favorite Mom is the one from Earthbound. I don't know if it was the fact I had to call her every now and then to avoid homesickness, her avid desire to feed me steak and send me off to bed, or Pollyanna playing in the background at the house... but that old girl left an impression on me.
She'll never live up to the real thing, but for a video game mom, she was pretty rockin'.
One of my favourite mothers is Selen from Suikoden Tierkreis. She is the mother of Jale, one [out of the 108 charactes] that you can recruite on your team. She is the strongest women in her home village, often teaching the men to fight, & putting them in their place.
The best part is when both her & her son are on the field during a fight, you can use a combination attack with the both of them. It stars off with Jale jabbing at the enemy. Then the camera pans to his mother, who is completely pwning her child & beating the crap out of the enemy. Priceless. ^-^.
I would have to say Jenova...nothing says mother like an extraterrestrial mass of viral cells.
I'm gonna say Ma Dincht from FF8.
Or as I like to call her, mother-in-law. :)
I'd have to say Jun Kazama from Tekken 2/3. She kicks ass in a way that I could never beat, even if her son is a self-important, entitled bitch.
Does Mother Brain (Metroid) count?
*Seraph*, it's actually Sophitia Alexandra who has the children in Soulcalibur games. Cassandra is her sassy little sister.
*JeffSpender*, yeah, I also read that Miranda is only temporarily playable. But still. ;)
I think that my vote goes to Sora's mom from Kingdom Hearts I. You don't see her, and you only hear her voice for about three lines; but you know she's there. And she obviously is a great mother, to have spawn like Sora. Also, she (like the pokemoms) allows her child to spend all his time on a play island sparring with other boys (wink, wink).
After that, definitely Jenova because she had spawn like Sephiroth...
I'll have to say Queen Arshtat from Suikoden V. She was a really strong queen and even in the crazy moments where the Sun Rune took over her she showed she cared about her children. Also I played the whole game just to get vengeance so....