Wess

Wess is an old man living in Tazmily Village and is Duster's father and master. He first appears in Chapter 1, being excluded from rescue parties due to his age. However, he later has a more major role in Chapter 2, sending his son out on a mission to retrieve the Egg of Light from Osohe Castle.

In Mother 3
Wess is known for snapping at his son a lot, calling him a "moron" frequently. He also appears to be very forgetful or unsure, following a lot of his statements up with "or so I remember" or some variant. However, this could be also due to his old age. When Wess is traveling with Duster in Chapter 2, he can use various techniques and attacks, attacking with his homemade Thunder Bombs or using a powerful secret thief technique.

In Chapter 1, he has a minor role, due to his exclusion from the search parties for Flint's family. However, he does appear later in the chapter when Flint needs to scale a cliff, suggesting to have him get Duster's help in scaling the cliff.

Later, in Chapter 2, he gives Duster an important task to do - retrieve an important object from Osohe Castle. However, when Duster brings back the Noble Spittoon instead, Wess is completely outraged and ends up smashing it. Duster also brought back a pendant, however, which Wess believes it belongs to the princess of Osohe Castle. He later accompanies Duster back to the castle to get the real treasure, and stays with him for the rest of the chapter.

Once they reach the dead end where the Nobile Spittoon is found, Wess performs the Osohe Dance to open the door, which he states to have taught Duster how to do it when he was younger. As they continue, the two find Kumatora caught in a bear trap, which upon freeing her, she joins to find the real treasure. At the end of the castle they find the real treasure, the Egg of Light. They get ambushed by the Pigmasks, so Kumatora hastily grabs the Egg. However, Wess forgot to mention he set traps around the Egg, suddenly a trap door opens and troops them into the flooded basement, where the Oh-So-Snake attacks. After beating it, they get washed away outside the castle. Wess and Kumatora are back in the village, but Duster and the Egg of Light are missing. Wess assumes Duster is having his "merry time" and threatens to discipline him when he returns, though Kumatora rebukes him saying Duster could be in real danger.

After the three-year jump in Chapter 4, he's shown to be living in the newly-built retirement home, which coincidentally is in the same location as his old home was. Wess attempts to stand against what Fassad and the Pigmask Army are doing to the village, however he is put into a net by a Pigmask and sent back home. Lucas sees this, and goes to the retirement home to see him. Lucas also tells him about the DCMC bassist that looks like Duster and he is asked to see if that really is his son.

Wess makes one final minor appearence in Chapter 8, where he and many other residents of Tazmily Village meet on the 100th floor of the Empire Porky Building.

It is evident that Wess's role as a non-controlled party member in the final version of Mother 3 is reduced from earlier versions of the game. Wess was shown as a playable party member in a screenshot for EarthBound 64, and even the GBA version of Mother 3 retains in its debug room an option to change Wess's level.

Trivia

 * During battle, Wess was originally going to use a variety of moves known as the "Thief Jujitsu Technique" of two variations, including the Super Sunset Miracle Chop, and the Miracle Chop Super Sunrise. This feature was cut from the final game.