MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance

Game's Logo

"*Who has lost his tail?*"
―Tagline, from Cognitive Dissonance Trailer.
**MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance** (originally named **Cognitive Dissonance: Between Two Times**), also known as **M:CD**, **Mother: CogDis** or simply **CogDis**, is a game created by otherhand.

Despite the name, Cognitive Dissonance is a fan-made game that is not part of the actual MOTHER series. It is meant to take place sometime between the first and second games.

The game's story is told in a chapter format similar to *Mother 3.* It follows the journey of the Applechasers, a group of four aliens searching for and protecting the Apple of Enlightenment that has prophesied the defeat of the alien army's commander, Giegue, at the hands of four Earth children.

## Plot

**Spoilers Ahead!**

This Article is a Mr. Spoiler! It contains spoilers from events of the game, and its advisable to not read if you basically have no knowledge of the game!

The story begins in 198X, shortly after Giegue's defeat on Earth. On Saturn, a blue Mook named Alinivar  is forced to flee from his cave after a huge crash shakes the ground and his painting as well as the suburbs’ flora come to life. The cause of the phenomena is revealed to be a meteor, from which Giegue emerges and kills both Alinivar and a neighbouringMr. Saturn.

Alinivar winds up in a grayscale landscape where a voice (later revealed to be the Apple of Enlightenment) offers to bring him back to life if the Mook embarks on a journey to protect its pieces from Giegue, who it prophecies will lose control of his powers and become the universal cosmic destroyer Giygas. The voice grants Alinivar the ability to use PSI and promises he'll meet his three allies soon.

The resurrected Alinivar awakens in Satralia, where he encounters a hostile Mr. Saturn and defeats it, impressing Colonel Saturn, an old Rock War veteran. He accompanies Alinivar throughout Satralia. When the pair leaves for the canyons, an UFO delivers them the Unity Star, made to absorb the power of places called the Points of Power.

Once they find the first Point in the canyons, Col. Saturn is informed of the Apple’s quest and he agrees to join Alinivar for good. They then make their way to Sataene, where they learn of a law that has banned the use of bows, enstated by the Mook mayor Elmadan. Alinivar and Col. Saturn infiltrate Elmadan’s mansion, where the Mook is consulting a grey-faced figure. After Elmadan is apprehended, the figure flees, taunting Alinivar, and promising they’ll meet again.

In deep space, a deactivated Starman, Larice, wakes up aboard the Mothership. He goes through the ship's barracks, being attacked by other Starmen who call him a traitor. Larice makes it to the deck, where a huge crash makes the ship’s vice-captain, Niiue, order the crew to evacuate to the commander's bridge. Larice goes up to the bridge, where Niiue joins him to open the ship's airlock, and tells him to travel to Saturn and join Alinivar on his quest.

On Saturn, the insectoid alien Zarbol prepares for a delivery for the Saturn music festival. His friend, Boson, warns him of the Starmen who have recently appeared on the planet and the pair make their way to Sataene. The concert begins shortly after, while Larice, who has crashlanded on Saturn, watches from the crowd. Sometime after the concert, the group has been united. Col. Saturn and Larice find Alinivar and Zarbol being accosted by Giegue, who defeats the group easily before leaving. Niiue contacts Larice to urge them to go to the Lake Tower and expresses his worry for Giegue.

At the top of the Tower, the group (referred to as "the Applechasers" from now on) finds a piece of the Apple, but it's stolen by the grey-faced person, appropriately named Greyface. On Niiue's command, the group salvages parts of ships that have recently crashed on Saturn to build a ship, and fly to Jupiter. immediately upon entering the first town, Bolos, they are ambushed by two Starmen. After beating their attackers, the Applechasers continue through Bolos to the invaded Anolin. They manage to sneak into a base after witnessing Captain Deepsea, a Starman commander, take an Apple piece inside. The group hears that Deepsea has taken the Apple to his ship, the Celine, and that he might be heading for Mars.

On Mars, the Applechasers journey through an underground bunker, finding records of the Martians' encounters with an extrasolar alien race. They eventually come across a supercomputer, which Larice recognizes. The computer ejects the next Apple piece, but the Applechasers are ambushed by Greyface, now revealed to be working with Giegue, who steals the Apple pieces and reprograms Larice to attacks his friends. The group manages to make Larice overcome his reprogramming, but he malfunctions and deactivates. Niiue, having arrived on Mars, has Larice's biological components brought aboard the Applechasers' ship, and they head to Earth, now racing to get to the final Apple piece before Giegue does.

