/vr/ - Retro Games

>>1513254

Story in Earthbound can be summarized in "Choosen 4 kids save the Earth from a cosmic abomination", Mother 3 is a bit more complex than that. Even Mother 1 has more plot than EarthBound. This is not to say Earthbound is worse or that its simple story makes it an inferior game, in fact, it's simple story line allows for the game to be very free, and anyway the amount of details in the game, all the dialogues, scenes like the coffee time, or the lumine hall, not to mention Magicant or Moonside, are fucking fantastic, but the plot in itself remains very simple. Mother 1 has a lot of backstory going on regarding George and Maria, but it lacked all the detail Earthbound has due to hardware limitation (still, great for a NES game). Mother 3 presents the same level of detail seen in EarthBound, with its trademark subtlety, but since the game is very story-driven, it needs to be more stream-lined. I welcomed the fact that it wasn't another "kids save Earth from alien invasion" this time, but that it still kept the "being invaded" theme.

>>1271976

If you played M2 and 3 first, you will probably feel the dated battle mechanics and high random encounter rate.
But don't compare Mother 1 to its sequels, that's unfair. if you're gonna compare Mother 1 to some other games, compare it to the other RPGs that were released at the time... that way you will see Mother 1 is not as bad as people make it out to be, and is actually quite impressive on a technical level, for a Famicom RPG.
As for the story, Mother 1 is about the backstory of Giygas, which was completely unexplained on Earthbound. Doesn't matter if you played EB first, you will still enjoy it because it's still a completely separate and original story than EB, the only returning character on EB is Giygas

And the first time I played it was the EarthBound Zero ROM (aka the official, unreleased NOA localization), I had no problem with it, the translation is not as charming as EB though, so you might want to check out the fan translation of the port in Mother 1+2 for the GBA. Either way you're fine.
Also, you can use the Easy Ring item if you want, but if you ask me, it's not necessary. Mother 1 is hard, but it's not brutally hard (people complaining about its difficulty probably never played any 8 bit RPG). Just expect to die sometimes, but remember, it uses Dragon Quest's system, you won't lose any progress or exp points if you lose, just half your money (which you don't even need to carry all with you anyway, you can keep most of it in the bank and only carry the necessary).

Some tips:
Use Ninten's 4th-D Slip ability to escape from dangerous battles if you're about to die.
Be sure to get the Magicant Hook before you leave Magicant (you have to find an optional Fish boss)
Once you get to the infamous Mt. Itoi, be sure to get a certain memory chip... using both the Magicant Hook and the memory chip will make your life on Mt. Itoi easier, remember that.
And most importantly, don't rush it, have fun, immerse yourself into it.

The original EBZero version with the NOA localization is decent, but its lacking the charm of the Earthbound localization (as in, the translation isn't as polished, it's decent but not spectacular).
I haven't tried the fantranslation of Mother 1 by Tomato, but I guess that's a good option too, either way you can't go wrong.

Also, playing the Mother trilogy in order is the best way to play Mother, enjoy yourself OP and stay away from spoilers.

>Go to flea market a couple of years ago with a close buddy of mine that I've known since High School
>Check out a stall with video games
>purchase an original Playstation, though I did have some regret over getting it over a PSone that was 5 bucks more
>notice he has a repo Earthbound Zero cart
>talk about the various internet scammers that are selling it at outrageous prices as "Mother"
Very intelligent guy, definitely knew his shit