As video game stories continue to evolve, so too do their depictions of different roles and archetypes in human life—and so there are ever more diverse representations of mothers in gaming, one of the most fundamental of human relationships. Thus, when looking to crown the best moms in gaming, there was quite a mountain of worthy candidates.
Whether or not games factor into your Mothers’ Day plans—like treating mom to some games or gear of her own, or playing with or against her in the family’s favourite games—we’ve put together a little pantheon of some of the medium’s most well-developed or exemplary mother figures, displaying the wide array of characters to fill the role in interactive media.
5) Samus, Metroid series
Motherhood comes in all manner of different forms. Samus represents a sort of adoptive or foster mother to the last Metroid, and one of the most unlikely bonds in gaming history.
Samus encounters this baby Metroid while on a mission to eradicate its entire species in her second game. It hatches before her eyes, and before she can consider destroying it, the little jellyfish imprints on her. Samus takes the hatchling with her as she escapes, and in the short span of time between Metroid II: Return of Samus and Super Metroid, the two seem to have quickly bonded. Samus turns the baby over to researchers, but despite the fact they should have been mortal enemies, she then goes through hell to rescue it from the Space Pirates—not just to prevent her greatest foe from having its power, but also for the baby’s sake.
The baby Metroid—quickly grown from gorging on Space Pirates—eventually turns on Samus too, until it realizes what it’s doing and regresses back to its infant personality momentarily. It then sacrifices itself to save her from the Mother Brain in a thrilling final boss fight. The brief bond between bounty hunter and Metroid remains a plot element in subsequent games, like how the baby’s DNA is used to make the serum that saves her life in Metroid Fusion… and some stuff in Other M that we try to ignore.
Nonetheless, Samus has earned a place as one of gaming’s best moms, for even though her time as a pseudo-mother to an alien organism was brief, it was momentous for herself and her ward. It brought out a side of the organisms that the galaxy didn’t think was possible, and serves to highlight the human side of Samus as well.
4) TIE: Mom from Pokémon/Mom from Animal Crossing
Nintendo has several candidates that could’ve cracked this list of the best moms in video game history, but ultimately, it’s the matrons of Pokémon and Animal Crossing who share the honour.
The player’s mom in Animal Crossing are never depicted on screen but still have a palpable presence. They serve as a connection to the world back home for the avatar, hinting at their previous life before moving out. More importantly, they provide little bits of wisdom and encouragement, and sometimes even gifts, depending on the game. Though the series isn’t particularly arduous, it’s a nice gesture to have a voice of parental encouragement cheering the player on, especially for those who may not have their real-world moms around anymore.
Moms in Pokémon games, however, are just as steadfast while also being interactable NPCs. Should the player ever head back home, their mom will be waiting to welcome them. Most of them will heal the player’s team, or may even pop up at various points of the story to offer a new tool like Running Shoes.
Nintendo’s sunny, feel-good vibes come across in this duo of archetypal mother figures. In this list of gaming’s best moms, they represent the ever-present, unconditional support that parents offer their offspring—and the most profound trust, allowing them to wait patiently while their children are gallivanting across the world with all kinds of weird animals.
3) Morrigan, Dragon Age series
Morrigan was one of the poster characters for Dragon Age: Origins upon its release in 2009, and she quickly became one of the series’ best characters (if not one of BioWare’s best). However, she’s also a fine example of the best moms in gaming, despite the circumstances of her upbringing. Her own mother, Flemeth, could easily top the opposite version of this list. It can’t be easy having the immortal, legendary Witch of the Wilds as a parent, especially given that she’s rumoured to be an abomination who uses her daughters as vessels.
Morrigan can almost be seen as a matronly force for the party in Origins, serving as a steadfast moral compass despite the dark circumstances of her sheltered upbringing. Depending on your character and their decisions when playing through the series, though, it’s possible to see Morrigan get the chance to embody all the motherly traits that Flemeth did not.
Having romanced her and taken her final offer with my Grey Warden in Origins, and followed her to the ends of the earth in its Witch Hunt DLC, her return in Inquisition brought back a flood of emotions as she detailed her happy, quiet life with my Warden and their son. In these circumstances, we see her journey come full circle, from being raised in isolation by a malicious and cruel witch to becoming a wise and doting mother to Kieran, and one of gaming’s best moms.
2) Joyce Price, Life Is Strange
Despite the supernatural powers at play, the Life Is Strange series is renowned for the way it portrays the emotional struggles of the teenaged years, and at the core of the original protagonists’ story is one of gaming’s best moms, Joyce Price.
Joyce is Chloe’s mother, who is struggling to keep herself and her daughter afloat in the wake of her husband’s untimely death. Working overtime at the diner doesn’t leave much time to provide the structure and guidance that her daughter needs, putting undue stress on their relationship as Chloe tries to sort through her own crises.
Yet even as David, her (absolute tool of a) new husband, pours even more gasoline on the fire, it is always apparent that Joyce wants to do what’s best for Chloe. She’s even a great secondary mom to Max when she comes back to Arcadia Bay.
It’s these good intentions that truly twisted the knife of Life Is Strange‘s tragic final choice. Joyce is one of the best people we meet in Arcadia Bay, and knowing how Max’s final decision will affect her is almost just as tragic as the toll on Chloe. So powerful is her influence as one of gaming’s best moms, you can still feel it in the recent sequel, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, depending on which outcome you chose as canon—her texts ripped that old wound right open for me.
1) Edea Kramer, Final Fantasy VIII
While each of these examples so far has embodied a certain element of motherhood—caring for a child not their own, trust and unconditional support, transcending one’s own harsh circumstances to become the parent they never had themselves, and having the player’s choices put their mother’s fate in their hands—there’s one figure in Final Fantasy VIII that incorporates them all to a degree. Most surprising of all, she’s also the game’s initial antagonist.
Edea Kramer is first introduced as the mysterious Sorceress Edea, and certainly no candidate for gaming’s best mom. She takes over Galbadia with her uncanny powers, for her own enigmatic agenda, and it’s Squall’s goal for the game’s whole first half to topple her aspiring regime.
However, as the true enemy emerges, we learn that Edea is actually a beloved figure from our heroes’ past, the Matron of the orphanage where most of the playable cast was raised. The monster that most of the world saw is a far cry from the loving woman running a humble orphanage in a harsh land, and as the game shows us right through to the fallout after the final boss, she made a tremendous sacrifice for her wards and the world they would inherit.
Plus, she’s even playable for a brief opportunity, giving the characters to fight alongside their own mother figure. It’s the RPG equivalent of playing catch with your dad.