The ship crashlands, and Alinivar, Col. Saturn and Zarbol leave to look for the Apple in disguises, while everyone else stays behind to fix both the ship and Larice. They find the town being controlled by a group known as the Pigsnout Society. They infiltrate the Society's headquarters by joining it, but find themselves on a fetch quest once the leader, Greyface, sends them to the neighbouring town to look for the Apple piece. When they return with it, he reveals that he knew who they were all along, and attacks them on his mech; however, Niiue and a reconstructed Larice arrive to help. The fight is interrupted by Giegue’s arrival. Niiue orders the Applechasers to take the experimental Phase Distorter sitting in the corner of the room. After being injured by Niiue, Greyface panics and flees, leaving Niiue to plead for Giegue to stop until it’s too late for him.

The Phase Distorter materializes in an apocalyptic landscape twenty years in the future. The group discover a sea-shell-shaped amplifier that teleports them to Magicant where they meet a future version of Niiue. He tells them of Giegue’s transformation into Giygas and the subsequent destruction of humanity. Niiue orders the group to search for Zexonyte to be able to travel into the future again to stop Giegue. Back in the past the Applechasers return to Saturn and battle Captain Deepsea for the meteor that fell in the beginning of the game.

With the meteor, the group, accompanied by their Niiue, travel back to the future, and traverse through their own Magicants, fighting their deepest insecurities. At the end, they find the entrance to the Maelstrom, where Giegue has fled to. After defeating the Maelstrom's guardian, Niiue reveals that he's actually the personification of Giegue's positive, human emotions, created by the Geeg's immense PSI power as he cast these emotions out after his defeat on Earth. He once again expresses his desire to help Giegue, and is glad that the Applechasers are helping him reach his goal.

The Applechasers leave for the Maelstrom, but Niiue and Zarbol stay behind so that the insectoid alien can travel to the past to warn the chosen four of Giygas. The others battle their way through the barriers of Giegue's mind, and are once again joined by Niiue as they confront Giegue at the unfinished Devil's Machine. He taunts them, revealing his plan to become all powerful, and turns the Machine on.

As they battle, Giegue's fragile mental state unfolds, and he begins to lose control. Zarbol manages to make it to the past, but Giegue's physical form has already been destroyed, and he has become Giygas. Here, the actions the group has taken to prepare will determine the outcome of the battle.

## Development

The first version (1.0) of *Cognitive Dissonance* was released in 2009. It only had two endings compared to the current version's five. The graphics were also severely less polished and the entire game was significantly shorter.
An update, version 1.3, was released shortly after.

The game was completely revised and re-released in 2014 (version 2.0) with revamped graphics, improved writing and more endings.

It was also expanded upon immensely, adding more visitable planets (and the Uranus Orbiter) to the Solar System, thus creating more sidequests (many of which are now required to be completed for some of the endings), removing or modifying certain dialogue (Giegue and Larice's monologues in the Prologue and Chapter 2) and giving players the ability to visit all Points of Power in Chapter 7 if they've been missed.

A new team of developers are working on a new version of the game (version 3.0), with updates on the project being posted in the Cognitive Dissonance Discord Server (CogDiscord). Additions such as diagonal movement, multiple default names (similar to the "Don't Care" option in Earthbound and Mother 3), and the ability to name your ship, your favorite thing, and your favorite food have all been confirmed.

## Gameplay

Cognitive Dissonance is a turn-based RPG that uses the standard RPG Maker engine.

### **Character selection and keys**

    The game starts with a character selection in which the main characters' names and window color can be customized. At this point, the player can also decide if they want to use their keyboard or a gamepad to play.

Moving characters in the overworld and in menus is done with the arrow keys, objects are examined and actions confirmed with Z or Enter, and X is used to open the menu and cancel actions.
The Shift key is also used in some events.

F4 can be used to switch to full screen, but doing so on a newer operating system only closes the game, forcing it to be played in windowed mode.

### **Overworld**

The overworld is seen from a semi-isometric perspective. The enemy sprites are seen on screen, with the exception of Niiue's Magicant, and are killed instantly if the party's leader is on a high enough level.

### **Battle system**

Cognitive Dissonance has a turn-based battle system. Unlike the *MOTHER* series, the turns are dictated by a time-meter; once the meter is filled all the way, it's the character's turn. This system much more closely resembles that used by several games in the *Final Fantasy* series, primarily the SNES and PS1 era games.

The attacks and other battle actions are named after and function similarly to corresponding attacks from the Mother series. When the player's party uses an attack, an animation can be seen on screen. Enemy attacks only make a sound effect and flash a single color.