In Mother 3, I accidentally ended up going somewhere I wasn't supposed to be yet (I don't remember, some forest), and ended up fighting monsters I wasn't ready for. I got quite a few levels before I figured it out and decided to try to figure out where I was supposed to go.
I don't know if that helped me or not, but the rest of the game wasn't so bad.
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I'll brave the storm to come, for it surely looks like rain...